Trend of College Entrance IN THE EARLIER COLLEGE DAYS entrance was obtained only by passing examinations in the various subjects required. At the present time no fewer than 10 different methods of admission to college are in use in the various colleges of the United States. All colleges will admit on examination, and all but a very few will admit on certificate. Neither method has proved entirely satisfactory, and two new methods have recently appeared which bid fair to develop into the most important methods of the future. The first of these methods is the plan initiated at Harvard in 1911, and the second is the psychological examination plan initiated at Columbia in 1919. As a part of each method a complete set of data concerning the applicant-his record, aspirations, interests, etc. as well as special recommendations are required. The results of the use of these new types of admission methods have indicated that each has a high selective reliability, when the subsequent records of the students are considered. There is a very definite movement to select from the field of candidates only those who are considered the "best risks." The method most commonly used is to take only those who are in the upper part of the high-school graduating class, those who have made better than passing marks, etc. Eleven per cent of the colleges now use some such procedure as against one per cent in 1913. This field promises the most significant developments in the articulation of high school and college during the next few years. Enrollment in liberal-arts colleges has increased more than 500 per cent since 1890. The resources of the colleges have also increased greatly but not in proportion to the number of students. The result is that colleges are crowded and are beginning to limit the size of entering classes. A number of methods are used to select applicants, among which such elements as interests, abilities, capacities, preparations, intellectual records, ambitions, and the like are receiving most attention. Limitation promises to become the rule rather than the exception within a very few years. HARRY CHARLES MCKOWN In Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1924, No. 35 CONTENTS Education the Resultant of Many Forces Acting in Divers Ways. Walter M. W. Splawn National Congress of Parents and Teachers Holds Convention in Austin, Tex. 192 194 195 197 200 page 3 of cover page 4 of cover A Kindergarten-Primary School Project Involving Handwork. Florence C. Fox. A BRIEF LIST of the publications of the Bureau of Education which are of especial value to ELE MENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS has recently been prepared, and it may be obtained without charge upon application to the Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. A few of the documents may be had gratuitously, but the majority of them should be purchased at nominal cost from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. The list comprises 37 titles, including a great variety of subjects. The following are examples: Diagnosis and treatment of young school failures; Major projects in elementary schools; List of books for a teacher's professional library; Suggestions on art education for elementary schools; Lessons in civics for the six elementary grades; Training in courtesy; Games and other devices for improving pupils' English; Program of education in accident prevention; Declaration of Independence ( fac simile); Constitution of the United States. SCHOOL CHOOL LIFE is an official organ of the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education. It is published monthly except in July and August. The subscription price, 50 cents a year, should be sent to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., and not to the Bureau of Education. Single copies are sold at 5 cents each. For postage to countries which do not recognize the mailing frank of the United States, add 25 cents a year. Published Monthly, except July and August, by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education VOL. X WASHINGTON, D. C., JUNE, 1925 No. 10 Education the Resultant of Many Forces Acting in Divers Ways Most Important Agencies for Educating the Youth are the Family, the School, the Church, the Press, the Motion Picture, and Sundry Organizations. Many Persons Profit as Much from Recreational Activities as from Formal Instruction. Motion Pictures Exert Powerful Influence Upon Ethical and Aesthetic Standards. Newspapers Unduly Emphasize Exceptional Occurrences. Chief Responsibility for Education Rests with Family T By WALTER M. W. SPLAWN, President University of Texas RAINING of the youth has always been regarded as fundamental. In every race and age, in every degree of civilization, in every clime, the young have been educated according to the habits of living and the ideals of the particular group. In primitive conditions the family assumed most of the responsibility for training the young. In the more advanced stages of civilization the family has delegated to various agencies much of the work of training or teaching. One of the earliest of these, developed through family cooperation, was the church. The church in time came to maintain a school or schools. We now speak of the home, the church, and the school as three great socializing agencies. Press the Most Important Supplementary Agency Not all the training of youth is now done by these three, however. As important as they are, other supplementary agencies have appeared and are appearing. Notable among them is the press. Of more recent appearance, but of farreaching influence, is the moving-picture show. Then there are miscellaneous agencies, some of more importance than others, such as Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, and divers local associations and arrangements for play and recreation. For our purposes we may mention as six of the most important agencies for educating the youth: First, the family; second, the school; third, the church; fourth, the press; fifth, the moving picture; and sixth, a miscellaneous assortment of organizations. Address before National Congress of Parents and Teachers, Austin, Tex. 46515°-25 Let us now consider these in reverse order from that just mentioned. First, we shall think of the miscellaneous activities. We do not always regard a recreational club or activity as having educational value, yet a great many children and young people profit more from some of these activities than they do from the formal discipline of the older agencies. One reason for this, perhaps, is that there is a certain spontaneity, a chance for initiative, opportunity for self-expression, that is too often lacking where require ments have been standardized and where the teaching and activities are largely controlled by tradition and convention. These miscellaneous activities may be graded from the voluntary gangs of small boys up to a summer camp under expert and competent supervision. Miscellaneous activities, such as athletic clubs, and boys' and girls' clubs, are usually organized for recreational purposes, yet a byproduct may be, and frequently is, very valuable training. That is to say, certain important qualities of character are sometimes stressed and developed. Especially is this true among such organizations as the Boy Scouts. There may be a chance to learn something useful or something that will at least afford wholesome pleasure. Activities of Leisure Hours Becoming Complex With the increased leisure of the American people, these activities are growing in numbers and complexity. Parents would do well to look into them, study them, and appraise them because they consume, first and last, many of the waking hours of children, even from the tender years of six or eight until manhood. Then, too, some of these activities are good and others are bad. Appeal of Moving Pictures is Universal Second, we are justified in singling out the moving picture from other commercialized forms of entertainment because of the universality of the appeal made and because of the tens of millions of people who patronize the moving picture theater with more or less regularity. The moving picture makes the appeal through the eye. It has the power to stir the imagination as the printed page would do only in the exceptional and gifted. The moving picture is having a profound influence upon the ethical and aesthetic standards of the American people. The moving picture does and will contribute largely, either to breaking down the old-fashioned and time-honored moral code, or to strengthening that code which has been accepted as a matter of course among civilized people even from before the time of Moses. If children and young people, plastic and sensitive to suggestion, follow with absorbed interest hour after hour and week after week the stories that are thrown upon the screen, it is inevitable that their characters will be affected by what they look upon. A greater truth was never spoken than that which Tennyson put into the mouth of old Ulysses, when he made him say, "I am a part of all that I have met." Aesthetic standards, too, are tremendously influenced by the motion picture. Whether the American people to-morrow will love the beautiful or tolerate the ugly will, in some measure, be determined by the pictures of to-day. The motion picture is designed to entertain. It 181 |