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Curriculum Revision

(Continued from page 119)

rapidly moving thing. If we are to accept the static concept our task is simple. In writing a course of study one could not want a simpler problem than to take an arbitrary objective and select the processes that the pupil must go through in order to get there. But if we take the dynamic point of view our task is a very difficult one and therein lies the challenge. We must perfect our technique of analyzing present life. We must be able to point out in definite terms what is the meaning of a large part of the world in ruins. If one thinks it is impossible to give definiteness to a question of that sort, let him get a suggestion from the December number of the Century in an article by its editor entitled "The Wages of Complexity," or on the "Biology of Death."

What is the meaning of society's great big infant, the modern city? What is the meaning of our industrial situation? What is the meaning of our present system of worldwide communication which brings to bear upon the mind of nearly every individual stimuli which constitute an immense novel situation in the history of intelligence? What is the meaning of the interdependence of our present life which would make the failure of one bank in New York City of direct consequence to you and to me even if we had never heard of it? These and many other questions must grow in their meanings in the minds of our boys and girls as they come up through our schools. Scientific attack combined with sufficient industry will bring about inventions in the technique of education quite as remarkable and far more significant than those which have been so wonderfully effective in the physical sciences. We have long since learned that boys and girls are thinking individuals. I believe we have been too long a time in accepting that fact, but one who has analyzed the processes of thinking can observe them clearly as they operate in boys and girls long before they are old enough to start to school. There are those who would at once say: Well, this may be thinking that boys and girls do at this early age, but it is not reflective thinking, the kind of thinking that is a guide to action. I have never been able to discover what kind of thinking these people have in mind. So far as I can find out one might as well conjecture how many angels can stand on the point of a pin as to try to make a distinction between reflective thinking and any thinking that is thinking. As soon as one gets down to that which constitutes thinking he admits that he has never known anyone above the imbecilic grade who did not think. For instance, do you know a four year old child above the imbecilic grade who cannot think in the situations that are his at his age and foresee the consequences of contemplated ways of action? True, his foresight may not reach far, it may not restrain him much against the wrong way, but the significant thing is that it is there, and it is our business to recognize the fact that it is there and to bring to bear upon it through the most refined processes of which we are capable the significant phases of our social inheritance as the child goes through school. Then this foresight which grows out of education as life will from year to year grow in its reach. He will not go out of the high school nor out of the university fully educated, not by any means. He will go into the world with a drive, because his twelve or sixteen or twenty years of school experience will have meant that many years pointedly given to interpretations of life in terms of all the meaning that has

been given by our social inheritance. He will have an attitude of mind that is open and growing, because it has never been closed. Seeing life in its meanings, its significance, he will be highly motivated. An individual's forward drive comes from seeing. Seeing far enough, he will know that the successful life is never finished. He will see failure to move on to better things as slackerism.

Tes

Influence of Classroom

carry education along on this basis, the entire profession must co-operate. Each must contribute the best which he can give to the sum total. No small group is equal to the task and no leadership will function unless it grows out of the thinking of all. Leadership is not an abstract thing. It grows out of concrete demands as people face needs. Το be sure, it in turn stimulates those who follow to greater recognition of needs, but it is a process of mental interaction which could not go on were there thinking only on one side. So we cannot have courses of study written by people who are far removed from the situation of the classroom. Our experts in research laboratories are indeed essential. No constructive person will overlook their significance. But the point here is that in a profession of non-participation they could not in the first place come about and, further, they can move up to the higher positions only as the profession as a whole responds with added intelligence.

Leadership evolves out of a field charged
with stimuli. The great brain of Thomas
A. Edison is in itself superior to other
brains only in terms of neurones. Stimuli
got better responses from it than from
more inferior brains, that is true, but the
stimuli had to be there. Upon this great
brain just referred to has played the stim-
uli that are now emanating from thousands
of laboratories all over the world. If Edi-
son had been born before this vast field
grew to its present extent, could he have
reached his present accomplishment? To
ask the question is to answer it. It is clear
that if we are to evolve leadership to its
highest peaks we must lift it by building
under it. Let it be the pinnacle that we
want ever to be higher, but do not lose
sight of the fact that man has not yet found
a way to raise the highest point of any
edifice without first giving attention to the
basic structure. Intellectual leadership is
projected from the great body of intelli-
gence. It does not spring up apart from
Therefore, it follows that those who
are to do the special research work in
curriculum making, whether they are in
the university or elsewhere, will become
more expert as class-room teachers and all
practitioners in the field make contri-
butions.

it.

The contribution of the classroom teacher is especially important at this time. She has been working with the psy chologists in coming to an understanding of the laws of learning. She has been growing in the recognition of the

*The feminine pronoun is here used because most classroom teach. ers in our public schools are women.

fact that only as we are able to adjust materials and classroom conditions to these laws do we succeed in teaching. There are those who seem to think that a program of curriculum revision which is made to include the active participation of large numbers of teachers is in that respect a mere sham, a bait to get teachers to feel better about the program when it goes into effect. People who take this view sometimes insinuate that a course of study cannot be scholarly when written on any such basis. But let us see about this question of scholarship.

Consider a history course written by an expert in history as such. This course will no doubt be excellent from the point of view of accuracy of facts presented, chronological order of events, significant movements as measured by the life of today, but from the point of view of how boys and girls learn, this course in all probability will not function. And unless scholarship is something quite different from sense, a course of study that cannot be earned would have to be considered stupid. We are justified here as elsewhere in measuring efficiency by comparing results to purposes. It is obvious that in this case we need the expert in the subject matter of

history as such and we need the point of view of the teacher who understands teaching. The two together make scholarship in this sort of thing.

Similarly it could be shown that the experience of every legitimate participant in the profession of education is vital to any constructive program for education under the ideals of a civilization striving toward democracy. It calls for the best blood of the land. If we get the vision and articulate it in terms of a great battle between civilization and catastrophe, if we look back over our shoulders and see the ruins, then look ahead and see in America what may be the last hope of the world, how can we fail to summon the best energy of our day as such calls have always done.

School Problems and Progress (Continued from page 117)

which will prevail? Can a naturalized American be President? When

a

Representative dies in office, how is his place filled? Does the Constitution operate, primarily, as a check upon the people or as a check upon the government? How many electoral votes does your State have? Where do all federal revenue bills originate? Why? How and for what reasons may a President be removed from office? What Constitutional qualifications must one possess in order to become President of the United States? What part of the Constitution is known as the "Bill of Rights"? Enumerate the chief of these "rights." What is a democracy? What is a republic? Who may vote for members of the House of Representatives? Senate? Does the Constitution provide for a Cabinet? Where?

The

Again the Platoon School. platoon school is not a new idea in American education, writes James E. Chinn in the Washington Star. Sixty Sixty cities in twenty-four states have adopted it to combat over-crowding, and many and varied are the platoon systems now in use, he points out. Fundamentally, the platoon school is a single school with two different types of facilities in more or less constant and simultaneous operation throughout the day. The duplicate school endeavors to give a longer day, a richer curriculum and more varied activities with the most intensive use of the school plan. Then, the writer goes on to say:

The platoon system requires enough regular classrooms to seat one-half the pupil capacity of the school; special

facilities sufficient to care for the other half. These facilities are: Auditorium, 10 per cent of the enrollment; gymnasium, 10 per cent of the enrollment; music room, 5 per cent of the enrollment; art room, 5 per cent of the enrollment; library, 5 per cent of the enrollment; science and geography, 5 per cent of the enrollment; and playground, 5 per cent of the enrollment.

Mr. Chinn declares that other modifications are essential, occasioned by this plan of platooning, in the way of correlation, and he points them out as follows:

1. A longer school day because certain activities carried on outside of the five-hour day in the traditional school are incorporated into the daily program of the platoon school. Unless this time is provided for by lengthening the school day to six hours in the platoon schools, this additional time must be taken out of the time now devoted to the so-called fundamentals in the traditional schools.

2. A more varied school equipment to provide appropriate education while pupils are assigned to the special facilities.

3. A corps of teachers' especially trained for these special activities which would become a part of the daily program of every pupil.

Professional Problems in Nebraska. At a recent meeting of the

executive and legislative committees of the Nebraska State Teachers Association, it was agreed that a state-wide survey of educational institutions should be undertaken. Such a survey, it is pointed out, should include the management, financing, and correlation of the educational system of the state in general. In this connection, it is agreed:

1. That if such a state-wide survey is undertaken, it would be conducted by a strictly non-partisan and non-political board.

2. That the board of surveyors should be financed to enable it to secure expert help required to obtain comprehensive data.

3. That all public schools and state aid educational institutions, including all from the primary grade schools up to the state university, should be surveyed with the purpose of securing for the state an "adequate return" for the money expended on education.

It was brought out, during the discussions, that a survey of the educational system of the state has never been made, and that important and actual facts about the public school system are not known. Nebraska spends $25,000,000 annually for educational purposes, and the joint committee worked upon the suggestion for a state-wide educational survey in the light of a sound business undertaking. The members of the committees named are as follows:

Legislative committee: John Matzen, state superintendent; E. L. Rouse, Scottsbluff, chairman; H. B. Simon, Norfolk: Olivia Pound, Lincoln: Jennie Adams, Lincoln; A. V. Teed, Wayne; W. R. Richardson, Ponca; Maude Beery, Lincoln. Members of the executive committee are: Eva B. Shuman, Fairbury; J. H. Beveridge, Omaha; E. E. Lackey, Wayne; H. O. Sutton, Kearney; J. C. Mitchell, Holdrege; C. H. Bright, Chadron.

A

Progressive Steps at Seattle. series of notable addresses were delivered before the sectional groups of Seattle teachers, last September, by Dr. W. C. Reavis, principal of the University High School and professor of education in the University of Chicago, in the interest of curriculum revision and the advancement of the studies preparatory to the establishment of the first intermediate schools. One of the most noteworthy features of the week was Dr. Reavis's address on "Professionalizing Principalship" which was delivered before the high school principals at a dinner given in honor of Dr. Reavis. The subjects which Dr. Reavis presented, during his stay at Seattle, were the following:

Constructive Pupil Accounting. Sec-
tional meeting, Science.
Supervised Study. Sectional meet-
ing, Foreign Language.
Sectional meeting, History and Eng-
lish.

Sectional meeting, Mathematics.
Sectional meeting, Boys and Girls Ad-
visors.

Professionalizing Principalship.

Superintendent Thomas R. Cole's policy of securing the services of well known educational leaders to assist in the development of Seattle's new educational program has brought many distinguished men to Seattle. Dr. Fred C. Ayer, University of Washington, devotes part time service to research work in the Seattle schools. His work in this field has attracted attention throughout the country. Other lecturers have been Dean William S. Gray, Chicago, and Dr. Otis W. Caldwell, director of the Lincoln School of Teachers College.

New Salary Schedule, Washington, D. C. Superintendent Frank W. Ballou submits the new Washington salary schedule passed by Congress at the last session. The new law which contains this higher schedule also carries important provisions looking toward

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In Washington teachers serve on tenure after one year of satisfactory probationary service. Teachers may be credtionary service. Teachers may be credited with outside experience and placed on the fifth year of the elementary school schedule and on the sixth year of the high and normal school schedule. Teachers on tenure automatically advance one hundred dollars per year until the maximum salary for Group A is reached. Group B salary schedule is provided for those teachers whose su perior teaching, advanced study and higher professional equipment justify for them higher compensation than all teachers receive. Promotions from Group A schedule to Group B schedule will be made on the basis of such evidence as the Board of Education may determine. While this salary schedule does not provide Washington teachers and officers with as high compensation as is provided in some other cities the new schedule does place Washington

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I think the use of the word "Gary" is very unfortunate. The principles underlying the Gary system, however, are sound and were in use long before the Gary schools adopted them. Moreover, the Gary schools carried them to an extreme and brought in more activities than should be adopted. But any system, by the principle of using space especially, when there is any conges. in a school 100 per cent of the time, tion, is certainly sound. Even with the very creditable building program that the New York City board of education

is putting through, it will never be possible for a city growing as rapidly as New York is to keep abreast of the increase of the population with its schools unless to a certain extent the principle of double registration is utilized. This, however, is very far from being Gary. ism. Call it platooning or utilizing the work-study-play plan as you will, but certainly the city of Gary has no patent on it, and distorted it.

Five Outstanding Educational Topics. Acting upon the recommendation of Superintendent Frank W. Ballou, Washington, D. C., the board of education recently agreed to give special consideration to five outstanding educational topics of vital interest to the welfare of the public school system. The intelligence tests which have been attacked, recently, by Brigadier-General Amos A. Fries, chief of the chemical warfare service of the Army, and others, were considered at a special meeting called for that purpose. The other subjects have been discussed successively at regular meetings, an hour being set aside for each. The topics and the order in which they were considered are as follows:

1. The work of the community center department.

2. Proposed legislation which includes the reorganization bill growing out of the Capper committee report, the five-year building program, the compulsory school attendance bill, and free text-books.

3. Organization of the work of the board of examiners, including eligibility requirements for certain positions, examination for certain positions, and examinations for promotions to group B salaries.

4. Rules of the board of education.

Chicago Teachers' Councils. In view of the public interest in the matter and more or less confusion in the minds of the people of Chicago as to the situation in the schools regarding teachers' councils, six members of the board of education of that city recently issued a statement in which it is deplored that any impression, if there be such, that the consideration of dismissal of schools for teachers' councils "has been accompanied by acrimony, belligerency, bitterness, turmoil, or disruption of the schools." From the daily reports of supervisors, from the visits of superintendents to the schools, it appears, the statement declares, that teachers, principals, and members of the supervising

staff have been working steadily, unperturbed in the performance of their duties. Continuing, the statement sets forth:

The superintendent of schools receiving from principals, teachers, parents and citizens protests against interruptions of regular school service declined early last term, as was his right and duty, to authorize curtailment of the teaching periods. As is not unnatural there were reasons for and against such curtailment. After having listened to various arguments the undersigned

members of the board of education have come to the conclusion that the dismissal of classes for the councils is contrary to the best interest of the school service. We oppose dismissal of classes because we believe that the city is entitled to full, regular, uninterrupted attention to instruction of its children. Furthermore, we have found no instance in other cities where schools have been teachers' councils. We recognize as one dismissed for the purpose of holding of the chief functions of the board of education careful supervision of the expenditure of public funds and the strictest fidelity to a program for the prevention of waste. In 1914, the total school budget was approximately seventeen million dollars per annum; for

1924, the total school budget is in excess of fifty-nine million dollars; and yet it has become almost impossible to provide the children of the city with proper housing and instruction. A longer and not a shorter period of service seems imperative.

This statement points out that the report of the recommendations made by the teachers' councils, during the past two years, to the superintendent shows only one proposal by the council which has been adopted by the superintendent. To operate these councils for the past two years, according to the auditor, says the statement, has cost the citizens of Chicago, approximately, $330,000, which seems, according to the statement, an exhorbitant sum to pay for the benefits received. The statement is in accord with the superintendent in the expression of the belief that a school system benefits greatly by advice from every source and especially by suggestions offered by those who are performing the daily work of the schools, and moreover, the statement expresses confidence that the superintendent will work out some plan which will contribute to that end in a form satisfactory to all concerned.

Among the Books

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Books Received

The University Classics Series. This attractive series of classics, published under the general editorship of J. W. Searson, Professor of English, University of Nebraska, presents an efUniversity of Nebraska, presents an ef. fective and unique scheme of procedure in the field of classics for young people. Each classic is accompanied by a definite, clear-cut working program for teachers and students. This program is organized to help the student to acquire an appreciation of the beauty and philosophy of the message which the author expresses in poem, play, or tale. Another effective feature of these volumes is the happily arranged introduction to each poem or tale, which is

intended, evidently, to make appreciation even more spontaneous. The introduction to each classic is not only a realistic description of how the classic came to be written, but it points out, also, in interesting fashion the sources drawn upon by the author. The questions which appear at the close of each classic, or at the end of a volume, are clear, concise, and worded to stimulate thought. Explanatory notes in convenient form appear at the foot of the page and not in the mysterious back of the book where they are so liable to be overlooked by the average student. Maps, charts, and original diagrams offer most effective and illuminating backgrounds to stimulate lasting im

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7.

Galapagos: World's End

William Beebe

8.

The Outline of History

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THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. Edited by J. W. Searson, professor of English, University of Nebraska.

THE LADY OF THE LAKE. Edited by J. W. Searson, professor of English, University of Nebraska.

Harcourt Houghton Doubleday & Wagnalls Houghton Harper

Putnam

SELECTED POEMS OF WORDSWORTH. Edited by Virgil L. Jones, Professor of English, University of Arkansas.

POEMS AND TALES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE. Edited by Joseph Paxton Simmons, Principal of the High School, Austin, Texas.

JULIUS CAESAR. Edited by J. W. Searson, professor of English, University of Nebraska.

SILAS MARNER. Edited by J. W. Searson, professor of English, University of Nebraska.

It is announced that other volumes in this series are in preparation. (University Publishing Co., Lincoln, Nebr.)

Othello the Moor of Venice. Edited by C. H. Herford, professor of English Literature, University of Manchester, revised by Raymond M. Alden, professor of English Literature, Stanford University. This is one of the Arden Shakespeare series. Pages 176. (D. C. Heath and Co., New York).

Where Our History Was Made. Book Two. By John T. Faris. Readers of the stories in the two volumes will be able to say with satisfaction, "That happened in my state"; for the tales of people and places have to do with nearly every state in the Union. They will illuminate many aspects of American history and will create in boys and girls an appetite for side lights on his tory that will pave the way for the later independent investigation that gives life to all study. Pages 358. (SilverBurdett and Co., New York).

Salvaging of American Girlhood. By Isabel Davenport. By Isabel Davenport. A substitution of normal psychology for superstition and eroticism in the education of girls. Price $3. Pages 302. (E. P. Dutton and Co., New York).

The Field Third Reader. By Walter Taylor Field. Pages 316. (Ginn and Co., Boston).

For

Physiology and Hygiene. Secondary Schools. By Francis M. Walters, professor of physiology and hygiene State Teachers College, Warrensburg, Missouri. A teachable treatise on the actual science of physiology and the facts of hygiene set forth as "applied physiology." Pages 426. (D. C. Heath and Co., New York).

Elements of Rural Economics. By Thomas Nixon Carver. Price $1.48.

Pages 266. (Ginn and Co., Boston).

The Song of Three Friends and The Song of Hugh Glass. By John G. Neihardt. A narrative dealing with the fur trade period of the Trans-Missouri region. Pages 335. souri region. Pages 335. (Macmillan Co., New York).

The New Agriculture. By Henry Jackson Waters. This book is interesting and practical with a treatment so clear and definite that a student may apply with success what he learns in class to his work on his home farm.

Corra Harris

Price $1.60. Pages 549. (Ginn and Co., Boston).

The Brotherhood of Man. A pageant presenting the development of the ideal of brotherhood from its personal to its international phases through a prologue and eight episodes. By Alice C. D. Riley. Price $1.50. Pages 49. (A. S. Barnes and Co., New York).

Psychology and Self-Development. By Henry Eastman Bennett. The ideal of this book is to help stu dents in the development of their own minds. Pages 296. Price $1.48. (Ginn and Co., Boston).

Business Correspondence. By P. H. Deffendall. Pages 267. (Macmillan Co., New York).

Social and Political History of Britain. By R. L. Mackie. An introduction to British history, which shows the lines along which the peoples in these islands have developed, and which indicates the most significant events in that development. For use in upper classes of elementary schools or lower classes of secondary schools. Pages 439. (World Book Co., Yonkers-onHudson, N. Y.)

Students' Handbook. Term plan in English. Seventh year. By Stella Stewart Center. Pages 64. (Boni and Liveright, New York).

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