Crs te 3 . 2h Das feta Seeingreeeerseaerersawas, PTA Bie, USES At & raterus: or dig he ee. ed waeethi - to at PUeRheted Derbi ete lan Fatt 4 cage tng cate Opa m ca : b beet Pid Dy eh crs sie wee Nae mm a Bente ? Bene Aas As . Shiitgis dstassceses Seer *. eivra re ae ie iresteuae ai het ERAT LA a reste? cose Gtk arty va RT Niue tie aS |. BZ280 an hay Ba” 5 | fi oe AAR ; meats Sy rs. . oT 4 ~~ el "3 F o iy x A | i on | PLATOON SCHOOL | THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK - BOSTON - CHICAGO - DALLAS ATLANTA + SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LimiTED LONDON + BOMBAY - CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LimitrEep TORONTO THE PLATOON SCHOOL peo OY ORR eA TATIONS OF TAE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ORGANIZA- LONG Omi BE CUR RIC UEUM BY EUAN oot oie UN Ge PHL), DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS DETROIT, MICHIGAN New Bork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1929 All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1924, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published August, 1924. Reprinted December, 1925 ; June, 19209. * PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAs FOREWORD In his upward struggle from savagery to the higher plane of civilization the creative genius of man, as his means of control have increased, has fashioned tools of stone and of metal. These inanimate things are mean- ingless in themselves. They are merely the expression in permanent form of the ideals and aspirations of the individual and of the ever changing social groups of which he has been a part. They are the milestones which mark the progress of civilization. By the same token, all social organizations are the objective embodiment of society’s ambitions and struggles toward some coveted goal. The school curriculum, the school organization, and the archi- tectural environment in which instruction takes place are the resultants of many complex and contending forces which in ages gone by have influenced educa- tional thought. The universe is dynamic and the law of life is change. Devices and mechanisms may be transient and fleeting. That which bulks large today may become a mere speck on the educational horizon tomorrow. Fundamental truths alone are permanent and lasting. Therefore, every new type of school organization must stand an acid test. It must square with the past; it must serve the present ; it must hold abundant hope for the future. This dissertation undertakes to submit to this acid v Vi FOREWORD test a new type of school organization, the platoon school. It recognizes the curriculum to be merely the outcome of varied and diverse social forces. It views the organization as the mechanical device through which the curriculum finds expression. It conceives the school building as the physical environment in which the curriculum and organization may function. This discussion is concerned with the genesis of the twentieth century curriculum and with an analysis of those social factors which have produced it. It is concerned with the nature of the twentieth century school organization as it has evolved from the more simple forms which have preceded it. It is concerned with the twentieth century school building as the lineal descendant of the simple and primitive structures of an earlier day. In a word, it aims to discover how the platoon school squares with the past. This treatise also seeks to determine in what measure the platoon school serves the present. It undertakes to inquire whether its curriculum reflects those social ideals and aims which are most worth while; whether as an organization it functions in harmony with sound principles of philosophy, psychology, and physiology ; whether architecturally it provides an environment conducive to the health, happiness, and progress of the children; whether its educational product is of high standard ; and whether its varied activities and facilities can be provided without imposing an unreasonable financial burden upon the public. Finally, this thesis contemplates the platoon school in the light of the future trend of educational thought. It recognizes that certain influences are now at work FOREWORD vil which, at no distant day, may profoundly modify both theory and practice. It raises the question whether the curriculum, organization, and architecture of the platoon school are sufficiently flexible to lend them- selves readily to those readjustments which the future is certain to bring. The present study is the outcome of an attempt to reconstruct a large elementary school system in terms of twentieth century ideals and needs. Whatever meas- ure of success has attended this undertaking has been due to the codperation of many people — teachers, principals, and supervisors —to all of whom the author feels under obligation. Among his professional associates who have partici- pated in the active work of developing platoon schools, the author acknowledges his indebtedness to Miss Rose Phillips, Director of Platoon School Organization in Detroit, whose initiative, energy, and enthusiasm have made her invaluable in the practical work of reorganization. Miss Phillips, aided by her assistant Miss Claudia Wilson, has evolved and refined the various types of programs, and has developed an ef- fective technique of organization and administration adaptable to all platoon schools. In the preparation of this work the writer ive been aided by the constructive criticism of Dr. Stuart A. Courtis, Director of Instruction in the Detroit Schools and Dean of the Detroit Teachers College, to whom is also due the credit for much of the data on educational results included in Chapter IV. The author is also indebted to Dr. Arthur B. Moehl- man, Professor of Education, University of Michigan, vill FOREWORD for many helpful suggestions and for aid in the prepara- tion of jstatistical data) to Dr Baul Ge Packers Dean of the School of Education, University of lowa, and to Homer C. Anderson, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Denver, Colorado, for cooperation and assistance in adapting school buildings to the platoon organization. Finally, the author wishes to acknowledge a very direct obligation to Frank Cody, Superintendent of Schools of Detroit, and to the members of the Board of Education of Detroit, whose sympathetic attitude toward progressive innovations has made the reorgani- zation of the Detroit elementary schools possible. C Alaa DETROIT, MICHIGAN, May 12, 1924. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD . ? , ; ; Vv CHAPTER I EVOLUTION OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM . : I I. EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS : ; : ‘ ; : I II. AMERICAN COLONIAL SCHOOLS OF THE PURITAN PERIOD, 1620-1775 III. THE PERIOD FROM 1775 TO 1825. IV. THE PERIOD FROM 1825 TO 1850 . : ‘ : 2 8 V. THE PERIOD FROM 1850 TO 1875 . : 5 : oO VI. THE PERIOD FROM 1875 TO 1900 . : : : a etd VII. TWENTIETH CENTURY TENDENCIES ; 4 F aTeLO VIII. THE CURRICULUM OF THE FUTURE ; ; : aw ele CHAPTER II EVOLUTION OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ORGANIZATION . ae? 7 I. EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF AND AFTER THE REFORMATION PERIOD : : : - : 5 : : ae? II. AMERICAN COLONIAL SCHOOLS : ; ‘ : he arts} III. Types oF AMERICAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AFTER L750" . . : , ; : : ; H aatO IV. MopIFICATIONS IN ELEMENTARY ORGANIZATION IN RE- SPONSE TO THE EXPANDING SCHOOL CURRICULUM . 37 V. REORGANIZATION OF THE DETROIT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, I918-1924 . ‘ : ‘ : : Bee VI. THE DETROIT PLATOON SCHOOL ORGANIZATION . eas CHAPTER III EVOLUTION OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING . 3 e510? I. EUROPEAN SCHOOL BUILDINGS . - ; : fe 10% II. EARLY AMERICAN COLONIAL SCHOOL BUILDINGS . eelOA 1X x TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE III. SCHOOLHOUSES OF THE PERIOD FROM THE REVOLU- TIONARY WAR TO 1850 . . : ; ; ; Ne Oy) IV. THE MOVEMENT TOWARD SEGREGATION AND GRADED SCHOOLS . : ; : : . : . a rae V. ImporTANT Factors INFLUENCING THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE . : Pata VI. ADAPTING THE SCHOOL PLANT TO THE ORGANIZATION AND CURRICULUM ; : : : : : Lan CHAPTER IV EDUCATIONAL RESULTS ; : ; : ; : ; . 165 I. INTRODUCTION or ee 1G Il. TECHNIQUE USED IN MEASURING RESULTs . ; W166 III. AMOUNT OF TIME DEVOTED TO FUNDAMENTALS IN PLATOON SCHOOLS i ; ¥ ; ; ; a (LGR IV. COMPARATIVE RESULTS IN PLATOON AND NON-PLATOON SCHOOLS . ; : ; : : , : #166 CHAPTER V Costs 193 I. INTRODUCTION ; : : : Z : ; pet? | II. BuImLpInG Costs . : : ; ; : ji Papas’. § III. INSTRUCTIONAL CosTs . ; : a Shs , . 199 CHAPTER VI THE PERSONAL EQUATION . : A - : ; ; 2) aia CHAPTER VII CONTROVERSIAL QUESTIONS R ; , : ; : A ah? I. Dors Not THE PLATOON SCHOOL ORGANIZATION MAKE PROJECT TEACHING ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE OF Its DEPARTMENTALIZATION ? t : : ; Ta 3 II. Do Not Pupits IN PLATOON SCHOOLS LOSE THE PERSONAL TOUCH? . ; ( ; : ‘ . 28 III. ArE Not Pupits IN PLATOON SCHOOLS UNDER A NERVOUS STRAIN? . ; , : E . 2am TABLE OF CONTENTS xl PAGE IV. Dots Not FREQUENT CHANGE OF CLASSES WASTE TIME AND CAUSE DISORDER? . : 4 : NOEL: CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSION : : : ; : p : : : 226 BIBLIOGRAPHY 4 ’ ; eae APPENDIX . ‘ , ; Se et INDEX : ; : : naby, NO LIST OF FIGURES . A-school organized on the non-platoon plan. Capacity, 720 pupils, exclusive of 60 in kindergarten The same school as in Figure 1, organized upon Terral platoon plan. Wiese 960 pupils, exclusive of 60 in kindergarten A first-grade home room cotta Piles on pias A home room with fixed seats A music room An art room . An art room . A literature room . A gymnasium A gymnasium . A playground with group games in reece ; . Aims of health education . A large group in an auditorium . A group in an auditorium . The auditorium as an integrating nt elit Senta A nature study room . A domestic arts room . A manual arts room . A domestic science room . Primary group in library . Eighth-grade group in library . An open-window room . . A lunch room A clinic . . A kindergarten : . Old school in Dedham, Nieenen eects ; . Log schoolhouse of colonial days . Henry Barnard Old-time district Bate sean xiii PAGE XIV 42. 43. LIST OF FIGURES . Floor plan of an old-time district school . Interior of an old district school . Horace Mann . One-room school floor ssa cdeeriend ed Dr. W. A. Alcott in 1830 Second-floor plan of Tene son abate SchOal: Phila- delphia, 1836 . second-floor plan of Baier Grane School, Reston 1843 . Floor plan of a enters Sohonl . Third-floor plan of Bowdoin Grammar School, Hosta 1848 . First-and second- Heer part of Bower: Gaia School, Boston, 1848 Quincy Grammar School, Bastar ree . Fourth-floor plan of Quincy Grammar School, Bestar 1848 . First-, second-, aac hid: feoe an of Onna Gree School, Boston, 1848 . Plan of traditional elementary school rarely prior to 1900 . Plan of OTS semenere enol ori laltat: (soe 1918). Capacity 720 children, exclusive of kinder- garten ‘ ; A school orrarivent on the non- aetatoon Blane Capacity 720 pupils, exclusive of 60 in para : . Newberry School . Basement plan of A. L. een Scoot . First-floor plan of A. L. Holmes School . Second-floor plan of A. L. Holmes School . Pattengill School Basement plan of Pattengill acne . First-floor plan of Pattengill School . Second-floor plan of Pattengill School 53: . First-floor plan of Duffield Schaal . Second-floor plan of Duffield School Duffield School PAGE IIo LT! II2 LIST OF FIGURES Plan of the Brady School, illustrating unit construction 57. The Courville School. The first unit of a twenty-four section school. This unit accommodates twelve sections . First-floor plan of iat Sehool . Second-floor plan of Brady School . Plan of home room . Plan of gymnasiums . Plan of playrooms . Plan of auditoriums . Plan of libraries . Plan of kindergarten suite ; . Plan of science rooms, showing conservatory . Plan of science rooms, showing conservatory . Plan of literature, music, and art rooms . Plan of manual training room . Plan of special room : . Plan of administrative rooms . Plan of clinic . Plan of lunch room . Plan of teachers’ rest room : . Corridor lockers, each locker used by ee euene . Number of minutes per week devoted to fundamental subjects in platoon and non-platoon schools . Final scores in reading, June, 1922 . Final scores in penmanship, June, 1922 . Final scores in arithmetic, June, 1922 . Final scores in spelling, June, 1922 . Final scores in geography, June, 1922 : . Grade comparisons above and below city neat in geography, June, 1922 . Percentage of grade comparisons martes and fHelow ie medians — reading . Percentage of grade comparisons Neus and aie: Be medians — penmanship . Percentage of grade comparisons ove and Reon city medians — arithmetic XV PAGE 146 148 150 I51 153 154 155 156 Boi, 158 159 159 160 160 161 161 162 162 163 164 168 169 170 Day 172 173 174 175 176 177 Xvi 86. 87. 88. 89. go. Ql. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97- 08. 99. 100. IOI. 102. LIST OF FIGURES Percentage of grade comparisons above and below city medians — geography : Percentage of grade comparisons aioe and ‘alow city medians — spelling : Percentage of grade comparisons Above and pegs city medians — Jan. 1920-June, 1923 : Percentage of grade comparisons above and Meow city medians — All tests : Percentage of grade comparisons above and eine city medians — All tests — 4-year and 3-year groups : Percentage of grade comparisons above and below city medians — All tests June, 1922 — I- and 2-year groups; 3-year and 4-year groups Comparison of percentages of classes aoe utd Eloy city medians before and after adopting the platoon system. 14 two-year schools Comparison of percentages of classes above aed below city medians before and after adopting the platoon system. 10 three-year schools Percentage of failures in platoon and non- Maton eehente Percentage of retardation and acceleration ‘ : Percentage of three-or-more year retardation nation- ality groups Distribution of naional ea in aeolaenon ate non- “laure schools Distribution of teacher patina First-floor plan — Trowbridge School Auditorium — Nichols School Auditorium — Doty School ; Typical ways of handling special subjects in non- ‘platoodt schools PAGE 178 179 180 181 182 183 201 XIII. XIV. sais XVI. XVII. XVIII. LIST OF TABLES . Division of Activities between Home Rooms and Special Rooms . Typical Non-Platoon and Pigroen Breetinens Grades 3 Aand6B . Space Required for Various Types a Pietoon Gensole . Number of Teachers Required for Various Types of Platoon Schools . Weekly Time Allotment . . Time Allotment for Home Room a nena! Reon Activities . Period Distribution as Shecial Aenoies : . Distribution of Time of First Assistants . . Distribution of Time — Literature Rooms and Home Rooms . . Aims and Problems of Health Tein . Increase in Capacity Due to Addition of eR Aa and Gymnasium . Comparative Costs of IAG RESO Pre Guneecin with Equivalent Space . Comparative Costs per Pupil of Baciee Organized on Platoon and Non-Platoon Basis : Required Teacher Service — Non- Elareont and Platoon Schools : Required Teacher Service — Noe aie can — 16 Section — Grades 1 to6 . Required Teacher Service — Platoon Shh aw 6 Section — Grades 1 to 6 ; Required Teacher Service — Platoon School — 18 Section — Grades 1 to 6 : Required Teacher Service — Non- iteet School —_ 18 Section — Grades 1 to6 . XVil PAGE 198 199 200 203 204 204 205 206 XVill XIX. XX. XXI,. XXII. XXII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. LIST OF TABLES Required Teacher Service — Platoon School — 20 Section — Grades I to 8 . : Required Teacher Service — Non- PAPO Siiool — 20 Section — Grades 1 to 8 : Required Teacher Service — Platoon Setosles 44 Classes — Grades I to 6 ; . Required Teacher Service — Non- abies. Séhoo! —_ 24 Classes — Grades 1 to6 . ; ; Required Teacher Service — Non-Platoon School — 12 Section — Grades 1 to 3 . : Required Teacher Service — Platoon Shneai ae 12 Section — Grades 1 to 3 Non-Platoon Schools — Median NUE: 6 Teachers Actually Employed Compared with Number Re- quired under Standard Conditions Plan of Reorganization of 15 Non-Platoon Sctoule Showing Effect on Available Space and Required Teacher Service ; F : ; PAGE 206 207 207 208 208 208 210 210 THE PLATOON SCHOOL Cri be Kheat PYOLURIONJOR THE ELEMENTARY: SCHOOL CURRICULUM I. EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS The curriculum reflects changing needs and ideals. At every stage of its evolution, the curriculum of the elementary school! has reflected the changing needs and ideals of society. The school is under constant pressure from individuals and organized groups who seek to expand and modify the curriculum in response to real or imaginary social needs. In this manner various influences, religious, educational, social, and industrial, have from time to time brought about changes in the subject matter of instruction. While the school as an institution has been conservative and has responded tardily to progressive changes in other fields of life activity, it is nevertheless true that the evolution of the curriculum parallels closely the evolution of society itself. The elementary curriculum as established in Europe 1 Throughout this discussion the term ‘‘elementary school” is used to indicate a school established primarily for the instruction of pre-adolescents, and secondarily to give children command of the vernacular language and literature together with those knowl- edges and skills which are universally recognized as fundamental in education. I 2 THE PLATOON SCHOOL up to the early part of the seventeenth century was a resultant of two influences. First, the commercial ideals which permeated the schools during the latter part of the middle ages had resulted in the establish- ment of writing and reckoning as worthwhile subjects for study. Second, asa result of the religious ideals which controlled education after the Protestant Refor- mation, reading became the foremost subject to be taught in the schools. Under the influence of these two ideals, reading and writing became the outstanding subjects, and spelling and arithmetic were sometimes taught. In Lutheran lands the course of study was further enriched by the inclusion of singing. In all Protestant countries at the time of the colonization of North America, the curriculum of the elementary school was narrowly religious in its aims. II. AMERICAN COLONIAL SCHOOLS OF THE PURITAN PERIOD, 1620-1775 First American schools religious in purpose. The immigrants who formed the human tide which set in toward the shores of North America in the early part of the seventeenth century naturally brought with them their home institutions and their own ideals of religion, government, and education. Thus several types of elementary schools developed in the American colonies in harmony with the standards of the people who founded them. But the great and predominant purpose of education in all of the early colonies was a religious purpose. Children must learn to read in order that they might at first-hand understand the Bible and EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 3 other religious writings. This aim overshadowed all others. The narrow curriculum of the Puritan elementary schools down to the time of the Revolutionary War was merely a reflection of the Puritan’s life. His interest in religion was intense and overpowering. On the other hand, he was indifferent to the fine arts, if not openly opposed to them, and his interpretation of natural phenomena was based upon ignorance and supersti- tion. The general tone of the colonial curriculum is sug- gested by the textbooks in use before 1775. Every child began to learn to read from the Hornbook. He then progressed through the catechism and the Bible. In 1690 a book appeared which was destined to become very popular and to exert a marked influence on ele- mentary education. It was called the New England Primer. This book of eighty-eight pages, which con- tained material of a religious nature, served well as a preparation for the Psalter, the Testaments, and the Bible, and also as a vehicle for teaching some spelling. In teaching writing and arithmetic, a textbook was seldom used. In the colonial period, arithmetic was not a required subject and often was not taught at all. It was presumed to be very difficult and few teachers were thought competent to teach it. A teacher who was a good “‘ arithmeticker ”’ was highly reputed. No printed textbooks in arithmetic came into use until about 1750. Writing also was taught by dictation and practice. The “ scrivener ’’’ was thought to possess a difficult and elaborate art. The fact that it was so difficult to learn to write, that paper was so expensive, 4 THE PLATOON SCHOOL and that the accomplishment itself was of so little prac- tical value to most children, tended to minimize the importance of writing in colonial times, and often it was indifferently taught. Tendencies after 1750. It has been shown that the meager and narrow curriculum of early colonial times developed in response to a dominant religious interest in the society of that period. After the middle of the eighteenth century, however, new and compelling in- terests arose which were soon to produce a marked change in the attitude of the people toward education, and ultimately to produce modifications in the curricu- lum itself. This changed attitude was due to a variety of causes. Old traditions were breaking down. Euro- pean ideals and customs no longer satisfied. “There was a growing individualism. Secular ideals were taking the place of religious ideals. The rising generation was becoming interested 1n commerce, industry, and the problems of contemporary life. Immigration was re- ducing the standard of literacy of the people and lower- ing religious ideals. All of these changes were affecting the character of education in the colonies. The devel- opment of schools distinctly American in type began in this period, but progress in this direction was checked by the devastating effect of the Revolutionary War. In conformity with the new attitude, textbooks be- gan to appear dominated by a secular rather than a religious motive, but all of the books of this time were of English origin. Although ideals and points of view were changing during the period from 1750-1775, the curriculum remained practically the same as in the earlier period. EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 5 CURRICULUM OF 1775 READING 1 Spelling ? Writing { Catechism 3 | BIBLE | Arithmetic 1 CAPITALS — Most important subject. 2 Roman — Least important subject. 3 Italics — Subject of medium importance. — Adapted from Cubberley III]. THE PERIOD FROM 1775 TO 1825 Education preceding the Revolution. The schools of the period preceding the Revolution were unbeliev- ably crude and inefficient. There was little or no group instruction. Each child was called before the teacher for individual recitation, while the other pupils remained in their seats. There was a deplorable waste of time. A pupil frequently spent forty minutes of the school day in reciting, and three hundred minutes in sitting in his seat.1 Inefficient as the schools were before the Revolu- tionary War, they became decidedly more so during the period immediately following the struggle for inde- pendence. The war sapped the energies and resources of the people and turned their minds to things remote from education. In the critical period before the adop- tion of the Constitution, which was marked by political jealousies and turmoil, education rapidly declined. During the war itself many schools were closed entirely, and the unsettled conditions following the coming of peace prevented their reopening. 1 BARNARD, HENRY, American Journal of Education, Vol. XXVI. 6 THE PLATOON SCHOOL The first American textbooks. There was no exten- sive expansion of the elementary curriculum between 1775 and 1825, but the introduction of various new American-made textbooks served to improve the char- acter of instruction in the subjects already in the cur- riculum and to broaden curriculum content. In 1783 Noah Webster produced his ‘“ blue-backed ”’ Spelling Book. This was a combined speller and reader, and its introduction marked an epoch in the teaching of both spelling and reading. The Webster book re- placed the old New England Primer in many places, and served not only as a means of standardizing the spelling of English words, but also gave a vogue to spelling throughout the country and assured it a place of honor in the curriculum, which it has held ever since. In 1794 Caleb Bingham published his American Pre- ceptor; in 1806 the Columbian Orator, a book by the same author, appeared. These two books were in harmony with the democratic ideals of the time, and contained many patriotic orations of the heroes of the Revolutionary period. The Columbian Orator also in- cluded cuts showing how to stand, bow, and make ges- tures. These books helped to establish declamation as a subject in the curriculum. Before 1800 Dilworth’s The Schoolmaster’s Assistant, a book on arithmetic, was widely used. In 1821 War- ren Colburn produced his First Lessons in Arithmetic on the Plan of Pestalozzt. In 1795 Lindley Murray’s Grammar appeared, to be followed in 1799 by Bingham’s The Young Lady’s EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 7 Accidence. ‘These books were popular and generally used, and thus a new subject, grammar, attained a place of prominence among school subjects. With the publication of books on geography by Reverend Jedediah Morse in 1784 and 1795, this new subject attracted attention and was given a place among the approved studies. The publication and use of American textbooks, superseding the English books of the Revolutionary period, not only gave strength to the idea that educa- tion and book learning are synonymous, but served to influence and improve methods of instruction, to in- crease or diminish the importance of subjects previously in the curriculum, and to add several new subjects to the course of study. - The introduction of new texts with an enriched con- tent brought about a change in educational values and a shifting in emphasis. With the introduction of at- tractive reading material, both in prose and poetry, reading became a popular study. This material in turn stimulated recitation and public speaking. Spell- ing and arithmetic, through the excellent books by Webster and Colburn, rose to places of first rank. Writing in this period fell to a secondary place. The Bible as a text almost disappeared, but the spirit of Bible reading and religious instruction remained in the curriculum under the title of ‘‘Good Behavior or Morals and Manners.’’ It is probable, too, that bookkeeping, together with sewing and knitting, was found in the curriculum of 1825. These subjects were added for practical and social reasons. 8 THE PLATOON SCHOOL CURRICULUM OF 1825 {READING!* * Bookkeeping ? | Declamation 8 GRAMMAR SPELLING 3 Geography hen Writing Sewing and Knitting { Good Behavior | Morals and Manners ARITHMETIC <4 1 CAPITALS — Most important subject. * Roman — Least important subject. 3 Italics — Subjects of medium importance. * New methods of teaching now employed. — Adapted from Cubberley IV. THe PERIOD FROM 1825 TO I850 A beginning of history study. A new subject which was formally accorded a place in the curriculum dur- ing the first part of the nineteenth century was history. Some historical material had been introduced in the early readers and geographies. In 1822 Goodrich pub- lished A History of the United States. It was very popular, and one hundred fifty thousand copies had been sold before 1832, when Noah Webster published his History of the United States. Webster’s book con- tained a study of the Constitution of the United States, and marked the beginning of the study of civics in elementary schools. The output of American textbooks during the period from 1775 to 1832 had a tendency to determine defi- nitely the elementary subjects. As early as 1830 many of the larger cities had developed the curriculum as it stood until 1860. In the early thirties means of com- munication were few, and ideas spread slowly; conse- quently, certain materials of instruction were accorded EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 9 a place in the curriculum in some parts of the country long before they were accepted in others. History and geography were opposed by some people in those days much as music, art, and physical education have been opposed in recent times on the ground that they take time from arithmetic and grammar. The subject mat- ter of both geography and history furnished good material for the children of the upper grammar grades and aided in the extension of the elementary course. The first teachers’ association. In 1829 the Ameri- can Institute of Instruction,! the oldest teachers’ asso- ciation in the United States, was formed. It enrolled many of the foremost educators of the time, its leaders had a vision of, the possibilities of the future, and its influence in education was felt for many years.? The first address delivered before the Institute was on ‘““The Importance of Physical Education.”? In 1834 and again in 1838 this organization recommended the introduction of vocal music in the public schools. In 1836 a voluntary instructor of music was employed in Boston. It was the first instance of instruction of this sort in American elementary schools, but the experi- ment failed, and the general introduction of music did not come about until over a quarter of a century later. Physical education was not included as a part of the regular curriculum in Boston until about 1870. Soon after that date, however, this subject began to appear in courses of study in a number of places; but it was not given general recognition until a much later period. 'Moorg, E. C., Fifty Years of American Education, page 14. eid... page iA. 10 THE PLATOON SCHOOL CURRICULUM OF 1850 READING * Bookkeeping arene {Elementary Language SPELLING | GRAMMAR WRITING Geography * f Manners ? U.S. History \ Conduct Object Lessons {MENTAL ARITHMETIC * | CIPHERING 1 CAPITALS — Most important subjects. 2 Roman — Least important subjects. 3 Italics — Subjects of medium importance. * New methods of teaching now employed. — Adapted from Cubberley V. THE PERIOD FROM 1850 TO 1875 Influence of Pestalozzi. In the decade preceding 1850 and for ten years thereafter more or less in- terest was shown by American educators in the philosophy and methods of the Swiss reformer Pes- talozzi. People immigrating to this country from Europe were familiar with his ideals as worked out in foreign lands. Americans who traveled in Europe returned filled with enthusiasm for his theories and methods. Henry Barnard and other influential American educators published pamphlets in which the new vision of education was revealed. Teachers them- selves had glimpsed the practical side of Pestalozzian methods in Colburn’s arithmetic. The introduction of the new infant school in the early part of the nine- teenth century had brought with it an attitude toward elementary instruction which harmonized in a degree with the new philosophy. In spite of these early evi- EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM LN dences of interest in the progressive educational move- ment in Europe, the theories of Pestalozzi produced no general change in American practice until 1860. Before that time there was no evidence of a clearly ‘defined philosophy underlying American elementary school procedure. The aims of education had been shifting under the influence of dominant social, indus- trial, and religious forces. Few people realized the possibilities of training in terms of either the individual or of society. The sciences of psychology and sociology were yet unformed. All teaching was based upon opportunism and immediate needs. No _ scientific technique of instruction had been developed. So it may be surmised that an educational world thus ham- pered and circumscribed was ready to welcome with enthusiasm the Pestalozzian wave of 1860. The introduction into American schools of Pestaloz- zian ideals and methods was of great significance. It gave a new purpose to educational effort. It redirected and revolutionized both curriculum and methods of instruction. It offered a psychological basis for class- room methods. It gave us the beginnings of a modern educational philosophy, and a scientific technique of instruction, without which the training of progressive, efficient teachers is impossible. Pestalozzi, borrowing many of his ideas from Rous- seau, had a prevision of the best ideals and practices of the twentieth century. The impetus which his influ- ence gave to American education still carries on, and many of his ideals interpreted in terms of present-day life and thought still inspire our efforts. The contribution of the Swiss educator not only en- 12 THE PLATOON SCHOOL riched and gave new meaning to the subjects already in the curriculum, but by developing a new point of view and a new attitude toward instruction made entirely new subject matter necessary. That phase of Pestalozzian procedure which has most profoundly influenced American education is the ob- jective and oral method of instruction. The substitu- tion of observation and oral expression for the study of books and memoriter recitation has revolutionized methods of teaching in elementary schools. Observa- tion in the natural world made possible the study of elementary science and home geography. Talking about things observed led to the study of language as a means of expression, as distinguished from grammar. Observing and counting objects opened the way to a new type of primary arithmetic. As a net result of the Pestalozzian influence upon the curriculum as it stood in 1875, reading still remained a prominent subject, but its purpose and character were changed somewhat by the new influence; spelling re- tained its prestige and vogue; penmanship, influenced by the new methods, was more widely taught and em- phasized ; conduct as an inheritance of the old religious influence in the curriculum still held a place; arith- metic as taught under the Pestalozzian plan was more firmly established, and mental arithmetic for primary grades became popular; grammar still was one of the fundamentals, but the subject of oral language had found a place and its more rational methods tended to detract somewhat from the popularity of grammar; geography, which before 1830 had been considered a subject of little importance, now reénforced by the EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 13 new subject of home geography, advanced to a place of honor in the curriculum. United States history and civics, which were not generally taught previous to the Civil War, were advocated as a means of teaching patriotism ; object lessons, taught in isolated instances in the previous period, became general in curricula throughout the country ; and elementary science as a phase of object teaching became popular after 1871. The beginning of school instruction in drawing and music. In 1869a group of manufacturers of Massachu- setts petitioned the legislature to direct the State Board of Education to report “‘ some definite plan for introduc- ing schools for drawing, or instruction in drawing, free for all men, women, and children in all of the towns of the Commonwealth of more than 5000 inhabitants.’’ The argument was advanced that some knowledge of draw- ing or design was necessary for a skilled workman and that the neglect of this subject in the schools was indi- cated by the fact that “ foreign workmen occupy the best and most responsible places in our factories and workshops.”’ A law authorizing the teaching of draw- ing was passed in 1870, and a supervisor of drawing was imported from England. In the same year drawing was taught in Ohio. From this date the teaching of draw- ing in schools spread to other parts of the country. In 1870 music was universally taught in Boston schools,! and to a limited extent in New Hampshire and lowa.! Physical education was also a part of the regu- lar curriculum in Boston at this time. Under the in- fluence of the new philosophy of education, music and physical education began to appear in a number of ‘Moore, E. C., Fifty Years of American Education, page 40. 14 THE PLATOON SCHOOL places, but were not as yet subjects of general interest. CuRRICULUM OF 1875 {Home Geography * f READING ! | TEXT GEOGRAPHY | Literary Selections * fU. S. HISTORY SPELLING | Constitution PENMANSHIP * s Object Lessons * Conduct ? eet Science * {PRIMARY ARITHMETIC Drawing * | ADVANCED ARITHMETIC Music * ee Language * Physical Exercises GRAMMAR 1 CAPITALS — Most important subjects. 2 Roman — Least important subjects. 3 Italics — Subjects of medium importance. * New methods of teaching employed. — Adapted from Cubberley VI. THE PERIOD FROM 1875 TO 1900 The influence of Froebel. As we have seen, the cur- riculum of the elementary school was subjected to rad- ical reorganization in the decade preceding 1875. During the fifteen years following that date, when the influence of the great Swiss reformer was changing the theories and methods of the elementary school, a new force began to be felt in the educational life of America. Friedrich Froebel, a follower of Pestalozzi, during the period from 1816-1852 conducted experimental schools inGermany. Out of his practical experience he evolved a new educational unit, the kindergarten, and gave to the world a new educational philosophy. Froebel borrowed from both Rousseau and Pestalozzi, and his theories supplemented and made more effective the ideas of the latter. He embodied in practice two EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 15 theories which have been exceedingly powerful in shaping our point of view and in determining our pro- cedure. First, he advanced the principles of self-ex- pression and self-activity, which gave emphasis to the dynamic aspect of ideas, and to motor expression as a means of learning. Secondly, he advocated the idea of social participation as a means of education. He felt that codperative effort is necessary, and realized that a child instinctively tends to codperate and that this tendency should be noted and developed in infancy. The ideal of social participation appears less prominently in Froebelian writings than do his other theories, but he seems to have had a glimpse of the social viewpoint in education which has become so prominent in the twentieth century. | Froebel’s principal contributions to elementary edu- cation were the kindergarten, play, and manual activ- ities. In the kindergarten the outstanding idea is self-activity directed toward social and moralends. He recognized that children are naturally self-active, and that they must have an opportunity for self-expression through play. In harmony with this idea, the kin- dergarten brings to the child stimulating experiences from the fields of music, art, literature, and nature, and gives him the opportunity and materials for motor expression. Froebelian theories have penetrated to the primary grades and have done not a little toward rationalizing the teaching process in the grades immediately follow- ing the kindergarten. Coupled with the Pestalozzian idea of observation and experiment, as opposed to the memoriter methods of earlier days, the Froebelian 16 THE PLATOON SCHOOL theory that education chiefly comes through self-activ- ity has furnished a new point of departure in all instruc- tional effort. To the idea that play is of value as a means of physi- cal development, Froebel added the thought that play is necessary to the complete unfolding of a child’s in- stinctive characteristics. “The prominence which he gave to expression as a means of development stimu- lated interest in the subjects of music and art, and tended to make the teaching of these subjects more rational. To Froebel cannot be assigned the full credit for the introduction of manual training into the curriculum. His influence came partially through the fact that the kindergarten stands for manual activities, and partially from the consideration that the Sloyd system, which later was a factor in the manual training movement in the United States, was organized through his influence. The introduction of manual training into the United States ' came as a result of the Russian exhibit at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876. This work was first introduced in high schools. Manual training for elementary schools developed in the form of ‘‘ busy work ”’ in the early primary grades, and in the form of experiments to determine a type of manual activity suited to the seventh and eighth grades. A class in manual training was organized privately in Boston in 1882. In 1888 the city took over this work. The influence of Herbart. On the threshold of the twentieth century still another foreign influence ap- peared which produced some marked changes in the curriculum. This influence came through the Herbar- ‘Moore, E. C., Fifty Years of American Education, page 58. EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 17 tian movement which aroused much enthusiasm about 1890. Johann Friedrich Herbart, a German teacher and an admirer and follower of Pestalozzi, lived from 1776-1841. He developed a new psychology and phi- losophy of education as well as a practical pedagogy. Pestalozzi had looked upon education as a means of individual development, but the progress of industrial and social evolution was gradually shifting the center of gravity from the individual to society. Herbart was one of the earliest educators to recognize this trend. He set up morality and character as aims in education, and urged the preparation of children for a life in organ- ized society. As a result of the Herbartian influence, literature and primary grade history were added to the curriculum ; textbooks and courses of study began to provide liter- ature adapted to the interests and needs of children in the earlier as well as the later years of the grammar school; historical biography was introduced into the lower grades, and the social and industrial aspects of grammar-grade history received greater emphasis. The curriculum of 1900. The curriculum of 1900, in its essential elements, did not differ materially from the curriculum of 1924. The trend of educational thought as exemplified in the curriculum of 1900 reflects the ideals of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Herbart, modified and readapted to meet the requirements of twentieth century society. In this curriculum, reading and literature were recog- nized as of first importance. Spelling and writing did not stand out so prominently as in the previous periods, but had a place more nearly commensurate with their 18 THE PLATOON SCHOOL social value. Arithmetic, redirected through the influ- ence of the modérn viewpoint, still received considera- tion out of proportion to its life value. Oral language had come into its own, and formal grammar, which for so many generations contested with arithmetic for the lion’s share of time and atten- tion, began to assume a place in the background. Geography, with a new social viewpoint and enlarged to include home geography, stood out with history as a social science. History, with new emphasis on things socially vital, became one of the fundamentals of ele- mentary education. Nature study, thanks to the Pestalozzian idea of observation and experiment, had a firm place in the lower primary grades. The leisure- time subjects — music, art, and physical education, together with play — were given deserved recognition. Manual and domestic arts also became firmly fixed. CURRICULUM OF 1900 areas i { Nature Study * LITERATURE * | Elementary Science Spelling % Drawing * Writing * Music * ARITHMETIC j Play eee LANGUAGE | Physical Training * Grammar Sewing eae Geography ” Cooking TEXT GEOGRAPHY * Manual Training History Stories * TEXT HISTORY * 1 CAPITALS — Most important subjects. 2 Roman — Least important subjects. § [talics — Subjects of medium importance. * New methods employed. — Adapted from Cubberley EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 19 VII. TWENTIETH CENTURY TENDENCIES Influence of Dewey. [Educational progress in the twentieth century has been a resultant of forces set in action in various ages in the past, plus new forces gen- erated and made effective amid the complex conditions of present-day social and industrial life. Rousseau in the eighteenth century held that educa- tion is life and that it begins and ends with the individ- ual. Pestalozzi, following in his footsteps, saw that indi- vidual growth must come from within through a child’s observation and sense-perception, not through mechan- ical memorization. Froebel, who had a truer concep- tion of the problem, realized that the starting point in education is a child’s inherent tendency to act, and that the curriculum must be an epitome of world experience. He also believed that the human infant must come into his racial inheritance through social participation. Herbart’s aim was to develop personal character as well as social usefulness, and his followers organized a scientific technique of instruction and set up certain principles of curriculum making. At the opening of the twentieth century, John Dewey began to interpret contemporary social and industrial changes in terms of a new philosophy and a new psy- chology. In his book The School and Society, pub- lished in 1899, he proposed the theory that “ the school should be life, not a preparation for life.’ Through the instrumentality of an experimental school he sought to demonstrate that it is possible to order the curricu- lum and the work of the school in such a way as to make it a miniature of life. He maintained that the end of 20 THE PLATOON SCHOOL education is social efficiency, which a child can acquire to a degree in school through simplified life experiences. His philosophy gave to the curriculum and the school organization a practical aspect, and widely expanded the scope as well as changed the nature of school activi- ties. He gave emphasis to the active rather than the passive side of experience. He urged codperation and social service as fundamental virtues to be inculcated by the school, and demanded that training develop in children initiative, vision, and responsibility as prepara- tion for democratic citizenship. Dewey in his monograph, Interest as Related to Will, undertook to harmonize the ancient theory of education as effort or discipline with the modern theory of educa- tion as a natural process determined by the child’s inter- ests. Since the middle of the eighteenth century a reac- tion has been under way against the old theory that it matters little what a child studies, as long as he dislikes it and it requires on his part strenuous effort. In many instances the pendulum has swung to the extreme and the utilization of interest as a motive has been carried to the point of absurdity. Dewey sought to reconcile the two theories. He contended that — Because interests are something that have to be worked out in life and not merely indulged in themselves, there is plenty of room for difficulties and obstacles which have to be overcome, and whose overcoming forms “will”? and develops the flexible and firm fibre of character. To realize an interest means to do something, and in the doing resistance is met and must be faced. Dewey’s philosophy, which in some respects approx- imates the social participation theory of Froebel, has given the keynote to recent educational thinking and EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 21 procedure. His study of the relation of interest to will or effort has stimulated study and experiment by others, and has resulted indirectly in important changes in method and material. Influence of Thorndike. During the last twenty years educational theory and practice have been pro- foundly influenced by the psychological studies of Dr. E. L. Thorndike of Columbia University. Inspired by James, who conceived education as “ the or- ganization of acquired habits of conduct and_tend- encies to behavior,’ he experimented with animals and evolved a behavioristic psychology which he applied to men. As an outcome of his experimental studies, and influenced no doubt by both James and Dewey, he developed a psychology of education, and formulated the laws of learning. Thorndike also took issue with the doctrine of formal discipline and gathered and published experimental data to show that the trans- fer due to training is more restricted than it was form- erly thought to be. As a result of his studies the materials of instruction have been appraised anew in terms of social rather than disciplinary values. The most significant movement inaugurated since the opening of the present century has been the de- velopment of a scientific attitude toward the problems of education. School methods have for generations rested upon tradition and opinion. In very few in- stances, before the end of the nineteenth century, was the selection of materials of instruction or the determination of classroom method derived from ex- perimental data. For several decades, the scientific spirit has been 20 THE PLATOON SCHOOL gradually modifying methods in the fields of business, industry, and tite professions. It was inevitable that sooner or later schoolmen should tire of groping in the dark and seek the lamp of science to light them on their way. This century has seen this come to pass, and now, more and more, intelligent administrators and teachers are depending upon scientific research to blaze the path toward desired goals. The great power behind the scientific movement has been and still is Dr. E. L. Thorndike. Through experiment and research, he developed a statisti- cal technique by which the products of instruction. may be measured. He devised measurement tests and scales, and inspired his students, Courtis, Ayres, Gates, and others, to carry on the work. This movement, opposed as might be expected by those who see in it a tendency toward materialism and an effort to crush out the higher things in education, is gaining ground steadily, and its universal acceptance can only be a matter of time. Contributions of other modern educators. The two dominating forces, then, in present-day education are the social philosophy of Dewey and the psycho- logical principles formulated by Thorndike. Recently, however, other educators, notably Kilpatrick, Cour- tis, and Coursault, have restated the aims of edu- cation as modified by the new social philosophy and behavioristic psychology. These students of edu- cation give full sanction to the ideals of Dewey and to the laws of learning as stated by Thorndike, but give emphasis to the fact that in the individual the source of all ideas of worth and value is in the EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 22 emotions. In recognition of this truth they emphasize education as purposing. Kilpatrick advocates ‘‘learn- ing through felt purposes.’ He believes that the school should furnish children opportunities to purpose, to plan, to execute, and to judge of their results. To this end he would have the curriculum consist of an array of projects to be attained. To quote Kilpatrick!: A project is an instance of activity or experience carried on under the dominating purpose of the agent; that is, of the doer and learner. ... It is the learner that concerns us, the learning that is to come from his doing, his experience. . . . Note, however, that it is the purpose of the learner that counts. Mourtis says: In everyday life the combination of the rational and emotional processes results in the formation of purposes and gives rise to activities designed to achieve those purposes. Therefore, the new education may be defined as the process of helping children to help themselves. Its functions are to teach children: A. To form ever more worthy purposes. B. To achieve those purposes ever more efficiently. In such a conception of education, knowledge and skill are relegated to their proper place. They are regarded as means to an end, not as ends in themselves. Coursault * holds: The larger factors in human development are (1) the social factor, which determines the purposes and ideas available for con- trolling conduct; (2) the individual factor, in which these purposes and ideas are realized; (3) the educational factor, which unites the other two by providing conditions favorable to the development of social purposes and ideas in the individual life. This new conception of the aim of education in terms of both the individual and society, reénforced by recent 1 Detroit Journal of Education, Vol. I, page 29. 2 Iid., Vol. IT, page 3. 38 The Principles of Education, page 25. 24 THE PLATOON SCHOOL scientific and psychological thought, is now slowly but surely working changes in educational purposes and methods. Asa result of all of the factors, social, industrial, and educational, that are influencing the development of the curriculum, the present tendencies may be classified under three captions — Socialization, Vitalization, and Individualization. Socialization. Socialization assumes the introduction into the curriculum of group activities which bring pupils into contact with real life experiences. It means that the child’s experiences in the home shall be carried over into the school and related to and in- terpreted by his school experiences. Conversely, it means that the school experiences shall carry over into the home, the workshop, and the broader outside life, and be usable there at their full social value. The socialized curriculum must have in view both the individual and the society in which he lives. It should help him to select suitable patterns for his pur- poses and make available for him the materials and experiences which shall enable him to realize these purposes. In attempting to conform to the new social aims, the curriculum opens its doors to every aspect of experience that may make for the development of socially efficient individuals. The socialized curricu- lum of 1924 endeavors to provide experiences which touch every phase of child nature. It makes room for the traditional three R’s, for health, for vocation, for citizenship, for leisure time, for worthy home membership, and for ethical training. Vitalization. Vitalization appraises the content of the curriculum on the basis of social values. Mate- EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM 25 rials formerly justified on a formal discipline basis must now prove their life value or be excluded. The appli- cation of this principle eliminates obsolete and useless subject matter from both curriculum and_ textbook. In the light of the new test of values much of the old material is found to be worthless. The educational pabulum which remains must have in it the elements of real life interest and must function in the social activi- ties of the pupils. Individualization. The most important outcome of the scientific study of child nature has been the dis- covery of the meaning of individual differences. It has always been known that children differ in many ways, but the significance of this variability in its relation to the learning process was not understood until recent times. A child inherits a certain mental capacity. His ability to perform is equal to this capacity plus the effect of his environment. Nature seems to place a final limit on capacity and beyond this it is probable that no amount of education will avail. Instruction must of necessity proceed with large groups. ‘The largest factor in an individual’s progress seems to be his capacity to respond to the instruction which he receives. As a result of this situation there is great overlapping in every class. A sixth-grade class in arithmetic may include some pupils with abil- ity as low as that of a third-grade pupil, and others of high school range in ability. Uniform instruction to a group of this sort seems only to increase the variability. Scientific research and experiment are now developing a technique by which we can have individual mass instruction. By the utilization of scales and stand- 26 THE PLATOON SCHOOL ards of achievement, pupils may measure, appraise, and record their own progress, and each individual may therefore proceed at his own rate. VIII. THE CURRICULUM OF THE FUTURE Tendencies of the present day. In contemplating the future of the curriculum, certain marked tend- encies are clearly apparent. Scientific studies will make possible a more accurate diagnosis of individ- uals. Methods and devices will be discovered or invented which will permit of individual progress and direction in all of the knowledge and skill sub- jects. Such devices are now available in penman- ship, arithmetic, reading, and spelling, and others are rapidly being produced. In a socialized school much of the motivation for the skill and knowledge learning will grow naturally from other school activities. The probable future. In socializing the curriculum by bringing into it a wide range of experiences re- lated to many phases of life, the boundary lines be- tween subjects will tend to become obliterated and subjects as such, except as related to skills and knowl- edges, will probably disappear. In their places may be found a series of social activities which are related to child life in and out of school, and children will have an opportunity to set up goals, do their own purpos- ing, and struggle for achievement, in harmony with child ideals. a hal herit EVOLUTION OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ORGANIZATION I. EUROPEAN SCHOOLS OF AND AFTER THE REFOR> MATION PERIOD Reading schools. While the germs of modern elementary school organization possibly may be found in the “ writing and reckoning ’”’ schools of the fif- teenth century, it is undoubtedly true that our modern practice is more directly traceable to the principles involved in the Protestant Reformation. Although the Reformation gave full sanction to the theory that ability to read is a desirable prerequisite to individual salvation, it must not be assumed that the old ecclesiastical system of education immediately broke down and was replaced by one which made possible the realization of the new religious ideal. On the contrary, the development of schools of the new type to take care of the common people was the work of many generations. In England, schools for ele- mentary instruction in the native language appeared very slowly, but the Puritan ideal was strikingly exemplified in the schools founded by our English forefathers when they came to the shores of Massa- chusetts in the early part of the seventeenth century. 27 28 THE PLATOON SCHOOL Dame schools and private adventure schools. In England the demand for instruction in reading, in the period following the Reformation, was in a measure satishied by the dame school and the private adventure or hedge school. A dame school was a private school kept by a woman in her kitchen or living room. In return for a modest fee, she imparted to small children. the rudiments of reading and spelling. The instruc- tion was of the crudest and most inefficient sort. The private adventure or hedge school was similar to the dame school except that it was kept by a man, usually in his home or shop. These schools also were taught by tutors of an inferior type. Thus, in the days before the Puritans came to New England, the responsibility for the instruction of the younger children was borne in part by religious or semi-religious organizations carrying over from the pre-Reformation era, and, in part, by private schools of various sorts conducted by inefficient and ignorant teachers. In general, the type of teaching exem- plified in writing and reckoning schools prevailed in this period in one form or another, supplemented by mea- ger training in dame schools or other post-Reforma- tion schools established primarily to teach reading. Il. AMERICAN COLONIAL SCHOOLS Schools of foreign origin. From earliest colonial times down to our day, one of the large problems in American life has been the building up, from diverse and varied elements, of distinctly American types of institutions. This is in a marked degree true in the development of our elementary school organization. EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 29 The immigrants, who reached our shores from every part of Europe, brought with them the several types of schools with which they were familiar. The Dutch, Germans, and Swedes imported the parish school, which prevailed generally in Germanic lands. It was a mod- ernized descendant of the old medieval religious schools. On the other hand, the English colonists, who came in large numbers in the early days, brought with them several of the types of organization to be found in their European home, including the dame school, the writing school, and various kinds of charity and apprentice schools. Lutheran schools. While Lutheran parish schools continued to exist throughout the colonial period, they did not exert a marked influence on American educa- tion. It was from the types of schools transplanted to America by the Puritans of New England that the modern elementary school was finally evolved. Puritan schools. The Puritans had scarcely landed in New England before they began to provide schools in which their simple curriculum with its overpowering religious purpose was taught, but school organization could not be said to have taken any definite form in the colonial period. The curriculum was meager ; no ade- quate quarters for instruction were provided; and often, owing to the scattered settlements and the demand for some education in several places, the school organization became transient or rotating. However, after a long time, education began to be recognized in many communities as a public function, and the unit of education in rural districts became the one-room ungraded school. 30 THE PLATOON SCHOOL III. Types or AMERICAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AFTER 1750 The modification of school organizations. The same social and industrial influences which modified the curriculum after 1750 brought about changes in school organizations. In New England there was a struggle to prevent schools in towns from disappearing entirely, and also an effort to establish district schools. The exigencies of the case were such that in rural districts and smaller towns the dame school, which was devoted principally to teaching reading, was combined with the writing school to form the school of the three R’s, from which the American elementary school was evolved.! Reading and writing schools. In cities, reading and writing schools were maintained. As far back as 1789 a Boston school committee, of which Samuel Adams was chairman, adopted the following plan: In Town Meeting, October 16, 1789. Voted, That there shall be one writing school at the south part of the town, one at the center, and one at the north part; that in those schools the children of both sexes be taught writing and also arith- metic in the various branches of (it) usually taught in the town schools including vulgar and decimal fractions. That there be one reading school at the south part of the town, one at the center, and one at the north part ; that in those schools the children of both sexes be taught to spell, accent, and read both prose and verse, and also to be instructed in English grammar and composition. ‘That the children of both sexes be admitted into the reading and writing schools at the age of seven years, having previously received the instruction usual at women’s schools; that they be allowed to continue in the reading and writing schools until the age of fourteen, 1 CUBBERLEY, ELLWoop P., Public Education tn the United States, page 26. EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 31 the boys attending the year round, the girls from the 20th of April to the 20th of October following; that they attend these schools alternately, at such times and subject to such changes as the visiting committee in consultation with the masters shall approve. A picture of the Boston schools as reorganized in 1789 is given by William B. Fowle, in his Memoir of Caleb Bingham, who was a Boston schoolmaster in the last decade of the eighteenth century. Mr. Bingham came to Boston to establish a school for girls, as no schools were open to them except private schools presided over by uneducated men teachers. The Boston schools for girls. In 1789 there existed in Boston two writing schools and two Latin schools. Some of the selectmen in charge of the schools felt keenly the burden of paying taxes for public schools while at the same time they paid tuition for their daughters in Mr. Bingham’s private school for girls. After deliberation, the officials solved the problem by instituting — three new schools, to be called Reading Schools, in which reading, spelling, grammar, and perhaps geography, should be taught by masters to be appointed; the two old writing schools to be con- tinued, a new one established; and one of the Latin schools to be abolished. As no rooms were prepared, temporary ones were hired, so that the same pupils attended a writing school in one building half the day, and a reading school in a different building, at a con- siderable distance, and under a different and independent teacher, the other half. Each reading school had its corresponding writing school, and while the boys were in one school, the girls were in the other, alternating forenoon and afternoon and changing the half day once a month, because Thursday and Saturday being vacation this arrangement was necessary to equalize the lessons taught in the separate schools. Henry Barnard in his American Educational Biog- raphy says: 32 THE PLATOON SCHOOL Even when the town built new schoolhouses, the upper room was devoted to the reading school, and the lower to the writing, the masters never changing rooms. As no provision was made in the reading schools for any exercise in writing, no such exercise was required there. ... The reading masters were found as incompe- tent to teach penmanship as the writing masters had always been to teach anything else. A report of the Boston School Committee on the condition of the schools in 1845 shows that the same double-headed organization was still in effect. This report deplores the fact that there were two masters with equal rank and pay, neither having exclusive control. At that time there were sixteen schools with thirty-two masters and sixteen ushers. Each master had charge of one half of the school in the morning and of the other half in the afternoon. The sixteen ushers worked both morning and afternoon. This double-headed plan, which in some respects suggests the duplicate or platoon idea of today, pre- vailed in Boston until after the organization of the first graded school, the Quincy Grammar School, in 1848. Lancasterian schools. In 1806 the Lancasterian monitorial system of instruction was introduced in America, the first school of this type being estab- lished in New York. The system soon became popu- lar and was widely adopted in various cities and towns. The monitorial system made possible the instruction of from two hundred to a thousand pupils simultane- ously by the employment of one teacher. While viewed in the light of current educational thought it 1 CALDWELL, O. W., and Courtis, S. A., Then and Now in Edu- cation, 1923. EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 33 seems mechanical and formal, it brought with it a plan of school organization and routine which was distinctly in advance of the type which had previously prevailed. The Lancasterian system gave way to the graded school organization of today. Though it left little permanent impression, it cannot be doubted that its ideals of system, order, group instruction, and teacher training carried over into the schools which came later. , Infant or primary schools. In developing systems of elementary schools in American cities previous to- the nineteenth century, no specific provision was made for training small children. In Boston, before they were permitted to enter the writing schools, pupils were expected to learn to read and write either at home or in dame schools. In 1816 the infant school, an English importation, was introduced into this country. The infant or pri- mary schools were taught the year round by women, who, at public expense, prepared children between the ages of four and seven to enter the reading and writing schools. A number of such schools were organized, as it was thought that one teacher could not well manage over fifty or sixty pupils and because children of this tender age could not conveniently attend school far from their homes. In New England, the infant or primary schools, which to a large extent absorbed the dame schools, from the time of their establishment in 1818 down to about 1848, were organized on the ungraded plan. Each school was a separate unit and usually occupied a separate one-room building. Pu- 34 THE PLATOON SCHOOL pils were classified into six groups so that at one time a teacher would have under her direction a class of ‘““ A-B-C-darians,’”’ a class ready for the writing and reading schools, and the four intervening classes. The graded grammar school. When Horace Mann and Henry Barnard, in the thirties and forties, led a campaign for the regeneration of American education, one of the reforms most urgently demanded was the formation of graded schools in which pupils could be grouped according to age and attainment. As early as the beginning of the nineteenth century, progressive educators began to be dissatisfied with the inefficient methods of school organization then in vogue. In the writing and reading schools as many as 180 pupils ranging in age from seven to fourteen were seated in one room, under the charge of one master and several assistants. Often three teachers carried on recitations in one room at the same time. In the later years this situation was relieved by building recitation rooms adjoining the large halls. In 1843 Horace Mann visited schools in Europe. In the Seventh Annual Report of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, published in 1844, he discussed the problem of classification as follows : The first element of superiority in a Prussian school, and one whose influence extends throughout the whole subsequent course of instruction, consists in the proper classification of the scholars. In all places where the numbers are sufficiently large to allow it the children are divided according to ages and attainments, and a single teacher has charge only of a single class or of as small a number of classes as is practicable. ... Let us suppose a teacher to have charge of but one class, and to have talent and resources sufficient properly to engage and occupy its attention, and we suppose a perfect school. But how greatly are the teacher’s duties increased EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 35 and his difficulties multiplied if we have four, five, or half a dozen classes under his personal inspection. There is no obstacle what- ever save prescription and that vis inertiae of mind which continues in the beaten track because it has not vigor enough to turn aside from it, to the introduction at once of this mode of dividing and classifying scholars in all our large towns. Although in the light of our twentieth century ex- perience, the organization of the reading and writing schools seems indefensible, it did not appear that way to the Boston schoolmasters, who tenaciously held to the traditional methods. Finally, however, in 1848, two new grammar school buildings were erected in Boston. One, the Bowdoin School, was three stories high and built on the traditional plan with large halls. The second, the Quincy Grammar School, was four stories high. On the first three floors the large halls were replaced by twelve small rooms of uniform size. The principal, Mr. John D. Philbrick, a man of vision, seized upon this opportunity to organize his school on the graded plan. The school was divided into four classes of 168 pupils each with three divisions in each class. In each of the twelve small rooms a teacher taught a class of 56 pupils graded according to age and attainment. This was probably the first graded school in America and its establishment is an event of great import, because, with minor changes, it was typical of the grammar school organization of today. Primary schools as organized before 1856 were un- graded, but the curriculum was divided into six steps or classes. As soon as the graded system in grammar schools gained in favor, there was a tendency to extend it to the primary schools. Thus instead of having one primary school with six classes, each primary school 36 THE PLATOON SCHOOL gave instruction to one grade or class. As a result, at the end of each half-year, a pupil was promoted from one school to another school having the next higher grade. In this way the primary schools in a given locality came to have an organic relation, and the need for supervision of transfers, promotions, and attendance arose. This need began to be keenly felt about 1848, just at the time that Boston was shifting from the double-headed organization to the graded grammar school plan. The master of the grammar school was relieved of all teaching and given supervision over the grammar school and the neighboring primary schools. Thus we have the evolution of the grammar school principal. The complete elementary school. The final step in the evolution of the elementary school organization was to gather together,! on the lower floor of the grammar school, pupils from the six scattered primary schools. In Boston the grades preceding the high school came to be known as the primary and grammar grades. In some other localities the terms primary, intermediate, and grammar were adopted. In Detroit there were at first two grades of public schools, primary and middle. In 1849 the union system of organization was adopted, under which primary and middle schools were housed under one roof. In 1858 a uniform system of grading was provided. In 1873 the elementary. school in- cluded the first nine grades, but in 1876 the ninth 2rade became a part of the high school. 1In Providence and Philadelphia the primary grades were housed on the lower floor of buildings before the graded school system was introduced. EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION a7 IV. MODIFICATIONS IN ELEMENTARY ORGANIZATION IN RESPONSE TO THE EXPANDING SCHOOL CURRICULUM Departmentalization. In the days when the dame school flourished, the teacher gathered a group of children about her and imparted to them the rudi- ments of an education. When regular schools were or- ganized the teacher in the beginning was obliged to teach the limited curriculum to children varying con- siderably both as to age and ability. In the “ halls”’ of the reading and writing schools the number under the direction of one teacher was often very large. With the coming of graded schools the teacher’s task was made easier, because she gave her instruction to a fairly homogeneous group, but the rapid expan- sion and enrichment of the curriculum during the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth has made the problem of the teacher more serious. In the earlier periods when only reading and writing with a little arithmetic and gram- mar were required, each instructor could be in a sense a specialist. With the addition of history and geog- raphy to the curriculum her responsibilities became considerably heavier. With the introduction of music, drawing, and physical education, she was expected to become a specialist in each subject in turn. As a result the task of the teacher became continually more burdensome. In attempting to teach the new subjects with which she was unfamiliar, she relaxed her efforts in the fundamentals and the results in the three R’s became less satisfactory. As a means of relieving this situation educators 38 THE PLATOON SCHOOL turned reluctantly to a principle of action which was already working. successfully in industry, the principle of the division of labor. It was proposed that teachers become specialists in the subjects which they felt them- selves best prepared to teach. As music, art, physical education, manual training, and domestic art and science became more highly specialized, it was nec- essary to secure teachers who were trained in these subjects. The fundamental subjects together with geography, history, and English were divided among the regular teachers who could present them most effectively. This scheme of departmentalization developed much opposition at first, and even now is not approved by those who believe that teaching is a personal matter between teacher and pupil, and that the most val- uable factor in education is the personal influence which an individual teacher exerts on the pupil. The social point of view in education, which means that a child shall get experience through social participa- tion, suggests that it is best for him habitually to ad- just himself to various personalities as he will have to do in life out of school. There is a real advantage in having a pupil work daily with several teachers. If they are efficient and worthwhile, each will appeal to him and stimulate him in a different way. If some of them are mediocre, as is sometimes the case, his con- tact with them is brief and the consequent loss to him is less than it would be were he under their direction all day. The real danger of departmentalization lies in the fact that specialization among teachers may result EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 39 in the disintegration rather than the integration of the pupils’ experience. It is possible that instruction under different teachers may tend to become pigeon- holed so that the child may not realize that all ex- perience has unity and is related. The modern idea of greater initiative and self-direction on the part of children, with a technique which permits them to progress individually in the tool and knowledge sub- jects, supplemented by group experiences in which various types of life problems or projects are met, will tend to minimize the danger of disintegration. Chil- dren’s experiences will then be related, because we shall no longer be teaching subjects as such, but giving pupils purposeful social activities to perform which in themselves may serve to unify experience. Departmentalization in the traditional school has several disadvantages. In the first place, it can only be a palliative, not a cure, for the condition which exists. As commonly employed, it is expensive. If we employ special teachers of art, music, and physical education who go from room to room in a building or who teach groups of pupils in special rooms during the entire day, there is duplication of teacher service or loss of instructional space, or both. Furthermore, the rooms of the ordinary grammar school building are not adequate for the presentation of art, nature study, physical education, or the socializing activities which require special facilities. This fact is being recognized more and more and such facilities are being included in school plants, but with the traditional organization, even if departmentalized, there is ex- cessive cost, and loss of much space which might in- 40 THE PLATOON SCHOOL crease the capacity of the school if properly used. What the situation demands is not a curative nostrum but a surgical operation. The new curriculum of 1924 will not function through the old school organization of 1848, even with the aid of departmentalization. The Gary schools. Educators are traditionally conservative. Therefore, modification in school pro- cedure always lags far behind innovations in educa- tional thought. The twentieth century brought with it the socialized point of view, which is gradually per- meating the educational mass and resulting in im- proved methods of instruction as well as better forms of school organization. Generally speaking, the old grammar school type of organization, or some modifi- cation of it, is still strongly entrenched, and adminis- trators who are attempting to teach the modern so- cialized curriculum with the traditional organization are trying to put ‘“‘new wine into old bottles.’’ There is, however, at the present time a gratifying tendency toward reorganization in many cities in scattered localities throughout the country. This inclination to readjust comes partly from a feeling that the old types of organization and building are inadequate for present needs, and partly from a desire to care for crowded conditions by increasing the housing ca- pacity of buildings already in use. Credit for the pioneer experiment in the readapta- tion of the school plant and organization to the modern curriculum belongs to William S. Wirt of Gary, In- diana. His experiment is especially noteworthy be- cause it inspired the efforts of many other later ex- perimenters. When Mr. Wirt took charge of the EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 41 schools of Gary he found a city which had little or no past and consequently no traditions. In this situation he was able to put into practice theories which he had previously tested in a smaller way in Bluffton, Indiana. Mr. Wirt maintains the theory that the chief factors in a child’s education are work, study, and play, and that the school must provide for all of these activities if the child is to have ‘a well-rounded education. The general scope of the Gary schools as stated by Mr. Wirt | is as follows: The twentieth century public school saves the taxpayers money by providing, first, classrooms and libraries where the child can study books and recite from books; second, playgrounds, gym- nasiums, and swimming pools where the child can play and secure a general physical training; third, shops, gardens, drawing-rooms, and laboratories where the child can work and learn to do efficiently many things by doing them; fourth, an auditorium where by lectures, recitals, dramatization, phonograph, player-piano, stere- opticon lantern, and motion pictures the visual and auditory educa- tion of the child may be done efficiently. Four separate and distinct places are provided for each child, but the total per capita cost is not increased fourfold. . . . Each child can be in only one of the four places at the same time. The new school so arranges the classes that different sets of children are in the four departments | all of the time. Some of the outstanding features of the Gary schools as summarized by W. P. Burris? are these: (1) Better use of school buildings day and evening, including Saturdays, the year round. (2) Better division of time between the old and new studies. (3) Greater flexibility in adapting studies to exceptional children. (4) Possibility of more expert teaching through the extension of the departmental plan of organization. (5) Better use of play time. WN. H. A. Proceedings, 1912, page 493. 2 U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1914, No. 18. 42 THE PLATOON SCHOOL (6) More realism in vocational and industrial work, by placing it under the direction of expert workmen from the ranks of labor. (7) Better facilities for promotion of health. (8) Possibility of promoting pupils by subjects instead of by grades. (9) Possibility of having pupils help each other. (10) Saving in cost of instruction. (11) A plan which brings together, in a unitary way, with economy and efficiency in management, the other recreational and educational agencies of a city. The feature of the Gary schools which has attracted the greatest amount of attention is the duplicate plan of organization which increases the capacity of the build- ings. In fact so much has been said about decreasing cost and relieving crowded conditions, that the real pur- pose of the organization, namely the provision of a school in harmony with present-day requirements, has often been overlooked. The Gary schools represent an attempt on the part of Mr. Wirt to realize modern educational ideals in a concrete way. To accomplish his purpose he inaugurated an elaborate program of innovations which the test of a number of years has proved to be of value. Platoon schools, Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 1915, in connection with the Cleveland survey, Mr. S. O. Hartwell published a monograph on Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan, in which he discussed the practi- cal working out in the schools of Kalamazoo, Michigan, of certain features exemplified in the Gary schools. To Mr. Hartwell the phase of the Gary organization of most value “consists of administrative adjustments through which all special rooms as well as all class- rooms are used throughout the school day.’’ This EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 43 duplicate form of organization he described as the platoon plan. The aims of this plan as worked out in the schools of Kalamazoo are stated to be — (1) Better instruction and improved results in special branches without increased expense and without sacrificing the regular sub- jects of the curriculum. (2) The filling of important gaps in the present curriculum with- out the increase in cost that often prohibits such additions. (3) A more constant use of the whole school building and espe- cially increased use of facilities usually considered ‘‘extras,’’ such as auditoriums, gymnasiums, manual training rooms, and the like. (4) A larger enrollment within the same building. V. REORGANIZATION OF THE DETROIT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, 1918-1924 The problem. During the decade preceding 1918, Detroit was rapidly evolving from an overgrown town into a large cosmopolitan city. With the coming of greater Detroit, the smug complacency and conserva- tism which had characterized the city for many years disappeared and in its place arose a new progressive spirit in harmony with twentieth century ideals. The rapid broadening of Detroit’s civic outlook was accom- panied by a corresponding expansion of its educational horizon. The public school organization, for many years fairly conservative, in response to new social- civic demands became markedly progressive. For a number of years Dewey’s social philosophy and Thorn- dike’s educational psychology had influenced the ideals of Detroit’s educational leaders. With the dawn of a new civic era, these ideals began to find fuller expression in modifications in the curriculum, in methods of in- struction, and in school organization. In attempting 44. THE PLATOON SCHOOL to readjust the elementary school system to meet the new situation, the following facts became evident : (1) That twentieth century social and industrial life makes a broad and varied curriculum a necessity. (2) That while our educational ideals, our curriculum, and our methods of instruction have been modified gradually in response to changing social and industrial conditions, and in harmony with the results of scientific research, we are still attempting to realize these modern ideals through a type of organization that was developed to meet conditions over seventy years ago. (3) That, while the ideals of today demand that we shall not only train a child in the fundamentals of education, but also shall make an appeal to the social, ethical, physical, and vocational as- pects of his nature, we are trying to attain these ideals in a type of school building which was adjusted to conditions existing before the middle of the nineteenth century. The logical conclusion to be drawn from these facts is that, if the ideals of today are sound, and we have faith in them, the time is at hand when we must — (1) Adopt a modern and more flexible form of elementary school organization. (2) Erect buildings which shall be adapted to the purposes of the new organization. Platoon school experiment in Detroit, 1918-19109. Prompted by the above considerations, when two new school buildings with auditoriums and gymnasiums were opened in Detroit in September, 1918, a modified type of organization was tried experimentally. In planning the new organization, the following aims were kept in mind: (1) Some activity — work, study, or play—for every child, every hour of the school day. (2) A school plant as nearly as possible 100 per cent efficient. (3) Adequate time and suitable conditions for effective in- struction in the three R’s. EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 45 (4) Ample time and suitable physical environment for daily health education. (5) Special teachers and facilities for instruction in health, music, art, literature, science, manual arts, and home economics. (6) Development of the auditorium as a new socializing and correlating unit in the school. (7) Establishment of a library as an integral part of the ele- mentary school organization. To obtain these objectives, a specialized form of the duplicate or platoon organization was developed and put in operation in two small buildings, the Maybee and Kennedy schools. These two schools were se- lected because they contained auditoriums and gym- nasiums, which are a prerequisite to the Detroit type of organization. Inasmuch as the buildings selected were being used for the first time, it was possible to begin the experi- ment with an entirely new corps of teachers in each school. Two open-minded, progressive principals were selected. They entered enthusiastically into the proj- ect. The corps of teachers selected in each school was divided into two groups, those who preferred to teach the fundamentals, and those who were interested in the various special subjects. The experiment in both schools was a success from the start. The most striking outcome was the spontan- eous and wholehearted endorsement which the new organization received from principals, teachers, pupils, and parents, and the consequent spread of a favorable sentiment throughout the system. It was presumed that the new organization would make its way slowly, and in the face of opposition. On the contrary the attitude developed was overwhelmingly favorable, and 46 THE PLATOON SCHOOL within a few months the completion of additions to other buildings made possible the establishment of the platoon organization in four additional schools, Hely, Stephens, Russell, and Columbian. With the opening of the fall term in September, 1919, nine more schools, Wilson, Angell, Greenfield Park, Marxhausen, Greusel, Lincoln, Lingemann, Breitmeyer, and Newberry, were reorganized as platoon schools. At the end of a year it was evident that the new organization had met the approval of a great majority of the parents, teachers, and pupils concerned. In addition, a measurement of the results attained in the three R’s showed that, even in the midst of reorganization and readjustment, the platoon schools were producing results in writing, spell- ing, arithmetic, and geography which were equal to those attained in the non-platoon schools. Official adoption of platoon school organization. In preparing the annual school budget for the years 1920- 1921, the Detroit Board of Education was confronted by a serious problem. Owing to the rapid growth of the city and the restraining effect of the war on all building operation, the housing capacity of Detroit schools was far below the requirements. Almost twenty thousand children were receiving only part- time instruction. To relieve the situation the appro- priating bodies authorized the expenditure of approxi- mately eight million dollars for new elementary schools and additions. Before attempting to outline a building program, the Board of Education decided to formulate and adopt a general educational policy. As respects elementary EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 47 school buildings and organizations several questions arose ; (1) Was the Board justified in spending large sums of money to erect a type of building which was manifestly inadequate for the purposes of the modern curriculum ? (2) If schools with auditoriums, gymnasiums, libraries, and other modern facilities were to be built, was the Board justified in perpetuating an organization which utilizes only two-thirds of the capacity of the building ? (3) In view of the current trend in educational thought and practice, would it not be the part of wisdom to cut loose from tradi- tion, and plan a new type of organization and a new type of building in harmony with the modern curriculum and the larger and more efficient use of the school plant ? In this crisis the Board of Education turned to the platoon school experiment. After careful considera- tion of all of the factors involved, it was decided to take a radical forward step, and the following resolu- tion ! was adopted : That the educational needs of children of the kindergarten and the first six grades be met by building large elementary schools, with auditoriums and gymnasiums, planned definitely to satisfy the requirements of the platoon form of organization. The passage of this resolution was epoch-making, in that it was the first instance in which the school au- thorities of a large city had officially adopted the platoon form of organization, and had planned a build- ing program accordingly. Since the new educational policy went into effect in 1919, the reorganization of the Detroit elementary school system on the platoon school basis has gone steadily forward. Data indicating the annual in- 1 Resolution of the Detroit Board of Education, September 25, 1919. 48 THE PLATOON SCHOOL crease in the number of platoon schools may be found in the Appendix, pages 233-256. VI. THE DETROIT PLATOON SCHOOL ORGANIZATION Aims. The fundamental object of the platoon organization is to provide an administrative device by which all of the subjects in the present-day cur- riculum may receive proper emphasis, and may be presented under conditions that best make for the realization of the social aims of education. To one who believes in a democracy, the aim of education is to enable each individual to develop to the fullest extent his individual powers while doing those things which are beneficial to society as a whole. Progressive educational thinkers are becoming daily more convinced that the big impelling motive in edu- cation is the social motive. All of our schools, ele- mentary, intermediate, secondary, and collegiate, must in the future strive to realize more fully the seven great social aims of education. The platoon school does this in a marked degree. The platoon organization makes ample provision for the health of its pupils through its gymnasium, its playground activities, its school clinic, its lunch room, and its auditorium lessons in hygiene. It teaches the fundamentals, the three R’s, as effec- tively as the conventional school has ever done. | It trains its pupils in the duties and responsibilities of citizenship and develops in them an enlightened social consciousness through the medium of its audi- torium activities and its library period, supplementing the instruction in history, civics, and literature. EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 49 It prepares its pupils for worthy home membership through its vocational activities, through its provi- sion for play and physical education, through its li- brary, and through its auditorium. All of these afford opportunities for self-activity, self-control, and self- direction on the part of the pupils. It arouses in its pupils vocational interests, and tests their aptitudes and tastes through the medium of its shops, its kitchens, its domestic art classes, and its mechanical drawing. The platoon school, with its studio, its music room, its literature room, its auditorium, and its library, appeals to the cultural side of child nature, stimulates the child’s imagination, and prepares him to spend his leisure hours worthily and happily. Finally it may be conceded that all education should ultimate in the development of ethical character. This particular type of school, because it appeals to so many aspects of a pupil’s nature, because it arouses a many-sided interest, because it offers such a variety of experiences, because it provides so many avenues for self-expression, and above all because it demands and requires so much from pupils in the way of self- control and self-direction, is the best type of school yet devised to develop ethical character. A secondary purpose of the platoon plan is to de- _ velop an organization which shall not only effectively realize the ends of instruction, but which shall at the same time make the largest and most effective use of the school plant. The traditional grammar school organization cannot effectively realize either of these important purposes. 50 THE PLATOON SCHOOL Plan of organization. ‘The distinctive feature of the modern platoon or work-study-play school is the di- vision of all of the school classes into two large groups, or platoons, alternating between the “‘ home rooms,” where the three R’s are taught, and the rooms for special activities, where children receive training in the social, ethical, physical, and vocational phases of life. For the ninety minutes, in which the classes of one platoon are in the home room receiving instruction in English, spelling, arithmetic, reading, and penman- ship, the classes of the opposite platoon, for three thirty-minute periods, are found distributed among the activities of gymnasium, play, auditorium, social science, literature, art, music, library, and household arts. The alternating of the platoons in the middle of the morning and the middle of the afternoon di- vides a six-hour day into three hours of home room work and three hours of special activities for every child. With this duplicate plan, all the space and all the facilities of the school are brought into play at the same time, thus giving the benefits of all the depart- ments to all of the pupils. The following general schedule, showing the division of the day into home room work and special activities for each platoon, will illustrate : The school day begins at 8: 30. Groupsin Platoon A go directly to the home rooms, where they remain until 10 o’clock, while groups in Platoon B have three thirty-minute periods of special activities. Both platoons change at 100’clock. Those in Platoon A then partici- pate in special activities for three thirty-minute periods, while groups in Platoon B have ninety minutes of home room work. School is dismissed at 11: 30. After one hour for lunch, Platoon A EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 51 groups report to their respective home rooms again for a period of ninety minutes, during which the B groups report in special classes for three thirty-minute periods. The platoons again alternate at 2 o'clock, A groups remaining in the home rooms for ninety minutes, and B groups in special classes until dismissal at 3: 30. The manner in which the day’s activities are distributed between home and special rooms may be shown as follows : TABLE I PLATOON A PLATOON B 8:30 Spec. Rooms (8 : 30-9 : 00) to Home Rooms Spec. Rooms (9 : 00-9 : 30) 10:00 Spec. Rooms (9 : 30-10 : 00) 10:00 Spec. Rooms (10 : 00-10 : 30) to Spec. Rooms (10 : 39-11 : 00) Home Rooms Ir :30 Spec. Rooms (11 : 00-11 : 30) NOON RECESS 12z| = 30 Spec. Rooms (12 : 30-1 : 00) to Home Rooms Spec. Rooms (1 : oo-1 : 30) 2:00 Spec. Rooms (1 : 30-2 : 00) 2:00 Spec. Rooms (2 : 00-2 : 30 to Spec. Rooms (2 : 30-3 : 00) Home Rooms 3:30 Spec. Rooms (3 : 00-3 : 30) Typical daily programs of pupils in the third and sixth grades of a platoon school compared with those of pupils of the same grades in non-platoon schools appear below: TABLE II A C1Lass — THIRD GRADE A.M. PLATOON NON-PLATOON Home Room 8:45- 8:55 Opening Exercises 8 : 30- 9:00 Reading 8:55-9:15 Arithmetic Q :00- 9:30 Arithmetic 9215— 9 335 Arithmetic (Study) 9 :30- 9:50 Penmanship 9:35-9:45 Geography 9 : 50-10 : 00 Recess 9 : 45-10 : 00 Recess Special Rooms IO : 00-10 : 30 Reading IO : OO-IO : 30 Library IO : 30-II :00 Drawing IO : 30-II :00 Auditorium TP4.00-11 315 Health Education II : 00-II : 30 Play Tr 215—TD 330 Spelling Dismissal Tiesco Dismissal P.M. I2 :30- 1:00 Reading I :00- 1:20 Music I :00- 1:20 Spelling I:20- 1:45 Language i 20-1 +30 Arithmetic I :45- 2:00 Penmanship £330- 1:50 Reading 2:00- 2:15 Recess I :50- 2:00 Recess 2:1I5—- 2:30 Geography Special Rooms 2:30- 2:45 Health Education 2:200- 2:30 Literature 2:245- 3:00 Reading 2 :30- 3:00 Gymnasium Be00— 93315 Silent Reading 3 :00- 3:30 Science a8 ia Dismissal 52 THE PLATOON SCHOOL B Ciass — SrxtH GRADE A.M. PLATOON NON-PLATOON Home Room 8 :45- 8:50 Opening Exercises 8: 30- 9:00 Arithmetic 8 :50- 9:20 Drawing 9 :00- 9:30 Penmanship and English 9:20-9:45 Spelling 9 :30- 9:50 Spelling OQ A5-10n 1S Health Education 9 : 50-10: 00 Recess TOs E5—10:: 30 Recess Special Rooms IO : 30-II : 00 Arithmetic IO : OO-IO : 30 Literature II : OO-II : 30 Geography (Study) IO : 30-II :00 Science II : 30-II : 45 Penmanship II : 0O-II : 30 Gymnasium Ta aS Dismissal Dismissal P.M. I2 : 30-12 : 50 Study Science I :00- 1:10 Courtis Test i2 50- 1.10 Arithmetic I:10- 1:40 Geography Tels 50 English Composition and Reading I :40- 2:00 Hygiene I :50- 2:00 Recess 2:00- 2:25 English Special Rooms 2325- 2:30 Recess 2:00- 2:30 Library 2:30- 3:00 Arithmetic (Study) 2 + 30- 3:00 Auditorium 3200- 3:30 Reading 3,2.00— 3). 30 Music BIO Dismissal The Detroit plan of platoon organization is possible only in a building containing regular classrooms, an auditorium, a gymnasium, and indoor or outdoor play space. With these facilities and the adoption of a stand- ard of forty children to a classroom group or section, the capacity of any building organized on the Detroit plan may be determined by multiplying the original number of classrooms by $; e.g., a building of eighteen class- rooms, accommodating eighteen groups or sections (720 children) on the traditional plan, will on the Detroit plan be able to accommodate twenty-four sections (18 XK 4 = 24) or 960, making an increase of 33% per cent. This increase may be illustrated by the following diagrams. In Figure 1, which represents a school organized on the traditional plan, the shaded areas indicate eighteen classrooms. The kindergarten has a capacity of sixty children. In addition this building includes space for manual training, domestic science, domestic art, library, EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 53 auditorium, gymnasium, and playcourt. All of these areas furnish extra space which is used at times when pupils leave one or more of the eighteen regular rooms. Fic. 1.—A Belioal AA on —< non- Ren Diaiie Capacity, 720 pupils, exclusive of 60 in kindergarten. In spite of this extensive auxiliary space the actual ca- pacity of the building remains 18 XK 40 = 720 + 60 (kindergartners). In Figure 2 the same school is shown organized upon the Detroit platoon plan. By utilizing the auditorium, gymnasium, and playcourt continuously in connec- tion with the eighteen schoolrooms it is possible to organize a twenty-four section platoon school with a capacity of 960 (40 X 24) + 60 kindergartners. In a twenty-four section school there are twelve home rooms and additional space in the building to house the other twelve sections at the same time. Twelve of the regular schoolrooms, indicated in the shaded area, are used for home rooms. The remaining six may be distributed as follows: two as literature rooms, two as science rooms, one devcted to art, and one to music. The original shaded area will therefore house eighteen of the twenty-four sections. The remaining six sections must be provided for at all times by the 54 THE PLATOON SCHOOL other shaded area, which includes the auditorium, gymnasium, amd playcourt. Thus the continuous use of the auditorium-gymnasium-playcourt area in- creases the capacity of the building 334 per cent from eighteen to twenty-four sections, or from 720 pupils to g60. While the auditorium and play spaces each have a normal capacity of eighty pupils, it is possible to vary this number. In actual practice the number of pupils First Platoon Second Platoon (480 children) (480 children) __ Fic. 2. — The same school as in Figure 1, organized upon Detroit pla- toon plan. Capacity, 960 pupils, exclusive of 60 in kindergarten. who occupy the auditorium and play space each period is determined in part by the number who at the same time are using the manual training, domestic science, and domestic art rooms, and the library. Time which is spent in any one of these rooms is normally deducted from play time or auditorium time and hence dimin- ishes the number of pupils occupying these units. If, in introducing the platoon organization, regular classrooms are used for auditoriums or gymnasiums, the number of such rooms must be deducted from the total number of rooms originally in the building before the formula can be applied. EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 55 Types of platoon schools. After six years of experi- ence with the Detroit platoon schools, five different types | of organization have been developed. The fol- lowing tables show the enrollment, required space, and required number of teachers in each type. TABLE III — SpAcE REQUIRED FOR VARIOUS TYPES OF PLATOON SCHOOLS Ex Tora - | HOME No. PrLay- Man. TYPES ne Roce Lit. | Scr. | Music} Art Crass Aub. |Gym. Caner Lis. Auts Rooms I2 sec.| 480 6 I I 5 25 9 I I I 16 sec. | 640 8 I I I I 12 I I I 18 sec. | 720 9 1.5 T5 I I 14 I I I 20 sec.| 800 ate) i ifopl le seis I I 15 I I I I 2 12 2 2 I I I I I I 2 24 sec.| 960 | 18 TABLE IV— NuMBER oF TEACHERS REQUIRED FOR VARIOUS TYPES OF PLATOON SCHOOLS HoME TOTAL Types Home | Room Aup. | Gym..| Lir. | Scr. | Mus.| Arr. | Lis. Man. | No. oF Room | ReE- Arts | TEACH- LIEF ERS I2 sec 6 I I 2 I 5 “53 rie 16 sec 8 I 2 2 1.5 res I I 18 18 sec 9 I 2 2 2 2 I I 8 20.8 20 sec Io 2 2 2 2 2 I I I 1.2 24.2 24 sec 12 2 2 | 3 2.5 2.5 I I I 2 29 The twenty-four section type has been selected as the standard because it best utilizes space and teacher service, and twenty-three of the fifty-four schools now in operation are of this size. New buildings are so planned that they can be erected in units adapted to the twelve and twenty-four section types. The largest buildings, such as the Duffield (Figure 53, page 143) have facilities for two twenty-four section schools. If the size of a building and the enrollment make 1 Programs of each type may be found in the Appendix, page 233. 56 THE PLATOON SCHOOL necessary a number of sections larger than thirty-six and less than forty-eight, it is desirable to organize a twenty-four section school, and either a twelve or sixteen section school in the same building. | Program making. No platoon school can be suc- cessfully organized and administered unless it has back of it a carefully planned, well-balanced program. The program is the most important factor of the or- ganization, determining to a large extent the utiliza- tion of the school plant, the best distribution of sub- ject matter according to grade allotment, and the most effective use of teachers’ time. In making a program, the following are essential considerations : (1) Space in building. (2) Enrollment by grades. (3) Time allotment or period distribution. (4) Planning of classes with desired sequence of pupil’s work and equalization of teacher’s time. Space. Ifa building is being considered for a pla- toon organization, every detail of space must first be checked. Rooms to be used for auditorium, gymna- sium and play must be selected and all available rooms of classroom size included ; e.g., a building of eighteen classrooms with auditorium, gymnasium, manual arts, and library space will become a twenty-four section school with classrooms divided (see Table III) into twelve home rooms, two literature rooms, two science rooms, one music room, and one art room. This is the minimum space required for this type of organiza- tion. Details of space requirements for other types of platoon organizations will be found in Table ITI. EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 57 Enrollment. After the space has been analyzed, the building capacity is determined by multiplying the number of classrooms by $; e.g., eighteen class- rooms would accommodate twenty-four groups or class sections or, on the basis of forty in a section, 960 pupils. In the same manner, the number of sections of any size of building may be determined, thus form- ing the basis for the type of program to be made. Time allotment. In making the program of special activities, a standard time allotment by subject and grade must be followed. TABLE V— WEEKLY TIME ALLOTMENT HEALTH I II III IV Vv VI VII VIII Gymnasium 9) . alsO 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 PLA; ee Sees poe Ea «tal ° mao page i: ie TE: ° ° ie © FR OR o bal o Rh ° mat om o ° ° Tt coe 4 PEE é ote eae ° LLLLLLLA NM LMM y Oo one oie e oR opm Sma e e e e e Tas e © ° e e e ° . 2 ° ad e ie ° ° ° - ° e e ° eo ° d b E tH a ri —— VY hhh RSS SS A SS Sy N N | N \ | ‘ WZ Fic. 38. First- and second-floor plan of Bowdoin Grammar School, Boston, 1848. rooms, and a small room for a library. The first floor corresponded to the second, except that each room on the first floor had a capacity of too pupils. The Bowdoin School was a girls’ school, and con- tained two distinct departments, the grammar (read- ing) department and the writing department, each with EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 123 a separate and independent master. ‘There were four assistant female teachers in each department, inde- pendent of the master and teachers of the other de- partment. ‘The master of the grammar department and two of his assistants occupied the large hall on the third floor. Two other assistants occupied one of the rooms on the first floor. The master of the writing de- Fic. 39. — Quincy Grammar School, Boston, 1848. partment and two assistants occupied the rooms on the second floor, and two other assistants the second room on the first floor. The school was divided into five classes and each class into two divisions. One week the. first division of each class attended the grammar de- partment in the morning, while the second division attended the writing department. In the afternoon the second division attended the grammar department and 124 THE PLATOON SCHOOL the first division the writing department. The following week the order was reversed. The Bowdoin Grammar School, therefore, with slight modifications, might be considered a_ typical reading and writing school of the traditional type. Its | CATT ca NOON 0000 UI MUA TTT CLITA ULI AIL Fic. 40. — Fourth-floor plan of Quincy Grammar School, Boston, 1848. organization in 1848 shows that the influence of the conservatives was still strong, and that the Quincy Grammar School, organized in the same year, must have been a concession to the progressives and in the nature of an experiment. EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 125 The Quincy Grammar School was a four-story build- ing. The fourth floor was occupied by a large hall with seats for 700 children. Above this floor was an attic for physical exercises. The third floor was divided by [eo [Je of Je [Le DeleHe eet Heo eTeforel> HeLfotetefolofe Delete leHeHeLeo Hefofe HeleTetyo Doelelefofef feof ]e TeHeTe Heel] [ye NU, of feffe[folfo | of] oLTleTeLeCeLet oT JefJooffoffof fol oLeHeHeHeHeHeH eleNeHeHeHeleH eTeHeHeHeHeHe eTefeleHeHefel] eTeHeHeHeHete 1 Holes eTole | of et Melerer er] Uet]ofo Heep to] Jo of fol Jol fof Jo Joy] of | OROEORG HeleTo of fof fol Jo OROEO| UeHeHeleHey] of Jo of ol fol fof tof feT fof] TefeoLfo Lefef fof qo of fof fof fof fof fof fof} NeHeMeHeHelHeHe J oftetetotette fel] HelelHelelel fof fo of fof fo Hee el fol] olleteHettoLet Fic. 41. — First-, second-, and third-floor plan of Quincy Grammar School, Boston, 1848. a corridor 8 feet wide with two small rooms on each side. The rooms were 31} by 26% feet and each con- tained desks and chairs for 56 pupils. Two of the schoolrooms had small rooms (10 X II) adjoining to provide for the children’s wraps. The other two 126 THE PLATOON SCHOOL schoolrooms were provided with inside closets for the same purpose. Each room had composition black- boards, and each desk had an inkstand with a revolving metal cover. The second and first floors were dupli- cates of the third. This building was built to house the new graded school organization. The complete school was divided into four classes and each class of 168 pupils into three divisions. On the third floor were housed the first division of the first class under the principal, and the several divisions of the second class. On the second floor the sub-master instructed the second division of the first class, with the several divisions of the third class under his assistants. On the first floor the usher instructed the third division of the first class and his assistants taught the several divisions of the fourth class. The entire school assembled in the large hall on the fourth floor for devotional and general exercises. | The Quincy Grammar School was described in 1874 by its principal, John D. Philbrick, as follows: ! (1) It was large. Up to this time a grammar school with 400 pupils was considered very large. This building had 660 seats in the school rooms exclusive of the halls. (2) It contained a separate schoolroom for each teacher, 12 in all, and of course, recitation rooms were not needed. (3) It contained a hall large enough to seat comfortably all the pupils that could be accommodated in the schoolrooms, and even more. (4) It contained a clothes room attached to each schoolroom. (5) It contained a separate desk and chair for each pupil, this being probably the first grammar school house, here or elsewhere, so far as I know, into which this feature was introduced. 1 PHILBRICK, J. D., Twenty-ninth Semi-annual Report (September, 1874), pages 10-12. EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 127 (6) It was four stories high — the first of this height — the hall covering all of the fourth story. All the grammar school houses since built in this city are of this type. Modifications and improvements, more or less important, have been from time to time introduced, but the type has not changed. The erection of the Quincy Grammar School marks a distinct epoch in American education, because it established a new standard of grammar school archi- tecture, which brought with it a new type of grammar school organization. If we place beside this description of the Quincy Grammar School of 1848, a description of a typical present day grammar school, we cannot fail to notice a great similarity. For it is true that the box-like school structures which dot the landscape all over our land and which with minor modifications are still being erected in villages, towns, and cities, are, to all intents and purposes, replicas of this old school built seventy- five years ago. To be sure, styles in school architec- ture have changed and we now seldom erect three- or four-story buildings. Further, by various devices we have made our schools more healthful and comfortable, but the general space distribution does not materially differ from that of the old school of 1848. V. IMPORTANT FACTORS INFLUENCING THE DEVELOP- MENT OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE The development of elementary school architecture in this country since 1850 has been influenced largely by three factors: (1) Changing educational ideals and aims as ex- pressed in the curriculum and methods of instruction. 128 THE PLATOON SCHOOL (2) Growth of scientific knowledge in regard to health. (3) Considerations involving the safety of children while attending school. Changing educational ideals and aims. School architecture of the present day had its beginnings in ecclesiasticism. The schoolhouse evolved from the Kindergarten (60) U7 Uftt. Fic. 42.— Plan of traditional elementary school building prior to 1900. church and still has characteristics which point to its religious origin. All of the old churches and many modern ones have towers and spires. Most school- houses erected over a quarter of a century ago also have these architectural features. As long as the individual method of instruction pre- vailed generally, it had little influence on school architecture. With the coming of the monitorial system, as we have seen, rooms were made larger and EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 129 seating arrangements were adjusted for group work. The graded system brought still another radical change as exemplified in the Quincy Grammar School, 1848. The effect upon school architecture of the expansion of the curriculum from 1850 to 1924 is clearly indicated by the evolution of elementary school buildings in Detroit during that period. Before 1870 the hall idea in school buildings as 1l- lustrated by the fourth floor of the Quincy Grammar School had begun to disappear. Soon after 1875 the prevailing styles in elementary architecture shifted from three-story to two-story buildings comprising a number of classrooms of uniform size. Prior to 1900 there was no deviation from this plan, except to provide a special room for the kindergarten. Buildings of this period may be diagrammatically shown, as in Figure 42. This cut represents a building of eighteen class- rooms with the kindergarten as an added facility. Previous to 1906 a regular classroom was used for the kindergarten, but after that date a room especially arranged for the kindergarten was included in the plans. In the two decades following 1900, the introduction of manual arts and home economics resulted in the expansion of the traditional building to provide for instruction in these new subjects. Figure 43 shows the space distribution in a building of this period. The shaded area indicates that portion of the space (exclusive of the kindergarten) which is in continual use. The unshaded portions on the right indicate space which serves to increase instructional space, but does 130 THE PLATOON SCHOOL not add to capacity. Rooms for manual arts and home economics were usually provided on the base- ment floor. In the period from 1918 to 1922, influenced by the great social aims in education, and in response to the requirements of the platoon type of organization, elementary school architecture in Detroit was radically modified. To the floor space of the schools of the 7 Kindergarten Y aoa = = Fic. 43. — Plan of Ctl — school building (1900-1918). Capacity 720 children, exclusive of kindergarten. (60) previous period were added a library, an auditorium, a gymnasium, and an indoor playroom. Figure 44 shows the space distribution in the en- larged building. The shaded portion indicates the space regularly occupied by pupils while the unshaded portions (except kindergarten) show auxiliary or sup- plemental space, which, as has been previously shown (page 53), with the traditional grammar school or- ganization in operation, does not add to the school’s capacity. Health. Before Henry Barnard wrote on the sub- EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 131 ject in 1848, very little attention had been paid to the demands of hygiene and sanitation in housing school children. If we contemplate the environment in which our great-grandfathers and grandmothers received their schooling, we find that the outstanding features are the small, unsanitary, poorly ventilated, badly heated, and inadequately lighted schoolrooms with their hard, uncomfortable, unhygienic seats and desks. This was true not only of the schools of colonial days, but also of the district schools before 1840. The Neate of oan of schools from 1844 to , Be We Fic. 44. — A school nnn on ee non-platoon plan. Capacity 720 pupils, exclusive of 60 in kindergarten. 1848 show an appalling condition. Horace Mann stated in 1846 that “stables for cattle and the folds for sheep were superior to the houses provided for school children.’’ In- New York state in 1844 over three thousand ‘schools were reported as “‘ unfit for man or beast.’’ Over six thousand school buildings in that state had no toilet facilities whatever and 1‘ barents who desired to preserve the health and morals of their children excluded them from the dis- ‘ Report of Hon. Samuel Young, Superintendent of Common School, N.Y., 1844. 132 THE PLATOON SCHOOL trict schools and provided instruction of a private nature.”’ It was against such conditions that Mann and Bar- nard made their fight, and the principles of sanitation laid down by Barnard in his School Architecture (1848) set the standard for years to come. Many of the ideals which Barnard set up are still to be realized in rural schools in some parts of the country ; but an awakened public conscience and a better understanding of the laws of health and hygiene have brought with them better lighted, heated, and ventilated buildings; more hygienic seats and desks; sanitary drinking fountains ; convenient toilets and lavatories ; shower baths ; swim- ming pools; school clinics; lunch rooms with whole- some food; gymnasiums and ample outdoor space for physical development, healthful games, and play. All of these changes are embodied in the most modern buildings in progressive communities. Safety. In the early days of school architecture, the factor of safety seems to have been overlooked. We read of school buildings dangerously placed on or near the highway, of cracked stoves and chimneys, of falling plastering, and of buildings in a dangerous and dilapidated condition. Schools in large towns and cities were often built three or four stories high, of non-fireproof material, with steep, narrow stairways, and without fire escapes. Not infrequently on the top floor of one of these high buildings, an auditorium was provided, in which as many as seven hundred people were at times assembled. The ideal of safe living has made slow progress in this country. There are even today, in our most en- EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 133 lightened communities, many three-story non-fire- proof buildings of the old type. However, a marked change is taking place. Public opinion, crystallized in the form of building codes and safety regulations, is rapidly improving the quality of buildings. Old structures, which for financial reasons cannot be abandoned, are being made less hazardous by such safety devices as fire walls and doors, sprinkler sys- tems, and fire escapes. The best modern fireproof school buildings are now models of safety with nu- merous exits, broad stairways, spacious halls, and heat- ing plants isolated from the building in which the pupils are housed. The best twentieth century structures, as exem- plified in the Detroit buildings of the period from 1918 to 1923, not only adequately serve the requirements of present day school organization and instruction, but in addition provide a physical environment in which children can receive instruction under healthful and safe conditions. VI. ADAPTING THE SCHOOL PLANT TO THE ORGANIZATION AND CURRICULUM School architecture of 1848 still prevalent. In the foregoing discussion of the evolution of the ele- mentary school building the fact was noted that, while in progressive communities school architecture has been gradually modified in response to the de- mands of education, health, and safety, in the country at large most of the buildings erected in 1923 are in their essential elements almost replicas of those con- structed in 1848. A casual survey of schoolhouses in 134 THE PLATOON SCHOOL towns and cities throughout the United States today leads irresistibly to the conclusion that the model of 1848, a boxlike structure comprising a group of rooms uniform in size and equipment, is still a popular model in 1924. The obvious reason for this condition is that the school organization which must function in these buildings today is fundamentally the same as the organization of the original graded school in Bos- ton in 1848. It has been shown that the school authorities in Detroit, actuated by a feeling that the traditional organization was obsolete and out of step with modern educational ideals, in 1919 officially adopted an en- tirely new semi-departmentalized form of elementary school organization, called the platoon school. The logical correlative of a different kind of or- ganization was a new type of school building, in which the new organization might find adequate expression. To satisfy the requirements of the platoon system, Detroit in 1919 entered upon an extensive building program. This program included : (1) Remodeling existing school buildings in har- mony with the new organization. (2) Planning and erecting new buildings specifically designed to meet new requirements. Reorganization of existing buildings. As _ typical of the possibilities of a broader and more effective use of an old school building, the Newberry School may be considered. ‘The first unit of this building was erected in 1887. It was adapted to the use of the new or- ganization at a cost of $200. A large double ‘fooypg AleqmaNn — “Sb “org 136 THE PLATOON SCHOOL room on the second floor was provided with a simple stage ‘and suitable seats for 80 or 90 pupils. This serves the purpose of an auditorium. An old storage room in the basement was renovated and made usable as a playroom or gymnasium. With these minor changes, a sixteen section platoon school was made possible, and the housing capacity of the school MANUAL TRAINING SEWING H FO t el sol LER P ALN a PLERUM BOYS ‘ BOYS GIRLS SPECIAL TOILET l l PLAY LOCKERST Lockers SHOWERS] SHOWERS NEW BASEMENT FLOOR PLAN ‘-A-L-HOLUMES:SCHOOL: Fic. 46. — Basement plan of A. L. Holmes School. was increased by 200. Though far from ideal, the building serves its purpose more effectively than before, and the organization of the school is very efficient. The A. L. Holmes School was a fourteen-room build- ing, acquired by annexation. An addition was built embracing seven classrooms, auditorium, gymnasium, library, and kindergarten. Thus the capacity of the building was increased by 560. EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING $137 On the basement level the building provides a gym- nasium, a playroom, locker rooms for boys and girls, manual training and sewing rooms, and an auxiliary room for a special class. On the first floor is an audi- torium seating 175 pupils, an art room, a music room, two science rooms, two literature rooms, a kinder- garten, two home rooms, and a special room. The KINDERGARTEN ' GIRLS TOILET SPECIAL ART BOYS TOILET HOME Int | fe III! ——— AvOITORIUM ToILet Prusic HOME F TOILET A ; i mt tl | i a uy = ESS SCIENCE | > it. ite l| == tf . OLD 7} —__NEvy msi PeL 010°: PLAN -A-L:-HOLMES:-:SCHOOL: Fic. 47. — First-floor plan of A. L. Holmes School. second floor provides for ten home rooms, a library, and a special room. In this manner a small, inadequate building was transformed into a modern one, with every facility to meet the demands of the platoon school organization and to satisfy community needs as well. Types of new buildings erected. The first new building erected specifically for the platoon plan was 138 THE PLATOON SCHOOL the Pattengill, completed in June, 1921. This build- ing, with a capacity of 1960, is a two-story structure with a basement. The basement includes a gymnasium 44 by 66 feet, two outdoor playcourts, shower and locker rooms, a lunch room, rooms for manual arts and home economics, and rooms for literature and music. The first floor MECGIVD bo oO mein -A-L-HOLMES -SCHOOL-: Fic. 48. — Second-floor plan of A. L. Holmes School. includes an auditorium 44 by 47 feet, science rooms with a conservatory, art rooms, a kindergarten, and nine home rooms. On the second floor are an auxiliary auditorium, a library, and fifteen home rooms. During the years following the erection of the Pattengill School, the platoon organization was further refined and developed, and a new building evolved in harmony with the improved organization. The first ‘Tooyos [Isuej4eg — ‘6b ‘OI 140 THE PLATOON SCHOOL building of this type, the Duffield School, was com- pleted in March, 1923. It is a ground level building with a total capacity of 2360. It is planned to house two twenty-four section platoon schools with addi- tional space for special classes. The Duffield building embodies certain features which make for efficiency in administration. All JANITOR TU SEWING GYMNASIUM MANUAL . DOMESTIC TRAINING SCIENCE <8 TOILET FAN ROOM TOILET BUR) ES Mies Nel eee i eee Fic. 50. — Basement plan of Pattengill School. special activities are grouped on the first floor. The platoon organization requires a change of classes be- tween special rooms at the end of each half hour. All the home rooms in the Duffield School are located on the second floor. Only twice during the day, at EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 141 ten o’clock in the morning and at two o’clock in the afternoon, is there an exchange of traffic between home and special rooms. Grouping all of the pupils in home rooms on the second floor leaves the pupils undis- turbed by the half-hour changes which take place on the first floor. 3 The outstanding features of the Duffield building are two gymnasiums with shower rooms adjoining, ART SCIENCE SCIENCE § SCIENCE § SCIENCE et: Tie HOME ART AUDITORIUM HOME KINDERGARTEN I Lf es a Bee a0 Do. PE AN Fic. 51. — First-floor plan of Pattengill School. two auditoriums, one seating 175 people and the other 250, a large library with an alcove for the smaller children, four science rooms with two conservatories, a double kindergarten suite, and a lunch room. The third floor is given over to facilities for an open air school. 142 | THE PLATOON SCHOOL The Duffield plan can be used only in localities where the available space is large, and where the contributing population will make necessary a school housing 2,000 pupils or more. It may be erected in sections some- what as follows. The first section comprises twelve classrooms and kindergarten; the first and second sections, eighteen classrooms and kindergarten; the AYVDITORIUM iH Wy wn Itt UL Hl Mi ii LIBRARY SECON Do FL 026° eee Fic. 52. — Second-floor plan of Pattengill School. first three sections, twenty classrooms, kindergarten, library, auditorium, gymnasium, and teachers’ rest room; the first four sections, twenty-three classrooms, kindergarten, sewing room, shop, art studio, two gymnasiums, two auditoriums, library, and administra- tive quarters. EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 143 A third phase in the development of an elementary school plan adapted to the requirements of the platoon organization is represented by the Brady type of building. While the Pattengill School exemplifies the closed court plan and the Duffield School the E type, the Brady School tends toward the H plan. It Fic. 53. — Duffield School. is preferred to the Duffield type because each twenty- four section unit is a complete school building archi- tecturally and educationally. It can also be more readily oriented to different sites and lends itself to the requirements of narrower and smaller plats of ground. The capacity and facilities of a complete school of the H type are practically the same as those of the Duffield School. forked! | Fare. loveceeers) i = OYMNASIUM oOrers === > = ga a Parmcie OFF ICL, p i ja Es — Sa os CBUERTELREE d q +] MUS/C om q Fic. 54. — First-floor plan of Duffield School. a) Gr ! eimai 1 oat | ae El ma a UT al aul C1 | eee) Fic. 55. — Second-floor plan of Duffield School. _ Les we Ae Wel Vig 5 a Ecce Bra es Hts Ye | Cru elms “UOT}ONIysUOD yun ZuryeIysNTTI ‘fooysg Aperg oy} Jo uRT{ — ‘9S “OI ~WVYOVIA LINN NOLONYLSNOD -- \GONdS NOULDAS bo BLA IAWOO wk guage eine Tees tere Seana ae NE FOOHSS NOILOSS O2 VY SAAID LINN WMO 4Suld BHL OL NOILNOd SIHL 4O NOLLIQQY SHEL LINN 4Sul4d BHL SIN3SSAYdSN NOUHOd SIHL EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 147 The Brady type of building may be constructed in from one to three units or sections, according to the needs of the particular neighborhood. The first unit, indicated by the crosshatching in the accompanying diagram (Figure 56), consists of twelve classrooms, a kindergarten, a small administrative office, and a large room on the second floor directly above the kinder- garten, which may be used in the first unit as an audi- torium. In the complete school of three units this room becomes a combination cooking and sewing room. The first unit of this building will accom- modate a twelve section platoon school organization, a kindergarten, and one non-platoon room with a total capacity of 640. The Courville School (Figure 57) is representative of the first unit of an H type building. The addition of the second unit results in a building with gymnasium, kindergarten, sixteen classrooms, auditorium, speech correction room, small administra- tive office unit, library, clinic, and teachers’ work room. The combined first and second units will provide for a twenty section platoon organization, giving a total capacity, including kindergarten and speech correction rooms, of 940. The completion of the third unit re- sults in a twenty-four section school with a full com- plement of special rooms. The maximum capacity of the Brady type of school is 1,360 children distributed as follows: twenty-four section organization, 960; kindergarten, 120; seven special rooms, 280. The speech correction room does not add to capacity. The twenty-four section unit includes the following accommodations : "SUOTJOIAS ATOM SO}JEPOUIUODOB qIun sly “JOOYOs Uor}oas INOJ-AyUOMY B JO YUN 4sIY oY, “ooYyDg oTTAMog sy, — “LS “oy EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 149 FIRST FLOOR 2, PAUCILOrni¢G te ee ee a, Xing’ t Gymnasium . . eee, ao 400 x 60 t Boys’ locker and Brower ee hale oe ae 1 Girls’ locker and shower rooms... .. . 12’ X36’ r ‘Corrective gyminecminese Oe or aoe 48 be a2 23" xX ax’ Se peCiil LOOWISSL ete oer ae ee a’ SM 30" © Mandal trainwie rooms, .2eo.e, +o. 4 2. 22" X 32" rt Art room 2 ee Gh" et ee ees es wae Con Ta NLGSiCheGOIn Wie Ae ee. ane Th ees) kt ce 22" % 30° 2 Literature rooms . . Wit Me Rey! cee ya 30° 2 Science rooms and lobe RP a es er os RO! pe Beate’ UR ee cal ee aS we ary, 1 Kindergarten . . Ak fo) AR ae eee 1 Kindergarten toilet nd dons FOCI ay ee ete ear 2” xX 26° Mr iru Ramen. w | Se Ee AL crew ety td’ XC 26! t Administration suite . ... . ... «'. » . 23’ X30’ t 6Physicaldirector’s ofice so n° ewe. we ta K 20’ PR DOve Tiailclcn tide aie, See nee. Es bo" and ete or ae weak. ie’ Cita" Dee Crtccle cee eeeee at 17. te, Pee ae ot ee. 3 eh ES X28" and Same as i aay eleratiisetOOn! Mier fo he cs! IO SECOND FLOOR Poe nite ROGIIS © fe a BEES by aes © ues ees en | 28) X30" Pe pew, windowsrOOl) Goal gs) cee foe we MS 22" XO RO" Peopeeeh conection. To0m . ees. = x ae 6022. X30" 1 Cooking and sewing room .... .. . . 28! X32’ Rape CoGheremctny: FOOM Pe als cs uf, oo lees a. 123" X38" Re ToarAecesrOOIl in ae eh) 2 ee Ass ue) 6.23) ar’ Pe Ee ae, alae eins, ce gd 14’ KX 20° PRC OTrQIMGnE RES 9. 8 og Wy 1s. 25" K 40, eee tem” 2 ae ets.) 68" XK ae" and ee Oe meee as ow 93" X50" Prineioeige to eee, eee BS 8b s, % 18! X28 and Se Ln eee, es 2X 12" See Women teachers xestiroom. . 2 1 4 «0. « 314".% 22" See Paes TOO ee ae sea ee Ske, 6!) 9. X12" All the important units in buildings erected for the platoon organization have been standardized. Standard units of platoon school building. The platoon organization is constantly being refined and modified in the light of research and changing condi- tions, and the building, in harmony with these modifica- ‘jooyos Apeig jo ued 100pg-ys11yJ — “gS ‘OT Se Ef — | 1 : paced een a Perry =~ ~ =- aoe ee; : lat ‘jooyss Apeig jo ued 1ooy-puoses — *6S ‘SI | 5 a i ii mtd ee 152 THE PLATOON SCHOOL tions, is being changed to meet new demands. How- ever, the principal instructional and auxiliary units in the building are, within limits, becoming standardized. The Board of Education has officially decreed that classrooms shall be constructed to seat a maximum of forty pupils. This rule is being embodied in all school construction. The essential units in the Duffield School building, which exemplifies the most advanced ideas in the planning of buildings in Detroit, are I. Instructional units: (a) Home rooms. (b) Gymnasiums, showers, and locker rooms. (c) Playrooms or courts. (d) Auditoriums. (e) Libraries. (f) Kindergarten rooms. (g) Science rooms and conservatories. (h) Literature, music, and art rooms. (cz) Manual and industrial arts and home economic rooms. (j) Special rooms (open-window, for defectives, etc.). II. Auxiliary units: (a) Administration rooms. (b) Clinics. (c) Lunch rooms. (d) Teachers’ rooms. (e) Corridors with lockers. Instructional units. — (a) Home rooms. Home rooms are 22 by 30 feet in area, provided with built-in cup- boards, storage space for supplies, and a wardrobe for teachers. A strip of corkboard for display purposes is placed above all blackboards. The seating capacity is forty pupils. EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 153 (b) Gymnasiums. The Duffield plan includes two gymnasiums 40 by 60 feet with locker and shower accommodations 19 by 29 feet for boys and girls sepa- rately. This unit also includes a physical director’s office and examination room. The locker units have their own toilet facilities. Each gymnasium has a capacity of eighty pupils. (c) Playrooms. The entire area above the gym- nasiums, in the Duffield School plan, is devoted to open window play space. It is reached by stairways ascending from the health units below. The play- room capacity equals that of the two gymnasiums combined. (d) Auditoriums. On the first floor are two auditoriums, the smaller one 34 by 45 feet and the larger one 34 by 54. The stage in the smaller auditorium is 12 feet deep, while that in the large auditorium is 14 feet. Both stages are equipped with foot and border lights. The large auditorium has a small gallery for spectators with a picture booth in the rear. This booth may be utilized for projection in either auditorium. The ca- pacity of the smaller auditorium is 200 and that of the larger one 300. Both are well adapted to the require- ments of platoon school work and the larger one is suitable for community purposes. (e) Libraries. The library suite comprises a stand- ard size library, 22 by 44 feet, with bay window, and a Fic. 60. — Plan of home room. OYMNAS!IUM GIRLs Fic. 61. — Plan of gymnasiums. BONS GYMNASIUM Fic. 62. — Plan of playrooms. uN { My Fic. 63. — Plan of auditoriums. EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 1 57 smaller library 22 by 28 for younger children. These rooms are provided with approved built-in library shelves and magazine racks, with ample corkboard areas for display purposes. A fireplace and suitable library furniture add to the general effectiveness of these units. (f) Kindergarten suite. The kindergarten facilities provided in the Duffield plan consist of a suite of rooms, which includes a large kindergarten room, 22 by 30 feet, : HCHILORENS LIB. Fic. 64. — Plan of libraries. with bay window, fireplace, and ample built-in cup- boards for storage ; a small kindergarten room 22 by 30 feet; and between the two kindergarten rooms a room for wraps and a toilet room reserved for the use of kindergarten children exclusively. The capacity of this suite is 120 pupils. (g) Sctence rooms with conservatories. The large Duf- field building includes two science room suites — one on each wing of the building, since it is desirable that the conservatories have a southern exposure. The two types of science suites now in use are indicated in the accom- || KINDERGARTEN Fic. 65. — Plan of kindergarten suite. S12 8G eee REDE E Bisiaie “ i Fic. 66.— Planof science rooms, Fic. 67.— Plan of science rooms, show- showing conservatory. ing conservatory. 160 THE PLATOON SCHOOL panying floor plans, Figures 66 and 67. In the first instance the conservatory is entered by doors leading to each of the science rooms. In the other GyTHERATDRE. Be ed 2 OE 3 KTERATURE oP ad a IE Re as EE EE Li See Fic. 68. — Plan of literature, music, and art rooms. case the conservatory is reached directly from one science room, which has a door leading into the second science room. Each of these rooms has a capacity of forty pupils. Fic. 69. — Plan of manual training room. (h) Literature, music, and art rooms. Rooms used for literature, music, and art are of the standard home room size, 22 by 30 feet, and have either the regular built-in storage cabinets and closets, or, in the case of EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 161 the art room, special cabinets and a lavatory. Each room has a capacity of forty pupils. (4) Manual and industrial arts and home economics. Provision for these activities includes a manual training room 22 by 30 feet with tool and lumber space in addition and built-in cabinets of a spe- cial type. A room of similar size is set aside for domestic science with space for a pantry and a small dining room. The | rooms for sewing are of the standard size, 22 by 30 feet, with built-in equipment for this - type of work. The capacity of | a manual training or domestic science room is’ twenty-four and of a sewing room forty. (7) Special rooms. Fic. 70.— Plan of room, special In all new buildings provision is = ; j made for several special apa awe v “| WAIT. RM. pb en | |PRiNciP | OFFICE. gd rooms for activities not a part of the regular platoon organization. In this group may be in- cluded open window rooms, rooms for defec- f tive children, ungraded and opportunity rooms, Aseewellerasw roomsastor FIG.71. ae ofadministration rooms. Americanization and for- eign classes. These rooms are all of standard size, 22 by 30 feet, and have the usual equipment and facilities. 162 THE PLATOON SCHOOL Auxiliary units. — (a) Administration rooms. Space equal to the area of one standard classroom is allowed for general administration. This is. di- vided into a large office for the princi- pal, with ample space for a waiting room and a room for the clerk. Wardrobe and toilet facilities are also included. (b) Clinics. Each school includes some space for the physician and nurse. In the Duffield plan an area of about 12 by : 22 feet is thus reserved. The outer Fic. 72.— Plan part, opening into the corridor, is used of clinic. as a waiting room, and the inner quarters for examinations and treatments. (c) Lunch rooms. All new platoon school buildings include space for a lunch room. In the Duffield School plan there is an area 22 by 35 feet for this purpose. About one- fourth of this space is used for the pantry and kitchen, and the remain- der for tables and chairs. The kitchen is provided with a special range and a refrigerator with ap- paratus for making ice. Food is passed through windows from the kitchen —F'G. 73. — Plan of lunch room. to a serving table outside. A rail serves to direct the course of pupils, as they pass the serving table EVOLUTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING 163 to secure their food. This lunch room is designed to serve a five-cent plate lunch and does not offer facili- ties or space for more elaborate meals. (d) Teachers’ rest rooms. All teachers in platoon schools have two half-hour rest periods daily, and special Fic. 74. — Plan of teachers’ rest room. rooms for their comfort and convenience are provided. In the Duffield School a well-lighted room, prominently located in the front of the building, is set aside for teachers. (e) Corridors with individual lockers. The require- ments of the platoon school make corridor lockers desirable. They are easily accessible at all hours of the day, and occupy space that is otherwise of little value. The new buildings include space in a steel locker for the use of each child in the building, up to its standard capacity. Fic. 75. — Corridor lockers, each locker used by two pupils. Cae ba Wied aE SS VANS BDOUGATIONAD RESULTS I. INTRODUCTION Is the platoon school proving its worth? Progress in the field of education, as in every phase of social life, comes through change and readjustment. Old and well-established types of organization and modes of procedure must in the course of time yield to those which are in accord with changed conditions, but inno- vations in education must invariably prove their worth before they finally receive the hall-mark of general ap- proval. The platoon school is no exception to this rule. If this new organization is to supplant the traditional grammar school plan, it must first demonstrate that its educational product is superior to that of the time- honored school which it replaces. All students of education who are attuned to the spirit of the times will concede that the platoon school with its gymnasiums, playrooms, auditoriums, nature study rooms, libraries, and other modern features offers to a child many worthwhile experiences. Never- theless, in the minds of some there is a feeling that the very presence of so many attractive activities in the curriculum may result in the neglect of those formal aspects of instruction which long have been rated as 165 166 THE PLATOON SCHOOL fundamental in all education. Parents as well as educators are inclined to ask: (1) Is the platoon school producing satisfactory results in the three R’s? (2) Does the increased interest which the child displays in the newer subjects result in diminished interest and effort in the funda- mentals, or does the emotional stimulus which he receives in the gymnasium, auditorium, and library carry over and result in greater enthusiasm and interest in all of his work? (3) Are pupils progressing through school in a satisfactory man- ner ? (4) Is the number of failures in the platoon school less or greater than in the non-platoon school ? (5) Is there more or less retardation than under the old system? These are legitimate inquiries and must be answered as far as possible in terms of objective data. Data on the platoon school. Fortunately, scientifi- cally prepared information is available bearing upon all of these questions. At every stage of their develop- ment the Detroit platoon schools have been carefully studied and checked. The Department of Educational Research has measured the results in the tool subjects and compared them with those achieved in non- platoon schools. Data are available, derived from sci- entific studies of this kind continued over a period of nearly five years, and it is now possible to speak with some confidence concerning the success of the platoon schools in training children in the fundamental skills. II. TECHNIQUE USED IN MEASURING RESULTS Use of standard tests. Platoon schools, in common with the other Detroit elementary schools, give stand- ard tests in spelling, writing, arithmetic, and geography EDUCATIONAL RESULTS 1607 twice each semester as-a routine part of regular school work. ‘The first trial at the beginning of a semester re- veals the relation of the children’s abilities to the stand- ards for their grades. On this information the work for the semester can be intelligently planned. The second test at the close of the semester shows the de- gree to which the work done has been effective. The tests are given by the teachers of the various schools. Copies of the individual scores and class tabulations are then sent to the central office of the department, and from these duplicate records tabulations are made of city-wide median scores and of special comparisons. The data submitted below are based upon a special study of the relation between scores made by the platoon schools and those made by. the non-platoon schools of the city. Method of tabulation. In Detroit a simple method of tabulation has been adopted which is uniform for all tests and which yields a point score determined by the number of children who reach or approach the stand- ard. Thus, a class, every child of which is of standard ability, will have a score of 1000 points. A score of 800 points indicates that 80% of the desired develop- ment has been achieved. The score of a class in arith- metic, for instance, is not a statement of the median rate and accuracy of work of the class, but a statement which shows how closely the class approximates stand- ard ability. That is, the method first sets up standards as goals for each grade and subject, then measures the teachers’ work by determining how nearly she succeeds in developing standard ability in each boy or girl. Whatever the grade or test, perfect success is indicated 168 THE PLATOON SCHOOL by a score of 1000 points. It is thus easily possible to compare achievements in different subjects. III. AMOUNT OF TIME DEVOTED TO FUNDAMENTALS IN PLATOON SCHOOLS A comparison. Although the platoon school pro- vides time for a number of activities not found in non- platoon schools, it actually devotes more time to the NUMBER OF MINUTES PER WEEK DEVOTED TO FUNDAMENTAL SUBJECTS IN PLATOON AND NON-PLATOON SCHOOLS minutes SS _ 1) SS Se ae eee Pe Y ZY y Yj Y j Yj Y Z Y Z Z 5 oo ee ee eS Gi Platoon ZNon-platoon Fic. 76. fundamentals than the traditional school. This is made possible by the longer school day. In the primary grades of platoon schools the fun- damentals are taught 1100 minutes a week as against 900 minutes in Grades I-III and 980 minutes in Grade [V of the non-platoon schools. In the grammar grades the total time is the same in both types of schools, except EDUCATIONAL RESULTS 169 in the fifth grade, in which the non-platoon allotment exceeds by 30 minutes the time allowed in the same grade in platoon schools. These data clearly demon- strate that the child of the platoon school is receiving more hours of instruction in the essentials than he would receive in the traditional school. IV. COMPARATIVE RESULTS IN PLATOON AND NOoN- PLATOON SCHOOLS For the purposes of this comparative study two groups of platoon schools have been selected. One Seore 1000 4 year platoons —-—3 year platoons FIG. 77. group of six schools has been organized on the platoon plan for over four years. The second group of nine schools has been organized on the new plan for more than three years. A comparison of the results pro- duced over a period of several years in these fifteen platoon schools with the results attained during the 170 THE PLATOON SCHOOL same time in the city at large makes it possible to note: (1) The immediate effect of reorganization upon results in the fundamental subjects. (2) The results in the fundamentals after the schools have been organized on the platoon plan for several years. Comparison of median scores, June, 1922. In this study the results in the two groups of platoon schools Score 1000 900 500 FINAL SCORES - PENMANSHIP June 1922 300 City 4 year platoons ———3 year platoons are presented separately and compared with the city as a whole for the semester ending in June, 1922. Reading. In Figure 77, the figures along the base line represent the grades from 4B to 8A and the figures along the perpendicular line show the point scores. The solid line stands for the median for the city in reading, the dotted line for the median for the four- year group, and the broken line for the median for EDUCATIONAL RESULTS ryt the three-year group. From these results the conclu- sion may be drawn that with all the factors operating the two groups of platoon schools are securing approxi- mately the same results in reading as the city at large. Penmanship. In penmanship the median scores for both groups of platoon schools are somewhat above the city median. The four-year group excels the three- year group in grades below the seventh, while in the Scere 1000 900 800 700 600 >» 500 Final scores - Arithmetic 400 June 1922 300 City 200 4 year platoons ——— 3 year platoons FIG. 79. seventh and eighth grades it falls slightly below the three-year curve. (Figure 78.) Arithmetic. The results in arithmetic are not con- sistent. In the main, the curve for the four-year group runs above the city median while that for the three-year group falls somewhat below. The cause of this devia- tion from the city median is not known. (Figure 79.) Spelling. The close correspondence of all of the curves in spelling seems to point to practically equal results in all three groups. (Figure 80.) 172 THE PLATOON SCHOOL Geography. Comparative results in the geography of location for the semester ending in June, 1922, in- dicate that the curves closely approximate each other. In the tests on states and cities the four-year group show some superiority. (Figure 81.) Although the gross results for one semester as pic- tured in these five graphs do not indicate a marked Score 1000 900 800 700 500 Final scores - Spetiing 400 June 1922 300 — City 4 year platoons ——-— 3 year platoons superiority of one type of school over the other, never- theless, the outcome on the whole is favorable to the platoon schools in that the results in the two groups of schools of this type are either equal to or better than the city median. Comparison of median scores: four-year and three- year groups with city, January, 1920—June, 1923. While the comparative results for one semester are suggestive and show the general trend in the two groups of schools as compared with the city as a whole, a study covering EDUCATIONAL RESULTS 173 a period of several years is a much better index of the results produced by the two types of school organization. Data submitted in this connection are especially significant because they represent a clearly defined tendency in platoon schools. Past experience has shown that for several semesters following the opening of a new building or the establishment of a new organi- zation there has been a tendency toward lower scores, Score 1000 So @- an i] ~ oo o ~ -_ J So ~~ 4 yr. platoons 0 Jan. 1920 June 1920 Jan, 1921 June 1921 Jan. 1922 June 1922 Jan. 1923 June 1923 3 yr. platoons Jan. 1920 June 1920 Jan 1921 June 1921 Jan, 1922 June 1922 Jan, 1923 June 1923 Above : Below FIG. 90. the comparisons above the city median; and the four- year group, 78% of the favorable comparisons. From these studies it seems reasonable to conclude that the platoon school organization, after it has passed through the period of readjustment, may be expected to give more efficient training in the fundamental skills than the non-platoon schools have given. Comparison of results in schools before and after organization on the platoon plan. For the purposes EDUCATIONAL RESULTS 183 of this study two groups of schools were taken. The first group consists of fourteen schools which have been platoon schools for at least two years. This group includes schools which were organized during the year following the organization of the three-year group. The second group embraces ten schools all of which have been operated as platoon schools for three years or Percentage of grade comparisons above and below city medians All tests - June 1922 CER CE NE 1 & 2 ye platoons 3 yr. platoons 4 yr platoons FIG. QI. more. The ten schools include eight schools from the three-year group and two from the four-year group. In order to determine how reorganization has af- fected the results in the fundamentals in these schools, as many class medians as possible were obtained from the test records of each school during the semesters before reorganization. Each class median was com- pared individually with the city median for the same semester. In a like manner class medians were ob- tained from these same schools for the entire period 184 THE PLATOON SCHOOL from the date each school became a platoon school up to the date of this study (March, 1923). Each of these class medians was compared individually with the city median for the same semester. It will be noted that in the three-year group the number of class medians after organization is largely in excess of the number before, because data are available for only a short period before COMPARISON OF PERCENTAGE CLASSES ABOVE AND BELOW CITY MEDIANS BEFORE AND AFTER ADOPTING THE PLATOON SYSTEM 14 two year schools No. of classes % 0 0 40 825 Before Arithmetic 507 After 877 Before Penmanship 638 After Before Spelling After 1003. Before Geography 625 After 3840 All subjects 2625 FIG. 92. reorganization, while complete records have been pre- served during the entire period since reorganization. For the fourteen schools organized as platoon schools for two years or more, the percentage of class medians above and below the city medians during the periods before and after they became platoon schools are represented in Figure 92. In arithmetic the percentage fell from 58% to 50% EDUCATIONAL RESULTS 185 after reorganization; in penmanship it increased from 44% before to 48% after; in spelling it increased from 49% before to 52% after; and in geography the per- centage fell from 54% to 43%. The data here sub- mitted confirm the conclusion previously reached that during the early period of reorganization and readjust- ment the efficiency of instruction may be for a time COMPARISON OF PERCENTAGE Of CLASSES ABOVE AND BELOW CITY MEDIANS BEFORE AND APTER ADOPTING Tile PLATOON SYSTEM 10 three year schools No. of 80 100 classes % 0 20 40 ' 60 Arithmetic : ‘ ‘ ‘ 296 Before Penmanship 995 After ' ‘ e 342 Before Spelling : . 1166 After j Geography : MESO Se tte eT Above . Below FIG. 93. slightly reduced. On the other hand Figure 93 tells another story. Here are arrayed the results before and after reorganization in the ten schools which have been organized on the platoon plan for three years. This graph shows that the percentage of favorable com- parisons in arithmetic increased from 38% before to 44% after reorganization; in penmanship from 48% 186 THE PLATOON SCHOOL before to 62% after; in spelling from net 7% before to 51% after; and in geography from 42% before to 52% se These results confirm the seacineeae previously drawn that after a reasonable period allowed for re- adjustment, the efficiency of instruction in the platoon schools rapidly increases. ea 15 Platoons PERCENT OF FAILURES PLATOON AND NON-PLATOON SCHOOLS | 7.09 WEEE Total City FIG. 94. School failures, retardation, and acceleration. In evaluating the educational product of a school two significant factors to be considered are the percentage of school failures and amount of retardation and accel- eration. Data relating to the progress of pupils through the grades not only are a good index of the EDUCATIONAL RESULTS 187 quality of instruction and the adaptability of the cur- riculum, but also of the functioning of the organiza- tion as a whole. Figure 94 indicates the percentage of failures in fifteen platoon schools as compared with the city as a whole. The data covers six semesters from January, 1920, to June, 1922. PERCENTAGE OF RETARDATION AND ACCELERATION 14 MATCHED SCHOOLS oe Platoons operating two years or more yn City FIG. 95. The percentage of failures in the elementary schools of Detroit has steadily decreased since January, 1920. This decrease probably has been due to improvements in the quality of instruction and in the curriculum, as well as to administrative adjustments. The percentage of failures in the fifteen platoon schools during the entire period has been less than that in the city at large. In this connection, it is fair to consider that the fifteen platoon schools during the six semesters from January, 188 THE PLATOON SCHOOL 1920, to June, 1922, had a smaller percentage of failures than the other schools in spite of the fact that the platoon schools were in process of reorganization and readjustment. Figure 95 shows the percentage of retardation and acceleration in fourteen of the fifteen platoon schools, and fourteen comparable non-platoon schools. The percentage of three-year retardation is equal in the two groups. The percentage retarded two years and one year, as well as the percentage in grade at age, is slightly larger in the non-platoon schools. The percentage of one-year and two-year acceleration is somewhat larger in the platoon group. From these data it may be concluded that as far as retardation and acceleration are concerned the platoon schools have a slight advantage. In interpreting the data submitted above bearing on results in the fundamentals as well as upon the per- centages of failures, retardation, and acceleration, it must be kept in mind that progress in school is in- fluenced by a variety of factors aside from the school organization itself. For this reason it is not possible to say that the results attained in platoon schools are better than those produced in the non-platoon schools entirely because of the difference in organization. What the results really show is that over a period of from three to four years the two groups of platoon schools have attained better results in the fundamentals than the city as a whole, and also have had a smaller percentage of failures and less retardation than the non-platoon schools of the city during the same period. In considering the above results it is pertinent to EDUCATIONAL RESULTS 189 inquire whether the fifteen platoon schools may not in the beginning have been a favored group either as re- spects the nationality of the children, or the quality of the instruction which the children have received. Ex- perience has shown that the nationality of the pupils and the quality of the teaching are two factors which have an important bearing on school progress. Data PERCENTAGE OF THREF-OR-MORE YEAR RETARDATION BY NATIONALITY GROUPS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS U.S.White Teutonic Anglo-Saxon Canadian Slavic Colored FIG. 96. are therefore included below for the purpose of com- paring the platoon schools with the city at large on the basis of these two factors. Figure 96 shows the distribution of three-year retar- dation in the elementary schools of Detroit among the various nationality groups. Of all three-year retardation 1.98% is among U. S. whites; 2.7% among the Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon, and 190 THE PLATOON SCHOOL Canadian groups; 7.97% among the Slavic group; 8.38% among the Latin group; and 14.02% among the colored group. | Figure 97 shows the distribution of nationalities among platoon and non-platoon schools. It is evident that the number of U. S. whites is approximately the same in the two groups; that the platoon schools have DISTRIBUTION OP NATIONALITIES IN PLATOON AND NON-PLATOON SCBOOLS 3h Siete 0% ODLEZZZtzzzzzzxxzkoehlecublklkllkllttl¥00 SR .1% ida Russian 0% italiano 0% KZ «7% aoe 08 ULE, 3% 6% LLL Eng. Scot. 9% Pees Baal Can. Germ. 14 WZ 5.0s 6.3% ZZ U.S.Colored Platoon schools establish two years or, more V777zA Non-Platoon Miscellaneous FIG. 97. three times as many Russians as the non-platoon schools; that the platoon schools have one third more Italians than the non-platoon schools; that the non- platoon schools have 4.3% more Polish than the platoon schools; and that the percentage of colored and other groups 1s about the same in the two types of schools. This study does not prove that the platoon schools are EDUCATIONAL RESULTS IQI favored as respects the nationalities of the children enrolled in them. A fair gauge of the quality of instruction in platoon and non-platoon schools may be found in the teachers’ ratings filed annually by elementary school principals in the office of the superintendent of schools. A dis- tribution of these ratings seems to show that as far as DISTRIBUTION OF TEACHER RATINGS Platoons operating two years or more City Bxcellent FIG. 98. the quality of instruction is concerned the platoon and non-platoon schools are almost equal (Figure 98). The above array of objective data strongly indicates that while the results in the platoon schools over a period of years are superior to those in the city as a whole, this is not the fact because the platoon schools enroll favored groups of children or because the pupils 1Q2 THE PLATOON SCHOOL in platoon schools are instructed by an exceptionally efficient group of teachers. It is also worthy of note that the results shown by these objective data are con- firmed by subjective data in the form of the opinions of principals and teachers who work in platoon schools. GHAR. COs I. INTRODUCTION The second important factor. The supreme test of the value and efficiency of any school organization is its educational product. After this requirement is sat- isfied there still remains the important factor of cost. The American people believe in education and are proud of the public schools. They are ready to make any reasonable sacrifice to the end that their children may secure the advantages which modern well-equipped schools can offer. Nevertheless, the ed- ucator is continually faced with the responsibility of keeping the schools abreast of the times without per- mitting the educational budget to become excessively high. The platoon school as organized in Detroit aims to provide for the children and the community all the advantages and facilities which a modern school de- mands and at the same time to keep the cost of school buildings and the cost of instruction within reasonable limits. In the data submitted in this section the platoon school and non-platoon school organizations are com- pared with respect to: (1) Building costs (2) Instructional costs 193 194 THE PLATOON SCHOOL II. BurILpDING Costs Introduction. Preliminary to an intelligent dis- cussion of school building costs, it is necessary to define the meaning of “‘ school building ”’ in terms of twentieth century education. If we are satisfied with a structure of the Quincy Grammar School type consisting merely of rooms of uniform size and equipment without pro- vision for the newer phases of educational activity, the total cost will be relatively smaller and the facilities will be correspondingly inadequate and unsuited to present day requirements.! On the other hand if the term “ school building ”’ connotes a structure in which every phase of instruction is provided with special rooms and equipment so planned as to offer the most favorable environment for effective teaching, then the original total cost of the building will be greater. Society in an increasing degree is demanding school buildings which not only provide for the health, train- ing, and socialization of the children, but for the needs of the community as well. A building with an audito- rium, gymnasium, and play space is a necessary pre- requisite to the Detroit plan of platoon organization, but it is fair to assume that with the awakening of community interest in the schools and the growth of parent-teacher associations, the public will insist upon modern, completely equipped buildings even if the non-platoon plan is continued. 1 The unit cost, z.e., on the square foot or cubic foot basis, would be approximately the same. COSTS 195 Effect of an addition of auditorium, gymnasium, and playroom. A large part of the reorganization of the Detroit elementary school system has been accom- plished by adding auditoriums, gymnasiums, and playrooms to buildings already in existence. How such an addition affects the capacity of a twelve-room building is indicated in Figure gg. ADDITION OLD BUILDING SELRST = FLOOR PLAN - OLD BUILDING —NOT- PLATOON ————————— CAPACITY - 480 -OLD- BUILDING: PLUS AUDITORIUM - §- GYMNASIUM - PLATOON - ORGANIZATION —————————-—— CAPACITY - 640 - ‘INCREASE -IN-CAPACITY - 3312 % TROWBRIDGE SCHOOL FIG. 99. The Trowbridge School, an old twelve-room building, . provided a maximum of 480 seats on the non-platoon plan. A gymnasium was added on the basement level with an auditorium above it on the first floor level. A room in the basement of the old building was then utilized for indoor play. The installation of the platoon organization in this enlarged building increased the number of seats from 480 to 640, or 333%. 196 THE PLATOON SCHOOL For a comparative study of the capacities of seventy- seven Detroit elementary school buildings under the platoon and non-platoon plans see Appendix, page 254. Comparative cost of auditoriums, gymnasiums, and playrooms with equivalent space in classrooms. If the increase in capacity under the platoon plan arises from the addition of auditoriums, gymnasiums, and AUDITORIUM BALCONY NTC HOUS” 95 GHe oie FIG. 100. play space it becomes a matter of interest to know how the cost of such additions compares with the cost of an equivalent housing capacity in ordinary schoolrooms. The increase in capacity due to the auditorium and health units varies with the size of the building. This is apparent from Table XI. ‘uInIIoyIpny Jooyosg Ajoq] — ‘101 ‘91g 198 THE PLATOON SCHOOL TABLE XI— INCREASE IN CAPACITY DUE To ADDITION OF AUDITORIUM AND GYMNASIUM 12 Rooms Capacity 480 + Aud. & Gym. 15 Rooms Capacity 600 + Aud. & Gym. 18 Rooms Capacity 720 + Aud. & Gym. 16 Rooms’ Capacity 640 20 Rooms’ Capacity 800 24 Rooms’ Capacity 960 oi tt A second important factor to be considered is the size of auditorium to be constructed. In Detroit two types have been erected. The large type is exemplified in the floor plans of the Nichols School auditorium, Figure 100. This auditorium has a ceiling height of two stories and, including the balcony, has a seating capac- ity of 350. The small auditorium of the Doty School has a ceiling height of one story and a floor area of less than two ordinary classrooms. It has a capacity of 159 pupils (Figure 101). It is evident that it is not economical to add a large auditorium to a small building, because it provides capacity far in excess of the needs for daily auditorium classes. However, it does serve the purpose of a community meeting place. In additions to buildings of twelve, sixteen, or even eighteen rooms the smaller type of auditorium with a maximum capacity of 200 to 250 is desirable both on the grounds of economy and because it is adequate for the needs of the school. It is difficult to make an accurate comparative study of the costs of school additions. Each case is a problem in itself owing to a variety of factors, the principal one being the cost of altering and enlarging the heating and ventilating plants Table XII, which shows the costs of various additions to elementary schools, both with and without audito- riums, indicates that in these particular cases the cost COSTS 199 of auditoriums and health units varies only slightly from the cost of equivalent space in the form of class- rooms. TABLE XII — ComMpARATIVE Costs oF AUDITORIUM AND GYMNASIUM WITH EQUIVALENT SPACE DATE SCHOOL ADDITION Cost Incr. Cap. Aug. 1920 Carstens 8 Class Rms. $191.726 8 rooms Aug. 1920 Crosman Aud. Gym. & $198.251 8 rooms 2 Class rms. April 1921 Estabrook Aud. & Gym. $125.817 6 rooms June 1921 Doty Aud. Gym. & 4 Class rms. $134.000 Io rooms Aug. 1921 A. L. Holmes Aud. Gym. & 8 Class rms. $123.000 14 rooms Aug. 1921 Wingert Aud. Gym. & 7 Class rms. $140.000 13 rooms Sept. 1921 Maybee 8 Class rms. $109.000 8 rooms Dec. 1921 Stephens 8 Class rms. $116.000 8 rooms Comparative cost per pupil of new buildings or- ganized on the platoon and non-platoon plans. If the introduction of the platoon plan increases capacity it is evident that the per capita cost of the building will be less than under the non-platoon plan. Table XIII shows the comparative per capita costs of a group of Detroit’s new elementary school buildings. III. INSTRUCTIONAL CosTs Introduction. Before any definite conclusion can be reached as to the relative costs of instruction in platoon and non-platoon schools it will be necessary to deter- mine what particular type of non-platoon school is to be used in the comparison. If the school is of the tradi- tional “ single teacher’ type in which a pupil receives all his instruction from one teacher, it may be con- ceded in advance that the cost will be less than in a platoon school because the service rendered will be less. 200 THE PLATOON SCHOOL a a a ar ek EE EY IS°EbS Se-erL £6°1Sz orzie 6L°g6£ 6gr1S 98°71 BS Rzz oLofe z1°Lov COTE gg vor 61 1gt zor1Sg zb-Loz 69°F Lz Se-ggs¢ og 1gL¢ u001D)q U00}D] J-U0 [idng Jag 4s09 SLSOD gbS‘oSv gor'z1e gto'zgl Soo‘gSz gor'ezr 16L‘ogL 669‘zrr EvS‘oor z1L‘oSot Sulpling JO 4SOD [RIOT org ozl ot9 ozs O71 ee nr ee eR ovz‘t ozI‘t 000%! Ogg ozI ag ED a oe rl | og6‘I org‘t ogr‘r ogt*I oz1 ong fe ae hs es IT Gel, ooVv't Ogz‘I ozi‘t oo00'I ozI tree te es COLT CO Ogz‘I ogI‘t oto‘r 0z6 ozI Fh at ee ae ee ogt*z ove‘ ogg‘ ogL‘t ozI ae ee? Ce Seer | 0z6 008 0389 o9s O7I ee ee eT a o96‘I org‘ ogr‘t oge*t oz1 “alt oe wie SeTOUOOCS Ozi‘r 000% org ozl ozl ne ee OLE, “us 1210], aa ae 1210 [, “UspY 200g ‘uspy Ayioedey u00je[g Ayloeded u00}¥[g-uON - IOOHOS SONIGTING JO ALIOVdV) ee ee Cee ee eee ee ne ee en eer es RE a SISVG NOOLVIG-NON GNV NOOLVIg NO GaZINVOUO SONIGTING dO TidAg Add SLsODQ AALLVAVdNOD — TTX ATAVL COS Cs 201 If, however, the cost of instruction in a platoon school is to be compared with similar costs in a semi-depart- mentalized school of the non-platoon type the situation then calls for careful analysis before the comparative costs can be determined. Duplication of teacher service and waste of in- structional space. As a result of the expansion of the TYPICAL WAYS OF HANDLING SPECIAL SUBJECTS IN NON«PLATOON SCHOOLS MANUAL TRAINING ART Regular ‘Special Regular Special | I tegular teacher free. Regular and special teacher Special teacher teaching. each teaching half a class. MUSIC GYMNASIUM Regular Regular Special Regular Regular teacher free. Two regular teachers each teaching Special teacher teaching. half a class. Special teacher 5 teaching a full class. Each square represents one room, Space used ia Space unused Hich.102, elementary school curriculum, progressive school sys- tems are now employing special teachers of music, art, and health education who teach in schools of the non- platoon type. The service which they render increases the efficiency of the instruction and also adds matert- ally to the cost because they duplicate the service of other teachers. The manner in which this duplication takes place may be shown asin Figure 102. Four typi- 202 THE PLATOON SCHOOL cal methods of using special teachers in non-platoon schools are here portrayed : (a) Manual Training. The regular teacher is entirely free while the special teacher conducts the class in a special room. Two teachers are being employed for one group of pupils and the regular room remains vacant. (b) Art. The regular teacher retains half the class while the other half is instructed in a special room by a special teacher. The number of pupil hours of instruction is decreased by one-half and half of each room is vacant. (c) Music. The regular teacher is entirely free while the special teacher works in the regular room. ‘Two teachers are employed for the same group at the same time. (d) Gymnasium. Two regular teachers each teach half a class in a regular room and the special teacher instructs a whole class in the gymnasium. Three teachers are employed to teach two classes and space equivalent to an entire room is left vacant. Any type of organization that is wasteful of teacher service or of instructional space is inefficient. Nearly all non-platoon schools are to a degree inefficient in one or both of these respects. Required number of teachers in platoon and non- platoon schools of equivalent size. This tabulation is based upon the median number of teachers employed in Detroit in non-platoon schools of various sizes as com- pared with the standard allotment of teachers required for platoon schools of the same size. For example a non-platoon school of twelve classes has twelve regular teachers. In Detroit a median number of two special teachers is employed for twelve-room non-platoon schools making a total of fourteen teachers necessary for a twelve-room school. The standard number of teachers required for a twelve section platoon school, Grades I-\V, is thirteen and this permits of the entire COSTS 203 range of activities including gymnasium, auditorium, and play as well as special work in art, music, literature, and science. TABLE XIV — REQUIRED TEACHER SERVICE Non-PLATOON SCHOOLS PLATOON SCHOOLS No. of Regular Special Total No. of Total Classes Teachers Teachers ie Classes Teachers II II 2.4 13.4 12 12 2.0 14.0 2 13.0 13 13 2.7 15.7 14 14 3.0 17.0 15 is 2.8 17.8 16 16 2.0 18.0 16 18.0 20 20 3.3 23.3 20 22.5 24 24 6.1 30.12 24 29.4 In a school of sixteen classes the platoon and non- platoon teacher requirements are the same, while in the twenty and twenty-four section schools the platoon school renders its more varied service with less teachers. This gives no consideration to the fact that in the non- platoon schools special teachers are freeing both special and regular teachers while both are being paid for the same service. This will appear in the following studies. Analysis of required teacher service in non- platoon and platoon schools. — Sixteen section school. In accordance with the official time allotment for non- platoon schools it is necessary to provide 25,020 min- utes of instruction per week. This is apportioned as follows: music 960 minutes; art 960; gymnasium 2,400; manual arts 840; and regular classroom work 19,860. A full-time teacher works 1,500 minutes a week. This would require the employment of .64 of the time of a music teacher; .64 of the time of an art teacher; the time of 1.6 gymnasium teachers; and the 204. THE PLATOON SCHOOL time of 13.24 regular classroom teachers. What we actually employ is I music teacher, I art teacher, 1.6 gymnasium teacher, .56 manual arts teacher, and 16 regular classroom teachers. In other words to do the work of 16.68 teachers in a sixteen room school it is TABLE XV — Non-PLatoon ScHOOL — 16 SECTION — GRADES I TO 6 MIN. PER TEACHERS TEACHERS EXTRA SUBJECT WEEK REQUIRED EMPLOYED TEACHERS Music ease ee 960 64 1.00 .36 ATC Pe ieeee 960 64 1.00 36 Gymng. eee 2400 1.60 1.60 Man@artss oc 840 56 .56 Reg. Cl. Room . 19860 13.24 16.00 2.76 ‘Lotal iteeaearaee 25020 16.68 20.16 3.48 necessary to employ 20.16 teachers when the non- platoon organization is used. This leaves an excess of 3.48 teachers. This excess is due largely to the fact that special teachers and regular teachers are being employed to instruct the same group of pupils at one time. TABLE XVI — PLATOON ScHOOL — 16 SECTION — GRADES I TO 6 SUBJECT MIN. PER ‘TEACHERS TEACHERS EXTRA WEEK REQUIRED EMPLOYED TEACHERS Music de tom >a i 960 64 1.00 + .36 ATCA Gee ae ec nes 1060 72 1.00 + .28 Gymnt .. 0c. 4500 3.00 2.00 — 1.00 Man. Arts. . . 720 48 .48 Audit: eeias aes 2280 1.52 2.00 + .48 Literature. . . 2400 1.60 1.50 — .I0 SCIENCE sep icleiee Wee 2400 1.60 1.50 — .10 Supv. Study . . 420 .28 — .28 Home Room. . 12000 8.00 8.00 Relic * 42 27. 2400 1.60 1.00 — .60 — .96 PLotal. eis tanta: 29160 19.44 18.48 By way of comparison the sixteen section platoon school offers significant data. The official time allot- COSTS 205 ment for platoon schools provides in a sixteen section school for 29,160 minutes of instruction a week dis- tributed as indicated in Table XVI. As each teacher works 1,500 minutes a week it would require 19.44 teachers to render the required service. The number of teachers actually employed is 18.48, which leaves a shortage of the services of .96 of a teacher. This is explained by the fact that auditorium and gymnasium teachers at times instruct two classes at one time. From these data it is clear that while the sixteen room non-platoon school requires 20.16 teachers to give 25,020 minutes of instruction, the sixteen section platoon school gives 29,160 minutes of instruction by the use of 18.48 teachers. TABLE XVII — PLAtoon ScHoot — 18 SECTION — GRADES I TO 6 SUBJECT MIN. PER TEACHERS TEACHERS EXTRA WEEK REQUIRED EMPLOYED ‘TEACHERS Music = 1080 72 I.00 + .28 Art = 1260 84 1.00 + .16 Gymn.. . 4920 3.28 2.00 — 1.28 Man. Arts. goo 60 60 AUC eee 2550 1.70 2.00 + .30 Literatures ene 2700 1.80 2.00 + .20 SCIENCE. 2s) 5 2700 1.80 2.00 + .20 Supv. Study . . 540 .36 — .36 Home Room. . 13500 9.00 9.00 Reliciw ae eas 2700 1.80 I.00 — 80 Total 32850 21.90 20.60 — 1.30 Eighteen section school. An analysis along similar lines of eighteen class or section schools of the two types reveals similar conditions. The eighteen class non-platoon school requires 22.52 teachers to give 28,290 minutes of instruction, while the eighteen section platoon school provides 32,850 minutes of instruction by the use of 20.6 teachers. This discrepancy is largely 206 THE PLATOON SCHOOL due to the fact that the non-platoon organization em- ploys 18 classroom teachers to give instruction which actually requires but 14.9 teachers. This waste of teacher service is due to the employment of special teachers who work while regular teachers are either idle or carry an underload of pupils in their classrooms. TABLE XVIII — Non-Piatoon ScHoor — 18 SECTION GRADES I TO 6 SupyEcr MIN. PER TEACHERS TEACHERS EXTRA J WEEK REQUIRED EMPLOYED TEACHERS Music . to8o0 72 1.00 28 Art : 1080 72 1.00 28 Gymn.. ; 2700 1.80 1.80 Man. Arts. : 1080 72 72 Reg. Cl. Room . 22350 14.90 Shite yere! 3.10 EOtalee ueca 28290 18.86 22.52 3.66 Twenty section school. The twenty class non- platoon school shows an excess of 3.64 teachers over the necessary requirements (Table XX). The twenty section platoon as compared with the non-platoon school of the same size makes a favorable showing inas- much as it gives 37,440 minutes of instruction by em- TABLE XIX — PLATOON SCHOOL — 20 SECTION — GRADES 1 TO 8 Roniner MIN. PER TEACHERS ‘TEACHERS EXTRA J WEEK REQUIRED EMPLOYED TEACHERS Music 1200 80 1.00 + .20 Art hae 1320 88 1.00 + .1I2 GSyvmny. =. . : 4470 2.98 2.00 — .98 Man Arts. so.) 2880 1.92 2.00 + .08 Audits ] 2 “ ey Lam § S42 | Bla Sel ee ° 3 = RB of is aa le = os 4 “= & fel 3 Zs A sa _ | 28 | & 5 o S o ia < Z t5: ket a beat A FATMIOS Bee ul. OOS 1-6 15 13 2 80} 19. 18.6 4 Maybury .| 502 1-6 15 13 2 80} 15.6 | 14.6 tT; Smith’ <7 ssq2 1-6 12 Io 2 80] 14.3 13.2 Ter Van Dyke .| 525 1-8 12 II I 40| 14.6 14.6 0 Jones ee) bsg5 1-6 13 II 2 80} 15.6 | 14.6 rT: Silly dl ard 1-6 I2 10 2 80| 14. 13.4 6 Rosewins) Sol ns37 1-8 13 II 2 80| 15.6 14.8 8 Lynch . .| 588 1-8 15 12 3 120 |, 16.2 |, 35.6 6 Bennett .| 589 1-8 13 12 I 40] 16.6 14.6 r & Hanns 2) nal 1050 1-8 17 13 4 160} 19.9 18.8 be Palmer . .| 709 1-8 15 13 2 80] 20.4 18.6 1.8 Howe eee 787 1-8 I5 14 I 40 | 25, 20. ¥ Monteith .| 528 1-8 II II ° o| I5.1 13.8 WE Scrippsi. 42] 512 1-8 13 II 2 80} 16.6 | 14.8 1.8 Fairbanks .| 829 I 22 18 4 160} 24.2 22.8 1.4 Number of rooms released, 30. Total capacity of rooms released, 1200. Number of teachers released, 15.9. COSTS 2T 1 the platoon school affects the required teacher service. A careful scrutiny of this table shows that the intro- duction of the platoon organization in these fifteen schools provides for the instruction of the same number of pupils as the non-platoon organization and at the same time releases a total of thirty rooms to be used to increase capacity. A further examination of the results indicates that if the platoon organization is introduced into these schools, the same number of pupils can be instructed by the use of 15.9 fewer teachers. In other words, this study clearly proves that the same number of pupils who are now taught in these fifteen schools under the non-platoon organization can, by the introduction of the platoon plan, receive more instruction by the use of thirty less rooms and 15.9 less teachers. The thirty rooms with a capacity of forty each, may be used to house 1,200 more pupils. The decrease of 15.9 teachers at the median elemen- tary salary of $1,800 would mean an annual saving in the fifteen schools of $28,620. In platoon schools, however, auditorium teachers and heads of gymnasiums receive salaries of $200 per year in addition to the regular schedule. In the fifteen schools involved, thirty-four teachers therefore would ‘receive an increase of $200 a year or a total of $6,800. If this amount be deducted from the $28,620, saving due to release of 15.9 teachers, the net annual saving in salary as a result of introducing the platoon organization into these fifteen schools would be $21,820. Thus good salaries can be apportioned highly trained special teachers, and the platoon system still prove more economical than the non-platoon. 212 THE PLATOON SCHOOL Conclusion. The data arrayed in this chapter seem to show conclusively that from the standpoint of build- ing costs, and of the cost of instruction, the platoon school is more economical than the departmentalized non-platoon school. CHAPDER. VI THE PERSONAL EQUATION A school must realize the ideals of the community. Although a school organization may exemplify the principles of sound educational philosophy and may run smoothly as an administrative mechanism, there is still the personal equation to be considered. In the last analysis a successful school must so function as to realize the ideals of the community and command the confidence, good will, and support of the parents of the children who attend it. Furthermore the personal reactions of pupils, teachers, and principals must be considered as important factors. Are the pupils healthy, happy, purposeful, and industrious? Does the organization make for healthier, happier, more en- thusiastic, and more industrious teachers? Do teachers and principals find in it an organization through which their educational ideals may find adequate expression ? The limits of this book do not permit of an exhaustive survey of this phase of the Detroit platoon school de- velopment. A brief summary of results based upon six years of experience must suffice. Effect upon teachers. The success of the platoon schools from the beginning has been in large measure due to the favorable attitude of teachers and principals. In the home rooms, teachers experienced in teaching the fundamentals can work under better conditions and 213 214 THE PLATOON SCHOOL render more effective service than they could render in the non-platoon type of organization. In the special rooms teachers trained in the newer subjects can per- form their work amid favorable surroundings. For these and other reasons the number of Detroit ele- mentary teachers who do not look with favor on the platoon organization is negligible. Effect upon principals. Principals have almost with- out exception given endorsement to the new organiza- tion. The platoon school has come to the principals in the light of a new and stimulating opportunity. Many principals who are now administering platoon schools have passed rapidly from the stage in which they were merely receptive to the idea to that in which they have become avowed enthusiasts. The number who have been lukewarm toward the innovation has been surprisingly small, while on the other hand a great majority of principals of non-platoon schools are awaiting expectantly the day when they may have schools of the new type. Effect upon pupils. More important still than the attitude of principals and teachers is the psycho- logical effect of the platoon school upon _ pupils. Does it strike a responsive chord in them? If it does not it has failed signally. Fortunately we have abundant evidence to indicate that pupils are enthusiastic about this kind of school. The reactions of pupils are perhaps best expressed in their sponta- neous letters to the superintendent, principals, and teachers and in their communications to the various platoon school weeklies and monthlies. These letters note with satisfaction that pupils in platoon schools THE PERSONAL EQUATION 215 avoid the monotony of sitting all day in one seat and in the same environment; they speak with approval of the variety of the work and of the opportunity to apply themselves intensively to one piece of work for a brief time and then to move on to new surroundings and new undertakings; they refer with pride and enthusiasm to the opportu- nities offered by the gymnasium, auditorium, and library, and seem to view the school day as a con- tinuous round of pleasant activities with plenty of variety and abundant opportunity to move about and do things. That the feeling of buoyancy and joy which the majority of platoon school pupils feel is the outcome of the greater freedom and variety of this school, of larger opportunities for initiative, and of new and interesting experiences can scarcely be doubted. That this optimistic attitude of mind carries over into the formal work of the school and makes for greater industry and concentration is strongly indicated by the measurement results (Part IV) as well as by the testimony of teachers who work in platoon schools. Attitude of parents. In a general way the attitude of parents toward the platoon school is a reflection of the attitude of the children. If the child is happy and interested in his school work and is making satis- factory progress in his studies, the school is almost cer- tain to receive the stamp of approval of the parents. In introducing the new organization into a com- munity, it has been the policy of the school authorities to pave the way by informing the parents in advance of the aims and purposes of the school and by soliciting their support and codperation. This end has been 216 THE PLATOON SCHOOL attained through parent-teacher associations. Re- cently principals of non-platoon schools located in old and inadequate buildings have solicited the opinions of parents in those districts as to the advisability of in- troducing a modified form of platoon organization and in these responses from 85% to 95% of the parents have asked for the platoon school. GHA PDH Raa UT CONTROVERSIAL QUESTIONS While the reorganization of the Detroit elementary school system has progressed amid the overwhelming approval of teachers, pupils, and the general public, it has aroused some opposition, and certain controversial questions have arisen which in fairness should receive consideration here. Some of these questions have been raised by those who are opposed to all innovations ; some by those who labor under a misunderstanding of the situation; and still others by those whose children may have had un- pleasant personal experiences with principals or teachers of platoon schools. These questions are in the main inconsequential and can be answered by correcting administrative maladjustments. Other questions which have been raised are funda- mental and some of them strike at the validity of the principles upon which the platoon organization rests. These will be considered in detail. I. DoEs Not THE PLATOON SCHOOL ORGANIZATION MAKE PrRojJECT TEACHING ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE OF [TS DEPARTMENTALIZATION ? Dr. Bonser’s objection. Dr. F. G. Bonser holds that a highly departmentalized organization such as that in Detroit makes it difficult if not impossible for pupils to pursue project study. He argues for the 217 218 THE PLATOON SCHOOL single-teacher plan and against the specialist, and be- lieves that !“‘it is by no means unreasonable to ex- pect a teacher to be prepared for that breadth and intensity of work representing all of the larger activities of life which it is reasonable to expect children to experience before they are thirteen years of age.”’ This theory in some form or other has been main- tained for over twenty years. It has been tried with varying degrees of success in small experimental schools and by isolated teachers and groups of teachers in various places. It has never been worked out in an educational unit such as a large city school system. As far as the writer is aware no one has demonstrated with any degree of finality that an elementary grade child can pursue purposeful activity only under the guidance of one teacher. It would seem in fact that a child would labor under a serious handicap if he must receive his stimulation and guidance from one personal- ity in the school. Purposing is a direct outgrowth of the perception of values. Does it not seem reasonable that a child who in the course of his school day meets a number of enthusiastic, stimulating specialists in the library, auditorium, nature study room, industrial arts room, and other special departments, will be awakened to a greater variety of purposeful activities than one who imbibes his inspiration from one person whose enthu- siasms must of necessity be limited ? The answer of the platoon school. The most con- vincing answer is that project teaching is success- fully carried on in the platoon schools of Detroit. Educational leaders in Detroit are believers in the 1 BonsER, F. G., The Elementary School Curriculum. CONTROVERSIAL QUESTIONS 219 theories of Dr. W. H. Kilpatrick. In the program of in- struction the project method is fundamental. Detroit probably places as much emphasis upon learning through purposeful activity as any city. The platoon organization lends itself to individual, class, grade, or school projects. The project may originate in any department of the school and the attainment of the purpose may come only after the individual or the group has utilized material in many or all of the other departments of the school. For example, a class in social science may elect to study the question of immigration to the United States with the idea of presenting their results before a large group in the auditorium. This project originates in the social science room; carries the group to the auditorium for moving pictures and stereopticon views, to the in- dustrial arts department for costumes and scenery, to the music department for songs, to the health de- partment for dances, to the literature department for stories and poems, to the library and home rooms for other material; and ultimates in a pageant in the auditorium which is a final expression of all of the group’s efforts and a realization of the project. The growing complexity of society during the last two decades has brought with it specialization and division of labor. The expanding curriculum in re- sponse to this increased complexity has made depart- mentalization in the schools inevitable. The platoon school has merely accepted the situation and utilized this principle in the most effective way possible. It may be that in the course of time a sufficient number of super-teachers may be evolved who may be able to 220 THE PLATOON SCHOOL comprehend and utilize all of the aspects of human experience that are necessary to direct the elementary child in his purposeful efforts. There is no indication that that day is near at hand. In the meantime the - practical administrator must strive as best he may to reconcile his practice with his educational philosophy, conceding, of course, that his actual achievement lags far behind his cherished ideals. Until those who question the practicability of project teaching in a platoon school shall develop an organization in which their theories will work successfully on a large scale, the platoon school must be recognized as a distinct step in advance. II. Do Not PUupPiLs IN PLATOON SCHOOLS LOSE THE PERSONAL TOUCH ? The lack of ‘‘mothering.’’ It has been claimed that the child in the platoon school loses the ‘‘ mother- ing’’ to-which he is accustomed. In a completely departmentalized school this possibly might be true. In the Detroit platoon school it is not. One of the strongest features of the Detroit plan is that the pupil remains under the control of one teacher two and one half hours of the day. This should be sufficient guaran- tee that he will not lose to any extent the personal influence of the teacher. Those who fear the loss of the personal touch in the platoon school are thinking in terms of the old one-room school in which one teacher taught the pupils during the entire school day. As far as Detroit is concerned the day when a pupil recited all day to one teacher has long since passed. A study of the non-platoon schools CONTROVERSIAL QUESTIONS 221 shows that even the kindergarten and first-grade pupils now come into contact with several teachers during the day. If we consider grades above the third we find that 44% of the pupils in the fourth grade, 66% of the pupils in the fifth grade, 78% of the pupils in the sixth grade, 84% of the pupils in the seventh grade, and 66% of the pupils in the eighth grade are taught by five or more teachers. The range in these grades is as fol- lows ° Fourth grade from 1 teacher to 10 teachers. Fifth grade from 2 teachers to 11 teachers. Sixth grade from 1 teacher to Io teachers. Seventh grade from 1 teacher to 9 teachers. Eighth grade from 2 teachers to 10 teachers. The answer. It is apparent that if the personal touch were lost by contact with anumber of teachers the effects of it would have been apparent in the non- platoon schools years ago. It is a matter of fact that in a platoon school a pupil receives all his instruction in the fundamentals — reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic — from the home room teacher assisted by a relief teacher for one half hour each day, while in the non-platoon school these subjects are frequently distrib- uted among several teachers. It would seem that as far as this criticism applies to the grades above the second it is not valid. | What shall be said of departmentalization in the first and second grades? No definite data are at hand to warrant a final answer to this question. Our experi- ence has shown, however, that small children have greater power of self-direction than they are ordinarily reputed to have. In schools in which the first and 222 THE PLATOON SCHOOL second grades are a part of the platoon organization, pupils of these grades find little difficulty in following the daily program. They enter enthusiastically into the varied activities of the school and show every indi- cation of being happy, contented, and industrious. First- and second-grade pupils spend two and one half hours a day under the direct control of home room teachers. Here they are taught reading, phonics, spelling, and language. In schools in which the first and second grades are omitted from the platoon, parents and principals fre- quently request that they be included in order that pupils in these grades may have the advantages of the special activities. Special teachers of art, music, and health do meet a large number of pupils daily and consequently do not have the personal contacts as firmly fixed as those of the home room teacher. This weakness, if it is a © weakness, is inherent in departmentalization and ap- plies with equal force to the art, music, and health teachers in non-platoon schools, who teach for a short time each week in each room. III. ARE Not PupiILs IN PLATOON SCHOOLS UNDER A NERVOUS STRAIN ? The question of nervous strain and the answer. It may be admitted at the outset that the activities of the platoon school are more varied, more interesting, and consequently more stimulating than those of the schools of older type. Critics attacked the old schools because they were mechanical, deadening, and unin- spiring. It was said that they crushed the pupils’ CONTROVERSIAL QUESTIONS 22% initiative and spirit. Now we have remedied all of these faults and it is said that the schools are too inter- esting, too stimulating, and that some pupils are so thrilled by their school experience that they cannot sleep. Our experience has not shown this to be true in the case of the vast majority of children. There always have been and probably always will be individual children with highly organized nervous systems who are overstimulated by almost any kind of group contacts. The platoon organization easily adjusts itself to these cases. Such pupils may attend school for as long or as short a period each day as their parents elect. They may come from an hour and a half each session and receive their instruction in the funda- mentals only, or they may attend for a longer period of the day and participate in some of the special class work as well. If the question of physical fitness is involved, pupils may also have a program that will permit them to enter school late in the morning, have an extended noon hour, or go home early in the afternoon. When a platoon school is first opened the younger children sometimes find difficulty in readjustment, but after the organization has been in operation for a reason- able time all difficulties of this type disappear. In this general connection the question has been raised as to the merits and demerits of the six-hour day which pre- vails in platoon schools. For the majority of children and especially for those whose home environment is not the best, a six-hour day of judiciously intermingled work-study-play is desirable and practicable. For children whose parents prefer to have them play at home rather than -at school a shorter day may be 224 THE PLATOON SCHOOL inaugurated. For children whose physical require- ments make it desirable, adjustments of the time schedule are made as indicated above. IV. Dors Not FREQUENT CHANGE OF CLASSES WASTE TIME AND CAUSE DISORDER ? Loss in time and order. In response to the first part of the question a study of time spent in change of classes was made, and it was found that in a well- managed school not more than six minutes out of the six-hour day were spent in changing classes. This amount of time is too small for serious consideration. How avoided. The whole question of hall traffic has been made a matter of careful study. In new buildings all home rooms are located on the second floor and all special rooms on the first floor. Pupils in home rooms leave those rooms once in the forenoon and once in the afternoon. Atno other time is there a change of classes on this floor. Special classes on the first floor change rooms each half hour. Persons visiting these schools and noting the movement of pupils have erroneously inferred that all pupils were moving frequently. Rightly understood the change of classes is one of the most advantageous features of the organization. It rests pupils and permits them to relax while moving to the various rooms. A frequent change of scene and work is restful and makes for more intense application to each separate task. Those who fear that the change of classes makes for disorder and confusion are those who look askance at all freedom of action on the part of pupils lest it de- generate into license. This fear has no basis in fact. CONTROVERSIAL QUESTIONS 225 Platoon schools vary of course in the degree of self- control exercised by pupils, but it is worthy of note that disorder in these schools is rare, and that pupils in general are too busy and too happily engaged to be disorderly. Misbehavior in school is often the out- growth of monotony and an intense desire for physical relaxation and relief. Frequent change of classes in platoon schools breaks the monotony and acts as a safety valve. CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSION Effect of complexity of modern society. A genetic study of the elementary school curriculum reveals it as the product of many diverse influences, religious, educational, industrial, and political, which have been active from time to time since the days of the Protestant Reformation. The rapidly expanding curriculum re- flects the growing complexity of modern society. If the school is to prepare a child for contemporary social life it must give him a cross-section of life itself ; offer him a variety of contacts; arouse in him a many-sided interest; afford him an opportunity for purposing and for the realization of his purposes; and develop in him initiative and habits of self-ap- praisal, self-direction, and self-control. To accomplish these ends the school must provide a broad, varied, and highly enriched curriculum. The school organization exists solely as a vehicle through which the curriculum may effectively function. The same influences which have shaped the curriculum have indirectly determined the changing character of the organization. Nevertheless, the conservatism of the schoolmaster has often preserved the existing forms of organization long after the expansion and enrichment of the curriculum has indicated the necessity of re- 226 CONCLUSION 227 organization and readjustment. Ample evidence of this is found in the reluctance of the Boston school- masters to accept the new graded system as introduced in the Quincy Grammar School in 1848, and in the still more impressive fact that in spite of the unparalleled progress of the last half-century this seventy-five-year- old grammar school organization with slight modifi- cation still prevails throughout the land, and is warmly approved and defended by many of the present genera- tion of schoolmen against any innovation. The present-day advocates of the traditional grammar school organization have made but one concession to the demands of the modern curriculum. While they cling to the form of the old graded plan they have sought to combine with it some method of departmentalization. This study proves without question that such an organization is a makeshift and that it is expensive and wasteful. While the process of evolution may be slow, no intelligent person who knows the facts can doubt that at an early day the old graded organization must give way to a new organization more in harmony with the ideals and requirements of this generation. The signs of the times indicate that that day is near at hand. : Before 1840 few people gave serious thought to the relationship between the curriculum and organization and the physical environment in which they must function. Fundamental architectural changes have come gradually because modifications in buildings have in the main waited upon readjustments in organization. The old “ hall’’ plan of building gradually gave way after 1848 to the type of structure exemplified in the 228 THE PLATOON SCHOOL Quincy Grammar School. The introduction of the graded school made this imperative. But since the old grammar school organization still persists with slight modification there has been no fundamental change in the basic room units in most of the buildings erected in recent times. Such architectural readjustments as have been made were in response to the introduction of en- tirely new educational units such as the kindergarten, manual and industrial arts, and health education. In a majority of the school buildings erected in the last decade even these units have been provided for in traditional classrooms. Today, however, there are signs of progress, and an increasing number of school systems are beginning to erect buildings in terms of the modern curriculum and of the needs of the com- munity. From a consideration of these facts we are driven irresistibly to the conclusion that while the curriculum has kept pace with the evolution of society, the organi- zation and building are many years behind the times. The logic of the situation demands a new organization and a new building. The platoon school meets this demand because it squares with the past. How does the platoon school serve the present? The data embraced in this study presents convincing evidence that the platoon school reflects in the largest way possible the best ideals and aims of society; that in its theories and in its practice it does honor to the great educational leaders, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Herbart, and to the great contemporary molders of educational thought, Dewey, Thorndike, Kilpatrick, Judd, and Courtis; that before all else it gives con- CONCLUSION 229 sideration to the child’s physical well-being and assures him an opportunity to work, study, and play under favorable conditions; that in spite of its marked emphasis on the physical and cultural phases of edu- cation a scientific measurement of results in the three R’s in the platoon schools over a period of years reveals a higher standard in those schools than in the non- platoon schools over a like period; that the platoon organization as developed in Detroit has proved to be a smooth-running administrative mechanism which operates to the satisfaction of pupils, teachers, princi- pals, and communities; .and finally, that without making unreasonable financial demands upon the public, the platoon school offers a varied and enriched curriculum taught by well-trained specialists, in a physical environment that conserves the health, safety, and happiness of the children. What does the platoon school promise for the future ? If in the light of present tendencies one may predict what is to follow in education, it would appear that the school of the future will provide for greater individual freedom and opportunity for initiative; that the curriculum will be still further differentiated, and that there will be individual-group instruction. The platoon school is preparing the way for this outcome by re- moving fixed and rigid restraints and making the pupils free and self-directing. If in the future the curriculum is broken into more varied units the special facilities of the platoon school building will lend them- selves readily to newer forms of activity. In these days when the results of scientific research are rapidly breaking down traditions and developing 230 THE PLATOON SCHOOL new and more rational points of view, it is not to be expected that any form of organization will stand for a long period of time without readjustment. The platoon > school is only the next step, but it is a long step in the direction of progress and worthwhile achievement. BIBLIOGRAPHY BARNARD, HENRY — School Architecture. Case, Tiffany, & Co., Hartford, Connecticut, 1848. BEERS, SETH P.— Annual Report, Superintendent Common Schools, Connecticut, 1848. BisHop, NATHAN — Report of Superintendent of Public Schools, Providence, R. I., 1846. BonseEr, F. G.— The Elementary School Curriculum. The Mac- millan Company, 1921. BuNKER, FRANK F.— Reorganization of the Public School Sys- tem. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1916, No. 8. CALDWELL, O. W., and Courtis, 5. A. — Then and Now in Edu- cation. World Book Co., 1924. CouURSAULT, JESSE H.— The Principles of Education. Silver, Burdett, & Co., 1920. Courtis, S. A.— Education as Purposing. The Detroit Journal of Education, February, 1922. CUBBERLEY, E. P.— The History of Education. Houghton Mifflin, 1920. The Principal and His School. Houghton Mifflin, 1923. Public Education in the United States. Houghton Mifflin, IQI9. Readings in the History of Education. Houghton Mifflin, 1920. Y DEWEY, JOHN — Interest as Related to Will. Second Supplement to the Herbart Yearbook for 1895. School and Society. University of Chicago Press, 1900. DEWEY, JOHN and EVELYN — Schools of Tomorrow. E. P. Dut- ton & Co., 1915. DExTER, E. G.—A History of Education in the United States. The Macmillan Company, 1914. DONOVAN, JOHN J., and OTHERS — School Architecture. The Mac- millan Company, 1921. ry | agp THE PLATOON SCHOOL EATON, HorAcCE— Report of State Superintendent of Common Schools, Vermont, 1846. JOHNSON, CLIFTON — Old Time Schools and School Books. ‘The - Macmillan Company, 1904. KILPATRICK, W. H.— Educational Value of Project Method. The Detroit Journal of Education, March, 1921. The Project Method. Teachers College Record, September, 1918. Teaching by the Project Method. The Detroit Journal of Education, December, 1920. MANN, HoracE— Report of Secretary of Board of Education, Massachusetts, 1846. MayHEw, IRA— Manual of the System of Primary Instruction Pursued in the Model Schools of the British and Foreign School Society, 1839. Report Superintendent of Public Instruction, Michigan, 1847. Monroe, PAuL— Cyclopedia of Education. The Macmillan Company, I91I-1913. Froebel, F., in Vol. II, pages 213-223. Herbart, J. F., in Vol. III, pages 250-253. Textbook in the History of Education. The Macmillan Company, 1921. Moore, E. C.— Fifty Years of American Education. Ginn & . Cai 191 7 PARKER, S. C.— History of Modern Elementary Education. Ginn & Co., 1912. Quincy, Jostan — Address at Dedication of Quincy Grammar School, Boston, 1848. SPAIN, CHARLES L.— The Platoon School in Detroit. Board of Education Research Bulletin, 1923, No. 2. THORNDIKE, E. L. — Educational Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913. 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It may: thus be read continuously. Notes apply- ing to the program on pages 246-247 may be found on page 248. 245 ‘ £1 L 9 FI 8 Os 6 I v or Zz “a s £1 L 9 bx g e 6 I v or z oe $s £1 L 9 v1 8 3 6 I v oI z “M >I — 20UeDS $s or L 9 VI 8 £ 6 I v Or z WNHOJIPNYyY 6125 7 = rr oz ez Ol ol £z L-S erst tz 8-9 vI-gI VE LI €=1 6-11 gi ¥—2 OI-zI Iz L-S €1-S1 zz 8-9 vI-gI W O€:€-€ | €&-08:% | Of: 3-Z Z-O8:T | O€:T-T |T-O€: ZT ||OE: TI-ITT|TT-O€: OT OE: OT—-OT||\OT-OE:6 | 0&:6-6 | 6-0E'8 Ne) — nN V8 HOQMONHL GI SAdVAD — IOOHOS NOOLWIgd NOILOUS ANOI-ALNAM | ‘SAILIAILOY ‘IVIOddg 4O WVADOAd 247 APPENDIX gy — ve 8V — cz Sq — zz sq — 12 Apnjs Ly — 0% pestarsdnsg — ‘ss 4q — O1 sse[9 LI LI LI 61 OI OI rok 4 (ok 4 gt gt OI 61 OI 0% oz II I GG ol 6 LI aS gl 6 OL Hey SS ZI £ II 61 oI cSES 41 ZI Or 61 or oz II DE £ GE \ ZI £ 6 I oI 6 Lt LI ZI ef II II I z gI 6 £ ZI gI LI I oI oz II LI Or gr II 61 I oz% 6 £ ol ZI SI £z Iz gI vz $1 £z Iz gt vz SI £z Iz gI vz SI £z IZ gI vz Sx £z Iz gt vz ov — 8! oq — 41 Sy —o9gI Sq — SI by — £1 vy — £1 sseiy AGA vg — zr vg — II fy — or fy — 6 = —38 fq — A bee zq—s Iy—v Iy—e Ig —z Ig — I ss¥[9 he ‘a zz ‘Ll cco tswy vz “A yenueyy zz oT: vz ‘WwW zz ‘a vz “ap zz “Mp? ° °° “AreIqryT vz ey: 8 ‘W vz “a 8 ‘L 9 “MA see er any 8 ‘L zz W 8 ‘a) 9 L 8 “Mb oto ORNL a) 9 ‘WwW $f ‘a gt ‘L St | A fp IT — 200a1g gt ‘L gt ‘WwW THE PLATOON SCHOOL 248 £712 “mA | p,isseug 1SOY £712 “wWAX) | pisseug ysoy £717 “WAY LI-£ [qd ysoy £z7-1z “WAN £ Avg 3S9Y £712 “WAX, |p.sIsseug jsoy gi-oz gi—oz gi—oz gi-oz gi-oz “uWIAX) “WIAD "mAS “WAY “UIAL) UI JSISSY —_—_——_ | ————_ | ————— | | | || | [| EE | | EEE | | “WAND “WAY “WAL “WAY “WAN UI JSISSY 9 Avg p,1sseuy pisseuy || 9 Aud passeug || —_—_— | | | | CU | | |, | | || UI }SISSY ‘mAX) |II-OAefg! ¢1-S1 yoy siz Aelg ‘ws, | 6 ARIq €1-S1 ysoq «OL Avg “WAX, jII Arig £1-S1 ysoy2s«[Z@I-O1 ‘[g wAy | 6 Atig €1-S1 yoy «jor Avg wAX) |LI-6 Avg) ¢1-S1 yoy 2s«jOL Arig UI 4SISSy €-1 Avtgq| L-S 4SdY vz Arig 8-9 €-1 Aetg| L-S 1S9Y v-z Avg 8-9 I Atig L-S qS9Y v—z Aelg 8-9 I Atig L-§ 4Sdy v-z Avi g 8-9 €-1 Ae[q| 4-S 1SIY ¥ Avg 8-9 4say €-1 ‘yIpny OZ-gI Ipny ysoy €-1 ‘yIpny Oz-gI ‘JIpny soy f-1 | “qIpny gt “yIpny ysoy €-1 ‘JIpny oz ‘yIpny 15391 e-1 Iphy at cide f UI }SISSY UI JSISSY 61 yipny 1it—O0 1S9Y vz LI yIpny 11-6 1SOY v—z 61-L1 yIpny 11-6 4SdyY v—z O1-LI yipny 11-6 1Soy b—z LI ypny 11-6 1SOY v—z £1 uAr) ||L-S Avfg| €-1 4sIY wAd S Atig €-1 3SIY wiAr) L keid £-1 1S9y wiAr) |\£-S Avfg| €-1 1Ss9dy UI JSISSY OI-ZI 1SIy L-S yIpny OI-ZI 1S9IY L-S yipny OI-ZI 1sdy L-S yIpny OI-zI 1SIY L-S yIpny OI-ZI {Soy L-S jIpny UI }SISSY yipny fz yipny | €1-S1 pny Iz ‘yIpny €1—-S1 JIpny £z “yIpny £1-S1 yIpny Iz ‘yIpny 1-S1 UI SISSY Ul 4sISSY O€:€-€ | &-0&'S | O€:Z-Z || Z-OE:T | OF: T-T | T-OS: ZT |\0: TI-TT|TT-OE: OT 0: OT-OT OT-0€: 6 “yIpny “pny “JIPHy yIpny ‘pny UI JSISSY 0€: 6-6 Ul jSISSY 6-0&:8 ai tlocn— “M > UNIseuUAy iL W nr uiniseuulAsy ‘L ees a ‘L "AM } WNWO pny L W V8 HONOUHL GI Ssaavay TOOHDS NOOLVIg NOILOAS ANOA-ALNAM LT “SAILIAILOY TVIOddS NI HAOM S,AAHOVAL AO LNAWNOISSY 249 APPENDIX Q0UAINS QI QIUITIIS QI adUITIS QI adUIIIS QI QDUITIIS QI 1S9y 189] 1S9Y 1S say p,lsseuy yAy V yy z yy V pisseuy BHR ee gDUITIS 6 aDUaTIS 6 aauaIIS 6 dDUaIIS 6 gDUaIIS 6 oe I oe oe lon oe vz VI VI gI Ee zz Vz zz vz prsseuy, WY zi WY zi WY zi WY zr WY 21 o% Lord of o% Lord 7 Nn n ] vo cS) o4 8 9 8 SY 9 3 passeuy VV 8 vy 9 HY 8 psseuy fx, reese seq ayy au EH fx, "th -OISNI aue Hh, tose yonagy =ue fy zue II — 20u910S fy SUB [I — 20u919S ate 91N} RIOT] au aT ee 91} 19317 Zue THE PLATOON SCHOOL 250 gy — be 9V — gI bq — zx SV — tz oq — ZI vg — 11 91N}R19IIT — “qT Sq — zz Sy —9I fy —o1 8a — 12 Sq — S1 ty 70 Apnys Ly — oz ry — v1 fq—g pastarodns — °s ‘sg ce — 61 sse[D {by — £1 ssviy fq—Z ssei9 AGA eyomang zwq—s I1y—v? Iy—e Iq—z Ig — I sst[9 gr ‘a zz > 4 suy vz A [enueyy zz we vz ‘W zz a vz T: Ze aN °° *ATBIQUT vz 2a Fr 8 W gI 61 61 61 4soy 3Soy 1Sdy Iz IZ Iz zz }Say 189 }S9Y oz tek4 oz £z £z £z vz 1SOY }SIY ysoy QI QI QI Iz IZ Iz zz Or OI OI 0% Oz oz £z £z £z vz II }S9Y I aXe oI z 1SIY Ges IZ 1SOy 6 }S9y LI Ces gI oka St }SOY £z g 6 61 AS 38 ZI 1SIY gI L eS Iz gt S II Or oI ysay oz S £1 £2 9 say SoS Li zI 3S2y v £1 $1 L v1 ree | ae cag eee se | ea ae eee] ieee Ce | SE eee Be) | ae ee ae ees Pe O€:€-€ | €-08'% | Of:%-Z || Z-O8:T | Of-T:T | TOs: ZT\los: TT-TT|TT-08: OT 0€:OT-OT|| OT—-O€: 6) 0€:6-6 | 6-08'8 ————— (panuyuo)) WR HONOUHL gi saavuy TOOHIS NOOLVId NOILIAS YNOA-ALNAM LT ‘SILIAILOY TWI0ddg NI HAOM S,AAHOVAL JO LNANNODISSY ———————————————— — ——<—-- YEAR 1918-1919 1919-1920 1920-1921 IQ2I-1922 . 1922—September, APPENDIX 1924. No. PLatoon SCHOOLS 6 15 29 42 77 251 In the tabulation presented below the 77 platoon schools now in operation (Septem- ber, 1924) are divided into three groups: (1) New buildings designed slant for the platoon organization. (2) New additions to existing (3) Existing buildings reorganized. SCHOOL Maybee . Kennedy Wilson Keating . Pattengill Balch Cooper . Custer White Courville Guyton . Hosmer . Poe s. Brady . Duffield . Ferry Noble DETROIT PLATOON SCHOOLS ORGANIZED Cc uildings. 1918-1924 I. NEW BUILDINGS PuPIL GRADES APACITY| INCLUDED PREDOMINATING NATIONALITY DSSS ee Oe eS 1918-19 1918-19 1919-20 1920-21 1920-21 1921-22 1921-22 1921-22 1921-22 1923-24 1923-24 1923-24 1923-24 1924-25 1924-25 1924-25 1924-25 Lithuania Canada Canada Canada Canada Wiest Poland Italy 105, Se Poland Canada Belgium Canada Canada Italy Germany Germany Germany England Poland Germany Canada Us Se(Cols) URSa (Cols) Germany Canada Use GConil Ue es ULS: Canada Germany England 252 THE PLATOON SCHOOL II. NEW ADDITIONS TO OLD BUILDINGS PREDOMINATING NATIONALITY Puri! | GRADES SCHOOL ORGANIZED CAPACITY|INCLUDED 1 2 s Columbian. . .| 1918-19 1080 K6 LU U. S. (Col.)| Poland Hely a, ee RT OTOH79O 960 K8 Use Poland Germany Russellav ew.) hata LOLS—1O 1370 K8 Italy Russia Poland Stephens . . .| 1918-19 1120 K8 Wey Germany |Poland Angell . . . .} 1919-20 I120 K8 US: Canada England Greenfield Pk. .| 1919-20 1240 K8 USS: England Canada Greusel . . . .| 1919-20 1240 K8 Poland Urs: Germany Lincoln’. '. >... }) "1919-20 1505 K8 Russia U.S. (Col.)| Poland Marxhausen . .] 1919-20 1080 K6 iG), te: Italy Germany Alger > 40s ci jen b0 20=2% 720 K8 Ute Russia Poland Carstens . ees) 6020-21 1465 K8 Uss: Canada Belgium Dwyer .. . .| 1920-21 1280 K8 Russia Poland Italy Billige 924 a s020—2T I120 K8 Poland Was: Germany Field pees MP Sb. hopye om 680 K8 LUser Canada England Longfellow. . .| 1920-21 1160 K8 Wise Canada W..S; (alk) Moore, . ap ale EO2O-2T 1680 K8 Russia WAS: Poland Nichols” ai.) sil kO20-2T 865 K7 Wes: Canada Germany Parke fsb aoe he LOSO-2 7 850 K7 Poland US Germany Thirkell. . . .| 1920-21 I120 K6 Wieee Canada England Trowbridge . .| 1920-21 640 K6 Russia U.S. (Col.)| Poland Crosman 9". *. | 1927-22 905 K6 Uss3 Canada Russia Davison.) oe GalniO21—22 2000 K8 Us: Poland Wasu(Gols) Doty. eee Woz te 890 K6 Ueis: Canada Russia Estabrook . . :| 1921-22 720 K8 US; Canada England George . . . .| 1921-22 960 K7 Italy U. S. (Col.)| Russia Houghton . . .| 1921-22 865 K8 ease Canada England Majeske . . .| 1921-22 880 K7 Poland URS: Russia Marry io ty 4. eS eider-22 720 K8 Rares Canada England Sampson . . .| 1921-22 1400 K8 UES: Canada Germany burton... fees oe ees 800 K8 UCS: England Canada Chandler. . .| 1922-23 865 K8 Dyes: Italy Germany Clippert . . .| 1922-23 r160 K8 Poland Italy Us Sse Franklin . . .| 1922-23 2105 K8 Us; Canada Malta Grayling ... .| 1922-23 520 K8 Ao Canada England Holmes, A. L.. .| 1922-23 IIO5 K6 La Italy Poland Holmes, O. W. .| 1922-23 1000 K8 LURES? Poland Germany Marcy? (so. 2.) 1622-23 680 K7 (Rese Germany |Canada Wingert.. . . «| 1922-23 985 K8 Use: U.S. (Col.)| Canada Barstow.) s) aes Jo Ors S2n amr nzoO K6 Italy U.S: (Colt Ura. Hutchinson . .| 1923-24 1185 K8 Uss: Belgium Germany Garfield... . '. {| "92324 2040 K8 Poland Canada England Lillibridge . . . 1923-24 1000 K8 Uses Roumania /}Austria APPENDIX 253 III. EXISTING BUILDINGS REORGANIZED PREDOMINATING NATIONALITY Pupit! | GRADES SCHOOL ORGANIZED CAPACITY| INCLUDED 1 2 3 Breitmeyer I9I9Q-20 865 K7 Us: Russia Wise (Gols) Lingemann 1919-20 880 K8 We SY Canada England Newberry 1919-20 840 K6 Poland U.S: Russia Bishop 1920-21 1680 K8 Russia U.S. (Col.)| Poland Pingree . 1923-24 620 K6 Was Germany | Belgium Smith 1923-24 600 K6 Uss: Germany |Italy Tilden 1923-24 600 K6 USS: Canada England Chaney . 1924-25 580 K6 Us st Poland Canada Goldberg 1924-25 1480 K8 USS: Canada England Higgins . 1924-25 680 K6 Uses: Germany |Hungary Hillger 1924-25 640 K6 Ue Se Germany |Canada Howe 1924-25 600 K8 Ua: Canada Germany Lynch 19 24-25 640 K8 Ue Poland Germany Maybury 1924-25 760 K6 Uss: Canada England Rose . 1924-25 580 K8 es: Germany |Canada Shite ah BAe ie 1924-25 560 K6 Use Poland German Van Dyke . 1924-25 520 K8 eS: Canada Englan Webster . 1924-25 720 K8 UaS: Canada England 1 Capacities in above tables do not include kindergarten. 254 THE PLATOON SCHOOL COMPARATIVE CAPACITIES OF 77 SCHOOL BUILDINGS UNDER NoOn- PLATOON AND PLATOON ORGANIZATIONS ScHOOLS Alger Angell Balch Barstow Bishop . Brady Breitmeyer Burton . Carstens Chandler Chaney . Clippert Columbian GOODE!’ ,. mae Courvilles i) sens Estabrook . Ferry Field Franklin Garfield . George . Goldberg Grayling. oe Greenfield Park . Greusel . yee Guyton . Hely . Higgins seme Hiligerie: nena Haimes,-Ac Latte Holmes, O. W. . Hosmer. Houghton . Howe Hutchinson Keating Kennedy Lillibridge Lincoln . Lingemann Longfellow Lynch , Majeske Marcy Marry apts, Marxhausen Maybee Maybury Moore Newberry . Nichols Non-PLATOON CAPACITY! ee ee ee PLATOON CAPACITY } INCREASE CAPACITY PER CENT INCREASE ScHOOLS Noble . Parke. . Pattengill Pingree Poe. Rose .. Russell Sampson . Sill . Smith . Stephens . Thirkell Tilden . Trowbridge : Van Dyke Webster White . Wilson Wingert 1 Capacities in above table do not include kindergarten. APPENDIX Non-PLATOON CAPACITY PLATOON CAPACITY INCREASE CAPACITY 255 PER CENT INCREASE 720 I000 985 THE PLATOON SCHOOL 256 OSgr OSgt OSgr OSgr ooSr ooSr ooS1r oos1 OC©OZI OOZI OOZI OOZI OOgI CORI OCOgI oOgI TIVLOL DOT “WoL, "0dr, “oor” oor oft of: | 0S3 OOL- —OOI- {O0L = -OOL, OO Of) Cor (ool SSID9Y ON Ve. (OSV G2 OSV. OCh. 2 O2V) BODE. Ogt) BOOS 009 009 O09 009 009g 009 cog 009g speeds OOII OOII OOII Of£II Og6 066 066 #4066 O©OII OOII OOII OOIL OOII OOII OOIL oor s[ejusWIepUN AUVWWAS OSV Ose OShe OF VE OCE™ BOGE” SO0o =s005 ©C0C9. =©=909 = =—00Q.S 00S 00Q- «S009. 00Q-—S CC: TVLOL fe) ° ° ° ° ° ° ° 09 09 °o9 09 og o9 of of Alev1iqryT ov ov ov ov ov ov ov or 06 06 OZI =) OFt LOSts Olas OGis 1OvE SoSIoloxy Sulusdg JO wnlWo0}Ipny 09 °9 o9 29 o9 09 o9 He be 09 09 09 9 og 09 o9 wv 09 09 09 09 09 09 09 °9 09 og 09 09 o9 o9 09 09 dISN JT ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °9 09 09 OC Le OF tes Oot Ati d 00% 0072 00% 00z o00z 00% 00% 00z OSI oSr oS1 oSi Ost OSD On tee Ost qyyeay “WALD 06 06 06 09 09 ° ° fo) OgI ogr 06 06 09 ° ° ° svy ‘J OOle OO COT == OOT == COL) 051 Of1=~— O51 OO Ts TOOT) SOO Lam OOL mm OO Tas OO list 100 lam OG a ssaoaa O©OII OOII O£II O€II 0og6 066 066 066 OOII OOII OOIL OOIL OOII OOII OOII oorr IVLOL OS Ceum OSC eOSC MEMOS) BOOT wT WOOT” BOOT @ =OOT oSz oS¢ oS% oS% oS oSt oS1 OS1 sInjeN pu “4s ‘Zoar) OOtEEECOcCm NOS s OSc 00c OST) FOSt (OST COOL) s O0ly | OSZamsOScu Os. SOS Tes Onl On x ysysugq SZ $2 $k $Z SZ SL ° ° OO TL O00 LOO TE OO 1 sm OC LOCO LEG ° SUTIN oSz~ oSz oSz oSz 00% oot) = 066 ° oS~ oSz o$% oS$% o8$% 002 oor oO WIW yy OOI oo! OL) .OOL SL SL SZ ° OOI OOL oOOL oOOL oOOIT- oOo! SL SL surjeds Crime cc te tsi te SOC OSS BOOS eS Lh = .OVe DOF) ..00t = OS% 051° = 052% 00F - Seo) sass Sulpray 8 L 9 Ss ¥ € z T 8 L 9 Ss ¥ € z T saddvut) NOOLVIg-NON saavut) NOOLVId HATNGAHOS ANIL INDEX Acceleration, 186 Activities, auxiliary, 94; ual, 15 Adapting the school plant to the organization and curriculum, 133 Administrative details: care of books and supplies, 60; care of wraps, 61; recess, 62; relief teachers, 62; attendance rec- ords, 63; seating of special rooms, 64 Administrative rooms, 161, 162 Aims, of education shifting, 11 ; of platoon organization, 44 Alcott, W. A:,.113 American colonial schools, Puri- tan period, 1620-1775, 2; types of, 28 American educational biography, 31 American elementary after 1750, types of, 30 American Institute of Instruc- tion, 9 American Preceptor, 6 Analysis of required teacher serv- ice in non-platoon and platoon schools, 203 Annual Report, Seventh, of Mas- sachusetts, 34; of Connecticut, man- schools 109 Architecture, school, 103 Arithmetic, mental, 12; not required in colonial period, 3; out of proportion to impor- tances; rose. to first. rank, 1825, 7; thought difficult, 3 Arrangement of recess periods, 62 Art room, 71, 160 Attendance records, 63 Auditorium, the, 80; as an integrating and _ correlating unit, 84; of Doty School, 198; of Nichols School, 198; plans of, 153, 156 Auxiliary, activities, 94; units, 162 Barnard, Henry, 10, 31, 108, 130 Bible as textbook, the, 3 Bingham, Caleb, 6, 31; Memoir of, 31 “Blue-backed”’ Spelling Book, 6 Boston school committee, plan of, 30; report in 1845, 32 Bowdoin School, 121 Brady School, plans of, illustrat- ing unit construction, 146, 150, I51 Brimmer Grammar School, 116 Building costs, 194 Building, platoon school, types of platoon school, 55 Buildings, erection of new, 137 Burris, W. P., 41 52 5 Care, of books and supplies, 60; of wraps, 61 Catechism as a textbook, 3 257 258 Change, in attitude toward edu- cation, 4; effect of, of classes, 224 Changing educational ideals and aims, 128 Classes, planning, 59 Clinic, 162 Colburn’s Arithmetic, 10 Columbian Orator, 6 Comparative, cost per pupil of new buildings organized on the platoon and non-platoon plans, 199; costs of auditoriums, gymnasiums, and playgrounds with equivalent space in class- rooms, 196; results, platoon and non-platoon schools, 169 Comparison, of grade medians, above and below city median, January, 1920, to June, 1923, 179; of,median scores, June, 1922, 170; of medianscores, four-year and _ three-year groups, January, 1920, to June, 1923, 1723 of results in schools before and after organization on platoon plan, 182 Complete elementary school, the, 36 Conclusion, 226 Controversial questions, 217 Corridors with individual lockers, 163, 164 Costs, 123; building, 194; com- parative, 196; instructional, 199 Coursault, Jesse, 22, 23 Couriers. A e2r2% Courville School, 148 Curriculum, elementary school, of 1775, 5; no extensive ex- INDEX pansion of, in 1775-1825, 6; of 1825, 8; of 1850, 10; of 1875, 14; of 1900, 17, 18; of the future, 26 Dame schools, 29; combine with writing schools, 30 Data on platoon schools, 166 Declamation established as sub- ject, 6 Definition of elementary schools, I Departmentalization, 37 Detroit platoon school organiza- tion, 48 Dewey, John, 19, 22 Dilworth’s The Schoolmaster’s Assistant, 6 District schools, period from Revolutionary War to 1850, 107 Drawing, 13 Duffield School, 140 Duplication of teacher service, 201 Early American colonial school buildings, 104 Education, aims of, shifting, 11; change in attitude toward, 4 Educational, changing, ideals and aims, 128; progress, 19; psy- chology, 43; results, 165 Effect of platoon school, upon parents, 214; upon pupils, 214; upon teachers, 213 Elementary school, building, evo- lution of, 103; the complete, 36; organization, evolution of, 27 Elementary school curriculum, INDEX as an evolution, 1; colonial, 3; Pmale7s, 5; Ole t825, 28% Mor 1850, 10; of 1875, 14; of 1900, 18; religious in aims, 2; reor- ganization of, 14; resultant of two influences, 2 Elementary schools, appeared slowly in England, 27; defi- nition of, 1; evolved from Puritan schools, 29; in colo- nial times, 28; several types in America, 2 Enrollment, 57 Erection of new buildings, 137 European, beginnings, 1 ; schools, 27, 103 Evolution of the grammar school principal, 36 Failures, 186 First assistants, 63 First lessons in arithmetic on plan of Pestalozzi, 10 Fowle, W. B., 31 Froebel, Friedrich, 14, 19 Fundamentals, 64; time spent on, in platoon schools, 168 Gary schools, 40, 41; outstand- ing features of, 41 Gates, on tests and scales, 22 Geography, home, 13; intro- duced by Jedediah Morse, 7 Good behavior or morals and manners, 7 Goodrich’s History of the United States, 8 Graded grammar schools, 34 Grammar, introduced, 16; taught in 1875, 12 259 Grammar-school, buildings, 115; principal, 36 Gymnasiums, 153 Hartwell, S. O., 42 Health, 74, 130; in relation to school architecture, 130 Herbart, Johann Friedrich, 16, 19 History, introduced in 19th cen- tury, 8; opposed, 9; primary, Buccs Oe CurTiCUliny 717. taught in schools, 13 History of the United States, Goodrich’s, 8 History of the United States, Webster’s, 8 Holmes, A. L., School, 136 Home economics, 161 Home rooms, 152 Hornbook, 3 ‘““Tmportance of Physical Educa- tion,” 9 Important factors influencing the development of elementary school architecture, 127 Individual lockers, 163, 164 Individualization, 25 Infant or primary schools, 33 Instructional, costs, 199; units, 152 Interests as Related to Will, 20 Introduction, to chapter on “Costs,” 193; to chapter on ‘Educational Results,’ 165 James, in relation to Thorndike, 21 Johnson, Clifton, 106 260 Kilpatrick, and the aims of edu- cation, 22, 23 Kindergarten, 15; suite, 157, 158 Lancasterian, schoolhouses, 116; schools, 32, 116 Laws of learning, 21 Leisure time, 66 Library, 94, 153, 157 Literature, added to curriculum, 17; of first importance, 17 Literature room, 60, 71 Lunch room, 162 Mann, Horace, 34, 110, 112 Manual, activities, 15; and in- dustrial arts room, I61 ;. train- ing, 16 Manual of the System of Primary Instruction Pursued in_ the Model Schools of the British and Foreign School Society, 116 Mayhew, Ira, 110 Measurements, 22, 166 Memoir of Caleb Bingham, 31 Methods of tabulation, 167 Middle schools, 36 Modifications in elementary or- ganization in response to ex- panding school curriculum, 37 Monitorial system, 32 Morse, Jedediah, 7 Movement toward segregation and graded schools, 119 Murray, Lindley, 6 Music, in Boston schools, 13; room, 66, 160 New England Primer, 6 New England schoolhouses, 104 Nichols School auditorium, 196 INDEX Number of platoon schools (by years), 48 Official adoption of school organization, 46 Old time Schools and School Books, 106 Open-window rooms, 97 Organization, duplicate plan of, 42; plan of, 50; of platoon schools in Detroit, 44, 48 Organization of instruction, 64; fundamentals in, 64; leisure time in, 66; health in, 74; social-civic work in, 80; social- science work in, 89; vocational work in, 9I Overcrowded schools and the platoon plan, 97 platoon Parents, attitude of, 215 Parish school, 29 Pattengill School, 138 Penmanship, 12 Percentage of grade comparison above and below city median by subjects, January, 1920, to June, 1923, 178 Period, 1775-1825, 5; 1825- 1850, 8; 1850-1875, 10; 1875- 1900, 14 Personal, equation, 213; touch, 220 Pestalozzi, 10, II, 12, 15, 17, 19 Philbrick, John D., 35 Philosophy, educational, Dewey’s, 19, 22; lack of, before 1860, 11; Pestalozzi’s, 11 Plan, of Boston school commit- tee, 30; of platoon organiza- tion, 50 INDEX Planning classes, 59 Platoon organization, 44 Platoon school, experiment in Detroit, 1918-1919, 44; prov- ing its worth, 165 Platoon schools, 42-230; admin- istrative details in, 60; of Kal- amazoo, 42; project teaching in, 217; types of, 55 Plays 15} 74 Play rooms, 153 Primary schools, 33, 36 Principal of grammar _ school, evolution of, 36 Private adventure schools, 28 Private school, Caleb Bingham’s, ay Prize schoolroom, 113 Program making, 56; essential considerations of: space, 56; enrollment, 57; time _ allot- ment, 57; planning classes, 59 Project teaching in platoon schools, 217 Psychology, behavioristic, of Thorndike, 21; educational, Purpose of early education, 2, 3 Purposing, 23 Questions, controversial, 217 Quincy Grammar School, 32, 126 Reading, 12, 17 Reading schools, 27, 30 Realizing ideals of the commu- nity, 213 Recess periods, arrangement of, 62 Records, attendance, 63 ¢ 261 Relief teachers, 62 Reorganization, of the Detroit elementary schools, 1918-1923, the problem in, 43; of existing buildings, 134 Report on schoolhouses, 112 Required number of teachers in platoon and _ non-platoon schools of equivalent size, 202 Rest rooms, teachers’, 113 Retardation, 186 Revolution, schools preceding, 5; decline of schools after, 5 Room, art, 17, 160; literature, 6071 ; lunch, 162; manual and industrial arts, I61; music, 66, 160 Rooms, administrative, 161, 162; home 0523. play;.153'¢., sel- ence, with conservatories, 157, 159; special, 161, 164; teach- ers’ rest, 113 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 14, 19 Safety, 132 School, architecture, 103, 108, 127; building, 114, 194; com- plete elementary, 36; failures, 186; adapting the, plant, 133; of three R’s formed, 30 School organization, changes in, 30; not definite in colonial period, 20%" plan. of,” 50:5 platoon, in Detroit, 44, 48; transient and rotating, 29 Schoolhouses, early English, 103 ; in period from Revolutionary War to 1850, 107; report on, 112 Schools, dame, 28; district, 107 ; Gary, 140, 141; graded gram- 262 mar, 34; infant or primary, 33; Lancasterian, 32, 116; Lutheran, 29; middle, 36; in Middle Colonies, 106; platoon, 42-230; private adventure, 28; Puritan, 29; reading, 27; reading and writing, 30; in the South, 106; writing and reckoning, 28 Science rooms, 89; servatories, 157, 159 Scientific attitude, development of, in 20th century, 21; modi- fying methods, 22 Segregation, movement toward, 119 Sloyd system, 16 Social-civic, 80 Socialization, 24 Social-science, 89 Space requirements, 56 Special rooms, 161; plan of, 161; seating of, 64 Spelling, retained prestige, 12; rose to first rank, 7; standard- ized, 6; waning emphasis upon, I7 Standard tests, use of, 166 Standard units of platoon school building, 149 with con- Tabulation, methods of, 167 Teacher service, analysis of re- quired, in non-platoon and platoon schools, 203; duplica- tion of, 201 Teachers’ rest rooms, 113 INDEX Technique used in measuring results, 166 Tendencies after 1750, 4 Tests, use of standard, 166 Textbook, catechism as a, 3 Textbooks, American, brought shift of emphasis, 7; American output of, 7; introduction of new, 6; secular, 4; seldom used in writing and arithme- tie, 43 Theories and influence of Pesta- lozzi, 10 The School and Society, 19 Thorndike, Dr. Edward L., 21, 22 Time, allotment of, 57; spent on fundamentals, 168; leisure, 66 Trowbridge School, 195 Types, of American colonial schools, 28; of American ele- mentary schools after 1750, 30; of platoon schools, 55 Unit construction, plans of Brady School illustrating, 146, 150, I5I Units, auxiliary, 162; standard, 149 Vitalization, 24 Waste of instructional space, 201 Webster, Noah, 6, 7, 8 Wirt, W.S., 41, 42 Writing, difficult to learn, 3; taught by dictation, 3 Writing schools, 30 , "4 ‘i itm, <9 ania % =~ r) 7 » nf oe ars 4 wa) a Ve i all a Ie co m a 7 an E. . a. a ) ag 4A ti ¢ id & a - a . . 7 Aes an ~ Ma on eee ae - Le ! Date Due ae 54) , PO et NS ‘yw Wiie S34 OE NN iah RS Nate #4 hy Am. Bead 2 Viele LB2806 .S73 The platoon school, a study of the Princeton Theo iim 012 00026 3386 fm