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diff --git a/21762.txt b/21762.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55abb1d --- /dev/null +++ b/21762.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6577 @@ +Project Gutenberg's On the Firing Line in Education, by Adoniram Judson Ladd + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Firing Line in Education + +Author: Adoniram Judson Ladd + +Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21762] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE FIRING LINE IN EDUCATION *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + + ON THE FIRING LINE + IN EDUCATION + + BY + + A. J. LADD + _Professor of Education, State University of North Dakota_ + + + + BOSTON + RICHARD G. BADGER + THE GORHAM PRESS + + COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY RICHARD G. BADGER + + All Rights Reserved + Made in the United States of America + + The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. + + + + +PREFACE + + +Of the ten studies making up this little volume only one, the last, +aside from the Introduction, was designed primarily for publication. +Each of the others had a definite personal audience in mind while being +prepared. Still, nearly all have later found their way into print, and +some have been reprinted in other periodicals and quoted quite +extensively in still others. Many letters of appreciation, too, from +strangers who have chanced to read this address or that, have come to +the writer. These facts, together with expressions of appreciation upon +delivery and with definite suggestions from many for publication, have +finally led the writer to feel that possibly their gathering together +might be worth while. But in fairness to himself, as well as to others, +also in the interests of accuracy, he is prompted to give an additional +reason for venturing upon the hazardous undertaking of offering "cold +meats" to people not overly hungry. Not words of praise alone, no matter +how warm, would justify such a decision, for one can never take such +expressions at quite their face value--'tis so easy to make pleasant +remarks! So the matter was thrown back to where it belonged all the +time--upon the writer to decide the case on the merits of the various +discussions as dealing with present-day educational problems. + +While separate addresses, upon different topics, given at different +times, and with no thought of connection, they all do bear upon one +great matter of universal interest--that of education. The title, "On +the Firing Line in Education," belongs specifically to but the first of +the topics discust. Still, it is appropriate to the entire group since +the various matters handled are fundamental and the positions taken +considerably in advance of common use. But we are clearly moving in the +general direction indicated--'twill not be long now before the main army +has caught up, and then the firing line will be still further advanced. + +I have a very definite conviction that, at any financial cost, we should +provide thru the school for the physical as well as for the psychical +and the moral development of the child. This is not to take the place of +the home--merely to supplement the work of the majority of homes. Only +thus can we adequately educate all. I believe, too, that in any +scientific view of the educational process the sense organs are +paramount in importance, and therefore urge their care and training. +That the positions taken in the various addresses upon these and other +matters are sound has been pretty well demonstrated during the last two +years when the demands of war have faced us. This is made clear in the +Introduction that follows. + +I am under obligations to the various periodicals in which these studies +have appeared for permission to use them again in this form. I also +appreciate the courtesy of Mr. Badger, the publisher, in allowing me to +use certain simplified forms of spelling, thus departing from the usual +over-conservative practise of publishers. Is not this, too, one of the +firing-line activities? + + A. J. LADD + + Grand Forks, North Dakota, + March, 1919 + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION--HAVE THE SCHOOLS BEEN DISCREDITED + BY THE REVELATIONS OF THE WAR 13 + + I. ON THE FIRING LINE IN EDUCATION 37 + + Social Betterment, the Dominant Motive in + Education 38 + + Child Study 43 + + Physical Education 50 + + The Educational Survey 51 + + Vocational Guidance 53 + + The Educational Psychologist 56 + + II. THE RELATION OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY TO THE HIGH + SCHOOLS OF THE STATE 63 + + The Elementary School 65 + + The High School 67 + + The State University 75 + + III. THE UNIVERSITY AND THE TEACHER 89 + + The Kind of Teachers the University Should + Employ 91 + + The University Teacher in his Classroom 94 + + The University's Attitude Toward the Preparation + of Teachers for the Schools of the State 105 + + IV. THE EYE PROBLEM IN THE SCHOOLS 115 + + V. THE HOME, THE CHURCH, AND THE SCHOOL 133 + + The Home 134 + + The Church 141 + + The School 150 + + VI. NOBLESSE OBLIGE 163 + + VII. IMPROVEMENTS IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS 185 + + VIII. LOCAL WINTER SPORTS 203 + + IX. THE FUNCTION OF TEACHERS COLLEGE 217 + + X. CREDIT FOR QUALITY IN SECONDARY AND HIGHER + EDUCATION 243 + + INDEX 261 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +HAVE THE SCHOOLS BEEN DISCREDITED BY THE REVELATIONS OF THE WAR? + +_From School and Society, April 5, 1919_ + + +Knowing that I was about to publish a book on education in which the +Great War, now happily closed, was not taken as the point of departure, +a friend said to me one day, in substance, "Aren't you taking undue +risks just now in putting out a book on education that isn't based upon +a program of reconstruction? Haven't all our so-called educational +principles been dis-credited? Shall you get any readers if you do not +admit educational failure thus far, and proceed to discuss a change of +front, made imperative by recent revelations?" And the editor of a well +known educational journal, in asking me for an article, recently, said, +among other things, "I should be glad to have an article upon some phase +of reconstruction after the war, educational, social, philosophical, as +you may like. Here is the next great battlefield of the future, and if +the educational forces do not redeem themselves here, it is my opinion +that we shall become a greater laughing stock than we have ever been +before." + +To both of these statements I desire to take exception. To be sure, the +war has taught us many lessons bearing upon education; to be sure, it +has revealed shortcomings, limitations, and weaknesses. But it seems to +me that it has also made clear that we have been working along right +lines. Our fundamental educational principles have not been +dis-credited. There is no far-reaching educational failure to admit, nor +is there any serious shortcoming from which the educational forces of +the country have to redeem themselves. "Laughing stock," does the +gentleman say? Oh no! Far from it! Let us not get panicky! Some +weaknesses brought to light? Certainly. But in the analysis, later to be +made, let us see if, for the most part, they do not but demonstrate the +soundness of our educational principles and the far-sightedness of our +educational leaders together with the short-sightedness of the present +critics, in that had suggested recommendations been followed these +weaknesses would not have existed. Let us give here but one +illustration, and that briefly. We all admit that the medical +examinations for the war found too many physical defects, and too many +men thereby incapacitated for efficient military service. But would not +the results have been very different if, during the last generation, the +suggestions and strong recommendations of educators relative to physical +education in our schools been acted upon by the public? Ah! The fault +was not with educational principles; they were sound. The educational +forces of the country knew what was needed, but a parsimonious public +would not follow intelligent leadership. We could say, all along the +line, "I told you so," if we felt so inclined. Instead of being the +"laughing stock" we could--if the matter were not too serious--throw the +laugh upon the other fellow. The purpose of our schools has never been +to produce soldiers at the drop of the hat, and so they have never been +blighted by military training. (May it never come!) Their task has been +to produce men and women of character and purpose and ideals--men and +women of initiative who could become anything called for by an +emergency. And nobly have they succeeded, as evidenced by the successful +prosecution of the war. + +In view of all that the United States has done to assist in bringing the +war to its successful close, from the adoption of the selective draft +down thru the management of the training camps, the operation of the +railroads, conservation of food and fuel, to the knitting of a pair of +socks and the sale of a thrift stamp, what shall be said of the success +or failure of our schools? Every man, woman, and child in this gigantic +work, from President Wilson down to the colored bootblack who saved his +nickels to buy a stamp, or to the little girl who voluntarily went +without her sugar, has been a product of the schools. Thru the +instruction, the discipline, and the training given in those schools, +they became the men and women who could rise to the emergency and do the +things needed. And they did. + +No college or university or professional school ever taught Mr. Wilson +how to be President of the United States during these troublous days; +nor Mr. McAdoo how to manage the railroads; nor Mr. Pershing all about +war; nor any local worker how to lead the Red Cross work, any more than +the lower schools have taught the boys who went into the trenches how to +use the gas mask and how to go without food; how to shoulder arms and +how to march. But the schools all along the line did help to give them +ideals, did train them in team-play; did instil into them the +principles of democracy and the love of country, so that when the need +came they arose as one man to repel the foe. And the study of +arithmetic, geography, and grammar; of chemistry, physics, and medicine; +of Latin, Greek, and history has, in each case, made its contribution to +the preparation of home workers, soldiers, scientific experts, financial +managers, and statesmen--has helped to make each an individual of +initiative. + +Under the guidance of our educational leaders, following principles that +they had workt out, the schools of the country were moving quietly +along, each one of the 750,000 teachers doing faithfully the work at +hand day by day. We had never thought of war as a possibility for us, +and of course preparation for it had not been made, in the slightest +degree, a part of the work of the schools. But when war, with all its +horrors, was finally forced upon us and we needed statesmen and +scientists and military leaders to guide and direct, they were at hand +in the graduates of our colleges and universities--broadly trained men +capable of assimilating, or learning, or in other ways gaining quickly, +the specific form of efficiency needed in the particular activity +assigned. And when we needed soldiers they were at hand in the person of +our boys of the schools, both common and high, from every nook and +corner of the land--boys and men who merely needed direction and +leadership, capable of at once falling into line and quickly taking on +the professional phase of their training. Could we have asked our +schools to do more? The supreme test had come, and it was being met in a +manner gratifying to all. The boys and the girls, the men and the women, +on the farm, in the store, in the home, in the workshop, in the schools +and colleges, have responded "Here am I. Show me what you want me to do, +and I will do it even unto death." It was done, and they did it. The +schools had nobly demonstrated their efficiency. + +To be sure, all this was not done without making mistakes. Not all the +products of all the schools were able to rise to the occasion and to be +depended upon in our hour of need. When the great national search-light +was trained upon the product of the schools, seeking leaders of infinite +variety and number, and likewise hosts of followers to do definite and +difficult things, many deficient ones were discovered--some deficient in +mental caliber, some weak in moral fiber, some lacking in physical +stamina. And right here is to be seen the only serious failure of our +schools. Not every boy, not every girl, had been made as efficient as +could have been desired. But, happily, in our great numbers enough were +found to do even the stupendous work at hand, and to do it well. In +spite of moral lapses, not a few, in spite of instances of mental +incompetence, far too many, and in spite of physical handicaps, +distressingly large--in spite of all this, I say, the United States +surprised the world with the quickness with which we pulled ourselves +together, and with the marvelous efficiency with which we mobilized all +our resources. Many losses of course there were--losses of men, losses +of days, losses of dollars. But when all is said and done, the losses +were slight when compared with the accomplishments. Credit to whom +credit is due! But because of these losses unthinking men immediately +began to criticise the schools. They should have been trade schools, or +industrial schools or military schools--any kind of schools that they +were not. And how clearly it was being demonstrated, we were told, that +the time formerly spent on music and drawing, art and literature, +algebra and geometry, history and Latin, had all been wasted! How much +better it would have been if, instead of these "frills," the children +had been given "practical subjects"! (Practical. Save the mark. One is +tempted here to go off on a by-path and discuss the topic, "What is +Practical?") Thus the criticism of the unthinking--of the laymen who +went off at half-cock. + +And this criticism was deepened and strengthened and extended and made +more vehement, again by the unthinking, when the fine results of the +Plattsburgh experiment were revealed, in which, thru the processes of +intensive training, men were quickly whipt into shape for new, and +difficult, and responsible undertakings. And the equally good results +that came from the officers' training schools, in which college boys by +a similar program were metamorphosed, almost at over-night, into capable +army officers, had the same effect. How signally had the schools failed! +And these long years spent in school and college, "dawdling over the +frills," had been to no effect, whereas "a few weeks under _intelligent_ +educational direction accomplishes marvels." + +And the same has further illustration. Ministers of the Gospel selected +for chaplains, physicians and surgeons chosen for medical service, +nurses for the Red Cross, engineers for various forms of engineering, +and many others have all been given this short period of intensive +training and, to their credit and ours be it said, all responded +quickly. But the conclusion drawn by the unthinking has been, all along +the line, that the later efficiency of these men which has gained for us +the plaudits and the gratitude of the world was due to this short period +of intensive training, "under men who were intelligent enough to know +just what was needed and just how to go about to secure it"--men not +hampered by any pedagogical nonsense or grown stale over a long attempt +to discriminate between the "infinity of nothingness and the nothingness +of infinity" (as one might summarize a rather common criticism), rather +than to the former years of patient toil, and discipline, and +accomplishment which had really laid the foundation so well that all +were able thus to respond. The common school, the high school, the +college, and the professional school was dis-credited, one and all, in +favor of a short-cut method analogous to the so-called "Business +College,"--a short-cut method that could result only in disaster if +applied without the appropriate preparation. + +How long it does take people to realize that real education is a slow +process! that it takes years and years and years of varied experiences +for the processes of assimilation and development to bring about the +fine fruitage of stable character! + +And the Government, too (I suppose we can criticize Washington just a +little now without serious danger of being sent to jail), must have had +the same point of view in regard to the general management of education +since, during the war, it did not entrust its educational war program +into the hands of the National Bureau of Education. It did have the War +Department and the Navy Department and the Treasury Department manage +their respective phases of war activities. Why was not the Department of +Education called on to direct the educational work? Had it been, the S. +A. T. C. fiasco, as well as some other blunders, would doubtless have +been avoided. But the thought (or was it the lack of thought?) must have +been that most anybody outside of the teaching profession would know +better how to get educational results than any one from within. A +similar point of view is generally discernible in the election of boards +of education in towns and cities thruout the country--any one is +satisfactory save those who know definitely what should be going on +inside of the school house. + +Perhaps all this was to be expected. I rather think so. But I confess to +surprise when I find such criticism being echoed from within--from men +who should know better, as, for example, the two quoted at the beginning +of this article. The explanation, I suppose, is that, timid in nature, +they have become panicky and lost their bearings. Perhaps they were +suffering from a mild form of brain-storm, and have temporarily slipt +back into the ranks of the unthinking. + +Let us analyze the situation and see if we can discover just what the +war did reveal as to the short-*comings of our educational system. Let +us then try to locate the responsibility. + +One of the most serious of the educational shortcomings thus revealed is +a high percentage of illiteracy--nearly eight per cent, I understand, +the country over. The seriousness of such a situation can scarcely be +overestimated. It was serious in time of war--the inability of a +soldier to read orders, or to follow written directions, or to make +written reports, especially when one takes into consideration the myriad +forms of war service just recently used, would limit his possibilities +of service and cripple himself and all his companions. But illiteracy is +even more serious in times of peace, for then such individuals are not +immediately under the direction of intelligent officers and thus +prevented from the disastrous results of their own ignorant actions. +Think for a moment of what it means in a democracy and for a democracy +to have one out of every ten (disregarding children) of the possible +directing forces of the government unable to read or write! + +But when we add to this statement of mere illiteracy the fact that a +large percentage of these illiterates are of foreign birth or extraction +and have never learned either to speak or understand the language of +their adopted country, the situation is seen to be even more serious in +potentiality, both in peace and war. Our authorities have been too lax, +it seems, in not requiring that all children of foreign extraction, +whether foreign or American born, be educated in the English language. +In communities thickly settled by alien peoples they have too often +allowed the schools to be conducted in the vernaculars of the people--a +German school here, an Austrian school there, and an Italian school over +yonder, and so on. And it goes without saying that in schools in which +children are instructed in alien tongues 'tis not the American spirit +that is inculcated nor American ideals that take root. No one would +challenge the statement that here is a defect in the execution of our +educational program, and one that must be remedied at any cost. + +Still another serious weakness as revealed by the merciless hand of war +is that of physical shortcoming. A large number of men were rejected for +service and a still larger number accepted only for limited service +because of physical disability as shown by the medical examinations. I +have not the figures at hand, but 'tis common knowledge that the +situation is considered grave. Eye defects, ear defects, defective +teeth, weak lungs, flat feet, round shoulders, spinal curvature, +unsymmetrical development, and many other defects were discovered in +great numbers. Perhaps nothing but a rigid medical examination by a +military officer would ever have opened our eyes to the real situation. +But this did. The revelations came as a surprise to nearly all except +the educational leaders of the country. They have known, all the time, +what the situation has been and, for a generation, have been trying to +combat it. + +Again the question is raised as to whether these defects, or weaknesses, +of American education, in both fields mentioned, as serious as they have +been seen to be for war, are not even a more serious menace when looked +upon from the point of view of peace, and therefore, even tho the war +has been won, of such commanding importance as to demand our immediate +and continued attention. + +One might go on and name other shortcomings in the working out of our +educational program that have been more clearly brought to the surface +during the critical days of our warfare. But this article is not +intended to be a catalog. The two mentioned are fundamental and +far-reaching. Illiteracy and physical disability! Weakness along these +lines strikes at the very roots of national life and of individual +well-being. And if, as a nation and as individuals, we are ever going to +enter into our inheritance, these defects must be remedied. But before +trying to discuss remedies, it will be well to locate responsibility. +Are our basic educational principles unsound, or merely our educational +practises unsatisfactory? Are the educational leaders of the country all +wrong in theory? Have their heads been so high among the clouds that +they have not seen the real boy and his homely task? Or have they seen +clearly and mapt out wisely, whereas the public, relatively unthinking +upon technical matters and always slow to act in new fields, has not +been ready to follow? Is it in theory or in practise where the real +shortcoming is to be found? The answer to the question is vital. If in +theory, then is the situation serious indeed for that would mean that +our psychology is wrong--that our whole philosophy of life and of +government has been built upon error. Truly, then, after all these +years, the "educational forces" would need to "redeem" themselves so as +not to be "a greater laughing stock than we have ever been before." But +if the weakness lies merely in our practise, not yet having been able to +attain to our ideals, then, tho serious, it would be but child's play, +comparatively speaking, to put ourselves right. We should need to take +courage, redouble our efforts, and all that, but should not need to +start all over again. + +How shall we account for the illiteracy revealed among both alien and +native born? Not by faulty methods of teaching can it be explained, nor +by anything else that teachers have done or have not done. Illiterates +have not attended the schools. It is due either to insufficient +legislation or to non-enforcement of laws, doubtless more the latter +save in the case of adult aliens. + +From the very beginning of our colonial life, early in the 17th century, +universal education has been a part of both our educational and our +governmental creeds. A program of compulsory education was early found +necessary, early adopted, and never abandoned. Beginning in +Massachusetts and going south and west, following considerably behind +but then keeping almost even pace with settlement and development after +statehood had come, legislation has decreed that every child born into +the land or coming into it by immigration shall enjoy the advantages of +education, at least to the extent of knowing how to read and write the +English language. Every state in the Union has compulsory attendance +laws upon its statute books. These laws are not as thorogoing as they +should be in many cases but yet, even as they are, if enforced, they +should leave almost no illiteracy among people whose childhood has been +spent in this country. For the least satisfactory laws--those of some of +the Southern states, Georgia, for example, require school attendance for +at least four months of each year between the ages of eight and +fourteen. But illiteracy, even among our own people, has been +revealed--too much of it. The laws have not been enforced. There is the +sore spot. Why have they not been enforced? But of that later. + +The education of adult aliens is another matter, and a very different +one. As a problem it is almost new. That is, it has been only in +relatively recent years that it has been recognized as such. True, for +several years some of the states most largely affected, such as +Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and others have been +wrestling with it, but not very much has yet been attempted toward +introducing the compulsory features. And private agencies, +philanthropic, industrial, religious, political, and others have also +done good work. But all that had thus far been done had accomplisht +little more, at the outbreak of the war, than to open our eyes to the +existence of a problem. And in our leisurely way we were going about its +solution. But war came. The European nations were aflame. We had many +Europeans in our midst. Investigations were made. The universal draft +was adopted. The revelations were startling. It was discovered that in +1910 there were in the United States 2,953,011 white persons of foreign +birth, 10 years of age and over, unable to speak the English language. +Of these 56,805 were from ten to fifteen years of age, 330,994 between +fifteen and twenty-one, and 2,565,212 twenty-one and over. Note the +number, _more than two and a half millions, twenty-one years of age and +over--men grown, fathers of families, many of them_--unable to speak the +language of their adopted country! And of these 788,631 were +illiterate--unable to read or write in any language! + +Nothing short of legal requirements on a large scale, and rigidly +enforced, absolutely free of cost to the immigrant, can ever remove the +menace. The law-making bodies of the country, both State and Federal, +must act and act quickly or this growing menace will get beyond our +control. + +And the long catalog of physical defects--what shall be said of them? +Shall they be charged against the "educational forces" of the country? +Are they a disgrace from which we must "redeem" ourselves so that we +shall not become the "greater laughing stock"? It is perfectly evident +that somebody has blundered because the whole sad list of defects is, +speaking broadly, preventive and, for the most part, also remediable. +But where lies the responsibility--upon the home, the school, or +society? Of course, primarily, upon the home; the child comes from the +home, goes to the home, is a part of the home, is under the immediate +control of the home. But yet, many homes, especially homes of alien +peoples, are not sufficiently intelligent to have entrusted to them +matters of such far-reaching importance. And many others are not +financially able to have proper attention given. + +But the school does know. And it, or what it represents, is abundantly +able financially to handle the matter. It knows clearly how the child +with physical defects is hampered in trying to perform its school work; +it knows, too, how seriously the entire work of the school is interfered +with when there are many such in the room; and it also knows the +handicap under which such unfortunate children face life when school +days are over. And the school knows, too, the preventive and remediable +natures of these defects. Possessing all this knowledge, why has it not +acted? To make a long story short, it has acted. To the extent of its +authority and with all the influence and power at its command it has +acted, has been acting for many years, and is still acting. For more +than a generation the educational forces of the country have been +engaged in a nation-wide educational campaign designed to make clear to +the homes of the country and to the voters of the country the growing +seriousness of the situation. On the lecture platform and from the +Gospel pulpit, in the educational press and in the popular magazine, +aye, in the daily newspaper, in private conversation and in public +discussion, in season and out of season, they have labored unceasingly +to acquaint the public with the facts and to urge preventive and +remedial action. To the unselfish work of these leaders of educational +thought and action, supplemented by the generous assistance of the +medical profession, is due the fact of our present-day intelligence in +regard to the matter. Educators have been deeply interested, thoroly +alive, and intelligently at work. How they have agitated the matter of +better ventilation and better lighting of schoolhouses! How they have +pleaded for medical inspection and appropriate medical treatment of +school children! How they have urged the employment of the school nurse! +How they have workt for the playground and the gymnasium and for sane +methods of handling the same! + +But they do not form the court of last appeal. They have no authority. +They all stand in about the same anomalous position as does the man +nominally at the head of the educational activities of the country--the +United States Commissioner of Education. They may gather statistics, +make reports, and suggest action. But that is all. Tho possessing full +knowledge of the situation, tho knowing just how to proceed to usher in +a better day, they are not permitted to take any action. Responsible? Of +course they are not responsible. "Redeem" themselves? From what, pray? +"Laughing stock"? How long, oh! how long, will our great army of +teachers, three-fourths of a million strong, be unappreciated, +belittled, and maligned! + +Who, then, is responsible? In the last analysis there is but one +answer--the public itself. Since the community at large as well as the +individual afflicted is, in the final outcome, a sufferer in every case +of physical disability, as also in that of illiteracy, it is its duty, +as a mesure of self-protection, at least, to assume direction. Adequate +information is at hand as to desirable methods of procedure. +Demonstrations a-plenty have been given to prove that the program +suggested is feasible, inexpensive, and beneficial. This has been +brought about thru the action of a few small groups who have thus +presented clear and convincing object lessons. But why must we say "a +few"? Why is not such work nation-wide? That is a longer story. It +follows. + +The United States of America is a Republic--a representative +democracy--a government in which all the people participate. And the +government of the United States is a Federal government. It is made up +of a group of States, each one exercising supervision and control over +its local matters. And education has thus far been considered a local +matter. And in many ways that soverenty has been still further divided. +We have as a smaller unit of school organization the county, and a +smaller one yet, the township, and, in many states, a still smaller one, +the school district, containing, in many instances, only a few square +miles of territory and, of course, a very limited population. But in +some respects, within certain limits, each of these small units is a law +unto itself, having much to say as to the length of the school term, the +character of the teaching, and many other phases including such as the +one under consideration. + +For these reasons it frequently happens that side by side are school +districts, or townships, or counties, with widely differing educational +programs. Here is one with attractive buildings, well ventilated and +well lighted, well equipt in every way, in the hands of competent +teachers, with physician and nurses subject to call. But just over the +imaginary line is another with nothing quite satisfactory. They are just +living up to the strict letter of the State's requirement and that is +all. Not one dollar is being spent that represents the community's +voluntary contribution to the welfare of its child life or to the future +well-being of humanity. + +And why? Just because we are a Democracy. Just because our action must +be the united action of many, representing the average intelligence of +the entire governmental unit and not that of its most intelligent +members. For this reason a democracy is always slow to act along new +lines. The majority of the people have to be convinced of the wisdom of +the new mesure. And education is itself always a slow process. People +change their minds slowly. Slowness of action is one of the prices we +have to pay for our democracy. On the other hand, an absolute monarchy +can act quickly, for there may be but one individual to assimilate the +new idea or to be convinced of the wisdom of the proposed change. + +These facts are easily made clear by historical references, and, +happily, in the very matter under discussion--educational procedure. In +the eighteenth century Prussia, under the two great Hohenzollern kings, +Frederick William I and his son, Frederick the Great, the two ruling +from 1713 to 1786, made most rapid strides in education. Both were +practically absolute rulers, but they were benevolent and far-sighted, +and the educational reforms that they inaugurated were basic and +far-reaching, such as state-control and support, compulsory attendance, +and the professional education of teachers. Being absolute in authority, +all they needed to do was to promulgate the decrees and order their +execution. The result was that, educationally, Prussia immediately +forged ahead of all the other European countries. + +England, on the other hand, was a limited monarchy. Her king could not +have acted thus even if he so desired. Such mesures had to have the +sanction of Parliament, which would have to hark back to an enlightened +public opinion since Parliament was a representative body. And public +opinion, especially in matters of education, is slow of creation. As a +matter of fact, even tho the English people were much in advance of the +Germans in civilization and in all the refinements of life, it was not +till 1833 that England as a government took her first step looking +toward the education of her children thru appropriating money. And the +grant of that Act was only a paltry L20,000 a year to be used by two +religious societies for the erection of school houses. And it was an +entire generation later, even 1870, before they adopted the necessary +principles of compulsory attendance and local taxation. More than a +hundred years behind Prussia, England was, in the management of +educational affairs! + +Another illustration of the slow action of democracy is nearer at hand +both in time and space, even in our own country. For one reason or +another, rather, for many reasons, education was at a low-water mark in +the United States the latter part of the eighteenth and the first part +of the nineteenth centuries. Thoughtful men, progressive educators, +prominent statesmen, searching for the cause and for the remedy, found +the one in the poor character of the teaching being done and the other +in the establishment of the State Normal School patterned after those of +Germany. This was first suggested in 1816 in Connecticut and pretty +faithfully kept before the people of New England thereafter. But in +spite of every effort, including a campaign of education and the +establishment of private normal schools for the purposes of +demonstration, it was not till 1838 that the Massachusetts legislature +could be induced to act. And she would not have done so then had it not +been that a very prominent man of Boston, a friend of the cause, Mr. +Edmund Dwight, showed his faith in the movement by making a generous +contribution out of his private funds. Note, too, this action from +another point of view--the amount of Democracy's initial contribution +toward this new great movement in America: Mr. Dwight's gift of $10,000 +was evenly matched by that of the wealthy state of Massachusetts! And +the $20,000 was the amount planned for the establishment of _three new +normal schools_ and their maintenance _for three years!_ That amount +to-day would scarcely build a coal shed for each of three new normal +schools! + +But I am not advocating monarchical methods even to hasten so good a +cause as educational improvement. I am merely accounting for our +slowness of action in needed reform. For several reasons I should be +decidedly opposed to adopting such a program of centralization even if +we could. In the first place, not every absolute monarch would act as +did Frederick the Great. There are few benevolent despots. In France +during the seventeenth centuries the Louises were just as absolute as +were the Fredericks in Germany. But they were not interested in +education for the people. Again, Germany's system of education, tho +objectively efficient, has been far from satisfactory because not based +on sane moral principles. And that fact, by the way, has finally been +Germany's undoing. Now, we can scarcely conceive of Democracy erecting +an educational structure on an unsatisfactory moral foundation. + +And still again, the action of an absolute monarch, in all such matters +as education, tho perhaps temporarily rapid, is not permanent. Remove +the guiding spirit and it slips back. An illustration will assist. Again +Germany furnishes it. The little duchy of Gotha, just south of Prussia, +serves us. During the Thirty Years' War Gotha had suffered greatly. Near +its close, in 1640, Duke Ernest the Pious became its ruler. He had at +heart the good of his people. He believed that education could be a very +important factor in their upbuilding, and at once put into effect a +progressive program. His people were greatly bettered and his duchy +became a fine object lesson for other German States. But Duke Ernest +died. And his educational reforms, not springing from the people +themselves, followed him not long after. + +A few years ago President Diaz, Mexico's benevolent despot of nearly +half a century, died. And his people, never having been taught how to +rule themselves nor practised in the art, went to pieces. + +Democracy is slow but she is apt to be sure. Her action in educational +matters is often provokingly dilatory, but she holds what she gains and +thus continues to progress. She does not take a step forward until she +is sure of her ground, but then she stands firm. Her actions are the +results of deliberate thought based on adequate data gathered from +actual experiments and not to be shaken. Democracy would not give up +universal education nor take one step backward in the matter of +compulsory attendance to secure it. She would not part with her +elementary normal schools for anything in the world. And when once she +sees her duty clear she will add to her school workers, in every +community, the physician, the nurse, and the playground director. She +will do it and, quickly noting improvements, soon wonder why she had not +done it long before. + +Since so much emphasis has been placed on the conservative nature of +Democracy and on its consequent slowness of action, a word should be +added as to its possibilities in emergency. Tho we were slow in entering +the Great War, once our duty was clear we acted with a promptness, a +unanimity, and an efficiency that surprised both friend and foe, giving +heart to the one and consternation to the other. Tho a democracy, we +invested our chief executive with a power and an authority beyond that +possest by any monarch in the world. + +So let us not be discouraged. The situation is not as bad as it might +be. Our fundamental principles are sound. We are working along right +lines and accomplishing good results. Our shortcomings, our weaknesses, +our failures, if you wish to call them such, are seen only when our +record is compared with a perfect score. The schools have not yet +attained to 100 per cent efficiency; that is, the country over. Here and +there, under the favorable conditions of an intelligent citizenry +willing to follow expert leadership even to the extent of providing +adequate funds, are schools and departments of schools of approximately +100 per cent efficiency. And these, as Democracy's experiments, assure +us of other advance steps. They are object lessons. Thus Democracy +always advances. + +Finally, what shall we say? What shall we do? Not to "redeem" ourselves, +oh, no! not that! but to approximate the 100 per cent efficiency all +along the line? What? Why, knowing that we are headed aright, keep +steadily forward with our eyes on the goal, refusing to be stampeded by +the unthinking critic of whom Democracy always has a plenty. Take +courage! Speed up! + + + + +I + +ON THE FIRING LINE IN EDUCATION + +_President's Address delivered at the Annual Banquet of the Fortnightly +Club, Grand Forks, North Dakota, June 4, 1917_ + + +The plan of the military campaign is worked out in the quiet, away back +in the rear, sometimes at considerable distance from the place of actual +hostilities. It is worked out quietly, usually slowly, and attracts but +little attention. But when worked out and ready to be put into +operation, the plan is taken forward and activities begin. Supplies are +gotten ready, men stationed, guns loaded, the firing line is formed. +Here is where the battle is to be fought, where an attempt is to be made +to carry out the plans formed in the quiet, back there in the rear. +Activity characterizes the scene. Advances are being made, new things +being done. Every effort is put forth to realize the plans. + +It is not different in education. In the quiet of the laboratories and +the study, thoughtful men consider conditions, form plans, and develop +theories of educational betterment that have to be tried out, out in the +open. A firing line has to be formed, a place where new things are to be +done different from the regular conventional activities. The humdrum, +prosaic, traditional, everyday work goes on, in the main, all around but +at these points where some advances are being tried, a new and it is +hoped better program tested. All eyes are centered, all minds eager. The +analogy is not inapt. + +It is my purpose to discuss briefly some of the things that are +happening on our educational firing lines. I want to bring to your +attention first, however, the plan of the great educational campaign +upon which we have entered, the goal before us at the present time, and +then take up a few of the relatively new and typical positions being +taken by leaders of educational thought, having the realization of that +goal in view. This will present to you some of the things that are +actually being done in a few progressive communities and point out +possibilities for others. + + +SOCIAL BETTERMENT, THE DOMINANT MOTIVE IN EDUCATION + +If I interpret aright the present-day educational thought, the dominant +motive in it all is social in character. That is to say, in all of our +plans for the education of children we keep them in mind as future +members of society, acting with one another and all working together for +the common good and for the betterment of the race. And around this +motive, or back of it, or being used by it as a means, can be grouped +all the significant educational practises of the time. + +Formerly the motive was largely psychological. That is, the school +effected its organization, chose its curriculum, worked out its program, +and decided upon its methods in order that it might assist the child in +the development of its instincts and capacities, thus enabling him to +realize his own personality. The great French educator, Rousseau, living +in the eighteenth century, was responsible for this movement and it was +a notable advance beyond the haphazard and aimless practise of the time. +Pestalozzi, the great Swiss educational reformer, Froebel, the German +apostle of childhood, and Herbart, the psychological genius of the +Fatherland, were disciples of Rousseau and worked out from his point of +view, trying to put it into practise in the school-rooms. + +And here was the firing line in education for many a long day. True, +none of these later men ignored social relationships as did Rousseau. +True, a strong case could be made out, if one should wish to defend the +thesis, that these distinguished followers of Rousseau, even tho +carrying out his program in the main, were likewise inaugurating the new +sociological movement. But yet it was not sufficiently clear to dominate +even in their own minds. The individual stood out beyond the mass. He +filled the stage. Nor did they clearly pass it on to others. As a matter +of fact, what the immediate followers of these men got from them was the +theory of individualism in its better form. + +The best definition of education that can be given from this point of +view is _the development of an inner life_. That is what Rousseau wanted +to bring about and Pestalozzi and Froebel, and our own Colonel Parker of +more recent times, the modern apostle of childhood, had the same vision. +And so to Froebel and these others, likewise, the school was an +institution in which each child should discover his own individuality, +work out his own personality, and develop harmoniously all his powers. +True, in that environment and doing all that, the child is going to +learn the relationships of society, and thus the school might become a +means for social progress as well as the instrument of individual +development. But this was incidental. The development of the inner life +was the goal. Fashioned in the quiet, in the study, away from the haunts +of man, this became the program and the rallying cry, and out on the +firing line it was striven for. On the educational battlefields of both +Europe and America, where redoubts were being stormed and advance +positions taken, this was the one great end in view. It eventuated in +the child study movement of the present generation that is now at its +height and that has done so much to mitigate the severities of the old +time school room practises and likewise greatly aided in putting +education on a scientific basis. + +The immediate followers, I say, of the great European quartet of +educators had the above worthy goal in view; but with their followers, +many of them, especially the noisy ones, the modern sophists, it +degenerated into a theory of pure individualism of the most selfish +type. The theory of getting on in the world, every man for himself, +became rampant. The school came to be looked upon as an institution in +which children could learn how to get ahead of the rest of the +community, and education as merely another weapon to use in making +society contribute more to purse and pleasure. And on the firing line, +formed by these noisy agitators, mistaken by many as educational +leaders, these were the things striven for. But this aberration was only +temporary. The real educational leaders, in trying to realize the goal +of Rousseau and Pestalozzi and to do it having to combat this movement +of wildcat educational speculation, gradually came to see a more +important truth even than the one they were seeking. As on many another +firing line, victories by the wayside have clarified our vision and +given us new perspectives, and a goal, not at first recognized, looms +large upon the horizon. + +For thru all this struggle we have learned that the first business of +the public school is to teach the child to live in the world in which he +finds himself, to understand his share in it and to perform it because, +after all, unless people learn to adapt themselves to other individuals +and communities, disorder and chaos follow. In it all we have come to +see that education is the best instrument for regenerating society. + +Not individual development, then, the selfish view of Rousseau, not even +the harmonious development of all the faculties, the one-sided, somewhat +restricted, or undeveloped, view of Pestalozzi and others of his +followers, surely not individual efficiency for personal gain, the +selfish view of crass materialism, but social efficiency is the +present-day motive in education. And the definition of education takes +on a different color. Not merely the development of inner life but in +conjunction with that or in addition to it, _the development in the +individual of the power of adjustment to an ever changing social +environment_. And likewise the school becomes more than a place in which +the child can discover himself. Aye, it is the instrument that democracy +has fashioned for realizing its broad and humanitarian ideal. Democracy +is ever striving for closer and more harmonious relation between its +members, a greater degree of social justice, and the school is its +efficient means. + +These two tendencies, the psychological and the sociological,--only two +since the narrow individualistic was never accepted and is now being +rapidly eliminated--these two are not antagonistic nor mutually +exclusive. The difference is largely in point of view or emphasis. One +may say that they are but the two sides of the same shield but the fact +remains that there _are_ two sides. There is a difference and the change +came as suggested. And the change has modified conditions on the firing +line. Ever since Mr. Spencer asked his suggestive question, "what +knowledge is of most worth," the question of educational values has been +raised and the curriculum has come under close scrutiny. The result has +been a modification. The purely linguistic and literary, that which does +not function directly for preparation in life and society, is slowly +giving way to that which deals with the facts and forces of nature and +of social institutions. + +Thus far I have tried to make plain the great educational campaign in +which we are engaged, as seen on the firing line,--to point out the goal +before us, universal education, of course, and social efficiency for +each member of the group. That suggests at once as a definition of +education, the one made famous by Herbert Spencer more than a half +century ago, "_Preparation for complete living._" That was good as a +start in the new direction, but one of the most prominent generals of +our educational forces now commanding at the front, John Dewey of +Columbia University, has suggested a modification which brings it up to +date and gives the key-note of explanation to the tactics now in vogue +out there in the front ranks. He says that instead of being the +preparation for life, education is life itself. Some without trying to +probe deeply into the thought back of the trenchant expression, have +said that this was a mere play upon words. But Dewey is not a man who +plays with words. What he meant by the statement is that the child is +best prepared for life as an adult by living the right kind of life as a +child. That is by living a life that has real meaning to him now, a +normal natural life, putting forth those activities that spring from +within, not merely sitting behind a narrow desk trying to memorize wordy +descriptions of complicated facts thought to be useful to him later on. +And when we go out and see what they are doing on the firing line we +shall see just that being done. + + +CHILD STUDY + +But perhaps I should guard against a possible misapprehension. In +eliminating the materialistic point of view in individualism--narrow +individual development for personal gain--we have not thrown aside the +goal of development suggested by Rousseau and Pestalozzi. Advanced +educational thought has that prominently in mind--the discovery of the +child's latent powers--his possibilities--his tastes--his "bent" and the +development of the same. But while with them that was the goal, the end +in view, and a somewhat selfish one, even tho not crassly materialistic, +it has become, with us, a means to a larger end, namely, social +betterment. The child must be known and developed to enable it to be +able to contribute its largest quota to the welfare of society. + +With this general direction of educational activity made plain, and +incidentally the character of the activities along the entire battle +front, let us pass to a consideration of a few specific activities that +will illustrate the general movement. Let us bear in mind that we have +in view, in the first place, the individual child whose tastes and +aptitudes we must discover and, on the basis of discovery, whose fullest +development, consistent with the rights of others, we must seek. And the +reason for this, you know, is that only as this is done and he is +prepared to do that kind of work in the world for which his tastes best +adapt him--only thus can he be made the most efficient member of society +possible. Because, as Plato said, centuries ago, "Society is but the +individual writ large"--a collection of individuals. The foundation of +all things in social life is the individual. + +Now, I'll admit, at once, that that is not the program of the rank and +file of the schools. It should be, but it isn't. What the schools are +trying to do, in the main, is to teach the children a lot of facts that +tradition says would be well for them to know when they become adults, +wholly irrespective of the child's present attitude toward these +facts--whether or not they have meaning for him. What the high schools +are trying to do is to teach the relatively few who survive this grade +program, in addition to these elementary tradition-directed facts of +knowledge, a lot more of meaningless matter prescribed by the colleges +and listed under that alluring title, "entrance requirements." And as a +result of these programs the schools are sending altogether too many of +their boys and girls into society unacquainted with themselves, and +ill-fitted for any useful occupation, and therefore out of sympathy with +the serious work of the world. They are misfits in the social and +economic world and are obliged to take their places in the ranks of the +lowest-paid of unskilled labor--and work up if they can. + +Now, what is being done on the firing lines to remedy this situation +and to usher in the new day? Well, first, in our normal +schools--institutions established and maintained for the simple purpose +of preparing young people for teaching children--great emphasis is being +placed upon the study of the child. It is felt that only as the teacher +understands the child mind and the laws of its development can she +direct that development aright. (That's a sensible point of view, isn't +it? And yet it is only on the firing line in educational practise that +we find it recognized. Without that factor of equipment, the teacher is +teaching subjects, not boys and girls.) In many normal schools child +study is one of the required subjects--no one may graduate or be +recommended for a teaching position who has not taken it. It should be +required in all--and will be a little later on. No person should be +allowed to occupy the position of teacher of children who has not made +such a study--and proved himself efficient in it. Boards of education +should demand it even if some normal schools do not yet require it for +graduation. It is far and away the most important part of the teacher's +professional equipment. + +And then in our schools of education and teachers colleges--institutions +set apart for preparing teachers for our high schools and for +administrative positions--the study of adolescence is receiving +increasing attention. The high school boy and the high school girl are +being made the subjects of close, careful, scientific study. It is +thought that in order to deal effectively with these young people the +high school teacher should understand those marvelous changes--physical, +mental, and moral--thru which they are passing. How else can one know +how to check where checking is needed (and it usually is needed +somewhere along the line); to guide where the pathway is obscure (and +every adolescent is sure to pass thru valleys of darkness during the +high school course); and to inspire where inspiration is lacking (and +with some it is lacking a good deal of the time)--in a word, how else +than thru a knowledge of the situation can one be the "philosopher, +guide, and friend" that the adolescent always needs? + +Do you know that about one-fourth of all students who enter the freshman +classes of our high schools, thruout the United States, drop out before +the close of the first semester? Do you know, too, that the elimination +continues right along until that one-fourth is made more than one-half +before graduation day arrives? Now, these boys and girls enter full of +hope and expectation, eager and ambitious for what the high school is +supposed to do for them; they do not plan to drop out before completing +the course--nor do their parents plan to have them do so. Why do they do +it? What has changed their point of view and sent them from the school, +sad and disappointed, and their parents dissatisfied with both school +and child? What is it? Do you want me to tell you? The situation has +been the subject of investigation in many places thruout the country, +and the conclusion reached by thoughtful men and women, unbiased +students of educational practises, is that, while many influences +combine to bring about that unfortunate result, the chief cause of this +high mortality is the unsympathetic attitude of high school teachers +toward the adolescent. But, you may ask, why unsympathetic? Because they +regard them as fickle, unstable, and irrational, and so have but little +patience with them. I'll admit that the adolescent seems all that at +times, but that is only on the surface. The developmental +changes--physical and moral--thru which he is passing often make the +life during this period one of turmoil. From fourteen to eighteen--the +normal high school period--is frequently called the "storm and stress +period" of life. Not having made a study of the situation, high school +teachers, in the main, do not know the fundamental scientific facts, and +therefore can not account for actions, points of view, signs of +waywardness, lack of appreciation, poor lessons, etc., etc., that +sometimes characterize the youth while a student in the high school. +They often lay to an unclean mind what springs from a perfectly normal +development of the sex function; they are sure that moral perversity is +the basis of actions that are more correctly explained by reference to a +moral nature merely in the process of development; they think that pure +laziness alone explains the lack of vigorous work, whereas the boy is +growing so fast that he has no strength for anything else; they scold +him for being awkward and say it is due to carelessness and a slip-shod +mind, because they do not know that the muscles sometimes grow faster +than the bones, making accurate co-ordination a physical impossibility; +in a word, to general, all round cussedness they charge behavior that +should be referred to high blood pressure, aching bones, the knitting +together by fiber growth of the various brain centers, and finally, to +youthful enthusiasm, all of which are perfectly normal signs of +developing youth. They do it because they do not know any better. They +are ignorant of many things that touch, and vitally, the young people +with whom they are working. But how could it be otherwise? They have +never given any reflective thought to the matter. The term "half-baked" +that they often apply to the adolescent in disgust, or in coarse jest, +is, from this point of view, more applicable to themselves. + +That, I say,--the unsympathetic attitude of the high school teacher +toward the adolescent--is the chief cause of the high mortality of high +school students. That, coupled with another, that springs from the same +fundamental situation--ignorance of the needs and points of view of the +adolescent--tho not so chargeable to the individual class teacher as to +the school system as a whole, local, state, and national, pretty nearly +cover the ground. The other cause to which I refer is the course of +study and program of activities that are so ill-adapted to the tastes, +and needs, and capacities of adolescent boys and girls--studies and +activities that have no real meaning to them and that fit them for +nothing definite save college entrance where the same old process, +meaningless to many, often goes on for another period. + +What is being done on the firing line to better such conditions? A good +deal; quite a good deal. Normal schools and schools of education here +and there, the former more than the latter, are now giving attention to +the matter, requiring in some cases and urging in others, prospective +teachers to become intelligent in regard to the lives they are to +direct. It is being done at our own institution as at others. This year +Dr. Todd has given instruction in child study to nearly one hundred +young men and women who are looking forward to teaching in the grades, +and I have had a group of some thirty-five or forty prospective high +school teachers and superintendents who have been making a careful study +of adolescence. I guarantee that these people will not make the crude +and unfeeling blunders that I have mentioned as too common among high +school teachers, as they run. These are firing-line activities. They +were nearly new a dozen years ago. My introduction of such courses in +our University was smiled at indulgently by some of my colleagues and +sharply criticised, especially the work in adolescence, by others. They +are not yet required of students preparing to teach, but have evidently +demonstrated their value since, tho in no sense snap courses, they have +become very popular. + +As illustrative of this work let me refer to a notable recent action of +the legislature of Iowa. It has just passed an Act appropriating to the +State University $25,000 a year for the purpose of financing what is +called a "child-welfare" campaign. The plan is to make an exhaustive +scientific study of the child from both the physiological and +psychological points of view, to the end that it may be better known and +thus more satisfactorily guided in its educational career. + +One other thing, in this same connection, is being done on our firing +lines all over the country--something that is hoped will set the people +at large, parents and citizens generally, to thinking sanely on +educational matters and ere long rectify our blunders as to subjects of +study and general school activities and thus result in sending the +children out efficient workmen in suitable fields. I refer to addresses +and discussions such as this and others, to articles in newspapers and +magazines, and the educational press, and to even more extensive and +thoro discussions put out in book form from time to time for the laymen. + +The old darkey says, "The world do move." We sometimes think it moves +very slowly, but yet it "do move." Tho we can't see it move, we can, by +looking back, see that it has moved. + + +PHYSICAL EDUCATION + +Another thing for which we are fighting out on the firing lines is an +adequate system of physical education. This would include periodical +medical inspection of every child from the kindergarten up; it would +also include the school nurse and the visiting nurse, and, as well, free +public clinics for ear, eye, nose, throat, and tooth difficulties. It +would also include, for mental and moral as well as physical ends, +well-equipt playground and gymnasium facilities under the direction of +men and women expert and skilful in those fields--and these would be in +operation the entire year. + +The physical education of the child and adolescent should be as +carefully planned, as scientifically workt out in a positive way, as the +intellectual. Why not? Because you know--every intelligent person +knows--that the physical is the basis for the mental and the moral. You +know--we all know--that a sound, a healthy, a sane life can not be +developt in an unsound or a diseased body. Then why are these activities +merely on the firing lines and not a part of the regular program? +Because ignorance, and prejudice, and selfishness, and stubbornness, and +penuriousness are still keeping many people in the trenches. But they +will be dislodged. Just as sure as fate they will be driven from cover. +They are fighting a losing battle. They are standing in the way of an +irresistible movement that is sure to engulf them. If there were time I +should like to describe just what is being done along this line in some +places and give the reflex influence of the same on the community. It +has surely meant a new heaven and a new earth to many a child, and +glimmerings of the same to many a community. But I pass to less +spectacular matters, continuing to discuss principles rather than +illustrations. + + +THE EDUCATIONAL SURVEY + +Another matter of interest these days is the educational survey that has +been taken up by many progressive communities. The plan is, as many of +you know, to subject the school system of a city or community to a +searching investigation in order to discover, if possible, its weak +points, if it has any, to the end of their betterment. Experts are +brought in who, without fear or favor, examine the system from all +possible points of view--location and arrangement of school buildings +including heating, lighting, and general health conditions, adequacy of +playground and athletic facilities, the extent to which the schools are +satisfying community needs in the way of equipt workmen and the needs of +the young people for equipment for suitable work, the cost of the +system, attendance, methods of teaching and supervision, course of +study, etc. Outside experts are brought in for various reasons: known to +have no personal interest in the outcome, their reports are likely to be +received with greater respect; and, too, a local committee, thru +nearness and very familiarity, would fail to notice features, good as +well as bad, that might at once attract the attention of strangers. Many +cities, ranging from 2500 to half a million people, have already availed +themselves of the survey with, in the main, very gratifying results. Not +only have cities used the survey, but other units of educational +administration. There have been a few very significant and interesting +rural school surveys by counties in several states. A similar study has +been made of several State universities, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, for +example. I notice that the legislature of Minnesota has just arranged +for a survey of theirs. You all recall that such a survey was made of +all the institutions of higher education of North Dakota only a short +time ago. The general feeling is that it was well worth while. Such and +even more extensive surveys have already been made in five other +states--Oregon, Iowa, Washington, Colorado, and Wyoming. The end sought +in each and all of these surveys, whether city schools, higher +institutions, or state-wide systems, is greater efficiency--larger +service to society. A survey of this character is usually followed by a +detailed printed report that is generously distributed resulting in +greater interest in the schools and a more intelligent appreciation of +their work and their needs. + + +VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE + +Much has been said in recent years about vocational education. The +schools have been severely criticised for not teaching trades. Many have +demanded that that be the dominating motive in all our schools, +especially in the high schools. The educational press, for the last +decade, has kept the matter in the limelight. Books have been written +calling attention to the heavy dropping out of school of pupils even +before reaching high school age wholly unfitted to do anything above the +most menial and lowest-paid work. They have argued strenuously and +sometimes logically for better things. To this program the objection has +been raised that children in these early years are not yet ready to +choose their work of life; that they do not yet sufficiently know +themselves--their own tastes and capacities for such serious choice; it +has also been urged that to place before children such attractive +objective features would result in swerving many from the normal pathway +of their development and check it midway. The result has been what might +be called a compromise, and the firing-line activities have been +somewhat modified. Not vocational education but vocational guidance is +now more nearly the thought. And this has a much larger content, a +background, a more scientific basis, and one organically connected with +the larger movement of which I have already spoken--the social motive +in education supplemented by the individual involving the discovery and +development of taste and capacity. + +I have already called attention to the high mortality of high school +students. The reasons I have given are the lack of sympathy that the +teacher has with the adolescent and the lack of meaning found in the +work being done. The same facts account for the heavy elimination that +takes place in the upper grades of the elementary school. But both are +being remedied to some extent. The first thru the child-study movement +and the second thru the matter of vocational guidance. And the two are +very closely connected as one can see at a glance. Thru the child-study +movement the teacher comes to know child nature so well that direct +application can be made to the individual child and an intimate +knowledge gained of his tastes, capacities, ambitions, and dominant +interests. This will enable her to give the subject matter definite +meaning in the early years, and, later on, when vocations begin to +attract, the guiding may be intelligent and the final choice a suitable +one. From the beginning of the adolescent period there should be +opportunities furnished by the school or thru its co-operative effort +for children to test themselves in various lines--academic lines, +vocational lines. They should, in a word, be vocationally tempted in as +many different directions as possible so as to come to know themselves +so well that the final settling will not be haphazard. In these ways +they should be guided into their vocations, definite ones, just as early +in life as they can be adequately prepared for them. For example:--if +his tastes and capacities fit a certain boy for merely a mechanical +pursuit that requires but little academic learning, such as carpentry, +plumbing, blacksmithing, brick laying, etc., he should, relatively early +in the adolescent period, be thus guided, and not forced to attempt an +academic course that can have no possible meaning to him. This would +send him out, a productive member of society, happy in his work because +suited to him and efficient in it because fitted for doing it well. If, +on the other hand, tastes and capacities fit for academic or +professional careers, such as medicine, law, teaching, or engineering, +the principle would remain the same but the program would differ. The +academic work, meaningless to the prospective plumber, or dressmaker, +would be full of meaning to the embryo lawyer or teacher, and the period +of preparation much prolonged. + +Such are the points of view that teachers should hold, and such the +opportunities that schools should offer. And it is all being found out +on the firing lines. This program is being carried out to some extent in +many places in different parts of the country. The time is not very far +distant when something of the kind will be demanded in all our towns. +For out in the front ranks the high school is no longer regarded chiefly +as a preparatory for college. Out there it is seen to possess a much +larger function--assisting the child--every child--to form its own +acquaintance and to begin the planning of its future. In other words, +the thought on the firing line is that the high school is an institution +established by a community for community purposes--to take its young +people--all of them--and guide them thru the difficult and transitional +period of adolescence, directing, inspiring, shaping, checking, +developing for the largest manhood and womanhood possible and providing +the community with efficient workmen in various lines. + + +THE EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST + +While there are many other activities, significant and interesting, that +might well be considered in such a treatment as this, I shall close with +a very brief mention of one more--the place and work of the educational +psychologist in our modern system. + +One of the most significant of the newer movements in educational +procedure is that termed _educational mesurements_, perhaps better +called the _mesurement of intelligence_. About a generation ago it began +to be observed that many children did not pass thru the grades with the +regularity that was thought normal or desirable. Many were obliged to +repeat grades--they did not "pass," to use the language of the schools. +The more the matter was investigated, the more serious was it seen to +be. Investigation has gone on until at last carefully gathered +statistics tell us that almost, if not quite, one-half of all the +children in the schools fail to progress thru the grades at the expected +rate. For some reason, or for some combination of reasons, they are +retarded from one to three years. And of the $400,000,000 annually spent +to carry on the work of the schools it is estimated that from +$40,000,000 to $50,000,000 go every year in attempts to teach these +retarded ones what they have already tried but failed to learn. Here was +a double loss, a financial one of large proportions and a human one of +much more serious import. Why the retardation? And what could be done to +check it? + +Thoughtful consideration was given to the matter with the following +revelation: it was seen that in educational procedure all matters of +grading, promotion, even choice of subject matter where there was a +choice, were being handled on the basis of results of tests of +information--possession of knowledge facts--rather than of ability or +intelligence. This might not be so bad if the knowledge sought in these +tests were knowledge necessary to have in order to function adequately +in the new or advanced environment. But usually no such relationship +could be traced. It was but another illustration of no present meaning +connected with the work of the school. A remedy was sought, and is being +sought, in trying to substitute for the information test a test of +intelligence. It is generally admitted that neither one is an adequate +mesure of the other. A child may have a very high grade of intelligence +and yet make a very poor showing in the ordinary schoolroom test for +knowledge, not that he has been unable to learn such facts but merely +that his interests and attention have not been thus focust. On the other +hand, it is entirely possible for one of low-grade intelligence to +receive a very creditable "mark" in a test for information since it is +frequently a test of verbal memory, that "great simulator of +intelligence," as Binet calls it. + +One of the most interesting of the books bearing upon this new +educational movement is _The Measurement of Intelligence_ by Professor +Terman of Leland Stanford University. In the thoughts just exprest I +have used material found in this book. + +So, for a few years now, educational psychologists have been trying to +work out a series of tests of intelligence, so that children may be +located on the basis of their general intelligence, or ability to +accomplish results. The results so far are very promising as tending to +eliminate much of the loss mentioned above. And out on our firing lines +the educational psychologist is being looked upon as a necessity in any +system looking forward to real efficiency. It is thought that thru the +saving he could effect in the two directions cited his regular +employment would be a matter of economic foresight. A few years ago it +was the school physician who was being fought for out in the front +ranks. He is now a fixture in every up-to-date school system, and it is +the psychologist for whom battle is now being waged. And it is only a +question of time when his position will be secure and the line pushed +forward for another attack. + +I have discust with you briefly some of the interesting points of view +of the education of to-day. I have tried to place before you, first, +what I think to be its dominant motive--social betterment, made +effective thru discovery and development of the individual's tastes and +dominant interests. To show how this program is becoming established and +worked out, I have touched upon various new lines of activity in +sympathy with and contributing to the general movement. Thus I discust +briefly the great child-study movement having for its goal knowledge of +the individual child as a basis for its educational treatment. Following +this I spoke of physical education--its beginning in many places and the +great need for extension. Another activity named was the educational +survey by means of which a community may have its own educational +activity tested by impartial experts that its real efficiency may be +known. Then followed brief discussion of the new movement for vocational +guidance that is doing so much where being used to make the youth +efficient and happy in his chosen and appropriate field of activity. I +closed the discussion with a mention of a still newer movement having +the same great ends in view--the employment of the educational +psychologist. Firing-line activities all of these are, each vigorous and +active in the great movement for educational betterment. + + + + +II + +THE RELATION OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY TO THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF THE STATE + +_An Address delivered before the Annual Conference of the North Dakota +Superintendents and Principals at the University of North Dakota, May +18, 1916_ + + +This is a topic of great interest to us all--to you in the field and to +us here on the campus. The work of the two institutions is so closely +related, each depends so much upon the other, that participation in the +activities of one bespeaks interest in the other. But before we can +discuss at all intelligently the matter of relationship it will be +necessary to look at the two separately--objectively, as it were--to +note the function of each and its place in the educational system of the +State. What is the university? What is the high school? And what is the +work of each? are questions that must first be answered. + +In the first place, of course, the two are but parts of a still larger +whole, neither being an independent, self-sufficing entity. The larger +whole is the educational system of the State, of which there is one +other part equally important with the two named, even the elementary +school. And all three parts forming the whole are creations of the +State, devised, controlled, and maintained for a very definite +purpose--namely, the welfare and happiness of our people. + +While it is true that the three parts are correlative, each +supplementing the others and the system incomplete without all three, +it is also true that they are co-ordinate, no one of the three being, +_per se_, in authority over any other, nor any one subordinate to +another. Let me put before you, very briefly, that we may all be +thinking together, the system in its outlines and then discuss each of +its parts, trying to discover its function and its node of work. Then we +shall pass to the matter of relationship. + +The system as a whole covers and tries to provide for the entire school +life of the individual. The elementary period, or department, includes, +in the main, as now organized, the work of the first eight years of the +child's school life and ministers to it from the age of six to fourteen +years. The secondary, beginning where the elementary closes, carries on +the work for four years and is followed by the higher, the colleges and +the professional schools--the university. + +It may clarify matters somewhat and thus give us a clearer perspective, +if, before, entering upon the discussion, I account for the system as we +have it to-day. + +Our Colonial forefathers in the Old Bay State, back in the 17th century, +in providing to meet the situation that prest upon them, unconsciously +laid the foundations for an educational system that expanded with their +expansion and developed with their development. But before taking the +initial steps they did not wait to analyze the entire situation and upon +logical or philosophical grounds map it out in its entirety. They had no +such thought. They needed ministers of the Gospel and, since a knowledge +of Latin was the one sure gateway to that profession, they established a +Latin school almost as soon as they had set their own dwelling places +in order. This was in 1635, and Harvard College followed the very next +year to complete the preparation. It was an afterthought and came eleven +years later when they legislated for an elementary school. And even tho +we can see, in what they had then produced, the fundamental factors of +our present somewhat complicated system, the people who were responsible +for its organization were only dimly conscious of the significance of it +all. They builded better than they knew. The broad outlines can not be +improved. Details, of course, are ever changing as local conditions +change, but from the very nature of things, the elementary, the +secondary, and the higher schools have remained with us, each for a +quite definite purpose and all working together for a common end. Let us +look, therefore, for a moment, at each of the three and see for what it +stands and what it should attempt to do. + + +THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL + +The fundamental purpose of the elementary school in a democracy is well +stated in the first legislation on the continent touching elementary +education, tho not mentioning the elementary school. It was in the +Massachusetts colonies in 1642. The General Court passed an ordinance of +which the following quotation gives the substance: + +"This Court, taking into consideration the great neglect of many parents +and masters in the training of their children in labor and learning, and +other employments which may be profitable to the commonwealth, do +hereupon order and decree that in every town the chosen men appointed +for managing the prudential affairs of the same shall henceforth stand +charged with the care of the redress of this evil ... and for this end +they, or the greater number of them, shall have the power to take +account, from time to time, of all parents and masters, and of their +children, concerning their calling and employment of their children, +especially of their ability to read and understand the principles of +religion and the capital laws of this country; and they shall have power +... to put forth as apprentices the children of such as they shall find +not to be able and fit to employ and to bring them up." + +Here was compulsory elementary education, that children might know how +to read, might "understand the principles of religion and the capital +laws of the State," and also that they might be taught to work. And why? +For their own present and future welfare, and that they might be +"profitable to the commonwealth," the document reads. + +It was for all the children of all the people. The same thought is with +us to-day and, analyzed and stated in our present-day terminology, may +be put about as follows: + +The elementary school is for all the people and aims to do for all three +things: first, exercise a positive directive influence over the child's +physical development; second, carry on, in a more systematic, scientific +manner the training of the sense organs already begun by the home, thus +opening up the life to the beauties of nature, art, and other forms of +truth, and so providing for the development of the inner life of each in +accordance with inherent leaning and capability; and, third, equip them +with the tools of knowledge and give such knowledge facts and develop +such points of view as will enable each to become a self-directing, +constructive, and contributing member of his democratic community. + +Attendance upon the elementary school should, in the interests of all as +individuals and of the State as an organization, be compulsory. + + +THE HIGH SCHOOL + +The high school should likewise be for all, tho for a somewhat different +purpose. While attendance should not be compulsory, the aim should be to +make it universal. For a somewhat different purpose, I said; I should +perhaps have said for an added purpose, because I would have the three +ends of the elementary school kept constantly in view as fundamental +bases. But, assuming that these things have been well done, the chief +purpose of the high school should be to discover the child's latent +powers, his dominant interests, and then, so far as these are wholesome, +help him plan his education in their general direction. I might put it +briefly thus: the chief function of the high school should be to help +the child to become acquainted with himself and begin the planning of +his future. Let us look at it carefully and see if it is not sound. + +At the conclusion of the elementary school, at the age of 14, the boys +and girls are still children; they are developing, not developed, in +either body or mind. They have not yet reached, in the main, the period +of rapid acceleration of physical growth, intellectual expansion, or +moral development; they are just reaching it; they are now in the early +stages of that wonderful period of adolescence when the boy is being +transformed into the man and the girl into the woman. They are neither +children nor adults, yet manifesting the characteristics of both. They +do not know themselves, nor does any one else know them intimately. How +can they? They are not yet formed. They are in the process of formation. +What will emerge as a result of the process, we know only in broad +outlines--not at all in minute detail. So many factors are at work and +there are possible so many combinations of factors that no one can tell; +for it is during the period of adolescence that hereditary +characteristics show themselves. Up to this time the child is a child of +the race; during this period it becomes the offspring of its parents. +And the factors of heredity--father, mother, ancestry--are mingling and +clashing and combining with the factors of environment, and what the +outcome is going to be, nobody knows, in specific cases, in advance. + +This is the period when the heart, the lungs, and the brain are being +transformed, modified, whipt into shape for the performance of the +duties of adulthood. It is a period when, in the intellectual realm, +because of what is taking place in the physical, concepts are being +clarified, relationships traced, ideas formed, things seen in the right +perspective, and real reasoning begun. It is the period when, in the +moral field, because of what is being accomplished in the physical and +the intellectual, principles are being apprehended that will finally +enable the individual to distinguish between right and wrong, to +organize on principle rather than upon expediency his relationships with +his fellows, and eventually to become a free moral agent, +self-controlled and self-directed. It is the period, therefore, when +ideals are being formed, habits fixt, character shaped, life plans +matured, and professions chosen. + +And so, with such an individual and during such a period, what other +function of the high school can begin to compare, either in importance +or in appropriateness, with the one stated? + +It may be objected that I do not include in this function of the high +school that which has been during a large portion of its history its +foremost work--preparation for college. The seeming omission has not +been accidental. I say the _seeming_ omission because, even tho not +specifically stated, it is there, for all who should be encouraged to +prepare for college. But it has not been made prominent since, in my +judgment, it is of minor importance. Note again the function as +suggested--to help the child know himself, find out what he wants to do +and what he can do best, and then begin getting ready for doing it well. +If the specific form of future activity decided upon in a particular +instance should call for the contribution of the college, then of course +the plan mentioned would include appropriate preparation. + +But from what point of view should the high school be regarded and for +whom should it be planned? Should it be for the relatively few who go +beyond, or for the great majority who do not? It is a fair question and +admits of but one answer. The high schools of the State must, of course, +give adequate preparation for entrance into the State university. Some +of them must--not necessarily every one. It must be the preparatory +school, since both are State institutions and the only ones occupying +the field. But it should do vastly more than that. Being of the people, +by the people, and for the people, it should be so handled as to serve +all, not merely a few, of the people. It is perfectly plain, therefore, +where the emphasis should be placed. + +Please do not misunderstand me; I am not looking upon this from any +narrow point of view, I am not thinking merely of getting these children +ready for jobs--certainly not all of them. I am not advocating the +transforming of our high schools into trade schools--not at all. What I +am urging primarily is a different point of view--and so enlarging and +modifying our high school activities and equipment that all our +children, instead of only a few, may find there a congenial atmosphere +and activities suited to their tastes. If their tastes lie in the +direction of carpentering, or of plumbing, or of dress-making, well and +good; let them be thus developed and prepared to go out into their +community somewhat equipt for remunerative toil and for community +service. Why not? Are they not as worthy as those who have tastes and +ambitions or a more literary character and who, therefore, look forward +to the chair of the teacher, the office of the lawyer, or the practise +of a physician? And is not the community under as much obligation to the +one as to the other? Some fear that such a program would lessen the +number preparing for college, that work of this objective character +would be so attractive that all would choose it. These fears are +groundless. Children are not all built that way. At any rate it would +not lessen the number who ought to go to college--who are adapted to +that kind of work. It would, of course, greatly increase the number +attending high schools--holding those who now, because of lack of +interest in the work offered, drop out of school entirely and thus swell +the ranks of unskilled and unintelligent labor. And that is greatly +worth while. My own feeling is, too, that out of the greatly increased +attendance of the high school an even larger number than at present +would find their way to the university, and that they would be better +equipt in point of view and purpose than are many who enter under +present conditions. This suggestion is made not to keep boys and girls +out of the university, but to send them there with a purpose. + +But there is oftentimes a misapprehension as to these two possible +programs for the high schools. Preparation for college and preparation +for life are by no means antagonistic. Preparation for college is the +only kind of preparation for life for him who goes to college. And for +him who, during his high school course, plans to go to college, but who +at its close, finds himself unable to do so, for economic or other +reasons, it should still be the best possible preparation for life that +he could have made, and it will be if, as I am urging, it has all the +time been based upon his own nature and seeking his normal development +in the direction of his dominant interests. And preparation for life +should be the very best kind of preparation for college, for him who +later changes his plans and goes to college as well as for him who does +not, since the college itself should be regarded as merely completing +preparation for life. But a great many, the majority, no doubt, will not +go to college, should not go to college, or to put it better, perhaps, +need not go to college. The activities of life, psychical as well as +manual, for which they are best adapted by native endowment, and in the +performance of which they will, therefore, be happiest, and thru which +they will, therefore, contribute most to the welfare of society, do not +need for their satisfactory performance school preparation beyond the +high school period. In other words, a great many boys and girls should +not be urged to go to college. They should not if they do not have +within them those characteristics of leadership which, developed, will +make them leaders. The college graduate who, in later life, is a street +car conductor, or a Pullman porter, or what-not, has largely wasted the +time and money spent in college. And this is not because these +occupations are not honorable, but because they do not call for that +kind of preparation. And the kind of an individual who is at home as a +street car conductor does not usually profit greatly by the work of the +college. I will not put it as David Starr Jordan is said to have done, +that "It does not pay to give a fifty-cent boy a five thousand dollar +education." It is not a question of dollars and cents--rather one of +fitness and of fitting. The so-called "fifty-cent boy" who may have been +given the "five thousand dollar education" and because of its +inappropriateness degenerated into a ten-cent man, might have been made +into a thousand dollar man if he had been given the right kind of +education. The boy who has the instincts of a blacksmith, who likes the +shaping of iron and the shoeing of horses and the smell of the forge, +will be a far happier and more useful member of society as a blacksmith +than, made over by the college, as a lawyer without clients, a +physician without patients, or a teacher always hunting a new position. + +I have discust the high school, as you see, from the point of view of +the developmental needs of the children of the community. The outcome +would have been practically the same had I looked upon it from the +standpoint of the industrial needs of the community. I fully believe +that a high school should be to-day just what it was originally planned +to be back there in the first half of the nineteenth century--a school +higher than the elementary, controlled by the community, in co-operation +with the educational leaders of the State, serving the needs of the +community, fitting its boys and girls for service in the community and +discriminating, if at all, in the favor of the group of boys and girls +who are not going to college, since that group is much the larger. Since +boys and girls are nearer to us than industrial needs, I have chosen to +look at the problem from that angle. + +I am well aware that my point of view in this entire matter is not quite +in accord with the present-day program. The American high school still +has preparation for college as the one dominant object. Its curriculum +is planned for that end. It is rated at first, second, or third class, +depending upon the degree in which it meets college entrance +requirements--not upon the degree in which it serves the community needs +or develops the community's children. + +I realize fully that the change suggested would involve quite a decided +rearrangement of the ordinary high school program. With the time at my +disposal it will be impossible to discuss the matter in detail, but it +should be touched upon briefly to get the matter of relationship clearly +before us. + +The first change would be in the matter of organization: instead of +having the elementary school, as now, covering eight years and closing +with the child at the age of 14, it should cover but six years, sending +the child to the high school at about the age of 12, at which time, +approximately, begin those physical and psychological changes earlier +spoken of, as belonging to adolescence. And that thought has taken root, +as we all know, in the junior high school movement. Six years is long +enough to do well all that the elementary school should be expected to +do. It certainly is as long as children can be held interested in the +kind of work thought necessary for the child, and as long as he can be +happy in the atmosphere of the ordinary elementary school. It is long +enough for the laying of foundations. It is time something else should +be taken up. + +Planning to meet the needs of adolescents, we must take the adolescents +as they are--many of them not primarily students of books, but +individuals of ceaseless activity, physical as well as mental, vastly +more interested in the doing of things than in the learning of lessons. +And we must provide a means whereby they can learn to do all sorts of +things that have to be done in the community. The subject matter, the +methods of handling young life, the atmosphere, the activities, and the +ends in view, should be so changed or modified, or supplemented as to be +appropriate to the new and changing personalities to be affected by +them. The details would differ with different communities but the +principle is adaptable to all. + + +THE STATE UNIVERSITY + +With the functions of these two departments thus clearly in mind, let us +look at the next in order--the State university. Fortunately this +discussion need not detain us long since there is a quite well +recognized unanimity of opinion in regard to its work. + +While the State university does many things, and some of them well, and +while it can be said to have many ends in view, its one all-inclusive +function is to prepare leaders for society. It must prepare leaders in +law, that justice may be done; leaders in medicine that health may be +preserved; leaders in engineering that the State's resources may be +developed; leaders in education that the youth of the State may be +educated; leaders in research that the boundaries of knowledge may be +pushed out--leaders all along the line that character may be formed, +statesmanship developed, and the welfare of the people secured and +preserved. And the preparation of all these is not, primarily, that +those prepared may achieve fame or amass fortunes, but that society may +be better served. + +We are all agreed, in the United States, that elementary education +should be universal. Many are now taking the position that I have +already advanced that secondary education should likewise reach and +serve all. But all stop at that point. No one even suggests a college +education for every boy and girl. And the reason is found in the above +statement of the function of the institution, since not all are suited +to leadership. It takes only the relatively few who stand out clearly in +their high school experiences as possessing the characteristics of +leadership, and these few it develops, equips, locates. + +Coming a little closer to our subject--tho I think we have not been very +far from it at any time--let us inquire as to this relationship along +some more specific lines. + +It goes without saying that the relationship should be very cordial. The +two institutions are creatures of the State, partners in the important +work of educating the children of the State. Each has its own work to +do, and neither has been given any authority over the other. At the same +time each depends upon the other, neither being able to do its own work +without the other's assistance. They should work hand in hand, each +assisting the other in every possible way to realize its largest +usefulness to the community and the State. In general, the high school +should send its students to the university well equipt to do the lines +of work for which they respectively apply. And the university, knowing +in each case just what that work is to be, and the difficulties it +presents, should be the judge as to the details of that equipment. + +On the other hand, the university should not make requirements for +beginning its work that are beyond the capacity of the ordinary high +school student. Nor should it definitely require or legislate against +specific subjects upon which there is no general agreement among +educational leaders. Something is wrong somewhere, in the matter of +educational values, when some colleges absolutely prescribe for entrance +certain subjects for which others will give no credit at all: for +example, at the present time 91 colleges in the United States require at +least one unit of natural science and 8 colleges will not accept a +single unit; again, 13 require 2 units of natural science and 22 will +not accept the two. Until we know a little better than we do at present +what we are doing and why we are doing it, it might be well to move +slowly in legislating for or against specific subjects. The university +should keep in mind the fact that the high school has other duties to +perform--and possibly more important ones--than preparing a few students +for the university. + +I am glad to say that in this matter of entrance requirements the two +institutions are gradually coming closer together. The university is +coming to have greater respect for and more confidence in the high +school and its work. Whereas in the earlier days all entrance work was +rigidly prescribed, now, in nearly all of our higher institutions, +several units are open to free choice from a list of accepted subjects. +In a goodly number these units may be chosen from any subjects offered +by an approved high school. And, too, there are five institutions of +good standing that allow the entire 15 units to be thus chosen. Our own, +as you doubtless know, is much more generous in this matter than the +great majority. It gives a margin of 5 units to be thus selected. I +think there are but 9 institutions in the whole country more liberal. As +you know, too, in all our colleges save Engineering we specifically +require but 4 units--3 in English and 1 in mathematics. From the others +free election among groups is allowed. The movement here and elsewhere +seems to be in the direction of requiring the completion of a full +four-year high school course, with increasing flexibility as to specific +subjects. And that seems wise. + +It gives me pleasure, at this point, to say that the relationship +between the University of North Dakota and the high schools of the State +has ever been most cordial. I think there has never been a time when the +two, tho differing at times in details, have not co-operated in the most +frank and cordial manner to bring about the best good of both and to +secure the best service to the State. Neither one has been selfish, +trying to secure undue advantage over the other. Where domination of the +university over the high school can be seen--as it most certainly can be +seen--and even tho, as I have said, the work of the high school is what +it ought not to be--mainly a preparation for the university--_this_ +University and _these_ high schools are not at fault. It is not a local +situation. It is nation-wide, and even nation-wide as it is, it does not +include, consciously and directly, the State universities. The older +colleges and universities did dominate, but the relation between the +State university and the high school has ever been cordial. They have +always recognized their partnership and have acted in accordance with +it. But yet we have all been caught in the maelstrom, and it would be +difficult for any one institution or any one State to get out of it. So +no immediate or rapid change can be expected. Large bodies move slowly. +The change will come, but it will come gradually thru claiming a little +here and granting a little there. + +But before leaving this topic of entrance requirements, I desire to +refer to one of its broad factors and touch, incidentally, upon the +large matter of university attendance in general. In discussing the high +school, and again the university, I have tried to make clear the fact +that not all high school students should be urged or expected to go on +to the university. Remember that the high schools should be made to +serve all the youth of the State but that the university's work is to +take but the choice ones of these, or, better yet, the scholarly output +of the high schools, and equip them for leadership in society, and the +point is clear. It is a new problem but coming to be a very real one. +Going to college is getting to be the fashion--almost a fad in some +places. We all know that a goodly number of students, boys and girls +alike, enter the universities, East and West, every year who have no +characteristics of leadership, who are not fitted for real university +work, either in academic equipment, maturity of judgment, point of view, +or earnestness of purpose. Many of these young people are wholly worthy, +well meaning, and ambitious in a weak way, but they have been misguided. +They have listened to the attractive preaching of the popular but +unintelligent gospel of college attendance for all and, caught by the +glamor--the foot-ball, the track meet, the declamation contest, the +fraternity pin, the Junior prom, etc.--have answered the hail of "All +aboard for the University!" without knowing what university work really +is or what it is for. + +The college and the university are also coming to be thought a +convenient place for rich fathers to dump their incorrigible sons and +marriageable daughters for a few years. And in some sections these rich +fathers are increasing in numbers at an alarming rate. The presence of +all such people (they can not be called students) in various classes is +a drag, and the wheels of the institution are clogged. These people +themselves are soon disillusioned but ashamed to quit; the home people +are dissatisfied with results; the university is unjustly blamed for not +developing them into leaders--there is trouble all around. I am not +speaking of our own institution alone; others are experiencing the same +difficulty and are seeking a way out. Michigan University, for example, +is now urging its alumni to discriminate carefully in sending students +to their Alma Mater; it wants only those fitted by nature as well as by +the preparatory school. + +As said above, this is coming to be a real problem and difficult of +solution. What shall be the relationship of the university to the high +school touching these various classes of its graduates? Should it +receive them all? If not, where shall the line be drawn? And who shall +draw it? Shall one factor of the entrance requirements be the +recommendation of the high school principal or superintendent? Would it +be well for the high school to have two distinct grades: one for local +graduation and a higher for university entrance? That is done in some +places. The entire matter is worthy of careful thought of both high +school and university. + +With the discussion of one more point of contact, the preparation of +teachers for the high schools, I am thru. + +If, as stated above, the great function of the State university is to +provide leaders for society, then, in a broad way it is easy to answer +the question as to what it should do for the preparation of teachers for +high schools--it should prepare them. For where else is clear-headed, +unselfish leadership more needed than in the high schools from the +students of which are being selected, thru direction and competition, +the boys and girls who are to pass out to the colleges and then into the +world as leaders? We all know that that is what happens. The man or +woman, untouched by college or university, who yet occupies a +responsible position of leadership is an exception to the rule. And +where else than in a university can preparation for high school teaching +be secured? But of what sort should be this preparation? The answer to +the question in general has long been clear--it should be professional +as well as academic in character. Mere acquaintance with the subject to +be taught is no longer held adequate by people at all intelligent along +educational lines. And during the progress of the movement that has +demonstrated to us the need of professional preparation, there has been +worked out also, along somewhat general lines, the details of this +preparation. We are now, the country over, in approximate agreement that +it should cover the History of Education, Philosophy of Education, +Psychology, including the study of adolescence, and Methods of Teaching. +Institutions differ somewhat in minor matters within these broad fields, +but the development of the movement in the United States has resulted in +approximately the above program--professional preparation for all +teachers in the high school and that along the four lines suggested. But +the movement has gone much farther than suggested by my statement. The +results are found in something more authoritative and more permanent +than tentative agreement among educational leaders, or even among +educational institutions. The law-making bodies of the land have taken a +part, and by legal enactment have required about what I have suggested. +The State of North Dakota, for example, requires professional equipment +of every teacher within its borders--no, not quite, it does not require +it of its teachers in the special schools--the reform school, the +schools for the deaf, blind, and the feeble minded--nor in its +institutions of higher education, including the normal schools and the +University. And in this North Dakota does not differ from other states +of the Union. But it is strange, isn't it? that the state absolutely +requires professional preparation of all its elementary and secondary +teachers and yet does not require it of those whom it engages to equip +them? Some of them have it, of course, and the majority of those who +give the specifically professional courses, but the greater number of +all teachers in the higher institutions are lacking in this respect. +That doesn't mean that all university teachers are poor teachers. Many +of them have learned how to teach in the crude and expensive school of +experience. They have, at last, the professional equipment, but gained +at high cost. Perhaps this lack of professional equipment accounts, in a +mesure, for the admittedly poor character of much of the teaching in our +colleges, normal schools, and universities. + +But to come back to the high school and the preparation of high school +teachers. What does North Dakota require, and how does the University +meet the requirement? + +All teachers in classified high schools, save special teachers of music +and drawing, are required to hold certificates that presuppose +proficiency in psychology, history of education, principles of +education, school administration, and methods. Special teachers in +music and drawing are required to have covered in professional lines +only psychology and pedagogy. But in cases where the certificate is +granted on the basis of college work instead of on results of an +examination, the law requires that the applicant shall have covered at +least two year-courses, or sixteen semester hours, of professional work, +and it recommends that this be distributed among the four great fields: +history of education, principles of education, methods of teaching, and +school management. + +The School of Education has been organized within the University for the +specific purpose of preparing teachers for the high schools of the +State. To graduate from the School of Education and thus receive the +B.A. degree and the Bachelor's Diploma in teaching, which is accredited +by law as a first-grade professional certificate, and also to be +recommended for teaching specific subjects in the high-school, an +applicant is required, first, to have specialized, academically, in the +subject to be taught. The amount of work required for this specializing +varies with the different subjects, but in most cases it is from 20 to +24 semester hours. Recall what is meant by the work of a semester hour +and you will easily see how broad our academic requirement is. It means +that in addition to one's high school work he is required to carry the +subject in practically daily recitation for from 2-1/2 to 3 years in the +University. To some that may seem too much, but we feel that the first +requirement for teaching in the high school should be a thoro grounding +in the subjects to be taught. + +The academic matter thus disposed of, let us note the professional. For +this, in its various phases, we require 20 semester hours covering +psychology, history of education, secondary education, philosophy of +education, and methods of teaching academic subjects in which the +student has been specializing and which he expects to teach. The course +in methods includes observation and practise teaching of the same +subjects in the Model High School under expert supervision. Many of our +students voluntarily take more than 20 hours, but that is all that is +required. We have cut down the professional requirement to the minimum +so as to leave ample opportunity within the course for thoro mastery of +the subjects to be taught, and also for general culture and the +development of broad-mindedness, not being willing to send teachers into +the high schools as narrow specialists. + +Were there time I should like to go more into detail in regard to these +various requirements and try to show the contribution of each; but I +must pass on to speak of another way by means of which the University +enables students to meet the legal requirements for teaching in the high +schools--thru the College of Arts. A student who graduates from the +College of Arts and who has had, during the progress of this course, 16 +hours of Education is, upon application to the State Board of Education +and the payment of a fee of $5, granted a first grade professional +certificate. But this method of preparation is seen to be quite +unsatisfactory when contrasted with the one just outlined. The Arts +student is a relatively free lance, practically wholly so in the choice +and arrangements of his professional work. In the School of Education +the program is for all the professional subjects, save general +psychology, to be taken after the beginning of the junior year and so +immediately prior to the actual work of teaching, and too, when the +student is relatively mature. But with the Arts student, it may all be +taken much earlier, during relative immaturity and making a long period +elapse between it and the work of teaching--quite long enough for the +influence of the professional atmosphere, always valuable in such +matters, to be wholly lost. The question of the professional work of the +School of Education student is carefully planned to meet the ends in +view. Each course has its definite contribution. The Arts student may, +and often does, select courses that are not the most appropriate for +high school teaching: for example, instead of a course in adolescence he +may select one in child study which deals only with the child in the +grades. Instead of a special methods course in the subjects he plans to +teach in high school, he may select a course in methods in elementary +subjects; and he may not take any course in secondary education nor have +any practise teaching in the Model High School. The work may be--quite +often is--ill-arranged and of little value as a professional preparation +for high school teacher. + +I have dwelt upon this contrast because the University and its School of +Education has suffered by the laxness of this second mode of +preparation. Some of the people who thus go out are not good +representative products of the institution's professional activity. + +Just a closing word as to this phase of the subject. You see what we are +trying to do and how we are trying to do it. From the work of the young +people whom we have sent you from time to time, how successful have we +been? Our work as to time and content of courses and our general +equipment are about the same as found in similar institutions in other +states. We differ somewhat, of course, in personalities and in +individual point of view but, taking everything together, we are doing +the best we know how with the material that you send us as students. How +does our product suit you? What criticism have you to make and what +changes to suggest? + + + + +III + +THE UNIVERSITY AND THE TEACHER + +_An Address delivered at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, +March 30, 1916, in the Exchange Lectureship existing between the +University of Manitoba and the University of North Dakota. It was +printed in the "American Schoolmaster," December, 1916_ + + +Having accepted the kind invitation of the University of Manitoba to be +one of the exchange lecturers from the University of North Dakota, for +the current year, I made inquiry as to the nature of the different +groups of people whom I should be expected to address. I did this so as +to be able to select appropriate themes for discussion. + +For this gathering, therefore, semi-popular in character and made up, as +I was told it would be, of the more thoughtful and intelligent people of +the community, University, and city, I selected as my topic for +discussion, "The University and the Teacher." + +To a group of educated men and women who have visions--people who are +characteristically looking beyond the present and trying to plan for the +development of a great democratic state and for the welfare of a free +people, I know of no line of thought more appropriate or suggestive. +This is true because in such a state and with such a people, the state +or provincial university is the recognized leader of thought and action. +And this is true since the one great function of such an institution is +to take the choice youth and maidens from the various sections of the +state and, thru the work of the class room day in and day out, week by +week, year after year, give them knowledge, shape their opinions, mold +their characters, and develop their minds, and then send them back into +society as recognized leaders of the next generation. + +The topic is doubly suggestive when we stop to inquire as to what makes +a university or any other institution of learning--what it is that +really gives it its reputation, its character, its influence. What is +it, anyway? Its towering brick walls? Its libraries and its +laboratories? Its athletic prowess? Its beautiful campus? Why, no, of +course not. Not any one of these nor all of them combined, complete and +extended and excellent as they may be, or as useful as they all are, +ever yet made or ever can make a great university. A real university, or +any other institution of learning, is made up of the men and the women +who form its student and its teaching bodies. The character of the +institution, its very life blood, is drawn from them. Their points of +view, their motives, their scholarships, their visions, their +aspirations, make it what it is in every instance. + +You recall that ex-President Garfield's description of a university +included only two factors as essential--the teacher and the student. The +external equipment--buildings, libraries, laboratories--what not--is +merely a tool in their hands. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not +inveighing against these things; they are necessary. What I am insisting +upon is that not _things_ but _teachers_ make a university. And so my +topic, "The University and the Teacher," launches us at once into the +midst of a great big thought. So big, indeed, it is, that it goes +without saying that it cannot be adequately handled in the brief space +of a single address. Only certain phases of the large topic can be +touched upon at all, and they treated but briefly. + +But, after all, the function of a speaker, certainly upon such an +occasion as this, is not merely to give information. It is not to speak +with finality upon any subject. Is it not, rather, to direct the +thoughts of the listeners along worthy lines? For any good that shall +result from the meeting together of speaker and audience will be the +direct outcome of their thoughts and not of his words. So, after having +thus spoken briefly of the university as a whole--of its place in the +state, its great influence and that of its teaching body--I invite you +to think with me as I touch the subject here and there briefly +discussing these three sub-topics: 1. The Kind of Teachers the +University should Employ; 2. The University Teacher in His Classroom; 3. +The University's Attitude Toward the Preparation of Teachers. Our first +discussion, then, will be of + + +THE KIND OF TEACHERS THE UNIVERSITY SHOULD EMPLOY + +A few moments ago I said that the one great function of a State +University was to provide the State with a competent leadership. That +involves, however, a subsidiary function of such great importance, +especially as we regard the teaching force, that an added word is needed +both to prevent misunderstanding and to make clear the line of +discussion of this sub-topic. The development of a competent leadership +_is_ the all-embracing function of such an institution, but that can not +be done save as the institution is, at the same time, thru some or all +of its teachers, keeping fully abreast, or well in the lead, of the +discovery of new knowledge and of new applications of knowledge in the +various fields of human endeavor. And this is true because men can not +be leaders in any field of action unless they possess the fullest and +latest items of knowledge obtainable in that particular field, and again +because real leadership can not be developed save thru the use, as +educative material, of the fullest and latest. + +What kind of teachers should the university employ? Clearly, teachers +who can do these two things: men of open and enquiring minds, men of +imagination, men who are hungry and thirsty for knowledge, men of +research--men of the laboratory and the library. But that is but one +side; we must also have men of vision, men of great breadth of view, men +of broad human sympathies, men who can take this knowledge, old and new, +and with it, as educative material, help to shape opinions, and mold +characters, and fashion destinies, thus transforming crude, unstable, +and immature youth into men and women of virtue, and knowledge, and +courage, and sanity, and poise, into whose trust, therefore, can be +placed the guiding of a great, free, developing people--men of the +classroom, teachers and inspirers of youth. + +The question may well be asked if I mean two _groups_ of teachers, a +_research_ group and a _teaching_ group, neither one acting within the +field of the other. Not necessarily and certainly not absolutely. To +quite an extent the two functions should overlap since each supplements +the other. The man of research should also be a teacher in order both to +keep his human sympathies alive and as a spur to still further search. +And every teacher should be, to some extent, a man of research so that +thru his own joy in discovery he will be able to kindle a like fire in +the minds of others, thus keeping the spirit of discovery alive and +active in the land, and also that he may invite his students to drink at +a living stream instead of a stagnant pool. The teacher who is not also +a student, and continually working at it, is usually but a poor teacher. +But while all this is true, it is probably true also that no person is +equally successful in both fields. Some men are primarily teachers--are +in their element in the classroom engaged with the problems of the +student but only indifferently successful in the laboratory, while +others, at home in the laboratory, are somewhat out of place and +ill-at-ease in the classroom. I shall not attempt to say which of the +two functions is the more important or the more useful. Both are needed +and, as said before, both are needed, to some extent, in each. But, in +the main, where characteristics are marked, the shoemaker should be +allowed to stick to his last. It is a very wise procedure that is more +and more being followed at the present time, in American universities, +of recognizing such differences and making provision for research +professorships that include no teaching duties whatever. The percentage +of these should be small, of course. + +What kind of a teacher should the university employ, then? The teacher +who is eager to push the boundaries of human knowledge a little beyond +the point yet reached and who also greatly desires to take knowledge as +an instrument and with it develop boys and girls and equip them for +leadership in the great world of action. So far as possible the two +kinds of service should be performed by the same person, but yet that is +immaterial--the material thing being that both kinds be performed. + +What kind of teachers should the university employ? Why, teachers who +not only desire to do these two things, but who also know how to do +them. If one is to do research work, he should know how to do it, +economically and efficiently. His preparation should have included a +certain amount of reflection upon the reasons for research and of +training in the manner of conducting the same. Likewise, if he is to be +a teacher, he should be well grounded in the theory and art of teaching. +If he is going to shape opinions, mold character, give points of view, +develop human minds, then it goes without saying that his preparation +should have included a very thoro study of the human mind in its various +relationships, activities, and stages of development. If a teacher is +expected to equip young men and women for the duties of life as leaders +in the great social, economic, and political activities, he must also +possess great stores of knowledge, and likewise know how to impart that +knowledge so that it will become equally the possession of others. + + +THE UNIVERSITY TEACHER IN HIS CLASSROOM + +The second of my three topics, "The University Teacher in His +Classroom," is an even more intimate one than the one just treated. It +is so intimate that perhaps discretion would be the better part of +valor, but since I am at a considerable distance from the people and the +institutions I am discussing, I feel that I can proceed with comparative +safety. + +There is abroad at the present time considerable hostile criticism of +our higher education. Our graduates, it is said, are not able "to +connect up"; "it takes them two or three years after they get out to +find themselves"; "they first have to get rid of a lot of theoretical +notions that have been given them before they can learn the practical +things of life." President Foster of Reed College, Oregon, puts it thus: +"It is possible to graduate from almost any college without an idea in +one's head." Professor Wenley, Head of the Department of Philosophy in +Michigan University, had about the same thought when he gave me his +original definition of an American college as "A so-called institution +of higher learning whose chief accomplishment is the inoculation of +innocent youth against education." Or shall we put it in the words of +our friend Mr. Dooley: "Nowadays when a lad goes to college, the +prisidint takes him into a Turkish room, gives him a cigareet an' says: +Me dear boy, what special branch iv larnin wud ye like to have studied +f'r ye be our compitint perfessors?" + +Such are some of the caustic remarks that we occasionally hear. Of +course the situation is always exaggerated in such criticisms; but, as +the old saw puts it, "Where there's so much smoke, there must be some +fire." Where does the trouble lie? All sorts of guesses have been made, +and some careful investigations entered into in an effort to discover +the cause. The outcome of all such consideration, so far as I am able to +learn, throws the responsibility upon the teacher rather than upon the +institution as a whole, and upon his teaching ability rather than upon +any lack of knowledge. We cannot teach, it is said. In spite of the +knowledge that we possess, we do not know how to present that knowledge +so that another can gain it. Nicholas Murray Butler, the brainy +President of Columbia University, says, "The teaching of many very +famous men [in colleges and universities] is distinctly poor; sometimes +it is even worse." + +These are rather interesting statements and worthy of thought. What is +meant by teaching, anyway? Teaching involves a double process and two +persons, both active upon the same matter. Both must be successful for +either to be. Teaching is causing to learn, and when there is no +learning, there can have been no teaching. "Learning is not merely the +correlative idea of teaching, but is one of its constituent elements." +No matter how much an instructor may know, no matter how much he may say +nor what he may do, if he doesn't cause the student to put forth those +mental activities that result in learning, he doesn't teach. And it is +claimed that, in many cases, our university instructors do not know how +to do this. He knows but he does not know how to cause another to know, +is a common criticism. + +I suppose it is true, tho loyalty makes me rather dislike to admit it, +that with us the poorest teaching in our entire educational system is +done in colleges and universities. My own observation both as a student +and as a teacher all along the line leads me to say that, in the main, +our best teaching is done in the elementary grades, second best in the +high schools, and poorest in the higher institutions. Another puts it +thus: "We have excellent teaching in the lower primary grades and in the +graduate schools, but between these two extremes, we can call it +teaching only by courtesy." Another, the president of a State +University, is reported to have said, "I have resolved never again to +turn my undergraduates over to young Ph. D.'s. It takes five years to +make a commonsense teacher of a raw doctor fresh from three years of +graduate work." + +If these statements are true, and I am afraid that there's much of truth +in them, the situation is rather serious. Still, it isn't at all +surprising when one takes the whole matter into consideration. For +relatively few university instructors have given any attention to the +matter of teaching itself. They have studied the subject matter with +which they are to deal. They have become proficient so far as knowledge +is concerned. No fault can be found with them touching the matter of +erudition. But they have not given any reflective thought to the art of +teaching. They have not made a study of the human mind in its +development in order to know how it receives knowledge as mental +nourishment, and to understand the assimilative process; they have not +given themselves to a systematic and scientific study of human life so +as to know how to handle it in its various moods and characteristics. +How differently these good people would have planned if they had +expected to practise Law, or Medicine or to enter the Ministry! In every +such case they would have made professional preparation for their work. +Isn't it strange that any one should think that this profession--the +most important--could be practised with success in its higher realms, by +people who have never given its practise one moment's attention? +President Butler, in giving reasons for poor college teaching, says, +"Too few instructors are interested in education." + +I am reminded of Socrates' shrewd parody of a supposed speech of +Euthydemus who, totally ignorant of statecraft, desired election to an +important position in the government of the city of Athens. It is +suggestive here: "I, O man of Athens, have never learned the medical art +from any one, nor have been desirous that any physician should be my +instructor; for I have constantly been on my guard, not only against +learning anything of the art from any one, but even against appearing to +have learned anything; nevertheless confer on me this medical +appointment, for I will endeavor to learn by making experiments upon +you." Comment is unnecessary. + +There are three kinds of knowledge that every teacher should possess, +that every successful teacher does possess: first, knowledge of the +subject matter with which he deals; second, knowledge of the human mind +which he is trying to stimulate; and third, knowledge of the way to +bring these two together in a helpful manner. Of the three, I am afraid +that university instructors have, in the main, but the first. At any +rate, all they know of the other two is of an empirical character and +what they have picked up incidentally. There are exceptions, to be sure. +Every worthy institution has them, striking exceptions, too, some of +them are. A few of our older men have become good teachers thru practise +and experiment, and an occasional young man now comes with professional +preparation. But yet, as in so many other matters, the exceptions merely +prove the rule. + +Thus equipt, or rather with this serious lack of equipment, the young +university instructor begins his work. If he is, to use the words of the +university president just quoted, "a raw doctor fresh from three years +of graduate work," he probably begins by copying the methods of +procedure of his own recent instructors. He tries to set these immature +boys and girls at research problems and, in classroom, tries to impart +information by the lecture method. + +How well I remember such an instance in my own freshman days. I fell +into the hands of such an instructor in Greek. We were reading that most +charming of Greek stories--_The Odyssey_. Textual criticism was this +man's hobby, and we were put to work trying to compare texts, to delve +into the intricacies of form and structure--trying to improve upon +Homer! Such information as we could not find he gave us, in the formal +lecture, day after day. But when we got it, we did not want it because +we did not know what to do with it. Now, I am not quarreling with +textual criticism. It would have been all right for that young doctor +(he was younger than I was at that time) to deal with the facts of +textual criticism, with some people, at some time, but it was all wrong +for him to attempt to give those facts to us in our freshman year in the +College of Arts. They were not adapted to our intellectual needs. They +did not fit into our mental stomachs. We could not keep them down, or +in, or something. But the pathetic fact was that the instructor did not +know that they did not fit. I, being older than many in the class and +thus appreciating better the barrenness of the Greek pasture in which we +were trying to graze, finally managed, by a little skilful maneuver, to +escape and to join another group that happened to be in the care of a +real teacher who knew not only Homer but, as well, freshman boys and +girls, the reasons for teaching Homer to freshmen boys and girls, and +how to do it. He was acquainted with both the science and the art of +teaching. Oh, how green was the pasture here, and how abundant and how +nutritious the food! In all my university experience I recall nothing +more delightful. + +But this is ancient history? Yes, I know it is. But yet, I am sorry to +say, history repeats itself. Those three great mistakes that that young +doctor made in my Greek class some twenty or more years ago are being +made this very year by young doctors and by old doctors and by many who +are not doctors at all, in one subject or another, in well-nigh every +college or university in the United States. Our instructors do not know +well enough how to adapt knowledge to human needs; they have the +erroneous notion that the chief function of an educational institution +is to impart information; and, too, many of them are afflicted with the +lecture craze. + +Touching these three mistakes, let me say, briefly: first, as to the +adaptation of knowledge: the word _education_ is derived from the Latin +_educo_, _educare_, and means _to nourish_, and nourishment, physical, +mental, or moral, is never secured save as the food is adapted to the +organism. And just as much care as our scientific dietitians give to our +dining-room service, our university instructors should give to the +mental and moral pabulum that they serve to their students, especially +the lower classes if not the entire body of undergraduates. They should +know this knowledge as mental nourishment; they should know the +condition of the mind, and they should know how to select and prepare +this food for digestion and assimilation. + +As to the second mistake, the undue emphasis upon the mere imparting of +knowledge: let me quote a few words from President Wilson, uttered when +President of Princeton University: "We should remember," said he, "that +information is not education. The greater part of the work that we are +doing in our colleges to-day is to impart information." I am afraid that +he is correct. I am very much afraid that that is mainly what we are +doing. But it is wrong. The greater part of our work should not be to +impart knowledge. It should be to assist in interpreting the knowledge +that the student himself gets--to fit it to his own life needs and to +help him learn how to study and how to think for himself. In other +words, this information in which we deal should not be an end in itself, +but a _means_ to an end. And that end should be development, mental +power, point of view--character. To be sure, we must deal in knowledge +facts (do not, I beg of you, misunderstand me) but not for the mere +possession of those facts. + +And lastly the lecture craze, under the domination of which otherwise +sensible people get into the habit of supplying information to students +who already know how to read instead of telling them where to find it +and then discussing it with them. How common it is! But why? Simply +because it is easy. How much easier it is than to conduct a real live +recitation in which there is the give and take, the action and reaction, +of eager vigorous young minds, where the instructor is the agency of +interpretation and the inspiration! To conduct such an exercise with +from thirty to fifty bright college students and keep them on the alert +is no lazy man's task. It requires brains and skill, whereas anybody can +do the other thing! President Foster is correct in saying, "There should +be fewer lectures ... the easiest of all methods of instruction." + +Again let me give an illustration drawn from my own sad experience, just +to show what at least some of this lecturing is. This, you see, is +getting to be a confession as well as an exposition. I was taking a +course in the History of Philosophy. It was given by a man well known in +the educational world, then and now. He was well thought of both as a +teacher and a man. He read his lectures from manuscript. We were +supposed to put into our note books every golden word that dropt from +his inspired lips. And the most of us tried to do so, and in the effort +got down some that were not golden. I did as the rest did till one day, +fresh from the lecture, I went into the library and chanced upon a copy +of Burt's "History of Greek Philosophy." I opened it and shortly found +the very discussion, and some of the very sentences, word for word, that +I had just copied with so much labor into my note book. And they were in +print, too, so much easier to read than my note book writing! I at once +sent to the publisher for a copy of the book and took no more notes in +that course. Nor did I take any more courses under that instructor. + +And so it was in a course in history--only there the kind old professor +was naive enough to tell us the name of the book from which he got his +lectures. And again, let me say that history repeats itself. Am I wrong +in my criticism? Let me quote from one whose words carry more weight +than do mine--Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia +University--(Ed. Rev. Apr., 1915, p. 399): "To use--or rather to +abuse--the academic lecture by making it a medium for the conveyance of +mere information is to shut one's eyes to the fact that the art of +printing has been discovered. The proper use of the lecture is the +critical interpretation by the older scholar of the information which +the younger has gained for himself. Its object is to inspire and to +guide and by no means merely to inform." + +I do not mean to condemn the lecture method absolutely. There are +certain lines of work in which it is quite necessary. This is true in +some advanced courses, especially in the sciences, where an instructor +is doing both lines of university work--carrying on research and giving +his advanced students the results of his findings. Of course these have +not yet been embodied in a text or other printed form and cannot be thus +given. + +And this same justification can be urged for some of the work in our +professional schools where both the material used and the end sought are +different. In still another line of work the lecture is permissible--if +it deal with a relatively new subject or with new phases of an old +subject not yet covered by a satisfactory text. But here it need not +continue long because some enterprising instructor will soon satisfy the +need. The formal lecture has therefore no place in the earlier and but +slight place in the later years of undergraduate work. Its place should +be taken by the text and reference book and the class discussion. One +of the finest accomplishments that we can help our students to gain is +the ability to master the book. + +Then, in conclusion, touching the matter of teaching, fidelity to truth +compels me to admit, tho reluctantly, that much of it is very poor. It +satisfies the external demands and that is about all. It is not of a +character to kindle enthusiasm nor to develop high ideals of +scholarship. Much of it, I said, not all. Every institution has some +good teachers, some very excellent ones, but no institution is +overstockt with species of that genus. The great majority of our +undergraduates are poorly taught. That examination mortality is not +greater than it is is due to two fine qualities, one in the student body +and the other in the instructors. It speaks eloquently of the initiative +of the students, and demonstrates that instructors can be fair even if +they can't teach. Many times we know that we are to blame for the poor +work of the student and, knowing it, will not visit the penalty upon the +unoffending head. + +The reason for this lamentable situation can be traced to two practises: +In the first place, up to the present time, as said before, very few +prospective college teachers have made any professional preparation for +their work as teachers. In the second place, it is the almost universal +custom to place the freshmen and sophomores, by all means our largest +classes and the ones in greatest need of skilled teachers, in the hands +of young instructors who have not yet learned how to teach. Relief will +come thru two changes; first, when either the State or the governing +board of the college shall demand professional preparation of every one +allowed to occupy a teaching position, just as we do now for positions +in the elementary and secondary schools. And if any one should raise a +question as to the value of such preparation, my only but all-sufficient +answer is to point to the universally recognized improvement in the +character of teaching in those parts of our educational system since +that requirement was put into effect. And the second needed change is +this--for Presidents seeking teachers to ask candidates two questions +instead of one as heretofore: first, of course, the question should be, +"What do you know?" Satisfied as to that, let the second come clear and +strong, "Can you teach?" And until an affirmative answer is +demonstrated, let the appointment be withheld. It might be salutary, +too, in dealing with the forces on the ground, to follow President +Foster's suggestion given in these words: "It would be well if more +teachers were dismissed because they fail to stimulate thinking of any +kind." + +I come now to the last of my three sub-topics, + + +THE UNIVERSITY'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PREPARATION OF TEACHERS FOR THE +SCHOOLS OF THE STATE + +Fortunately, its discussion need not detain us long. What should be that +attitude? If you will analyze the relationship existing between the +teachers of a state and that state's progress and development, and then +recall my brief discussion of the function of a State University--to +provide leaders--the answer to the question is at once apparent. The +logic of the situation is clear. For what other body of people in a +state are so clearly the state's leaders as the teachers? Always +intellectually and, for the most part, in these days, morally and +physically, the teachers in our schools mold the coming generation and +guide it into paths of progress and accomplishment. This is true of the +teachers of a state more than of any other group of people within its +borders not excepting the ministry. + +We have, in the States, a system of State Normal Schools maintained for +the purpose of preparing teachers for the elementary schools. Each state +of the Union has from one to a dozen of these institutions. North Dakota +has three. The course of study covers from one to two years' work in +advance of a four-year high school course. In the East it is usually two +years, in the West, one. This work is partly academic and partly +professional and is always supposed to include a certain amount of +practise teaching under expert supervision. + +The elementary teachers thus provided for by the normal schools, there +are left for preparation at the university teachers for the secondary +schools, for city superintendencies, special teachers of various kinds, +and teachers for college and university positions. And this latter is a +work, it seems to me, the State University must perform. They are +already doing this, to quite an extent, for the high schools; a few are +doing it well and the rest are working in that direction. A few, too, +are taking up the more advanced phases of the work and are competent to +prepare for college teaching. The movement is strongly on. + +It may not be uninteresting for me to trace this movement briefly as it +has developed with us. For it has been a development. Our system of +education was not planned at the beginning from a careful theoretical +study of our present or prospective educational needs, but has grown up, +little by little, step by step, to meet and satisfy from time to time +present and pressing needs. + +The movement for the professional preparation of teachers began in the +first quarter of the nineteenth century in Massachusetts. That state, +with others, was suffering from an educational declension that had been +going on for a long time. Matters were getting serious. Finally, a few +clear-headed, far-seeing leaders made an analysis of the situation +hoping to bring about a betterment of conditions. They quickly put the +finger upon the sore spot--the poor quality of teaching being done in +the schools. A remedy was sought. It was found in the European Normal +Schools, an institution devoted to the professional preparation of +teachers for the elementary schools. An agitation was begun for its +establishment on this side of the water. After many weary years the +efforts were crowned with success when, in 1838, the State Legislature +of Massachusetts planned for the equipment of three. Thru their work the +character of the teaching in the elementary schools was at once +improved. Other states followed the example and this new institution +soon began its westward sweep, following the development of the country. + +This early work, however, had in mind the improvement of teachers for +only the common schools, rural and urban. Indeed, at that time no one +even suggested that any other teacher needs special preparation. But +when, after the Civil War, the high schools began to develop so +markedly, the problem of teachers became a pressing one. Since teachers +with normal school preparation were everywhere being recognized as +superior to all others in the elementary schools, it was the most +natural thing in the world for those in charge of the new high schools +to demand professional preparation of their teachers. + +But where could it be obtained? Not in the normal schools, because it +should be of different character than that planned for elementary +teachers. To make a long story short, the universities and colleges took +the matter up and provided the professional work thought necessary by +adding Departments of Education. Michigan University was the first to +act when, in 1878, the Regents established a chair called the "Theory +and Art of Teaching." The example was followed by others, and, tho +limited in scope and experimental in character, it was at once seen to +be justified in the improved character of high school teaching. +Improvements were sure to follow. The next step was the expansion of the +department of education into the Teachers College, or School of +Education, as it is getting to be called, which is now recognized as a +professional school of equal rank with the School of Law or the School +of Medicine. An essential element of its equipment is a high school for +observation and practise under expert supervision, just as an elementary +practise school is an essential part of a well equipt normal school. + +New York University, in the city of New York, was the first to move in +this direction. This was in 1890. For fifteen years progress was slow +and halting and confined to private institutions. But it was justifying +itself. In 1905 the University of North Dakota effected the larger +organization, the first of the State universities to do so. During the +last five or six years, however, several others have fallen into line +including such institutions as Missouri, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The +institutions that have not yet effected this change and thus organized +schools of education still maintain their Departments of Education and +thus try to satisfy the need. The University of North Dakota was also +one of the very first to make use of the high school for observation and +practise, and in all lines of development has been recognized as +occupying an advanced position. Other institutions, older and larger, +contemplating a change, have frequently advised with us. If this mention +seems borne of institutional pride, I trust that it will also be +regarded as pardonable. + +Thus the movement--not the result of a theoretical formulation, but a +situation forced upon us by the logic of events. It is as logical, +however, and as irrevocable, as tho produced by deductive reasoning. An +explanation of a statement made earlier in the paper as to the relative +teaching abilities of elementary, secondary, and higher teachers, can +now be seen in the periods of development of the corresponding +professional schools. + +What should be the attitude of the university toward the education of +teachers? Let us follow the development a little farther. + +During the last few years another very interesting phase of the movement +has begun to show itself. You will recall that as soon as professional +preparation demonstrated its usefulness in improving the character of +elementary teaching, it was demanded for teachers in the secondary +schools. And now that it has proved efficient in that field, it is +being demanded in the field next higher--the colleges and universities. +And this demand, like the others, is no longer confined to professional +schools or educational journals--to the people from the inside. It is +being taken up by laymen, even the daily papers, and prest with some +vigor. To give the point of view, I give a single quotation from an +editorial in a recent issue of the Minneapolis _Journal_: "None of our +graduate schools require any course in education or teaching methods, or +any previous experience in teaching work for a Ph. D. degree, except, of +course, in the field of education, where theory is cultivated, if not +practised. May it not be found that the best method to increase the +teaching efficiency of the undergraduate instruction in colleges and +universities will be to provide every graduate student with definite and +detailed instruction in teaching methods for his chosen subject?" + +This demand, thus clearly voiced, and coming from many sides, will +continue until granted as has been the case with each of the others. And +as a result the teaching of our undergraduates will be improved. To do +this added work, however, will not require another institution. The +present universities, thru their Schools of Education, amplified and +strengthened, will supply the need. + +Just as the University, thru its Medical School, provides its community +with skilled physicians and public health officers to secure and +preserve public health, and thru its Law School performs a similar +service in sending out men who become competent lawyers and judges to +secure the administration of justice, and thru its College of +Engineering, its engineers to safeguard property, public welfare and +life itself, so, thru its School of Education, it must provide its +teachers for all these and other advanced fields. And all this service +must be performed not that individual citizens may be better prepared to +make a living, amass a fortune, or achieve fame, but that the community +may be served. + +So the School of Education, now given equal rank with other professional +schools of the university, must ere long be recognized, by virtue of the +work thus forced upon it, as, in a very definite way, superior to them +all in opportunity and responsibility. + + + + +IV + +THE EYE PROBLEM IN THE SCHOOLS + +_A Paper read before the 1914 meeting of the North Dakota State +Association of Opticians. It was printed in the May, 1914, issue of "The +Optical Journal and Review," also in the same issue of "The Keystone"_ + + +I do not know how fully people appreciate the importance of the eye as +an agent, or factor, of human cultivation. Judging from the amount of +work it is being made to do in our schools and in nearly all our +processes of education, we might perhaps be led to feel that its +importance is fully appreciated, indeed, that it is being looked upon as +the sole factor, or agent. But, on the other hand, this very excessive +use, especially in the early school years, leading, as it does in such a +large percentage of cases, to serious impairment of vision, almost tells +us that its great value is not appreciated. If it were, should we be +likely to abuse it as we do in these early years and thus render it +incapable of performing its larger, fuller use later on? The attitude +seems rather to be that its conservation is not thought to be necessary. +That, however, springs from ignorance rather than from studied +disregard. + +But let us look for a moment at the processes of education and note +where the eye comes in. If there is anything upon which leading +educators are now practically agreed, or upon which they tend to agree, +it is that education as a process is a matter of development rather than +the learning of knowledge facts. Now, that development is analogous to +the growth and development of the plant, that is, it is brought about +thru nourishment. In the plant this nourishment is taken in thru the +roots, becomes absorbed and assimilated and thus ministers to growth and +development. In the child, looking at it from the physical point of view +and having in mind psychical, not physical, nourishment, the sense +organs serve this purpose. Did you ever stop to think that the sense +organs form the only connecting link between the great outside world, +which serves as raw material for the nourishment, and the inner life of +the child, the development of which we are seeking? Did you ever stop to +think that these sense organs, the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, +and the surface of the body as the organ of touch, form the only +possible avenue of approach to that inner life? Cut off, or close up, +these avenues and no development of this inner life would be possible in +the slightest degree. Thus considered, these same sense organs, simple +as they seem to be, leap into importance that almost staggers one's +thought. The most priceless possession of any child, I often say to my +classes in education, is made up of their eyes, their ears, their noses, +their tongues, and their finger tips--simply because thru them is poured +the nourishment that sustains psychic life and ministers to the +development of the same. + +Of these five sense organs, the eye is, par excellence, the one of +value. More psychic nourishment is poured into the laboratory of psychic +life thru this one channel alone than thru all others combined. Indeed, +one of our most eminent scientific psychologists after making most +careful investigation of the matter, estimates that the eye's +contribution is about 74% as against the other 26% that comes thru all +the other sources. If this relative value of the eye be even +approximately correct, how eminently important it is that it be studied +with close scientific accuracy, that it be guarded with the utmost and +intelligent jealousy, and that it be cared for with the most scrupulous +fidelity! + +But what is the situation? The Optician and the Oculist have made the +most careful, scientific study of the eye. They know it thoroly, both +its possibilities of service and its limitations. And they have told the +rest of us all about it. But let us see how intelligent we are in the +use of the knowledge they have given us. They tell us that the eye of +the child is undeveloped and that in the undeveloped state it should not +be much used on small or close work. In other words, the child's eye is +far-sighted. But at the age of six years we place the child in the +school room, put a book in its hands, and compel its use, eyes or no +eyes, as long as the child remains in any institution of learning. Why, +gentlemen, we have gone mad on this book proposition. We act as tho we +think that it is only in the book that knowledge can be found. We act as +tho we think that it is only thru the printed page that psychic +nourishment can reach the inner life of the child, whereas, as a matter +of fact, both the knowledge and the nourishment that are appropriate to +the child in all its early years are better obtained thru direct contact +with the great outside world itself and by direct communication from the +lips of the teacher. If this fact were fully appreciated and acted upon, +we should, in two very definite ways, conserve this very important +organ; for we should use the eyes upon objects at a greater distance +thus preventing unnecessary strain, and allow other organs of sense to +share with the eye in the work of gathering information and of +appropriating mental nourishment. + +Please do not misunderstand me. I am not underestimating the place and +value of books, nor decrying their use. They are the storehouse of +knowledge and the source of inspiration, but not for children. Our young +children in school and out of school read too much--are too much tied to +the book. Thru this prolonged and close use of the eye upon small and +nearby objects for which, in its undeveloped condition, it is not +fitted, the organ is permanently weakened and rendered incapable of its +legitimate use later in life when the book is a necessity. And again, +this excessive use of the eye causes an atrophy of the other organs that +is really serious. + +Nor is this all. The Optician and the Oculist have studied the matter so +carefully and know the eye so thoroly in its various stages of +development that they know exactly the size of type that children of +various ages should use. And they know, too, the kind of paper that +should be used in books for children. And they have told us all about +it. But we systematically disregard all this information gained with +such painstaking care, and instead of using the large clear type and the +unglazed, soft tinted paper recommended, we persist in tolerating the +unsatisfactory merely because it is a little cheaper. Penny wise and +pound foolish we surely are. What we save now we shall have to pay later +on with compound interest besides compelling our children to undergo +physical pain and mental handicap. + +And yet again. We are told by our scientific friends the relative +amounts of window and floor space that the schoolroom should have in +order to be adequately lighted! Not one in ten has as much window space +as it should have, and a good portion of what has been provided is +frequently covered up by shades thru the teacher's perverted notion of +relative values--seeming to have greater appreciation for certain +so-called artistic effects than for eye comfort and safety in work. And +then again, these scientific friends of ours have told us that there +should be in the schoolroom no cross lights; that the light should not +shine upon the blackboards nor into the faces of the children, but that +it should come only from the rear and the left and from above. They have +found out, too, and told us, the proper shades of color for the +walls--scientific knowledge, all of it, and therefore thoroly reliable. +But how systematically do we disregard all this valuable information! In +the construction of a new school building there is nothing that should +receive more careful and scientific consideration than the matter of +lighting, but too often the architect is either entirely ignorant of the +entire matter, or else is selfishly interested in so-called +architectural effects. + +I do not mean that we all disregard all these things, that we have no +school houses properly constructed, no school books properly printed, +and no teachers intelligent and sensible in their handling of boys and +girls. Not at all. During the last twenty years we have made long +strides in advance along many of these lines in many places. But the +bright spots are still the exception and not the rule. The friends of +children and of the race need to keep vigilantly at work. + +Now, let us look at the matter from another point of view. Let us ask +what are the results of this persistent and widespread disregard of the +normal conditions under which the eye should work and of the fundamental +laws of eye development. What do we find? Why, we find just what you are +prepared to expect after considering the above disregard. We find that, +whereas at the beginning of school life the percentage of school +children suffering from visual defects is relatively small, that +percentage increases as we ascend the grades. In other words, the +regular, systematic work of our schools is all the time weakening the +eyes--all the time causing serious visual defects. Gulick and Ayers came +to this conclusion as one of the results of their exhaustive +investigation, made in 1908, which culminated in the well known work on +"Medical Inspection of Schools," published at that time. This is all the +more striking since they found that the prevalence of other physical +defects steadily decreases as the years pass. + +An investigation carried on in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1907-1908, +illustrates the point under discussion; 20% of all children in grades +one to three inclusive were found to have defective vision, whereas in +grades nine to twelve inclusive 40.5% were found thus handicapped. In +some parts of Germany the increase in defective vision as children +ascend the grades is seen to be much more marked than in our own +country. In one particular study that comes to mind, a study of +short-sightedness alone (published, however, some years ago) it was +shown that the increase was from practically none at all to +approximately 100%. In other words, the work of the schools had made +practically every child near-sighted. And the general tendency seems to +be in this direction. Indeed, I know of but one study in which a +contrary tendency has been observed. And that was in a rural +district--St. Louis County, Missouri--where a study was made about four +years ago. Under the conditions observed there, the frequency of +short-sightedness seemed to diminish with increasing age. And the +reasons for this local tendency, being so directly contrary to the +general tendency, men have been trying to understand. Various +suggestions have been made such as the atmosphere of the rural as +against the city districts being, in the main, more favorable from +hygienic points of view; or the fewer pupils in the classes in school, +thus enabling the teachers to give more personal attention so preventing +undue eye-strain; and the shorter school year maintained in the country +giving the children less prolonged periods of eye-strain. But whatever +be the explanation of this interesting exception, it yet remains true +that the regular work of the school, week in, week out, year after year, +causes the eyes of our children to deteriorate, or at least the two go +hand in hand with grounds for a very strong suspicion in the minds of +those who have expert knowledge of the general situation that the one is +the cause of the other. + +With this point established, namely, that the work of the schools is but +ill-adapted to the structure the nature of the child's eye, resulting in +steady deterioration, let us try to see how widespread is such +deterioration and how serious. This can best be done briefly thru the +use of a few statistics taken from the results of investigations that +have been made as to the physical conditions of our school children. +From these results I disregard all figures save those that bear on the +matter of visual defects since that is our one topic of discussion. + +In Cleveland, Ohio, in 1906-1907, a very exhaustive and illuminating +investigation was made under the general supervision of Dr. Wallin, one +of the most eminent authorities on the relationship of the physical and +the mental in the work of our schools. Dr. Wallin called to his +assistance many experts, both medical and physical, and his report was a +very noteworthy one from many points of view. I touch only two or three +points here and there. In one school, the Mayflower, located in a fine +residence section of the city, 972 pupils were examined, and 20% of them +found to be suffering from some rather serious form of eye defect. In an +East End school, another of the so-called better class of schools, 668 +children were examined and 32.4% found with defective vision. Even more +startling than these were the results found in a school of about the +same size in what was called a "congested" district of the city. Six +hundred and sixteen were examined and 71.1% found defective. + +Another very significant fact was brought to light by this +investigation--the disregard paid to the whole matter by parents and +teachers. Perhaps I should not include teachers in speaking of this +disregard since they have, at best, but advisory power. In the East End +school, out of the 668 children examined, 216, or 32.4% were found +defective, but only 43, or 6.4%, were being relieved by the use of +glasses. And in the "congested" district the disparity was even more +striking since out of the 437, or 71.1% of the entire number who had +visual defects, only 11, or 1.8%, were being relieved. + +In one investigation made in New York City in 1908, 1,442 pupils were +considered, and 42% found suffering from eye defects. In Jefferson City, +Missouri, in 1908, the results of the examination of 1,000 white +children showed 36.5% suffering from somewhat serious visual defects; +and many others in lesser degrees. Of these 1,000 children, 410, or 41%, +were found to need the assistance of glasses, but only 38, or 3.8%, were +being thus assisted. + +In Los Angeles, California, in 1909, 5,000 children were examined, and +61% found to be suffering from the same trouble. Again, in Philadelphia, +in 1909, the well-known Dr. Risley found, in an examination of 2,422 +children, that 44.7% were continual sufferers from some form of eye +trouble. I could easily cite similar results from many more studies, but +surely these are sufficient. These are startling facts, and very serious +when we think merely of this one fact alone without considering it in +its relationship to anything else. But when we stop to consider the fact +that these sufferers are children, in the schools, and are thus +handicapped in their work of education--in their efforts to fit +themselves for the struggle of life--it assumes even larger proportions +and becomes truly appalling. + +What does it mean? Why, it means, in terms of the school man, +retardation and elimination. To the layman those words may need +interpretation. Retardation means the checking of a pupil in his +educational progress thru the grades, necessitating the spending of a +longer period than that which is considered normal. For example, a +normal pupil is one who enters school at six years of age and is +promoted each year regularly; or "a pupil whose age and grade correspond +to this standard." Thus, the standard age for a second grade pupil, +during the year, is 7 years; for a fourth grade, 9 years; and for an +eighth grade, 13 years; or in every case, five more than the number of +his grade. If one is older than the number of his grade plus five, he is +retarded by the amount of the difference; thus a twelve-year-old child +in the sixth grade is retarded one year since a sixth-grade child should +be but eleven years old. Somehow he has lost a year. Thru failure to do +satisfactory work such a child has had to repeat the work of some one of +his grades. Elimination means the dropping out of a child from school +altogether before the regular course is completed. We find relatively +little elimination in the lower grades since the compulsory attendance +laws require attendance. But just as soon as the upper limit of age is +reached there is much of it. + +I do not know how closely you have followed this matter of retardation +in the schools and elimination from them, but I think sufficiently to +render it unnecessary for me to discuss the matter at length. Let me +refer to but one study which is typical as showing the seriousness of +the situation. In 1907, Mr. S. L. Heeter, at that time Superintendent of +Schools in St. Paul, Minnesota, working under instruction of his Board +of School Inspectors, made a very careful investigation as to the matter +of retardation in the schools of that city. You may be surprised to +learn some of the results. He found more than one-half, exactly 56%, of +all the children in the schools at least one year behind normal grade, +and many of them much more than one year behind. To be exact: 12,672 +children were below grade. Of these, 6,328 were one year behind; 3,650 +were two years behind; 1,689 were three years behind; 651 were four +years behind; 221 were five years behind, and 133 were six years behind. +Now, what is the cause of such a serious situation? Mr. Heeter, in his +report of his findings, speaks as follows: + +"There are evidently many causes of this phenomenal retardation--yet it +seems likely that one of the largest factors ... is physiological, and +that more attention given in our schools to the bodily conditions of our +children will throw new light on our educational problems, and even on +the subject of backward children, and of delinquency itself." "It +appears," he goes on to say, "that the schools have been too exclusively +concerned about the minds of children and too little concerned about +their bodies. Much time and energy and money have been wasted in trying +to make all children equal in mental power, without regard to physical +inequalities, until now waste products are clogging our educational +machinery." And Mr. Heeter's conclusion is that of all who have studied +the matter with any care. + +Let me now show the relationship existing between the two, that is, +between retardation and physical defects. I can do it briefly by +referring to the work of Dr. Cronin in New York City. This is but one +instance, but it is typical of conditions. A few years ago, as chief +Medical Inspector of the schools of New York City, Dr. Cronin read a +paper before the School Hygiene Association of America in which he made +the statement that an examination of all children reported as backward +by various teachers revealed 95% of them as physically defective. + +Thus, in a hasty way, but I think correctly, I have thrown the chief +burden of backwardness in school, or retardation, upon physical defects. +But our special topic is eye trouble. How much of this burden must be +referred to this specific source? It is difficult to say exactly. But +knowing as we do the great prevalence of eye defects among school +children, from 20% to 71%, you remember, depending somewhat upon +locality and environment; and knowing, too, the close relationship +existing between the eyes of our children and the work of the schools +(this school work, you know, is nearly all done with the eyes. It should +not be, but it is); knowing all this, it is not beside the mark to say +that a very large percentage of the retardation must be laid at its +doors. + +And what are we going to do about it? What should be done? The reform is +easily seen to be a many-sided one. It is educational--our teachers +should come to know that the book is only one, and not the chief one, of +the many sources of knowledge open to the child; it is physiological--we +should all know the eye better than we do, its normal use and its +limitations; the reform is architectural--our architects and boards of +education should realize that the seating and the lighting of school +houses should receive most careful consideration; the reform is +economic--we should come to appreciate the unwisdom of being "penny wise +and pound foolish," and recall the old saw, "a stitch in time saves +nine"; the reform is medical--we should get our people to see that thoro +and regular medical inspection of all our school children is the only +sensible method of procedure. And so I might go on naming phase after +phase of the problem. It is so many-sided that we can not hope for its +immediate and perfectly satisfactory solution. But there are certain +quite specific ends in view that should at once and all the time be kept +before us. Touching the matter of medical inspection, our state law, +instead of being merely permissive should be mandatory, and should be +made to apply to every school community in the state. Of course, the cry +of expense would be at once raised, but it could easily be shown, were +there time at my disposal, that it would be an economic mesure rather +than one increasing the cost of our schools. Because every time that a +child repeats a grade in school, that year's school work in the life of +the child has cost the city or school community twice as much as it +should. Whenever, as in the case of St. Paul, already cited, a child is +two, three, or six years behind normal grade, there is an extra heavy +burden of taxation placed on the city. Medical inspection, wherever it +has been made effective, has resulted in lowering, very materially, the +amount of retardation. And it is looked upon as saving the community +very much more than it has cost, saying nothing at all about the added +effectiveness of the child for the work of the school nor of his greater +happiness. This statement could easily be substantiated were there time. +But that is not necessary. It is so apparent that he who runs may read. + +But the time when we can expect such a law to be put in force is, I am +afraid, considerably removed from the present. Large bodies move slowly; +we must have patience. We must keep steadily at it preaching the good +gospel of reform. But in the meantime can we not hasten the glad day of +full and complete medical inspection, and at the same time bring relief +to a very large number of little sufferers, by throwing emphasis, +whenever the opportunity offers, upon the phase of the subject that is +before us this morning? The eye trouble is the chiefest of all those of +a physical nature. It has far more to do in causing retardation of our +boys and girls than any of the other physical defects, and therefore +should receive its own prompt and vigorous attention irrespective of +everything else. Upon this one point let us have immediate relief and +keep it up as rapidly as possible. Let us adopt some program of action +which will bring relief as quickly as possible to children suffering +from visual defects. For I have no sympathy with the position taken by +that foolish mother (perhaps I should be charitable and merely say +"ignorant" mother. I think she was both ignorant and foolish), who said +to me when I was urging her to have glasses fitted for her little girl, +"Why, Mr. Ladd, I can't bear to think of Mary wearing glasses. I am +going to keep them away from her just as long as she can possibly get +along without them." I replied, "My good woman, if you have any regard +for the comfort and well-being of your little girl, or if you care for +her progress in school, instead of keeping glasses away from her as long +as possible, you should see to it that she has the best that can be +procured just as soon as they can be of the slightest assistance." I +went on to tell her that it was entirely possible that the use of the +glasses at that time for a year or two might enable her to do without +them permanently later on. But she did not get them; of course not. They +would not have added to the attractiveness of the little face. How hard +it is for the unreflecting to deny themselves a present pleasure, +whether in money or pride, for a future good! + + + + +V + +THE HOME, THE CHURCH, AND THE SCHOOL + +_An Extension Lecture delivered in many places in North Dakota and +Minnesota_ + + +It goes without saying, I am sure, that these three great +institutions--the Home, the Church, and the School--fundamental as they +are in the life of each, and even of civilization itself, can not be +adequately handled in the brief time given to a single address. But yet +I think that in that time we can account for each, roughly trace its +interesting career, and locate it in our complex life of to-day with +function briefly stated. And in it all, or out of it all, directly or +indirectly, I think we shall see the relationship existing between the +three. This relationship, so strong and so vital, the appreciation of +which is so necessary for constructive action and large results in life, +I particularly desire to make appear. And it is this relationship that +gives appropriateness to the handling of the three in a single address +tho each, from a different point of view, might well be made the center +of an entire evening's consideration. + +The home, the church, and the school! What troops of memories arise +around each as we turn our gaze backward! How sweet and sacred appears +the home as we recall mother and father, sister and brother, in the old +home setting in the early days of our pilgrimage! How solemn and +hallowed seems the church as we go back in thought to our first +connections with it in Sunday school, in its communion service, and to +our own entrance as members! And how fascinating and joyful, even the +sometimes tinged with regret or apprehension, the school as we retrace +our pathway over the years of its associations! The home, the church, +and the school--but the first of these is the home. + + +THE HOME + +Let me ask you, therefore, to think with me first of the home--of that +institution which in its very inception, more than any other, was +God-inspired; that institution which from its very beginning up to the +present hour has, more than any other, reflected the spirit and purpose +of God--that institution whose center is the child and whose function +that child's development--_the home_. It is the most ancient of all the +institutions of man. Organized and set apart at the very dawn of human +life, when the morning stars were singing together, the divine Voice +gave it sanction and stated its function: "Be fruitful and multiply, and +replenish the earth." And the institution, as the ages have passed, has +never once lapsed and never repudiated its origin or its work. Still it +has advanced so far and improved so much in outward appearance, at any +rate, and developed so greatly that, as we know it to-day, we may almost +call it a modern institution, so modern indeed and so different from all +others as to merit the name of American institution. + +Students of history have so laid bare the conditions of living and of +home life in the past as to reveal to us the fact that the home, as we +know it and love it, did not exist prior to our own day. In all former +periods, even tho glorious to look back upon, some of them, golden days +as they were of the world's upward struggle, we search in vain for our +kind of a home. The home of the American workman to-day is provided with +more comforts and conveniences, has in it more of the elements of +culture and refinement, is more eloquent of love and the higher life +than was the home of the ruler of a few generations ago. And the chief +factors in it all, those which bind all together and give meaning, are +the honored place given the wife and mother and, springing from that, +love, love of parent for child and child for parent. For we all know, +when we come to think of it, that our love of home and dear ones is ever +our motive for action as we explore new fields and mark out new paths, +overcome obstacles and surmount difficulties--in a word, carry the +banners of civilization to new heights! + +The home of all people, in all ages of the world's history, but +especially as we know it to-day, is the one thing for which men live and +work. Stop the first man you meet on the street,--"rich man, poor man, +beggar-man, thief, doctor, lawyer, butcher, priest,"--any man, going +along with a preoccupied mind, thinking of the case he is to plead, the +trade he is to make, the book he is to write. Get into this man's mind, +down below this particular thing that is on the surface of it, and down +there there is one picture that you wilt always find, the picture of a +cozy corner somewhere, of a woman sitting by the table or before the +fire, of two or three growing girls, and a boy or two that look like +him. Meet him wherever you will, find him in whatever occupation, or in +whatever stage of spiritual or intellectual development; whenever you +get under his jacket, whether it be a blouse or a tuxedo, you'll find +this picture hanging on the wall of his heart. Ninety-nine men out of +every hundred say, with Robert Burns: + + "To make a happy fire-side clime + For weans and wife, + That's the true pathos and sublime + Of human life." + +And the young man of to-day, looking forth into the years that are to +come, picturing himself as and where he would like to be, who sees +himself alone, without the joys and companionship of wife and child, the +young man who doesn't plan to have a home of his own to which he can +lead the choice of his heart and in which he may multiply, thru the +development of his own offspring, his powers of usefulness,--such a +young man is a selfish monstrosity. And the young woman who isn't +longing for a home of her own--for a little kingdom in which as Queen, +she may rule jointly with a chosen King in loving ministration to their +natural subjects--such a young woman is an abnormal specimen. The desire +of every little girl for a doll, the craving of every boy for an animal +pet, is but the manifestation of the deep-seated instinct of parenthood. +Do nothing to stifle it. Minister to its growth and development. And +young man--young woman, you who have left behind the days of knee +trousers and short dresses, and with them have laid aside the doll and +the pet, think it not weakness when you find yourself irresistibly +drawn by the sweet smile of an innocent babe or by the childish prattle +of one a little farther on. Be not ashamed when, under such influence, +you picture yourself the center of a home, and in this connection think +of him or her whom you would like to have share it with you. It is the +sweetest influence that can ever come into your life. Rightly regarded +and used, it will do more for your happiness and usefulness than any or +all others that will ever come to you. + +But when the crucial moment comes--when the die is to be cast and the +promise asked and given that will bind the two lives together, halt for +a moment until one asks and the other answers this "Woman's Question." + + +THE WOMAN'S QUESTION + + "Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing + Ever made by the Hand above-- + A woman's heart and a woman's life + And a woman's wonderful love? + + "You have written my lesson of duty out; + Manlike you have questioned me; + Now stand at the bar of my woman's soul + Until I question thee. + + "You require your mutton shall always be hot, + Your stockings and shirts shall be whole. + I require your heart to be true as God's stars + And as pure as Heaven your soul. + + "You require a cook for your mutton and beef. + I require a far better thing. + A seamstress you're wanting for stockings and shirts, + I look for a man and a king. + + "A king for a beautiful realm called home, + And a man that the Maker, God, + Shall look upon as He did the first + And say, 'It is very good.' + + "I am fair and young, but the rose will fade + From my soft fair cheek some day; + Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves + As you did in the bloom of May? + + "Is your heart an ocean so strong and deep + I may launch my all on its tide? + A loving woman finds Heaven or hell + On the day she is made a bride. + + "I require all things that are grand and true, + All things that a man should be, + If you promise me this, I would stake my life + To be all you demand of me. + + "If you can not do this, a seamstress and cook + You can hire with little to pay. + But a woman's heart and a woman's life + Are not to be won that way." + +Yes, Bobby Burns was right when he said, + + "To make a happy fire-side clime, + For weans and wife, + That's the true pathos and sublime + Of human life." + +Exactly what is God's ultimate purpose for the human race, I think no +one knows. And I am not sure that we need to know. Where clear vision is +not granted we walk by faith. But even if the ultimate end is not +clearly portrayed, even if we are kept in the dark as to the great +outcome, we do know pretty well His method of procedure. A careful study +of the past and a critical analysis of the data now at hand looking to +the future enable us to grasp with some clearness the leading outlines +of the program. From generation to generation, from century to century, +from age to age, as time has rolled on, there has been a gradual moving +onward and upward, a steady improvement both in the refining and +civilizing of man's own being and in bringing that being into +sympathetic relations with the external world, that is, a gradual +development of man's own powers, and an ever increasing control of the +forces of nature. In spite of the fact that this progress has been, at +times, painfully slow, it has never once ceased, and during the last +century it has moved on with constantly accelerating speed until to-day +the human race stands upon the highest point ever reached. I have +absolutely no sympathy with that narrow pessimism which is always +talking about "the good old times." All in all, there never was a time +in the history of the world when man knew so much as to-day; there never +was a time when his life was so ministered to by the forces of nature; +never a time when his heart was so tender, when it responded so quickly +to human suffering, never a time when all forms of evil were so quickly +condemned nor when so much good was being done. The long program seems +to have been for each age and each generation to hand on to its +successors the legacy received, but increased and strengthened and +bettered. How much longer this upward movement is to continue, how much +more the race is to know and do, how much better it is to be, no one +knows. God's ultimate purpose, His great object in view--we may not be +able to grasp, but certainly it is not difficult for us to note the +general direction of the movement. It is upward. + +In all this, wherein does the home come, and what is its function? Is it +not, has it not been from the very beginning the Divine agency used for +doing this great work? Was not the home instituted, endowed with the +divine power of love, and consecrated for the perpetuation of the race? +"Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth." True, as many times +pointed out, our toils and our struggles, our earnings and our +productions, incidentally give us pleasure and satisfaction and power, +but yet even these are but a means to an end,--that parents may beget, +rear, and educate their children in such a way that they can carry the +banner of civilization a little higher--lift society to a higher level +and draw mankind nearer to God. + +So it is that the center and circumference of the home is the child. In +the child the home finds its meaning, its excuse, and its justification. +It exists, then, that the child may be adequately prepared for doing its +great work in the world. Whatever else it may do, on the side, it has +one great problem. The child! The child! The best crop the farmer +raises, the best article the manufacturer puts on the market, the best +ware the merchant handles, the best case the lawyer pleads, the best +sermon the minister preaches--or at least that which gives meaning to +all of these--the child! "The fruit of all the past and the seed of all +the future." God bless the home and God bless its best fruitage--the +child! + + +THE CHURCH + +Thus the home--God's simple yet mighty agent in His great work of +developing the human race. Its work was accepted and for a time all went +well. Such preparation, mostly physical, as the child needed for its +future work the home gave without difficulty. But this simple life could +not continue indefinitely. One of the fundamental principles of life +absolutely forbade man's standing still. The laws of growth and +development pushed him on. Whether he would or not, he was compelled to +move forward, just as the acorn, obeying the law of its being, changes +its form, its size, and adds to its complexity. Little by little man, +obeying these inexorable laws, began to develop. His mental, his moral, +and his physical natures gradually assumed new forms--new needs and +desires were born. More and more his vision became expanded until he +could see into and mesurably appreciate the forces of nature. His life +was becoming more complex. Now, this larger life, this greater +complexity of life, in addition to its own complexity, added materially +to the work of preparing the child for playing its part in this great +onward movement. + +Such preparation as was needed by the child of the primitive home to +equip it for playing its part as an adult would no longer suffice. The +home must now do something more than satisfy the needs of the +body--provide food, clothing, and shelter, and incidentally give +opportunity to learn, mostly by imitation, how to do this for another +generation of children. The spiritual life needed attention and, as +well, the intellectual. Competition was growing keen, and each felt the +need of a better equipment that he might play his part well in the +larger life that was surely before him. And this larger outlook upon +life was itself growing by what it was feeding upon and making its own +demands for better things. + +But the home was handicapped. It felt the need, but with all other +things that it had to do, had no time to take up these new duties. And +again, the most of the homes, even if time had been abundant, did not +know how to do the new work. So it set about finding a solution to its +problem. This was found in the principle of the division of labor. It +was seen that time would be saved and results much more satisfactorily +reached by delegating to persons definitely prepared and set aside for +that purpose certain phases of this work. So the church was instituted +and, a little later, the school. To the church was delegated, speaking +broadly, the religious and moral development of the child and to the +school, the intellectual development. + +It was exactly the same principle that, later on, took from the home the +weaving of cloth and the making of shoes and other industrial pursuits. +With this added complexity of life, the homes could not profitably carry +on all these varied activities--be, in addition to a home, also a tailor +shop and a shoe factory, a church and a school. And so the homes of a +community combined, selecting one man particularly adapted to that work +to make all the shoes for the community, another the cloth, etc. And, in +like manner, earlier in history, one was set aside to minister to the +spiritual life, and one to teach the children. Both were offshoots of +the home, delegated by the home to do a certain very definite portion of +its work. Each took directions from the collective home and looked to it +as the source of its authority. And such it was. The point is this: the +home was the original educational institution and, as well, the original +religious institution. At first it alone performed the work of all +three: it was our home, our church, and school all in one. It finally +established the others and merely delegated work to these supplemental +agencies, so, at any time, it may withdraw that work from them. It is +master of the situation. This withdrawal may be done either by the +collective home or by any individual home. If any home represented here +this evening, for any reason whatever, wishes to resume the religious +function and alone direct the religious development of the children, no +one can say it nay. And it is the same in regard to the school. If any +parent here wishes to withdraw his children from the school and himself, +either directly or indirectly, provide for their intellectual +development, he has a perfect right to do so. Our compulsory attendance +laws are satisfied when evidence is furnished of the child's +advancement. Of course the church and the school, in this primitive +stage, were both exceedingly crude--corresponding to the crude notions +of religious and intellectual development then held by man, yet playing +the same great part as now in the drama of life. I suppose it is true +that these differentiations were at first only semi-conscious, but +nevertheless they were real differentiations and had large influence +upon the development of man. + +To trace the development of the church thru its early stages is not +necessary for the purpose of this address, so I pass at once to the +establishment of the Christian church which is in reality our +representative of the same fundamental institution. Like the home and +the school, the church began in a very humble way, and during the +progress of the centuries passed thru many vicissitudes and underwent +many changes. Let me speak very briefly of four stages, or periods, of +the history of the Christian church: first, the primitive stage, that +period of about 350 years following its birth when, in the main, motives +were pure, ambitions unselfish, and ideals high. But, tho it was founded +to provide the means of securing the religious development of the child +and the race thru the perpetuation and extension of the teachings of +Christ, and tho it was launched forth into its great career in the +spirit of love and meekness and fellowship that characterized His life, +it was not long, as history counts time, before that worthy function was +entirely lost sight of, that spirit wholly cast aside, and the new +institution entered upon its second period, becoming a mere political +machine which, in its utter disregard of rights and justice, in the +shrewdness and daring of its schemes, and in the blackness of its +methods, almost surpassed even our own most skilful efforts in those +directions. "My kingdom is not of this world," Christ had said, and yet +the church, founded upon His teachings and led by men pretending to be +His true representatives, had become, in very deed, a kingdom of this +world. The possession and use of worldly power by the church had so +blunted its moral sense that Dante, in the early part of the fourteenth +century, felt forced to exclaim, and exclaimed with truth: + + "The Church of Rome, + Mixing two governments that ill assort, + Hath missed her footing, fall'n into the mire, + And there herself and burden much defiled." + +But Dante's criticism and other forces brought to bear drew back the +erring leaders to some slight conception of their function and to some +slight effort toward the performance of duty, tho neither conception nor +performance took them back to their pristine merit. And the church +entered another historical stage, the third, and one whose dominant +thought and purpose prevails even up to modern times. Indeed, so +recently has it passed that its dark outlines are even yet discoverable +as we glance backward. In this new conception of the church and its work +we find the function of the institution to be not religious development +of the individual and of the race, as it had been at first, but merely +technical salvation. And the institution may be pictured as a great +lifeboat thrust out into the storm to save from destruction those who +can be drawn within--_while all others perish_. + +You remember the painting of the picture, foreground and background, how +the emphasis was thrown upon the world to come! This world was not man's +home. He was a sojourner here, a wanderer. His citizenship was in +Heaven. He was a pilgrim passing thru a strange and weary land, and the +only purpose of the pilgrimage was a preparation for the life to come. +The nature of man himself was corrupt. The world around him was evil. +Alone and unaided he was powerless. He was lost both for this world and +the next. The storms of life were about him, the great waves were ready +to engulf him. But the church, as a lifeboat, was thrust out into the +breakers, and upon certain stipulated conditions was ready to take him +in. The church was represented as having received direct from the hands +of God "the keys of heaven and hell," and as being able to open the +gates of a better world to all true believers. But true believers, you +know, were no longer the pure followers of the crucified Christ, simply +those who would accept the man-made dogmas of the church. No matter how +full of error the church was, no matter how corrupt her leaders, there +could be no safety outside of her fold. Accept the dogma, salvation was +sure; once within, all was well. Religious development was not sought. +The character of the life, previous or prospective, mattered not. +Acceptance of the dogma was the only requirement. So she taught--having +departed Oh! so far from her character and program when given existence +by the home and started out on her beneficent work. And so tight had her +grip become that none dared dispute her claims. The child had outgrown +her mother, that is, the church had, in its own conception, outgrown the +home, and it repudiated her control. Indeed, she held the keys--she was +the ark of safety. + +I have dwelt upon this because, with varying degrees of emphasis, that +has been the conception of the church from medieval times almost to our +own day. Indeed, I am not sure that it has entirely passed even at the +present time. There are doubtless some people who continue thus to +regard the church, and there is more than one branch of the institution +whose definitely formulated statements of belief can be interpreted in +no other way however much, as a practical fact, the members have +departed from them. + +There are some branches of the church that still teach that the child, +newly born into the world, fresh from the hand of God, is already +corrupt, prone to evil, of its own volition choosing evil in preference +to good. And, believing that, they require the parents when presenting +the babe at the altar for holy baptism, to affirm that that pure and +innocent babe has inherited an evil and corrupt nature, and that it was +conceived and born in sin. A monstrous doctrine, violating not only +every parental instinct, but as well all the principles of psychology +and ethics. Yea, verily, the Dark Ages are not yet wholly past! Yes, +there are doubtless some who still look upon the church as a lifeboat, +and who think that that lifeboat should offer safety and protection to +those alone who already have on the life preserver. In other words, +there are still some who seem to think that church membership should be +granted only to those whose character and belief already assure them of +abundant entrance into the heavenly kingdom and who, therefore, do not +really need church membership. + +But yet, on the whole, as a working conception, we have discarded the +lifeboat idea and are now regarding the church rather as a great school, +so to speak, in which all the children of men, thru the grace of God and +mutual helpfulness, may gradually develop the Christian character and +eventually come to be the very elect of God. No longer is it being +regarded as merely an ark of safety, a lifeboat, ministering to the +few, but as a great social beneficent institution shedding abroad upon +all people its life-giving light and lifting all men nearer to God; +true, giving her choicest blessings to those who come closest and +partake most fully of her nature, but yet like the sun which shines upon +all and both by direct and indirect rays warms and lightens all. Between +the two views, what a contrast! And that change can not be better seen +than by a contrast of the methods of work--the methods used to replenish +the ranks, to offer the boon of membership to those deemed worthy or to +those whom such boon could help. + +The old evangelism--you remember its key-note, the old revival meeting, +in which skilful word painting presented the two extremes, heaven and +hell. And when the emotional nature was wrought up to the desired pitch +and fear to the right degree, a choice was demanded,--conversion, it was +called. The newer evangelism--Christian nurture in the home and school, +and the various agencies of the church--is not as spectacular as the +old. It doesn't make as much noise nor draw to itself so much attention. +Nor do results so readily lend themselves to figures and tabulation. It +does not bring about certain times when large accessions are made to the +church membership, feeling rather that a continuous stream, tho smaller, +indicates a more healthy growth. But it recognizes the fact that human +nature is not necessarily depraved, that, on the other hand, the +Christian life is the natural life and that the child under the sweet +influences of the home and school and church passes naturally from one +stage to another often not knowing when the transitions take place. +Christian nurture--_a continuous process_--in which development is the +key-note, not conversion, a sudden transformation, a terrible wrenching +of the whole being, is the church's present method of growth. Oh! the +old has not entirely gone--here and there we occasionally see evidences +of its presence. Professional evangelism we call it to-day. I ran across +it in a recent trip East. A big, barnlike structure had been erected +which was called "the tabernacle." Its floor was of sawdust sprinkled on +the ground. Here for about a month a professional evangelist had +harangued the curious crowds in immoderate, and oftentimes immodest +language. Wit and sarcasm and slang and emotion had been freely used in +his efforts to make sinners "hit the sawdust trail," to use his own +spectacular language, as well as to extort money from the pockets of the +attendants. He left the town $5,000 richer than when he entered and also +carried with him, as advertising material, a long list of so-called +converts. A travesty on the sacred work of the church! But such methods +are to-day the exception and not the rule, and the exceptions merely +prove the rule. + +And to-day church membership is graciously held out to all who need help +in the work of perfecting character--to all who need assistance in +leading the Christian life, as well as to those whose battles have +already been fought and won. The question asked is no longer, "Have you +attained?" but rather, "Do you wish to attain?" When an individual, +child or adult, seeks entrance at the doors of an educational +institution, the only condition imposed is assurance of his desire to be +a learner. The doors swing open. And thank God the church is at last +coming to the same position. And so we see her to-day well started upon +the fourth stage of her development, accepting as her one great work +that given her at birth so long ago--the religious development of the +child and the race. + + +THE SCHOOL + +The American school is a wonderful institution. In its absolute +universality and impartiality, in its fine spirit of democracy both of +teachers and pupils, there is nothing like it elsewhere in the world. It +is a product of the genius of our people. Product? Yes, but, also, +successively, the most influential cause of the genius of our people. +From the first, in a somewhat remarkable degree, we have been a people +knowing no social classes or distinctions. The caste idea, so prevalent +in European countries, has ever been repugnant to us. And our schools, +emanating from such a people, have had a powerful reflex influence in +shaping the people and keeping those fine ideals ever before us. But let +us go back and see whence it came--trace the connection between the +complex, highly influential institution of to-day and the simple +offshoot of the home of primitive times. Just when it was first +instituted, nobody knows; but in essential features it is very ancient. +Long before the beginning of the Christian era, as a supplementary agent +of the home having in charge that one portion of its work, it was a +well-recognized and highly esteemed institution. + +I have already called attention to the great changes that have taken +place in the home and in the church as the centuries have passed. The +school likewise has changed, and is to-day as far removed from its +original prototype as either of the others. It has changed because the +home has changed, and in its changes has kept pace with the changing +ideals and added complexities of home life. At the very first, only the +essentials--teacher and boy--were present: no building, the great +out-of-doors furnished the room and the friendly tree the only +protection from sun and storm; no course of study, no book--the teacher +was all in all. But this stage passed and the next, that continued so +long and is more characteristic, followed. Here we find the building and +the book as well as the teacher and the boy. The boy's one task is to +transfer the contents of the book to his own mental storehouse and the +teacher's function to see that the transfer is made. Knowledge was the +main element of the child's preparation, that the home demanded of its +school. And this often but ill-fitted him for the performance of the +duties of life. This period continued for many centuries, down almost to +the present time. But another and a greater followed--a period in which +not merely knowledge was demanded as an outcome of the school's +activities, but something else very different, including that, it is +true, but finer and greater than that--something toward which they are +the contributing agents--a somewhat harmonious development of the entire +life--physical, mental, and moral. + +Little by little, as time has passed, the home seems to have been +throwing added burdens upon the school until now it sometimes looks as +if the school is expected to give the entire preparation of the +child--moral, physical, and manual, as well as mental. It sometimes +seems as if the home had gone off on a vacation and left the school to +do its work. Now, that statement implies a criticism of the home. On +the other hand, it is frequently said by unfriendly critics of our +public schools that the schools are all the time reaching out and, in a +grasping way, more and more taking unto themselves the sacred rights and +privileges of the home, even setting themselves up in authority over the +home, aye, even alienating the affections of the children, making the +home of none effect. Where does the truth lie? Has the home been so +negligent of its duty, or has the school forgotten that it is the +creature of the home? Which is the usurper? That is an interesting +question. We can not go into it in detail, but let me suggest that it +has all come about not so much from the unwarranted assumption of the +school, nor the conscious and wilful neglect of the home as from the +unconscious working out of a great principle fundamental in human +development--namely, that the three phases of a child's life--the +physical, the moral, and the intellectual,--can not be separately +developed. + +At first the home had the three lines of work. Soon it delegated two of +them to other agencies and then, thru inexperience or thoughtlessness, +made the fatal mistake of withdrawing supervision, assuming that no +oversight was necessary. Unwise and short-sighted! No individual would +thus deal with any other interest. The farm, the store, the financial +interest of any kind, even the thing that ministers to the pleasure of +life, often receives more personal attention from the parent than does +the school. And this situation is not peculiar to our own day. When I +was a boy, in another and distant state, we used to sing a song called +"The Parent and the School." The various verses showed that parents were +in the habit of visiting every other known place--the theater, the +concert, the fair, the sea, the neighbors, and each verse closed with +the refrain, "And why don't they visit the school?" They should, but +they did not then, nor do they to-day. Somehow, all along the line, the +home has seemed to think that if it should satisfy the physical needs of +the child in providing food and clothing and shelter, the school should +develop the intellectual and the church the moral natures in different +places and at different times, and under different conditions, and that +in some mysterious manner the three could become satisfactorily blended +into a harmonious life. Impossible! The three natures are so clearly +interrelated, each depends so much upon the others, that the separate +and independent development of any one is impossible. + +The spiritual _depends_ upon the intellectual as the house _rests_ upon +the foundation. Its mental pictures, its concepts, its beliefs, come out +of it, and are marred, misshapen, untrue, just to the extent to which +that is faulty. Intelligence is necessary to religious belief and +religious life. And the _intellectual_, in its foundation laying, can +not stop short at that point any more than a plant can stop growing when +its roots are well developed. The process once well begun is pushed on +by the force from behind and must enter the higher realm. So I am not +surprised that the school at times seems to be in charge of the entire +work. And _physical conditions_ have so much to do with success in both +fields that they must be considered by both. The three processes are not +only interrelated, they are interlaced, intertwined, as the strands of a +braided cord. And just as the cord would be incomplete, just as it +would lack strength, if any of the strands were to be omitted, or if the +braiding were to be haphazard, so the life would be incomplete, +one-sided, weak, should these three processes not go on side by side +under the fostering care of an intelligent unifying agency. Indeed, if +there is any one thing that has been demonstrated beyond the +peradventure of a doubt by modern research in the physical and psychical +realms, it is the significant fact that life is a unity. The physical, +the intellectual, and the moral are like the three leaves of the clover. +And just as with the clover we must apply the nourishment to the root +and not to the separated branches, so with the child we must so select +and use our educative material that the three-fold development shall +result from the single application. + +A simple illustration or two will help to make the point clear. All +children study arithmetic in school. It is an intellectual activity and +so clearly belongs to the school. Why do all study it? Because for the +practical duties of life they need to know how to handle numbers. It is +a practical study. Yes, but there is something else that the subject is +supposed to yield or the extended time given to it could not be +justified. It yields large fruitage in the development of the power of +concentration and intellectual keenness. Yes, but better than that. All +mathematical subjects, in that they require absolute accuracy and +definiteness in their operations, are particularly helpful in developing +those fine moral qualities of honesty, integrity, and upright dealing. +Again, history is taught in the schools as an intellectual subject. In +intellectual development alone it is worth all it costs. But over and +above the value as a mental quickener it is to be placed as a builder of +character, and ministering to the development of the moral and even the +spiritual life. Nowhere else can the young so well learn that +"righteousness exalteth a nation" and that "sin is a reproach to any +people." In no other way so well as by the study of history can desired +examples of noble character be placed before the young for imitation. +Take but one other illustration, that of gymnastics and athletics--the +entire program of play. For physical development? Yes, but in addition +to that and finer than that, intellectual development of a high order +thru the keener activity of the senses, the quicker and more accurate +vision, the developed judgment, and finer discriminations. Yes, but +better even than mere intellectual keenness there result from such +activities the rare moral qualities of tolerance, respect for others, +and self-control. And so I might go on and give illustration after +illustration. It is not necessary. You catch my point. I am merely +trying to demonstrate two facts: first, that the great breadth of the +work of the school--embracing as it does, the development of the entire +nature of the child, mental, moral, and physical, instead of merely the +mental, that which was given her at first, is hers now not because of +the home's neglect nor because the school has been unduly ambitious and +grasping, but because we have come to see that life is a unity and can +not be cut up into parts each separately developed. And secondly, I have +tried to show that the school does interest itself in the moral life of +the pupil. As a matter of fact, the school does more to develop morality +and to lead toward a sane religious life than all other agencies +combined. Our modern American school is a wonderful institution. + +But in spite of the fact that the school is broad in its ministrations, +it can not stand alone. All three institutions are needed. But the three +must work together and in harmony and intelligently, each assisting the +others. And one of the three must act as the centralizing, the unifying, +the combining agency and bring order out of that which would otherwise +be chaos by recognizing the value of each contribution of each of the +others, assigning it to its proper place and thus aptly blending the +work of the three. Now, which shall be the centralizing force? Really, +is there any question? Must it not be the original institution--the +home--the one which saw the need of the others and called them into +being--the one upon which the responsibility finally rests? And even tho +many individual homes are weak, wholly incapable of doing themselves all +the varied kinds of work needed, yet the collective institution can and +must act. And even the individual home, efficient or inefficient, +should, much more than it does, thus act within the limits of its own +jurisdiction and up to the limits of its own power. + +And to whom does the school belong, anyway? To the Board of Education? +Is it the private possession of the teachers? Does it exist to give +teachers positions? Why, no, of course not. It is yours, and yours, and +yours. They, both Board and teachers, are your servants, hired men and +women, if you and they please--hired for pay to do your work, just as +much as are the clerks in your stores, the harvest hands on the farms, +or the maids in the kitchen. A different kind of work to be sure but, +nevertheless, we are workmen for pay. And we need watching just as much +as do the other workers. But let us put it in this way--we need +intelligent, sympathetic co-operation, as an opportunity and as a spur +for our best work and as a joy in it all--your constant kindly interest +and your intelligent co-operation. I suppose that the situation is quite +different in a city of this size from what it is in the large centers. I +remember of talking, at one time, to an audience of teachers in a large +city. I was astounded to learn that those teachers did not know, by +sight even, the parents of one-half of their pupils, and many of them +had been in the schools for a period of from three to four years. Whose +fault was it? The teacher's or the parents? Why, what is the school? And +whose is it? And what is it for? Whose fault was it? The question does +not need an answer. It answers itself. But I urged those teachers to +visit the homes--to become acquainted with the parents of their pupils +so that they could know the atmosphere surrounding them and thus be +better able to guide their development and minister to their varied +needs. But I did not thus urge them because they had, up to that time, +neglected their duty, rather because there seemed no prospect that the +homes would embrace their opportunity and take the initiative. + +I fancy that here in the smaller place where everybody knows everybody +it is very different. Doubtless there is not a teacher here whose +acquaintance has not been made by both parents of every child in her or +his room. Probably there is not one who has not been entertained in +every home represented in the room. This should be the situation not +primarily because parents owe teachers such attention, not because any +such social responsibility rests upon them, but rather because the +relationship thus created gives parents the best possible opportunity to +co-operate with the school in doing that portion of the home's great +work. No, parents do not "owe" it to the teachers, rather do they "owe" +it to their children and the next generation. I am urging this program +because it is the only way by which you can get the most and best +service from the schools. + +It is true that parents may not understand all the subjects that are +taught in the schools. Parents may not be acquainted with the methods of +teaching so that they can be intelligent critics of schoolroom +procedure. Never mind. That is not necessary. You do know boys and +girls. Many of you could give us teachers valuable suggestions on the +best ways of dealing with boys and girls. And there isn't one of you who +could not assist the teacher in the work with your own children. And +then there is another way to look upon it. It is altogether possible +that this closer acquaintance with the school and with the +teachers--with men and women who have made a careful, scientific study +of boys and girls and of the art of teaching--it is altogether possible, +I say, that this contact might react helpfully upon you and the home. +You might possibly get suggestions from us that would help you in the +home. The closer contact might be mutually helpful. + +And so, in this necessarily hurried manner we have passed in review +these three great age-old yet very modern institutions--the home, the +church, and the school. We have seen whence each has arisen, have noted +the pathway trod, and caught a glimpse of its present-day function. And +the close relationship, too, must have become plain as we passed along. +No one of the three, we have seen, could stand alone. Each depends upon +both the others and likewise lends them both assistance. For sane, +all-round, constructive work in any one field, the contributions of all +are seen to be needed. + +Let us, therefore, take an account of stock, as the business man says, +and note our individual attitude and responsibility. As representing the +home, let us look upon the other two as creatures of our own building +still requiring direction and fostering care. Let our attitude toward +them be neither patronizing nor coldly critical. As representing the +church and the school, let us not forget the source of our being. We +should not ignore the home nor attempt to dominate it. Let us, rather, +seek to carry out its program, rendering a good account of our +stewardship. Thus and thus only can the great work originally entrusted +to the home be accomplished. + + + + +VI + +NOBLESSE OBLIGE + +_A Convocation Address delivered at the University of North Dakota, +January 29, 1916_ + + +There is no audience before which a speaker should have greater reason +for apprehension than an audience made up largely of university +students. There is no audience for which a speaker should more carefully +choose his thoughts and the words for their expression than a university +audience, nor one more worthy of earnest treatment. On the other hand, +there is no audience that a speaker can address more inspiring than an +audience made up of young men and women in the heyday of young life +preparing for better and larger usefulness. + +All this is true because there is no other audience that can be gathered +together whose future work can begin to compare, in far-reaching +consequences, in possibilities for usefulness, with that of such an +audience. There is no other company of people of equal number within +whose keeping there is more of potential weal or woe for coming +generations. And these things are true because university students of +to-day are the world's leaders of to-morrow. + +This is not so trite a saying as the one that declares that the boys and +girls of one generation are to be the men and women of the next, but it +is just as true and just as significant. Indeed, I suppose it can not be +called a trite saying in the true sense of the term. It has not been +uttered so many times, is not now being used so commonly, as to indicate +its universal acceptance. It is not so obviously true as to preclude +challenge and argument. It is my purpose very briefly to examine the +statement and from the conclusion reached connect the same with the +thought of a beautiful proverb that has come down to us thru a long +lapse of years--_Noblesse Oblige_--our privileges compel us. + +So far as I know there is no way of seeing the future save thru a study +of the facts of the past and the indications of the present. The +university students of a generation ago--where are they to-day? +Positions of leadership to-day--filled by whom? + +Exhaustive and thoroly satisfactory statistics are not at hand, but such +as we have speak eloquently in favor of the statement in question. +Practically our only reliable statistics touching the matter are +gathered from our biographical cyclopedias. A few years ago a very +interesting study was made of the data found in the current issue of +_Who's Who in America_. This book, you know, is made up of short +biographies of such persons living at the time in the United States as +have become real factors in the progress and achievement of the age, in +other words, of men recognized as leaders in thought and action in the +educational, political, military, and business realms. + +Of the whole number mentioned in the issue studied educational data were +given of 11,019. Of that number 1,111 had enjoyed only elementary school +advantages; 1,966 had added to these only the advantages of secondary +education, but 7,942 had come from the colleges and universities. In +other words, more than 72% of these leaders are shown to have received +their final preparations for leadership within college walls. + +Figures as interesting have been gathered thru a use of _Appleton's +Cyclopedia of Biography_. A few years ago careful study was made of an +edition just then out and it was found that of the college graduates of +America one out of every forty had gained sufficient distinction to +merit recognition in that cyclopedia, whereas only one out of 10,000 +non-graduates, the public at large, had received such distinction. In +other words, the college graduate had 250 chances to the other man's one +for achieving leadership. + +Moreover, the higher institutions of learning have furnished every one +of the Chief Justices of our Supreme Court, 75% of our Presidents, 70% +of the membership of our two highest courts, and more than 50% of all +our Congressmen. The last state-men is very significant when one recalls +our method of selecting Congressmen--our political machinery and its +devious modes of working. I have no authentic data of other fields, but +all that one needs to do to satisfy himself practically as to other +details is to call to his service his own knowledge of the general +situation. In the communities with which you are acquainted, among the +people whom you know either personally or by reputation, what are the +facts? Who are the leaders? Where college people are found, are they +leaders or followers? + +There are exceptions, of course. There come to you at once the names of +men, a few of them, who, thru the exercise of their own inherent +strength, unaided by college or university, have risen to deserved +greatness. I have only to mention the names of our immortal Lincoln, or +England's present David Lloyd George, in the field of statesmanship, or +of Lord Strathcona or Sir William Van Horne, or James J. Hill, railroad +kings and empire builders, in the business world, or of Luther Burbank, +in the realm of science, to make the fact of exceptions perfectly clear. +But they _are_ exceptions--that's the point--and exceptions merely prove +the rule. + +And even as to the few it is scarcely necessary to say that their +positions, tho of leadership, are, generally speaking, subordinate ones, +they themselves even while leading in certain limited fields, are +following the leadership of others in broader fields which include their +own--and the ones followed are they of the broader training. This is +especially true of men who have achieved success in the business world +or in the political field. Their success, their leadership, is often +more seeming than real,--depending as it does upon their +advisers--broadly educated men. Take Lord Strathcona, for example, or +Mr. Hill, as typical illustrations; with all their far-sightedness and +their recognized ability, what could they have done, even in their own +field of activity, had it not been for the trained physicist, the +skilled chemist, and the engineer--products of the university--who gave +them their rails, built their bridges, designed their engines, and in +many ways made it possible for them to realize their dreams? They would +have been powerless. Tho leaders, they followed, and their kind always +will follow, the university student. They may hire this student and pay +him his wage, but they are still indebted to him for leading them onward +and upward. + +From a hasty survey, therefore, which, however, I am satisfied would +yield the same fruitage no matter to what extent pushed, our statement +seems to be justified. + +But let us look at it from another point of view. How is the matter +regarded by those of the present time most deeply interested in the +future well-being of man and of the nations of the world? By those +people and those forces who feel the responsibility of providing +leadership for the next generation? What steps are being taken to reach +the end--to provide the leaders? On any hypothesis other than the one +assumed in my initial statement can you account for the lavish +expenditure for the endowment and maintenance of higher institutions of +learning that so characterize our generation? From one side to the other +of our broad land, aye, from distant lands and from the isles of the sea +comes the same testimony: benevolent individuals seem to vie with one +another in the munificence of their gifts for higher education. Even +soveren states and great nations, under the guidance of far-seeing +leaders, are planting these institutions and, in a truly generous +manner, providing for their present and future needs. + +That the college is the only source from whence can come our supply of +leaders is a real conviction in the minds of men the world over, is +shown by a recent incident in war-stricken Europe. It was only a few +months ago and during the terrible campaign in Eastern Poland, even +while shells were bursting and men were dying, that the Central Powers +stopt, as it were, in the mad rush of wanton destruction, to +re-establish and reorganize the old University of Warsaw. More than +that, they added to the old institution two new faculties, or colleges, +as we would call them. + +Strange, isn't it? In the incident I can see but this logic: a +recognition of the fact that, with the forces of destruction reaping +such an awful harvest, their civilization was doomed unless some step +could be taken, not, primarily, to check the present war but rather to +provide, at its close, an adequate supply of leaders. That seemed to +them the only way to prevent a permanent impoverishment and a dropping +back into a state of, at least, temporary semi-barbarism as was so +common during the early Middle Ages under analogous circumstances. And +the step taken by those shrewd, coldly-calculating war lords was the +strengthening of the forces of higher education. One reason why, during +the Middle Ages, there was this frequent dropping back is the fact that +this relationship between leadership and education was not recognized. + +Under the powerful impulse of this conviction, namely, that the +well-equipt college as a part of the broad university community is the +only source of leadership, men and states and provinces and nations are +sacrificing for higher education as never before. New institutions are +being founded and old ones strengthened. Magnificent buildings are being +erected with seemingly little thought of cost provided only that they +serve their purpose. Libraries so thoroly equipt as to leave nothing +desired, laboratories unsurpast in completeness, vast gymnasiums +containing every possible apparatus for bodily development, and other +facilities of every kind and description, all irrespective of cost, are +daily being added. And better than buildings and grounds, more vital +than equipment and endowment, are the trained minds and pure hearts +that, in ever increasing numbers, are being freely offered on the same +shrine. Abilities, and training, and attainments that in the world of +business would yield their possessors independent fortunes, or in the +fields of authorship or politics result in honor and fame, are here +freely offered. The material return rendered for such service is the +merest pittance absolutely needed for family support, and the +immaterial, but one's enshrinement in the heart of an occasional +grateful student plus the consciousness of having done one's duty. Can +such a generous outpouring of material and spiritual treasures be +accounted for on any hypothesis other than a recognition of the great +world's needs and a firm belief that those needs can be best satisfied +thru an educated leadership? Nay, verily, all these things are being +done because the best thought of the day feels, both instinctively and +with reason, that only thus can the kingdom of God come among men. + +What unique, important, and responsible position the State or Provincial +University occupies among civic institutions! What splendid +opportunities for usefulness are his who is the executive head of such +an institution! Aye, and what weighty responsibilities rest upon him! +Fellow teachers, what manifold opportunities for usefulness are yours, +and what weighty responsibilities rest upon you by virtue of the fact +that you are teachers in such an institution! And my message to you is +the same as to the student body--_Noblesse Oblige!_ Freely have you +received, freely must you give. Tho the state does not, nor ever can, +adequately pay you for your best services, still you must not falter. +You must continue to live up to your own high ideals of your noble +profession. The very acceptance of such positions in such an institution +carries with it the obligation of performance--_Noblesse Oblige!_ + +But who are these college and university students who have such a large +and important future before them and for whose training and development, +because of that future, such elaborate preparations are being made? The +university man--who and what is he? Likewise the university woman? Let +us answer the question simply and briefly by merely saying that, tho +sometimes rude and crude because immature and undeveloped, they are yet +the keenest, the brightest, the most far-seeing, the most promising +young men and women of the land. They are the choice souls found, one +here, another there, one in the hamlet and another on the farm, one in +the city and another on the prairie, one in a palace, another in a sod +house. They are a picked lot selected not only from the so-called upper +ranks of thought and action, but as well from the highways and by-ways +of our broad land, chosen because of intellectual strength and moral +fiber, because of high ideals and lofty purposes; chosen by themselves, +it may be true, but chosen nevertheless, thru their equipment of mind +and heart. The very fact that you are here and others are not is +testimony sufficient to your greater worth. Exceptions, to be true, +there are, but none too many prove the rule. I am not saying these +things in a spirit of flattery, not at all. I am merely stating facts, +and thru these facts trying to help you catch the vision--to see your +opportunity and accept the responsibilities. But note the +significance--those already best equipt by the superior quality of +their brain matter and of their mental fiber and of their moral nature +and who therefore without further preparation would easily distance the +others, are here giving themselves even better equipment. There can be +no question as to the relative position of the two classes in the years +to come--the one class is to furnish the leaders, the other the +followers. The one is to form the ideals, to set the standards, to +decide upon policies, to mark out courses, the other to try to reach the +goals set. The two classes may be equally good morally, equally worthy +of respect and honor because equally faithful in the performance of +duties suited to their tastes and abilities, but yet, from the very +nature of things, the one going ahead, the other following behind. And +in the years to come your competitors will be not from among the +non-college men and women--you have already put yourself out of their +reach--but from among those who, like yourselves, ambitious for better +and greater things, are to-day, in this and other similar institutions, +using every means, straining every nerve, to attain the highest possible +degree of efficiency for future service. You are not only to be leaders, +but in some way you seem to know it instinctively and to be putting +yourselves in a state of readiness. + +But does some one raise the objection that this theory of leadership +does not seem to be in harmony with the spirit and genius of our +American institutions; that under a democratic form of government all +are equal; that all men, irrespective of intellectual attainment, share +equally, not only before the law but in the very making of law; that in +America all men are rulers? All this is true theoretically and, to a +certain extent, practically, but it does not lessen the need of +efficient leadership; it increases that need, or, at any rate, it makes +it necessary that the number capable of efficient leadership be greatly +increased. The very fact that all have a voice in the government, that +all do share, consciously and potently, in its exercise and in its +responsibilities, speaks more loudly than anything else can of the need +of wise leadership. If the great mass of people were not factors, they +would not have to be taken into account. They might need drivers but not +leaders. But being factors and yet, in the main, not being capable of +adequate analysis of our most complex and highly intricate problems, +they must be provided with safe and efficient leaders. I believe in the +honesty, in the good intentions, and in the good sense of the common +people. But I do not believe in their ability to detect relations, to +draw wise conclusions, and to formulate policies touching the +complicated political, social, and economic conditions of our times. + +It is a well-recognized fact that, as some one has said, "speaking +broadly, the striking disadvantage under which a democracy labors, as +contrasted, let us say, with certain types of autocracy, lies in its +inability to plan effectively with reference to remote goals.... What we +call 'far ahead' thinking is difficult for the individual, but it is +vastly more difficult for the group, and its difficulty is intensified +in both cases if it demands large measures of present sacrifice." No, +democracy must be led. Leaders they must have. If honest and +disinterested ones are not at hand, selfish and dishonest ones will be +accepted. I grant that leadership is not the greatest need of +democracy, that, of course, is a higher level of knowledge and +intelligence, but I do claim that leadership is, and always will be, the +greatest _present_ need of democracy, since it is only thru that +leadership that the higher intelligence can be reached, without loss, +and in the shortest possible time. + +But again, do you point out certain great victories of the common +people, so-called, when they have risen in the power of their might and, +in the exercise of their right, have put down men who had assumed the +right to lead them and were leading them astray? Do you point to the +State of Missouri of a decade ago, and to New York City again and again, +and to England a generation ago, as illustrations? True, in all these +cases and in many others, notable victories had been gained by and for +the people. But is it not also true that in every such case the people +won victories because wisely led? Think you that corruption and +violation of law would have been so checked in Missouri a decade ago and +the breakers of law been so thoroly punished, had it not been for the +clear-headed work of that fearless, public-spirited Joseph W. Folk? Does +not Charles S. Whitman come to your mind when the great struggle in New +York City is mentioned? And Hiram W. Johnson in California? And when we +recall the victories of the people in our own Motherland across the +sea, do we not have at once a mental picture of the "Grand Old Man," +William Ewart Gladstone? Had it not been for these leaders or others who +might else have taken their places, half of the people whose votes +helped win the victories would never have known that there were such +victories to win. They would never have realized the extent to which +they were being wronged and mis-ruled. + +Certain conditions were not quite satisfactory. All people felt, half +unconsciously, that rights were not being respected, that justice was +not being done--that something was wrong somewhere--but that was about +all, about as far as they went or could go. But these leaders, who, in +years gone by, in the colleges and the universities, had been trained to +search for causes, to see relations, and to draw conclusions, had +scented danger from afar. And to the task of ferreting out the evil and +of finding remedies they devoted the strength of their splendidly equipt +minds and the purity of their strong hearts. Following up the lead of +surface manifestations they finally unearthed corporate greed, political +domination, and Satanic selfishness in such kinds and amounts as to be +really appalling. But they did not stop there--they searched for +remedies and then went before the people and told them a plain simple +tale of what they had found--of how grossly the people were being +wronged--and they outlined programs of reform. The people believed them; +they rallied to their standards, accepted their leadership, and won the +victories. And such victories, in greater or less degree, are being won +all over the land, thank God! And back of every one of them you can +find, if you search, a smaller or larger edition of Folk, Whitman, or +Gladstone. + +And how about the future? Are all the victories won? No more such work +to do? Ah! the question does not need an answer. Then who are to be the +leaders? Why not you? and you? and you? Depend upon it, they are going +to be college men and college women, and who more capable or worthy than +yourselves? + +There are two ways in which I want you young people to look upon this +matter; in the first place, from the point of view of your own personal +interests. Here are opportunities for advancement, openings the filling +of which will bring to you worldly success, and honor and fame. Both by +natural endowment and by special training you are fitted for the work. +Seize, then, the opportunities and make the most of them, because the +world and they that dwell therein belong to him who knows how to use +them. From one point of view this is perfectly legitimate, and I urge +it. It is not only one's right but one's duty to make the most of +himself--to advance his own interests. The program becomes censurable +only when it absorbs all else--when one's own interest is sought at the +_expense_ of the interest of other people instead of in connection with +it or as a step in its realization. + +Now, the other way in which I want you to regard the matter is from the +point of view of the interests of the people at large. Let me put it +like this: here is your body politic, the people of North Dakota, +600,000 strong, or, better yet, the people of the United States, some +hundred million in number, partners in ownership of our magnificent +country, co-laborers in its administration, and sharers in the work of +their own government and in the working out of their destinies--each +with a share and an influence and each expected to participate. But so +complicated are the matters needing consideration, so difficult of +solution many of the problems arising, and so infinitely vast the whole +undertaking that the great majority of the people, thru either +immaturity or lack of training, often do not know what is best to do. +And again, skilful manipulators, dishonest self-seekers, are ever at +hand with plausible theories calculated to befog the untrained, deceive +the unsuspecting, and to lead them all astray. Taking everything into +consideration, the situation is extremely difficult. In a plain word, +these untrained people, the product of the elementary schools, can not +see far enough ahead to know that oftentimes the policy that seems most +attractive is full of danger for the future. They are not qualified to +weigh, and estimate, and decide. But there is a class among them, +college-bred men and women, a small class, relatively, that is +qualified. Thru long years of study, and investigation, and reflection, +in institutions freely provided and generously maintained by the people +now in need, they have attained such a knowledge of affairs and such an +ability to cope with intricate problems as to make them efficient +leaders--leaders capable of guiding aright the noble ship of state thru +difficult and tortuous channels beset, on every side, by dangerous rocks +and calamitous whirlpools. And among that class of efficient leaders +you, young men and young women of the University of North Dakota, will +soon be numbered. How shall you respond to the call of duty? Your State, +by virtue of what she has done and is now doing for you, has a right to +expect unselfishness and unstinted service in her own interests and in +those of mankind. Shall she get it? Will you rise to the occasion and, +even at a sacrifice of personal comfort, ease, esthetic enjoyment, +money, give to her what is her due? Will you remember _Noblesse +Oblige_? Of course you will. For there is a well-established principle, +clearly stated in Holy Writ and sanctioned by the ages, that of those to +whom much hath been given, much will also be required. _Noblesse +Oblige_--your privileges compel you. + +Because the theory of the old motto, "_Paucis vivat humanum genus_," +"for the few live the many," is no longer maintained. The many do not +live for the few. The reverse is true. The few live for the many. But +yet, the service is not unrewarded--only a portion of the reward has +come first. In your equipment you are being paid in advance. David Starr +Jordan has happily clothed the thought in these words: "It is in the +saving of the few who serve the many that the progress of civilization +lies. In the march of the common man, and in the influence of the man +uncommon who rises freely from the ranks, we have all of history that +counts." + +And here I might stop. But a general statement, more or less abstract, +needs practical illustration: the "how," the "when," and the "where" are +perfectly legitimate questions for you to ask. Let us then throw a hasty +glance upon some of the great activities that claim men's attention, and +discover some of the openings awaiting you. + +_The teaching profession_ will draw heavily upon your ranks--that +profession, full and rich in opportunities for usefulness beyond any and +all others, is more and more looking for you, and waiting impatiently +for your full equipment and thoro readiness. All of the higher positions +must come to you and others like you. No others are, or will be, +adequately prepared. In nearly all of our states the legal requirement +for a high school teacher and, of course, for the high school principal +and city superintendent is the completion of a full four-year college +course including a certain specified amount of professional work. In +some of the states, indeed, the requirement is of a full year beyond the +undergraduate course, or the possession of a Master's degree, with the +emphasis of this added year thrown upon the subjects to be taught and +the manner of handling the same. + +So the facts are borne upon us that the desk of the high school +principal, the office of the city superintendent, the chair of the +college professor, the position of college and university president, is +soon to be offered you. Are you ready for it? ready in academic +equipment? ready in professional attainment? And are you equally well +prepared in that even finer element--the possession of your soul by the +spirit of _Noblesse Oblige_? + +I can not say, of course, to which of you here to-day a college +presidency is to be offered, nor the professor's chair, nor any other +specific position. Nor can I say just when the offer will come. But I +can say, and with assurance, that all these positions and all others of +leadership in the educational field will be offered to college men and +college women, and in all probability as soon as they are well ready for +them. Moreover, it can doubtless be said that they will be apportioned +fairly on the basis of merit and fitness. And then you will have in your +hands the shaping of the destinies of a great free people with all the +emoluments, the opportunities, and the responsibilities that should +accompany a work of such moment. + +And _the Gospel ministry_ can no longer look elsewhere. If it is to +continue to wield its mighty influence for good, and to play its +magnificent role of leadership in our developing civilization, +especially among our rapidly increasing educated classes, it must more +and more come into its rightful inheritance, so long withheld, of that +broader conception of brotherhood and Christianity that forgets the +letter of the law in magnifying its spirit--that puts life before dogma +and character before creed. And this, fellow students, can never be +without the broad university equipment. + +We have traveled far during these latter years. And no longer do we +consider it sufficient that the minister of the Gospel know merely his +Bible and his theology. In addition to these, aye, as a basis for these, +it is now demanded (that is, if he be accorded a position of real +leadership among thinking people) that he know as well his history and +his sociology, his psychology and his biology, and indeed that he be +acquainted with all the fields of human knowledge. Not only that, he +must know life as it is lived to-day, and the thoughts and emotions of +men as they are manifested in the give and take of actual life. And none +of these can be obtained within the narrow confines of the old +theological seminary. The modern university is the only institution in +which the minister of the future can get it all and get it in the right +order and in the correct admixture. In the laboratories, the libraries, +and the classrooms he will delve deeply into the realms of science, +literature, and art, and there and on the campus, in its varied +activities, touch hands and exchange thoughts with the future lawyer, +teacher, physician, engineer, business man, what-not, and thus gain +tolerance, humility, catholicity of spirit, and the spirit of true +democracy. + +Thus circumstanced during his preparatory years, he will go out capable +of seeing things in their proper perspective. That's the kind of man +that the ministry is calling to-day, and the call will be louder and +more incessant as the years pass and the education of the people +progresses. That's the kind of man we already have in some of our +leading pulpits, and they are exerting a tremendous influence in all +departments of life. But the supply is limited. There's not enough to go +around. Many more are needed. Our universities must furnish them. Will +this institution do its share? Will some of you young men, with your +well-trained bodies, with your finely-disciplined minds, with your +highly-cultured natures, with that fine balance of powers that means so +much and that can accomplish so much for the world if thus used--will +you turn aside from the beaten path that would be sure to lead to fame +and power and worldly success and enter the more difficult but more +useful field of the Christian ministry for the simple purpose of serving +mankind? You are the kind of men we want, and I am sure that you will +not disappoint us. + +And so I might go on, did time permit, and point out attractive and +responsible openings in many different activities--the fields of +engineering and journalism, the professions of medicine and law, the +great world of business, even politics (should I not say, rather, and +_especially_ politics?). It is not necessary to go farther into detail. +You catch my thought. In one and all of these, positions of leadership +are calling loudly for men and women of large knowledge, of trained +minds, of broad outlook, and of splendid visions; and these +characteristics are the fruitage of nothing less than the broad and +comprehensive foundations laid in the college and the university. And +you who have them are, by the very fact of possession, under obligation +to use them for the public weal. How is it, young man, young woman? Are +you going to mesure up to the twentieth century standard? Will you carry +with you from this hall when you leave to-day, and from this institution +when she honors you with her diploma, and out into the great activities +of life,--will you carry with you, I ask, and make the basis of your +actions in life, the thought of these two little words that have been +engaging our attention this morning--_Noblesse Oblige_? + + + + +VII + +IMPROVEMENTS IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS + +_A Paper read before the Commercial Club of Grand Forks, North Dakota, +January 24, 1911, and printed in the Grand Forks "Daily Herald," January +29, 1911_ + + +In accepting an invitation to speak upon the topic assigned, +"Improvements in Our Public Schools," I come not as a hostile critic, +not even as an impartial observer viewing and commenting upon something +belonging to another. Rather, I come as a sympathetic friend to talk +about an institution in which I am vitally interested and of whose good +work I am proud. Indeed, I am to discuss a great business industry, if +you please, in which you and I are joint stockholders and for whose +success we are alike responsible. And, too, I have been for so many +years a teacher and so closely connected with educational work that I +feel akin to every other man and woman engaged in that occupation. +Knowing how easy it is to make mistakes and thus fall short of attaining +our high ideals in this most trying and most difficult work, I am +temperamentally inclined to magnify the difficulties and to overlook the +shortcomings of educational workers. To be sure, in speaking upon +"Improvements," I am admitting that improvements are possible. But the +best friend of a person or an institution is one who talks frankly and +honestly, admitting weaknesses, if such there be, and suggesting +assistance. Such an attitude can not well be interpreted as a criticism +either of men or mesures. + +A gentleman met me on the street a day or two ago and said, "I +understand that you are going to find fault with our schools next +Tuesday night. What for? I want you to understand that our schools are +all right. Let well enough alone." A few days ago one of the local +papers said of the schools, "The public schools of Grand Forks are +recognized as the finest in the Northwest and the school system is +up-to-date in every respect." + +And that idea seems to be chronic. Such expressions are common in our +papers and from many of our people. The impression sought to be given is +doubtless that of "Let well enough alone," or "Hands off." Now, Mr. +Chairman, while this feeling clearly betokens a general confidence in +the management of the schools of which those directly in charge may well +take pride, nevertheless, it is not an altogether healthy condition of +affairs. + +While I believe in a wise conservatism as against an unthinking +radicalism, I am in no sense of the term a "stand-patter." The +individual who has earned this picturesque title, I care not whether in +the halls of Congress or in the ranks of the educators, is a foe to +progress. A "stand-patter" is such because he is in a rut and either too +lazy or too corrupt to get out. + +Things ought not to remain long as they are in any business, in any +enterprise, in any institution. Civilization never stands still. The +most dangerous attitude of mind that a man can hold is that of +complacency, that of perfect satisfaction with things as they are. The +good is always a foe to the best. + +No, gentlemen, our schools are not "up-to-date in every respect," not +altogether the "finest" in the great Northwest. The Northwest, you +know, is a pretty big place and has some pretty enterprising towns. But +no individual town has, in all respects, the finest schools in the +Northwest, or in any other place. Our schools are, like those of other +cities, just a good strong average. Like every other system, it contains +some good teachers and some not so good; some up-to-date methods of +instruction are being used and some which should be improved; some +features there are to be strongly commended and some, doubtless, that +should be discontinued. And more than this, gentlemen, you have no right +to demand, or expect, from your Superintendent and your Board of +Education. They will be the very first to endorse all that I have +admitted above. Indeed, that they do not hold that exaggerated opinion +is clearly apparent from the fact that they are even now considering +improvements. And may the day never dawn when we shall see no needed +improvements for our public schools! Should such a time come, it would +simply mean that in matters educational our eyes have become dimmed and +that we are rapidly falling behind. + +Had the men of this city been "stand-patters" touching the city, Grand +Forks would not be to-day what it is--the surprise and the admiration of +every intelligent visitor. Were you men here to-night, in your civic +relationship, "stand-patters," the promise of the future would be less +bright than it is. During my early connection with Grand Forks I often +wondered as to the secret of its enterprise. I was not long in +discovering, however, that it was found in the spirit of this Commercial +Club; a spirit, it is, of hope, of civic pride, of optimism, yet a +spirit of almost divine discontent. You have all the time been proud of +your city, but yet not satisfied with it; not satisfied, because you saw +visions of a finer city into which yours might grow. Your city was not +up-to-date--to help make it so you needed a street railway system; what +did you do? Worked for it and--got it. Not yet up-to-date? A great +auditorium was needed; you put your hand into your hip-pocket and lo! it +arises in, what was it, thirty days? The goal not even yet in sight? No, +because better pavement was imperative--and it came. Still something +lacking? An up-to-date street lighting system--you put some of your men +to work on it and it is now our pride and our neighbors' despair. And so +I might go on, I do not need to. Only let me say that it will be a sad +day for Grand Forks when we shall think that we have really reached the +goal--when there is not something toward which we are striving. + +I am glad that, in this same spirit, you have now turned your gaze to +the school house. Let us apply there the same principle of free, +intelligent discussion and hearty, generous co-operation, each trying to +outdo the other in loyalty and generous support, hoping, eventually, to +make our schools the "finest in the Northwest," and "up-to-date in every +respect." + +But this is a pretty big subject for treatment in an after-dinner talk +of from 15 to 20 minutes. It involves so much, embracing within its +scope, as it may, everything from finance to theology. The very function +of the school, in the large, might well be considered under such a +topic, and scores of details. I might well talk upon the education of +teachers as I do before my classes, or upon educational +psychology--vital subjects all, but scarcely appropriate here. It is, +indeed, a large and interesting subject, lots of places to catch hold. +Manifestly, I can treat it only superficially. All that I can do is +merely in the line of suggestion, trying to direct your attention to +some of the general features, somewhat objective in character. + +The first suggestion I have to make is along this very line--the +greatness, the many-sidedness of the educational problem and the need of +general community intelligence in regard to it. Indeed, there are many +aspects of the school work, countless number of details touching books, +courses of study, immediate and remote ends, as well as the larger +philosophical bases, in which the public is deeply interested but +imperfectly informed. Many a parent is ignorant as to what the schools +are trying to do, and why? Not comprehending the end in view, +unintelligent as to the means being used, and with little time or +ability to investigate, friction often arises. The public and its +educational system, the homes and the schools, the teachers and the +parents, should in some way be brought closer together and an +opportunity given for their mutual understanding. There are various ways +in which this opportunity is given in different places: thru mothers' +meetings, in some; thru home and school societies, in others; thru the +establishment of what some call "visiting days," in others, etc. Great +good is sure to result from a systematic use of any one of them. + +But we in Grand Forks are a very busy people; clubs and societies +without number claim our attention and secure our membership; public +meetings for the discussion of charities, health, morals, foods, etc., +saying nothing about church and social demands, are already taking us +too often from homes in the evening, so that I hesitate to suggest +another such activity even in the interests of so important a matter as +the public schools. But believing very firmly as I do that the largest +success of our schools can be secured only thru a cordial co-operation +of the homes and the schools, and believing also that this co-operation +rests upon intelligence as to the aims of the schools and the means that +are being used, I am going to suggest a way of meeting the +difficulty--namely, the utilization of another educational agency of +large influence and philanthropic spirit--I refer to the Press. It is +not my purpose to present here an extended eulogy of the Press. That is +not necessary. You all know what a mighty factor it is in shaping public +opinion. I merely call attention to the fact that it is an _educational_ +institution; that it appeals not, as do the schools, to the children, +but to the parents of the children: and then that in Grand Forks it goes +into almost every home in the city. I suggest that this agency be used +to bring about a frank, open discussion, and therefore a better +understanding, of the function and the work of our public +schools--local, state, and national. For our people, in addition to +being busy, are both intelligent and enterprising. They know the value +of the Press. They are great readers. I have been surprised, again and +again, at the large circulation enjoyed by both our enterprising +dailies. I have also been surprised to know how closely all our people +keep in touch with local happenings chronicled there. An educational +column in one or both of the local papers in which the work of the +schools, from taxation to lead pencils, could be discust, would be an +innovation of great value. An open forum, so to speak, it might be, in +which questions could be asked and answered, and also contributions made +from the larger field of educational effort. Of course I do not suggest +this as a place for the airing of personal feelings, of petty details, +of minor matters, rather, an opportunity for discussing with and for an +intelligent and enquiring people great educational questions, +fundamental principles, and broad, humanitarian policies. All such +matters, because fundamental in the development of civilization and +because of universal interest, should and could be handled with frank +simplicity. Such a discussion, constructive in character, could not fail +of doing great good--of being very helpful to teachers and parents +alike. + +Another suggestion that I want to make and an improvement that I am +going to urge touches very closely the matter of efficiency of systems +of education. Now, the efficiency of an educational institution or of a +system of schools is often mesured by the success of those completing +its course of study--of those profiting, to the full, by all that it +offers. That is the point of view taken by those people who so greatly +praise the work of the old district school of our boyhood days, "back +East." They point to this man and that one, men who have achieved +eminent success, whose only "schooling," perhaps, was received in the +"little red school house" and therefore claim that it was a great +institution for the making of men. But therein lurks a fallacy. Great +men have issued from the "little red school house," it is true, but they +became great not because of, but in spite of, the fact that the school +house was "little" and was "red." In pointing to such men as these, as +products, they forget the great silent multitude of boys and girls who +were in the same "little red school house" but who were never heard of +after they emerged. The pathetic feature of the old district school was +the great number of children who fell by the wayside. And so, to-day, no +educational institution should be rated as to efficiency by considering +the success merely of those completing its courses. To form a correct +estimate we must consider as well all those who entered and dropt out +before completion. + +No system of schools is really efficient in which any considerable +percentage of the children drop out before completing the elementary +course of study. No system of schools is satisfactorily efficient which +is so managed as to require, or even allow, any considerable percentage +of the children to repeat grades, that is, to fail of promotion, making +it necessary to go over the work the second time. Or, to put it in other +words, in which any considerable percentage of the children are doing +work in grades lower than their ages would suggest. + +This is the matter of retardation of which we are hearing so much in +these days, and in regard to which Grand Forks, as well as other cities, +suffers. In my judgment, there are two main causes of retardation: poor +teaching and physical defects of the children. There are two ways by +which satisfactory teaching can be secured: in the first place, by +securing the best teachers available, and this, I am very sure, our +Board of Education and our superintendent always try to do. In the +second place, by improving the quality of work thus secured thru expert +supervision on the part of the superintendent and the principals of the +various schools. And this I am sure is not done to the extent that it +might be were matters differently arranged. If another suggestion that I +shall make later on is adopted, however, provision will be made for this +improvement. + +Physical defects on the part of the children I named as the second cause +of retardation. And the remedy for the major portion of this cause is +found in my next suggestion--medical inspection of our school children. + +Estimating the conditions in Grand Forks on the basis of what has been +discovered in many other places in which medical inspection is in +operation, from 25% to 80% of the children in our schools are suffering +from physical defects of some sort that interfere, to a greater or less +degree, with the work of the school. There is no doubt in the minds of +well-informed people that here is found a very fruitful cause of +retardation, as seen both in grade-failure and in early dropping out of +school. And very many of these defects are removable and, therefore, the +retardation preventable. + +Now, the only seemingly valid reason that I have ever heard urged +against the employment of the school physician is that of expense. It +does cost something, I'll admit. All good things do. The necessary +expense, however, is often overestimated. But let us see if we are not, +even in hesitating at the expense, whatever it may be, wholly +illogical. The city assumes the duty of educating the young, but if +many of the young are not in a condition to receive that education, +should we not logically see that the hindrances are removed? We enact +compulsory attendance laws; should we not, where necessary, make it +possible for the physically defective as well as others, to profit by +such attendance? Otherwise, are we not wasting money? + +I have mentioned the expense, but there are two ways of looking at that. +I am now going to advocate medical inspection as an economic mesure--as +a money saver. Every child who repeats a grade is costing the city more +than it should for its education. That is clearly apparent. How much +that amounts to, in the aggregate, in Grand Forks, I do not know. But it +is probably no small item. I have no doubt that, in the long run, the +saving would pay the school physician. And then we should be clearly +ahead in all the years saved by the various children, as well as the +greater happiness and usefulness directly resulting from the improved +situation. On the whole, it seems to me and to many others with whom I +have talked that the next step forward that we should ask our Board of +Education to take is the adoption of medical inspection. + +Another phase of the subject to which I desire to call your attention is +that of the superintendency. And it isn't exactly like the old maid +sister telling the mother of half a dozen lusty boys how to bring them +up because, in addition to spending years in the study and teaching of +educational matters, I have occupied the superintendent's office and +tried to do his work. + +Historically, the superintendent of schools represents a development +from the Board of Education, not from the teaching body. Originally, he +was looked upon as the business manager of the Board, rather than an +educator by profession. Quite specifically, he was, at first, often one +of the regularly elected members of the Board, designated by the Board +to attend to the details of the work, to keep the educational machine +properly oiled, his selection seldom being dictated by any particular +qualification of a professional character. + +But in this matter of education as in other matters, great changes have +arisen. In those days teaching was not looked upon as a profession. It +was merely a calling, a trade, a temporary activity requiring no special +preparation. Anybody could teach and could teach any subject. Education +was not recognized as a science. The function of the school was merely +to give knowledge and it was not looked upon, as to-day, as a great +social institution, largely responsible for the welfare of society and +even for the stability of government. And as touching the child, not +interesting itself with the formation of right habits of action, with +the development of character, in a word, so handling the child and his +environment as to bring about both the normal development of his inner +life and the adequate shaping and preparing of that life to satisfy the +demands that will later be met. Not at all. + +But great changes have arisen. Education has become a science, and its +activities, its processes, are being based upon definite scientific +principles. We are to-day demanding a professional preparation of all +our teachers. We require them to know something about the child mind and +the laws of its development. We expect them to know why they teach this +subject and that, that is, the educational values of the various +subjects, and the best manner of administering this educational food. +Education, I say, is now looked upon as a _science_, closely allied to +and continually assisted by its sister science of sociology, definitely +based upon and springing out of the sciences of psychology and +physiology, and even having its roots deep down in the sub-soil of +biology. + +Together with this change of thought as to the function and work of the +school, there has been a corresponding change as to the superintendent +and his work. While we are not completely emancipated from the old rule +of cut and try, from the old mechanical routine, the country as a whole +has taken some long strides in advance. While some boards of education +still look upon their superintendent as a chore boy, that idea has, on +the whole, long since been abandoned. And the best educational thought +of the country to-day regards the superintendent primarily as an +educator, having to do with the inner, rather than the outer, phases of +the school's activities. And our most progressive centers are looking +upon him as a specialist, an educational expert, and demanding in him an +educational and a professional equipment commensurate with the larger, +more difficult, and most important work. He must be intimately +acquainted with the sciences most closely related to his own and capable +of drawing upon all the others for contributory assistance. And then, in +carrying out the thought of this larger view and so shaping matters of +detail as to profit by the superb equipment provided in the new +superintendent, he has been freed from the routine work formerly done by +him, thus giving the opportunity of studying the local problems and +planning their solution. + +Now for my definite suggestion. It has taken me a long time to get to +it, but I believe it is worth the time. I want you to look upon the +superintendency of your schools as the largest, the most difficult, and +most important position within the bestowal of the city. The mayor's job +doesn't begin to compare with it. And then after you have so rated the +position, I want you to free the man who holds it from all hack-work, +from the details of business management, from anything and everything +that now prevents him from making a careful, scientific, investigative +study of fundamental educational problems that confront him right here +in Grand Forks. + +And what are some of those problems, do you ask? Superintendent Kelly +could doubtless name a score of them that he is waiting to get at but +can not for want of time. Let me suggest a few that are confronting our +superintendents all over the land. Nor can I do more than mention them. +I name first this matter of retardation of which I have already spoken. +Why is it that so many children fail of promotion and so have to repeat +grades, thus adding to the expense of the schools? It no longer +satisfies to say, "Because they do not study"--the question is, "Why do +they not study?" Is it the fault of the child, the home, or the school? +And, whosoever it is, how can the difficulty be removed? You would not +in your business suffer a daily loss thru unnecessary friction--thru the +unsatisfactory working of your machinery. You demand the largest and +best output possible for the money expended. Why not the same in the +biggest business enterprise of the city--your schools? But to prevent +the friction, you must know the cause. I want the superintendent to have +time to investigate these matters. All this applies as well to those who +drop out before completing the course as to those merely repeating a +grade. An analogous question: Why do so few, relatively, of the +graduates of the eighth grade enter the high school? And why do so few +of those who enter complete the course? Again, is it because they can +see no real connection between the work of the high school and the work +of life--because it doesn't seem to fit them for anything? These things +should be investigated and, when reasons are found, the remedy applied. +We should know the facts. But all these matters take time, and the days +are only so long and a man's strength always limited. Exhausted by +hack-work, no man can do constructive thinking. And so we go on in our +waste of money and energy and life. The waste of soil, the waste of +tools, in our farming communities, doesn't compare with this waste in +seriousness. Let us adopt the principles of scientific conservation. + +And now, in keeping with the topic given me to discuss, "Improvement in +Our Public Schools," I have given three quite definite suggestions: In +the first place, I have recommended the utilization of the Press as an +agent of improvement. That is, I have asked that there be established in +one or both of your daily papers an educational column in charge of some +competent person thru which the public could become better informed on +school matters and thus able to co-operate more intelligently in the +upbuilding of the schools. In the second place, I have urged that +mesures be taken looking toward the adoption of regular and systematic +medical inspection of all school children. And lastly, I have urged you +to look upon your superintendent of schools as an educational expert +rather than a business man. And, regarding him as such, I have asked you +to free him from the petty details of office work and all mechanical +drudgery so that his training and his abilities could be used for +educational betterment. + + + + +VIII + +LOCAL WINTER SPORTS + +_A Paper read before the Franklin Club of Grand Forks, North Dakota, +December 1, 1910, and printed in the Grand Forks "Daily Herald," +December 4, 1910_ + + +It is no longer necessary to offer an extended plea for a recognition of +the value of physical training. The human race, in its upward climbing, +long ago passed the stage where the body was looked upon as a hindrance +to the soul in its aspirations. We have likewise gone beyond that higher +stage in which the attitude toward the physical being was merely +negative, and have clearly reached an altitude upon which we recognize a +well-defined relationship between the physical man and the mental and +spiritual man. We know now that only as each is healthy and thus in a +condition to do its own work well, is the other able to act normally. As +the great English philosopher, Locke, said, "A sound mind in a sound +body is a brief but full description of a happy state in this world." +This is a well-recognized article of our educational creed, not only, +but even the conservative religious workers have accepted the principle, +and we find inscribed over the entrances to our Christian Association +buildings the word "body" as well as the word more commonly found in +such connection, "spirit." + +But to go back just a moment: let us consider it from the standpoint of +mere physical betterment. We know that a muscle unused means a muscle +undeveloped, and that, on the contrary, intelligent, systematic use, +with a definite purpose in view, will accomplish wonders in physical +development. We know something as to what a physical trainer can do with +a bunch of raw foot-ball material. We know how the gymnasium can +metamorphose a loose-jointed, lop-sided, stoop-shouldered, +shamble-gaited young fellow. We know what the brisk recruiting officer +can do with the "awkward squad." In the one case as in the other, the +physical training stands him upon his feet; it takes the kinks out of +his back; it throws his head up; it unties the knots in his legs; it +puts fire into his eye. The good red blood courses thru his veins, and +even shows itself in his cheeks. He walks with an elastic step. Every +organ of his body is doing its duty. He no longer needs liver pills, +digestive tablets or wizard oil. + +I said "mere physical betterment," didn't I? Well, you can not have +"mere" physical betterment. In every case suggested above, there is +something better than physical improvement. Without knowing why, or how, +the young fellow, after the training suggested, in addition to being a +more perfectly functioning animal, a better working flesh-and-blood +machine, is several rounds higher up on the ladder of manhood. He looks +you in the eye. He gives your hand a regular Stearns grip. He dares to +say that his soul is his own. And why? Because the life-giving oxygen is +getting down into the long-neglected corners of his lungs. Because his +heart is forcing this purified blood thru his veins building up his +system and incidentally throwing off the waste and poisonous matter, so +that, relieved of the dregs, the bodily organs can really function. And +if that is true of the "gizzard" it is likewise true of the brain. He +can feel more keenly, think more wisely. But all this can be done by +physical exercise alone. Some of the best of these results can be +obtained by the use of the mere punching bag; by running around the +house, if you run often enough and fast enough; all alone with the dumb +bells or Indian clubs, if you keep at it long enough, or even by walking +out to the University on the railroad tracks and saving your street car +nickels. But taken thus, these exercises constitute a mere medicine. And +people don't take medicine until they have to. And for some strange +reason they won't take this kind even then unless some doctor prescribes +it in consideration of the payment of a good sized fee. Why is it? +Simply because we prize things in proportion to their cost? + +Now, we want these results and even better ones. And we don't want to +pay the doctor's fees for this or any other kind of medicine in order to +get them. What are we going to do about it? Isn't there some sugar +coating that we can put on to these physical exercise pills to make them +a little more palatable? Can't we in some way make ourselves believe +that we are eating candy instead of taking quinine? For you know that we +grown-ups have not lost all our powers of imagination. How often we play +make believe, even yet! I'll tell you what we can do. Let's have this +same physical exercise idea but introduce into it the element of sport +which Webster defines as "that which diverts and makes mirth." Let's do +these stunts "for the fun of it" instead of as a medicine. We'll get the +results, just the same, and thus get double pay for our pains. I fancy +that the skiing and the skating, the snow-shoeing and the curling of +which we are to hear, all have that element tucked away somewhere in +their anatomy. + +But you may ask me what more there is than the results already mentioned +to be gotten from these physical exercises, if we succeed in covering up +the quinine with Mr. Webster's molasses. I've used Indian clubs and dumb +bells by the hour; I've walked to the University in season and out of +season; I've even run around the house--and as a result have experienced +the exhilaration that comes from such vigorous discipline. I've been +better for it, physically, and therefore, of course, mentally. More +oxygen, better blood, firmer bodily tissue including better nourished +brain cells, have done their beneficent work. But yet, as I look back +and see myself going thru these various maneuvers, I am fully confident +of the fact that all this time I was also doing something else--that my +poor brain cells, which really needed recuperation more than any other +part of my body, that these brain cells were still at work, that I was +all the time carrying on a more or less strenuous train of thought as +exhaustive as tho I were seated in my study chair, or standing before my +class in the recitation room. More than one lecture, or address, have I +worked out while walking to and from the University. + +Now, one of the most important things for us to do is occasionally to +stop thinking, or at least to stop thinking along our accustomed lines. +We should give those few brain cells that are being made to work +over-time a chance to rest once in a while. We are living too fast. Our +lives are too intense. We are running our machines under high pressure, +and some of them are already showing the results altho they are almost +new. Unless there is a change, new ones will have to take their places +ere long. The rate of speed of the life of the modern American business +and professional man, the rate of speed of the life of the modern +American society woman, is something terrific. We are wearing ourselves +out before our time. Modern life is so complex, so exacting, so wearing, +that we are losing all the joy of living. We are at our own firesides so +seldom and for such short periods that we scarcely know our own little +ones. Longfellow's "Children's Hour" that came "as a pause in the day's +occupation," is almost wholly unknown in most American homes. There is +no "pause" in the day's occupation. The occupation goes right on till +after these "children" are soundly asleep in their beds and begins again +before they are awake in the morning. And all this is true even of us, +right here in this select circle, the "favored ones," many would call +us. + +But I am not giving a diatribe on American life, so will not pursue the +matter farther. All that I am trying to do is simply this: to call +attention to the fact that we are living _fast_--faster than our +physical and mental make-up can long stand; that we have already reached +the danger point. And what are we going to do about it? Well, we shall +have to do many things before the problems are all solved, the +difficulties all met. As a slight relief, and to answer a question +raised a little earlier in the paper, I am suggesting the sports--those +activities that both rejuvenate the physical man and also "divert and +make mirth." Into these we can not carry our teaching and our preaching +and our making of social calls. The goods of the merchant, the notes of +the banker, the briefs of the lawyer, the annoyances of the teacher, and +the cares of the housewife, alike, would all have to be left behind. The +mind could rest while the body and the spirit are being recreated. An +hour a day, in the open air, with fears and anxieties and schemes all +cast aside, in companionship with kindred spirits similarly divested of +that which troubles and makes afraid, all engaged in recreative sports, +would do more to make us physically well, morally strong, and civilly +decent than all the pills of the doctors, all the texts of the +preachers, and all the keys of the jailers! + +In keeping with the world-wide movement in this direction our own +people, in their civic capacity, have already acted and have thus become +the possessor of splendid park facilities which offer ample +opportunities, when fully developed, for a sane out-of-door life of a +population many times as large as ours at the present time. And as we +all know, the Park Board has entered intelligently and systematically +upon this matter of development and improvement. Much has already been +done. Very much more is fully outlined in the minds of the Park Board. I +think it is their purpose--and I fully believe that they will carry it +out--to proceed in this matter of development just as rapidly as the +people show, by their use of the facilities progressively offered, an +appreciation. + +Nearly all the work done thus far, such as clearing away the rubbish, +making the shady retreats usable, fitting up picnic grounds, caring for +the tennis courts, golf links, and other game reserves, as well as +erecting pavilions and other conveniences, has looked toward putting the +grounds into condition for summer use. And the response on the part of +the people has been gratifying. As rapidly as the parks have been put +into shape, they have been generously used by an appreciative people. It +has done my heart good, many times, especially on Sundays in the hot +summer months, to see the numbers of people, and _the people_, who were +really using the parks. They have been the people, in a large mesure, +who can not easily get elsewhere the best things that the parks give. + +Thus far, as said, the plans for development have looked mainly toward +summer use, But I am especially glad to note a recent improvement that +shows that the Park Board has the winter use of the parks also +definitely in mind. I refer to the new skating rink in Riverside Park. +It is a most commendable institution. I very much hope that it will be +extensively used, not only by the people living in that part of the +city, but by those of all sections. It belongs to all of us. Here is an +opportunity for a most delightful winter sport freely offered. If +appreciated, as shown by its use, I have no doubt that it will be +duplicated next winter, and on a larger scale, in Lincoln Park. And if +we show that we appreciate this, other features will be added. + +Perhaps I should stop here, but I can not lose the opportunity of saying +just a word to connect this topic with the great playground movement, +and therefore in behalf of providing facilities for winter and summer +sports alike, for our boys and girls--our young people. + +Do you realize fully that the boys and girls of to-day--yours and mine, +yes, and just as truly those less favored--those into whose lives there +comes but little cheer, into whose stomachs there goes but little +nourishing food, and into whose lungs, but little oxygen--do you +realize, I ask, that these boys and girls are to be the men and women of +to-morrow, with all the responsibilities of the world resting upon their +shoulders? Do we want them to enter upon the duties of life +stoop-shouldered, flat-chested, spectacle-eyed? Do we want them to be +anaemic, pessimistic, nervous wrecks? Do we want them to be mental +weaklings and moral cowards? Do we want them even to approximate these +conditions? No? Then, with all our provisions for their wants and their +needs, let us be sure to develop those things which minister so largely +to the development of the opposite characteristics. Prevention is not +only cheaper than cure, it is also better. Let us see that our parks are +developed with provisions for our boys and girls as well as for the +adults. Let us see that playgrounds are scattered over our city and +provision made for both winter and summer sports. + +In addition to the Riverside Park skating rink, I wish the City Council +or the Board of Education would establish one on the grounds of the +Winship school, another at the Central building, and still a third on +the Belmont grounds. This could be done at nominal cost. What a splendid +opportunity it would give to all the children of the city to engage in +this most healthful and invigorating sport! It would give them their +needed entertainment and relaxation in the pure, invigorating, +out-of-door air. It would surround them with an emotional atmosphere +that is at once normal, natural, and spiritually health-giving. Instead +of these conditions, what do we find? Many of our young boys and girls +and very many of those a little older--those just entering upon manhood +and womanhood, when both emotional and physical atmosphere count for so +much in the forming of habits and the choosing of ideals--many of these +future men and women are finding their entertainment and their +relaxation (and mind you, at the close of a day in school or in the +evening after a day spent in the poorly ventilated office or store) in +the moving-picture show or at the vaudeville. And in these places the +air is apt to be both hot and impure, and all the physical conditions +enervating. The emotional atmosphere, too, is sure to be abnormal, +unnatural, and spiritually deadening. We find here, and in too large +quantity to be a negligible factor, the atmosphere, the conditions, the +associations, that help greatly to breed incorrigibles, truants, and +laggards in our schools; that develop juvenile delinquents, hasty +marriages, and early divorces; that send into the world paupers, +grafters, and criminals. Not all the conditions are such in all such +places, it is true, but as affecting young life these are usually the +dominating ones. + +I am not condemning the theater. It has its legitimate place, and a +large place it is, in normal, healthy, American life. I am merely +declaiming against these lower forms as usually conducted for commercial +gain--these perversions of the true theater idea--these institutions +that deal so largely in the sensational elements and appeal so strongly +to the passions. I am told that the cheap theater is the poor man's +club. I very much doubt if that is its chief function or, rather, that +its chief result is a wholesome quickening of the better nature of this +poor man--that its chief accomplishment is to send him back to his home +kinder, truer, and stronger, thru either the relaxation or the +instruction, to grapple with the difficulties of life. I greatly fear +that, as usually conducted, its influence upon the adult is at best but +the temporary slaking of an unhealthy and never-satisfied thirst, and +that upon the child and the adolescent it is a distinct blunting of all +the finer sensibilities and elements of character. But even these lower +forms are not all bad. There is enough of good in them to warrant an +attempt at improvement rather than elimination. They can be improved, +made clean, and wholesome, and thus become a positive factor in the +development of right character. I doubt if it will be done, however, +until some other motive than personal gain shall be responsible for +their management. Still, as they are, they might be very greatly +bettered if in some way those most deeply interested in the outcome +could have a choice in the selection of the material to be used. + +One of the best ways to counteract the harmful influence of the poorly +conducted moving picture show and the vaudeville is to develop something +better to take their places. Let it be something that contains the +life-giving principles, something that will appeal with equal force to +the impressionable youth, and yet be clean and wholesome and natural. +Shall we not look upon the public playground for the children, and the +park system, for all, as a promising hope? And, properly developed, +would they not soon come to act on the young, both physically and +psychically, as a prevention, thus making a later cure unnecessary? And +upon adults, might we not reasonably expect their use to tend toward +making less attractive, and so to the eventual abandonment of, many of +these practises and forms of entertainment and recreation that are now +so sapping of both physical and psychical life? + + + + +IX + +THE FUNCTION OF TEACHERS COLLEGE + +_An Address delivered before the North Dakota State Teachers Association +on December 27, 1906. It later appeared in the January and February, +1910, issues of "Education"_ + + +Among the various educational institutions of the United States to-day, +the one which, as it seems to me, is attracting the most intelligent +attention on the part of our educational thinkers, and the one upon the +right solution of whose problems depends, in a high degree, the success +of our entire educational system, is the institution for the education +of teachers. For we all have come, finally, to accept as true the +statement of the old German writer, "School reform means schoolmaster +reform," also that other, used so effectively in the days of our own +early educational revival, "As is the teacher so is the school." And we +are ready to-day to admit that those statements are true whether applied +to the ungraded rural school with its noticeable lack of needed +equipment, to the perfectly graded school of the city with every +facility that human ingenuity can devise and money procure, or to the +college and university where scholarship and culture are supposed to +make their abode and contribute of their fullness. For I care not, and +you care not, what be the physical and material equipment of the school; +I care not, nor do you, what be the scholastic attainments of the one +called teacher; if he isn't able to teach, that is, to cause to learn, +we all know that the school, in just the mesure of his inability, is a +failure. One thing further we all know, and that is this: one plank in +our great educational platform is belief in the necessity of an +institution set apart for the preparation of teachers. We are +irrevocably committed to the idea. It is a part of our educational +creed. Fortunately, in our educational evolution we have left far behind +us the stage when the wisdom of that institution was seriously +questioned. Our pedagogical forefathers, valiant explorers, discoverers, +heroes, educational statesmen--Carter, Mann, Page, Sheldon and +others--have left us this priceless heritage. It remains for us to-day +merely to analyze the institution, agree upon the respective functions +of its various types, and then apply ourselves with intelligent vigor +each to the solution of his own problems. + +As we look around us, we clearly distinguish three distinct types of the +institution under discussion. The oldest, best known, and most numerous +is called the state normal school. It dates from the time of Horace Mann +and Edmund Dwight, the former of whom recognized the need and knew how +to inaugurate the movement, the latter, having unbounded faith in Mr. +Mann, provided the funds. Nearly every state in the union has now one or +more intelligently at work. All that have not, have practically the same +thing under another name--normal departments in connection with the +state universities. + +The next type, in order of time and numbers, as well, is found in +connection with the higher educational institutions of the country. It +has various names, as "Department of Education," "School of Education," +"Division of Education," "Pedagogical Department," "School of Pedagogy" +and "Teachers College." Probably the name most common in the past has +been "Department of Education," or "Pedagogical Department," tho in the +developed form it is changing to "School of Education" or "Teachers +College." Of these, there are at work, according to the 1909 report of +the Commissioner of Education, 171. That is, there are 171 colleges and +universities maintaining at least a department, or chair, of education, +and giving professional instruction of college grade. + +The third type, latest in appearance and as yet fewest in number, but +with fair promise of rapid increase and great usefulness, is the county +school, called "County Normal Training Class" in Michigan and "County +Training School" in Wisconsin, in which two states the movement is at +its best. Indeed, I do not know of any other state in which the work has +been thus definitely organized. Of these, Michigan had, a year ago, +forty-one, and Wisconsin, twenty. Possibly in this connection one ought +to mention the good work being done in high schools in several states, +but seen at its best in Nebraska and New York. Yet this work is but an +adjunct to the high school, and does not so clearly approach a separate +institution. + +Of these three types it is the second which is the subject of the +present discussion--whose function I seek. It is really immaterial +whether we use, in the discussion, the appellation of Minnesota and say +"College of Education," or that of Harvard and call it "Division of +Education," or that of Columbia, Missouri, and North Dakota, and say +"Teachers College." For they are all one and the same institution with +but slightly different systems of organization. I use the latter term +because more familiar and more likely, I think, as time passes, to +prevail. + +But these three types are so closely connected that the function of one +cannot be clearly seen alone. Therefore I propose very briefly to +examine the establishment of each so as to learn why it was called into +existence--what function it was originally expected to perform. I shall +then briefly examine present conditions, trying to discover if any +changes have taken place in the general educational situation of +sufficient moment to make necessary a rearrangement or readjustment. +Finally, I shall draw my conclusions as to present functions, and with a +more careful analysis of certain factors state the reasons for those +conclusions as briefly as possible. + +First, as to state normal schools: it is, of course, entirely +unnecessary to go into details as to organization or early work of this +institution in our country. I am stating what is known to all when I say +that Horace Mann in Massachusetts, Henry Barnard in Connecticut, David +Page in New York, and William Phelps in New Jersey had one and only one +thought in view in working for the establishment of normal schools and +for the development of their work. They, one and all, were seeking some +means for providing better teachers for the common schools. No one, so +far as I am able to discover, at this time even suggested that any other +teachers needed a special preparation for their work. To be sure, the +American high school was hardly under way when the normal school +movement was inaugurated, in 1839, there being then but half a dozen in +the entire country. Ten years later there were but eighteen. There was, +however, in those days a large number of academies giving secondary +instruction. But there was no thought of looking to the normal schools +for academy teachers, they came from the colleges. Indeed, generally +speaking, the academies and high schools as then being developed, were +offering a higher grade of academic work than the normal schools, and +they were rather assisting the latter in the production of teachers. +This was especially true in New York, a movement having there been +inaugurated by which, thru financial aid from the State, many of the +academies were offering normal school instruction and sending out into +the rural schools and city grades a very creditable product. And the +character of the movement in the East has continued to be the character +of the movement as it has swept Westward. I think there has not been +established in the United States a single state normal school whose +function has not been understood to be the preparation of teachers for +the common schools. And by "common schools" I mean the first eight +grades of the public school, including both rural and urban communities, +for it has been only in recent years that we have carefully +discriminated between the two. + +Next, let us look at the teachers college. Bear in mind that I use the +term as referring to the institution, or department, under whatever name +it may be known, that is doing professional work in the preparation of +teachers in connection with colleges and universities. In taking up the +topic, attention needs first to be called to two facts: the rapid +development of our high school system and the high degree of success +already attained by our normal schools. + +After the close of the Civil War our high schools began to +multiply--rapidly from 1870 to 1880, by leaps and bounds from that time +to the present. In 1870 there were 170; 1880, 800; 1890, 2,526; 1900, +6,005; and in 1908, 8,960. (Annual reports of the Commissioner of +Education.) But no sooner had the high school movement obtained good +headway than the serious problem arose as to the supply of teachers. And +so well, on the whole, had the normal school done its work that it had +more than justified its existence. Thru its work the character of the +teaching in the elementary schools had been greatly improved. Teachers, +with normal school equipment, were everywhere recognized as superior to +those otherwise trained or not trained at all. Very naturally, then, +when the problem of high school teachers arose, professional preparation +was demanded. But where could it be obtained and how? + +The state normal schools, true to their function of preparing teachers, +tried to satisfy the additional demands placed upon them. They added to +their equipment, modified and extended their courses, and in every way +did all they could. Indeed, they did all that was done in a professional +way for nearly a generation. But the high schools were increasing, both +in numbers and in academic requirements of students and teachers. City +school systems were being developed and extended in a most unprecedented +manner, calling for skilled superintendents, supervisors, grade +principals, special teachers, etc., until, finally, thoughtful men began +to see that the impossible was being asked of the state normal schools. +For two reasons, it was seen, they could not do the double work; in the +first place, they had more than they could do in their original sphere +of providing teachers for the elementary schools, and secondly, their +academic possibilities, even increased as they had been in attempting +the work, were clearly seen to be wholly inadequate. It was discovered, +also, that, in spite of the efforts being put forth by the normal +schools, the higher teaching positions--superintendencies, high school +principalships, etc.--were going to men of collegiate attainment, even +at the sacrifice of professional training which was then being +recognized as very desirable. + +What was to be done? To make a long story short, the universities and +colleges, with their more extended courses, better equipment, and +stronger faculties, took the matter up and added educational departments +in which could be given, with but slight additional outlay, both the +academic and professional equipment thought to be needed by the high +school teacher. + +This work was first clearly suggested and outlined at the annual meeting +of the Michigan State Teachers' Association in 1870. Dr. W. H. Payne, +then city superintendent of schools at Adrian, Michigan, read a notable +address upon the subject, "The Relation Between the University and Our +High Schools." Eight years later, the Regents of Michigan University +established a chair of "Theory and Art of Teaching," and to it called +the man who had, by the address just mentioned, offered a practical as +well as a logical solution of the difficult problem. + +The example thus set by Michigan University was soon followed by +others--Cornell, Ohio, Illinois, Harvard, Chicago and others, until now +this new department is found in nearly every prominent college and +university in the land. These are our teachers colleges or, rather, the +sources from which they are springing. For, to be sure, not every +pedagogical department found in a higher institution of learning, tho +doing in a general way the same grade of work, should be called a +teachers college. Tho having its roots in these, the teachers college +proper differs from the most of them in several ways. The pedagogical +department of a college, and too, a thoroly reputable college, may be, +and usually is, merely one of the many departments of the institution, +represented on its faculty by a single professor and offering but a +limited range of professional work--a few courses in the history of +education, principles of education, and "pedagogy," usually. A teachers +college, on the other hand, has an organization and, sometimes, a +financial status of its own. Its relationship to the institution as a +whole is getting to be the same as that of the other professional +schools. The movement is toward a separate faculty, headed by a dean, +and representing all the different phases of both academic and +professional work. While many of the members of the faculty do, and may +continue to, give courses in the other colleges, they have a distinct, +organic connection with the teachers college. The teachers college is +also getting to have, as a vital part of its equipment, a model high +school bearing to it the same relationship that the model, or practise, +school bears to our normal schools. While this fulness of organization +and equipment has not yet been reached by a large number, it has by +several, among which are Columbia, Missouri, Chicago, and, +approximately, North Dakota, with many others moving rapidly in the same +direction. + +Just a few words, now, as to the third type mentioned, the county normal +school: As already suggested, the line of demarcation was not early +drawn between the urban and the rural school. But cities grew; city +school systems were developed; the normal schools, in spite of rapid +increase, were not able to keep up with the rapidly increasing demands. +And, since the field for normal school graduates has ever been an open +one, they have located where the remuneration has been the most +generous. Now, cities and villages are, generally speaking, the centers +of intelligence as well as of population and wealth. The people of these +communities have appreciated the superiority of professionally prepared +teachers, and they have been able to pay the added price. The result has +been that they have appropriated practically the entire output of the +normal schools. None have been left for the rural schools. + +And again, with these economic changes there came to be more and more +clearly seen, as the years went by, a difference, internal and somewhat +vital, between the schools of the rural and the urban communities, +making in some ways a different sort of preparation desirable. Now, the +state normal school, growing with the movement, and ever keenly alive to +its opportunities for usefulness, noting clearly the location of its +product, very wisely began to modify its work so as to make it better +suited to the needs of its main customers--the well-graded schools of +the city and village. And so it has resulted that, even if the normal +schools could supply the demands for both country and city teachers, so +far as numbers are concerned, the preparation given is not the most +ideal for the former. And just as when professionally trained secondary +teachers were needed a new institution was created for their +preparation, in very recent years an institution has appeared to satisfy +this new need, one whose function is as clearly announced, and one which +seems to fit into the situation as well, and we have the county normal +school of Michigan and Wisconsin, as mentioned above. + +Whether we shall see a rapid extension of this new movement, making the +county normal school as fixt an institution as the state normal school +has become, and as the teachers college bids fair to become, or whether, +thru consolidation, the distinctive type of our rural school shall +disappear and our state normal schools be increased in number to meet +the larger demands, only the future can tell. This latter, however, will +not be in our generation, and I confidently look for the former. I +believe the general adoption and adaptation of the county normal school +idea would be one of the most economical and speedy means of solving +some of our most serious rural school problems. And I also believe that +it should be our next step, if we can take but one step at a time, +toward professional education of teachers. + +If I have analyzed aright the present situation, and have been fair in +my all too brief account of the rise and development of these +institutions, we see that we have in our midst to-day, as a result of +the development of our educational system, and to keep pace with it, +the development of the idea so long ago adopted--the value of the +professional preparation of the teacher--three quite distinct types of +an institution for such purpose. Enumerating now in order of grade of +work rather than of historical development, we have (1) the county +normal school, whose function is solely the preparation of teachers for +the rural schools--sixty-one of them found only in Michigan and +Wisconsin, sending into the rural schools of those states about 800 +fairly well equipt teachers each year; (2) the old state normal school +of historic fame, whose function is the preparation of teachers for the +elementary grades of our city and village schools--195 there were two +years ago--and they sent out into the schools approximately 10,000 +teachers, mostly graduates; (3) the teachers college, found always in +connection with a college of high rank or of a full-fledged university, +offering work, both academic and professional, of full university grade +and covering the full university period of four years. The number cannot +be stated definitely, because the process that is transforming the old +pedagogical departments into teachers colleges is at such varying stages +of development. Its function is best stated in the words of the +institution in which it was founded (Calendar of the University of +Michigan for 1904-1905, p. 126):-- + + "1. To fit university students for the higher positions in the + public school service. + + "2. To promote the study of educational science. + + "3. To teach the history of education and of educational systems + and doctrines. + + "4. To secure to teaching the rights, prerogatives and advantages + of a profession. + + "5. To give a more perfect unity to our state educational system, + by bringing the secondary schools into closer relations with the + university." + +"Higher position in the public school service" meant, in the main, in +the early days, city superintendencies and high school principalships. +To these, others have been added, one by one, owing very largely to the +great success of the movement and the growing appreciation of the value +of professional preparation for occupants of such positions, until now +they include city superintendencies, high school and grade +principalships, subject supervisorships, high school, normal school, and +college instructorships. Already the leading teachers colleges, the ones +at Columbia, Missouri, and Chicago universities, are being definitely +looked to for these later added and more responsible workmen. + +Thus far I have but stated historical facts known to all who are +reasonably well informed touching the history of education and current +educational practise in our country. I have done this all too briefly, I +am well aware. But the reason that I could do it briefly is the fact +that the readers of this journal are well informed upon the historical +phases of the subject. All that I needed to do was to cull out and bring +to the fore the pertinent facts. But the question now arises, is this +differentiation logical? Are there any reasons, psychological, economic, +or otherwise, for such differentiation? If there are, it is going to +continue, and these types of the institution which now seem to have been +given each such a definite and separate work to do are going to be +relatively permanent. If not, we shall continue to cut and try, undoing +to-morrow what was done to-day, and chaos will result. + +This institution, with its various types, is not one that has evolved +from a careful theoretical study of our present or prospective +educational needs, but one that has grown up, little by little, step by +step, to meet and satisfy from time to time the present and pressing +needs of the larger system of which it forms a part, and for the service +of which it was called into existence. But is it not true that +oftentimes the logic of events--the movements of history--reveal to us +our fundamental principles, outline for us our policy of action, and +even write out for us our program of procedure as correctly and even +more irrevocably than philosophical formulation could do? Is not that +especially likely to occur under such a form of government as ours? I +think it has occurred in the present case. + +It is interesting to note in this connection the fact that the logic of +events has led us, in our efforts to solve the difficult problem of the +education of our teachers, to practically the same solution as that +already reached by France and Germany, which countries proceeded more +nearly along the pathway of theoretical philosophical formulation. + +I believe that at least two of these institutions, the state normal +school and the teachers college, have come to stay, and with practically +the functions outlined above. Of the county normal school, as said +before, I do not feel quite so sure. I am led to the belief in the +relative permanency of these types of professional school, not only by a +knowledge of the history of their development, but also by the +conviction, formed by a somewhat careful study of the entire problem, +that there are fundamental reasons, psychological as well as economical, +for the differentiation. In other words, my own somewhat careful study +of the entire situation brings me to the same position that the logic of +events has brought us all. + +As to the county normal school: it is so apparent as scarcely to need +mention that the teacher of the rural school needs a preparation +differing in many ways from that needed by the teacher of the city +grades. The environment, physical, psychical, and social, is so +different that a teacher equipt to do thoroly good work in either one +place might signally fail in the other. And the present economic +situation speaks with nearly the same insistence. Even if our state +normal schools were sending out teachers ideally equipt for service in +the rural communities, the remuneration there offered is, and for an +indefinite time will remain, so low as practically to keep them out of +the schools. Either we must have special institutions for the +preparation of the teachers of the rural schools, or else those schools +must, in the main, continue to do without professionally prepared +teachers. + +Turning now to the other type, it is equally clear to me that the very +character of the work in the elementary and secondary schools should be +different one from the other, different as to discipline, ends in view, +subjects of study, and methods of handling the same. In the elementary +school the pupil is a child, with the mind, the tastes, the ambitions of +a child, and he should be allowed to remain a child. The ends in view +are right habits, right ideals, and knowledge facts. In the secondary +school the student is an adolescent, with the mind of an adolescent, +having peculiar and erratic tastes, changing ambitions, and conflicting +emotions. He is neither child nor adult, but passing thru the most +dangerous and critical period of his entire life. The ends in view are +no longer merely habits, ideals, and knowledge facts, but, added to +these, and now more important for emphasis because presumably right +principles have already been established, breadth and fixity of +character, self-acquaintance, scholarship, and culture. Tell me that the +atmosphere, psychical and spiritual, and the training, academic and +professional, that will produce the ideal teacher of the child will also +produce the ideal teacher of the adolescent? Nay, verily! You might as +well tell the florist that the American Beauty rose and the Snow Flower +of the Northern forest will both reach perfection if grown side by side. +Then surely we need different kinds of institutions. I cannot better +conclude this thought than by using the words of Dr. Wm. T. Harris found +in the introductory paragraph of an article on "The Future of the Normal +School." (Ed. Rev., January, 1899, p. 1.) Dr. Harris says: "I have tried +to set down in this paper the grounds for commending the normal school +as it exists for its chosen work of preparing teachers for the +elementary schools, and at the same time urging the need of training +schools with different methods of preparation for the kindergarten, +below, and for the secondary school, the college and the post-graduate +school, above the elementary school." + +The reason just given, the psychological one, is alone sufficient for +believing that the differentiation is logical. But let me add another, +almost equally effective--an academic reason, directly academic and at +the same time indirectly economic. This is found in the following words, +taken from Dr. Payne's "Contributions to the Science of Education." (Am. +Book Co., 1886, p. 538.) "If there is any well-established principle of +school economy it is this: The scholarship of the teacher should be +considerably broader than the scholarship of his most advanced pupil." +Nobody now questions the statement. + +Upon the basis of that principle there is little criticism to be offered +of the academic equipment of our normal school graduates as teachers in +the grades. No normal school now completes its work with less than one +full year beyond the completion of a four-year high school course, and +two years beyond is rapidly getting to be the standard. So that normal +school graduation gives the prospective teacher of the grades at least +four years of academic, and from one to two years of professional and +academic work beyond the point to be reached by "his most advanced +pupil." To be sure, more would be better--a longer experience and a +closer acquaintance with the great character forming subjects, such as +literature, history, philosophy, etc. This would give breadth of view, +clearness of perception, and a right perspective--elements of +incomparable value in the equipment of the teacher. But yet, in view of +our economic conditions and of a general lack of understanding and +therefore of appreciation in the lay mind of the most vital and +fundamental work of the teacher, we cannot yet hope for teachers ideally +equipt. And our present standards, if insisted upon and the work thus +far be thoro and clear and faithful, will give us increasingly better +results and eventually lead to conditions more nearly ideal. + +But this judgment as to criticism must be very different when we look +upon these graduates as possible teachers in the high school. The +scholarship of such a teacher there would be but little, if any, +"broader than the scholarship of his most advanced pupil." While there +is to-day no uniform legislation touching the requirements as to +qualifications of high school teachers in the United States, each state, +and even each school, being largely a law unto itself, there is getting +to be a very decided uniformity the country over as to practise, and in +many ways this is much more significant than formal legislation would +be. For without compulsion, the whole people, each section and each +state, independent of all others, seemingly by the very necessity of the +case, have fixt upon the same minimum standard of qualification for high +school teachers. And that minimum is the completion of a full four-year +collegiate course of instruction, including--indeed, in many cases, +plus--a certain emphasis to be placed upon the subjects to be handled, +and a certain amount of time devoted to strictly professional subjects. +To be sure, in some states legislation has spoken, as in Minnesota, +requiring completion of collegiate work, and practically so in North +Dakota, requiring completion of such work for superintendencies and high +school principalships, and strongly recommending the same for all +teaching positions in the high school. In California a step farther has +been taken in requiring, in addition to that, a full year of graduate +study. The tendency, in several states, seems to be in the direction of +the position taken by California. And with that tendency I am in +sympathy. + +This movement upward, however, I do not want to see go any farther. I +deprecate the tendency, seen in some quarters, of setting up as the +symbol of the standard of qualification for the high school teacher, the +doctor's degree. I do not want the boys and girls of our high schools +taught, or rather directed in their upward development, by mere +specialists--doctors of philosophy, who know everything about nothing, +and nothing about everything. Nor do I want them directed by men and +women who are obliged to "cipher on page twenty while the class is +working on page nineteen." But I do want them directed by men and women +who are thoroly acquainted with the subjects which they teach, and who +know how to handle the same; but especially by men and women of broad, +liberal culture, men and women whose lives have been enriched by the +best there is in literature, history, art, science, and philosophy, and +who know life, and are in warm sympathy with young life. Teachers thus +equipt are able, from their high vantage point, to reach out here and +there and take as educative material that which will contribute to the +beautiful and strong development of each case at hand. And such an +equipment, on its academic side, comes not short of the master's degree, +or its equivalent. + +My authority for the statement made above as to the growing uniformity +of practise in requiring as minimum qualification for high school +teachers a full collegiate course, and as to the tendency in several +states toward requiring, in addition, a full year of graduate study, is +found in an extended correspondence with normal school principals and +city and state superintendents representing the entire country. + +These facts as to present-day requirements seem to me to fix somewhat +definitely the matters under discussion. Our normal schools, with +possibly two or three exceptions, are not equipt to give the extended +qualification now demanded for the high school teacher. Barring the two +or three, the best of them do not pretend to carry the student more than +two years beyond high school graduation. And whether it be one or two +years, the work is, as it ought to be, mainly professional--not +academic. Indeed, the presidents of many of our strongest normal schools +insist that they do not do any strictly academic work. And if the lack +is so great touching high school teachers, how much greater touching +positions still higher. + +To be sure, the work of the normal schools might be sufficiently +extended to enable them to do this additional and advanced work. New +buildings might be erected, laboratory facilities increased, libraries +enlarged, additional and stronger teachers provided, etc. But is it +necessary? Is it wise? Is it likely to happen with our legislators +holding the purse strings so tightly tied? To all such questions the +answer must inevitably be negative. It is not necessary because not +really needed for the preparation of elementary teachers, while for the +preparation of secondary teachers other agencies are at hand. And if not +needed the unwisdom of such an extension can scarcely be questioned. +Certainly not, if, as urged above, different kinds of institutions are +needed for the preparation of the two grades of teachers. Then, if both +not needed and unwise, it is not likely to happen in any case where +legislators are intelligently informed as to the situation. + +To indicate the feeling among many of our leading educators touching +this point, it might be interesting, in closing, to give a brief summary +of the correspondence mentioned above. This inquiry, was directed to all +our state superintendents, to forty of the leading normal school +principals representing all sections of the country, and to fifty-two +leading and representative city superintendents. The following questions +were asked:-- + + (1) Are your normal schools at the present time equipt to give + adequate preparation to prospective high school teachers? + + (2) If you think they are not, would it be wise to add to their + present equipment such facilities as would enable them to give such + preparation, or can that work be better done in some other way? + + +REPLIES FROM STATE SUPERINTENDENTS + +To question (1). Thirty-eight replies were received, of which +twenty-nine were negative and nine affirmative. Of the nine, however, +only one came from a state in which normal school facilities are at all +superior to what may be termed a fair average, and in that state these +facilities are found in only one of the five normal schools, whereas, in +five of the nine, these facilities are inferior to what may be termed a +fair average. In two of the nine, tho the state superintendents gave +affirmative answers, the consensus of opinion of the normal school +principals was negative. In a word, the nine affirmative replies +indicate individual opinions, and result from a limited perspective. + +To question (2). Twenty-nine replies were received, of which fifteen +were specifically negative, five specifically affirmative, and nine +implied a misunderstanding of the question. But nearly all of the nine, +as well as the fifteen, stated definitely or clearly implied that such +work should be done in the colleges and universities. + + +REPLIES FROM NORMAL SCHOOL PRINCIPALS + +To question (1). Twenty-eight replies were received, of which twenty +were negative, and eight affirmative. Of the eight, three were from +states having but one normal school each, and perhaps, therefore, +admittedly strong; two from states having each one school much superior +to the others of the same state, and referring specifically to that +school. Of the remaining three, one was from a new state in the +Northwest, one from a Southern state, and one stated that only in some +branches was the equipment sufficient. + +To question (2). Twenty replies were received, of which sixteen were +negative, and four affirmative. Of the four, not one said that all +should be so equipt. Each suggested that perhaps it would be well thus +to extend the equipment of one school in a state. + + +REPLIES FROM CITY SUPERINTENDENTS + +To question (1). Thirty replies were received, of which twenty-eight +were negative, and two affirmative. The two were from a state in which +is to be found a single normal school, and that, one of the best. + +To question (2). Twenty-eight replies were received, of which twenty-six +were negative, and two affirmative. + +To be sure, correspondence upon this point was not sufficiently extended +to be conclusive, but yet my correspondents were, in the main, leaders +in their respective lines, and therefore represent the best educational +thought and practise of the times. The summary speaks clearly and to the +point, and to the same point, note, that the logic of events has already +brought us. The work of the normal school should continue to be, as it +has been from the beginning, devoted to preparation of teachers for the +grades, while prospective teachers in the high schools should seek their +preparation in the teachers colleges, under whatever specific names +known, where the professional phases of the work will be as much +emphasized, but be different, and be differently handled as befitting +the different character of the work to be done, and where they can +receive the broader academic outlook and equipment absolutely essential +to an adequate handling of the larger and more difficult situation. + + NOTE.--Since the appearance of the January number of _Education_, + my attention has been called to the fact that in naming + institutions giving early attention to the preparation of secondary + teachers I omitted some that should have found a place in such an + enumeration. It is true that several others might well have been + mentioned. On page 286, line 5 (page 224, line 3 of this work), I + might well have added the School of Pedagogy of New York + University, also Clark, Stanford, California, and Teachers College, + Columbia, and again, "and others." And on page 289, line 18 (page + 228, line 18 of this work), I certainly should have added the + School of Pedagogy of New York University and Clark University, + possibly others, for the work is progressing rapidly. But it was + the movement I had in mind rather than the specific contributions + of various institutions. The omissions were not born of any desire + to withhold from any institution the credit that it deserves. + + Since this matter is again open, let me add an interesting fact in + regard to the New York University School of Pedagogy, just + mentioned. If I mistake not, we have here the first real "teachers + college," that is, the first instance in which we see a "Department + of Education," having merely equal standing with other departments + in a university, become, thru definite action of that university's + governing body, "a professional school of equal rank with the other + professional schools of the University." This change was made on + March 3, 1890. Judging by results, it has been amply justified. The + institution is doing a large and splendid work.--THE AUTHOR. + + + + +X + +CREDIT FOR QUALITY IN SECONDARY AND HIGHER EDUCATION + +_From the "Educational Review," March, 1909, and the "Western Journal of +Education" (now the "American Schoolmaster"), May, 1909_ + + +In the _Educational Review_ for May, 1908, Mr. W. B. Secor had an +article under the caption, "Credit for Quality in the Secondary School." +Mr. Secor says, in his opening paragraph, "The present system of giving +credit towards graduation in use in the secondary school, takes account +mainly of the amount of work done.... The student who barely passes his +work gets just the same amount of credit towards graduation as the one +who passes high in the nineties. It is to be expected, then, that the +student ... will reason something like this: I will be graduated if I +pass my work in the seventies just the same as if I pass it in the +nineties. What is the use of wasting time and effort in securing a high +average?" He then suggests a system of marking which "would not only fix +a minimum of quality, but would also recognize different degrees of +quality by giving more credit toward graduation for high quality than +for low," which system, he thinks, would also tend to "a strengthening +of the intellectual life of the secondary school." Mr. Secor does not +claim to be the originator of the idea, giving to President Hyde of +Bowdoin that doubtful honor. He also refers to two articles in the +_Educational Review_, one in the issue of April, 1905, written by +Professor Thomas, of Columbia University, speaking of the system as just +introduced into that institution, and the other in the issue of +December, 1906, by Professor Kennedy, describing the system as then in +use in the University of North Dakota. After these references have been +cited, the system is discust from various points of view and its +extension into the secondary field favored, tho, in his closing +paragraph, Mr. Secor says, "Now the plan here proposed does not claim +perfection. It may not even be a workable scheme when put to the test." + +Mr. Secor's article is but one of many evidences that the experiment now +being tried in a few of our higher institutions of learning, of +attempting to estimate and adequately reward quality as well as quantity +of work done by students, is attracting considerable attention. It is +not at all strange that these experiments are attracting attention, for +the idea is taking and its justice seemingly so apparent. Because of +this interest I desire to examine some parts of Mr. Secor's article and +in the process of that examination briefly discuss the so-called +"Credit-for-quality" idea. I shall be materially aided in such +discussion by my experience with the practical workings of the system in +the University of North Dakota, and shall take the opportunity of +letting the educational world know how the system is working and how it +is being regarded in the institution in which it has been receiving its +most extensive and thoro trial. For while the system did not originate +here, it was here first put into operation, and for years an earnest, +honest, heroic effort has been put forth in its behalf. I might say, +parenthetically, that the details of the system Mr. Secor suggests are +almost identically the ones that have been in use in this institution. +They were found to be faulty, however, and have been materially changed. + +I have read and re-read Mr. Secor's article with both interest and +apprehension; with interest, because the "Credit-for-quality" idea has +been engaging my thoughtful attention on both its practical and its +theoretical sides for a considerable time; with apprehension, since the +article seems to recommend the system for use in our secondary schools. +I am sorry the recommendation has been made for the conclusions I have +reached from my double study are very different from those being held by +Mr. Secor. I seriously question the wisdom of extending the system at +all, even when dealing with students of college rank, much more +seriously, then, when applied to those of the secondary school who are +four years younger, much less mature, and therefore less able to profit +by the meritorious features and at the same time withstand the weakening +influences attendant upon the system. Indeed, I think its adoption in +the secondary schools would be nothing short of a calamity. Another +reason why I feel impelled to speak is that reference is made in Mr. +Secor's article to the working of the system in the institution with +which I am connected as "highly satisfactory." In justice to the system +itself and certainly in view of its suggested extension, that impression +should not be allowed to go forth without modification or correction. I +shall attempt, therefore, in this discussion, to do three things, tho I +shall not try to separate the three spatially: (1) to discuss this +marking system on its merits; (2) to report to the educational world our +findings after an experience with it of five years, and (3) to urge +against its extension into the secondary field. + +Let me say, at the outset, that I have been connected with the +University of North Dakota for three years--the last three of the five +during which the system has been in use. I have had all the time from +one hundred to one hundred twenty-five students. The grading has had to +be done three times a year, since our school year, up to the present +time, has been separated into three terms. Let me also make plain the +fact that in all I say I speak upon my own responsibility, not for the +institution nor for its faculty, tho it is true that nearly, if not +quite, half the faculty hold practically the same views regarding the +system. + +It is true, as Mr. Secor says, that "the present system of giving credit +towards graduation used in our secondary schools takes account mainly of +the amount of work done." It passes upon quality, as he says, only "when +it fixes a passing mark." It may also be true, as he takes for granted, +that it would be desirable to give credit towards graduation for quality +as well as for quantity, but of this I am very much in doubt, especially +in dealing with secondary students. It does not sufficiently take into +consideration the value of content, and that, it seems to me, is a +factor that should not be disregarded. I think I value as highly as most +men the discipline, or mental power, gained by close application; +likewise, the habit of thoroness gained thru doing work well; but yet, +in addition to those acquisitions, I confess that I also place high +value upon knowledge as a possession. In other words, I want the +student, both high school and college, to know something. + +I will gladly admit, however, that it is very desirable to secure from +the student quality as well as quantity. That, I am inclined to think, +is the main thing that Mr. Secor is really after. He thinks the best +way, or, at any rate, a very good way, to get it is thru the device of +giving extra credit toward graduation for the higher grades of work. My +experience with the system does not lead me to that conclusion. Interest +in the subject matter itself is always essential to the doing of a high +quality of work. And such interest in the subject matter of school +studies is scarcely secured by anything so artificial as rewards +smacking of the market. So far as it can not be secured directly, and +resort must be made to artificial incentives to secure it, I think that +incentives can be found much more in keeping with the general spirit and +purpose of education than the constant appeal to the commercial value of +the grades being obtained. The ordinary monthly report card sent to the +home, on which the quality of work being done in the various subjects is +indicated by "excellent," "good," "poor," etc., and even by the too +common "per cent," is artificial stimulus enough. Every teacher knows +what an incentive the report card can be made. To be sure, teachers +differ greatly in their ability to use this card skilfully, but +so used it can exert great power. Not long ago I discust this +"Credit-for-quality" matter with a class of about thirty university +students, mostly freshmen, and, somewhat to my surprise, I discovered +that with the majority of them the chief reason for desiring the "A" +and "B" (our marks for extra credit toward graduation) was not that they +bore the extra credit, but that the descriptive terms "excellent" and +"good" secure extra appreciation from the home when term standings are +reported. This might not be true of any large percentage of university +students, certainly would not be of the upper classes. Added years have +made them shrewder. Under the influence of our system they have become +keener to appreciate a "bargain." But it certainly would be true of a +very large percentage of secondary students. + +Considerable experience in the secondary schools leads me to doubt very +much that the typical high school student reasons as Mr. Secor suggests +in his first paragraph. Some do, of course, and so do some university +students, but not the great body of either. Barring a small percentage, +students as they run, in both high school and college, are an earnest +lot of young people. They are in these institutions for a purpose. They +are seeking, so far as their vision extends, well-developed manhood and +womanhood. Their chief desire is not to slide thru. The two immediate +ends normally in view are consciousness of progressive growth and +appreciation from parent and teacher. How eager the majority are for +this appreciation is well known to all. All the stimulus needed, in +addition to what the subjects and the student's own desire furnish, the +resourceful teacher has at hand wrapt up in his own personality. If any +other stimulus is needed it can be given by a grading of diplomas as is +now being done in many high schools and colleges. I hold that to add to +the marks now in common use what may be called a monetary fringe is +both unnecessary and really subversive of the true ends of the school +work. As teachers we should seek to elevate ideals, not to lower them; +to furnish right motives, not wrong ones; to place before the developing +youth high incentives, not low ones. + +Mr. Secor says, "the proposed plan is superior to the present system in +that it gives a natural and not an artificial incentive to high +scholarship." By what process of reasoning he reaches the conclusion +that mere "marks and honors" are more "unnatural" and "artificial" than +the same marks and honors with a commercial tag appended, I fail to see. +The truth of the matter is, both are artificial. As incentives, both are +low, but it stands to reason that the latter is much lower than the +former. The best friends of the system here, in the University of North +Dakota, admit that, as an incentive, it is both artificial and low. Mr. +Secor goes on to say, "the system" (that is, the "Credit-for-quality") +"puts a premium on thorough-going scholarship by enabling the student to +come up for graduation without being forced to study so many subjects +that he is not able to do any of them well." If our secondary school +courses are so arranged as to force the student "to study so many +subjects that he is not able to do any of them well," then something is +radically wrong with the courses of study. But no evil can be remedied +by introducing a greater. As a matter of fact, the application of the +system does not lead to "thorough-going scholarship," at least not in +the University of North Dakota where, for five years, an honest and +faithful effort has been made to secure that result. In all our +discussions I have never heard one of its friends make that claim for +it, altho the charge has been repeatedly made that it is destructive of +scholarship. The writer goes on to say, "he" (the student) "may +substitute depth for breadth, if he so desires, and is encouraged to do +so." Shall we, in the secondary schools, encourage depth? Yes, to be +sure, relative depth, but not too much of it, and not then at the +expense of breadth. For is not the high school student in that stage of +his development when he responds to the sense of breadth rather than +that of depth? We could not make of him a student of research if we +should try. Let us not try. + +In the last paragraph of the article referred to we find a hint of a +lack of thoro conviction on the part of the writer himself. "It may not +even be a workable scheme when put to the test," he says. Let me say +that here, after five years' use, it is not proving to be satisfactorily +"workable" even with students of college grade, and by a recent faculty +action it has been entirely eliminated from our preparatory department. + +This lack of conviction on the part of Mr. Secor calls to mind an +interesting bit of history connected with the movement. As said before, +it did not originate in the University of North Dakota. Dr. William +DeWitt Hyde, President of Bowdoin College, is responsible for the +suggestion. He sketched the plan in an _Outlook_ article of August 2nd, +1902, but evidently lacking the courage of his conviction did not +introduce it into his own institution, preferring, seemingly, that the +experiment be made elsewhere. This has been, from the start, very +suggestive to me. I have some admiration for President Hyde's +shrewdness. The University of North Dakota fell into the trap thus +skilfully set. And it is easier to fall into a trap than to get out of +it. As a matter of fact, the system is more on trial now, after five +years' use, than ever before. Other institutions would do well to await +further developments. + +In attempting to analyze the situation at the University of North +Dakota, let me again refer to Mr. Secor's article. He says, "The plan, +with some modifications, is at present being used in the University of +North Dakota and in Columbia University with results that are reported +to be highly satisfactory." To substantiate his statement he refers, in +a foot-note, to the articles in the _Educational Review_ from which he +got his information. Now, the conclusion that Mr. Secor reaches from +reading these articles is hardly warranted by the articles themselves. I +fear he read too much between the lines. Let us see: Professor Thomas +wrote of the Columbia system more than three years ago, and only a +couple of months after its adoption; nor does he say anything as to its +success,--in fact, he could not, for there was nothing to say. He merely +explained the new system and gave voice to his expectations. The +Columbia system may be proving "highly satisfactory," but surely that +article does not say that it is. And when the other article is analyzed, +the case is found to be somewhat similar. Professor Kennedy wrote on the +system in the University of North Dakota nearly two years ago, fully two +academic years, for the article appeared in December, 1906, before the +close of the first term of the year 1906-'07. Now two years in the life +of an experiment of this kind is a long time. And Professor Kennedy in +writing his article, did not put the case as strongly as does Mr. Secor +from reading it. All that he said of its successful working was: "We ... +thus far can truthfully say it is working itself out in desirable +results--in more and better work than under the old plan." From these +data, given when they were, Mr. Secor is certainly not justified in +saying that "the plan ... is at present being used in the University of +North Dakota with results that are reported to be highly satisfactory." + +Professor Kennedy's statement was his individual judgment at the time he +wrote his article. A considerable number of his co-laborers would not +then have agreed with him. He probably would not write even as strongly +as that to-day. If he should, a still larger number would disagree. He +might write as strongly of his own belief in the theoretical soundness +of the system, but that is quite another matter. As a matter of fact, +during the last two years the weaknesses of the system have become so +much more apparent that many members of the faculty then favorable, or +at least hopeful, have at last come to despair of ever being able to +eliminate the objectionable features and strengthen the weak points +sufficiently to warrant its retention. + +Professor Kennedy's article goes into detail as to the adoption of the +plan, and clearly states its various changes up to the date of his +writing. In our efforts, since then, to "improve" and "strengthen" it, +various other changes have been made so that, as a matter of fact, one +who knew it in its early history only would hardly recognise it as +planned for use next year (quite different in detail from that now in +use) save in the fundamental principle. That remains the same; the +institution desires to secure a better quality of work from its +students; it also desires to enable the student of exceptional ability +or unusual industry to cut short his period of undergraduate study. To +accomplish these ends it continues to use its so-called +"Credit-for-quality" system of marking. This is done, altho a large and +steadily increasing number of the faculty members feel that it does not +do the first and that it overdoes the second. + +As to these ends: I think that no one on the faculty really feels that, +on the whole, we are getting a better grade of work than should +reasonably be expected without the system; or, to put it in another way, +no one would be bold enough to say that our students are doing better +work than the students of similar institutions that do not use the +system. On the other hand, it is true that some who have come among us +since the adoption of the system give the comparison the less favorable +turn. + +Thru the operation of the system many can and do shorten their course; +too many, I feel. Too many who have neither "exceptional ability" nor +"unusual industry," unless it be ability "to work the Prof." and +industry in that laudable enterprise. The course that normally takes +four full years can be shortened from a portion of a term to a full +year. Prior to June, 1908, the "time saved" could reach to a full year +and a half. True, no one had actually completed a course in two and a +half years, but one young lady's time was only slightly in excess of +that and the excess was fully overbalanced by the time she gave to +outside work--to library assistance for remuneration, and to +journalism. And that gait was being struck by others. It only remained +to be seen how long the wind would hold out. It was clearly possible. +But the faculty became alarmed. Clearly recognizing the above stated +possibility and being wholly unwilling thus to lower its high standard, +it passed a resolution that arbitrarily limits the number of credits a +student may receive in a given time to such an extent as to prevent +graduation in less than three years. But several have gained, and others +are gaining, sufficient surplus to enable them to complete their work in +three years. From fifteen to twenty per cent, it is estimated, are +enabled to shorten their course to that extent. Now some of these are +thoroly good students, and, assuming that the system is sound in +principle, well deserve to profit thereby. But others are just +ordinarily good students, scarcely above the rank and file. In addition +to those who complete their work in three years, some thirty or forty +per cent more shorten it by lesser amounts, ranging all the way down to +an inappreciable period. + +But aside from the system's failure in reaching one of its ends and its +too great success in reaching the other, it has developed numerous and +unfortunate evils that many regard as exceedingly serious, and revealed +weaknesses that seem well nigh impossible to eliminate. Space allows +scarcely more than an enumeration of these, but a mere enumeration is +better than to deal wholly in general terms. (1) In the first place, I +should say that the "Credit-for-quality" system of marking as used by us +places before the students unworthy ideals. Students of university rank +can be led to seek knowledge for knowledge's sake, truth for truth's +sake. They can be taught to see farther ahead than the close of the +term, and something more precious than an extra three-tenths of a +credit. But this thought has already been sufficiently treated earlier +in the article. (2) It leads to faulty methods of study and +unsatisfactory final results. In the preparation of the lessons, a good +recitation, rather than thoro understanding of the subject matter, is +too apt to be the objective point. Many good students have told me that +they find it difficult to resist the tendency to subordinate +understanding to memory. (3) It may lead, often does, to unwise election +of courses. Some teachers mark higher than others. Under the influence +of our system students are very quick to learn these individual +characteristics, and those who have developed the "itching palm" know +how to profit by that knowledge. (4) It places students who receive +extra credit for quality at a disadvantage in seeking to enter other +institutions of learning. The credits thus gained will not be +recognized. This would operate only in making the transfer during the +undergraduate period, but it does there.[1] (5) + + + [1] Experience has shown that I was in error in the statement of + this sentence. It has been found to operate to the disadvantage of + our students entering other institutions in graduate as well as + undergraduate departments. Graduate schools have become very + particular, some of them not being satisfied without passing in + review well nigh the entire former school life of an applicant, + apparently to assure themselves that no short-cuts have been made. + This fact is an interesting confirmation of the position of this + article relative to the importance of content--when it pleads for + quantity, as well as quality. + + This entire matter is made clear by referring to one instance. + Others could be cited. One of our graduates, Miss Ethel J. May, + a very strong student, "profited" by the so-called + "credit-for-quality" system to such an extent that she shortened her + undergraduate period of study by an entire year, receiving her + degree with honor. Then she taught for a few years with signal + success, later returning for graduate work. For her Master's degree + she spent an entire year in study, since the system did not operate + in the graduate department. Again she taught with success, later + entering the University of Illinois as an applicant for the + doctorate. Here it was that her troubles began, and all because she + had thus "profited" way back in her undergraduate days. She was told + that the year "saved" would now have to be made up--that the period + of study for her doctorate would have to be at least three years, + and this in spite of the fact that she held the degree of Master of + Arts from a state university of the first class, and was planning to + continue along the same lines of work. After considerable discussion + and institutional negotiation, this much of a concession was made: + "If your work proves to be excellent, your shortage will be + disregarded." So she went to work with that incubus, or + stimulus--whichever you wish to regard it--over her. Neither she nor + her committee knew how to plan her work, not knowing whether it was + to be for two years or for three. And not until the very close of + her year's work was her status determined--full credit then being + granted for her former degrees. Miss May's sane comment now is, "I + would not advise any one to try to shorten the regular four-year + undergraduate period of study." + (Author 1918) + + +It is demoralizing to both students and teachers. I refer to the +inevitable outcome of such a system; some students (sometimes few and +sometimes many) develop considerable skill in "working the Prof." +Teachers offering elective courses are constantly under great temptation +and students are shrewd enough to know it. And again, under the same +count: it is freely claimed by both teachers and students that the +cheating in examinations, of which we doubtless have our share (some +claim much more than our share, tho personally I doubt it), is very +greatly increased if not largely caused by our system of marking. In +hopes of remedying this some of the students are now urging the +adoption of the "honor system" of conducting examinations. (6) It is +impossible to create uniform standards corresponding to our various +grades. There are as many standards for each grade as there are +instructors. A grade of work for which one instructor would give an "A" +(1.3), another would give a "B" (1.2) and still another a "C" (1.0). +Standards can not be fixt. To show how greatly they differ, in marking +the work for the first term of this year one instructor gave only seven +per cent of his students extra credit, while another thus rewarded more +than seventy per cent of his. This range, however, is abnormal. But a +range of twenty-five per cent to sixty-five per cent is not, even tho +the two instructors have approximately the same students and do +approximately the same grade of work. Other evils and weaknesses might +be mentioned, but these are sufficient to show the tendency. + +On the other hand, what strong paints can be urged as an offset? The +only ones I have ever heard offered are: (1) it is an incentive, and (2) +it does enable students to shorten the period of undergraduate work. I +grant them both, but I hold that the incentive is a low one--much lower +than we need to use--and that the shortening of the course is far from +being an unmixt blessing. + +Let me again refer to the matter of content, upon our value of which, to +quite an extent, our estimate of the merit of the "Credit-for-quality" +system must rest. The young people in our colleges and universities, in +planning for lives of usefulness and success, place themselves in our +hands for direction and guidance. Knowing that we are older, wiser, +more learned, and more experienced than they, they ask our advice and, +in the main, follow it. To the incentives we use in dealing with them, +they respond; the motives we supply urge them on; the standards of value +we erect for them, they use; and the ideals we place before them, they +try to reach. All this places large responsibilities upon us. Are we +wise in telling from fifteen to twenty per cent of these young people +that three years is all the time that it is wise for them to spend in +college work? They will all remain the full four years unless we plan +differently for them. To be sure, there is no magic in the number four +as numbering the years of one's college course, nor in three, nor in +two, nor in any other number. But would not any normal student who +spends four years in the college atmosphere, mingling with college +people, both students and teachers, doing college work, drinking from +the pure fountains of literature, of history, of philosophy, of science, +of art, et cetera, be broader in range and more fully equipt for the +varied and complicated duties of life and for life's enjoyment, than he +would be with only three years thus spent? And is not the fourth year by +far the best of the four? Why shall you and I discourage him from doing +that which we know to be well for him and which he is willing to do? Why +deny him the rare fruitage of that fourth year? Why say to him when he +is just ready to enter into the enjoyments of his student life, "you +would better go?" After all, is it not this very three-year student with +his finer ability, his keener insight, and his greater industry who can +most greatly profit by the extra year? Shall we not rather encourage him +to stay longer and delve deeper and reach to the very heart of things? +Whether looked at from the standpoint of the student's own advantage, or +from that of the world at large, which is to profit by his equipment, is +it not really the four-year or even the five-year student who would +better be excused at the end of the third year? Instead of being in a +hurry to send our choice students away, let us get them to do their high +quality of work just the same, but to do it during four years instead of +three. They are the very ones who will most readily respond to such +appeals and they will so respond unless we put other notions into +their heads. It is sometimes urged, in justification of the +"Credit-for-quality" idea, that one student in three years can +accomplish more, in gaining both knowledge and mental power, than +another in four. There is no doubt about it. Some can do more in two +years than others in four; some in one, and some with no college work +can easily outstrip others with the best advantages. Shall we say to +such an one, "you do not need to go to college--it would be time +wasted"? By no means. Above all others we want him because he can most +largely profit by what he gets, and we shall reap the reward later on. +But supposing one student at the close of his third college year is +better able to make his way in the world than another at the end of his +fourth year, that is not the question at all. The function of the +college is not to bring students to a level, but to develop each one to +the utmost. Each should be considered separately and the question asked, +"the longer or the shorter term--which will do the more for him?" + +Some other developments here can hardly fail to be of interest. +Originally planned to operate in our entire institution, exclusive of +the College of Law into which it was not allowed to enter, this system +has gradually been eliminated from all the colleges save the College of +Liberal Arts and Teachers College. True, in these colleges of exclusion +the matter of content figures more prominently than in the others--the +curricula are more fixt--but that is far from being the only reason for +the exclusion. And even more suggestive as touching the secondary school +extension recommended by the article under discussion, is our recent +action excluding the system from our preparatory department, now being +transformed into a model high school for Teachers College. This +elimination, likewise, was in part due to the fixt number of courses +demanded of all secondary schools, but yet, not largely so. When this +matter came up for decision it needed no emphasis upon that point to +carry the recommendation. It would have carried without those +conditions. The strongest advocates of the system did not, by a single +word, urge its retention in the Model High School. All felt, seemingly, +that it was not well suited to students of that grade. + + NOTE.--The reason for repeating this article here is largely + historical, tho interest in the matter discust occasionally crops + out even yet. It will be of interest to some who have not otherwise + heard of it to learn that the University of North Dakota long since + discarded the system. It was voted out completely early in the year + 1910. And thus was realized Professor Kennedy's apprehension + exprest in his _Educational Review_ discussion of 1906: "We have, I + grant, had our doubts and fears, knowing well that many a promising + theory lies high and dry on the shoals of the past." + + + + +INDEX + + Academies, 221 + + Adolescent, 46-49, 54-56, 67, 68, 74, 81, 85, 219, 231 + + Adults, 211, 212, 213 + + Aliens, education of, 25 + + Alien people, 21 + + Appleton's Cyclopedia, 165 + + Arithmetic, 154 + + Ayers, 120 + + Barnard, Henry, 220 + + Bay State, Old, 64 + + Binet, 57 + + Boards of Education, 45, 156, 195 + + Bowdoin College, 243, 250 + + Burbank, Luther, 166 + + Burns, Robert, 136, 138 + + Bureau of Education, 19 + + Butler, Nicholas Murray, 96, 97, 103 + + California, 233, 234 + + Carter, 218 + + Child, the, 43, 44, 45, 68, 116, 117, 121, 140, 141, 147, 151, 154, 195 + + Child Study, 43, 45, 49, 54, 58, 85 + + Child-Welfare, 49 + + Church, 133, 141-159 + + Civil War, 107, 222 + + College, 69-82, 104, 110, 165, 167, 217-237 + Law, 260 + Liberal Arts, 84, 99, 260 + + College, Preparation for, 71, 73 + Teachers, 45, 219-238 + + Commissioner of Education, 27 + + Community Service, 73 + + Connecticut, 31, 220 + + County Training School, 219 + + "Credit-for-Quality" System, 243-260 + + Cronin, Dr., 125 + + Dante, 144, 145 + + Democracy, 29, 31-34, 41, 65, 171, 172, 173, 180 + + Department of Education, 20 + + Dewey, John, 42, 43 + + Diaz, President, 31 + + Dooley, Mr., 95 + + Dwight, Edmund, 31, 218 + + Education + Boards of, 45, 84, 156, 195 + Bureau of, 19 + Department of, 108, 109, 218, 219, 223 + Elementary, 65, 75 + History of, 81, 82, 83, 84, 227, 228 + Motive in, 38 + Philosophy of, 81, 84 + Physical, 50, 66, 155, 203 + Principles of, 82, 83, 224 + Professional, 81 + School of in North Dakota, 82-85 + School of, 83-85, 108-111, 218 + Secondary, 75, 84, 85, 164 + Universal, 24 + + Educational mesurements, 56 + + Educational psychologist, 56, 58, 59 + + Educational Review, 243, 251, 260 + + Educational Survey, 51, 52, 59 + + Elementary School, 65, 66, 67, 73, 74, 105, 106, 107, 108, 230, 231 + + England, 30, 173 + + Entrance requirements, 44, 48, 76, 80 + + Ernest, Duke, 32 + + Euthydemus, 98 + + Eye, 115-118, 120, 121, 129 + + Federal Government, 28 + + Folk, Joseph W., 173, 174 + + Foster, President, 95, 102, 105 + + France, 32, 229 + + Frederick the Great, 30, 32 + + Frederick William I, 30 + + Froebel, 39 + + Garfield, ex-President, 90 + + Georgia, 24 + + Germans, 30, 31 + + Germany, 32, 120, 229 + + Gladstone, William Ewart, 173, 174 + + Gotha, 32 + + Government, the, 19 + + Grand Forks, North Dakota, 186-199 + + Greek, 99, 100 + + Gulick, 120 + + Harris, Dr. William T., 231 + + Harvard College, 65, 219, 224 + + Heeter, S. L., 124, 125 + + Herbart, 39 + + High Schools, 44-47, 53, 55, 63-86, 107, 108, 220, 223, 233, 234, + 247, 248 + + High School Teacher, 46-49, 80-85, 178, 222, 223, 228, 233-238 + + Hill, James J., 166 + + History, 154, 155 + + History of Education, 81, 82, 83, 84, 224 + + Home, 26, 66, 133-159 + + Homer, 99, 100 + + Hyde, President, 243, 250 + + Illiteracy, 20-24 + + Individualism, Theory of, 39, 43 + + Iowa, Legislature of, 49 + + Jefferson City, 120, 123 + + Johnson, Hiram W., 173 + + Jordan, David Starr, 72, 177 + + Kennedy, Professor, 244, 251, 252, 260 + + Law, School of, 108, 110 + + Leadership, 75-81, 163-181 + + Lecture method, 99-103 + + Lincoln, 166 + + Literature, 232, 234, 258 + + Lloyd-George, David, 166 + + Locke, 203 + + Longfellow, 207 + + Los Angeles, 123 + + Louises, the, of France, 32 + + McAdoo, Mr., 218, 220 + + Mann, Horace, 218, 220 + + Massachusetts, 24, 25, 31, 65, 107, 220 + + Medical Inspection, 22, 27, 193, 194 + + Medicine, School of, 108, 110 + + Methods of Teaching, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Firing Line in Education, by +Adoniram Judson Ladd + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE FIRING LINE IN EDUCATION *** + +***** This file should be named 21762.txt or 21762.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/7/6/21762/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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