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Web gi ath gd ot Ata ihatteabyth ty ah Hi ta Hs ; r 1 Vt CEL i" SUR > ees ane cis asa Le ag hal re ay ” Wie ah yt i Mg Biaendaast 42009 A: # *! yt i aisha ot 8s , hdres araiet . Sih aya } 3 ; Hen ae! 134 aes vie gid D8) 4 , 4 : aq Y ye! ale 7 si ae i fy. HOH a SP 4 fy ths say | iF The person chk is material is re- sponsible for i on or before the Latest Date st. . _low. Theft, mutilation and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN EDUEATION-AND SOGIAL OCT 03 1997 FEB 11 thne L161—O-1096 ww 19x, Se ca : : Sati a Byler Oa eka ok ‘ cae 4 ‘ 7 ee 4 ss 9 i maha sn MS ee tors ts {Os vs ; ate Seitak:: : Ltt ; ri 3 eek ins rial aueeais gpd yt = COURTESY WEYHE SALLEaiD bh Py EON oy gt oy . . oe ay , OUR ENEMY THE CHILD By AGNES DE LIMA NEW YORK NEW REPUBLIC, INC. 1926 CoPyRIGHT, 1925, BY REPUBLIC PUBLISHING CO., Inc. Printed in the U.S.A. a my OS To SIGRID AGED THREE AND A HALF, FROM WHOM I HAVE LEARNED MORE ABOUT EDUCATION THAN FROM ANY PEDAGOGUE OR ANY BOOK CONTENTS INTRODUCTION A ScHoot Morninc Tue “Best” or ScHooL MornNINGS Some ScHoots ARE DIFFERENT . BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING . THE Uses oF MENTAL TESTING . DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL Work-Stupy-PLay SCHOOLS THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS FOLLOWING THE CHILD’s LEAD A CHILD’s WorRLD . ; A NEw EbvucaTION FOR LABOR FutTurE Pusiic SCHOOLS APPENDIX . 125 147 202 250 261 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD : Vey 5, tice erg Forty fv Bah INTRODUCTION THE son of a Persian gentleman of old was ‘rained to do three things: to shoot a bow, to ride 1 horse and to speak the truth. Thus equipped, ae was counted educated, prepared to meet the ‘elatively simple requirements of Persian society, t society which required little of its members be- yond military prowess, physical vigor and moral ntegrity. No doubt even then, the pedagogues ind wise men indulged in dogma and much argu- ment concerning the training of youth and his iltimate destiny, but the ends of education were it any rate clearly defined and the means for attaining them readily at hand. Not so, alas, to-day. Go through a recent set 9f books on education and you will find as many lifferent conceptions of its function as there are writers. Shall the goal be a high degree of in- tellectual power, or narrow vocational fitness? Shall we stress the individual merely, or his fu- ture place in society? Shall the means be rig- drous routine or freedom carried to unbelievable Pg 2 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD lengths? Shall we draw heavily on the classics, the learning of the past, or shall we be guided by science and present-day discoveries? Who knows? Who has the wisdom to answer? Is not one pedagogue’s guess as good as another’s? It would seem so, for with all their dogma and valiant assertion, none of them appears sure of his ground save when indicting his fellows. On one thing only are they agreed—the child, the cause of all their adumbrations must be de- stroyed, or at any rate subdued; and transformed from the alien, independent being he was created, to a creature more pliant to their purposes. The theory of infant damnation still animates too much of our educational policy. Children must be cured of their original sin, have the nonsense knocked out of them, be molded into shape, made fit for society. Unless it is forced upon them by an army of schoolmasters, truant officers and the hands of the law, they will eschew “education” and all of its works. Recently however there has heen a revolt against this cherished tradition. A number of schools are actually daring to put to the test an entirely opposite theory which holds that the natu- ral impulses of the child are creative, that given proper materials and the opportunity to use them, freed from dictation, the child will develop powers INTRODUCTION 3 and abilities hitherto undreamed of. This does not mean allowing children to “run wild,” but rather giving them sufficient content and suffi- cient opportunity for self-expression fitted to the particular stage of growth they have reached. The old education—or rather the prevailing mode of instruction that is called education—has arbi- tarily collected the learning and culture of the ast, broken it up into water tight compartments, talled “subjects” and arranged these in sequential livisions, running from simple to complex, each Ogically related to the one preceding. Now as a matter of fact, although we do not know very nuch about the learning process—innumerable loctors’ dissertations on the subject to the con- ,tary—we have at least discovered that it is not | logical affair at all, and that for all our logical vains children do not learn that way. In the ex- verimental classes directed by Miss Irwin, de- cribed i in Chapter IV, a number of second grade ‘upils who had not had any arithmetic at all in heir first year of schooling, suddenly demanded | Within a month some of the brighter ones iad gone swiftly up to complicated work with tactions without the necessity of memorizing the aultiplication tables and the “combinations” which commonly precede such work. Similarly \eography in the newer schools is no longer con- } 4 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD fined to lessons out of a single big book filled with maps and lists of rivers and capitals and products. Youngsters below the kindergarten begin to “get oriented in space.” They locate their room in relation to others in the building, they locate the school in relation to other build- ings in the street. Later they follow the street to the river, they see the docks, the ferry, the ships. What better impetus could they have tc acquire not only geography facts but facts about economics and industry as well? That this theory is sound is shown by the amazing amount of in formation which the children in these newe! schools actually possess. A group of twelve-year old children of the Walden School who asked Dr Alexander Goldenweiser to give them a course i anthropology, discussed civilization, the inheri tance of acquired characteristics, free will, toten and taboo, social usages, the worth of custon and other matters usually reserved for far ma turer classrooms. Yet these children are not in tellectual prodigies, they are merely boys and girl: whose natural curiosities have not been stifled an whose will-to-think has not been broken. Now in order to think, one cannot sit passivel: by and absorb knowledge from the lips of ; teacher. A child does not learn to walk by hav ing some grown-up tell him how to do it, by bein: l INTRODUCTION 5 ! given a technical description of the motor co- ordination involved in the act. When he is ready 00 walk, he teaches himself through trial and j3tror, bumps and falls, how to balance and how 0 propel one foot before the other. And so in these newer schools, every opportunity is given \30 children to discover things for themselves. {ne of the most certain ways of achieving this {,8 to provide them plenty of materials with which hey can reconstruct and vivify past experiences Jind thus lay a basis for further inquiry. Nothing jmdeed more obviously distinguishes the old \ichools from the new than this use of materials. : the traditional school, the classrooms are a jarren waste of desks and blackboards, and ma- erials confined to paper, pencils and books. Even ;m the kindergarten the materials are limited and heir use proscribed. In the newer schools how- }we surrounded with a great variety of things to lo with—blocks, paints, crayons, weaving, clay, { and, lumber, boats, printing presses, typewriters, cience apparatus, stage sets, sewing machines, lectrical appliances, every manner of musical in- | trument—the list of materials in one descriptive ook on experimental practice covers many para- jttaphs of close type. Books take their rightful lace among the materials, as sources of informa- — ‘ver, the children even up to the highest grades | 6 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD tion to supplement first hand experiences, and as rich reference sources. Now what happens when a child is not dic- tated to and is set down with materials such as these? If he is emotionally untrammeled and physically sound so that he can function normally, it is safe to say that his use of materials will be creative. Watch a two-year-old piling his blocks, If some adult has not ruined his first efforts by stupidly showing him how, he quite uncannily arranges them in designs having no little degree of balance and proportion. Leave a little child alone with paints or crayons and large sheets of paper and after a period of random smearing, he will begin to draw amazing things, astonishing both in line and color. Even if his products have no meaning for a grown person, they have mean- ing to him as a child. A three-year-old girl re- cently showed a visitor a drawing she had made of aman. “Oh,” exclaimed the visitor, “what a funny man, he’s got only one leg.” The child flushed under the criticism, but luckily stood her ground, “Well, that’s the kind of man he is!” she replied. | To be sure the newer schools are facing in- numerable unsolved problems. Not the least of these is the common human failing of substitut- ing—in the name of freedom—merely another INTRODUCTION 7 kind of tyranny for the old. Many of the newer institutions tend to regard some sociological or psychological principle as more sacred than the child. In many it is the great abstraction of the future society which is set above ol other con- sideration; the curriculum is “socialized,” all efforts are bent to making the child an intelligent ‘participant in a future social democracy. To this end, the pupil is given endless material bearing on the mechanics of modern industry and gov- ernment—a sort of glorified civics—calculated to turn him into a kind of socialized robot who will infallibly codperate smoothly and efficiently with his fellows. Other advocates of “freedom” are busy instilling habits in mere toddlers and runabouts, habits which may or may not limit ‘spontaneity, independence and initiative. Others are magnifying the bogey of “emotional fixation” and “complexes” to absurd proportions. Some of these dangers are specifically referred to in the present discussion. While these shortcomings are serious and may become more so as experimental schools multiply in number, the great battle is still to be won for even a modicum of free activity in the ordinary school. While informality in the classroom is on the increase the great majority of children are still being made the victims of a repressive régime | 8 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD too much like the one described in the first chap- ters. Few public schools have advanced as far as such conservative demonstration schools as the Horace Mann and Ethical Culture Schools, which are described in Chapter IX. The valuable con- tributions to scientific curriculum making worked out by the Lincoln School have scarcely been a ee heard of by the rank and file of teachers through- | out the country. The Gary and Dalton schools are making headway but with painful slowness, | considering how easily they may be adapted to | public school conditions. In only a few instances have public school classes been established—and they are usually short lived—which experiment radically along the lines suggested by such insti~ tutions as the City and Country, and the Walden Schools in New York City. Yet there is a stirring in the educational world. | Everywhere there is evidence of a profound and | growing dissatisfaction with the existing educa- | tional order. When Mr. Israel Zangwill an- | nounced that America is the best half educated | nation in the world, his remarks were greeted with | a chorus of approval. Knocking our schools and | the products of our schools will “get a hand” not | only from the gallery of disgruntled proletarians, | but from the center of the house made up of solid | i ' INTRODUCTION 9 business men, professional workers and the saving remnant of the blue stocking clan. Most thoughtful teachers have felt the force of public school criticism for years. Many have resisted inwardly, but have felt that open revolt was futile. Others have attempted change, but lacking the necessary technique or scientific knowl- edge or sufficient imagination have slipped back into old ways, because old ways are easy and safe and well known. To-day, however, there exists not only a growing store of scientific information and of pedagogical discovery, but the centers, both public and private where the newer educational theories are being put to the test, are growing in number and influence. The Teachers’ Union in New York City has prepared an ambitious pro- posal for establishing such an experiment station within the public school system itself. Over a thousand public school teachers in the metropolis belong to a society for the experimental study of education. The sessions of this organization, while still confined too narrowly to technical prob- lems of measurement, or of pedagogy, are increas- ingly devoted to consideration of more funda- mental educational reform. Schools of education of universities and research bureaus in city school systems, while by no means committed to the lib- 10 | OUR ENEMY THE CHILD eralizing principles of the more radical experi- mental centers, are giving them thoughtful atten- tion. Moreover the lay public is showing -a growing interest in educational progress. The Progressive Education Association has begun the publication of a notable laymen’s quarterly, whose gifted editor is Miss Gertrude Hartman. Finally, organized labor, originally responsible for the first great educational experiment—the estab- lishment for the first time anywhere of a system of free and universal education,—is again taking a hand in educational reform. Not only has labor taken vigorous steps to improve and expand the range of educational opportunities for adults, but more recently working people, both organized and unorganized, have taken an aggressive atti- tude in regard to elementary instruction, This attitude has been the more significant, because it has been concerned not with questions of extend- | ing the school age, or the school year, nor with matters relating to narrow vocational training. Labor is actually putting the question, “What op- portunities are the schools giving our children to become free creative personalities?” This ques- | tion appears to the workingman to be of supreme | importance, for without a generation of free and creative individuals, the ends and aims of the organized labor movement can never be achieved. INTRODUCTION II The author of the present volume has spent “many years visiting and “surveying” schools of the traditional type. More recently she devoted a year to studying the specific experiments de- scribed in these pages. Chapters II, III and XII appeared as articles in the New Republic, and parts of others were published in the New Re- public and the Nation. Thanks are therefore due to the editors of these magazines for permission to reprint this material. II A SCHOOL MORNING “Sir up tall—every one of you!’ commanded the teacher. Forty-six boys, ranging in age from nine to twelve, their arms crossed behind them, chests swelled to bursting, strained themselves against the backs of their desks. The teacher regarded them fixedly until the last child was frozen into immobility. “Arithmetic books—out!” At the signal, forty-six books appeared on the desks. “Begin at the top of page 47 and work | examples 12, 13, 14 and 15. All except you, | Nathan, and you, Davis, and you, Paul. You | three go to the board and write down what I tell | you.” “These dull fellows need a little extra drill,” declared the teacher in a loud aside to the visitor. “I always say the dull child has as much right to be educated as the smart one. That means giving him a hand once in a while. Now then, boys, clear the board. Put down six million, 12 A SCHOOL MORNING 13 three hundred and twenty-seven thousand, five hundred and forty-two. Divide by nine hundred and fifteen. Nathan, where are your eyes?” The teacher’s voice was hard and metallic and her face lined with a multitude of little seams of nervous irritation. Police duty is hard work, when it means keeping forty-six children caged ‘and immovable in a tiny room five hours a day, five days a week for ten months a year. For caged and immovable they were in a space measuring certainly not more than fifteen by thirty feet, a space completely filled by cumber- some desks at which the children sat, two and often three to a seat. Blackboards filled the front and one side wall, a clothes closet ran across the rear, and windows were on the remaining side. A few stereotyped drawings of birds labeled “Bird Week” were pinned to the closet doors and three posters, one of a truck, one of a street car and the third of an ambulance, all marked “Safety First!’ surmounted a blackboard. In one corner hung a chart showing liquid measure. Next to it was a small supply chest. On the teacher’s desk drooped three peonies at the point of disintegra- tion. On the board in neat script were the letters p-e-o-n-y. This was actually all there was in the room. In this cramped and arid space was not one thing to 14 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD call forth the slightest creative impulse of the children who were doomed by law to spend the sunniest hours of their lives there. All they could do was to sit up rigid and “tall,” while the teacher doled out irrelevant and uninviting bits of knowledge in the name of “education.” The worst of it was that four years of this kind of treatment had had its deadly effect on the children. They sat there, this spring morning, sunk in apathy, not one of them by even so much as a shuffle venturing to rebel openly against the accustomed régime. One boy, to be sure, instead of working his sums, was, under cover of his hand, scribbling a series of ciphers across his paper, and another was stealthily watching the meaningless performance in awed fascination. The three “dullards” at the board went through the drill with perfect precision. It was without doubt as good a way of passing the time as any other. At the end of a quarter of an hour the teacher ordered the arithmetic papers to be collected and then announced with a show of liveliness that the class would write a composition about a trip to Central Park planned for the morrow. The children brightened visibly. Here was a real event worth discussing. They waited cau- tiously however for directions as to how to pro- A SCHOOL MORNING 15 seed to discuss it. The teacher wrote the head- ng on the board: ‘ “A trip to Central Park.” “Put that down,” she commanded. Forty-six rencils wrote as a unit. Then the children waited ain. _ “Next, write in your own words all the things Miss Perkins has told you not to do on that trip.” Not a child moved. “Oh, come,” urged Miss Perkins, “you remem- der what those things are. Tell us one, Nathan.” “Not to knock no papers on the floor.” “You mean, to throw no papers on the grass. Yes, we must leave everything orderly. What ‘Ise, Benjamin?” “Please, we should listen on your whistle and ‘ome right back.” “Yes, nobody is to go beyond the sound of my whistle, and the moment I blow it, you must re- urn instantly.” It was no doubt natural that Miss Perkins hould be concerned at the prospect of conducting orty-six East Side youngsters to Central Park ind back. All but one, she explained, had never een there in their lives, and all but three had lever ridden in a street car before. Small wonder hat she suggested a composition full of prohibi- ions. 16 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD After a sufficient number of these negative re minders had been given, the children set abou writing them down. The task seemed more con genial than the previous one. To discuss a rea coming event, even in the negative, was far mor: agreeable to the children than to work arithmeti sums in vacuo. The writing period was soon over, however and the readers were ordered out. “Turn to page 62,” commanded Miss Perkins “and read, sentence about.” The class relapsed into its former apathy. I had apparently read the story of “Iduna and th Golden Apples” many times before, and the them: was worn threadbare. The children rose mechani cally and read the sentences in shrill, laborec tones, chopping off each word with meaning. less emphasis. A number yawned and squirmec miserably. Miss Perkins seemed as aware as any one els¢ of the futility of the performance. Still, wa: she not as trapped as the children? Her time table called for so many minutes of reading dail} and the course of study prescribed this particulai reader. She must drive relentlessly ahead, ir appearance only more free than the driven, Shé¢ scanned her watch nervously. “Time for music,” she announced. A SCHOOL MORNING 17 The class shuffled the readers out of sight and at woodenly erect. “Sit up tall,” Miss Perkins said for the twen- eth time that morning. “Make your mouths nice nd round.” She drew a little pipe from her ocket and blew “A.” “La-a, everybody!” irough the air. The class rose to its feet. “Now then—‘Happy School Days.’ Sing as if du meant it. Wake up, can’t you? Some of you 0k only half alive. Remember, we must sing ur best on Commencement Day.” Even so, the song dragged miserably. “We'll try, ‘Watchman, What of the Night?’ ext.” The children responded drearily. “Ready, sit!” ordered Miss Perkins. The class it. | “Patrick, let us hear you recite, ‘Robert of incoln.’ ” Patrick, a wan, gaunt lad with tousled hair and splotched face, came up front. He went trough the poem at a tremendous speed, intensely iger to get the business over with. “Peter, recite the same poem. Try to give it little more expression.” Peter’s notion of “expression” was to recite ‘tremely slowly with special emphasis upon the Her right arm wagged 18 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD lines, “Bobolink, bobolink, spink, spank, spink.” “Now, everybody, the poem over again.” The class repeated the poem in utter indiffer- ence. “Next, ‘The Mountain and the Squirrel,’ John!” Miss Perkins moved to the side of the room. Half a dozen heads turned towards her. “All those facing the side of the room, face front!’ she ordered peremptorily. “Go on, John.” “One more—‘The Fountain’—Thomas.”’ Thomas, thin and undersized, one eye twitching nervously, shrieked the verses in his tense treble. The contrast was cruel between his misshapen little frame and the words of the poem. “In-to the sun-shine full of delight...” he halted miserably. : “Go ahead,” prodded Miss Perkins. Thomas stood his ground a moment in a desperate search for the next line, then crumpled into his place. _ “Next boy!” “Next boy” began the poem at the beginning and ran it through successfully. “Monitors, open the windows!’ | A two-minute drill followed, the children re- sponding with exact military precision to the orders given. Every iota of expression had left their faces. Blankly, almost blindly they wheeled from left to right and from right back to left. A SCHOOL MORNING 19 “hey seemed in no wise like children but like rooden dolls moved by a master hand. _ “Chests up—in—out! Arms upward stretch -higher—down! Knees—bend! Left—turn— tep! Form lines for marching. About face! fark time—halt! Forward march—halt! Run 1 place—halt! Forward march—halt! Breathe 1—out! Left—turn—to your places, step! ae!” The class sat. ' Miss Perkins examined them critically “Now iat we are all freshened up and have our wits bout us, let us try . . . the boys who have pens i their hands, put them down instantly! .. . let s try a spelling match.” This was obviously for the visitor’s benefit. ‘he children smiled feebly. ‘Henry, choose for ne side; Patrick, for the other. Be quick.” _The spelling match was executed without the ightest show of animation. The class seemed ast any possibility of life. But as the big noon all cut through the building, a shiver of expec- incy went over the room. The door opened and child entered with a note for Miss Perkins. In- antly a score of heads craned down the hall and ae boy involuntarily thrust his foot into the aisle . . in the direction of freedom. | “John!”’ snapped Miss Perkins, “you may stay 20 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD after class for fifteen minutes.” She began t count slowly, the signal for the children to ge their wraps. Each row rose in turn, faced abou and marched in dead silence to the clothes closet got their wraps and returned to their seats. Th: other rows waited in an agony of suspense When every one had hats and coats, Miss Perkin gave the signal to rise. All, save the luckles: John, fell into line and marched to the door. : “We shall stand here until every head is still,’ announced Miss Perkins. “The boy who has hi elbows up, put them down.” There was anothe: half minute of anguished immobility. “Gooc morning, boys,” said Miss Perkins finally. “Good morning, Miss Perkins!” came the reply in a roar of spontaneity, the only sincere ai | of the morning. Miss Perkins watched the line file down the hal where it was met by other lines, each presidec over by its glaring guardian. Only at the down: stairs door was vigilance relaxed, when the chil: dren burst out into the free air of the streets like so many exploding shells.* 1The foregoing is an exact transmission of what took place during a visit to a fourth grade class in a New York public school last spring. Both school and class were se- lected at random, the visitor merely choosing the first schoo’ she happened to come across after going into an unfamiliar part of town. Iil ae BEST” OF SCHOOL. MORNINGS? _To begin with, Mrs. Spencer was warm and uman. She loved her work, she loved the chil- ren. You could tell that at once from the way ae was addressing the new little boy from Ohio, utting him at his ease, wording the question in 1In the present instance an attempt has been made to sport the “best” of ordinary school mornings—experimental asses excepted. The principal of the school visited is one f the most enlightened and progressive men in the New ‘ork system. His school and his methods have received fre- gent and well deserved public commendation. The writer sked and received permission to spend the morning with ‘S very best teacher of a fourth grade. There may be better “best” teachers in the system, but it worth while to ask just how much in the way of creative mperience can be afforded to children by any teacher, no atter how technically skilled or graciously human, who iffers under a fixed course of study, an overcrowded class, room void of any materials save blackboards, desks and »oks, and the tradition of the teacher as the active, direct- g agent, and of the pupils as the docile and receptive ones. That the class teachers themselves are aware of the dif- culties of the job is shown by the remarkable response to ie recent request of Supt. Wm. J. O’Shea of New York ity that they indicate changes needed in the course of study id in methods of instruction. That they are more aware { the necessity for change than are their superiors is plain ‘om the returns from one district, whose superintendent ned in more than 500 changes suggested by his teachers, uly two of which had his endorsement. 21 22 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD denominate numbers with just the right note of apology in her tone so that he might not think New York was talking down to him. And the children loved her. They were will- ing in their responses, even the “Pest,” a well grown lad of nine who sat right under Mrs. Spencer’s desk, and did extremely well under the circumstances. : The circumstances of course were the necessity of sitting as docilely as possible in one seat for hours at a time and letting Mrs. Spencer assign the work, and not only assign it, but for the most part do all the talking about it and all the deciding as to when one job should end and another begin. To be sure, she did it all in the friendliest way imaginable, with a good deal of understanding of the willingness of children to cooperate in almost any enterprise if only you assume that they will. The room itself was friendly, large and sunny, with big windows to the rear and the left, giving one a wide expanse of sky and a spreading city below. If forty-two active, restless boys and girls must perforce sit quietly by the hour and listen te abstractions, they could scarce have chosen a moré cheerful place. There were flowering plants in boxes at the windows, and the lower sashes of thé windows were gay with silhouette drawings mad¢ by the children. The same gay frieze of birds THE “BEST” OF SCHOOL MORNINGS 23 and black cats ran over the clothes closet whose loors were covered with a quantity of little prints ind placards: “factors,” “units,” “numerator,” “denominator,” “mixed number.” On the supply iloset doors were the Declaration of Independ- mee, a lengthy notice in fine print from the American Legion, concerning Our Flag—How to Jisplay It; How to Respect It, and the roll of ocal members of the American Junior Red Cross. Jn a blackboard was written, “I shall pass hrough this world but once. Any good thing herefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can how to any human being, let me do it now. Let ne not defer it, nor neglect it, for I shall not lass this way again.” Over the front board was nother placard, “Self Control.” This was evidently the class slogan, for every low and again Mrs. Spencer would pause and ‘oint to it half humorously, “Up nice and straight nd tall, everybody,” her voice would be ever so ‘ood-natured, “and let’s all of us exercise—” _“Self-control!’ the class would answer with qual good humor. _ An arithmetic lesson was beginning as we en- red. Mrs. Spencer turned from the Ohio boy 2a little miss who sat staring at her finished sum nth lines of deep worry in her face. “Good for you, Helen. That’s just right— | | 24 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD you didn’t know you were so smart.’’ Helen’s look of worry dissolved into a smile. “Little helpers to the board,’ Mrs. Spencer an- nounced, “George, Edith, Fred, Gertrude, each take two children who need helping.” A dozen children ranged themselves around the room grouped in threes. “Begin at page IOI in your) books, and start with the first example. You others in your seats, begin at page 115, example 4. Yes, you may talk to one another about your work,”’ A little buzz ran over the room. There were two grades in the class, Mrs. Spen- cer explained to the visitor, fifteen bright chil- dren from 4a and twenty-seven dull ones from 4b. Both groups were now ready to enter 5a, the bright pupils having done two terms’ work in one. Mrs. Spencer was using these bright chil- dren as coaches for the slower ones. The plan worked admirably, and gave her a chance to pay more individual attention to those not being coached. It was impossible to give much indi- vidual help when one had forty-two children at once. Many of them were serious problems, sent to her because she knew how to deal with them. She never nagged, but tried instead to understand | what lay behind a child’s behavior. ' } She consulted her watch. “The coaching pe- riod is over,” she announced. “To your seats.” THE “BEST” OF SCHOOL MORNINGS 25 “There is one example we all need to talk about,” she said, as the children settled them- selves. “Thirty-seven and one-half minus twen- ty-five and one-fifth.” She wrote it on the board. “Who can give me the least common denomina- tor? Fanny? I called on you because you weren't paying attention. Well, then, Sam, you tell us. Ten, that’s right. Now then, Sam, what do we—oh, I hope you know it—what do we do next?” But Sam stood helplessly at sea. A girl suggested the next step. “Oh, dear,’ sighed Mrs. Spencer, “‘there’s a girl here named Sam.” But for all the help proffered, Sam was unable to complete the sum without prodigious prodding. _ “The arithmetic period is over. Keep your papers in your books. Your homework is ex- ample 2 on page 114: 117,799 divided by 3,648. How do we prove an example in division? We mult is “Multiply the divisor by the quotient,” said the class in unison. “We are smart to-day. Stephen, what seems to be the trouble?” ' Stephen, the “Pest,” jerked his head back at the girl behind him. “She keeps sticking her feet into my back,” he complained. “Oh, dear, how dreadful! Such little tiny | : | . : ! 26 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD feet going right through a big thick bench right into your big strong back! I suppose you are too seriously hurt to go to Mr. Hazen’s room and fetch me the map of Asia. You're not? Well, and you, David, go and get the map of Europe from Miss Flynn.” Both boys had reached the door as though shot from a gun. “Remember to say ‘Please.’” Mrs. Spencer turned to the class. “Always be——’” “Polite,” they responded. “Yes, always be polite, it’s worth while, you'll find. Up tall—stretch up—deep breath—out— that’s better. While we’re waiting for the maps, I want Sarah, George, Walter and Dominick to come up front and recite each a verse of ‘Wood- man, Spare That Tree!’ ” The children ran through the poem with no particular circumstance, save for Sarah, a heavy fat girl who intoned the third stanza with deep emotion. “Sarah, you were just wonderful!” applauded Mrs. Spencer. “You recited with so much ex- pression, it made my heart go pitta-pat. “Take out your geographies, and turn to the map of Asia. Page 185. “Henry, what is Asia?’ “Asia—Asia—’”’ stammered the uncertain Henry. THE “BEST” OF SCHOOL MORNINGS 27 “Class ?” “Asia is a continent.” “Well, what is the meaning of continent, Elsie?” “A continent is the largest division of land.” “Right, when I talk about a continent, what do I mean? I mean land.” Stephen returned with the map of Asia and swung it deftly into place over the board. He lingered over the job of straightening it, hating to relinquish even so slight an activity for the detestable business of sitting still. Ore won- dered how much he would have been regarded as a “Pest” if he might have ranged at will through a science laboratory, or spent his excess energies in a school carpentry shop or printing room in- stead of spending hours at a desk. ) “Thank you, Stephen, it looks fine. Take the pointer, and show us the coast-line. Not so fast. What do I mean by coast-line? Right. -And from the kind of coast-line that Asia has, what do you think Asia is good for? T’Il ask Edna to answer me. To your seat, Stephen.” The questions ran on with their perfunctory answers. “Tell me what you can about the ex- ‘treme northern part. The coldest part of the world. Right. What about this,” pointing to the Tropic of Cancer. “Cold,” said one child, / : 28 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD “Hot,” said another. “Who said ‘Hot’? He was right. Point to the Ural Mountains.” Three children tried it in vain. For all Mrs. Spen- cer’s warmth and zeal, the class could not find Asia interesting. | “Hang Asia over the back board and we'll re- . view Europe.” At least six boys leaped from their seats to remove the map of Asia and hang | Europe in its place. ay “T want the Caucasian Mountains, I want the Bay of Biscay. Name five countries of Europe. | .’? But even Europe in review had no at- | tractions. Mrs. Spencer looked at her watch | again. 7 “Why, it’s way past time for crackers and | milk.’ A dozen hands waved wildly. Two boys were selected to fetch the milk. | “While we’re waiting, who can tell me the name of that pretty little picture over there?” Mrs. Spencer indicated a print. “Dance of the | Nymphs.’ Right, Sarah.” | “Who remembers the artist?’ She wrote! Corot on the board. J “What hour of the day is weal depicted in : his pictures? Early morning or twilight. And | what is there about Corot’s pictures that makes them great? Every great artist, children, has | THE “BEST” OF SCHOOL MORNINGS 29 ‘something about his pictures that makes them great. And Corot’s is what?” _ “He leaves something to your imagination,” declared Sarah. _ “Right,” affirmed Mrs. Spencer. “Now, we have only five minutes for crackers and milk. “We'll have to hurry,” Mrs. Spencer appeared to regret the end of recess as much as any one, “but it’s time for writing. Monitors pass the papers. Every one up, nice and straight and tall, and do your very best. Write your names. Don’t forget to end with an upward stroke. Two or three forgot about the upward stroke last time. It’s just as bad as coming to school with your clothes unbuttoned or your necktie off. Write these words.” She wrote a number of words on the board: mountain, camp, August, glove, song, thumb, it- self. “Do your very best. We have only a week or two more before promotion day.” A shiver ran over the class. Two or three girls covered their faces with their hands. Mrs. Spencer erased the words. “Who can spell August? John?” “August: A-u-g-u-s-t, August,” said John quickly, 30 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD “What was wrong? Dora?” “August: capital A-u-g-u-s-t, August,” de- clared Dora. “Right. Time for reading. And we are go- ing to exchange readers with Miss Flynn’s class.” There were little murmurs of delight. “So we shan’t use our own readers to-day, but instead, let’s act out one of the stories. Let’s do the Mad Tea Party. Who remembers it best?’ Four children were chosen. The playlet went off admirably, the little girl who impersonated Alice, looking exactly like her. “Fine. You were all good,’ Mrs. Spencer de- clared. “Now we'll have a language game. Why do we have language games?” Nobody appeared to know. “To teach us to speak correct English,” said Mrs. Spencer, “al- ways know the reason, children, for what you do. Now I shan’t select anybody who isn’t sit- ting up very nice and tall and straight. And look here, young man, when I need any assistance from: you Dll ask for it. Too many feet sticking out in this aisle. Under your desks. That’s right. We'll play the ‘It Is game. Edna, you may choose.” All the children hid their faces in their hands, while Edna flew down the aisle, touching this one and that. The “Pest” squirmed miserably. THE “BEST” OF SCHOOL MORNINGS 31 _ Another child called the names. As each child ‘was called, he rose and answered, “No, it was not I whom the Fairy touched,” or “Yes” as “he case might be. The ‘Pest’ extended his arms n utter disgust. “Stephen,” Mrs. Spencer was quite amicable, “I need change for three dollars in dimes to settle our arrangements for seeing Peter Pan. You just run to your father’s store and get them or me.” Stephen immediately straightened up ind left the room with an air of solemn respon- sibility. “We'll have a drill game on the word bring,” Mrs. Spencer told the class. The game ended the morning. The children sat passively enough as the successive gongs ‘ounded. They were well-trained and they knew hat Mrs. Spencer wanted things to go through in order. ' “We'll have the girls choose the best looking voy to escort our visitor back to the principal’s iffice, ” said Mrs. SpenCer. “And we hope she ‘as enjoyed her morning.” } | IV SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT I ACCORDING to a widely current doctrine, there is and must always be a division of labor be- tween the public and the private schools. The private school may undertake extended experi- ments. It is free, within wide limits to teach such subjects as seem promising, by such meth- ods as appear hopeful. The public school, be- ing essentially bureaucratic, may adopt only the subjects and methods that seem to have a virtual certainty of success. The function of the private school, according to this view, is to probe all things. That of the public school is to hold fast that which is good, or if not good, at least gen- erally acceptable. There is much justice in these observations. Yet it will not do to press too far the distinction between private and public school. The former is not so free nor the latter so bureaucratic as we usually assume. The public schools, in spite 32 SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT a9 £ the handicaps of inadequate staff, congested ildings, political interference, do occasionally ispond to the spirit of educational progress. In Tew York City, where these handicaps are natu- ally more serious than in smaller cities we never- aeless find significant educational experiments, artly under direct official supervision and guid- ‘ace, and partly with the encouragement and ap- ‘oval of the supervisory staff. These experi- tents range in thoroughness from mere regrad- ig and regrouping of children to radical de- ‘artures from that most sacred of all school tra- ‘itions—the course of study. ' One of the most remarkable of educational ex- eriments is now being carried through by Miss “lisabeth Irwin, under joint public and private ‘uspices. Miss Irwin herself is employed by ae Public Education Association, but her staff, ‘xcept the teacher of music, are public school ‘sachers, and the classes are officially a part of "blic School 61, and under the supervision of fhe Department of Education. Dr. George M. %arker of the Psychiatrist Research Foundation ‘nd three associates are also connected with the “xperiment. ' The work started February, 1923, with one ‘undred children who had attended school for one erm. They are now ending their third year and : 34 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD their number will be augmented each term by another group of beginners. It is Miss Irwin’s hope to carry these children up to the junior high school, adding new children to fill the lower grades each term. Her classes are of three types: bright, normal, and dull-normal. A class for neurotic children was dropped after the second year. Mental defectives are excluded, since they are already fairly well provided for in the public schools. Preliminary psychological and psychia- tric examinations determine in what class each child enters. He is later shifted from one group to another as his needs require. Except for the normal class, Miss Irwin has greatly reduced the scope of formal work in the three R’s. It is her belief that children at this age—between six and nine—require physical ex- ercise, a chance to develop the larger muscles, sensory training in the free use of appropriate materials, clay, wood, sand, color, weaving, plants: and the like. She has got rid of immovable school desks, blackboards, etc. In the beginners’ room, she has provided little wicker easy chairs, tables suited to small statures, work-benches, a type: writer, low shelves containing playthings, flowers | and even a miniature zoo. | This intimate and natural atmosphere i is in Miss) Irwin’s opinion a first requisite in education. The) SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT 35 hild, she says enters school from an intensely ersonal background. Everything up to that ime has been done in response to appeals from mamma” or “papa.” At the age of six or seven e dashes into a great public building with two rt three thousand other children. “He is fitted ito a slit between a bench and a desk in a room rith fifty others. He must stand up and sit down ith them upon command. He learns to shout in lorus certain responses to certain symbols on ie blackboard. . . . When a bell rings he goes 1; when two bells ring, he goes out. If the bells ing long and loud and unexpectedly, he soon ‘arns that that is a fire-drill and everybody hur- es out on the street and the principal shouts lings to the teacher. So this is school . . .”? In contrast, Miss Irwin’s classrooms are places here children are given an opportunity to gain «perience at first hand, freely and naturally. here is no need she thinks of hurrying along te teaching of symbols. Any normal child will arn to read before he is ten, if he is exposed » books by those who value them. There is no 3e torturing an imaginative child of six or seven ith a dull reading routine. No child, however, too young to begin the study of literature. 1“Personal Education,” by Elisabeth Irwin, The New Re- ‘blic, Educational Section, Nov. 12, 1924. 36 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD “Mother Goose rhymes, folk tales, stories 0! every day life begin to interest a child during hi: second year and from then on he will take al he can get. Because he is not taught reading a’ an early age is no reason to skimp his fund o! imaginative material.”* Similarly with writ ing. In Miss Irwin’s opinion, which she hold: in common with many other educators and psy chologists, nothing is gained and very much {| lost by insistence on the child’s learning to writ at an early age. No child under eight should bi expected to form letters less than a foot high and even then no high standard of perfectior should be imposed. The nerve strain is to¢ severe. Yet as they become necessary, the three R’ are adequately learned. Miss Irwin tells a stor) of a mother who was distressed because her sevet years old George could not write, although hi had been in school a term and a half. The fam ily was about to move uptown, and the mothe! feared for George’s standing in a traditiona school. “Never mind, we’ll teach him to writ before you move,” Miss Irwin assured her. “Bu we go next Monday,” moaned the mother. “Weil teach him,” Miss Irwin repeated. And they dic 2“Fitting the School to the Child,” by Elisabeth Tews and Louis Marks, The Macmillan Company, 1924. t | j | SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT a7 -in two days! Mrs. Marietta Johnson has poken of children’s “bursting into literacy.” omething of the sort happened to this boy. _ The daily program in Miss Irwin’s rooms bears ttle resemblance to that of the traditional school. ‘here is none of that quick regimentation of chil- ten into docile, silent rows a few moments after te morning bell has sounded. It is to be doubted hether Miss Irwin’s children ever conventionally settle down.” In a recent article she has de- tibed how they come together in the morning. hey enter the room naturally and easily. One 1ild may run up to inspect the fish and superin- nd their breakfast; another may lovingly linger rer his loom and ne small rug in process of eaving; a half dozen with no suggestion from e teacher begin to arrange chairs in a semi- tele: The children talk as they come together. ‘ve minutes, ten minutes pass. The teacher ap- ars quite unperturbed. She could of course, by clap of her hands, call the class to order and ve these passing minutes. But save them for aat? For her own, or the children’s purposes ? “After all a child’s life is made of time. One _the realities the modern school has to accept that a child’s tempo is different from an adult’s. »0 much speeding up is a violation of the prin- le of growth, Therefore tempering the pace / ti I ! 38 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD of a child’s day to his rate of movement is < necessity for which one must sacrifice the num. ber of activities he can undertake.” * But finally, in ten minutes or so—to returr to the first period of the day—the children ar: seated, and “Oral English” begins. Or rathe the youngsters begin to talk things over. Miss Irwin places great emphasis on the valu: to the child of learning to talk. She repudiate; utterly the traditional rule, “children should bi seen, not heard.” The taboo on children’s talk ing in the conventional class room has worked s¢ injuriously that “even when they are released t the playground, their communication with on another consists almost entirely of nudges, shout: and monosyllables.”” Miss Irwin’s children dis cuss neighborhood and family events, persona exploits or failures, what they saw at their las expedition to the Museum or to the docks. Thi group sits about informally, discussing natural; as any group will do. There is none of that pain ful silence which marks so many attempts at clas: room conversation when a child, at a signal fron the teacher, rises awkwardly, says something in j stereotyped fashion and then hastily sits down. Following the discussion period, there ma} be an hour of work in reading or arithmetic 3 New Republic, Nov. 12, 1924. y | SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT 39 since the gifted children demand these subj jects— ‘argely because of pressure on the part of their arents. After that comes a half hour of music, dancing, rhythm, simple instruments and_ then olay. The afternoon is devoted entirely to free \ctivities. Children may choose to read, to write, 0 work with hammer, typewriter, weaving, paint- ng, blocks, to run errands on behalf of some lass activity, go on expeditions, and the like. Each class has its own “project” about which nost of its group activities center. Once a week ‘me class entertains the rest by an assembly pe- iod devoted to their particular project. The hildren plan and execute the entire performance. “he projects selected for one term were Indians y the gifted group, a store by the normal, short lays by the dull, and a circus by the neurotic lass. The Indians dressed in costume, and con- cructed a large wigwam, a real tom-tom, and ther Indian paraphernalia fashioned after mod- Ss in the Museum. They made Indian books and atered i in them notes on Indian lore and custom. "Academic work has only recently been begun 7 the dull class, but the emphasis is placed upon ‘amatic exercises, upon music and work with terials, color, drawing, shellacking, etc. The ‘inciple underlying Miss Irwin’s work with the ul group is that ordinary academic training for 40 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD such children limits rather than helps them. It pushes them into classes “where they are des- tined always to be at the tail end . . . If we were to analyze 1,000 school children who are social and educational misfits, the great majority of them would certainly be founa to belong to this group. The truants, the hold-overs, the discipli- nary cases are preponderantly of the dull-normal type.” * Miss Irwin does not despair of children of this sort. Given an appropriate training, there is a great variety of useful and agreeable occupa- tions open to them. ‘To try instead to force them through a training for which they are not fitted is to inflict signal injury upon them. The neurotic class was conducted on the as- sumption that naughtiness and misbehavior are therapeutic rather than moral problems. These children were made the subject of special care and treatment by Dr. Parker and his associates, who gave advice as to both their school and extra- school activities. | The class for neurotic children was important not only because it attempted to salvage lives that would otherwise be thwarted and socially wasted, but also because of the light the work shed on the education of normal children. Much has been 4“Fitting the School to the Child,” by Elisabeth Irwin and Louis Marks, The Macmillan Company. 1924. SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT 4I learned about the intelligence of normal children from watching the training of those mentally de- fective. Similarly, much may be discovered about normal emotional development through work with children suffering from neuroses and fears. ‘We have learned from the neurotic child,” Miss Irwin says, “to what a startling degree the emotional status of an individual conditions his future func- tioning. Yet the school throughout its history has ignored the feeling life of the individual as some- thing outside its province. . . . Perhaps the great hope of the future of education lies in the fact that so far as we know the emotional life of the in- dividual may be infinitely educated.’ ® _ It is perhaps too early to draw definite con- lusions from Miss Irwin’s experiment. Even as regards achievement in the formal school sub- jects, the experiment should not be subjected to comparison with traditional classes, since few ichievement tests are valid under the fourth grade. Years of work must be done before we can know certainly what kind of training best fits each Yroup, or even how permanent the group limits re. We cannot doubt however that Miss Irwin .§ on the track of an educational reform of im- Nense importance. How free a hand she will be | 5 See note, p. 40. 42 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD given by the public authorities to develop the experiment still remains to be seen. How many other classes similar in organization will be per- mitted in other sections of the city is also an open question. The physical difficulties, the large classes, the lack of money are not the barriers that stand in the way. The real obstacles are in the minds of certain of the supervising staff. “They do not believe,” writes Miss Irwin, “that the physical and emotional demands of children are valid. And so the schools grind on, impart- ing information, instilling morals and preparing children for a future life.” ° It : Equally radical experiments with public school classes have been made for a number of years by Professor Ellsworth Collings, now of the University of Oklahoma. The first of Professor Collings’ experiments was conducted by him fot four years in a rural elementary school in Mont- gomery County, Missouri, and has been describe by him in his book, “An Experiment with a Project Curriculum” (The Macmillan Company). At present he is experimenting with junior hig! school classes in the practice school of the depart- “+6 New Republic, Nov. 12, 1924. SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT 43 tment of education of the University of Oklahoma. In both experiments, Professor Collings com- pletely abandoned the usual educational aims and methods. His concern is not to teach subjects tor to be guided by any course of study. His zim is to help boys and girls to pursue their own ictivities better and more fruitfully. The content of the school activities is made up of these in- ‘erests, the curriculum being constantly made “on che spot” by pupil and teacher in conference. jponcretely, the children engage in innumerable ‘nterprises, which fall naturally into four groups: ay, excursion, story and hand projects (in the more recent experiment a fifth group has been idded »—skill projects). These projects include rames, folk dancing, dramatizations, and social varties ; studies of community activities and prob- ems; stories in all their forms, oral, song, pic- ‘ures and music; shop and construction work, ‘aking furniture, growing vegetables, preparing ‘chool luncheons. ‘In Missouri, Professor Collings kept current ‘heck of the proficiency gained in formal subjects 1 the experimental school, as well as in two chools following the traditional course of study. “he tests at the end of four years showed the xperimental school far in the lead. Not only did 1e children master the three R’s more thoroughly, 44 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD but there were other gains as well. Enrollment and attendance rose to a point well nigh perfect; tardiness and punishment dropped to practically) zero, high school entrants increased, while in all these respects the traditional schools maintained their former low level. Moreover the experimen- tal school reacted favorably on the community. | More and better periodicals, more and better books found their way into the homes, farm and home, conveniences were installed, illness from prevent- | able diseases decreased. As Professor Kilpatrick points out in his introduction to the book, “It, can no longer be said that the theory won’t work. It has worked. A régime of child purposing is’ feasible. We can lay aside school subjects as such and succeed—and succeed admirably.” The present experiment of Professor Collings | is being carried on with sixty junior high school pupils, twenty in each of the three years. The! students are classified on the basis of their 1.Q.,| school achievement and physical development.) Five rooms are provided, each equipped not for a/ given subject, but for a special type of activity, | which follows most closely the interests of the boys and girls. i “The CuTTACHA writes Professor Collings i in : a letter to us, “is a project curriculum in every re-_ spect and is organized entirely around the natu-_ SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT 45 ral projects of boys and girls. The traditional ‘school organization is completely ignored. _The ‘function of the curriculum, we believe, is to fur- ‘ther the continuous growing of junior high school ‘boys and girls at their time, and in their measure. ‘We have excursion projects, or purposeful study of community problems, because exploration of ‘their own and other people’s environment is a normal phase of their expanding life. We have ‘story projects, in their various forms, dramatiza- 'tion, story telling, reading, because at this age, it is almost impossible to supply the demand for stories. Of course play projects are a vital part of their interests. The more vigorous and chal- lenging the play, the more it appeals to them. Football, base ball, basket ball, all forms of ath- letics, as well as dancing, singing, etc., are al- ‘ways popular. And of course young people like ‘to make things; hence our hand projects in wood, metal, leather, repair jobs, cooking, sewing and the like. Finally we have discovered that this age ‘enjoys mastering a technique or skill, running ‘a typewriter well, playing a musical instrument, ‘learning how to debate. - “No attempt is made to teach any of the tra- ditional subjects as such. The pupils choose, plan, ‘execute and judge their own activities under the ‘guidance of the teachers. They budget their own * 46 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD time. The daily schedule is of course extremely flexible.” The experiment has not progressed far enough to yield statistical results, but it is significant that Professor Collings is not proposing to apply the conventional standardized tests to measure the amount of information or skill acquired. Pro-| fessor Collings literally does not care whether or not a youngster can memorize a given alge- braic formula, or a row of historical facts.7 What he wants to know is how far has a school like the present one succeeded in changing the chil- dren’s conducts in their own “life acts.” How much better can they initiate, choose, understand their purposes, how much more intense and per- sistent is their drive, how much more skilled are 7To what absurd lengths teachers will go in attempting’ to force their pupils to memorize totally useless material is well illustrated in the following suggestions made in all seriousness in a recent school publication in New York City: : MNEMONICS IN History : The present tendency in history teaching is to stress” thought and minimize memory training. But thought must | be based on facts, and memory is a storehouse of facts. It is a problem for the history teacher to get his pupils to. memorize even a minimum number of facts. It is sometimes amusing to a teacher to read the accounts of students who have garbled the facts they should have memorized. Mne- monic devices are frequently effective in memorizing ess sentials. For instance, in studying the military exploits of the Duke of Marlborough, a pupil will delight in the combina- tion BROM, formed of the initials of the battles of Blen- heim, Ramillet, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet. In studying the Intercolonial Wars it is helpful to remember that the SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT 47 ley in initiating, choosing and evaluating the 1eans to a given end, how much more thorough _ their execution, how much better is their initia- on, choice, evaluation of improvement, etc. hese are the points noted in his scale, and these “€ measurements he is applying not only to the iildren in the experimental classes, but also to group in the city schools of Norman, Oklahoma, ho are pursuing the conventional high school ork, To our way of thinking, Professor Collings’ ‘periment is a most significant contribution to lucation. A school which sets children free to irsue purposes that have meaning and value to m, in the pursuit of which they gain in power | initiate, to judge, to discriminate, to improve, ‘dto press forward to ever expanding purposes, tials of (King) William’s, (Queen) Anne’s and (King) ‘orge’s Wars form the word WAG, and that the French 1 Indian War was the fourth of the series. In considering + work of the Holy Alliance it is interesting to note that ‘ssia, Austria, and Prussia were ready to RAP all revolu- ‘aary uprising. Another pleasant way of remembering is the use of al- ration. For instance, in the settlement of the colony of orgia the student learns that four groups of people were | Saale the Preachers, the Patriots and the Profit- kers. “n trying to learn the order of presidential succession this Abination of the initials of the cabinet offices is helpful : + WAPNIACL., ; ‘ “his article is meant to be only suggestive of mnemoniac ‘sibilities in history. Each teacher can devise his own -ibinations to aid the students in memory work. ‘ | . | ' | ) | 48 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD is providing a basis for real growth, and the ac quisition of the real values of life. Below are a number of representative project worked out by the children: } 1. Story Projects. The children themselve dramatized the following stories: . Silas Marner . Courtship of Miles Standish . An Indian Legend Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch Grandmother’s Wedding The Flower Fairies . Hoosier Schoolmaster . Pioneer Life of Grandfather . Tom Sawyer 10. Penrod 11. Chester Gump 12. King Lear 13. Miss Minerva and William Green 14. Huckleberry Finn 15. Penrod and Sam 16. Seventeen (Tarkington) 17. Money, Money (Tarkington), etc. 2. Excursion Projects. Lectures, essays, an other accounts were given by the childre following these excursions and investigé tions : . How Iten Biscuits are made . How Norman gets its water _ How the Daily Oklahoman is published . How the Ford is assembled . How Norman is governed 0 CON AnAWNH mBRWN 4 SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT 49 . How James is tried in the Juvenile Court . How Norman spends its dollar . How Merit makes our bread . How Mr. Smith runs his bank . How Mr. James makes our flour . How the Wendell Company makes choco- late candy . How our homes are protected from fire . How our homes are lighted by the Okla- homa City Power Plant - How Mr. Leach runs his dairy . How the Sunshine Home cares for children . How the Oklahoma City Ice Plant makes our ice . How Mr. Thompson runs our historical museum. . How Mr. Lewis gins cotton . How the Wilson Packing Company pre- pares our meat, etc. ‘Hand Pro jects: COON ANR WhrH . How we prepared our luncheon party . How Sam made his radio How John removed the water from our aquarium How Willie made his aeroplane How Mary made her cooking apron . How Lillie made her house rug . How Bill made his library table How Fannie made her jewel box . How Sarah made her leather hand bag . How Jane made her flower basket . How Thomas made his hall tree . How Lula made her Easter dress . Skill Products: . Cartooning Club . Poster Club . How James repaired his phonograph . How Mary made her Indian blanket . How Margaret made her table scarf . How Lillie made her boudoir cap . How Bob upholstered his rocking chair . How Fannie made her Indian moccasins . How Jennie made her card case . How George made his puttees . How Christine made her Indian basket . How Jane made her serving tray . How William made his nut bowl . How Susie made her Indian vase . How Celia made her Egyptian bowl . How Reta made her Valentine cards . How Lorena made her painting of Snow: OUR ENEMY THE CHILD bound, etc. Sign Painting Club Illustrator Club Sketch Club . Reading Club . Debating Club . Public Speaking Club . Good English Club . Folk Dancing Club . Pep Club . Orchestra Club . Violin Club . Boys’ Glee Club | . Girls’ Glee Club { . Folk Song Club SOME SCHOOLS ARE DIFFERENT SI 17. Operetta Club ‘18. Costume Designing Club Ig. First Aid Club 20. Camp Craft Club 21. Watch Your Step Club 22. Parliamentary Club 23. Handwriting Club 24. Spelling Club 25. Typewriting Club 26. Social Etiquette Club 27. Piano Club : 28. Short Story Club 29. Puzzle Club, etc. “Play Projects: . Tennis . Football . Basket ball Volley ball Track . Baseball . Boxing . Tumbling —g. Wrestling Io. Swimming 11. Hiking 12. Skating 13. Indoor baseball ‘14. Balloon ball 15. Ball Push 16. Dodgeball 17. Easter Party 18. Hallowe’en Party Ig. Valentine Party, etc. RORY SOW Ore V BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING To laymen, to parents particularly, the ov standing contribution of modern psychological r search is the emphasis placed on the early yea of childhood. These years, it is now general agreed, are by far the most important of the e: tire life span, emotionally and mentally, as wi as physically. Some authorities go so far as claim that the main patterns of the future pe sonality are already fixed by the end of the secox year. ‘We believe,” says Dr. Watson, the b havior psychologist, “that by the end of the se ond year the pattern of the future is already la down. Many things which go into the making « this pattern are under the control of the parent but they have not been made aware of them. T! question as to whether the child will possess stable or unstable personality, whether it is gi ing to be timid and subject to rages and tantrum whether it will exhibit tendencies of general ovi or under emotionalism, and the like, has alreac 52 BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING 53 en answered by the end of the two year pe- ‘hee * Psychoanalysis reveals many instances where vere emotional shocks experienced during the st years have produced serious maladjustments later life. Dr. Watson in describing the meth- {used by him in instilling the fear of a white t in an eight-months-old baby, added that he lieved it highly probable that the child’s fear ' the animal would always persist, unless it uld be overcome by some stronger counter emo- on. Similar fears and emotional states are daily eated in babies at the hands of well—or ill— tentioned parents or nursemaids. These laboratory conclusions are now beginning be reflected in the field of social endeavor. The by is no longer regarded merely as the “young imal” portrayed in the mother’s manual whose velopment is completely served by proper diet, oper sleep and proper airing periods. Problems ' milk, teeth, rickets, adenoids, weight, con- gious diseases are important, but so are ques- ys of mental hygiene, emotional and social bits and personality traits. The habit clinic t the correction of behavior. disorders is sup- 1 “Studies in Infant Psychology,” by Dr. John B. Watson id Rosalie Rayner Watson, Scientific Monthly, December, 21, p. 404. 54 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD plementing the infants’ milk depot, and in Massa- chusetts is a regular part of the State Health De partment. Not only research bureaus of leadin universities like Columbia, Yale and Harvard, bui also leading organizations, such as the Americat Child Health Association, the American Associa tion of University Women, and the Americat Federation of Women’s Clubs are making pre-school age a subject of special study and in vestigation, and nursery schools, both under thei auspices and that of progressive educational int stitutions are multiplying rapidly.’ At the same time doctors and scientific met generally are reminding us that little is known 0 the capacities, needs and norms of children beloy school age. Even their physical requirement have been overlooked. As Dr. Arnold Gesell 0 Yale tells us, the period below school age exceed all others in mortality and morbidity. Of all th deaths in the country, over one-third are thos of children below six years. Most of the physi 2 Miss Harriet Johnson, director of the Nursery School : the New York Bureau of Educational Experiments, and of of the pioneers in the movement, has recently obtained # formation from some thirty-six nursery schools all over country. Data were secured by means of a questionnait and related to such matter as fundamental objective whether child welfare or research, affiliations with chil welfare or educational organizations, kind of occupatior and equipment, the training of teachers, and nature of “ search, if carried on. BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING 55 il, as well as mental defects of school children tiginate in the pre-school years. A table pub- shed by the New York City Bureau of Child Tygiene, based on a study of 1,061 children be- veen four and six, and on 243,416 examinations f£ school children, revealed that the younger chil- ten uniformly had a larger percentage of physi- il defects than the older ones. These defects tcluded hypertrophied tonsils, defective nasal teathing, malnutrition, defective teeth, pulmo- ary and cardiac troubles, nervous disorders, or- lopedic defects. Dr. Gesell quotes figures to iow that a large proportion of all cases of blind- 8ss occur in these first years, three-fourths of te deafness, one-third of the crippled and fully ghty percent of the speech defects. Practically very case of mental deficiency and an important soup of mental disorders, the psycho-neuroses, + well as border-line conditions, may all go back + very early childhood. Society might be saved any incompetents by paying proper attention to e earliest abnormalities of childhood.® In order that abnormalities may be easily recog- zed, it is necessary that we should more gen- ally know how children normally develop. If e early years are of such fundamental im- The Pre-School Child: from the Standpoint of Public ygiene and Education,” Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1923. 56 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD portanice, it is vital for us to have precise knowl- edge of how children grow, and what influences and conditions make for the best development. Recently three studies have been published which throw light on this relatively unexplored field. One investigation was made by Dr. Gesell, who for six years surveyed systematically the ordinary and normal behavior of children from birth through five years of age.* Another study was made by Drs. Baldwin and Stecher of the Child Welfare Research Station of the University of Iowa, who observed and tested 105 children over a period of from one to three years in the labora- tory nursery school of the university. The third report was made by Dr. Buford Johnson, for- merly psychologist of the New York Bureau of Educational Experiments, who based the major part of five years’ study on the children in the Nursery School of the Bureau and the City and Country School affiliated with it.° The findings of all these reports are offered tentatively and should be so accepted, especially by lay workers. Dr. Gesell’s observations which represent a be- havior study of first importance are presented not 4“The Mental Life of the Pre-School Child,” by Arnold Gesell, The Macmillan Company, 1924. 5 “The Psychology of the Pre-School Child,” by sh T, Baldwin, and Lorle I. Stecher, D. Appleton & Co, 6“Mental Growth of Children, ” by Buford J. ’ Johnson, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1925. BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING 57 ‘only with scientific precision, but with much hu- ‘man insight as well. Such homely—and thrilling -—facts as when the baby first splashes in his bath, ‘when he first holds his head erect, when he rolls ‘over from back to stomach, when he first tries to ‘stand, to creep, to walk, to bang with a spoon, all these overt evidences of development have been placed in their appropriate points in an ascending ‘scale. “A man,” says Dr. Gesell, “may be as old ‘as his arteries, but an infant is as old as his be- havior. In the very nature of things an infant ‘can do neither more nor less than the maturation and organization of his behavior patterns permit. ‘An interpretation of developmental status in re- lation to chronological age and personal-social en- vironment is the diagnostic basis for safeguarding the mental welfare of the pre-school child.’’ Fifty normal children were tested and observed just after birth and at 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months of age. The results were codified into a set of schedules containing in all as many as 150 items. These items were grouped under ‘four main headings: motor, language, personal- ‘social (social experience and personality traits), adaptive behavior (general capacity to exploit the environment or to adjust to imposed standards). Dr. Gesell had the wisdom not to make his items ‘into a fixed and inflexible psychometric scale. His 58 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD purpose was to devise an adjustable clinical in- strument, and he has already tested it out practi- cally in the Yale Psycho-Clinic with good results, He is careful however to warn his readers that this instrument will not operate automatically, ob- jective measurements must always be supple- mented by clinical judgment. “The problems of pre-school development are still so undefined and so complicated with possible medical factors that considerable clinical caution must be used in ap- plying norms and standards.” “A difference of two weeks or a month may make a great deal of difference in the score in the first year or two, particularly in the field of language. Delay in walking may be due to rickets, not to subnormal intelligence. Some children perhaps develop more by spurts than others. There are always indi- vidual differences.” Not the least interesting part of the study was the comparative observations of eight pairs of children, a four months versus a six months old baby, a six months versus nine months, and so on up to four years versus five years. Pedagogues and parents may well heed the comment at the end of these observations: ‘“The last examination pair were highly amenable when compared with their early predecessors. They would do our bidding; they would sit when we told them to BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING 59 ‘sit; they would await their turn; they would sur- render even a coveted toy; they would remain ‘quiet for a time exposure while being photo- graphed ;—what would they not do for us? We were left with a profound realization of their teachability. This realization was disquieting; it led us to think that we run a hygienic risk when the schools are permitted to overexploit this very teachability . __ The aim of Drs. Baldwin and Stecher was also to furnish tentative standards for measuring the physical and mental development of pre-school children. The children examined ranged in age from two to six years, and were divided into three ‘groups in attendance at the laboratory school. Dr. ‘Baldwin’s physical measurements are nationally known, and this last report contains new and use- ful material on physical growth, the first collec- ‘tion available of consecutive physical measure- ‘ments on any considerable number of pre-school children. _ Far less successful, so it seems to us, are the ‘Tesults of the psychological and mental tests. ‘Drs. Baldwin and Stecher are apparently inspired by the pedagogy of an older school. They are op- posed to letting the child “just grow” and be- lieve in a definite program to awaken wholesome interests and attitudes, and to insure normal 60 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD growth. This definite program, needless to say,| involves a good deal of old fashioned “training.” “Music is played for appreciation and the habit} is early established of listening quietly and not| indulging in activities of one’s own while music is going on.” “It is interesting to see that chil-| dren of the earlier ages have no conception of| what it means to keep in line behind one another.” “It is not possible to give the younger children | much idea of design either by form or color” (a' conclusion quite at variance with that of other) close observers of children). When presented with modeling clay, the children were completely | bewildered and “as with other material for con- | structive imagination, waited for the teachers to make something for them.” | Such an attitude must necessarily affect the re- | sults of any inquiry as to how children normally develop. Children in a non free environment’ easily succumb into passivity, or react to tests in a| negative or half hearted fashion, or else attempt’ to respond in the manner they think is expected of | them. Moreover the Iowa laboratory was frankly | an experiment station, the younger groups of | children stayed in it only one and a half hours | daily,—long enough to be tested, but scarcely long | enough to adjust naturally and freely. | _ Dr. Buford Johnson in her book does two things BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING 61 extremely well. She provides important data bearing on the vital relationship between physical growth and mental development and she makes sound and careful appraisal of the value of such tests as are available for measuring early mental capacity. Two tests, widely used throughout the country, the Binet-Simon tests (Stanford Re- vision) and the Pintner and Patterson scale of performance tests, she discovered to be inadequate for the extremes, the scores of young children especially being influenced by environmental training. She also concluded that children grow at different rates, and that hereditary tendencies affect the rate of growth and therefore the stage of development at a given chronological age. Less clinical, but none the less intensive obser- vations of young children are also being made in 4 growing number of nursery schools, notably in the Nursery School maintained by the New York Bureau of Educational Experiments, in the Mer- rill Palmer School in Detroit, in the nursery schools directed by Miss Patty Hill of Teachers College of Columbia University, and also in the tecently established Institute of Child Welfare Research of Teachers College, in the Ruggles Street Day Nursery in Boston, and in the Walden School in New York City. So rapidly is the Movement growing that already pressure is being 62 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD brought to bear on the public school authorities in various cities to extend their supervision to children of nursery school age. In England public control of nursery schools has long been an accomplished fact. The famous Fisher act of 1918 conferred on local education bodies power to establish schools for children over two and under five years of age. The movement has grown slowly, for despite the remarkable re- sults obtained by the schools established, public appropriations for all kinds of educational pur- poses in England have been drastically reduced, But through the devoted efforts of Margaret Mc- Millan and others, the schools in existence are extending their influence and are an indispensable part of the public educational system. Ina Board of Education memorandum, the functions of the nursery schools are stated to be, “first to provide the close personal care and medical supervision of the individual child, involving provision for its comfort, rest and suitable nourishment; and sec- ond, definite training, bodily, mental and social under the guidance and oversight of a skilled and intelligent leader, and the orderly association of children of various ages in common games and occupations. It (the school) is much more than’ a place for minding children . . . the influences which an adequate supply of efficiently managed| BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING 63 nursery schools could exercise upon both parents and children can hardly be over-estimated.” It is interesting also that a distinction is made in England between nursery schools and day nurseries. The latter are controlled by the Min- istry of Health, which has specifically stated that wherever possible children over three should at- tend nursery schools instead of day nurseries. The whole nursery school movement in Eng- land has been largely motivated by social con- siderations. It has been part of a general cam- paign against ignorance, poverty and neglect. To quote Margaret McMillan, “In our teeming streets, and crowded warrens there live and move nearly two millions of little children who have ao nursery but the streets, no playground but a dark court or a narrow and crowded room where 1 whole family lives and moves like birds in a sage. They suffer. They sink into ill health, into nental slackness or stupor. They fail as pro- lucers of wealth, as fathers and mothers, as citi- rens. And the state pays for them great sums ‘0 keep many of them in a wretched world.” | In America, the nursery school has been largely ised as a means of scientifically studying young hildren, and discovering what conditions best fos- “1 “The Nursery School in the Old Country,” by Margaret AcMillan, Progressive Education, Jan., 1925. 64 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD ter their development. Until recently, the children attending our nursery schools have been drawn mainly from homes of well to do and professional people, who have been interested in the scientific observation of children, and who have also re- alized that the nursery school was better organized to meet the needs of young children than the average home. For with the best of intentions, what can the average parent do to provide the necessary space, equipment and play material so vital to the earliest years? Even in the suburbs and small towns, practically no consideration is given in the construction of houses to the question of the needs of young children. Professor M. V. O’Shea of Wisconsin recently had a survey made of the houses of a mid-western city to find out whether in their building any thought had been given to the possibility of young children living in them; he discovered of course that the possi- bility had not affected the house plans in any way. The general attitude of the house owners was one of surprise that babies or runabouts need any special arrangements. | Yet when one considers what the natural ac tivities are of these early years, the inadequacy of the average home appears at once. How much running, sliding, jumping, climbing, throwing, pulling, swinging can a child of two or three do BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING 65 in the ordinary city flat, or tidy little house in a restricted residential block? What ambitious floor schemes for building houses, or laying tracks, Or constructing cities, can he carry out in a living room filled with adult furniture, how much un- hindered experimenting is he permitted with ham- mer, nails and saw, with paints, crayons, clay, beads and weaving materials which in the course of use are likely to become “messy” in unskilled hands? How much “bossing” must he submit to on the part of older brothers and sisters? How much over-solicitous or nagging attention does he teceive from his mother and other grown-ups about him? How much sheer vacuity falls to his lot—if he be city bred—aimless walking up and down a stony pavement, hand led by an indifferent furse who airs him by the clock? _ The nursery school at least attempts to provide a set-up suitable to the child’s own level. It or- linarily offers ample space, both indoors and out, arge play apparatus—slides, see-saw, ladders, big yacking boxes, swings, sandboxes, to afford him ‘ree use of the larger muscles and chance for whysical adventure—and also plenty of materials that can be put to creative use, blocks, wagons, yeads, clay, paints and toys of all kinds. A health- ‘ul regimen of play and rest is observed, and in hose schools which provide all-day care, question 66 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD of food and naps receive due attention. Many a child learns to eat spinach for the first time in the nursery school or to go to sleep promptly and independently at nap time. There are also certain more subtle advantages in the nursery school over the average home which are provided in greater or less degree. The child without being weaned entirely from his mother at least is freed from her sometimes too close supervision for several hours each day. He be- comes more self directing, less dependent on her approval or disapproval, more interested in doing things for their own sake, and not to get a re- sponse from her. The mother on the other hand, is apt to become more objective in her attitude towards her child when she observes him in a group of a dozen others of the same age, and notes how an expert, skilled in handling children meets situations as they arise. She may learn for the first time that coercion, sharp commands, expectation of instantaneous obedience, or undue emotional displays on her part are more serious in their effect on her child than feeding him the wrong kind of food, or permitting him to catch’ cold. Many an unfortunate personality trait in’ a youngster, such as excessive timidity, or pug-! nacity, or aggressiveness or unwillingness to co- operate, has been traced to faulty home condi-' BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING 67 ions and with patience and wise guidance has een made to disappear. Moreover the nursery school provides the most latural way for young children to associate with thers of their own age on equal terms. While hese social contacts must often be made grad- tally and the child, in the beginning at least, pro- ected from too violent or too stimulating asso- iation with his fellows, there is no question but that he gains immensely from such contacts. The Ssumption that children of this age are essentially ndividualistic is only partly true. Young chil- lren are far more social than adults have hith- rto appreciated and profit greatly from group ctivities, and free association with one another. f not regimented or forced into conventional aodes of behavior by the teacher, children can iften work themselves out of undesirable social elationships into desirable ones. To be sure a word of warning is not amiss in ‘ew of the over emphasis on socialization which me meets everywhere in current educational dis- ussion. Because modern social life has become o complex and the interdependence of human be- ags so diverse, we have come to believe that we hall somehow solve the problem by plunging chil- ren into social situations at the age of eighteen aonths. There may be value in a highly de- 68 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD veloped social being, in a person who knows how to get on with other people, but there is also su- preme value in the highly developed individual who knows how to get on with himself. The little child needs plenty of margin, plenty of leeway for the development of his personality. The jostling and hub-bub of other personalities about him have! their uses, but they are not as important as is claimed by some of the zealots in the movement. The socialization enthusiast is not the only one, of course. There is also the habit maker, the ped- agogue or supervisor who has got up in advance an inventory of desirable habits, which it is be- lieved that children should form, and sails into the nursery school room with score and note book to see whether or not they are being acquired. Many of these habits are really desirable, and chil- dren—if not coerced—will easily fall into them. Many others are entirely harmless, but others are both unchildlike and even of doubtful value. Why, for example, should a child of three or four be expected to “hold gate or door open for others,” to shake hands “voluntarily with any- one,” to “tell the truth” (what, may the three’ year old child ask, what is truth?), “wait hi turn willingly,” “stop crying when told to,” and so on through a long list of “social-moral” habits) contained in a recently concocted inventory by a) . i BEGINNING AT THE BEGINNING 69 graduate student of Teachers College, of Colum- bia University.® _ Another danger threatening the growing num- ‘ber of nursery schools is that they will be staffed and supervised by pedagogues of the old school, who will merely extend to children below four years, the repressive and dreary formalism that characterizes too many kindergartens and primary grades. “Educational” activities, stressed for wheir own sake, or to prove some fine spun theory are likely to prevail, or else the trivial and seden- vary occupations of the day nursery type. _ Fortunately, modern psychological research is /hrowing increasing light on the kind of environ- ment and activities necessary for sound growth. Jata is accumulating to show that children in a pirited, free and enriched environment test above he average both mentally and physically. Such »vidence must infallibly have its effect on nur- ‘ery school development, through the nursery chool on the kindergarten, and through the kin- /ergarten, on the grades above, socializers, habit lakers, and standardizers, notwithstanding. 8“A Tentative Inventory of the Habits of Children from -wo to Four Years of Age,” by Ruth Andrus, Ph.D. Pub- shed by Teachers College, Columbia University, New York ‘ity, 1924. . VI THE USES OF MENTAL TESTING Mucu water has run under the mill since a state superintendent of public instruction mounted the rostrum at a meeting of the National Educa- tion Association and thundered his denunciation of the proposed application of certain measuring scales to classroom work. “As well,” he stormed, “as well attempt to measure the divine afflatus of a mother’s love as to seek to apply scales and measuring rods to the subtle relationship between teacher and taught!’ Since then so prodigious has been the industry of scale makers and psychologists, that if the “divine afflatus’ has escaped measurement, it would seem as though it were through sheer ac- cident.* Scales are in the making or have been devised to measure all kinds of capacities and even such elusive qualities as will power, in- genuity, imagination, ambition and ability to ap “ preciate poetry. One student was seriously coun+ 1 It requires some 230 pages of fine print merely to list th tests and articles about tests in bulletin, 1923, No. 55 of the U. S. Bureau of Education. | 7O a THE USES OF MENTAL TESTING 71 seled by the psychological department of a large aniversity to essay working out a scale to meas- ire human success. It is doubtful if any other single subject has ever so engrossed the interest ind attention of schoolmen and psychologists as he reputed measurement of intelligence and the development of objective scales for gauging class- oom work. And small wonder, for if the claims o£ the most ardent psychologists of this school are to be taken seriously, the tests provide a com- Daratively simple instrument by which, within an jour or two any child’s mental endowment can de ascertained, which will determine his sphere for life.? For according to these authorities, gen- ral intelligence is fixed and unchangeable, native and inherited, and as permanent a part of a child as blueness of eye, or roundness or squareness of aeadshape. Henceforth it will be a simple matter ‘o shuffle children off with a high degree of pre- ‘tision into various grades, each to be ticketed and i 2 Discussing backward pupils found in the upper grades, ‘Ruth Swan Clark of the Vocational Guidance for Juniors, ‘New York City, says: “As the intelligence ratings of these pupils could have been secured in the primary grades, and their subsequent slow progress anticipated, it is to be re- -zretted that they could not have occupied the extra two and three years of elementary school work with training that -would have fitted them for going to work at the earliest age when working papers are obtainable.” (Some Results in Psychological Tests in “Contributions to Education,” pub- lished by N. Y. Society for the Experimental Study of Education, 1924.) 72 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD 3? 66 99 «66 labeled, “very superior,” “superior,” “average,” “dull” and “very dull.” On the basis of these groupings, decision shall be made as to each child’s probable future, whether he shall go to high school and college, or into the manual trades, whether he shall study for a profession or become a mechanic or manual laborer. Certain well known private schools arbitrarily rule out children who do not come up to a certain high intelligence rating, and a recent high school department head in New York City in a published article deplored the ad- mission into high school of any student having less than a go I.Q.° Critics of such wholesale assertions declare in the first place that no one has succeeded in de- fining general intelligence, and that it is therefore absurd to pretend that the tests measure intelli- gence or that intelligence is something fixed by inheritance. The attempt to group children ar-| bitrarily is certain to work great social injustice | and grave injury to those labeled as predestined’ inferiors or superiors. Moreover while the tests/ undoubtedly measure a certain kind of ability,’ they are largely tests of information and training, | 3A more intelligent and sympathetic point of view is well. expressed in a paper by Mabel Skinner of the Washington | Irving High School, New York City, “Our Low I. Q.’s” in “Contributions to Education.” i 4 See also articles by Walter Lippmann in the New Re- public, Oct. 25, Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 1922. i ee THE USES OF MENTAL TESTING 73 Many appeal to the type of mind that is apt at solving puzzles; in most of the tests, undue em- phasis is given to ability to define abstract terms. Prepared as the tests are by pedagogues, they are based on the false assumption that success in school work is another measure of intelligence. The “‘intelligent’’ pupil is the one who is proficient in his lessons, who can easily master the ideas found in books. The one who has difficulty in understanding abstract symbols is rated “dull.” Even teachers and psychologists who admit that there are important capacities that lie outside the range of the measurability of the scales, tend to patronize those who possess them. Unusual in- tuitive capacity, rich emotional appreciations, sen- sitive or artistic perceptions, are not gifts of the intellect as generally defined, and find little room for expression in the ordinary classroom, nor would they be likely to be brought to light by ‘means of the ordinary psychological test. That little negro boy who fumbles miserably when re- quired to reverse mentally the hands of the clock and then tell the time, has an uncanny sense of the teacher’s personality; that girl who simply ‘cannot pass the arithmetic reasoning tests, can do marvels with brush and color; that inarticulate youngster who cannot say sixty words in the re- ‘quired three minutes, is a new being when the 74. OUR ENEMY THE CHILD hour for music and rhythm comes.” Yet con- ceivably these children and many like them, will as a result of “scientific” testing be graded, “dull” or “dull normal’ and be henceforth so considered throughout life. Yet when administered with “skepticism and sympathy” (the phrase is Mr. Lippmann’s), the tests do have a positive value. They cannot tell . us all there is to know about a child, nor should their findings be taken as final or irrevocable.® They undoubtedly measure a certain kind of men- tal ability—the sort that is required to deal with the problems of classroom work—and they may, therefore, be a useful aid in grading children in school. The present method of lumping all chil- dren of the same age together regardless of their 5 “Special gifts for music and for drawing are by no means confined to children testing high in general intelli- gence, but may appear in combination with I. Q. of nearly | any degree.” Leta S. Hollingworth, “Experiments in the Education of Gifted Children” in “Contributions to Edu- cation,” 1924. 6 Relative to changing I. Q. the conclusions of Dr. Buford | Johnson in her recent study of mental growth in children are | worth citing here. The I. Q.s determined by the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon scale tend to increase for ages | three to six, and to decrease from seven upward, when tests | are made at intervals of a year. There is a greater incon- stancy of I. Q.’s in the early years, due to marked influence | of training. Six cases of 125 changed 20 points or more; 23 changed 10 points or more. It is not probable that a high I. Q. obtained at an early age will remain constant. (“Mental Growth of Children,” p. 79, published by E. P. Dutton and Company, 1925.) ee THE USES OF MENTAL TESTING 75 varying capacities has proved entirely unwork- able. The tests at least give official sanction to a fact never before publicly admitted by those in charge of our school systems, that children differ profoundly in mental make-up. Every classroom teacher has always been aware of this fact of in- dividual differences. She has always realized that what she is trying to get across is over the heads of perhaps one-fourth of her class and far below the capacity of another fourth. But the course of study is constructed on the assumption that all children of a given age have approximately the same ability and that any child—unless actu- ally mentally defective or seriously handicapped physically—can by diligent application measure up to the requirements of the grade appropriate to his age. To be sure the educational machine erected on this assumption has long been on the point of collapse. It is now well over fifteen years since the problem of repeaters and laggards has been occupying the attention of schoolmen. Innumer- able age-grade tabulations brought to light the significant fact that from one-third to one-fourth of all children in the public schools annually fail to do the work assigned to them, and must, there- fore, according to the machine requirements, go through the identical process again. Busy statis- 76 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD ticians began to figure up staggering totals show- ing the loss to the State of this annual “repeat- ers” bill; others more socially minded drew at- tention to the iniquitous effect on the children themselves in thus being left back and gradually becoming schooled in failure. How clumsily the professional educator pro- poses to deal with the problem, however, may be seen from a report recently issued by the New York Department of Education on Grading and the Course of Study which summarizes what New York and twenty-three other cities are doing to lessen retardation and to modify the curriculum. Here is a complete picture of the administrator- pedagogue faced with a serious breakdown in his educational machine. For that is what retarda- tion means—millions of children annually clog- ging the wheels of what should be a smoothly running process. They cannot or will not follow the prescribed course of study and when pro- motion time comes around and large masses should automatically move forward, these recalci- trants balk to the utter confusion of the operators of the machine. What is the remedy? Abolish the time-table, scrap the machinery, and start afresh with the children as developing, growing, infinitely diverse human beings? Heaven forbid! THE USES OF MENTAL TESTING rire “Our chief task,’”’ says the report, “is to speed up the 46 percent of slow progress pupils.” The “multiple track’? method employed by Oak- land, California, is dwelt upon at length. This provides for five general types of classes—acceler- ated, normal, opportunity, limited, atypical. The plan calls for a differentiated course of study, “enrichment” on one hand, and “minimum es- sentials’ on the other. ‘The main consideration is to have the progress of all pupils continuous.” _ The curriculum and the time-table are thus the Procrustean bed in which the child, by devices nowadays scientifically determined must somehow be fitted. Never a hint anywhere in the report that fulfilling the requirements of a prescribed course of study may bear little or no relation to the learning process, that it may in fact make real learning forever impossible by destroying the child’s initiative, natural curiosity and originality. Never a hint that attention to the real needs of children, to the exigencies of their growth, is the only means of insuring that what is learned has any value or gets any real hold on the child’s imagination and interest. Instead, advises the educational “repair man,” clip off the minutes from the time ordinarily devoted to one subject and apply them to another, “dilute” here, “en- 78 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD rich” there, slow up this lot, speed up this one, re-grade, re-group, measure, then compute your percentage of gains. If they are not high enough try again—on the same old lines. The intelligence tests offer at least to bring a modicum of order out of this chaos of school, grading and curriculum making. Grouping chil- dren more homogeneously as to mental capacity) so that the quick and the slow need no longet! interfere with one another, will set the teacher free to deal more specifically with the special re-— quirements of her class. This should eventually’ lead to real differentiation in educational programs” so as to conserve and develop the varying possi-. bilities of various groups. Once rid the school-/ master of the notion that children who are un- fitted for a narrow bookish curriculum are theres | by inferior to those who find book learning oe and we may succeed in modifying the school cur riculum into a truly educative instrument. That this is. possible even in a large city school, where, the registration ran over three thousand, is dem- onstrated in the unique experiment carried on for four years by Elisabeth Irwin and Louis Marks, principal, in P. S. 64, Manhattan, and described by them in their book, “Fitting the School to the Child” (The Macmillan Co.). Here we find the, tests being employed for real diagnostic purposes THE USES OF MENTAL TESTING 79 1 order to deal intelligently with mentally de- ective, dull-normal, neurotic, gifted and even few normal children. Special classes organized or these groups, instead of becoming mere dump- ag grounds for various problem cases, became enuine testing grounds for vital educational the- ries. Needless to say in all of them, the rigid re- uirements of the curriculum were relaxed and the aildren were permitted a degree of freedom and pportunity for creative expression quite unheard f in a public school building. It should also be oted that in addition to the tests for intelligence, ie children were given a complete physical exam- iation, glasses were prescribed when needed, diet orrected, so far as possible and home conditions yoked into by a visiting teacher and a health rorker. | For the most part, however, the administration f intelligence tests is in the hands of professional Tucators of the old school and they are proceed- ig to make them merely another accessory to the lucational machine. In New York and other ties, the order has gone out that all children are enceforth to be grouped in each grade according ) mental capacity, and a number of schools are ipposedly attempting to modify the curriculum ) meet the varying needs of these groups. The ‘sting and grading of the children according to 80 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD mental ability progress merrily enough, but the modified course of study as yet holds out little hope of genuine educational reform. A visitor to most of these “experimental” schools would never guess that anything new or different were being tried. In each classroom are the same rigid rows held in absolute silence, the same routine, the same doling out of irrelevant and uninviting abstractions. It is, we will say, a Friday, and the weekly reviews are being given. “Take out your prefix words,” drones the teacher. The class, fifty apathetic little robots, operating as a unit, slip one book off the desks and another on them. ‘Prefix words!” What in the name of common sense have they to do either with chil- dren or with education? Even in the few schools where “modification’’ of the course of study is somewhat more ad- vanced, the changes consist mainly in a superficial “dilution” or “enrichment,” simplifying or broad- ening the conventional requirements. True, in the classes for mental defectives, and in the scat- tered groups of very gifted children, traditional methods have given way to more progressive ones but it is significant, that for “normal” children who are still in the majority, no changes of any sort are contemplated. For them, according tc their betters, “the present course of study appears THE USES OF MENTAL TESTING SI » function most satisfactorily,” the reason be- ig no doubt that they survive it without open *bellion. And the failure to rebel is the reason f£ course why the worst abuses which afflict the luman race, continue to exist. ) / VII DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL I | Earzy in the nineties, before there were any educational scales to prove it, a schoolmaster from the west dared to utter a most grievous heresy. “Children,” declared P. W. Search, then super- intendent of schools in Pueblo, Colorado, “chil- dren differ.” They differ, he said, so profoundly and so completely that the class system so elabo- rately nurtured by pedagogues and administra- tors must be abandoned. So also must all exist- ing types of text books, likewise most of the edu- cational ideas held to be truest and dearest by the great majority of teachers. Each child in the Pueblo schools was thenceforth given a chance to proceed at his own rate, regardless of the prog ress of others. This was the beginning of the movement for individual instruction, a movement which since it was opposed both to tradition and administra- tive convenience, has grown extremely slowly. Frederick Burk of the San Francisco State Nor+ mal School improved upon the Pueblo Rae by a 82 DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL 83 ivision of subject matter into units. He also, ith the help of his teachers, devised a series of amphlets suitable to individual instruction. Two f his former pupils, Sutherland and Washburne, re at present applying his methods with further lodifications in the schools of Los Angeles and Vinnetka, Ill. Similar experiments are also un- ef way to a limited degree in a number of small laces; in Oceano, Calif., in Racine, Wis., in eru, Ind., Stockbridge, Mass., and Bronxville, ‘ew York. Another associate of Dr. Burk’s was Helen arkhurst, whose plan of individual instruction, amed the Dalton plan, after its first trial in the gh school in Dalton, Mass., has spread across ‘e water, and is just now taking England by orm. In three years, the plan has been put into oper- ion in three thousand English schools, and ac- irding to Dr. C. W. Kimmins of the University * London, formerly an inspector of the London dunty Council, it is destined to have a profound fect on the whole of British education. Teach- §, children and parents are all enthusiastic about For years thoughtful teachers in England ‘d been troubled by the insuperable difficulty of oviding adequate individual instruction in their tge classes. Economic necessity makes it impos- 84 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD sible to reduce the size of teaching units, yet the results of modern psychological research and 0} mental testing show how greatly children differ ir their ability and in their capacity to advance ai a given rate of speed. In presenting a lesson t¢ a large class, therefore, the teacher realizes thai probably a bare third is following the pace she ha: set, that another third is capable of going faster but is idly marking time, while the remaining chil dren are straggling hopelessly in the rear. Under the requirements of her superiors, however, shé is expected to keep this malassorted group to: gether. By cajoling the quick, lashing the lag gards, and holding the mediocre up to the mark she must manage somehow to get the whole lo through the uniform examinations at the end 0/ the term and into the next grade or form. How to break up this deadening regimentatior without sacrificing the important social values 0: the class system had appeared an insoluble prob: lem to students of education in England, unti Miss Parkhurst’s plan was adopted in 1920 by Rosa Bassett of the Girls’ Secondary School a Streatham. The success of the experiment wa! almost incredible. It excited the interest of edit cators throughout England, and thousands of per sons visited Streatham to see the school in oper ‘ation. Within a year hundreds of schools wer DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL 85 naking preparations for the adoption of the plan. .t is now widely used in all sorts of English ichools and colleges, primary and secondary ‘chools, army and trade schools, manual training ind normal schools. A flourishing Dalton society jas been organized in London. Interest in the Man has spread to other countries, and it is be- ng tried out in some of the schools of Russia, xermany, Austria, Scandinavia, India, China, apan, South Africa and Australia. In America he Dalton methods are gradually winning recog- ition. _ The Old Guard critics of everything modern in ducation will doubtless see in the extension of ae Dalton plan merely another indication that ae schools are dominated by the whims of fash- yn. Those who know teachers and understand aeir problems will not content themselves with 2 easy an explanation. Almost all teachers are ainfully alive to their duty to instruct efficiently ae children under their charge. A large pro- Ortion of them suffer chronically under a sense f failure. Teaching in such large classes as are tevitable in the modern public school produces psults that no one regards as satisfactory. Edu- ation is one field in which the methods of mass ‘oduction are disastrous. And the merit by hich the Dalton plan has recommended itself is 86 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD its bold abandonment of the methods of mass production. Under the plan, the classroom recitation is abolished. Except for certain group activities, the children work entirely as individuals, and each child is set free to cover the required ground at whatever hours and at whatever pace seems best to him. Mimeographed sheets containing the work to be done in all subjects for a month are given each pupil and he assumes the entire respon-+ sibility for completing the assignment within the time specified if possible. As soon as he has completed one assignment he is permitted to go on with the next month’s “job.” He is neither hurried because some other pupils finish their as- signments more quickly, nor held back because some work at a slower pace. Fifteen minutes daily is usually set aside as “organization time,” during which the pupils dis: cuss their problems and difficulties with the class adviser. Before the close of the morning session) all the members of each grade are called into cons ference by the various specialists to discuss a defit nite part of the job and each member is calle upon for his viewpoint of the work. j Instead of the classroom the Dalton school ha$ work-shops, or as Miss Parkhurst prefers to call them, “laboratories,” each fully equipped for 4 DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL 87 special subject. Maps, pictures and globes, the sand table and other necessary equipment are col- lected in the geography laboratory, and in an ad- joining room, if possible, are placed the books, charts and apparatus commonly used for the study of history. Each laboratory has its own teacher, a specialist whenever available, whose function is to answer questions, make suggestions and exercise a neces- sary oversight of the work done. It is no part ‘of the teacher’s task to hold the pupils up to the performance of a given lesson, to cram knowl- edge into their heads whether they will or no. The laboratories are not supervised study rooms, out rather places where the children recite, some- times to the teacher, sometimes to one another. Primarily, says Miss Parkhurst, these laboratories are for learning. Time tables were invented for teaching, a very different matter. The Dalton lan stakes all its hopes on the wish and the will ‘to learn of the children themselves. This is the radical kernel in the Dalton plan. [t appears almost revolutionary when one consid- ‘rs how educators through the ages have worked on the assumption that the child’s will is an ob- stacle to be overcome by coercion—by threats, ‘lows, bad marks, public disgrace—or by the ca- jolery of rewards or artificial interest created by 88 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD applying the art of salesmanship to the teacher’s wares. Only sporadically has any effort been definitely made to enlist the child’s will as an ac- tive force in the learning process. Yet every one knows that outside the schoolroom the children are eager for new experiences, and go straight- forwardly about the business of getting them. The initiative is there, but it can find no expres- sion in the artificial atmosphere of the classroom with its system of bells, uniform periods and mechanical shifting from one task to another. School living, Miss Parkhurst holds, might well take its model from home life. “At home a child moves as an individual from room to room with- out permission and without confusion. He goes to get something. It is this extremely simple but valuable fact that we utilize, and which makes and secures harmony and true social life under the Dalton plan.” The pupils have their jobs, they know what they have to do, they go in and out of the several laboratories at will, in search’ of the necessary teacher or book or materials they need. Each child notes on his “job card,” kept in) graph form, his daily progress in terms of units” of work completed. He soon learns to budget his time, and to distribute it according to his special needs and difficulties. “How a pupil manages his” job or project is bound to affect his whole life. DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL 89 The job tests his powers and through it, he ex- presses himself ; he learns to evaluate himself and his work. Subject antipathies disappear ; they are weaknesses which can be made to disappear by proper distribution of\time.”’ * The Dalton plan is revolutionary as to method alone, not as to the content or aim of instruction. If the object of education is ability to write a letter in good English and execute arithmetical computations correctly, the Dalton method an- swers. It also answers if the object of education is conceived more broadly. Cultivation of indi- vidual initiative facilitates the execution of any task. This conservatism, or neutrality, in matter of content and aim seems to account in some measure at least for the widespread popularity of the plan. Old fashioned schoolmen and parents might object seriously to the substitution of newer material for the traditional subjects. They have no reason to object to a method by which the traditional subjects are learned more quickly and thoroughly. The progressive leaders of the movement rec- ognize that it does not in itself meet the objec- tions to the accepted cumicyicin, But a curricu- lum, as Miss Parkhurst says, “is dead without 1“The Dalton Laboratory Plan,’ by Helen Parkhurst, ‘Progressive Education, April, 1924. go OUR ENEMY THE CHILD the live motive power of the child.”” She is there- fore more interested in developing that motive power than in questions pertaining to the cur- riculum. The first task as she sees it is to have “the ground made ready for the seed.” This may quiet doubts about the ultimate tendency of the plan, but it does not wholly eradicate them. Ina Dalton school, a child may cover with the utmost energy and eagerness all the ground required in arithmetic, but formal arithmetical problems, papering a mythical room for example, or com- puting imaginary profits and losses, may be the last thing he should be worrying his head about at that particular time. Unless the curriculum is carefully adjusted to the child’s needs, the plan might become the emptiest of cramming processes with the premium put on the mere amassing of information. It is reported that under the Dalton plan, as one teacher puts it, “the surplus energy of the reprobate having lost its usual means of expression, is now absorbed in the game of pass- ing grades.” The game of passing grades is no doubt a more useful one than many others and less trying to the observer. But that peace for the teacher is purchased at a heavy price if the chil- dren become so absorbed in this game as to lose their spontaneity of preference among subjects and activities. After all, the restiveness of the DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL OI children under the traditional method of instruc- tion was an important force making for progress in the content as well as methods of instruction. The Dalton plan may represent a long step in advance if it is not taken too complacently. Many schools which hesitate to initiate sweeping change may, by beginning with the Dalton plan, fall into the way of genuine educational reform. Assignments in textbooks may be supplemented by work in science laboratories, work-shops, art studios, and music rooms, as is done in the Chil- dren’s University Schooi in New York City under Miss Parkhurst’s personal direction. A correla- tion may be made between academic and hand work, as in the Manhattan Trade School for Girls. Here the pupils in the process of learn- ing their several trades, dressmaking, millinery, novelty making, and machine operating, have their academic work presented to them in terms of their actual work in the trade course. Arithmetic re- quired in the cutting room is studied in the arith- metic laboratory and bears a direct relation to the work on which the girl is engaged. II The Winnetka plan, initiated by Carleton W. ‘Washburne has certain points in common with 92 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD the Dalton plan. Like Miss Parkhurst, Supt. Washburne has abolished the ordinary recitation and the rigid time table and put into the hands of the children assignments prepared in advance. There are however certain differences. The Winnetka plan allows for more complete individualization by subjects. No child under the Dalton plan may progress in any subject until he has finished all the month’s assignments in the other subjects. In Winnetka, there is no such limitation. Moreover, while the Dalton plan ac- cepts the course of study of the school in which it is introduced, and merely breaks it up into monthly assignments, the Winnetka material is prepared after long investigation of what is most modern in type and content. Only the three R’s or the common essentials are taught by the indi- vidual method in Winnetka. Every child, says Supt. Washburne, needs to know how to read with a certain speed and comprehension, needs to know certain elements in arithmetic, needs to be able to spell words in common use, and to know something about persons, places and events to which constant reference is made. What these minimum essentials are in each subject, Supt. Washburne is seeking to determine in coOperation with other educators. For example, the depart- ment of research in the Boston schools has DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL 93 analyzed all types of addition of fractions from the standpoint of difficulties. The National So- ciety for the Study of Education has discovered that trade and industry and the ordinary opera- tions of life require no denominators higher than 12 in the original addends (of course the common denominator may be higher). The Winnetka teachers have carefully checked the degree of speed possible to the slowest normal child, and have found that four examples in three minutes is attainable. Therefore the assignment in addi- tion of fractions reads thus: “Be able to work four problems in three minutes with Ioo percent accuracy, the examples to contain denominators of 12 and under, to contain three addends, and to involve changing to a common denominator, ad- dition of mixed numbers and to lowest terms.” ? _ Acchild who is ready to begin fractions is given a fraction practice book (prepared by the teach- ers). This book is self-instructive. In using it, the child requires a minimum of help from teacher or classmates. Only one step is taken at a time and much practice is provided for that step before proceeding to the next. In learning to add frac- jtions, there are some nineteen steps, beginning ‘with the simple operation of cutting out cardboard / 2The Winnetka Plan of Individual Work,” The Teachers ‘World, Dec., 1922. 94. OUR ENEMY THE CHILD circles, cutting these in two and labeling each piece 14, and ending with a miscellaneous exer- cise which includes every practical difficulty in adding fractions. | Such practice books have been prepared for all elementary grades in arithmetic, for several | grades in language, and also for history-geogra- | phy. In time it is expected that this self-instruc- | tion material will be available in final commercial | form. Already a volume has been published in | spelling, and another in general science.* | In using these books, the child tests himself by means of an answer sheet as he completes each } step, and when he has covered a given operation | —such as for instance the addition of fractions— } he first gives himself a practice test for it, and | then goes to the teacher for a real test. This test | is very complete, and is so keyed that the teacher | can tell at a glance where the child’s difficulty lies, | No one is permitted to proceed to the next “goal” | until he has successfully passed the one preceding, | The results of this method have been found by | statistical study to be an increase of efficiency, a | saving of one or two hours daily, and a saving | of from one to three years in eight. Best of ! all, no child in the Winnetka schools ever repeats : 8“The Individual Speller” and “Common Science” are | both published by the World Book Company. tT DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL 95 grade. Thus the yearly or half yearly tragedy if non-promotion is completely eliminated. _ Only half the day is given to these common es- entials as the Winnetka schools are organized n the platoon plan. (See next chapter.) The ther half—part of each morning and of each fternoon—is devoted to creative and group ac- tvities. Here there are no known goals, no scien- ific principles to act as guides. But clearly for elf-expression, says Supt. Washburne, children aust be given freedom and the opportunity to xpress what is in them. Such opportunities are rovided in the multiform activities which the hildren undertake. There are plays, open forums, elf-government meetings, debates, the publica- ion of a school paper, to which the youngest child aay contribute, and the management of which is athe hands of the seventh and eighth grade chil- ren, there are excursions, innumerable commit- 2es, free work in art, in shops and even in music. supt. Washburne does not expect this work to be trictly correlated to the individual work. If it an, well and good. But the teachers are not re- uired to “strain” themselves to bring into social '¥ group activities, arithmetic, spelling, punctua- .on, or handwriting. It is these special activities that seem to us the host hopeful feature of the Winnetka schools. 96 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD They are, as Supt. Washburne admits, mor important than the individual work. Data maj be available to prove that children save tim when working individually, but time saving if not all there is to training, even in the essentials Moreover according to recent educational think) ing, it is a serious mistake to divorce the tool sub} jects from “‘life situations,” and to introduce th¢ element of drill before the pupil himself becomes aware of the necessity for it. There are also certain unanswered question¢ which apply both to the Dalton and the Winnetka) methods. At the 1924 Convocation of the Uni- versity of the State of New York Dr. Otis W) Caldwell of the Lincoln School raised several of| these questions: “Is not this plan for fragment+| ing and ticketing subject matter in small individ- ual units in danger of leading us to formal and) finished notions of thought units, thus producing new types of rigidity more binding than those! from which we would free the pupils? Is subject| matter for current social effective living capable) of being set in lessons or units which can be ade-| quately sensed without the constant suggestive thought and group experience of others of the! pupils’ own age and stage of life? Can the pupil) be adequately educated by himself, his assign=| ments and his skillful teacher? . . . Should not! DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL 97 upils gain the often disquieting knowledge that lany very important considerations are still on isecure foundations and that such topics can not e presented as satisfying and finished tasks ?” * Neither the Dalton nor the Winnetka plans are ads, a passing fashion, to be forgotten in a brief ecade. In substituting individual for mass in- truction, the pupil’s initiative for the teacher’s dercion, they have taken a position from which 1ey cannot be expelled. But if their results are ) be really significant, they must associate them- salves with reform that goes beyond method. In really free and creative environment, children O not require the paraphernalia and rigid sub- ivisions of goal or contract books in order to ‘arn the “essentials.” They learn them natu- ally and “in their stride’ as they go about af- airs that have meaning and reality to them. nly under such conditions can the schools be said ) minister to the individual, instead of to the tandards to which they have hitherto insisted the idividual must conform. 4 School and Society, December 27, 1924. VIII WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS? It is a full decade since a series of enthusiasti: books and articles were first written about thi schools of Gary, Ind. John Dewey and Evely: Dewey in their “Schools of Tomorrow,” Ran dolph Bourne in his “Gary Schools,” W. P Burris, in his pamphlet published by the Unitec States Bureau of Education were chief among those to draw nation-wide attention to the re. markable achievements of William Wirt and hi! “work-study-play” idea. Seldom has the populai notion of education undergone such rapid expan: sion as in the few years following these early publications. The “little Red Schoolhouse” witt its humble classrooms and ill-equipped shop ot two, gave way suddenly before the picture of 4 vast palatial structure containing art galleries and studios, music rooms and science laboratories, libraries and swimming pools, gardens and play- grounds, ten acres in size, shops of every kind, 1 For the original source material quoted in this chapter the writer is much indebted to Alice Barrows of the U. S. Bureau of Education. | 98 WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS 99 or carpentry, cabinet and paint, for foundry, orge and sheet metal work, for electricity and rinting, for domestic science and sewing—all the ivish equipment of some richly endowed institu- on of higher learning, or a wealthy private thool, now for the first time made available on ) complete a scale for public school children of ie elementary grades.” This equipment, it was xplained was not extravagance, nor fads and ‘ills. It was indeed the kind of thing long tdently desired by progressive educators every- here, but hitherto provided only incompletely be- iuse of the prohibitive cost to the taxpayer. The ary schools could afford them because as will 2 explained in more detail presently, Mr. Wirt ad applied the principle of multiple use of the thool plant, thus releasing funds that would therwise have been tied up in classroom space, or the additional facilities. Lavish equipment however was not the only markable feature of the Gary schools. Says andolph Bourne, “The Gary schools represent e fruit of a very unusual combination of educa- onal philosophy, economic engineering, and po- ‘ical Sagacity . . . what we have to deal with See description of the Emerson and Froebel schools in 2 “Gary Schools” by Randolph Bourne, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1916, pp. 20 ff. I0O OUR ENEMY THE CHILD is an educational idea, a comprehensive plan fo the modern public school, capable of gener imitation and adaption to the needs of othe American communities.” Among the many im portant achievements and innovations which bot he and the Deweys discuss are the social func tioning of the schools in the community and o the children in their schools, the converging of al work and study upon school life, the wide use b; adults of the school plant, the long school day school week and school year, the full use made b the school of such community resources as church: settlements, civic and social organizations, as wel as other municipal departments, the democrati form of student government, the wholesome in termingling of older and younger children 1: shops and laboratories, the housing of grade an: high schools in one building, and the unique re lation between the training provided in the man: school shops and the maintenance of the schoo plant. For the first time, according to these earl reports, there had evolved under public schoc conditions a real school community which aime: “to put the whole child to school,” and to restor to him some of his lost heritage of wholesom work and play. “It is impossible,’ says Prof. Dewey, “t exaggerate the amount of mental and moral trai WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS IOI ng secured by our forefathers in the course of he ordinary pursuits of life. They were engaged a subduing a new country. Industry was at a Temium and instead of being of a routine nature ioneer conditions required initiative, ingenuity nd pluck. . . . Production had not yet been con- entrated in factories in congested centers, but vas distributed through villages. . . . The occu- ations of daily life engaged the imagination and aforced knowledge of natural materials and tocesses. . . . Children had the discipline that ume from sharing in useful activities. .. . Inder such conditions the schools could hardly ave done better than devote themselves to books. , . But conditions changed and school materials ad methods did not change to keep pace. Popu- tion shifted to urban centers. Production be- ume a mass affair carried on in big factories, in- ead of a household affair. . . . Industry was no nger a local or neighborhood concern. Manu- \cturing was split up into a very great variety : Separate processes through the economies inci- ‘nt upon extreme division of labor. . . . The achine worker, unlike the older hand worker, following blindly the intelligence of others in- ead of his own knowledge of materials, tools id processes. . . . Children have lost the moral id practical discipline that once came from shar- 102 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD ing in the round of home duties. For a large number there is little alternative, especially ir large cities, between irksome child labor and de- moralizing child idleness.” This conception that the schools must overcome the demoralizing influences for children of mod- ern city life is one of Mr. Wirt’s cardinal prin- ciples. It is expressed in his first report of the Gary schools written in 1908, and in his most recent pronouncements as well. “The main busi- ness of the school,” he writes in 1908, “is tc utilize to the best advantage the time that the child spends in school. As a matter of fact how- ever in most sections of the city, the greatest problem of the school is to counteract and over- come the demoralizing influences of the child's life in the streets and alleys and unfortunately ir many homes, so called.” In an unpublished article, “Making the City a Fit Place for the Rearing of Children,’ Mr. Wirt is even’more emphatic. “It is absolutely neces: sary for the perpetuity of our race,” he states, “that the relative population of the city be re- duced or that the cities be made fit places for the rearing of children. The city home is no longet able profitably to occupy all the time of the chil out of school. The city school does not have suf: ficient time for the general education of the child. WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS 103 On the other hand it is the city streets and alleys, amusement halls and gambling dens, which pro- vide activities on the average for all the children of the cities for over five hours of the day for the 365 days of the year. “It is this life of the child during the five hours of the day in the streets and alleys that molds his character and educates him in the wrong di- rection. These five hours a day on the streets must be eliminated from the life of the city child before the cities can be made fit places for the rearing of children. “The cities must have an institution that will provide constructive activities at work and play as a substitute for the present five hours a day of destructive activities. These wholesome activities for work and play should be provided in connec- tion with the child’s study school, where he may spend the day in study, work and play. Not only will the wholesome work and play be a substitute for the demoralizing activities of the streets and alleys, but planned in connection with the study school will motivate and give new vitality to the child’s study hours.” The school of course has always been subject to pressure from those both within and without the school system who seek to expand or modify the curriculum in response to changing social and 104. OUR ENEMY THE CHILD economic conditions. While its response has been slow, it is nevertheless true that the evolution of the school curriculum parallels closely the evolu- tion of society. The present unwieldy and con- glomerate assortment of “subjects” contained in existing courses of study is at least indicative of an attempt to train children for the highly com- plex—and little understood—requirements of modern life. The curriculum indeed has changed much more rapidly than have teaching methods and administrative organization. The simple reading, writing and reckoning, considered suf- ficient in early days, could easily enough be taught to children seated at their desks and con- fined for their materials to text book and copy paper. Yet this set up with a few variations is supposed to suffice for the manifold demands of the existing curriculum. In a large percent of American cities, many buildings are without such elementary provisions as auditoriums, play- grounds or manual training shops. Even where these features are present, the children actually spend very little time in them. By far the greater amount of their time is spent in their classrooms where the teacher at her desk is supposed to dole out appropriate amounts of music, nature study, hygiene, physiology, drawing, hand work, besides the more formal work in reading, writing, arith- WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS 105 ‘metic, history, geography, spelling, civics, or such extras, as thrift, Americanization, safety first or patriotism. Mr. Wirt boldly affirmed that a modern cur- ‘ticulum could not be taught under such primitive ‘conditions. Children, he declared, cannot learn through “hypodermic injections of concentrated doses of scholastic subject matter.’”’ Two or three hours daily he argued was sufficient time for children to be confined to school desks study- ‘ing the formal tool subjects. For the rest of their school day, it was far better for them to be gaining experiences at first hand in specially equipped workshops, studios, science laboratories, auditoriums, and libraries, or having the oppor- ‘tunity for thoroughly sound physical develop: ment in gymnasiums, swimming pools and play- grounds. Manifestly, he argued further, a classroom could easily be alternately used by two groups of children, since neither group needs to be in it more than two or three hours. Thus by skillful programming, the capacity of a given building might be greatly increased, for two sets or “platoons” of children might be kept alternating between classrooms and the special facilities. This principle of multiple use, Mr. Wirt argues, is well enough known in the management of pub- 106 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD lic utilities and other adult resources. Why should it not be applied to public schools ? “The reason why the city does not meet the needs of children as it meets the needs of adults,” Mr. Wirt writes, “is because the same economic principles are not applied in the operation of child welfare agencies that are applied in the operation of adult welfare agencies. | “In the city I can have a picture to look at in my public art gallery only because a lot of other people look at this picture when I do not want to look at it. I can have a park to enjoy only be- cause a lot of other people enjoy this park when I do not want to enjoy it. . . . I can have a street car or a taxicab to ride in when I wish to do so only because a lot of other people ride in them when I do not want to. ... “The whole trouble is that we try to provide a school seat in a classroom for the exclusive use | of each child. Then we try to have an auditorium | large enough to seat all the children, which is the | same thing as providing an auditorium seat for each child’s exclusive use. All children play at one time at recess which is the same thing as pro- viding for each child a playground. The same thing is true with the manual training shops, and | in a measure for all child welfare facilities. Chil- | dren must all be in school at one time and then a oom WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS 107, when dismissed from school they have the oppor- tunity to go to the library practically all at one ime... “What would we think of the management of a street car company that insisted upon everybody tiding to the same point and in the same direc- tion at one time? Under such a plan, street cars would be impossible and so would every type of public service. The management of all types of public service, excepting schools, attempts to bal- ance the load on their respective facilities as much as possible. The electric lighting companies, for instance, offer reduced rates for current used in the day time in order to equalize their load. In place of using the balanced load principle, tradi- tional school managers insist on making the load on their facilities as unbalanced as possible. That is why it has been impossible for cities to pro- vide adequate facilities for children. Without the application of multiple use and balanced load principles the people in the cities cannot do for themselves collectively through public service agencies any more than they can do as private individuals. ‘The city has not been able, there- fore, to meet the needs of its children to the extent that it has met the needs of adults... .”° _ 3 Unpublished report of the School Building Survey of Portland, Ore., conducted by U. S. Bur. of Educ., 1923. 108 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD In a work-study-play school however, the “load” is distributed between the classrooms and the various facilities. Instead of all children be- ing in school seats when school begins, half will be in their classrooms, one-fourth in manual train- ing, music, art, science, history and geography rooms, one-eighth will be in the auditorium, and one-eighth in the physical training and play places, In a school for 1,200 children, only 600 school seats will be needed for classrooms, 300 seats for special activities, 150 auditorium seats and play space for I50. ; The money saving is obvious. A classroom costs approximately $12,000. In a 30-class Wirt school, therefore, only 15 classrooms would be needed, making available 1 5 times $12,000 for additional facilities. Naturally the amount saved depends upon how many additional facilities are secured. Superintendents of nineteen school Sys- tems reported to the U. S. Bureau of Education increases in housing capacity ranging from ten to seventy percent.* In studying the future build- ing needs of Portland, Ore., the Survey Com- mittee recently concluded that estimates for a sat- * “First National Conference on the Work-Study-Play or Platoon Plan,” by Alice Barrows, U. S. Bureau of Educa- tion bulletin, 1922, No. 35. WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS I0Q isfactory school plant on the traditional plan by 1937 showed that $23,962,150 would need to be expended, and that an excess capacity in the entire city of only 132 classes would thus be provided. On the work-study-play plan only $14,564,650 would need to be spent, providing an excess ca- ‘pacity of 206 classes. The difference in cost therefore is approximately $9,397,500 for the thirteen years or an average annual difference of $722,873. This amount can be saved annually to the taxpayer. Similarly in Detroit, where the platoon school is in operation in eighty buildings, a study was made of comparative costs in fifteen schools of ‘the platoon and non-platoon form of organiza- ‘tion. It was found that the same number of pupils taught under the non-platoon organization could by the introduction of the platoon plan re- ceive more instruction by the use of thirty less rooms, and 15.9 fewer teachers. The thirty rooms with a capacity of forty each, might be used to house 1,200 more pupils... . Even though additional salaries must be paid to auditorium and gymnasium teachers in the platoon schools, the net annual saving in salaries under this plan would be $21,820. ‘Thus,’ concludes Deputy Super- intendent Spain, “good salaries can be appor- tioned highly trained special teachers, and the IIo OUR ENEMY THE CHILD platoon system still prove more economical than the non-platoon.” 5 Mr. Wirt however everywhere makes clear that “while the work-study-play plan does make pos- sible a substantial saving to the taxpayer, that is not the primary purpose of the work-study-play school. It is the purpose of this school to make the cities good places in which to rear children. No other question is of more vital importance to the American nation.” This feature of “multiple use’ has commended the Wirt type of school organization widely to practical schoolmen throughout the country. Although the attempt to introduce the plan into. New York City failed disastrously in 1917, due mainly to political opposition, it has been spread- | ing with increasing momentum in other parts of the country. The name now generally adopted is the “platoon” school, although “work-study- play” and “duplicate” schools are terms also widely in use. The latest list of cities having such an organization in one or more schools numbers ninety-three in thirty states, and in- cludes such large centers as Pittsburgh and De- troit, which have officially adopted it for all elementary schools, and also Philadelphia, Balti- 5“The Platoon School,” by Charles L. Spain, Ph.D., New York, The Macmillan Company, 1924. WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS Irr nore, Newark, Rochester, Cleveland, St. Paul, lallas, Sacramento, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. 0 interested have superintendents of schools be- ome in the plan, that the United States Bureau f Education has called four annual conferences fh it to discuss practical problems of administra- on. The conferences are held in conjunction ‘ith the meeting of the Department of Superin- mdence of the National Education Association. ight national committees appointed by the Com- ussioner of Education, are constantly at work, athering material to report to the conferences on ich questions as use of the auditorium, build- ig program, organization, training of teachers, lusic, special activities, play and education of ublic opinion. Several teacher training schools ad summer schools have included special courses h some aspect of the plan. The plan has been adapted in many different rms. No two programs are the same, the length f the school day varies from city to city, so also des the kind and amount of additional equipment ad facilities provided, the amount of depart- lentalizing of subject matter, the use made of the iditorium, and the amount of vocational training forded. No city has adopted all the interesting ‘atures of the Gary schools. Gary is still unique | the broad use by adults of the school plant, in | : II2 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD the eight hours school day, in the large volunta attendance of children and adults in Saturday an summer school, in the degree to which vocationa work contributes to the maintenance of the schoo plant, and many other innovations. It is o! course also true that some cities have adopted th platoon organization merely or mainly as an econ omy device, or to relieve congestion, and have added few additional facilities to existing plants By far the greater number of superintendent: experimenting with the plan, however, have beer impressed by its educational possibilities. In dis. cussing its possibilities, these men use language quite different from the old type “administrator.” Says W. F. Kennedy, director of Platoon Schools in Pittsburgh: The following are the objectives that largely determined the activities and organization in th early days of our experiment (1916) and stil control the movement : I. Enrich children’s experiences. a. An enriched curriculum. b. Enriched teaching. c. Enriched associations. d. Fresher interests native to child life, II. Socialize and democratize the activities of school life. | ITI. Develop an atmosphere in terms of de- partments, an attitude of hunger for worthwhile WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS II3 yursuits and habit of planning in children, and a {rowing vision of something ahead. _IV. Emphasize the process in education rather han the product. _V. All educational development should be jased on the native characteristics of children, uch as activity, curiosity, imitation, imagination, lesire to work with tools and materials, etc, _VI. School life should be made pleasant. Tappiness is an important educational objective. _ The above objectives controlled the selection of zachers, the organization of the curriculum, and ae working out of the whole schedule of opera- ons. It meant that teachers should teach those abjects with which they were in tune, for which 1ey had an appreciation and definite preparation. {meant that the characteristics of childhood and 1e demands of life should be largely the basis of ie selection of the subjects of the curriculum. + meant that opportunity should be furnished to apils to express themselves naturally, to practice ‘lf-control, to exercise initiative and responsi- lity, to appreciate freedom, and to develop poise id personality. It meant that teachers were to > helpers, leaders and friends of children, and ot checkers, detectives and faultfinders. It meant at children should have a voice in working out ans, suggesting situations and criticizing results. ‘nd it definitely meant that this school should ive the atmosphere of a cheerful home, and if ‘'y and happiness were not constantly in evidence ‘mie part of the machinery was wrong. II4 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD A number of superintendents who have experi- mented with the plan, discuss its advantages ir terms of the educational philosophy of Johr Dewey and William Kilpatrick. “The platoor school,” writes C. F. Perrott of Stuttgart Arkansas, “is a distinct and important factor ir the educative process. . . . It creates an oppor: tunity for an enriched curriculum for all out school children, more especially of the elementary schools. ... . It is a known fact that only one- fifth of our elementary school pupils ever react high school. ... The dull routine of our ele- mentary school is largely responsible. “In the platoon school, the shop, laboratory garden, libraries, dramatization, play and game: are used freely. Dewey says of this that wher« such opportunities exist for reproducing life situa: tions or progressive experiences, we have rea’ thinking. Such thinking is possible where be- sides the ordinary classrooms we have play- grounds, shops, music and drawing studios, gym: nasiums and intimate and constant contact with supplementary activity outside the school for the children. . . . When thought is continually hedged in by authority, courses of study, the four walls of a classroom, and continual silence, think: ing instead of being encouraged is thwarted at every “pont aie | WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS Ir5 _ “The development of the platoon school is un- IBubtedly j in great part an outgrowth of the idea hat extrinsic subject matter does not permit the ullest life. Dr. Kilpatrick is of the opinion that ince the elementary school is an institution estab- Shed by society for the education of its children, t would seem that its most consistent function rould be to provide an environment that furthers te continuous growing of its pupils, an environ- tent that affords them practice in the selection nd successful realization of aims, I am not go- ig to insist that the platoon school is ideally fitted nd suited to carry out this philosophy. At the resent time it affords the nearest approach to a alution of the problem that we have. . . .” Other advantages observed by superintendents fter a trial of the plan include improved health f pupils, increased self-control, initiative and in- ependence, happier attitude towards school— the children are decidedly for it”—fewer disci- inary troubles, less fatigue and monotony, it linimizes lockstep, socializes the school, subject atter better handled by teachers, who have fewer Ibjects to teach, and certain subjects are taught 7 those specially fitted for them, . . . “it does way with listless teaching through an enriched irriculum which makes the teacher aware of the ‘eadth of the child’s needs, mentally, physically 116 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD and morally. . . . It places a better proportior and value upon both mental work and all othe: activities ss: Ne : One result worth perhaps special emphasis i: the improvement recorded in academic work This is encouraging because the tunfavorabl showing made by the children in Gary schools a’ the time of the survey of the General Educatior Board, received wide publicity. In 1922, anothei survey was made in Indiana. Tests were giver in reading, spelling, arithmetic and history t children in Gary and in other school systems 11 the state. Returns showed that the Gary childrer scored higher in all grades in history and geog: raphy than children in other Indiana cities, It particular, the scores of Gary children in though questions in history were five to seven point: higher than those of children in traditiona schools. In reading and spelling, Gary childret did better in three grades and not so well it others.° In 1923, the Department of Educational Re search of Detroit made public the results of ¢ study carried on for several years of the academi standing of children in platoon and non-platoor schools. Standard tests were applied in reading penmanship, arithmetic, spelling, and geography 6 Data secured from U. S. Bureau of Education. WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS 117 | “Taken as a whole,” writes Stuart A. Courtis, Director of the Department of Instruction, veacher Training and Research, “‘the results from tandard tests show that in both actual and com- arative achievement, in efficiency of instruction, 1 type of school affected, and in the efficiency of lupervisory control, the platoon schools in Detroit ‘ave, so far, done fully as well as, and probably etter than the conventional schools as far as in- ‘ruction in the drill subjects is concerned.” ? _ Tabulations, based upon a study of results over period of four years, showed that the schools tganized four years ago were far above the city tedian; those organized three years ago were ‘so considerably above; and those organized less jan two years, who were passing through a triod of readjustment were slightly below the ty median, but constantly improving their scores. _An item from the Clip Sheet sent out by the ‘nited States Bureau of Education for June, 325, states that of fifth grade children in work- udy-play schools in Gary, seventy-five percent ‘ach the eighth grade. Fifty-three percent of all gh school graduates from the same schools go \ college. Twenty percent of all children who iter elementary schools in Gary enter college in ™*The Platoon School in Detroit,” by Charles L. Spain, ae Detroit Educational Bulletin, No. 2, 1923, p. 66 118 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD due course: that is three times as many as the cor- responding ratio for the country at large. The platoon school has been attacked by both conservatives and radicals in education. It has also unfortunately been opposed by powerful po- litical groups. The argument used with suck deadly effect during the Mayoralty campaign ir New York City, that the Gary plan is a device of the “interests” to fit the child for the mill anc sweat shop, is of course not worth serious atten: tion. At least it would not be had not a rathei considerable number of otherwise intelligen: labor ®* and socialist organizations also given i credence. The argument first had its basis in the large amount of training offered to children ir Gary schools to “work with their hands,” if specially equipped shops of all kinds. When ths educational value of such activity was made clear the argument shifted its base. Recently it ha taken refuge in the departmental system of teach ing which obtains in greater or less degree in | platoon schools. : In her minority report of one on the work study-play or platoon plan, submitted to the Chi cago Board of Education by the Education Com mission appointed by the Board in December 8In June, 1924, the Detroit Federation issued a favorabl ‘report on the Detroit platoon schools. WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS IIgQ 1923, Rose A. Pesta writes of the departmental ‘system: “It is exactly the factory system applied to the education of the child. In the olden days a pair of shoes was made by one man, He put something of himself into the shoe—his individ- ual art—and he took a certain pride and joy in the completed product. In modern industry, the shoe passes through a number of hands, each doing a little here, a little there. Each is interested in doing efficiently his little job—not in the com- dleted job at all. That is what is recommended ‘n the education of children in so far as they re- ‘eive an education in special lines: each of the special teachers doing her little bit toward the edu- ‘ation of that child with no possibility of any nterest in the complete process. . . .” The controversy over departmental work is of ‘ourse an old one, and has long been waged out- ide the realm of the platoon school, Teachers ‘f special subjects have for many years been ap- iointed in the upper grades of most school sys- ems. In most private schools, where groups are f course smaller, it has been carried far down ato the primary classes. Those in favor of it laim that teachers teach subjects best in which ley are most interested, that it is unreasonable to xpect one teacher to teach successfully the ever- icreasing sub jects in the modern curriculum, that 120 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD it is better for children to come into contact with| different personalities, and with different methods} of presentation. Opponents claim that children, | young ones especially, need the “mothering” in-| fluence of a single individual, that specialist teach-| ers tend to exploit their specialty at the expense) of those they teach, that under them a child’s day loses unity, that successful “project” teaching,| now everywhere urged, is incompatible with de-| partmentalization, that special teachers cannot] possibly keep in personal touch with their pupils| since they meet several hundred a day, and many} more during the week, that the whole trend of educational thinking is away from a curriculum) organized on a subject basis, to one organized on| a conduct or activity basis.° | A partial answer made by those in charge of| work-study-play schools is that only part of the} work is departmentalized. At least two and a half hours daily is spent by each child in its) “home” room, under one teacher who teaches all the tool subjects. This arrangement is in turn criticized by those who feel that it is a mistake to! divorce the tool subjects from the subjects in See “Why I am Opposed to the Platoon Plan in Ele: mentary Schools,” by Frederick G. Bonser of Teachers Col- lege, Chicago Schools Journal, May, 1924. WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS I2I drilled in arithmetic in vacuo, but only when he is aware of a given situation where drill is “aecessary. “Arithmetic,’ writes Dr. Kilpatrick, “we shall always need and shall always teach. The point is this. We learn better—certainly as a rule—when we face a situation calling for the use of the thing ‘0 be learned. Other things being equal then, we shall try to teach arithmetic as it is needed. that $s in connection with situations of actual need. The effect of this will be to find arithmetic in nany little pieces scattered along the path of life. These we shall teach as we meet them. As we accumulate in this way a store of arithmetic, some of the pupils, particularly the more mathematically nelined, will from time to time put the pieces ‘ogether and form wholes more or less complete. uater some will specialize in the subject... .” n the paragraph preceding this, Dr. Kilpatrick leclares that “separate subjects for children will lave to go.”’ *° This is of course going very much further than he work-study-play idea now proposes. The jlatoon school has accepted the modern curricu- um with its many subject divisions, and has at- empted to give it reality and vitality through ade- / 10 “Foundations of Method,” by William H. Kilpatrick of Teachers College, The Macmillan Company, 1925, p. 357. I22 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD quate equipment and a well balanced program of activities. The plan makes no changes in class- room teaching, which must inevitably change radi- cally if real educational values are to be attained. “The present academic subjects are taught and must be, with our present limitations, taught as such,” writes John G. Rossman, Assistant Su- perintendent of Schools in Gary. ‘The greater part of the work of the teacher in the platoon school is not such as to require training different from that given in the usual normal school,” de- clares Charles A. Rice, Assistant Superintendent in Portland, Oregon. ‘A good teacher in a tra- ditional school will be a good teacher in the home room in a platoon school.” Similarly Edwin- Y. Montanye, principal of a “duplicate” school in Philadelphia states that there is “‘little difficulty in securing teachers for the academic subjects.” It is probably too much to expect, however, that the work-study-play school should be more than a liberating experiment in education. Al-) though vastly freer than the traditional school, it’ has not yet emerged from its stage of mechani-| zation. To accommodate rotating groups of chil-— dren smoothly and efficiently, programs must be observed with scrupulous exactness, so many min- | utes must be allotted to each activity, and shifts” must take place with speed and promptness. The WORK-STUDY-PLAY SCHOOLS 123 plan still tolerates class units as large as forty, and it faces with equanimity school plants hous- ing two thousand children and more. In brief, the work-study-play plan is a magnifi- sent attempt at mass education, attempting, chrough the application of a principle well known ‘ mass production—the balanced load—to pro- vide wholesale advantages to children without creasing school costs. Yet when one consid- ors the nature and variety of genuinely educative cnterprises that Mr. Wirt has managed to intro- luce into his schools, the extraordinary value of uis wholesale demonstration becomes apparent. robably nothing has done more to free the pub- ic mind from the notion that children can be sducated by being chained to school seats than he campaigns successively waged in different ‘ities to introduce work-study-play schools. While he claim often made is valid that all the advan- ages of these schools exist (in part) and can be ybtained in traditionally organized systems, it still ‘emains true that the platoon organization makes t possible for communities to provide such ad- ‘antages for their children years earlier than they ould otherwise be persuaded to do so. It is probable that many of the shortcomings if the plan will pass with time. Superintendents dopting it are likely to be of the temper of Mr. 124 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Wirt who welcomes educational experimentation | of every kind, even with curriculum and subject | matter. “Organic education” classes directed by | Mrs. Marietta Johnson of Fairhope, Alabama, | were planned for certain Wirt schools in New | York City. Attempts are likely to increase to | introduce genuine “projects,” as the common prod- | uct of many departments in platoon schools. The | revolt against “subject matter” as such, may | finally break up much of the present undesirable | subdividing of the curriculum, As for the nig- | gardliness of a public that compels the platooniz- | ing of a school, takes pride in school plants of | enormous size, and tolerates class units of forty | and forty-five children, that even too may change, | One reason why, no doubt, that we as taxpayers | are so loath to pay taxes large enough to eliminate | such evils, is because our own memories of school | are so dreary and our distrust of schooling so | profound. Graduates of schools where as chil- | dren they were happy, where they had the op- | portunity to develop naturally and fully, may be | expected to have quite another attitude towards | education. They may come to class education | among the first essentials of life and pay for it | accordingly. | IX | THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS EDUCATIONAL reformers are of three kinds: hose who accept the established body of knowl- »dge as necessary for the child to learn, but who admit that the methods of presenting it are at fault and must be changed; those who advocate thanges in the curriculum so as to prepare chil- lren more adequately for a modern world; and hose who view education as an organic process which changes and develops as the child himself thanges and grows. None of these three groups works entirely independently. The difference in mmphasis, however, profoundly affects what each s doing, and the future education will be largely shaped by the degree to which one group or the ther succeeds in dominating educational thought ind policy. _ Just now the technicians. are very much in rogue ; the measurement of intelligence, of class- ‘oom achievement, and improvement in method xecupying the major efforts of schools of educa- ion and professional schoolmen everywhere. The 125 126 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD second group is also much in evidence, demand- ing modern schools to fit children to play a worthy part in a modern world. The third group is only beginning to attract attention outside of advanced circles, and is still dismissed by the majority of educators as visionary. There are in New York City three schools which, although private, are known as pace set- ters for the country in the first two types of re- form. All three also have experimented in their lower grades with the principles held by the third group. The institutions are the Horace Mann and Lincoln schools, both officially connected with Teachers College, and the Ethical Culture School. Both the Horace Mann and Ethical Culture schools are frankly conservative as regards cur- riculum, save for the work of Miss Patty Hill in the kindergarten and first grade of Horace Mann and the primary grades in the Ethical Cul- ture School. The Lincoln School, on the other hand, is frankly experimenting with the curric- ulum, seeking to adapt it to the changed de- mands of modern society. The Ethical Culture School, established in 1878, is the oldest of the three. It was founded by Dr. Felix Adler as a free kindergarten for the children of working people, but it grew rap-| idly into a full graded school to which children’ | THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 127 were admitted from all social strata. Children are not excluded because of race, religion, or solor—a rare policy in a private school—and scholarships, affording either full or partial tui- tion extended to over two-fifths of the enrollment, cut down economic barriers. In admitting chil- dren, however, preference is usually given to those with a high record of scholarship and a ugh intelligence rating—at least II15—and once idmitted, pupils are expected to meet the exacting ‘equirements of the school’s course of study. The ‘esult of this policy is that the school serves pri- marily a rather narrowly specialized intellectual ype, and necessarily excludes many children vhose special talents lie outside the range of neasurability of the scales, or who lack ability 0 perform difficult academic work. _ Some of these pupils are permitted to remain nd take a modified course leading to a certificate astead of a diploma, but they are regarded rather S$ lost souls by the administration. In discussing aem recently Superintendent Lewis said: _ For them the thought of the world bearing on uman progress so far as it is bound up in ethics, terature, history, science, and foreign languages | very largely a sealed book. Facts they can ften grasp and reproduce, but the relations of acts and reasoning generally in the abstract data | 128 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD of language are often beyond their capacity. Hence they do not seem to me to be those best qualified by nature to attain the school’s highest aims. . . . They are not those whose intelligence can be raised to a point where they can cope suc cessfully with the burning problems now facin mankind, The avowed purpose of the school is to train ethical leaders, ‘‘reformers’’ of society, and its officers are proud of the fact that a larger pro- portion of its graduates than of any other schoo. are engaged in teaching, research, or some typé of social service. The ideal of service to society is held constantly before the pupils by means 0: formal ethics instruction as well as by numerous activities on behalf of the community. A prevocational arts course has been estab lished in the last two years of high school fo: those children who show special artistic ability It is the ultimate hope of the school to offe: similar courses to those specially endowed it music, in home-making, mechanical ingenuity, anc science. Even here, however, the emphasis i placed upon academic standing and intellectual ca pacity, for Superintendent Lewis does not believ the course will be successful with students wh do not possess at least average general intelli gence in addition to special talent, nor would h THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS I29 sive preference to the dull but talented student ver the bright and equally talented one. | While all the children of the middle and upper ichool are thus held to the requirements of a con- ventional curriculum, the attempt is made through ysychological study of each child to provide a ounded range of activities, mental, physical, and ocial. This is important, for precociously intel- ectual children are frequently emotionally infan- ile, or unable to respond normally to social sit- lations. Some years ago an experiment was made in the irimary grades of the Ethical Culture School by Miss Mabel Goodlander to test out some of the aore progressive theories of education.1 No hanges were made in size of class or in room pace, but complete freedom was given in the se- ction of materials, use of class time, and em- loyment of special teachers. Miss Goodland- t’s aim was “to create a free social environment there children in cooperation with others of the ame age might make a beginning in democratic ving under conditions more like life outside thool than Sony considered appropriate for le school régime.”’ Children as well as teacher 1 See “Education Through Experience.” By Mabel R. ‘oodlander. Bulletin No. 10, New York Bureau of Educa- onal Experiments. | 130 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD were at liberty to sit where convenient, talk and move about freely so long as they did not annoy others, and to work or play either as individuals or in groups. Although the teacher directed the class when necessary, the children were mainly engaged in projects of their own. It is one of Miss Goodlander’s cardinal beliefs that the teacher must never dominate the situa- tion. “We must learn,” she says, “to appreciate more sympathetically each child’s point of view, and we should be willing to accept his judgment in many things frankly and sincerely even when it differs from our own.” As regards curriculum the emphasis was shifted from formal studies to constructive work and play, to expression in varying art forms, and to first-hand knowledge of social and industrial ac- tivities related to the child’s life. The three R’s were mastered, but Miss Goodlander waited until the interest of the children in them had been naturally aroused. Miss Goodlander carried her experiment for- ward with the same group for four years, and then started with a new class. According to Superintendent Lewis the experiment was a suc-+ cess, tests showing that as compared with two parallel divisions Miss Goodlander’s group met the school’s requirement in formal work and ex- THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS I3I illed in ability to observe, initiate, and carry rojects through; in codperation it was superior ) one group and inferior to another. _In the fall of 1924 a branch of the Ethical Cul- ire School was opened in the West Seventies un- ar the direction of Miss Goodlander, who can ow more thoroughly test out and develop her ulier experiment. The classes are housed in a rge old fashioned dwelling which admits of a mse of intimacy and naturalness so important or young children especially. The grades are nited to the first four, and the kindergarten and le class registers are kept down to fifteen. The foups are therefore small enough for the de- ‘lopment of individual ability, but large enough | encourage social and cooperative activities. he program is extremely flexible, the children ‘e allowed much freedom in choosing and direct- g their own work, in shop, play and the arts, no $s than in the more formal subjects. The classes ay all day, and have plenty of time outdoors both the park nearby, and visiting places of interest the city. Even all day Saturday trips to the wuntry are planned. The children are fitted to ke their places in the succeeding grades of the irent school, which it is to be hoped will grad- ily become more freed from traditional prac- ses and outlook. 132 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD In the Horace Mann School, also, due to Mis: Patty Hill and her associates, the work of th kindergarten and primary grades is less forma and more flexible than that of succeeding years Miss Hill’s work has profoundly affected th course of kindergarten and primary educatiotr throughout the country in the direction of a free! and more democratic type of organization. Recently she has been attempting to apply thi principles of behaviorist psychology to curriculun making and has worked out with her associates ; series of activities designed to develop prope: habits, physical, mental, emotional, and social! With the help of several hundred leaders in kin dergarten and primary education a “habit inven tory” was first produced listing specific habits which the majority agreed young children shoul¢ form. As this inventory was used, Miss Hill dis. covered that the supervisors and classroom teach: s “began to think of all instruction in terms of desirable change in thought, feeling, and con duct.” The principles of habit formation wer¢ thus gradually applied to all school subjects. “The proper conduct of the three R’s became as evider’ 2A Conduct Curriculum for the Kindergarten and Firs Grade.” By Agnes Burke, Edith U. Conard, Alice Dal gliesh, Edna V. Hughes, Mary E. Rankin, Alice G. Thora Charlotte G. Garrison, Teachers of Horace Mann School Introduction by Patty Smith Hill. Charles Scribner’s Sons 1924. THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 133 is the so-called moral and social conduct.” This esulted in regarding each aspect of the curricu- um, not as a formal school subject, but as a so- fal situation rich in activities and experiences. Thus acquired, the habit takes on meaning and is ‘ssociated in the mind of the child with a sense satisfaction or pleasure. _ The basis for what Miss Hill calls her conduct urriculum is indubitably sound, and most of the Ctivities listed in her book are wholesome and roperly selected. There is always the danger, owever, as Miss Hill herself recognizes, that the ery explicit aims set down by her group will be sed not as means of wider freedom but of more pression. Unhappily the moralists and discipli- arians manage to function, no matter what in- ‘rument is put into their hands. Their natural sndencies are not likely to be checked by the fol- ywing list of “desirable” changes in thought, feel- ig, and conduct which should be developed: Learning to enter room politely,’ ‘Greeting ‘achers and children courteously,” “Gaining an ‘titude of respect and obedience toward parents ad other adults,” “Learning to use time wisely, 2., balance between quiet and active work’’ (what yung child consciously strikes such a balance?). 1 “coming to group for discussion and music,” ‘e desirable change stressed is “learning to se- 134 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD lect right-sized chair and to carry chair properly.” These imposed standards of conduct explain much of what one observes upon visiting the pri- mary classes of the Horace Mann School. Wash- ing the hands before the mid-day luncheon became in one room an event of awful import, where si- lence was enjoined and order kept absolute. Later, the rest period, where the children were expected to relax, became a quarter hour of ex- asperated nagging by the teacher to enforce im- mobility upon thirty wriggling youngsters. The upper grades of the school make no pre- tense of free activity. The standards upheld are those which have the weight and sanctity of tra- dition behind them, but individual teachers are al- lowed a high degree of personal initiative, and a variety of experiments have been carried on, espe- cially in method, which are of distinct value. Scientific pedagogy has an important place im education, and schools everywhere are indebted to the researches made by Teachers College and ap- plied in the Horace Mann School. It would be stimulating to those interested in adapting educa- tion to the needs of growth if the teachings of Dewey and Kilpatrick were applied more gen- erally to the curriculum itself. The aim of the Lincoln School, as described by its director, Dr. Otis W. Caldwell, is “to construct THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 135 | fundamental curriculum which will be repre- entative of the important activities, interests, and vossibilities of modern life.” In remaking a cur- iculum, reliance must be placed not upon the udgment of textbook writers and individual eachers, but rather upon objective studies of hu- aan needs. The school has been in existence only ight years, but has already effected a number of horoughgoing changes in the course of study. “hese results have been made available to teach- ts throughout the country. | Chief among them is the revision of subject 1atter in the social studies, in junior high school 1athematics and in science for the upper ele- tentary grades. In all these subjects, new texts ave been prepared which are a vast improvement ver anything hitherto existing in these fields. )f special interest is the work of Dr. Harold ‘ugg, who has abolished the artificial divisions xisting between history, geography, civics, eco- omics, and sociology, and grouped the material nder one natural heading—social studies—de- gned to help the student to understand and deal itelligently with the problems of contemporary fe. Dr. Rugg’s approach to his job is that of the tientist. His twelve social science pamphlets, hich embody for the junior high school the ma- 136 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD terial as worked out to date, have been assembled after years of painstaking analysis, inventory making, trial use, and revision. The Lincoln School has obtained the codperation of over one hundred schools scattered throughout the country which make use of the new curricular material and test out its results as compared with those of classes following the ordinary courses. Besides breaking down unnatural subdivisions between al- lied fields of knowledge, Dr. Rugg has substi- tuted human episodes for the encyclopedic re- hearsal of bare facts. The course is thus not only enormously enriched and vitalized, but chil- dren are stimulated to weigh and discuss the value of one episode as compared with another, to draw their own conclusions, and test the validity of data. Dr. Rugg holds that it is only through such practice that the future citizen will resort to intelligence instead of prejudice as a guide to conduct. | Besides the junior high school pamphlets, Dr. Rugg’s department has made a number of other studies. One deals with the crucial problems and conditions of contemporary life, as a basis for determining what people ought to know about the industrial, political and cultural world and what tendencies to action the school should set up. Another study has been made of “frontier thin | THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 137 5 ers,” those whose insight and judgments most profoundly interpret contemporary life and con- duct. An investigation is also under way to de- termine what historical movements, epochs, events, conditions and persons are of greatest im- portance for adequate understanding of present day conditions and problems. Curricular reform of this kind, Dr. Rugg holds, is basic to social progress. With Wells he be- lieves that the current order is witnessing “‘a race between education and catastrophe.” * Unless the schools can produce a generation of informed, thinking, socially disposed citizens, catastrophe is likely to overtake us. A dynamic curriculum in our schools is imperative. What such a curricu- lum would be like has been described for us by Dr. Rugg in a recent monograph. It would be, he says, “a curriculum which deals in a rich vivid manner with the modes of living of people all over the earth; which is full of throbbing anecdotes of human life. A curriculum which will set forth the crucial facts about the local community in which the pupils live; one which will interpret for them the chief features of the basic resources and industries upon which their lives depend in a 8 “Objective Studies in Map Location,” by Harold Rugg and John Hockett, published by The Lincoln School of Teachers College, 1925. 138 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD fragile, interdependent world; one which will in- troduce them to modes of living of other peoples, —the English, the French, the German for ex- ample, as typical of the industrialism of the west- ern world, the Russians, Chinese, and the peoples of South America—types of those who live under an agricultural economy, but whose modes of living in succeeding generations will become more and more like those of the industrial world. A curriculum which will enable pupils to visualize the problems set up by human migration, one which will provide them with an opportunity to study and think critically about the form of demo- cratic government under which they are living and to compare it with the forms of government of other peoples. A curriculum which will not only inform, but will constantly have as its ideal the development of an attitude of sympathetic toler- | ance and of critical open-mindedness. A curricu- | lum which is built around a core of pupils’ activi- | ties—studies of their home community, special reading and original investigation, a constantly growing stream of opportunities for participation in open-forum discussion, debate, and exchange of ideas. A curriculum consisting of a carefully graded organization of problems and exercises, one which recognizes the need for providing defi- nite and systematic practice upon socially valuable — THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 139 skills. A curriculum which deals courageously _and intelligently with the issues of modern life and which utilizes in their study the cultural and industrial as well as the political history of their development. A curriculum which is constructed on a problem-solving organization, providing con- tinuous practice in choosing between alternatives, in making decisions, in drawing generalizations. Finally a curriculum which so makes use of dy- ‘namic episodical materials illustrating great fun- damental humanitarian themes that by constant contact with it children will grow in wise insights and attitudes and, constructively but critically, will be influenced to put their ideas sanely into action. “Such a proposed curriculum will sound vision- ary to many workers in our schools. Neverthe- less, ten years of close contact with curriculum- construction convince one that the characteristics ‘described can be produced. Their attainment will ‘require the deepest vision and the clearest think- ing our American educational scheme can bring forth. Hard intellectual work will be demanded of many persons. Most important of all, at the present juncture, will be the necessity of a more truly experimental attitude than is now common among those who control curriculum making.” More than a score of other curricular investi- I40 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD gations are in progress in the Lincoln School. Notable work has already been done in revising content and method in teaching reading, spelling, English composition, high school literature, his- tory, modern languages, industrial arts, music,— in fact in practically every subject in every grade, | some degree of experimentation is going on. Four guiding principles have been defined by | Dr. Caldwell as fundamental to the reorganiza- tion of any school subject: Subject matter and method must be engaging and genuine; pupils must succeed if they are to become educated ; sense training is necessary (at present education is based too much on words and too little on touch, sight, and taste); children should be encouraged to work together and teach one another. These principles find expression in a variety of ways in the school. The curriculum of the ele- mentary school has not been subjected to the same analysis and study as that of the upper grades, || but the class teachers are afforded much freedom for experimentation. The primary rooms usually present a pleasant hubbub of activity. They are | large, sunny, and equipped with all manner of | materials—a work bench, lumber and tools, a candi | board for stage scenery, with a white rabbit or two rambling about at will. A play is frequently | ; ¢. 4 pile, large blocks, clay, paints, and large card- | THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS I4I in preparation and the children are busy com- posing it, painting the scenery, constructing build- ings and furniture, and issuing invitations to par- ents and friends. One first grade recently drama- tized the marketing of milk, while the second grade gave a play about New York, with sky- scrapers, bridges, and elevated tracks complete. This play grew out of many months of work with a city made out of boxes, which was one of the important centers of interest of the grade, and around which much valuable subject matter was built. The work continued all through the year, and supplied opportunities and meaning for much of the arithmetic, English and reading. For ex- ample, rulers were used to find the lengths, widths, centers and heights of things. A great deal of work in proportions was necessary to judge the proper size of trains, furniture, cars, and trolleys to be right for the dolls who used them. Ques- tions like the following constantly arose: “How much cloth is needed for the grocery store awn- ing?’ “How can we space the posts evenly for the railway fence; how get the posts all the same size?’ Scientific problems also were discussed, “What are the reasons and methods for preserv- ing foods in cities?’ “How does it happen we have so much pure water?’ “How are streets kept clean?” Excursions were taken to many I42 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD parts of the city to gain needed information, to the post office, to wholesale markets, to railroad stations, and warehouses.* Field work is an essential part of the activities of each grade. Last year over a hundred excur- sions were taken to museums, parks, factories, bridges, bakeries, markets, railway terminals, municipal and office buildings, pasteurization plants, hospitals, newspaper plants, various ex- hibits, etc., etc. In the earliest grades, the chil- dren frequently record their impressions of their trips in story or diary form. These records are mimeographed and bound in loose-leaf booklets, and later used as class reading material. Other activities following a trip may be: painting pic- tures, designs on paper or in wood or clay, map making, cooking, sewing, library reference work, collections of pictures, block play, exhibit for other pupils. The second grade children visited a vegetable farm on Long Island to discover the source of city supplies. The fourth grade went to a saw mill to supplement their study of lum- ber. Some of the older girls visited a mother and baby in their apartment to study the science of baby care at first hand. A seventh grade made #“Making a Play City,” by Katherine L. Keelor, “Pro- gressive Education,” June, July, August, 1924. . THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 143 ‘Surveys of housing and street conditions in va- rious sections of the city. Another valuable means for supplementing and making real class activities, and of presenting ma- terial in vivid form is supplied through the school assemblies, at which a variety of programs is given by the children relating to their own spe- ‘cial interests. So popular have the assemblies be- come that a weekly period has been set aside for them. Four general types have been developed: ‘Class studies assemblies, codperative assemblies by several grades, current interest assemblies, and programs by outside artists and specialists. A ninth grade gave an assembly to tell the high school what they were doing in each subject, the high school seniors gave a poetry reading, greatly enjoyed by the elementary grades, the first grade gave a program of Christina Rossetti poems, the fourth grade gave a geography assembly. A num- ber of grades combined to give pottery and fine arts assemblies. These assembly periods are very different from the kind usually conducted in the ordinary schools, where the children recite set pieces, or render songs or instrumental music, made wooden and ifeless by drill, Every program in the Lincoln School assembly bears vital relation to what the 144 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD children themselves are doing. The children are! so intimately concerned, that describing it to others becomes a comparatively easy matter and pupils of tender years soon learn to stand with- out self-consciousness before a large audience and present material accurately, naturally and inter- estingly. | Less valuable—so it seems to a visitor—are the student councils, which were organized to! afford machinery for a limited amount of student! self government. Meetings are held weekly and! conducted according to the laws of parliamentary) procedure. While the older children undoubtedly enjoy and benefit from them, the councils decided-| ly bear the impress of an adult conceived and adult imposed activity. During the past year the| practice was fortunately abandoned of requiring minutes and attendance of delegates from the’ first three grades, | It is to be expected that as the Lincoln School! experiment develops, other reasonable modifica- | tions will be made in accordance with the require-) ments of child interest and growth. Up to the!) present, the main emphasis of the school has beeni| upon scientific curriculum making, to evolve a) curriculum more closely related to the needs of! modern society. While certain of the elementary | grades are experimenting with free activity, there| THREE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 145 re many teachers on the staff who insist that here must be a known goal and systematic di- ‘ection of the child’s growth towards that goal. fo quote Dr. Rugg once more: “. . . if growth s to be properly directed, the curriculum maker ‘must be oriented so as to have his eyes set con- tantly on the society into which the child is grow- ng.” In accordance with this ideal, no pains and no expense have been spared to provide the children vith the proper setting. The building of the Lincoln School is in itself a kind of testimonial ‘o that great and orderly society in which its pupils may be expected to play a leading role. The halls are of marble, and of noble proportions. ‘n them under glass, are many exhibits of the shildren’s work. The science laboratories are ‘quipped with the latest and most modern appara- us. There are splendid swimming pools, gymna- sia, yard and roof playgrounds. Intimacy, which some people feel is a first requisite for child de- velopment, is of course gone, save as it can be tetained by certain more gifted teachers in their alassrooms. The school has an institutional flavor in common with the Ethical Culture and Horace Mann Schools, and in common also with the public schools throughout the country, which it was organized to serve. Yet much that goes 146 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD on within the walls of the Lincoln institution is liberating. It is of vital importance to cut away the dead wood of a course of study and start out with fresh modern material. But curricular re- form, after all, is only a fractional part of edu- cational progress. The human spirit is not fed by mental pabulum alone, even the best that can be devised. It has a way of eluding even the worst. The great experiment of the Lincoln) School remains yet to be made, that of studying’ and watching the growth and development of chil- dren under conditions of real—not institutional —freedom. ooo ha Xx FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD I AT its annual meeting in 1924 an ambitious droposal was made by the Teachers Union of New York. Following an intensive study of the ‘eading private experimental schools in and near he city, the union has prepared and submitted to he city board of education a scheme for estab- ishing a similar experimental center in the pub- ic-school system. The proposal deserves particu- ar consideration because it comes not from out- iders but from a group of workers who have la- sored long to apply the ordinary methods of in- truction. These methods, according to the union, lave brought public-school education to a condi- jon of stagnation. Children are turned into utomatons by the artificial discipline of drill as n end in itself; they are robbed of their child- ood by having to conform to adult standards of Aought and behavior; their individual and crea- ve tendencies are smothered by the rigid curricu- im to which all must submit; they soon develop 147 148 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD antagonistic attitudes toward their work, towar< their teacher, their associates, and life in gen eral. In the school which the union seeks to have established ‘the boys and girls will reconstruc their experiences in a boys’ or girls’ world. . . The environment will be such as to liberate anc organize their capacities through self-initiated self-directed, whole-hearted, purposeful activities In this way they will be able to experience thi sheer joy of living. The curriculum will be a: varied, rich, and fluid as life itself.” The unior observes that in experimental schools conducted or this basis children learn the “fundamentals’’—the three R’s—better than under the traditiona methods. This has been determined by the use of objective standardized tests. The many othe gains made by the children become apparent i one makes the slightest examination of what these newer schools have to offer. The experimental centers which served as mod: els for the union’s program included the City ané Country School and the Walden School in New York City. The City and Country School was founded (as the Play School) by Caroline Pratt it 1914. The Walden School was started by Mar- garet Naumburg in 1916 and is now directed by Margaret Pollitzer and Elizabeth Goldsmith. Te {I ¥ KG dah FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 149 the extent that they serve to revitalize and raise the standard of public-school procedure, these schools have a significance far beyond the educa- tion of the limited number of children who at- tend them. In both schools, questions relating to curricu- lum are of secondary consideration and emphasis is laid upon the child’s present needs and his in- nate capacities and interests. The outstanding purpose is to help the children to evolve a world of their own in which they will think, act, and ex- press themselves on their own level. Book learn- ing as an end is discouraged, especially in the early years, for it represents at best vicarious experiences. Instead, children are given every Dpportunity to obtain first-hand contact with the world about them and are given ample and va- fied materials with which to express their own fresh reactions to these contacts. This involves, xf course, the abandonment of fixed recitation eriods, of assigned lessons, of immovable desks ind immovable children. Freedom from con- itraint, however, does not mean that the pupils ‘run wild.” Indeed, they hold to their self- thosen tasks with a concentration and absorption ‘arely found in the ordinary schoolroom, where he slightest interruption—the flapping of a blind w the creaking of a door—is sufficient to shift I50 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD the whole base of the attention of the class. To those inured to the stereotyped and poverty- stricken responses of children brought up in the conventional environment, the creative achieve- ment of the pupils of these newer schools seems almost incredible. This is most dramatically evi- dent in the field of the plastic arts, where the work in drawing, painting, and pottery achieves a standard of high professional merit. Striking work is done in music, in rhythm, and in imagina- tive writing. Characteristic of these schools are the length. ening of the school day and the extension of the school’s influence to the earliest years of child- hood. With the growing recognition on the part of psychologists, physicians, and child-welfare workers generally of the supreme importance of infancy and earliest childhood, nursery schools have been established in many centers which are concerned with studying early growth and habit formation and making certain that they proceed | along wholesome lines. The Walden school. ad- cational Experiments “oraduates” its youngsters _ into Miss Pratt’s school when they reach the age) of three. Both schools also maintain a careful and scientific system of record-keeping, covering - FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD I5I every possible detail of procedure and of individ- ual and social development. Since the schools ‘are experimental these records are invaluable as ‘means of checking achievement, as well as for the light they shed on hitherto unexplored fields of child growth. _ While the two schools have thus much in com- mon, their method of approach is very different. In so far as classification is possible for either, it may be said that the City and Country School hhas been influenced by the teaching of behaviorist psychology and the Walden School by that of analytic psychology. Now the psychologist who is concerned chiefly with the science of human be- havior declares that the individual can be trained to withstand most of the shocks and disasters of life by being properly “conditioned” in early childhood—by having the right instead of the wrong sensory stimuli presented to him and ac- quiring early the proper habits of response. The analytic psychologist is also concerned with child- hood, btit chiefly because of the mechanism of the unconscious to which he believes are relegated the unpleasant incidents of life, especially those of early youth. Now, it will not do to draw any fine psychologi- al distinctions between the City and Country and Walden schools, but in general terms it might be 152 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD said that the former is interested in what chil- dren do, how they act, and what use they make of their environment, whereas the latter school is mostly concerned with underlying motive and_ emotional make-up. This does not mean that one school hopes to develop objective and the other subjective types of people, nor that in one school children will grow up mainly interested in mate- rials and in the other mainly interested in intro- spective and personal relationships, but the dif- ferences between the two schools have this gen- eral trend. | Miss Pratt’s behaviorist “slant” is well shown in these sentences from her book on the City and Country School, published by E. P. Dutton: We are not willing to be dominated or have the children dominated by subject matter. We wish them to form strong habits of first-hand research and to use what they find; we want them to dis- cover relationships in concrete matter so that they | will know that they exist when they deal with abstract forms. We want them to have a fine motor experience because they themselves are mo- tor and to get and retain what they get through | bodily perceptions. Miss Pratt has developed her curriculum very much more completely than has the Walden School. As the result of ten years’ testing of her | — i = aL SO a Se ery pee ae — eee. ALLL DAL DLL LAELIA A | FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 153 theories she is now prepared to assert that certain ; activities are better performed at certain age levels ‘than at others. For example, seven-year-old chil- “dren in her school always have for their main enterprise for the year the building of a minia- ture city in permanent form, just as at six they “Teproduce the city in block form. At seven, the children construct wooden houses, which they paint, furnish, and wire, they lay out streets, trol- ley lines, and waterways with a full quota of boats, At eight, the children run the supply store for the school, taking complete charge of all orders and accounting for the money. While not an advo- cate of formal programs, Miss Pratt believes that the programs of successive years should bear defi- nite relationship to one another and that one year’s ‘activities should grow naturally from those of the years preceding. At seven, she also has the children begin their work in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Before that age is reached they have acquired some number sense and a limited ability to recognize written symbols. But at seven, she ‘has discovered, they become more concerned with Tealities, their drive becomes more conscious, they emerge from the merely play world, and desire to © be taught. To those who have made a fetish of Sugar-coating the three R’s, the story of one youngster is instructive. She reported enthusi- 154 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD astically to her mother one day that spelling was her favorite subject. When her mother inquired whether that was because of some new way of teaching it the child replied: “Oh, no, Miss —— | just says do it, and we do it!” When standard achievement tests are applied, Miss Pratt’s children always show up extremely well in the formal subjects. In the record of the eight-year-old group appended to this chapter are the scores attained in reading and arithmetic. Only two of the class fell below the level for their age; four read as well as ten-year-old chil- dren;-two as well as eleven years old, and one as well as thirteen years. The arithmetic scores were not quite as superior because the business of store keeping had caused the children to mark off two decimal places, where none belonged. Every child however was up to grade, and seven ranged from one to three grades ahead. A recent comparison of problems solved by Miss Pratt’s children and those of a very efficient demonstration school, showed that Miss Pratt’s children excelled in originality in ways of problem solving, but fell somewhat below in speed and accuracy. During the winter of 1924-25 a special arithmetic teacher was appointed to be on the lookout for opportuni-| ties for teaching necessary arithmetic to help chil- dren do better the activities they have initiated. a FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 155 One boy for instance, failed after many weeks of work to make the motor in his toy motor boat function (both motor and boat were constructed by him in the school shop). His failure was due to faulty arithmetic in making calculations. Miss Pratt’s attitude towards the results of the tests is illuminating: “They prove the teacher’s ability to train these youngsters in the specific things they will have to know in carrying out a future program. They have little to do with the education of the children....A person is trained by another, but he educates himself. If we could once get that idea into the consciousness of our parenthood and our teacherhood, the revo- lution in our school procedure would be imme- diate.” + Opportunities for this self-education are every- where present. “Information” which the tradi- ‘tional school holds so dear, is acquired naturally as the children carry on their enterprises. Miss Stott’s record amply proves this. The coveted post of cashier or messenger in the group store could not be held by children unable to perform ‘the necessary operations in arithmetic. Geog- raphy may be said to start with the three and four -year olds. The little ones learn to go about the 1 “Experimental Practice in the City and Country School,” by Caroline Pratt, E. P. Dutton, 1924. 156 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD school and to locate their room with reference to the rest of the building. Later they venture out into the streets and locate the school. Excursions to parks, markets, docks, bridges, public build- ings broaden their knowledge of their immediate world and furnish material for reconstruction in block, clay, story, or pictorial form. ‘Their in- quiries about everything with which they come into contact leads to their acquiring an immense amount of information not found in textbooks. Miss Pratt is far less interested in having the children learn the States of the Union and their capitals than to have them discover the interrela- tion of different parts of trade and industry and our dependence upon them. “In building a body of what the schools call ‘general information’ un- related to the child’s experience, they build of straw.” The six-year-old group who paid re- peated visits to a Cuban steamer each time it docked accumulated a vivid store of matérial about Cuba which formal instruction would never have provided. There are, of course, certain matters in Miss Pratt’s school about which perhaps more dis- cussion is needed. It is possible that under less wise leadership Miss Pratt’s insistence upon pro- gram-making might result in too great formalism. — One might also question whether the very com- pace Se FOLLOWING THE CHILD'S LEAD 157 plete classification of children by chronological age and the formulating of activities according to varying age levels is not injecting something at once spurious and artificial. The intelligence test- ers have made us all sensitive to the question of “age,” but obviously a child is an individual first and a given age second, and it is as an individual with his abilities and disabilities that he has first claim on our attention. Advances in analytic psychology may also modify Miss Pratt’s very emphatic contention that there is something “‘un- fortunate” about a child who does not “attack” materials, but instead has his interest ‘‘riveted”’ in people. Miss Pratt has also been occasionally criticized for limiting the development of imagination by keeping the children too much in the present and giving them too much concrete material. Her an- swer is that the first-hand experiences of children contain the factual elements necessary to art. “Vivid auditory and perceptive images come from vivid experiences.” Children who can observe deeply, whose interests are kept alive, and who remain sensitive to.new impressions cannot be lacking in imaginative power. As a matter of fact, the imaginative plays, drawings, and writings of the older groups in the school are of a high order. The twelve-year-old class has recently 158 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD given a performance of Euripides’s “Alcestis” which would do credit to maturer students. Their back-drop and costumes, their original music. played on lyres made in the school-shop were de- lightfully executed. There is, thinks Miss Pratt, too much vicarious living, too much vicarious en- joyment in our civilization. Children if taken young enough and helped to develop their own creative purposes will establish habits of being motivated from within, which is the only way in which original and artistic work can be achieved. II The following record was written by the group teacher, Miss Leila V. Stott, of the activities of the eight-year-old children for the month of April, 1924. It is preceded by a few paragraphs from the October record bearing on the beginning of — the store, which as has been already indicated, is — the central activity of the year. The record has value in many ways. It an- | swers specifically at least for the group and the month covered, the question, what kind of things go on in an experimental school? It also shows how fruitfully the interests of children lead to worth while activities not only in dramatization, | music, dancing, painting, pottery or music, but Sl RS Aa ——— FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 159 ‘in the more formal fields of reading, writing, l “number work, geography and history, as well. EXCERPTS FROM THE RECORD OF Group VIII From the October, 1924, record. THE STORE | The group came to school prepared to under- take the business of running a stationery store, as ‘last year’s VIII’s did, to sell supplies to other “school groups. They had already met with last year’s class, last spring, and agreed to buy the stock left over as well as certain store fixtures such as shelves and counter. There was some dis- ‘cussion about this as some of the children wanted to make their own fixtures, but others thought it important to have the store ready to open as soon as possible. This view prevailed so it was de- cided to buy all the supplies offered. The group borrowed $50 from the school office as capital and gave a promissory note in return. Their first business on returning to school was the taking of ‘an inventory to check up the supplies found in the store with the list left by last year’s class. The Various items as reported by the children were written for them on the board and copied by each child in order to have individual copies of the 160 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD whole inventory. Several suggestions were made for improving the store equipment, including a plan for a better show case. Mr. Reber was called in for consultation and time in the shop arranged for. After discussion of all the prepa- rations necessary, it was decided to open the store on Monday, the 8th, and letters announe- ing the opening were written and sent to all the classes in the school. Several posters were also started, but only Vera’s was finished in time and posted on the store door. Two trips were taken to get prices and supplies found to be needed and the group also had a call from a salesman who wanted to supply our needs. We gave him sam- ples and asked him to submit prices. It was found we would need certain class supplies like pencils and account books preliminary to opening the store, so we drew from the school office, $10 for our October allowance and opened the store for a private sale. This necessitated opening books for the store and for the class, and the first treasurers and bookkeepers were chosen by me for their facility in the necessary techniques. We decided to choose each week a class treasurer, sales bookkeeper and expense bookkeeper so that all might share in the experience. All the group practiced writing sales slips, writing columns of price numbers from dictation and adding. / FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 161 | When the store opened on October 8th, the ‘class was divided into five committees of three each, one committee to have charge of the store ‘each day so that every child served once a week. . A student teacher helped in the store during ‘the first two weeks. Each Friday the books are balanced. The class book is taken because it is simple and the class writes the totals from this dictation and adds. Results are compared and ‘corrections made where necessary. The treas- urer then announces the amount received at the beginning of the week and each child calculates by counting up from total spent the amount that Should be in the cash box. Leonard who was first tlass treasurer, on finding himself two pennies short, decided at once to make a new cash box as the one left us by last year’s class had cracks. He produced a box admired by all for its fine workmanship. After the class accounts are settled, the store dooks are attacked in the same way, the book- keepers reading the totals for each day and the test adding individually. When different results are reported, all go over the work to discover which is right until unanimity is reached. The subtraction of the expense total from the amount received is done by me on the board and explained, out the children often calculate the difference men- : tally by counting up from expense total to total receipts. Counting of the actual cash at the end of the first week revealed the serious deficit of | $4.90. This was discussed by all and as the box 162 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD had been carefully padlocked the possibility of theft was dismissed, and carelessness in making change or making entries in the book was held responsible. As one instance was known where $1.00 too much had been given in change and returned by a teacher, this seemed a probable ex- planation and pointed to the necessity for more practice in making change. The new show case was finished and equipped with an electric light by Walter with help from Herbert, the new paper rack was finished by | Walter and the girls took much pleasure in ar-_ ranging the stocks and putting on the price labels. Every one wrote an individual price list from a copy I put on the board and the two lists easiest — to read were posted in the store. Prices of goods bought from last year’s class were taken from their price list and new goods bought by us were marked at the usual retail price. Tables of crayon prices (.02) up to a dozen were posted in the store and also prices for large drawing paper (.03 a sheet), erasers (.05), pads (.06) and pen- cils (.07). As only the 2 table is universally known, these lists are important aids to sales- : FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 163 “men. All the classes have been asked to order ahead by mail in order to avoid delays in the store and the reading of the daily business mail is an important part of the morning business meeting. ‘Tt has brought out a decided preference for print Over script writing. Business letters have been written to outside firms by Herbert and Alice and have brought answers and the supplies ordered. The election of bookkeepers has brought out the need for a test of capacity. Leonard ques- tioned Nell’s fitness on the ground that she used “scribbly writing.” Nell claimed to be able to write in print, too, and Leonard demanded evi- dence before voting. Both candidates were asked to do some specimen writing on the board and the class voted with the evidence before them. The trimming of the show case, cleaning up of the store each day, arrangement of stock, the counting of money in the cash box, have all been full of real play interest. RECORD FOR APRIL, 1924 I. Play Experiences ORGANIZED GAMES There has been a great development of inter- est in baseball this month. Walter, Edna and 164 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Margery are the leading spirits and have prac: ticed alone when there were not enough player: for a real game, but with the encouragement fron me the whole class has joined in the enthusiasr and has divided into two sides headed respectively by Margery and Walter for daily practice. Jason in spite of interest in the game has been so di. verted by the attraction of play in the “rive yard,” that he did not give much time to bas« ball until, by Miss Pratt’s advice, I announcec that the river yard would be open to Group VII) only during the noon and after school session This new ruling brought Leonard and Harry alsc into the regular baseball practice and althougl these two did not so obviously need the disciplin« of organized games as Jason, it is making for < better group spirit to have their interest keen in the games. As both these boys stay for the after school time, they are not losing their op- portunity for the quieter kind of dramatic play with trains. Next to Margery, Alice has be- come most enthusiastic of all the girls over base- ball, but Vera and Emma play regularly, and Ver2 and Jane are considered better players than Alice Grace and Bertha were also considered valuable assets to a team, but have been absent so muck that they have had little practice this month. Vera usually announces she is not going to play. FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 165 ‘but when this is accepted without comment, ‘changes her mind and asks for a place in the game. Nell and Elizabeth like to play, but dread the criticism of the others as neither succeeds in bat- ting the ball at all. Walter, as captain of one side, has shown real interest in coaching Elizabeth and does it in a very nice spirit. Ellis finds it hard to see himself in the unusual position of being excelled by Walter and Margery, but takes this salutary experience well with only occasional long- ings for soccer instead of baseball. Walter, Ja- son, Margery and Alice were raised into seventh heaven one day by being taken into a practice game of the XII’s. There has also been some basket ball practice in the gymnasium on rainy days, especially by Walter, Harry, Jane, Elsa and Margery. Nell, Elizabeth and Grace still cling exclusively to the "ings. PLAY WITH BIG MATERIALS The first time the “Covered Wagon” play was aken up again after vacation, the children found hemselves so hopelessly stale on it that they igreed with relief to. my suggestion to drop it. ater on, however, interest revived among the rirls, and there seemed to be a feeling of incom- 166 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD pletion after all the work on costumes, so the whole group discussed the situation and agreed to give the play but to make certain changes in parts. All the boys and Alice wanted to make changes and the boys also suggested a new Indian scene in an Iroquois Long House. Jason, Harry and Leonard dressed up as Indians and worked out spontaneously a very good pantomime of de- parture on a deer hunt and return with a deer. This was, of course, suggested by the original Indian play they made up earlier in the year, but Leonard added details drawn from the story of Apauk which he has been re-reading alone, deal- ing with the Indian’s fast and dream in order to get “good medicine” for the hunt. MAP MAKING The introduction of some plasticine the last week of the month led to a wave of enthusiasm for making relief maps. The first maps were of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys with Catskill and Adirondack Mountains, and including Lakes George and Champlain and sometimes the Green Mountains beyond. The divides between the Hudson Valley and Lake Champlain and between the Mohawk and the Oswego Rivers were always FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 167 indicated though the latter river is not known by “name. No two maps of course are exactly alike, but “nearly all begin from the northern end of Man- hattan and show the Palisades. Fort Orange, or Albany, as it is called interchangeably, is also in- dicated on these maps and sometimes part of ‘Lake Erie and some of the N ew York State Lakes. Streams flowing into the Hudson and Mohawk feature in all maps and all water is ‘painted blue. Walter also made a map of Man- hattan and the surrounding territory including Staten Island, Long Island, the Sound and Upper Bay and marked subway routes and bridges to Brooklyn. Nell and Elizabeth followed suit. El- lis, Jason and Harry branched out into maps of South America featuring the Andes and the Ama- zon River with Para at its mouth. N early every one took up this idea next, rejoicing over the easy coast line of South America as compared with the irregularities of North America. Consultation of maps resulted in the spontaneous addition of the La Plata River and the Brazilian Highlands ind the location of Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro ind the cattle ranches of Brazil. The accidental eaving of a strip of low land west of the Andes n Vera’s map led to my recognition of it as Chile, 168 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD and it now appears on all maps. Emma had heard of the A. B. C. republics so I explained the three names and showed how they belonged roughly to these three divisions that appear on their maps. Cape Horn and the Panama Canal are universally featured. Harry made the most beautiful map of » all and adorned it with such significant symbols as a cow on the Brazilian highland, a steamer on an indicated course from Buenos Aires (where it got meat) to Para (for rubber), and off Cape Horn, a mast schooner. Jason, on the other hand, objects to all such play symbols and wants a “real map.” Both he and Walter have shown a more sustained and concentrated interest in this than any other activity except store and baseball. With the exception of the store and dramatics, no other activity has been shared so completely by the whole group, girls and boys alike, as this map making. Clay has been used when the supply of plasticine gave out, but is unsatisfactory for per- manent results. DRAWING AND PAINTING Leonard was still eager to draw when he first. came back after the holidays, but talked so much he could accomplish nothing. I therefore insisted | on his drawing alone in the store if he wanted to FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 169 ‘draw at all. He protested violently at first, but the results were so good that he became interested and soon took voluntarily to the store, asking to have the door closed to insure greater quiet. Later on however a new enthusiasm for reading rele- gated drawing for the first time to a very subor- dinate position. The forest scenery for the play was finished by him with the assistance of Jane, Margery, Jason and Harry, but the only real enthusiasm for drawing this month has been on the part of Nell, Elizabeth, Emma, Vera and Elise who worked all the first two weeks whenever they had a chance on the interiors of houses. Nell’s results were particularly good as in her ex- teriors of last month and she started the fashion of pasting her pictures together in long suites of rooms to make up a whole house plan. Mr. Zo- rach was much interested in these designs of hers when he came in one day for a special painting period. I had asked him to come in because I felt that Leonard and Ellis and Jason were rather at a standstill in their drawing and painting and perhaps needed help in technique, and all the children needed some stimulus toward a bolder and freer use of their materials. Leonard had already started on a large painting of a scene in the interior of a Log House inspired by his plan for the new act in the play and Mr. Zorach’s en- 170 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD couragement gave him new inspiration. Ellis re- sponded, too, with a large scale painting of a bear followed by one of the Amazon jungle. He consulted pictures of palm trees for details in this latter picture and asked me many questions too about the kinds of growth and the animals to be found there. Mr. Zorach admired a color effect Emma had produced in a small painting and asked her to repeat it on a large scale which she did very successfully in the first large painting she has made this year. Alice attempted a large scale drawing of an Indian with his Long House in the background, but was dissatisfied with it and un- willing to finish it. Walter has done two large crayon drawings, one a map begun by Leonard and turned over to Walter at the latter’s request, and the second a very good ship coming head on, probably copied from one of Ellis’ on the wall. It showed, however, great improvement in technique and a gain in confidence as well. The week be- fore Easter was marked by a passion for making Easter cards on the part of five girls. They made them on order for other children as well as for themselves. The same kind of work on decora- tive designs, small scale illustrations and illumi- nated letters has gone into much of their making of books. FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 171 : POTTERY AND CLAY MODELING Much less time than formerly has been spent ‘by the girls in this kind of work, but Nell has ‘produced a very good tea pot which has been fired and she has finished and glazed a pitcher and su- gar bowl as well. Jane spent a good deal of time working alone one week when drops in her eyes ‘prevented her from joining many other kinds of work, and she made a life size rabbit which she painted and took home for an Easter present. She also made a grotesque head which she de- tided to name the Hunch Back of Notre Dame. Ellis has done a good deal of modeling, always of animals. His white seal, inspired by Kipling’s story, and a model of a python strangling a deer particularly show a stirring of the imagination as well as remarkable technique. II. Practical Experience STORE | i Interest holds so universally that there is a strong protest from the store committee against aking trips in the morning and missing store ‘ime. Twice, however, this protest has been met dy the agreement to let the committee that lost ts turn substitute for absent members of other 172 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD committees and volunteers from Group IX have kept store for us so that we could have extra time for trips. Jason asks regularly to have special number work given him in free time or at home so. that he can act as special messenger for the store when needed. Leonard continues enthusias- tic about all bookkeeping and cashier work and is very accurate in adding long columns, some- times saving sales slips for two days to enter all at once in order to get a longer column to add. He was absent the last day before book balanc- ing, so I asked for a volunteer to get the books written up to date, and Walter responded not so much from interest in the job as from realization that it had to be done before the books could be balanced. Nell, who is better than most of the group in the technique of arithmetic (familiarity with combinations, tables, etc.), still becomes easily confused in actual store work, cannot bal- ance her accounts as cashier without help and has difficulty counting out the right amount of change, — though she readily calculates in her head the amount needed. Bertha, on the other hand, was so clear in her thinking that when she found the cash in the box 2 cents short of the amount | shown by her book, she at once put her finger | on the difficulty by admitting she had changed | one sales slip from 10 cents to 12 cents because | ee i FOLLOWING THE CHILD'S LEAD 173 , She thought the wrong price had been charged. _ She produced the slip on which she had made a /note of her correction. Mistakes in spelling on Sales slips are usually noted by all bookkeepers _and the slips are given back to the person respon- _ sible, to be corrected. SHOP Walter and Jane finally finished the cashier’s cage and installed it in the store amid universal approval. It consists of three frames covered /with chicken wire and fastened together with hinges so that it surrounds the cashier’s table on three sides. It has, of course, a window in front ‘through which money is handed in and out. Emma and Vera finished the frame for scenery and have mounted the latter. Walter and Ellis both made swords—for no school purpose—and Wal- ter continues to work on his aeroplane which is an ambitious undertaking. Ellis has made a Greek ship following a design found in a book of ships. The inspiration came from the story of the “Children’s Homer,’ which Mr. Paley is reading aloud at rest time. Harry and Jason have both worked on boats for use in the river vyard. Harry’s has a tin keel, a mast, and many fine details as is characteristic of all his work. 174 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD The girls’ work in the shop has been chiefly on stilts and all of them are now provided with gayly painted sets. Elizabeth and Nell are at work now on bird houses for use in the country and are doing careful work with intense concentration. Mr. Reber reports that Ellis is lacking in inde- pendence in working on his Greek ship. I asked a student teacher to report on Walter’s work in shop when he went by special arrangement at 9.30 one day, and she reported such splendid con- centration, in spite of fooling going on by sev-. eral older boys in Mr. Reber’s absence, that he has been allowed to go often at this time when Mr. Reber could be there. GROUP MANAGEMENT By accident I came in late one afternoon with- out previous notice and found the children gath- ered in a reading circle according to the pro- gram I had put on the board. Emma was reading aloud Tappan’s “Colonial Stories.” On the whole there has been much less restlessness and better concentration since the return to regular pro- grams. Free program making is now confined to Fridays after book balancing is over and is much enjoyed, though actual changes in the program are few. Walter and Jason get in extra shop FOLLOWING THE CHILD'S LEAD 175 periods usually on these free days, Leonard and Bertha and Alice read more and all do more draw- ing or typewriting. CARE OF ROOM AND MATERIALS _ Jason has taken charge of the paints and brushes and keeps the cloths washed. Leonard volunteered to assist him and serve in his ab- sence, and I rarely have to take any responsibility about this now. There is also great improvement in leaving tables picked up before going to yard or lunch. Emma and Vera one day volunteered to scrub the floor on which some paint had been spilled, and enjoyed the job so much that they proceeded to give the store a thorough cleaning, too. One week when Vera was class treasurer she discovered that the treasury was down to 17 cents and we had only one roll of paper towelling left, so by careful watching and fre- quent urging of economical use she made the towel last two weeks! Ill. Special Training DANCING The return to “regular dancing” after the time spent on dramatics has been enjoyed by all. Ja- 176 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD son still protests at times, but is interested when actually at work. Elizabeth and Nell seem to have been released by the dramatic play to a very marked extent and show freedom and original thinking as well as good listening in fitting pat- terns and pantomime to music. One period was spent in a square dance with spontaneously evolved figures. All tried out figures and Miss Doing chose several good ones to be tried out by the whole group. There was great enthusiasm over this especially on part of the girls, but no one has wanted to try it again. The usual stretching exercises, cart wheels and standing on hands have occupied all the time not spent on dancing patterns and pantomimes. Ja-~ son and Ellis continue to ask regularly for the cowboy play, but only once has the rest of the group joined in the request and secured the op- portunity. All the boys are improving in cart wheels, but only Walter as yet can stand on his hands, and none of the boys approach Margery and Emma or any of the girls except Nell and Elizabeth in agility. Jane, as usual, shows keenest ability to fit her movements to the music as was especially shown in dancing alone to music which -had two well marked voices and was danced by most of the children in couples, each partner choosing one W FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 177 voice to follow. Jane followed one voice with ‘ner feet and another with hand movements. All ‘the boys have improved in:seriousness of work and in adjusting to the music. | MUSIC There has been a good spirit of serious work ind real interest in the music all the month. Ellis ind Leonard have become so interested in play- ng on the marimbas now that they have started 0 make their own at last. The last month had neluded a good deal of singing of familiar songs or pleasure, especially quiet songs conducive to ‘ood tone in order to counteract the over excite- tent evidenced by rough tone and constant inter- uptions, also a good deal of band work which avolved accurate listening and watching the di- ector. Besides this kind of work there had been | good deal of straight technique such as drill 1 singing notes of the scale from hand signs, and ais month all of this seemed to bear fruit in etter tone, alertness and interest so a few new ngs were introduced and learned readily. Prac- ‘ce in recognizing songs is a part of each lesson. Human marimbas,’ made by numbering the aildren up to five and making tunes by calling on ich child to sing his own number as indicated by 178 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD the teacher, is a very entertaining game. ‘“Spell- ing’ tunes sung by teacher is another new game and is done by singing back.the same air giving numbers instead of syllables “la” sung by teacher. One lesson was skipped because the group begged to go out to see a match game in the yard, and Miss Hubbell did not want them to come to music under compulsion. Jane, Bertha and Emma were unwilling to lose the music period and stayed for free work with marimbas, numbers read from staff and the big drum. Two tunes were now played on marimbas and followed pretty well by all but Walter and Jason, who became confused in playing with the group. There has been special drill on holding the long notes in phrases. Drill on distinguishing between major and minor chords aroused interest, but proved still too difficult for most of the children. Walter, Herbert and Vera never made a mistake in this. Harry asked many questions, but did not actually listen accurately. Nell’s steady improvement throughout the year has been very noticeable. Last year she rarely entered into group singing, seldom gave indi- vidual responses, and her inability to listen made her pitch very inaccurate. Now she sings with well shaped mouth for words, her pitch is much steadier and her better attention and concentration together with a longer span of interest makes her FOLLOWING THE CHILD'S LEAD 179 ‘responses to technical questions much more in- telligent. | Jason, because of serious objection to music, ‘was dropped from group work and allowed to ‘spend the music period in special number work. He was given the weekly half hour of free time with Miss Hubbell instead of group work and ‘improved so much in interest and technique that he returned to the group at his own request at the end of the month. NUMBER Drill on the multiplication tables needed in store work, i.e., 2, 3, 5 and 6 tables, has taken ‘up much time and interest. Most of the children have also learned the 4 table, and Ellis, Jason, Walter and Alice went on with the 7. The method of learning them is to make the tables for themselves by addition, to test each other in couples and then come to me for a final test. I give multiplication and short division examples on the table learned. Leonard always does better in the actual examples than in abstract drill ques- tions. This work is usually done during store time by those not serving in the store itself. Ja- son has taken home examples to do or has done them in school free time in order to be allowed 180 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD extra service in the store as special messenger. Walter still writes 16 in place of 61, etc. Occa- sionally Vera, too, makes this mistake even in copying from the board. Alice asked for number work to do in free time one day and I started her and Emma work- ing problems from an Arithmetic book. Walter came in and asked to do the same kind next day. Since then a craze for book work has spread through the class, with the exception of Jane, Jason and Leonard. Problems “with reading” are specially sought and done very readily as the technical difficulties are slight. Drawing the plan of a house to the scale of 8 feet to an inch proved very interesting and the dimensions of the whole house and of each room were found by translating the measured inches to feet. The question of area arose in this connec- tion for both Herbert and Vera and they easily caught on to the process of multiplying length by width to obtain square feet after I drew out some square feet to show what was meant by this term. Alice is particularly fond of mental arith- metic games which she often starts. Drill on the tables has led to practice in taking fractional. parts of numbers, too, and this often enters into the mental arithmetic games, but usually causes’ several children to drop out. | | i FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 181 | Subtraction that involves borrowing still has ‘lifficulties for most of the group. Only Alice, 'dmma, Herbert and Grace never ask for help. } WRITING AND SPELLING ' Acraze for writing stories by all the girls fol- ‘owed the introduction of a regular writing period /wice a week. Jason, Harry and Walter, who lictated to me a fine cowboy story, were very villing to start copying it into their books, but teeded pressure to get it done. Walter has done ery good writing when he works alone in the ‘tore and is improving. He takes pleasure in a leat looking page, and so does Jason. Herbert writes easily and willingly, composing original tories. Leonard still writes beautifully but la- ‘oriously, and escapes to the typewriter if I let im. I announced as a general rule that first ‘hoice of the typewriter would be given those who ad a good handwritten copy with correct spelling ‘nd sentence formations and this has helped to re- ‘eve the pressure. Spelling shows improvement a familiarity with frequently recurring syllables ke “er, tle, sion, ing,’ etc., and I can answer ‘uestions as to spelling often by simply referring 2 other similar words (i.e., spell “light” like night”). Bertha, Emma, Harry and Alice are 182 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD recognized as authorities and appealed to when I am not available. READING See list of books appended at end of notes. Jason and Leonard came back after the holi- days eager for a new Indian book to read. if gave them “Dokos,” but they did not take to it as well as to “Red Feather.” Walter brought a “Book of Cowboys” to school and read it steadily with enthusiasm though it was written in adult style. He followed this with “Buffalo Bill’s Boyhood.” Margery has now started on “Red Feather II” and reads it alone in free time as well as in the regular reading period. Unfortunately her ability to gather the content of a story without knowing the actual words makes it possible for her to get enjoyment without accuracy and she feels no need of assistance and resists reading aloud to me. She, Elizabeth and Jason are now the only ones who need special help, and Elizabeth and Jason are glad to read with me or a studen! teacher. About the middle of the month, Leonard sud: denly developed a reading enthusiasm that ha: quite launched him into ability to read any kin¢ of material that interests him. He began by read FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 183 ing the “Cliff Dwellers” through at a sitting. (Jason, too, started this but broke his glasses and Nell finished it aloud for him.) This, Leonard followed by ‘“‘Mewanee,”’ also read straight through regardless of yard time, which I let him miss because it was a day on which we had danc- ng involving lively physical exercises. From “Mewanee” he went to “Apauk,” an Indian story | had read aloud to the group earlier and had ‘ound so adult in style that I had skipped a good leal in reading aloud. He read this with the ‘ame absorption and utilized parts of it in our lay. His surprise in his own en joyment of read- hg was amusing. The “Lake Dwellers,” too, he inished at one sitting. He has also read part of 3aldwin’s “Explorers of the Northwest,” as have tarry, Nell and Emma. Jane had been reading he “Just So Stories” and “My Book House,” and feared both were too hard for her, so asked her everal times to read to me so I could check up: n it, but she always succeeded in convincing me: fe could read the stories she had chosen. LANGUAGE |The girls were all absorbed in writing stories hich had so little sign of interest in pattern or mse impressions that I called the group together 184 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD one day for discussion of stories and suggested trying to make pictures in words as they did on paper. I proposed as illustration that some one dictate a short story that would make us feel like winter, and another about summer. Margery quickly responded but all the girls were eager to go on with their writing and had no desire to dictate. Walter, Harry and Jason, however, stayed with me to dictate a vivid cowboy story which interested them so much that they were quite willing to copy it into books of their own. Herbert wrote for himself a story of the same type to go into his “Book of Western Life,” and Leonard began one, but has only reached the mid- dle of the second chapter as yet. Margery’s story carried over the impetus I had tried to give to- ward more vivid expression, but the rest show little sign of it. I think the group needs much more opportunity for dictated stories than I have been giving them. (See appendix to notes for original stories of this month. ) IV. Organization of Information DISCUSSIONS At the first meeting after vacation, Jason raised the question of having some school pets, either SIUM I LES FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 185 rabbits or pigeons. There was general approval of the idea, and Jane and Emma undertook to see Miss Pratt about it. She came in next day to our meeting and told of the difficulties of giving the animals the kind of environment that would make them happy, but agreed to letting us have guinea pigs when Emma suggested a place where they could run wild and yet be somewhat protected. She also proposed a salt water aquarium. (None of this has materialized due to the pressure of other interests. ) In connection with the play we have been de- veloping, an outline map of New York was hung ap and New York City was identified as a start- ing point. The Hudson River was then put on n chalk, Fort Orange or Albany, the Mohawk River, Lakes George and Champlain were added Ny various volunteers and Walter put in the ‘Great Carry” between Lake Champlain and the dudson and the Catskill and Adirondack Moun- ains. I told them there was a level plain around he shore of the Great Lakes and invited specu- ation as to the reason for this. Leonard and Walter were quick to present theories. Walter hought that soil washed down from the moun- ains by rain might have fallen into the lakes and ‘ormed a level border around the edge, while eonard recalled that I had said once that the 186 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD lakes used to be larger than at present and thought the border was old lake bottom.’ I asked what might have caused a contraction of the water surface and he suggested a widening of the open- ing into the St. Lawrence, so that “more water went out that way.” The girls listened but could not be induced to participate at all in the specu- lation. They acted timid and self-conscious. As the play interest was dropped temporarily after this, I introduced the pencil exhibit sent us by the Dixon factory and we discussed the origin of the graphite and cedar wood of which the pen- cils were made. As the graphite proved to come from Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, a new in- terest was added to that section of the map. We looked for the route by which graphite could be brought to Jersey City, where the pencil factory is, and Herbert at once raised the question, “How do they get across the ‘Carry’? Trains were suggested and I told about the Champlain Canal across the divide. The necessity of mixing the graphite with clay led to a discussion of where this was to be found and Jason told of seeing it in New Jersey. Elise and Jane had seen bricks! being made at Kingston on the Hudson, but ait not know they had any connection with clay, | Harry reported seeing red clay and this led to a) discussion of iron in the soil. Walter told of FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 187 seeing old iron mines and Elise and Jane had seen them, too. Some one, I think Vera, said glue was used to put the two halves of a pencil together and where did that come from? Tom, therefore, in- vited us to visit his grandfather’s glue factory. (See trips. ) In the discussion which followed this trip Vera took a leading part. Her interest was especially keen in the “old streets’”’ we had seen in the neigh- borhood of Pecks Slip and their associations with the first Dutch settlers we have read about. Front Street, which we had read was filled in by settlers and which we had found now two blocks from the water front, raised the question of how sand was washed in by the sea in some places and taken away in others. Vera’s question, “How can you build on sand?” was answered by the boys, “You drive down to rock underneath.” Vera persisted, however, in asking, ‘“How can you drive into water?” and this led to reference to bridge supports and tubes under the river with constant tecalling of building operations seen in the city. _ Herbert and Walter, who had stayed home from the trip to make pencil leads of graphite in the aboratory, described their experience and showed the result. They said the lead broke very easily ind I asked if any one had any idea about what s done to harden it. Jane suggested putting it 188 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD in the sun, with a reference in her mind I think to the hardening of clay in that way. As heat is really the answer to the problem this made a good introduction. | The trip experiences also brought out the con- nection between glue and gelatin which we saw) being prepared at the factory and the relation’ between glue and glove making. This last was! due to the fact that the main glue factory is lo-| cated in the Mohawk Valley near the glove center, | in order to utilize the unused bits of bones and! hides. ‘The children themselves suggested that| the glove factories were originally located there} because deer were plentiful and many skins could| be had. | _ The discussion of graphite and other forms of| coal was resumed and Emma described its origin| from leaves. Herbert said yes and from tree! trunks too, upon which there followed a lively’ discussion of the looks of decaying vegetation and| of the prehistoric forests. This once more | brought a question of the origin of the first ani-| mal and Jason launched forth upon an account of | how life developed from one-cell organisms with | propagation by budding and fission on to a de-| scription of low forms of sea life attached to the| ocean floor, like coral, etc. He had acquired this’ knowledge in Group IX earlier in the year and | PS oe FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 189 vas very clear about it in his own mind, but I jloubted whether he was really getting much over 0 the rest so stopped his lecture. The next day, 1owever, he was asked to repeat it to the group ind held their interest well. Emma brought in /ome pictures of coral formation to show us. » In connection with the interest in coal we had ome lantern slides from the Natural History Museum on coal mining and the children were specially interested in pictures of pieces of coal ‘howing the imprint of leaves. Jane and Mar- rery went home together planning to search their yoal cellars for coal with these markings. Fur- her discussions led to a consideration of mining ‘rom the point of view of the workers and the langers and disagreeable features of the work. Uhe length of the working day was counted up to ee how early a miner would probably have to eave home and when he would get back, and nuch interest was shown in the safety devices igainst gas. Child labor in mines was briefly dis- ‘ussed and the laws against it, and I explained vhat a “union” means and some of its practical workings outside the wage bargain such as the nstitution of a check weighman at the mine head. _ Vera thought it would be rather risky to trust ‘ven a fellow member to oversee this for you.) _ After the subject of graphite had been finished, Igo OUR ENEMY THE CHILD we returned to the large map of the two hemi- spheres to trace the route by which cedar wood was brought from Florida to the Jersey City fac- tory. The coral formation of Florida was dis- cussed in connection with the growth of cedar there and climate was also discussed and the dif- ferent zones of temperature located on the map. By measuring distances, places of corresponding temperature were discovered on the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The Mohawk Valley gap was looked for on this big map which shows alti- tude in colors and was easily found. I asked why this physical feature was of importance to the trade of New York City and Leonard an- swered, “Because trains can get through and bring things to sell in New York.” I asked if it was used before trains, and “covered wagons.” In- dians and buffaloes were mentioned as preceding railroads over this trail. : The use of the big map and the discussion of the temperature zones led to interest in South America, so I sent Alice and the boys all into the library with a student teacher one morning to look up books on rubber and report back to us. Mean- : while the rest of the group pursued a discussion of how paint used on pencils was made. This! led to coal tar dyes and turpentine and we located’ Seer ae e aw s FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD IOI the Southern forests where resin is gathered from pine trees and discussed the process and its ef- “fect on the forests. The rubber group came back enthusiastic over their discovery uniting in the _Tecommendation of a story Jason had found in ~Chamberlain’s “How We Are Clothed,” and I | read this story to the whole group. The next day was spent on the trip to a steamer just in ‘from Para with rubber, and several discussions Were on points brought out by this trip. The plasticene map making described above (I) also brought out much incidental discussion about South America, the two principal river systems, the location of Para, Manaos (on the Amazon) “Rio” and Buenos Aires, and the mountains “like a wall.” TRIPS There have been three trips this month: to the ‘Higgins Glue Factory and Fulton Market, to the Natural History Museum to see a model of a ‘mine working and some specimens of coal with leaves imprinted on them, and to Booth Steamship Co. docks at the Bush Terminal, at 33d Street, Brooklyn, to see a steamer in from Para with a cargo of rubber. IQ2 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD — The chief interest at the factory seemed to be in the machinery itself and in the laboratory where products were tested. Jason was particu- larly thrilled over this process and all saw very clearly exactly how the tests were made and for what purpose. A visit was also paid to the fleet of small fishing schooners at Fulton Market. The men on the docks and at the fish stalls talked to us about their fishing experiences. The Museum trip proved one of the most stim- ulating and satisfactory we have had because of the great interest in coal and fossil imprints. The children themselves discovered the most interest- ing exhibits and showed them to me. The event of the month, however, was the trip to the ship from Para. The docks were full of hams of crude rubber and hills of Brazil nuts with which the children were invited to fill their pockets. An officer took us all over the ship, in- cluding a trip to the engine room, where we talked | with engineers and stokers, saw the coal bunkers, | the instrument by which the orders are received | from the captain on the bridge, the machine which | makes salt water fresh and all the workings of | the ship. Maps of the Amazon and the ship’s | course were eagerly studied and many questions | asked about how wide the river was and how far | the ship could go. . | FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 193 STORIES Kipling’s story of the White Seal led to requests for more “from that book,” and we read the story of Mowgli which brought insistent requests for ‘the “Second Jungle Book.’ Jason asked, “Who ever wrote such a good story,” which is the first time I have ever heard a spontaneous question about authorship from any one in the group. ‘Mrs. Mitchell’s story about the invention of the first pencil was also enthusiastically received as was the story of rubber from “How We Are ‘Clothed.” LABORATORY EXPERIMENTATION Walter and Herbert made pencil leads of graphite by mixing powder with water and work- ing the soft mixture into a glass tube as a mold. Most of the groups followed their example and tried the same experiment. _ Another day, Walter went down to the labo- ratory with a definite question in mind about “how you can send telegrams under water,” and he and Tom sent messages to each other under water with great success and enthusiasm. This ed to the plan of setting up a telegraph system between our class room and the laboratory. Jane, 194 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Margery, Jason and Walter worked on this and got it into working order. They proceeded to invent a code for their messages, but the tech- nique of using this proved too much for them and the sending of messages back and forward was so disturbing to the rest of the group that, on Miss Pratt’s advice, the telegraph was taken down, and experimentation in sending messages for the present, confined to the laboratory. ORIGINAL STORIES “Big Hide, the Cowboy”—Dictated Oh, look at the cowboys on the plains, herding up the cattle, throwing the lassos and catching and branding the steers! Big Hide, the cowboy, is riding his broncho—the broncho is jumping, swerving, Bucking!? Big Hide can’t be thrown, he holds on tight with his knees, his spurs are dig- ging into the flanks of the horses. Pink Nose, the horse, is kicking fiercely. The black steer has been thrown by Black Hide, the branding iron is sizzling on the hair and making the number of the ranch, 24 V.H. Now the cattle are near the river, 2 Bucking is spelt with a capital at Jason’s request, “ta make it wild.” FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 195 they are plunging in like a mass of foam. The sowboys have lost control of the cattle, they are whooping and shouting, they are trying hard to erd them up again. Big Hide has thrown the dull! The rest are goring and horning each other decause they want to get to their leader. The other cows have trampled their leader. Now the towboys are chasing the herd further and further 2ast. Now they have got them in the corral and are quieting them down and ready to sleep. The towboys’ work is now over, they are trailing home with sweating horses——By Jason, Harry and Walter. | “Western Life”—From Original Manuscript Big Bill—Chapter The cowboys are rounding up two thousand steers and cows. Just then we heard the rumbling of thunder. When the bulls heard the thunder, they began to plunge and rear and we had a ter- ‘ible time trying to drive them toward the shed. We got all of the cows and calves in the shed. Then we had to fire pistols to make the bulls move coward their shed. Then we got two of the Jercest bulls corralled; then the other younger 196 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD bulls got quieted down and didn’t have very much trouble getting them in their shed. The next day we let the cattle out to graze while we got ready for a buffalo hunt; all the cowboys got their guns and pistols and then we started off. We sent some other cowboys ahead to see if they could see any buffalo. Then one of the cowboys came galloping back and said they had seen a big herd of buffalo and one of the cowboys had seen a band of savage Indian warriors which were coming fast. Then all the cowboys prepared for a battle. They drew their pistols from the sheathes and loaded. Then they galloped away as fast as the wind. CHAPTER II Suddenly a savage Indian warrior rode up in front of me. He was fine to look at his face was painted with crimson with designs of hatchets, bows and arrows. He took his bow from his shoulder and drew an arrow from his quiver, then took careful aim and fired. The Indian fell from his horse dead. Then I saw four Indians appear. They took aim at one of the cowpunch- ers. He let the arrow fly, but the cowpuncher jumped from his horse. The arrow whizzed over his head. FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 197 “The Story of Fluffy Tail” | ; _ Iwas born ina cold rocky den. My father was the leader of one hundred savage wolves. And he wanted me to be a savage wolf like him. One day he took me out hunting for some deer while we were following some elk tracks we suddenly heard the thud-thud-thud and a cowboy rode up. Then my father snarled and the hair on his back stood up on end with rage. Then he got back on his haunches ready to spring but the cowboy was too quick for him. By Herbert Fuller EDUCATIONAL TESTS In May, a Thorndyke-McCall reading test was given to the whole group of eight years old chil- dren, with the following results, expressed in terms of “reading age’: Alice 13 years 2 months Walter II years 9 months Emma II years 3 months Vera IO years IO months Leonard IO years 10 months Nell IO years 4 months LOS OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Bertha IO years 4 months Grace Q years 8 months Jane Q years 2 months Elizabeth 8 years 8 months Harry 8 years I month Jason 7 years Q months Margery 7, years oO months Of these children only Harry, Emma and Alice had read before entering Group VII, so this rep- resents for all the rest two years of reading. Harry did not at all do himself justice, as he was so slow getting to work that time was up before he had finished half his paper. All the answers he had time for were accurate and he is really able to read any stories he likes. | Margery and Jason have had special coaching by a student teacher in quick reading from flash cards to get them sufficiently launched before the end of school to read for pleasure during the summer. I have also given them special work in spelling from dictation, choosing chiefly pho- netically spelt words and this proved so popular that other children have joined voluntarily. There is no one in the group even including these - two poor readers who does not read for pleasure | and demand time for it on the program, but Ja-_ son needs a specific type of content, Indians or 5 vt eit aa i Mi . FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 199 primitive man, with much action to hold his in- terest. NUMBERS A standardized number test given to the group showed every one to be up to grade ( 3A), four jo be one grade, two, two grades, and one child Jhree grades ahead. The showing would have een much better, had not the group fallen into the vad practice of pointing off every answer with wo decimal points, although the actual subtrac- ion, addition, etc., was accurate. This was due 0 their store work and constant dealing with dol- ars and cents. BOOKS READ BY CHILDREN IN APRIL (*Whole book not read. ) Randall read: “Boyhood of Buffalo Bill,” “Book im Of Cowboys.”’* derbert read: “Children of the Cliff,” Dopp’s “Early Plainsmen,” Baldwin’s ‘Explorers of the Northwest.”’* \lice read: “Lolami, the Cliff Dweller,” Bailey’s . “Flint,” “Book of Knowledge,’* “The In- dian Story Book” (Wilson). 200 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Jane read: “My Book House.” Grace: “Just So Stories,’’* a Book House.” Vera: “My Book House.” | Margery: “Just So Stories,”’* “The Book of Knight and Barbara.” Harry: “Dokos, the Little Indian Boy,” ‘“Priva- teers of °’76” (Paine), “Play Awhile Reader.” Bertha: “Colonial Stories” (Tappan), ““Poems of Childhood” (Field). Elise: “Donkey John” (Morley). Leonard: “Mewanee,” “Children of the Cliff,” “Lodren, the Lake Dweller,” “Apauk.” Jason: “Mewanee,’’* “Children of the Cliff.” Emma: “Colonial Stories,” “Explorers of the Northwest.” Elizabeth: “Little Dog Ready.” Nell: “Moni, the Goat Boy” (Spyri), “Donkey} John.” BOOKS READ TO CHILDREN BY TEACHER (*Means read aloud to group.) “Story of a Piece of Coal,” Martin. “Commercial Geography,” Robinson. “Story of the First Pencil,’ L. S. Mitchell.* “Pencil Geographic Leaflets,” published by) Dixon Co. | A Ak AS 6a a ols » FOLLOWING THE CHILD’S LEAD 201 “How the World Is Clothed” (rubber), Cham- | berlain.* “Geography and Industrial Studies,’’ Allen. “The Jungle Book,” Kipling. “A Visit to a Coal Mine,” Cooke’s “The World | at Work.” XI A CHILD'S WORGB I In few places has the belief been so amply justified that children are innately creative as in the Walden School. Few places perhaps have had the same conviction that given an environment which is creative and dynamic, that children will develop creatively and dynamically. Too many institutions write “Freedom” and ‘“Self-Expres- sion” large in prospectus and platform, but con- tinue old methods of repression and routine in their classrooms. But the Walden School has actually managed to get and to keep the child’s view of the world, and has built itself around that view. It really is, as its founder Margaret Naum- berg first called it, the Children’s School. A world to be real to a child, says Margaret | Pollitzer, must be child size. In it must be ma- terials he can handle and use, avenues he can explore. He must be able to give body to his fancies in paint or clay or block form, or act them | out with others who share his interests. Bernard | 202 SR grea SATIS SY wow A CHILD'S WORLD 203 Shaw once declared that schools are prisons where the immature are confined a given number of hours a day to keep from bothering the mature. They are indeed prisons in more ways than one. Not only do they imprison the child physically, keep him cramped and silent all day in a single desk or room, but they imprison his mind and “spirit as well. With the results we are all sufficiently familiar. But the Walden School has dared to create a child’s world and then for the most part to stand aside and watch the children grow in it under conditions of real freedom. This applies not merely to the daily round of activities, but to the treatment accorded each individual as well. A ‘child may have all possible outward freedom, but still be hampered by personal inhibitions and sub- jective difficulties. These difficulties must be in- telligently handled before the child can really function to the full extent of his powers. As will be brought out later, there is undoubtedly a con- nection b2tween this subjective understanding of the children in the Walden School and the extraor- ‘dinary results they attain in creative work of all kinds. Unlike Miss Pratt’s school there is no attempt to define activities at given age levels, although of necessity older children demand more formal 204. OUR ENEMY THE CHILD instruction. Groups, according to Miss Pollitzer, are no more alike than the individuals composing them. A class of six-year-olds may be interested in studying boats one year and may embark upon an intensive study of waterways or of transpor- tation. ‘The following year the sixes may, be- cause of summer-camp experience, become inter- ested in primitive life and organization.. “The school,” says she, “is the child’s world and the course of study evolves out of the problems and interests arising from the immediate community life, leading to further and further realms of study.” This apparently hit-or-miss method of attacking subject matter does not leave the gaps in knowledge which one might expect. The chil- dren uniformly measure up extremely well in all the standard achievement tests and have a store of information frequently far in advance of their years. Some of the courses initiated by them are immensely interesting. During 1924 and 1925, for example, the twelve years old group studied anthropology with the help of Dr. A. A: Golden- weiser of the New School for Social Research. The course developed from an initial visit to. wholesale markets and observation of the immi-_ grant peoples in them. This led to a discussion | of races and their cultures and various experts were invited by the children to address them on A CHILD'S WORLD 205 these subjects. Dr. Goldenweiser’s material on the Iroquois Indians so interested them that they asked him {fo return and the course thus gradually developed. The stenographic notes of the ses- sions show an amazing intellectual acumen and range of knowledge on the part of the students. ‘They discussed such topics as primitive cultures, taboos, superstition, religion, morality, inheritance of acquired characteristics, and toward the end of the first term outlined a text on anthropology for children, since no satisfactory one exists. Similarly in science the children blaze their own trails and follow their own inquiries. A visi- tor tells of entering the science laboratory and seeing a dozen children of seven and eight years of age, absorbed in their work. Two or three were melting glass tubing preparatory to making thermometers, another group was experimenting with a steam engine, another with an electric bat- tery, an eager pair were making ink. The chil- dren worked steadily, consulting one another in low tones, occasionally raised in the excitement of new discovery. Off in a corner the visitor dis- covered an adult, his back turned to the room, busily engaged in writing in a notebook. , He paid no attention to the class, and the class paid no attention to him. Nobody had noticed the visi- tor’s entrance. She was wondering a little what 206 OUR ENEMY THE CHILI she ought to do, when a lad ran uf to the man in the corner: “Oh, Slavie,” he aske], “what is the heaviest thing in the world?” “Slavie” regarded the boy thoughtfully for a. moment, then drew a book from the shdf. “Here, look it up for yourself, I really can’t temember.” The boy seized the book and looked at the title, “Whee-ee,” he whistled, “that’s chemistry !”” “Table of elements,” suggested ‘Slavie.” “Chapter eight or nine, I’m not sure which.” He turned to the visitor. “Are you the teacher then?” she inquired. “Well, you can call me that,” he replied, “at least I’m here.”’ But mainly he was there, he explained, as a con- venience, only occasionally as a necessity. The materials and apparatus were within easy reach of the children. They could come and use them as they pleased. They could feel their way about, get acquainted gradually with Bunsen burners, test tubes, batteries, magnets, little engines, small dynamos, bells, carbons, voltmeters, lenses, rub- ber tubing, glass tubing, scales, charts, and ref- erence books on science. A boy might begin in the spirit of play to heat glass tubing and find — that it could readily be turned into various shapes. | He might go from that to try to make thermome- ters, or as did one twelve years old boy to etching’ ‘ SE A CHILD'S WORLD 207 glass, a process that required weeks of research. In his class journal the boy published an account of his experiment, which he had carried on from beginning to end with no help whatever from his teacher. : ETCHING GLASS “One time up at the science laboratory, I tried to etch glass, and after a few attempts I succeeded quite well. It was done in this way— “I first melted some paraffin as smoothly as pos- sible over a piece of clear glass. After it had hardened, I cut through the wax with a botany needle and made a small design and some letter- ing. I then poured some Hydrofluoric Acid (HF) over the wax, seeing that it covered the exposed glass, and then let it stand for about fifteen minutes. When I washed the acid off and scraped the glass clean from the wax, I found my design and lettering eaten into the glass. “Hydrofluoric Acid must be kept in wax bottles because of its dissolving glass, The equation is as follows— “4H F + SiO, = SiF, + 2H.0.” A study of power houses and the uses of the dynamo and generator in the city’s transportation 208 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD system grew out of the free play of the older boys and girls with electrical apparatus. Excur- sions to factories, to electrical expositions, to 4 power house of the subway, showed the children how the principles they had discovered in the school laboratory were applied to industry. The children do not always come to the labo- ratory to “play.” More often they come to seek the answer to questions raised in the classroom, or possibly in the domestic science kitchen. “Why does water boil?’ “Why does gas burn some- times with a blue, and sometimes with a yellow flame?” “Why does soap make dishwashing easier) ":4 The seven years old children had decided to build a city in the back yard. They went to the science laboratory to find out how to lay pipes, how to make a concrete bed for their river, how to equip the houses with an electric light system. They discussed why oil had to be used on con- crete. All knew that oil would prevent the con- crete from sticking. “Why should it?” asked’ “Slavie.”” A seven years old boy answered him, “The wood has pores into which concrete goes! and sticks. But when you use oil, it fills up the” pores and prevents the concrete from sticking.” 1 See also “Creative Science Teaching,” by R. S. Slavson School and Home, January, 1924. a Net NNT DOr A Ay RS } A CHILD'S WORLD 209 The children discovered what proportions of sand, ‘gravel and cement to use, and mixed their own ‘concrete. In digging for the river bed they took ‘up the study of rocks and learned the difference ‘between granite, quartz, felspar and cinders. /They even found some volcanic material in the ‘fill of the soil. _ Sketches were made of the tools and materials needed and some spelling drill was found neces- ‘sary for the more difficult names: trowel, hoe, ‘shovel, hammer, wedge, concrete, cement. After ‘the city was built, histories were written of its making. Such a method as the foregoing has little in ‘common with that of the ordinary text book on ‘science with its neat beginning of laws and prin- ciples and scientific terms to be learned by rote. But as Dewey long ago has told us, most teach- ers start where the expert has left off. In their ‘haste to save the child’s time and get him edu- ‘cated quickly, they assume that they can short- ‘cut the process of experimentation and present the child with its finished conclusions. Under duress, the youngster may succeed in cramming ‘down the indigestible lot of facts required, but of course he more rapidly succeeds in forgetting them when examination time is past. That loss is unimportant. What is important, however, is 210 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD the lack of opportunity afforded the child for actual experimentation along lines related to his own interests, and of learning thereby the scien- tific approach to his own problems. | Such opportunities are abundantly offered in “Slavie’s” laboratory. Moreover through the ap- parently haphazard experimentation of the early months, the children succeed later in solving prob- lems in physics and chemistry frequently reserved for college grades. They also make things which few college students have the chance to make, Wet cells, plunge batteries, electric signs, resist- ance lamps, electrically propelled canal boats, mov- ing picture machines, star finders are only a few of the products of children all twelve years old) or younger. : Since children, if given the opportunity, will) always prove creative, it is no more surprising! that a child, given free play with science mate- rials, should use these materials creatively and inventively, than that he should use color beau-| tifully, dance, or model, or write with skill and a high degree of merit. The paintings of the Walden School children have been on exhibit for : successive years at leading art galleries of the city and have attracted an unusual amount of at- tention from artists and professional critics who have been astonished at the originality, the de- | A CHILD'S WORLD 211 sign, the feeling for composition, the richness and solor of the work. Mrs. Cane, their gifted artist teacher, would wobably disclaim all credit for these extraordinary ‘esults. Man, she believes, is born with the power 0 create. Almost any little child can learn to jaint as naturally as to speak or to write.? They ire all languages of his being, and their great ralue is as a channel of expression for the child’s ubjective life. If he be denied expression of is subjective life, he will be a starved and hwarted being. With this faith in the child’s natural creative yower, Mrs. Cane employs none of the ordinary eaching methods. The children have no models, to instructions, few directions of any kind. They re given, from the earliest years, plenty of large laper, and crayons and paints. Mrs. Cane’s di- ections are confined to simple technicalities con- -erning the care of their brushes, and paints, how nany ways there are of retrieving work, by scrap- fig with a palette knife, or using turpentine and . tag to wash it clean, or painting over obstinate arts with white paint. She never works on a hild’s canvas, and she never makes any sugges- ions of any kind unless she is asked to do so. 2“Teaching Children to Paint,” by Florence Cane, The lris, August, 1924, pp. 95-101. 212 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Even then her suggestions seldom have anything to do with the canvas itself, but usually with the child’s idea concerning the work. Usually there is some inner inhibition which prevents the child from going forward freely. Fear of failure is the most usual inhibition. One little girl, she relates, had painted her first picture, a study of a jar of flowers, a rather con- ventional affair, and now she was sitting facing a blank canvas, desirous of doing something of her own creation, but fearing to make the plunge. “T can’t paint!” she exclaimed after a little time had elapsed. “What would you paint,” Mrs. Cane asked her, “if you could paint very well?’ “An idea evidently came to her like a flash,’ Mrs. Cane writes, “for her face lit up and she began describing a scene that had recently impressed her. A gray sea and sky, a sandy beach, and a little old woman in black on the beach alone, look- ing out to sea. It must have made a strong im- pression on her, because the description came so clearly and with intense feeling. I said, ‘Well, where would you put the edge of the beach?’ Her hand made a quick line. ‘And where would the sea and sky meet?’ She drew another quick line. ‘And the old woman?’ I asked. She stopped and said, ‘I can’t draw an old woman with a shawl. So I volunteered to pose. J drew a sweater ovet A CHILD’S WORLD 213 smy head and shoulders like a shawl and turned ‘my back. She sketched it roughly and thanked ‘me. I left her and without further ado she fin- ‘ished the painting, and an extremely fine thing it was, full of the sense of the sea and grayness and ‘loneliness. It was only her second painting, but the feeling she had about the scene carried her ‘over the problems she met on the way. She for- got her fears.” It is because the children are working so freely ‘and unconstrainedly, that their various forms of expression are so good a clue to their inner states of mind. In the ordinary school where the chil- dren are restricted and held up to an imposed standard, their products have a stereotyped uni- formity that makes it almost impossible to distin- guish one child’s work from another’s. But in the Walden School, each child’s painting or writ- ing is intrinsically his, and accurately represents his stage of development at the moment of its creation. The painting of one adolescent girl of a dimly drawn figure under the sea with a red tree of life on either side, could not have been done by any other child in the school, nor by the girl herself at any other period. Similarly the turbulent seas and wind strewn beaches drawn Over and over again by a ten years old boy bore Witness to his unhappiness over an unsatisfactory 214 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD relationship with his mother. When through the efforts of the school psychologist and the boy’s teacher, the mother became aware of the situation and changed her attitude, the boy’s work immedi- ately reflected his new confidence and serenity. He began to draw pastoral scenes, later turned to broad and powerful designs. The children are of course quite unaware of the symbolism of their work—the girl who pictured the gropings of her unfolding life, stated quite simply that she had drawn a picture of a girl under the sea—the pic- ture spran from her unconscious. The teachers of the Walden School have learned to read the evidence afforded in the drawings, writings and other creative efforts of the children.) If some of them perhaps carry this psychoanalytic interest—particularly in their vocabularies—to an extreme, it still remains true that the school is un-_ usually perceptive of the subjective growth and’ needs of its children and unusually responsive to| these needs, | In one sense neither Miss Pratt’s nor the Walden School is experimental. These happy, vitalized children whom one observes in them are proof enough that what these schools are achiev- ing is of supreme social worth. Bertrand Russell recently remarked that public schools have long demonstrated the possibility of giving instruction A CHILD’S WORLD 215 without education, that, in fact, any schoolmaster ) who was caught educating was quickly “given the sack.” With the growth of schools like these, and with the gradual incorporation of their principles mn the public-school system, it may come to pass that education and instruction will become iden- ‘ical—a thing never before achieved under the sun, )! II A few of the writings of the Walden School shildren are reproduced below (unedited as to ipelling, punctuation or any other respect). None of the children of course have had formal ‘‘com- hositions” or formal instruction in grammar or jpelling. Nor have they had any assigned themes, following the usual school procedure of enu- ‘merating the special points to be included. The thildren write when they have something to say, ‘vhen some experience has touched off their will to hat particular kind of expression. The experi- ‘ce may have been an excursion, a class discus- sion, some recent book or conversation. No one fictates the form, although frequently of course me child will start all the rest writing verse, or ‘airy tales or wild west stories. No attempt was made to select the work of bril- 216 OUR ENEMY TE.E CHILD liant nor specially gifted children. The selections) were literally taken at random from the files. It) might therefore have been possible to find com-| positions possessing more literary promise. It) should also be added perhaps that the teachers of the Walden School do not feel that the children reach as high a standard in writing as in some of| the other means of expression. There is no mem- ber of the staff who is as sensitive to the art of| writing as Mrs. Cane, for example, is to painting,; The selections show sufficiently well however with; what freshness and charm children will write! when living in a free environment. It has also seemed worth while to reproduce} at the end a few compositions of public schooll children of approximately the same age, also selected at random. Tue RaAIn AND I It had begun to rain very softly and I wished) to go out. I did so watching the rain. I sat down quietly thinking how lovely the rain was,| when a feeling came over me that made my heart} warm within me. My eyes closed and I could hear the soft patter of the rain falling on the roof and the deeper noise of the rain falling down into the court. The feeling was still over me when someone called me and instantly I lost this quiet feeling and I became my louder self again. | LouisE LEE (Age I1.1I). A CHILD’S WORLD 217 DAINTY RAIN Soft light dainty rain Dropping ever so softly on the World Mingling with the sound of running water | Which is falling from the houses near by. | Louise LEE, LITTLE CHILDREN Little children dancing about in the rain ‘Opening their little hands to catch the playful i drops ‘Oh, rain, Oh, rain, you pretty silver fairies ‘Play with us, play with us, Wet our hair and we shall laugh, Tumble us about in your fury ‘And we shall not mind. Rain and rain forever So we may play with you. Louise LEE. Lights — Lights — Lights —all colors, reds, greens, yellows, glaring at you from all sides looking like dragons and fearful monsters. But they are all so crowded together, it is hard to make out that they are advertisements of tires, bottles of ginger ale, tooth brushes, chewing gum and thousands of others. Then you see the people rushing back and forth in excitement, usually dressed in their best going to theatres, dinners and a number of other places. 218 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD And they all blend into a mass of darkness and color. | ANNA FLEISHER (Age 12.9). EVOLUTION Nothing blue nothing green, Everything a swirling whirling mass, Crashing falling thundering, Flames piercing through rock and gorge A falling whizzing sound, a settling thud _ All is quiet except for a hissing swishing | A heat that penitrates the most staunch barricades, | Then night—what is night : Darkness, blackness, silence. A glow, a warm warm glow, A sphere of red and yellow light, Stars, moons, Planets, Circling, swirving, twirling Clouds passing, Shape of animals, seas, spirals, vast mountains. | Now Water—wetness, | Cells, single cells lonely slowly bees yaa | They multiply, divide, | Swim side by side, Crawling, sprawling, falling Now plants, trees, vines that twine and climb And after centuries and centuries of development | Dinosaurs | | Beasts whose hinds and fores could reach for | miles and miles, | They swam and played and talked through genera- tions, | A CHILD'S WORLD 219 »After eons of changing, these huge vertebrates were gone Never more to return—extinct, Out of this came Man. ANNA FLEISHER (Age 12.7). I object to telling my thoughts about religion, because they are very delicate. Like a soap ‘bubble. If I touch it, it bursts. I will say this though. I do not believe in any established religion. And I do believe in some- ‘thing superior. But how I believe and feel about ‘it, is inside my soap bubble. IsABEL SOLOMON (Age 12.8). We boast of having many things belonging to us. How free we are. And the power of our brains. Yet we belong to a world which may boast of having all of us in its power. Try as we may we cannot leave the earth, our master. We cannot overcome its powers with our best products. It can send from its depths fire, water, a mass of things and tear us to pieces. While we scratch the surface with our dynamite, thinking we are controlling the earth. We think we are strong, unconquerable.. We ‘are not masters. There are other powers. Jean WOLFSON (Age 13.1). Darkness on all sides but one small hole. Low jagged rock sticking out. Wet moist rock. A small dent in the rock, water has fallen here 220 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD for years. A small hole a foot in diameter inside a descent. Low walls, a passage then a small opening, Water on top. Crystal clear flakes of snow. Be- low an ice floor. Another passage leading on, A wall. Back again in the ice room, up the passage. The hole—no, no hole at all. The horror of _ being cased in for ever. Dieing of want. Then the opening again. Into the main cavern at the opening, and then : light ! Jean Wo .rson (Age 13.4). A calm and beautiful stillness lay over me I could not move It was like a spider’s web So finely worked, so intricate, I could not move I was still and silent I could not move. ANNE WERTHEIM (Age 10.10), It covers the city like a mist The wind blowing gaily about Flurrying, hurrying it about, Now I can see only the tops of the buildings, But the snow is so flurrying I almost see the buildings waa _So flurrying 1s the snow. A Snow Storm ANNE WERTHEIM (Be 10.10). A CHILD'S WORLD 221 ‘l saw a great big snow flake gliding slowly down to the ground. On it I saw something which looked like a girl and I think it was Diana. Kurt Fetz (Age I1.10). The snow is made up of fairy like shapes, littering around, wandering here and there. Falling lightly, melting, While some pile up and make a mountain of snow. DIANA SIMON (Age Io.I1). ) 7 An INDIAN DANCE With a sound that is hardly audible The Indians start their dance. The older man with rythm that is perfect, They beat their tom tom on and on, Slowly the beating stops And the warrior take their places. DiANA SIMON (Age I0.11). WHAT THE CHILD oF 1825 THINKS I heard a sound I looked around, I couldn’t see a thing. But now I know, It’s truly so! It was the fairy king! WHat THE CHILD OF 1925 THINKS Oh! something stirred! I’m sure I heard 222 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD A movement of some kind! Oh, ding bust gosh! That’s lots of bosh! "Iwas my subconscious mind! Witma SuHoreE (Age 11.3). THE ADVENTURES oF BusHy TAIL Bushy Tail was a baby squirrel and a lively squirrel. Why when he was about two weeks old he was as lively as two squirrels about one year put together. You know he could jump from one tree to another as quick as a flash of lightning. It was wonderful to see him jump, that is if you could see him which you cant do unless you were a squirrel too, because he was too quick for you. The minute you came anywhere near him he would scoot away into the farther recess of the forest and there would start burying nuts, that is if it was nut season. For you must know he was a fox squirrel and he buried more nuts in a year than a fox squirrel usualy does. He was spry I'll say he was spry. He could beat a martin in a straight away race in his home range and in a regular race, that is a crooked race dodging and hiding behind the trees in an unknown place. But it sure was as hard as anything, that’s what Bushy Tail said and you can’t blame him either. Be- cause a martin can go through trees very quickly, a squirrel can too but he usually gets caught, Bushy Tail never did he always got away. It was often luck I must admit. Because something else would fortuneately lead the martin away from. A CHILD’S WORLD 223 him. And sometimes he would get away by using all the strength and speed that he had and could use. Well he was a thoroughbred squirrel no denying that. The only trouble with him he was too brave, too bold; he was too sure of himself. Why after he had a tricked a martin into killing himself he boasted altogether too much. But aside from that he was perfect. "Of course he wasn’t the most marvelous squirrel in the woods but just the same he was very lively and full of fun and mischief, don’t forget the mischief. But you know how it is nobody can be perfect, they can be almost perfect but not quite. Well he would frisk around with some other squirrels for about a day or two and then he would frisk away to find some other playmate either a squirrel or a chipmunk. That was an- other of his faults which I forgot to mention that ‘was all. One day in the spring Bushy Tail dis- appeared the mating time had come. There was ‘nothing strange about that. Only there was some- thing strange about the fighting done in the forest ‘in the last few days. All of a sudden the fighting stopped it was because Bushy Tail had mated and ‘then he foolishly got caught by a boy who was coming along through the forest and spied and ‘caught him before he could get away. That was ‘careless of him alright then he got away in one day and was never carless again. THE END CHARLES ORDMAN (Age 9.6). 224 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD A STORY OF THE War oF I812 AND OTHER Stories By M. Most? Note-to-reader I want you to get acquainted with this book before you read the stories, so that you should not misunderstand it. First of all I want you to) know that this book is not a book of war stories. just because of the first story being a war story, in this book there are different types of stories, such as (war stories, fairy-tales, ghost stories and animal stories etc. etc.) which are seldom found in other books. The reason why I did this was because I had a lot of diffrent kind of ideas (for stories) that could only fit in one book, so I wrote them all down in one book and that was the simplest thing that I could have possibly done. | M. Most. P.S. There are also poems in this book. LIST OF STORIES AND CHAPTERS A story of the war of 1812 Chapter iD...) MN ls / Chapter II)... 0.0.7 IO Chapter TI)... 2 io eA Chapter TV i2..... 40 1 Age: 10.5. A CHILD’S WORLD 225 A STORY OF THE WAR OF I8I2 Chapter I Captain Lilienthal* (of troop A in the regi- nent No. 57 of the American Army) was called n to one of the higher officers of the regiment ind was told that he had to go on the battle field igainst the Canadians. This was exciting news (although he had been expecting it for almost three months) so at once the preparations began. Now I have forgotten to tell you that this was yne of the smallest of the troops in the regiment. This troop was composed of only 30 men (and ‘this was some of their names; Mr. Lilienthal (The Captain) Mr. Most and Mr. Goldstein (The Two Spies) Mr. Ordman (The Sentinel) _ Mr. Spear and Mr. Glaser (The Guards) Dr. Schwartze (The Doctor) Miss Bare (The nurse) PCH TCs s* 5. and evry one of them was so excited that they could hardly stand on their legs. And so every- thing was prepared for the battle! The end of chapter one (Illustration here, entitled, “They begin their journey.’ —Ed.) Chapter II And then they travelled till night came. And then came their first hardship, for they soon found out that they were short of one cot. If such a 2 (Names of characters are all Mr. Most’s classmates.) 226 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD thing would have happened any other time then one of the soldiers woud take his blankets and sleep on the groun, but since it had rained the night before and the ground was to damp to sleep on without getting sick. But soon their troubles were over, becaus Mr. Goldstein and Mr. Most volunteered to sleep on the same cot, and since then they were very close friends. Nothing important enough to write down hap- pened after that while they were traveling so we will have to be content to find the troop in the place where they wanted to be. ... Now we must picture in our minds Captain Lilienthal sit- ting on his cot while one of the privates came rushing in, his face as pale as a ghost. “What is it’’ asked the captain in his calm way. “An enemy's plane was sighted” answered the private. “What of that?” asked the captain. “Well—it— it threw a bomb on us—which landed 200 yards away from camp” answered the private. “Bad luck—send for the two spies at once,” said Cap- tain Lilienthal. And in a moment Mr. Most and Mr. Goldstein were hurrying away from camp. The End of Chapter Two (Illustration here, entitled “The Throwing of the Bomb.’’—Ed. ) Chapter ITI After Mr. Most and Mr. Goldstein had been trotting for a few minutes Mr. Most said to Mr, Goldstein, “Now we have to part’—‘Don’t you remember what the Captain said,” said Mr. Most, A CHILD'S WORLD 227 “so we will have to say goodbye, for we may not be able to see each other again.” “I know what you mean” said Mr. Goldstein sadly, “but I hope ‘it doesn’t happen” he said as he troted slowly ‘away. Mr. Most spied wherever he was told to spy, but he came back without any news, but Mr. , Goldstein had, what we can call, an adventure. It was like this. After Mr. Goldstein had been trot- ‘ting a while, he came to the enemy’s camp that he was told to spy on. So he hid in some bushes and waited for a half an hour and then he saw a scout hurry away from the Canadian camp, so he followed the scout for a quarter of a mile and then shot him through the head and then (after examining him a great deal) he found a note in his shoe. He was so excited that he almost ‘opened the letter and read it himself but then he ‘remembered that the Captain had told him that ‘(if he got anything) he should deliver it into his hands without reading it. So he trotted away towards camp. Now it happened that while Mr. Goldstein was shooting the Canadian scout, an- other scout happened to be near and heard the noise, so he followed Mr. Goldstein a little ways and then hit him on the head with a club and Mr. Goldstein fell immediately unconscious. And after that he couldn’t tell what happened for what seemed to be an age. But any ways when he re- covered his consciousness he found himself lieing in some hay in a tent that was so closed up that two germs couldn’t squeeze through the biggest crack in the tent if they wanted to. He was tied to the ground by some ropes that were attached 228 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD to some stakes which was hammered in the | ground. The End of Chapter II] Chapter IV This was not very pleasing to Mr. Goldstein | because if he was tied up, it was impossible for | him to escape, while otherwise it might have been. | Well, if it was possible or if it wasn’t possible, | Mr. Goldstein decided to ESCAPE “And he | did”!!! It was like this :-— Harold (wich we shall not call by his second | name any more, since we are getting to know him | so well), was just about to make an efort to get | up, when in came Captain Gilooly of the troop of | wich Harold had been spying. Now something | told Harold that Captain Gilooly was very kind, so he made believe that he was suffering very badly, because of the way he had been tied up. | Now Captain Gilooly, thinking that Harold was | suffering, had pity on him and untied him. Then | Capt. Gilooly went out and left two guards at the | entrance of the tent wich was closed. And then | Harold got up from the hay and stood up in a | corner of the tent and (when Capt. Gilooly came | back to see how his prisoner was getting along) he | made believe he had no desire to go away, but | when Capt. Gilooly went out of the tent, Harold | began to look around in the tent and in anther corner he found a strong stick. Just as he was about to pick up the stick he heard a sound, it | came from the left of the tent, it sounded as if A CHILD'S WORLD 229 “someone was walking on hay and yet it didn’t!!! “Yes no yes—,” he almost said it all aloud. It was to much for Harold, he would find out by himself. So he took the stick and made a big hole enough for his hand to go thru (in the direc- tion in which he had heard the sound). Then he ‘stuck his arm thru the hole and all he felt was ‘hay, instantly an idea came into his head—a way to ESCAPE!!! He set to work immediately, he took the stick and began to dig. He dug till the morning and finally made a hole big enough for himself to squeeze through. Now on the other side of the tent was a big haystack, so when Harold crept through the hole, he naturally was under the haystack. Then he started a terrible ‘racket, so all the soldiers of the camp rushed in ‘the tent, and while they were trying to find out how he escaped he crept out from under the hay- stack and ran for his dear life. And by the time the Canadian soldiers found the hole that Harold made, Harold was entering the American camp. Then Harold looked in his pocket and found the same note that he had taken from the Canadian spy, for the Canadians that had imprisoned him, had not known that he had had it. (Illustration here, entitled “The tent of Harold’s imprisonment, notice haystack on right.” —KEd.) Chapter V Immediately Harold brought the note to Cap- tain Lilienthal, and the Captain read it aloud. It said :-— 230 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Dear Captain Price; I (Captain Gilooly of troop R of the Canadiél regiment, No. 10) meen to make an atack on troop A of the regiment No. 57 of the American army, so kindly lend me some of the forces of your troop, so that my atack may be more power- ful. Your fellow officer, CAPTAIN GILOOLY. For a while, after Captain Lilienthal had read the letter, there was a long silence, then Captain Lilienthal said; where did you get that note? Then Harold told his story ending with—it’s a thing that happens once in a thousand years, but it happened! Afterwards Captain Lilienthal sent for 60 more men and because they were so well armed they won. And all because of Harold. The End of Chapter V (Mr. Most’s book of “Short Stories’ also ends here.—Ed. ) : PUBLIC SCHOOL COMPOSITIONS Many public school children write better “com- positions” than the following. There are gifted teachers who succeed in getting excellent results, as many school publications show. The composi- tions reproduced below are representative how- A CHILD’S WORLD 231 ever of the sort of thing that children write when the task is imposed, the theme limited, and the premium placed on conformity. Nobody for example believes that any boy would spon- taneously write such a letter as the following: 400 Pleasant Street, North Adams, January 9, 1925. DEAR JoE: When I grow up, I am going to try to be like Abraham Lincoln. I have just finished reading his life and I am delighted with it. He is a man for American boys to imitate, I think. Such a splendid example of perseverance, endeavor and noble self sacrifice. I shall probably not become the President of the United States, as he did, but if I can be as honest, studious, persevering and kind hearted as well, I will be sure to succeed in life and make many friends. Just think how he began! Why, I have twice as many advantages. So I shall do my best and keep my eyes on model, Wish luck to your friend, Tom CHRISTIAN (6A). THE INAUGURATION OF CALVIN COOLIDGE Our thirtieth president Calvin Coolidge took his oath as president of the United States at Washington, D. C. It was a gala day in Wash- ington. 232 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD President Coolidge was inaugurated at about noontime. He took oath on a great platform which was built for that purpose. The ceremony was said by Chief Justice Taft. The bible was a little bible his grandmother gave him when he was five year of age. The bible was held by a close friend of the President. Charles G. Dawes was elected vice president just before President Coolidge took oath. Over 6000 people were standing on the streets and watched: President Coolidge go to the Capitol. President Coolidge after the inauguration went back to work. SARAH TOWNSEND (6A). March 5, 1925. ARBOR Day Arbor Day this year is on April twenty-fourth. We have had Arbor Day over thirty-five years. We first had Arbor Day in Nebraska. Arbor Day is for planting trees and flowers. The earth is nearly useless without them. Arbor Day is celebrated in school by planting trees and flowers. It is celebrated the first Fri- day in May or one of the last days in April. Arbor Day is spreading into every country. We need these trees. These trees make the earth look beautiful. Some trees bear fruit and we eat the fruit. It teaches children to love trees and learn what the trees give us. ANNA ANGELINO (6A). April 24, 1925. A CHILD’S WORLD 233 The following six compositions were all written by members of the same 6A class following a visit to a library. Almost every child of the forty ‘odd members of the class wrote an identical report: 67 Van Ness Place, New York City, March 13, 1925. DEAR ANNIE: One day in last week my teacher Miss Dean took us to the Library. Miss Brown the Librarian read to us a story the name Dr. Dolittles. We enjoyed it very much. Than Miss Brown told us to go and read the books silently. The name of the book I read is What Katy Did. I enjoyed it very much. Than I read another book named the Laughing Prince. I am sure if you would be there too you would enjoy yourself there too. I very sorry that you were not there too Your loving friend, ELLA POLESI. 152 Howe Ave., New York City, March 13, 1925. DEAR MoTHER: One day last week, my teacher took us out to the Library. When we came into the library we set down on chairs and Miss Brown, the Librarian 234 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD read to us a story about Dr. Doliitle. It is a very nice story. He was a peoples Doctor, so and he loved pets al kinds his house was full of Animals. So nobody wanted to come to him. So he became a Animal doctor. After a horse came to him and he saw the doctor wear spec- tacles, so he said I want the same thing but green glasses. After she finished the story we went and picked out the boocks we liked. And read silently to our selves. Then we went home and we were carefull by crossing the street. Your loving daughter, Rose Pitsky. 27 Hill Street, New York City. DEAR Mary: | One day last week we went to Library. When we reached there everything was ready for our class. Miss Brown, the Librarian read us a story called Dr. Dolittle. It was a very enjoyable story. After the story was over she Miss Brown said we can look and read some books. As I brought my own book I read that. I forgot to tell you that Chee Chee in monkey language means ginger. Finally we were allowed to go home. And on our way out we all thanked her. Your loving friend, EFFIE AARONSON. _A CHILD'S WORLD 235 348 Willow Street, Dear Rose: Brooklyn, N. Y. One day last week my teacher took our class to the Library. Miss Brown, the Librarian read the book that is called Doctor Dolittle to us. _ After that Miss Brown said that Chee Chee in “monkey language meant Ginger. Then she let us _yead any kind of a book we liked. There were funny books and fairy tales. JI am sure you would enjoy the books that were there. Your friend, MINNIE MERKLE. 798 K Street, New York City, Dear MOTHER: March 13, 1925. When the time came to go to the Libary our | whole class went. Mrs. Brown the Librarian told us about a story called Dr. Dolittle and it was very interesting because it was about animals. First his sister told him that he was getting poor because more animals came. So one day the cats meat man came and told him to give up the chil- drens doctor and be a animal doctor. After she was in the interesting part she stopped and told us to look around and read books. While looking around for a good book I found Jack and the bean stalk. I read about it and it was like this that he went to the giants house and killed them and took the gold. ) Your loving son, Louis LEvI. 236 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER During the War of 1812 a man wrote The Star Spangled Banner. This man’s name was Francis _ Scott Key. This man wishing to secure his friend went on board the ship but instead of securing his friend they made him a prisoner. : This man wrote this hymn on the back of an envelope. But by the stout defense of Fort McHenry they couldn’t conquer us. JACK Guass (6A). February 20, 1925. THE Star SPANGLED BANNER The Star Spangled Banner was written by an American man held prisoner on a British War Ship. This man’s name was Francis Scott Key. The British were firing very rapidly and wanted to get the American flag down. They fired at first at Fort McHenry but the Americans drew them back. But at last the British surrendured and the Americans won the war. And the American flag went up, and now we are independent. Davip Starr (6A). Feb. 29, 1925. THE Star SPANGLED BANNER While the War of 1812 a man was taken a prisoner on the British fleet. Because he went to see his friend and, he was taken as a prisoner, A CHILD'S WORLD 237 | During the night he did not sleep but was out on the deck to see who would win. While he was watching he wrote on the back of an envelope a poem called the Star Spangled Banner written by Francis Scott Key. He watched all night to see if the American ‘flag was still there, that would mean that the _ American won, if the British flag was up that ment that the British won. | Ipa BELL. Feb. 20, 1924. XII A NEW EDUCATION FOR LABOR A. TEACHER recently prophesied that the next heresy hunt will be directed against the rapidly growing number of people who believe in “ex- perimental” education. Some canny sleuth will discover that there is a direct connection between schools which set out deliberately to train chil- dren to think, and to develop creatively, and the radical movement. Not all progressive schools of course will be banned. There are some mildly Progressive institutions, often supported by large foundations, which are trying to prepare children to take their places more adequately in society as at present constituted, or believe that teaching techniques should be improved. They will be considered safe enough. The dangerous centers are those directed by people who have a vision of a new social order, and who believe that the way to prepare for it is to bring up a generation of free thinking, self-directing young people whose spontaneity, originality and native curiosity have not been stifled nor confined within narrow , Srooves of conformity. _ 238 A NEW EDUCATION FOR LABOR 239 Some sleuth will be certain to reach these con- clusions, because organized labor has done so | recently and suddenly. We say recently, although 30 radical an experiment as the Modern School in Stelton, N. J., has been run for years with the aelp of individual workers: and certain unions. ‘But the school at Stelton has been an isolated sntity—a Tolstoyan voice crying in the wilder- ness of conflicting economic doctrines. Visitors to the school have been astonished that children without formal or with no instruction should achieve such frequently fine results in painting, in mural decoration, in rug weaving, in clay and pottery, no less than in ordinary acaderhic sub- jects, and the humbler crafts of printing, shoe- making and forge work. But that children thus permitted to develop naturally and creatively should later have anything to contribute to a so- ‘tial re-ordering of the world, organized labor has not until now widely appreciated. _ Within the past year, however, leading unions have four times demonstrated their recognition of the organic relation existing between this new educational philosophy and the evolution of a ‘better social order. The New York State Fed- eration of Labor issued its revised educational program listing some thirty-five specific recom- ‘mendations for the improvement of the schools. : } 240 OUR ENEMY ‘THE CHILD Many of these recommendations have long been urged by organized labor and in many places se- cured through its efforts: free text books, medi- cal and dental inspection and treatment, enforce- ment of compulsory education, vocational train- ing, free state scholarships, extension of kinder- garten classes and the like. Two new planks were included in this latest program which indicate labor’s increasing’ awareness of the part to be played by education in the necessary changing of social conditions. One plank was headed, War and Education, and ran as follows: | The organized labor movement, always in the forefront of service, whether in war or in peace, believes war to be the greatest menace to civiliza~ tion. The next war with its death ray, its disease germs and deadly chemicals, may mean the de- struction of civilization. Already munition mak- ers and those who profit by war are preparing for another war by their policy of financial impe- rialism and the propaganda for preparedness that goes with it. The organized labor movement cannot sit idly by without resisting the machina- tions of these selfish materialists who betray their country’s best interest for profit. We must meet their propaganda for war with efforts to preserve peace. We must appeal to the hearts and minds of America’s Youth to war for jus- tice—political, social and economic—and not to war against their fellow workers of other coun- A NEW EDUCATION FOR LABOR 241 tries. In this struggle of preserving the peace of the world and civilization itself which hangs in the balance, the schools can render yeomen Service, To achieve the ends desired by all useful and socially minded citizens, we urge the reconstruc- tion of our school curricula to help root out those narrow ambitions and ancient animosities that haunt and dominate Europe and to replace them with a desire for cooperation. Our textbooks in literature and the social and natural sciences must be re-written to eliminate the glorification of war and to substitute the facts about war; its cold-blooded butchery; its elimination of the biologically fit through disease, starvation, unem- ployment and death; its misery because of eco- nomic chaos and its debts which bear so heavily upon the workers for the benefit of the profiteers and munition makers and financiers. Instead of stressing the glories of war let us stress rather the heroes of peace personified by such men as Gompers, Wilson, McDonald, Edison and the like. Efforts toward peace like the Hague Con- ferences, the Washington Conference, limitation of armament, outlawry of war and world coop- eration should receive due consideration. Only by striving continuously and cooperatively for peace can civilization be saved and the lot of mankind improved.—( Adopted by 1924 conven- tion. ) The other plank, Schools of the Future, bears more directly upon “experimental” education: 242 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD The World War has led to a reéxamination of various institutions and the service being rendered by them. The organized labor movement re- gards education as the key to a better life. After a careful survey of our educational system it is of the opinion that the time has arrived for a thorough-going reconstruction of our educational aims, methods, equipment and curricula with a view of bringing them into harmony with present- day life and so that they may function effectively in the preparation for social living, Our present educational system needs whole- some revision where it is characterized by a tra- ditional and outworn curricula and methods, is artificially motivated, secures discipline essentially through coercion, imposes adult conceptions of life on changing childhood, or is deadening in its influence because of regimentalized school pro- cedure and lifeless and useless subject matter largely unrelated to problems of child life. More- over it is sometimes characterized by merciless “speeding up” to fulfill artificially established forms and it fails almost entirely to help pupils to live creatively and richly their normal lives. Our teachers and workers are of the opinion that the schools of the future must be built on freedom and cooperation, must liberate and or- ganize the capacities of children through oppor- tunities carried on under a curriculum as rich, varied and as fluid as the life of the children and their ever changing environment, and that the ideal teachers should be codperators who provide favorable conditions for self-development. A NEW EDUCATION FOR LABOR 243 This plank bears the same impress as the pro- posal made by the Teachers’ Union of New York ‘City, which after an intensive study of the lead- ‘ing experimental schools in and near the metropo- ‘lis, submitted to the local educational authorities ja well worked out plan for establishing a similar ’axperimental center within the public school sys- ‘tem itself. The proposal being promptly rejected ‘by the board of education on certain technical grounds, the Union is now sounding out the pos- sibility of making necessary changes in the state education law. : Within the year also, two important confer- ences were held by leading educators and repre- ‘sentatives of organized labor. One conference launched an experimental residential school pri- marily for workers’ children under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. William M. Fincke, who donated ‘to the enterprise their 177-acre farm, with its ‘numerous buildings, equipment and fifty head of dairy cattle, at Manumit, Pawling, N. Y. An association of people from the labor and educa- tional world was formed to direct the affairs of ‘the school, with A. J. Muste of Brookwood as ‘chairman of the executive board. The actual running of the institution is in the hands of faculty and students who share alike in the work essential to the upkeep of school and 244 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD farm, as well as in the government of the school community itself. The children range in age from nine to fourteen, but older groups will be added each year until college grade or its equivalent is reached. Academic work, pursued this year un- der a modified Dalton plan, is confined to four morning hours, six days a week, releasing the students for other activities, no less educational, of their community life. These include not only the necessary chores, both indoors and out—cook- ing, dishwashing, and housecleaning, milking and feeding the stock, chopping and hauling the wood, etc., but plenty of recreational and social activities as well. Wholesome social living Manumit con- siders its most valuable educational factor. “The heart and marrow of a school like ours,” writes a member of the faculty, “is the commu- nity life. Community life itself is our definition of that freedom and responsibility in which every educational democrat believes. The community life of our school is the socialized incarnation of our belief in industrial democracy. It is our act of faith in the labor movement and in that good life, that rich and noble life for all, which the labor movement is going to bring in.” The other conference of labor representatives and educators launched the junior Youth Move- ment in America, a movement closely correspond- A NEW EDUCATION FOR LABOR 245 ‘ing to the organizations among children which have proved so successful on the continent. Pioneer Youth which operates under the auspices vof the National Association of Child Develop- ment, purposes to use constructively the leisure ‘time of boys and girls from seven to eighteen. Through clubs and summer camps, conducted in the spirit of modern education, it is hoped “to encourage activities which will stimulate the criti- Neal and creative faculties of children, will liber- ‘ate their minds from dogma and fear and will help each one to become a force for the recon- struction of society. . . . We believe that the ‘salvation of society will require the elimination ‘of the destructive military spirit, of race and ‘national hatreds and of the exploitation of one -man by another.” _ There is however no dogmatic teaching of these ideas on the part of the leaders of Pioneer Youth. It is no part of their aim to impose . “sms” upon children, nor to attempt to turn out ready-made little socialists or radicals. Propa- ganda, they realize, has no place in an enlight- ened scheme of education: what is needed are op- ‘portunities for children to become free creative _ personalities. 1 This name has recently been dropped and the organization operates under the name of “Pioneer Youth.” 246 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Accordingly in the camp run last summer for 148 boys and girls on the Fincke farm at Pawling, and in the nineteen clubs organized last winter in and near New York City, efforts were made to | have the children engage in the ordinary, normal healthful activities that children love to engage in anywhere. Sports, hikes, farm work, swim- | ming, nature study, dramatics, pottery, camp fire amusements, the publication of a camp journal, | written, printed and illustrated with cuts by the children themselves—these filled the summer days. The management of the camp was put in the hands of the children, who elected their’ own chairman—a capable lad of twelve—decided on their daily program, and made and enforced rules of camp behavior. On occasion, social and eco- nomic problems were discussed. “One of the finest things I ever learned,” wrote the youthful editor of the camp paper, “came about from a discussion around the camp fire. The subject was about the reason for race preju- dice. Up to that time I had never been prejudiced towards Negroes, Russians, Italians and Swedes, etc., but I had always maintained a severe atti- tude towards the Japs. At the beginning of the discussion I fervidly championed the recent Japa- nese Exclusion Act. A few sensible remarks against exclusion brought me back to my senses. A NEW EDUCATION FOR LABOR 247 . I found then that my real reason in favor pf 2 ae was that I did not know the Chinese and Japanese as well as the other races. ... The whole discussion started because of race preju- dice toward colored people, which was proven to be wrong. In conclusion let it be said that many of the troubles of the world have been due to hatreds between mankind.” _ During the winter, several of the clubs under- took special investigations of social conditions. One is investigating fire traps in Harlem. Another is raising money and clothes for the West Virginia miners and is planning to visit textile, steel and mining centers. Other clubs are pursu- ing the ordinary activities of any young people’s organization, except that the management of the clubs is democratic, military discipline and mili- tary ideals do not prevail, and efforts are made by the club leaders to develop each child’s special Capacities so far as possible. By January, it had become apparent to alert labor unions that Pioneer Youth might become immensely important to the labor movement. On one of the coldest nights of the year, delegates from 103 unions attended a conference of Pioneer Youth to give it their support. Credentials were read and accepted from nine international unions, Sixteen central bodies and seventy-eight local he 248 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD unions. These included the American Federa- | tion of Teachers, the International Association } of Machinists, the International Brotherhood of | Firemen and Oilers, the International Fur Work- | ers, the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sul- | phite and Paper Mill Workers, the International | Ladies’ Garment Workers, the International | Pocket Book Workers, the Subway and Tunnel | Constructors International Union, and _ the : United Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers | Union. | Union funds have kept the movement going: | $soo from the International Ladies’ Garment | Workers, $400 from the International Fur | Workers, and $300 from the New York District | Council, No. 9 of the International Brotherhood | of Painters, Paperhangers and Decorators. The | conference passed a resolution calling on unions | to raise a fund of $5,000. It was also reported | that two camps will be run this summer, and the | work extended to Pennsylvania and New Jersey. | Yet actually the number of children involved so | far in Pioneer Youth is small—not more than two | or three hundred. Why then does every kind of | organization of laboring men hasten to endorse | it? Is it merely due to the energy and zeal of Mr, Joshua Lieberman, secretary of Pioneer Youth, that all sorts of workers—plasterers, hod carriers, ——.. | d y < ao | ‘carpenters, painters, electrical workers, iron A NEW EDUCATION FOR LABOR 249 workers, printers, railway carriers, clerks, express handlers, firemen and oilers, machinists and gar- -ment workers, furriers, leather workers, cap ma- kers, hatters, millinery workers, neckwear work- ers, subway constructors, bakery and confection- ery workers, cigar makers, butchers, laundrymen, stage employees, paper workers, bookkeepers, pat- tern makers and teachers—come forward collec- tively with unqualified support? With due credit | to the services of Mr. Lieberman, we believe that such widespread endorsement of an educational | project would scarcely be given by organized labor, were labor not becoming increasingly aware of i the necessity of fundamental educational reform. A century ago American labor helped to estab- lish for the first time in any country the great experiment of free and universal education. Suc- cessful as the experiment has been in many re- spects, signs are not wanting that the shortcom- ings of the present educational system are many and serious, that indeed unless a more vital, and dynamic type of education replaces the one now | prevailing, the public school will prove a stumbling block to social and industrial progress. That labor is once more taking an aggressive attitude towards elementary education is one of the most hopeful signs of the times. XIII FUTURE PUBLIC SCHOOLS For many years the term “social” has been one to conjure with in education. The big impelling motive in education, we are told, is the social motive. ‘All our schools,’ says one superin- tendent, “elementary, intermediate, secondary and collegiate, must in the future strive to realize more fully the seven great social aims of education.* This number was enunciated by the National Edu- cation Association and included health, mastery of the tools of learning, good citizenship, worthy home membership, vocational effectiveness, wise use of leisure, and ethical character.? These were to be given to the child, not as good things in themselves, but because they develop in him ca- pacities and abilities the better to discharge his social obligations. So widespread is this attitude towards education that already a number of scales have been devised to measure and test the results of instruction in these social outcomes. There are tests to measure civic habits,*® others to de- 1“The Platoon School,” by Charles L. Spain, The Mac« millan Co., 1924. 2 Bulletin No. 35, 1918, U. S. Bureau of Education. 3-Chassell-Upton Citizenship Scale, Teachers College, Co« lumbia University. 250 y , FUTURE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 25! termine vocational fitness,* and even a general scale to measure individual and social behavior re- sulting from school instruction in such matters as health and accident prevention and other social attitudes and practices.° This emphasis upon the social significance of the school’s task followed naturally upon the sternly individualistic attitude towards education which marked our earlier schools. “Gradually there has come the conviction that the perpetuity of our democratic society depends upon a con- sciously developed means of carrying on our af- fairs as a group, in short upon a process of socialization in the schools. If we are to be- come efficient citizens in a society in which the | individual determines the policies of government, mal education. we must acquire knowledge socially valuable, gain insight and interest in our common problems, be practiced in thinking and solving these problems . . . We must learn to live together before we as individuals can gain fullness of life through for- 99 6 Important as this attitude is, it has in the past 4Thurstone Vocational Guidance Tests, World Book Co., Yonkers, N 5“A Scale for Measuring Individual and Social Behavior,” Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, Ill. 6 “Development of Method,’ by William A. Maddox, chapter in “Twenty-Five Years of American Education,” edited by I. L. Kandel, The Macmillan Co., 1924. 252 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD been conceived far too narrowly. It has implied a ready made fairly static adult scheme of living for which children by proper doses of “social in- struction” might reasonably be prepared to play an efficient rdle. Such changes as might take place in this ordered society were all in the line of predictable progress, a progress expressed pri- marily in economic terms ; more wealth, more me- chanical invention, resulting in more widely dif- fused literacy and culture, and extension of our assumed enlightened civilization to the dark places of the earth. Recently, however, and especially since the war, the old faith in automatic progress has been shaken. We hear more and more talk of the me- chanical side of civilization outrunning the per- sonal capacities of those who are to work that civilization. We hear frequent expression of fear that the time may come when we shall have our immense complicated machinery of economic life with none at hand to work it. This forces our at- tention away from the problem of adapting the child to the static or so called progressing world about him, and raises the problem how to make a developing prime mover in progress out of the child himself. Dynamic, free and creative per- sonalities will be necessary if the vast social struc- tuire we are erecting is not to overwhelm us with FUTURE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 253 its own weight. Such personalities are little likely to be produced by the older disciplinary school, or its modern counterpart, “the socially regimenting” school. The immense popularity of the conception of the “Robot” shows how sound instinct of the mass places discipline of and for itself at a dis- count. The great contribution of such educa- tional experiments as we have been discussing is that each to a greater or lesser extent aims to free the child from imposed tyrannies, whether of sub- ject matter or routine, and to permit him full play for personal development. The Dalton and Win- netka plans seek to free him from the necessity of observing identical progress with forty or forty- five other children of varying ability, and of fol- lowing closely a daily allotted task. The wise use of intelligence tests also works for the freeing of the individual by calling attention to his differ- ences and the necessity of adapting the course of study to his special needs. The work-study-play schools, through the systematic use of variety, seek to free the child from the close discipline of the single classroom, and to give him opportunity to test his powers at first hand in laboratory, play- ground and workshop. The Lincoln School pro- vides not only variety of program, but through scientific research is clearing the curriculum of the dead weight of unusable subject matter and 254 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD content. Professor Collings advances still another step; he boldly abandons the course of study, and directs his efforts to helping children do better the normal and wholesome activities they naturally engage in anywhere. Such avow- edly free centers as the classes maintained by Miss Goodlander and Miss Irwin, the City and Coun- try and the Walden Schools, break through not only the traditional barriers of curriculum and program, but provide a new set up on the child’s own level of interest and understanding, rich in materials and opportunities for creative growth. In many of these experiments also, some attempt is made to apply the findings of modern psycho- logical research, which recognizes not only the profound differences in children’s mental capaci- ties, but also the necessity of freeing them emo- tionally, no less than physically, of all handicaps to complete functioning. While many of these freer principles are being taught in teacher training schools, and are here and there reflected in isolated classrooms, it is unlikely that we shall see their very rapid ex- tension in the public schools. We shall first have to multiply very greatly the number of these ex- periments and gain for them wider public knowl- edge and support. The obstacles against their general adoption seem indeed insurmountable. | | We have to deal not only with the dead weight - of inertia and tradition in the schools themselves, , complicated in too many places by the tug and . warfare of opposing political interests, but we have to reckon with a public that has no very | great measure of faith in what schools anywhere _ are trying to achieve. There is still a strong pop- ular notion that education, so called, is only “skin | deep,’ that the real lessons of life are learned not _from schoolmasters and books, but in the realities of the world outside. The school exists primarily as a necessary. disciplinary agent, divorced alike from the interests and needs of the child, and of the community it was designed to serve. The very appearance of the conventional schoolhouse testifies to the popular conception of its function. Those vast barrack like structures that fill our city streets, impersonally numbered P.S. 39 or 192, what are they but the visible embodiment of the disciplinary trend, differing ever so slightly in outward appearance from the armories of the military, or even the prisons. In- to these sterile masses of masonry we send the little child, straight from the intimate and easy associations of home and neighborhood living. He walks through the great iron gates, through the long stone court, through the heavy wooden door, down long corridors, past countless rooms. FUTURE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 255 256 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD With him go a throng of other children, also of tender age. He and they are sorted out and placed in their little grooves in classroom 100, or 203. In place of the vivid chatter of home, st- lence is enjoined, in place of eager activity, passive sitting, in place of the natural give and take be- tween himself and a comprehensible mother or father, he must yield obeisance to the teacher, and beyond her to the principal, and beyond the prin- cipal, to a still higher official, and so on through a whole superstructure of authority, all there to impose on him behavior that is strange, and tasks that have no meaning. Small wonder that we have such absurd an- titheses as school and society, or child and com- munity, when school and child and society are thus made mutually exclusive. The best of our educational experiments return to earlier and more simple ways. The little boy in Miss Goodland- er’s class who exclaimed, “I like this school, be- cause I know all about it and everybody in it,” voiced a need of childhood of very deep signifi- cance. In our haste to provide “learning” on a wholesale scale for the mass of children, we have > overlooked the very elements that make learning possible. Somehow or other we shall have to make school intelligible to the child, somehow make it merely another “home” where he may con- FUTURE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 257 tinue the happy business of living and learning through living. This means, perhaps, that we shall have to mod- ify considerably our ambitious school building schemes, the erecting all over the land of mam- ‘moth and magnificent mausoleums, with their finished equipment and standardized facilities. A ‘wise friend recently remarked that rather than subject young children to the inhibitions of monu- mental masonry and overwhelming systems, it would be far better if “school” for the youngest ones especially were merely a pleasant room or two over a millinery shop. By this he did not mean that the child should be given fewer, but ‘rather more opportunities on a plane that he can “understand, that he can manipulate and manage. To be sure such complete changes as we urge would not be cheaply acquired. We should have to exceed our present bare 2% of our national in- come now spent on schools. We might have to approach the 10% which ali budget experts agree should be spent on education. (What private in- dividual educating his children in private schools would be content with spending so small a pro- ‘portion?) To make such sums available, we might have to hasten long needed changes in our taxing systems. We should also have to face the ‘ire of the economists, or rather the economizers— 258 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD (Pritchett and Co.). Our educational expendi- tures have indeed risen, although the increase has not been as rapid as that of other governmental activities, such as charities and corrections, or health and sanitation. Indeed a much smaller proportion of the tax dollar than formerly, is spent on education. Moreover while the school population has grown more rapidly than the total population, while modern communities demand additional and more costly facilities, especially for their high schools, the real cause of mounting edu- cational costs is the decreased purchasing power of the dollar. School expenditures for such years as 1918 or 1920, when corrected to conform to the purchasing power of money in 1913, show an actual decrease.’ | The popular notion dies hard that there is some unique relation between learning and disci- pline. Teachers who experiment with freer prac- tices have to contend not only with the moss grown prejudices of other pedagogues, but with the shocked disapproval of the parents of their pupils. At least in the beginning they meet with such opposition. Later, as the newer practices bear fruit, parents may become the most active 7 See summary of report of Educational Finance Inquiry conducted by American Council of Education, contained in chapter on the United States in Educational Year Book, 1924, The Macmillan Co. FUTURE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 259 »rotagonists of more modern ways. The yarents of many children attending non-platoon schools in Detroit, have urged the extension of work-study-play schools to their districts; pa- ‘ents who in the early days of Miss Pratt’s school withdrew their children because they did jot immediately learn to read and write, are now noving down into the neighborhood of the school n large numbers. _ The desire for fundamental education reform is evident both within school systems and without. Whole school systems, such as Winnetka and Gary are committed to the more liberalizing prin- ciples. The Dalton plan is making its way into many places formerly thought impervious to new doctrine. Although the actual number of “pro- pressive” schools and radical experimental centers is still small, modifications in line with their teach- ings are gradually finding their way into many school systems. As such ideas gain wider ac- ceptance we are likely to hear less about the dif- ficulty of applying them under public school con- ditions. Overcrowded buildings and classrooms, tundertrained teachers, meager equipment, and in- sufficient appropriations do seriously retard edu- cational progress. Serious as such physical handi- caps are, however, they are less an obstacle than the prevailing attitude towards education which 260 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD exists in the minds of those who run our schools. Many of the experiments we have been discussing are being tried out under public auspices. All of them might be, and their number indefinitely in- creased, once the philosophy that underlies them was held to be valid. Signs are not wanting that this is actually taking place. There is a greater questioning as to the aims of education and the methods employed to realize these aims, in- formality in the classroom is no longer a com- plete anomaly, the center of interest is shifting from the teacher and the course of study to the child, and to him not as the enemy to be redeemed, but as a creative personality, capable of indefinite development. Taking the long look backward enables Ex-President Eliot of Harvard to say, “The progressive schools are increasing rapidly in number and influence, and the educational pub- lic is becoming more and more awake to their merits. They are to be the schools of the future both in America and Europe.” LIST OF EXPERIMENTAL AND PRO- GRESSIVE SCHOOLS (Supplied by Bureau of Educational Experiments, 144 West 13th Street, New York City)? _ANTIOCH COLLEGE AND ANTIOCH ScHooL. Yellow Springs, O. Founded by Arthur E. Morgan of Dayton, O. Co-educational, Kindergarten through College. Literature available. BEAVER Country Day Scuoor. Brookline, Mass. | Eugene Randolph Smith, Principal. Co-educational, Kindergarten to College. Prospectus. BEAVER ScHooLt. 9 Beaver Place, Boston, Mass. Margaretta Voorhees, Principal. Co-educational Primary and Elementary Grades. Prospectus. Brooxsipe Scuoort. Upper Montclair, N. J. Anna B. Gannett, Principal. Founded by parents belonging to the Fairhope League. No Prospectus. 1The Bureau in supplying this list stated that it is not up to date, and asks that those having information of more recent experiments write in about them. 263 264 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Brookwoop WorkKERS’ CoLLEGE. Katonah, N. Y. A. J. Muste, Chairman. Co-educational enterprise for the young peo- ple of the industrial class. Present enroll- ment 18 to 35 years of age. Carson CoLLeGE. Flourtown, Pa. Elsa Ueland, President. Colony for orphan girls with special equipment and educational advantages. See, “What Keeps Children Well,” by Marot and Willets; also “Mother and Child,’ Aug., — 1922, CuHEvy CHASE Country Day ScHoot. Chevy Chase, Md. Stanwood Cobb, Principal. Primary to College Entrance. Mr. Cobb was secretary and organizer of the Progressive Education Association. CHILDREN’s UNIVERSITY SCHOOL. 10 West 72nd Street, N. Y. Miss Helen Parkhurst, Di- rector. Model School of the Child Education Foun- dation. Montessori Class through High School. No prospectus. See, “The Dalton Laboratory Plan,” by Eve- lyn Dewey. E. P. Dutton, 1921. “Education on the Dalton Plan,” by Helen Parkhurst. E. P. Dutton, 1922. City AND Country ScHoort. 165 West 12th Street, N. Y. Caroline Pratt, Director. Three Years to Thirteen Years. APPENDIX 265 Affiliated with The Bureau of Educational Experiments. See Bulletins Nos. 1, 3 and 8, Bureau of Edu- cational Experiments. Record of Group 6, City and Country School Bulletin, 1922. Experimental Practice in the City and Coun- try School, by Caroline Pratt, with a Record of Group VII, by Lulu Wright. E. P. Dut- ton, 1924. EpcEwoop ScHooL. Greenwich, Conn. Euphrosyne Langley, Principal. Kindergarten through High School. Affiliated with the Fairhope League. Brief prospectus available. EruicaL Cutture Scuoor. Central Park West and 63rd Street, N. Y. C. Dr. Franklin C. Lewis, Principal. Branch School conducted by Mabel R. Good- lander at 27 West 75th Street. Literature available. FairHopE SUMMER ScHooL. Greenwich, Conn. Marietta L. Johnson, Director. Summer normal course under the auspices of the Fairhope Educational Foundation. Classes of children for purposes of demon- stration. The Edgewood school buildings and grounds and the adjacent plant of Rose- mary Hall School are used. FarrRHOoPE OrGANIC ScHooL. Fairhope, Ala. Ma- rietta L. Johnson, Director. 266 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Kindergarten to College entrance. Some resident students admitted. See “Schools of To-morrow,” by John Dewey, Chap. II. E. P. Dutton, 1916. Francis Scorr Key Scuoort. Locust Point, Balti- more, Md. Persis Miller, Principal. A public school with special community serv- ice development. Used as a laboratory for mental hygiene studies by Dr. Adolph Meyer, Johns Hop- kins Department of Psychiatry. FRANCIS W. Parker ScuHoor. San Diego, Cal. Ethel Dummer Mintzer, Principal. Open air school with special features of equip- ment. Prospectus available. Gary Scuoors. Gary, Ind. Wm. E. Wirt, Supt. “The Gary Schools,” by Randolph Bourne. Houghton Mifflin Co. “Schools of To-morrow,” by John and Evelyn Dewey. E. P. Dutton, Chap. VII and IX. “The Platoon School,” by Chas. L. Spain. Macmillan, 1924. | Bibliography and_ bulletins may be secured from U. S. Bureau of Education. (Address Alice Barrows.) JUNion ELEMENTARY ScHooLt. Downers Grove, Ill. Lucia B. Morse, Principal. A laboratory school for little children, con-_ ducted by The Kindergarten Extension As- sociation. Lucia B. Morse, Director. APPENDIX 267 Lincotn ScHoot oF TEACHERS COLLEGE. 425 West t2ed Street, N. Y. C. Dr. Otis W. Caldwell, Director. Experimental school of the General Education Board. First Grade to College Entrance. Descriptive Booklet and bulletins available. Pusiic ScHoot No. 64. New York City. Public school experiment under joint aus- pices of City Board of Education and Pub- lic Education Association. Aims to develop model Health and Mental Hygiene Service for city schools. Elisabeth Irwin, Acting Principal. Loomis InstiruTE. Windsor, Conn. Nathaniel Horton Batchelder, Headmaster. High School age, prepares for business and college. Endowed, located on a farm. Prospectus avail- able. Manumit Scuoot. Pawling, N. Y. Henry R. Linville. School primarily for workers’ children, under control of Manumit Associates, a group of educators and labor representatives. Printed matter available. MERRILL-PALMER ScHOooL. Detroit, Mich. Edna White, Director. Girls—High School and College age. Endowed school for home-making arts and sciences. Conducts a nursery school for 268 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD " children 2 to 6 years. Mrs. Helen T. Woolley in charge. | Tue Mopern ScuHoor. Stelton, N. J. Boarding and day school conducted by the Ferrer colony at Stelton. | Children from four years of age. No Prosi pectus. Moraine Park Scuoot., Dayton, Ohio. Frank D. Slutz, Principal. Founded by a parents’ association under the leadership of Arthur E. Morgan. Interest-— ing Prospectus and Year Book, Oak Lane Country Day Scuoor. Philadelphia. Francis M. Froelicher, Headmaster. Oyar VALLEY ScHooLt. Ojai, Calif. Edward Yeo- — mans, Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen. Op OrcHARD ScHoot. Leonia, N. J. Mrs. Anna G. Noyes, Principal. A home school for limited number of little children. Boarding and day pupils. Brief Prospectus. THE Park Scuoot. Liberty Heights, Baltimore, Md. E. M. Sipple, Headmaster. Founded and financied by a parents’ organiza- tion. Eugene Randolph Smith was the first principal. — Primary to College entrance. Prospectus available. THE Park ScuHoor. Jewett Avenue and Main _ Street, Buffalo, N. Y. Leslie Leland, Prin-— cipal. k Paige ah ie eS ~ APPENDIX 269 Kindergarten to College. See, “A Peep Into the Educational Future,” by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Outlook, Sept., IQI5. Prospectus available. | THE ParK ScHoot. Cleveland, Ohio. Mary Ham- mett Lewis, Principal. Organized by a group of parents. Mrs. Albert Dieevy, Lreas, Primary and Elementary Grades. : PETERBOROUGH SCHOOL. Peterborough, N. H. Originally a vacation school for the children of the Peterborough summer colony. See “A School in Action,” published by E. P. Dutton Co. PHorsE ANNA THORNE ScHoot. Bryn Mawr, Penna. Frances Browne, Director. Open-air school with special buildings and equipment. Used as a laboratory by the Bryn Mawr Col- lege Department of Education and of Psy- chology. Prospectus. PorTteR Rurat ScwHoor. Kirksville, Mo. Mrs. Marie Turner Harvey, Principal. See, “New Schools for Old,’ by Evelyn Dewey. E. P. Dutton, 1918. A rural school. First Grade to College Pre- paratory. Raymonp Rrorpan Scuoou. Highland, Ulster Co., N. Y. Raymond Riordan, Principal. 270 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD An American adaption of the European “New | School” idea. Mr. Riordan was formerly instructor at Inter- | laken. Woods and camp life featured. Elementary and High School age. Prospectus | available. SCARBOROUGH ScHOOL. Scarborough-on-Hudson, N, Y. A. W. Sutherland, Principal. Organized by a parents’ association under the leadership of Mr. and Mrs. Frank A. Van- derlip. Prospectus available. SILVER Bay Scoot. Silver Bay, N. Y. CC. Michner, Pres. Boys’ boarding school, employing latest teach- ing methods. High School age. Prospectus. SuNsET Hitt Scuoor., 420 West 57th Street, Kansas City, Mo. Helen Ericson, Principal. Kindergarten to College. Prospectus available. _ THE Universtry Etementary Scoot. Colum- bia, Mo. Laboratory school of the University’s Depart- ment of Education. See, “Child Life and the Curriculum,” by Junius L. Merriam. See, “Schools of To-morrow,” by John and Evelyn Dewey, Chap. III. Unguowa Scoot. Bridgeport, Conn. Carl ~ Churchill, Principal. Organized by a parents’ association. APPENDIX 271 ‘WALDEN ScHoot (formerly The Children’s School). 34 West 68th Street, N. Y. ‘Margaret Pollitzer and Elizabeth Goldsmith, Directors. Margaret Naumburg, Educa- tional Adviser. Co-educational, 2 years through High School. Founded by Margaret Naumburg. Prospectus and printed matter available. WINNETKA Scuoots. Winnetka, Ill. Carleton W. Washburn, Supt. School system developed around progressive ideas. Printed matter available. BIBLIOGRAPHY Adams, John: “Modern Developments in Educa- tional Practice.” Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1922. Baldwin, Bird T., and Stecher, Lorle: “The Psy- chology of the Pre-school Child.” D. Apple- ton and Co., 1924. Binet, A., and Simon T.: “The Development of In- telligence in Children.” Baltimore, Williams and Wilkins, 1916. Bobbit, F.: “The Curriculum.” Houghton Mifflin, 1918. “What the Schools Teach and Might Teach.” Cleveland Educ. Survey, 1915. | Bonser, F. G.: “The Elementary School Curricu- lum.” Macmillan, 1920. Bolton, F. E.: “Everyday Psychology for Teach- ers.” Scribner’s, 1923. Bureau of Educational Experiments, New York: Bulletins: “Playthings,” Revised, 1923. “Ani- mal Families in School,’ L. B. Garrett. ‘The Play School.” “The Children’s School,” Teachers College Playground, Gregory School. “Stony Ford School,’ The Home School. “A Catalogue of Play Equipment,” comp. by J. L. Hunt, revised 1922. “Education Through Experience,” Ethical Culture School, 1921. “School Records,” by Mary S. Marot. “A Nursery School Experiment,” by Harriet John- son, revised 1924. 272 BIBLIOGRAPHY 273 urnham, W. H.: “The Normal Mind,” D. Apple- ton & Co. iourne, Randolph: “The Gary Schools,’ Hough- ton Mifflin Co., 1916. “Education and Living,” The Century Co., 1917. ‘aldwell, Otis W. and Courtis, S.: “Then and Now in Education,” World Book Co., 1924. thambers, Smith, and others: “Report of Experi- mental Work in School of Childhood,” Univ. of Pittsburgh, 1916. ‘harters, W. W.: “Curriculum Construction,” Mac- millan, 1923. “hildren’s Foundation: “The Child, His Nature and Needs,” Valparaiso, Ind., 1924. ‘oe, George A.: “Law and Freedom in the School,” Chicago Univ. Press, 1924. Sooke, H. C.: “The Play Way,” Stokes. *ollings, Ellsworth: “An Experiment with a Proj- ect Curriculum,’ Macmillan, 1923. “ubberly, E. P.: “Public Education in the United States,” Houghton Mifflin, 1919. “The Prin- cipal and His School,” Macmillan, 1923. Jewey, John: “Educational Essays,” London, Blackie and Sons, 1910. “How We Think,” Heath, 1910. “Interest and Effort,” Hough- ton Mifflin and Co., 1913. “School and Society,” Univ. of Chicago Press, I9I5. ‘Democracy and Education,” Macmillan, 1916. “Schools of Tomorrow” (with Evelyn Dewey), EB. P. Dutton, 1915. “Human Nature and Con- duct,” Holt, 1922. 274. OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Dewey, Evelyn: “The Dalton Plan,” E. P. Dutton, 1922. “New Schools for Old,” E. P. Dutton, 1920. Freud, Sigmund: “A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis,” Boni and Liveright, 1921. Gesell, Arnold: “The Preschool Child,” Houghton Mifflin, 1923. “The Mental Growth of the Preschool Child,” Macmillan, 1924. Green, Geo. H.: “Psychoanalysis in the Classroom,” G. P. Putnam, 1921. Gruenberg, Benjamin: “Outlines of Child Study,” The Macmillan Co., 1923. Hall, G. Stanley: “Aspects of Child Life,” Ginn and Co., 1907. “Youth, Its Education, Regi- men and Hygiene,” D. Appleton & Co., 1909. Hartman, Gertrude: “The Child and His School,” E. P. Dutton, 1922. “Home and Community Life,” E. P. Dutton, 1923. Henderson, C. H.: “What Is It to be Educated 2” Houghton Mifflin, 1914. Hamaide, A.: “The Decroly Class,” tr. by Jean Lee Hunt, E. P. Dutton, 1924. Hill, Patty, Smith and others: “Experimental Studies in Kindergarten Education,” Teachers’ College publications. “A Conduct Curricu-. lum,” dir. by Patty Hill, and compiled by Burke, et al, Scribners, 1923. Hinkle, Beatrice M.: “The Recreating of the In- dividual,” Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1923. Hollingsworth, Leta: “Special Talents and De- fects,” Macmillan, 1923. Hunt, Johnson, Lincoln: “Health Education and the “Nutrition Class,” E. P. Dutton, 1921. BIBLIOGRAPHY 275 dorn, J. L.: “The American Elementary School,” i ‘The Century Co., 1923. fosic and Clark: “Brief Guide to the Project Method,” World Book Co., 1924. twin, Elisabeth and Marks, Louis: “Fitting the School to the Child,’ Macmillan, 1924. ames, William: “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals,” Henry Holt, 1916. ohnson, Buford: “The Mental Growth of Chil- dren,” E. P. Dutton, 1924. ennings, Meyer, Watson, Thomas: “Suggestions of Modern Science Concerning Education,” Macmillan, 1917. udd, C. H.: “Evolution of a Democratic School System,” Houghton Mifflin, 1918. fandel I. L.: Editor, “Twenty-five Years of Ameri- can Education,” Macmillan, 1924. Editor, ‘Educational Year Book,” Internat. Institute of Teachers College, Macmillan, 1925. Cilpatrick, W. H.: “The Project Method,” series of papers, Teachers’ College Record, 1918 and 1921, also “Jo. of Educ. Method,” 1921. “The Montessori System Examined,” Hough- ton Mifflin. ‘“Froebel’s Kindergarten Princi- ples Critically Examined,” Macmillan. “Source Book in Educational Philosophy,” Macmillan, 1924. ‘Foundations of Method,” Macmillan, 1925. incoln School, Teachers College, New York: “De- scriptive Booklet” and many pamphlets. .ong, Constance: “Psychology of Phantasy,” Mof- fat, Yard and Co., 1921. 276 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD McCall, W. A.: “How to Measure in Education,” Macmillan, 1922. “How to Experiment in Education,” Macmillan, 1923. McMillan, Margaret: “The Nursery School,’ E. P. Dutton, 1921. “Education Through the Imagination,” D. Appleton, 1924. : McMurray, Frank: “A School in Action,” E. P: Dutton, 1923. | Meriam, J. L.: “Child Life and the Curriculum,” World Book Co., 1920. Miller, H. C.: “The New Psychology and the Teacher,” Thomas Seltzer, 1923. Mirick, Geo.: “Progressive Education,” Houghton Mifflin. Monroe, DeVoss, Kelly: “Educational Tests and Measurements,” Houghton Mifflin, 1917. National Education Association: “Com. on Re- organization of Elementary Education,” World Book Co. National Society for the Study of Education: “In- telligence Tests and Their Uses,’ 21st Yeat Book, 1922. “Education of Gifted Children,’ 23d Year Book, Pub. School Publishing Co. 1924, Bloomington, IIl. New Republic: Educational Supplement, “The Ele- mentary School,” Nov. 12, 1924. New York Society for the Experimental Study 0! Education: “Contributions to Education,” Vol I, World Book Co., 1924. Nifenecker, Eugene: “Pupil Progress Through th Grades,” New York City Department of Edu: cation, 1922. BIBLIOGRAPHY 277 ‘Norsworthy and Whitley: “Psychology of Child- hood,” Macmillan, 1918. ©’Shea, M. V.: “Mental Development and Educa- tion,’ Macmillan, 1922. ‘First Steps in Child Training,’ Valparaiso, L. E. Myers and Co., 1920. “Dynamic Factors in Education,’ Mac- millan, 1909. Parkhurst, Helen: “Education on the Dalton Plan,” : London, G. Bell and Sons, 1922. Parker, Francis, School: Bulletins. Pratt, Caroline E.: “Experimental Practice in the City and Country School,” E. P. Dutton & Co., 1924. Progressive Education: Quarterly of Progressive Education Association, Washington, D. C. Robinson, J. H.: “Mind in the Making,” Harper Bros., 1922. “The Humanizing of Knowl- edge,” Doran, 1923. ‘Roman, F. W.: “The New Education in Europe,” E. P. Dutton & Co., 1923. Rugg, H. O.: “Statistical Methods Applied to Edu- cation,’ Houghton Mifflin, 1917. Spain, C. L.: “The Platoon School,” Macmillan, 1924. Sies, A. C.: “Spontaneous and Supervised Play in Childhood,” Macmillan, 1922. Smith, E. R.: “Education Moves Ahead,” Atlantic Monthly Press, 1924. Stedman, Lulu M.: “Education of Gifted Children,” World Book Co., 1924. “Stevenson, J. A.: “The Project Method,” Mac- millan. 278 OUR ENEMY THE CHILD Terman, L. M.: “Intelligence Tests and School Re- organization,” World Book Co., 1922. “Sug- gestions for the Education and Training of Gifted Children,” Stanford Univ., 1921. “The Measurement of Intelligence,” Houghton Mif- flin, 1916. Thorndike, Edward L.: “Educational Psychology, Briefer Course,” ‘Teachers College, 1913. “Education,” Macmillan, 1912. Watson, J. B.: “Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist,”’ Lippincott, 1918. “Be- haviorism, Lectures-in-Print,” People’s Insti- tute, 1925. Wells, H. G.: “Floor Games,” Small, Maynard and Co. “The Story of a Great Schoolmaster,” Macmillan, 1924. Woodrow H.: “Brightness and Dullness in Chil- dren,” J. Lippincott. Yeomans, Edward: “Shackled Youth,” Atlantic Monthly Press, 1922. : United States Bureau of Education, bulletins and reports. American INDEX A ability, mental (see also mental testing) abstractions, 80 ‘abstract symbols, 30 academic work, 39; im- proves, 116, 148 activities, free, 95, 158 activity, adult conceived, 144 activities, constructive vs. destructive, 103; normal, 254 Adler, Felix, 126 age: grouping by chrono- logical, 157; level, activi- ties according to, 153, 157 America, 8, 63, 157 Association of University Women, 54 American Child Health Or- ganization, 54 American Federation of Teachers, 248 ; American Federation of Women’s Clubs, 54 analytic psychology, 151, 157 anthropology, 4, 204 apathy, 14 arithmetic: in Dalton school, 91; in Pratt school, 154, 160 ff., 179 ff.; in work- study-play schools, 121; in Winnetka, 73; in vacuo, 16, 121 armories, 254 art, 157 assembly period, 39, 143 automatons, 147 authority, 114, 256 B Baldwin, Bird T., 56, 50 Barrows, Alice, 108 Bassett, Rosa, 84 behavior disorders, 53 behavior psychology: ap- plied to curriculum mak- ing, 132; study by Gesell, 56-58 Binet-Simon, 61 blocks, 6 book learning, discouraged, 149 Boston, 61, 92 Bourne, Randolph, 98, 99 bright children, 34 British, 83 Brookwood, 243 budget time, 45, 81 building, capacity increased, I Burk, Frederick, 82 Burris, W. P., 98 Cc Caldwell, Otis W., 96, 134 California State Normal School, 82 Cane, Florence, ail ff. Chicago Board of Education, 118 child’s level, 149, 254 child purposing, a régime of works, 44 es s etieneay School, Children’s School, 202 ; Child Welfare Research Station, 55 279 280 child’s will, 87 child’s world; 148, 149 (also Ch. XI); must be child size, 202 cities, demoralizing influ- ences of, 102; must be made fit for children, 102 City and Country School, 8, 56, 254 (also Ch. X); art in, 157; books read in, 199; care of room and ma- terials, 175; dancing, 176; discussions, 184 ff.; draw- ing and painting, 168-171; drill, 179; formal instruc- tion demanded, 153; games, 163-165; group manage- ment, 174; geography, 155; language, 183; map mak- ing, 167-168; music work, 179; pottery, 171; play with big materials, 165- 166; reading, 182; science, 194; shop-work, 173; spelling, 154, 181; store, 155, 159-163, 171-173; stories, 194; trips, Ig1 ff.; vicarious living, too much of, 157 civics, glorified, 7 Clark, Ruth Swan, note, p. 71 civilization, 252 classrooms, artificial at- mosphere of, 88 classroom, cost of, 108 class system, 82; social val- ues of, 84 coercion, 66 Collings, Ellsworth, 42, 253, Ch. IV; experiment with junior high school classes, 42; course of study aban- doned, 43; a contribution INDEX to education, 47; projects, five types, 43; rural school experiment described, 43- 44 Columbia University, 61 complexes, 7 community life, 244 compositions, of public school children, 230 ff.; of Walden school children, 216 ff. conduct, 132-134 conferences, III, 243 contemporary life, studied by Rugg, 136 ff. course of study (see also curriculum), 16, 43, 204. 253; changes effected by Lincoln School, 135 ff.; conventional course in Dal- ton schools, 89; dead wood in, 146; enriched, 77; modified, 79; subject di- visions of, 124 Courtis, Stuart A., 117 creative, 10; impulses, 2; creative individuals neces- sary, 252; creative tend- encies smothered, 147 Cuba, 156 curriculum: conduct curric- ulum, 132; enriched curric- ulum, 77; curricular re- form basic to social prog- ress, 137; dynamic cur- riculum defined by Rugg, 137-138; curriculum “made on the spot,” 43; objective studies of, 135; scientific curriculum making, 8, 144; of secondary considera- tion, 149; subject basis objected to, 120; socializa- tion of, 7; varied as life, 148 INDEX D Dalton plan, 8, 244, 253, 259 (also Ch. VII); child’s will enlisted, 88; existing curriculum accepted, 90; job cards, 88; laboratories, 86; limitations of, 90-91; mass production methods abandoned, 86; popular in England, 83; step to edu- cational reform, 9I Dalton Society, 85 day nurseries, 63 ea schools, Ch. departmental teaching, 118- 120 desks, immovable, 149 Detroit, 61, 259; platoon schools in, 109 Department of Educational Research, 116 Dewey, John, 100-101, 114, 134, 209 Dewey, Evelyn, 98 discipline, 147, 253, 258; school an agent of, 255 disciplinarians, 134 drawing, 168; stereotyped, 13 drill, 18; automatons result from, 147 dull fellows, 12 dull-normal, 34, 40, 79 duplicate plan, 110 (see pla- toon, or work-study-play schools, Ch. VIII E early years, Ch. V (see also nursery schools), growing scientific interest in, 150; studies by Gesell, Bald- win, Johnson, 56-61 281 education: cost of, 258; ends of, 1, 125, 260; educational machine, 75; a new edu- cation for labor, Ch. XII; educational order, 8; ex- perimental study of re- form, 9; only “skin-deep,” 254; stagnation in, 147; value of early pioneer, 101 educative process, platoon schools a factor in, 114 elimination of pupils, 76 Eliot, Ex-President, 260 emotional development, 41; emotional fixation, 7; emo- tional states, 53 England: Dalton plan in, 83; Fisher act of 1918, 62; nursery schools in, 62, 63 essentials, 97 Ethical Culture School, 8, 126 (also Ch. IX); Branch school, 131; exper- iment by Mabel Goodland- er, 129 ff.; high intellect- ual requirements of, 127; prevocational courses in, 128 Europe, 260 exclusive use, 106 excursions, 141, 142, 156 experience, first hand in new schools; 149, 157; in Irwin classes, 35; in work-study- play schools, 105 experimental education: ef- fect on community, 44; re- lated to radical movement, 237 F factory system and work- study-play schools, 119 failure, fear of, 212 282 Fairhope, Ala., 124 fears, 41, 53, 213 feeling life, III Fincke, Mr. and Mrs. Wil- liam M., 243 formal work, reduced, 130; demanded, 153, 203 fractions, 25; research study of, 93 freedom, 6, 202, 203; for, teachers, 140; real US. in- stitutional, 146: vs. “run- ning wild,” 149 G “Gary Schools,” quoted, 97 Gary schools, 8; character- istics of, 99-100 (see also work-study- play schools) geography, 155 Gesell, Arnold, 54, 56-58 cifted children, 79 Goldenweiser, Alexander, 4, 204 Goldsmith, Elizabeth, 148 Goodlander, Mabel, 129 ff., 254, 256 grading, chaos of, 78 growth, education should meet needs of, 3, 134; physical, 59; relation to mental development, 61 H habits, 7, 68, 132; formation, 132; inventory of, 68, 132; habit maker, 68; social- moral, 68 Harlem, 247 Hartman, Gertrude, 10 Hill, Patty, 61, 126, 132 INDEX history, 46, 116, 135, 140 holdovers, 40 Hollingworth, Leta S., note P- 74 home, limitations of, 64-65 home life, school should pat- tern, 88 Horace Mann, 8, 126 (Ch. IX); pedagogy, scientific studies in, 134; primary classes experimental, 132; Patty Hill’s experiment, 132-134; traditional stand- ards upheld, 134 dae capacity, increased, I I 1.Q. (see also mental tést- ing) ; changing, 74; group- ing by, 34, 72, 79 immobility, 12, 20, 134 individual differences: cur- riculum to meet, 78; teach- ers aware of, 84 individual instruction, Ch. VII (see Dalton plan, Winnetka plan); begin- ning of, 82; vs. mass in- struction, Q7; limitations of, 06-07 infant damnation, 2 informality, 260 information, 4, 155, 156, 204 inhibitions, 203 Institute of Child Welfare Research, 61 instruction without educa- tion, 215 intelligence (see mental test- ing) ; claimed to be fixed, 71; measurement of, 71; INDEX never defined, 72; rating, 127 initiative, 97 instantaneous obedience, 66 interest, artificial, 87 intimacy, in Goodlander school, 131; in Irwin school, 34; lacking in Lincoln School, 145 International Brotherhood of Painters, Paper Hangers, and Decorators, 248 International Fur Workers, 248 International Ladies Gar- ment Workers’ Union, 248 Towa, University of, 55 Irwin, Elisabeth, 3, 78, 254 (also Ch. IV); emotional development studied, 41; formal work reduced, 34; free activities, 39; proj- ects, 39; regimentation avoided, 37; obstacles cited by, 42 J job cards, 88 Johnson, Dr. Buford, 55, 60 Johnson, Harriet, 54 Johnson, Mrs. Marietta, 37, 124 junior high schools, 135; ex- we by Collings (Ch. K Kennedy, W. F., 112 Kilpatrick, William H., 44, 114, 121, 134 Kimmins, C. W., 83 kindergartens, 131, 132 283 L Labor, 10; new education for (Ch. XII); confer- ences with educators, 243; New York State Federa- tion’s program, 240; Manu- mit School, 243; Pioneer Youth, 245 ff. labor unions, list of those supporting Pioneer Youth, 248, 249 laboratories, 53, 86 laggards, 75 learning: different from teaching, 87; learning and discipline, 258; real learn- ing impossible, 77; proc- ess, 3, 77; wholesale, 256 Lewis, Supt., 127, 130 Lieberman, Joshua, 248 Lincoln School, 8, 96, 126, 253 (Ch. IX) (see also curriculum) ; aims of, 134; assembly periods, 143; beautiful building, 145; Caldwell’s four principles, 140; curricular reform, 135 ff.; excursions, 142; great experiment to be made, 146; primary grades, 140; Rugg’s experiments, 135 ff.; student councils, 144 Lippmann, Walter, 74 literacy, “bursting into,” 37 ins Red School House,” load, balanced vs. peak, 107 ff. London, 85; University of, 3 Los Angeles, 83 284 INDEX Mc N McMillan, Margaret, 62, 63 Nation, The, 11 national income, 257 M National Association of Manhattan Trade School, 91 Manumit, 243 Marks, Louis, 78 Massachusetts, State Health Department, 54 mass education, 85, 123 mass production, 123 materials, 157; character- istic of newer schools, 5; creative use of, 6 mausoleums, 257 mental ability, grading ac- cording to, 79 mental hygiene, 53 mentally defective, 41, 79 mental testing, uses of, Ch. VI; advantages claimed for, 71; curriculum dif- ferentiated, 78; limitations of, 72; overemphasis on “book learning” ability, 73; multitude of tests, 70; useful in grading pu- pils, 74; wise use of in P. S., 64, 78 Merrill Palmer Nursery School, 61 military precision, 18 minimum essentials, 77, 92 misfits, 40 Modern School, 239 money saving, 108 Montanye, Edwin Y., 122 Montgomery Co., Mo., 42 monumental masonry, 254 motor, children are, 152 “multiple track,” 77 multiple use, 99, 105, I10 Muste, A. J., 243 Child Development, 245 National Education Associa- tion, 70, 250; Department of Superintendence of, III National Society for the Study of Education, 93 natural impulses, creative, 2 naughtiness, a _ therapeutic problem, 40 Naumberg, Margaret, 148 neuroses, 4I neurotic class, 34, 40, 79 New Republic, The, 11 New School for Social Re- search, 204 New York Bureau of Edu- cational Experiments, 54, 55, O1 New York City, 8, 9, 33, 72, 79, 110, 118, 126; Bureau of Child Hygiene, 55; De- part of Education, 33, 7 non-promotion, tragedy of, 95 normal children, 34, 790; no pig contemplated for, norms, 54 nursery schools, 150 (also Ch. V), (see early years) ; in America, 63; advan- tages of, 65-67; in Eng- land, 61; growing number of, 54; child study in, 63; Merrill Palmer, 61; ques- tionnaire on, 54; New York Bureau of Educational Experiments, 61; Ruggle INDEX Street Day Nursery, 61; Teachers’ College, 61; Walden School, 61 O Oakland, Calif., 77 objective, 152 Oklahoma, University of, 42, 43 Old Guard, 85 original sin, 2 O’Shea, M. V., 65 O’Shea, Wm. J., note, p. 21 P paint, teaching children to, 21 ff paintings, in Walden School, 210 Parker, George N., 33 Parkhurst, Helen, 83 (see Ch. VIT) passive sitting, 255 Pawling, 243, 246 pedagogy, old school, scientific, 134 Perrot: ©. ht 114 Persian gentleman, I personality, free, creative, 10 personality patterns, 52 personality traits, 53, 66 Pesta, Rose A., 119 Philadelphia, 122 physical defects, 55 pres and Patterson scales, I Pioneer Youth, 245 ff. Pittsburgh, 110, 112 police duty, 13 political opposition, 118 59; 285 Pollitzer, Margaret, 148, 202 Portland, Ore., 108, 122 platoon schools, 110 (see work-study-play, Ch. VIII) practice book, 93 Pratt, Caroline, 148 ff., 259 prefix words, 80 preschool age, 54 (see early years, also nursery schools) prevocational, 128 prisons, 203, 254 Pritchett, Pres., 258 program, daily, 37; in City and Country School, 153, 156; in work-study-play schools, variety of, 203 progress, 252, 259 Progressive Education Asso- ciation, 10 progressive schools, 259, 260 project curriculum, 44 projects, 39; types of, 43 psychiatric examination, 33 Psychiatric Research Foun- dation, 33 psychoanalysis, 53 Public School, 61, 63 Public Education Associa- tion, 33 Pueblo, 82 R 3 R’s, 34, 36, 153; mastered in new schools, 43, 139, 148, 197 ff. radical movement, 237 read, learn to, 35 reading routine, 35 recitation, abandoned in Dal- ton and Winnetka plans, 85 286 fay 150; of group, VIII, 158 ff. reform, obstacles to, 42 reformers, educational, three kinds, 125 régime, I4, 44 regimentation, 37, 84 repair man, educational, 77 repeaters, 25 research, 92, 253; modern psychological, 52, 60, 254; first hand, in Pratt school, 152 retardation, 76 rigidity, 96 Rice, Charles A., 122 robot, 81, 253; socialized, 7 Rossman, John G., 122 Rugg, Harold, 135 ff. Ruggles Street Day Nurs- ery, OI Russell, Bertrand, 214 S San Francisco State Normal School, 82 scales (see mental testing), to measure elusive quali- ties, 70; to measure results of social instruction, 250; to measure classroom work, 70 school: assemblies, 143; a disciplinary agent, 255; of the future, 250; eight- hour day, 112; newer schools, characteristics of, 149; private, 32, 126; sum- mer school, 112; school- house, appearance of, 254; palatial structures in Gary, schooling, of, 124 popular distrust INDEX “Schools of To-morrow” (quoted), 100-101 Schools of the Future, 241- 242 science, 205 ff. scores, 116; arithmetic, 116, 154; reading, 154; history, 116; geography, 116 Search, P. W., 82 self-education, 155 self-expression, 3, 202; in Winnetka, 95 self-instruction, in Winnetka, Q3 tt. Shaw, Bernard, 203 silence, 114; dead, 20 “sit up tall,” 12 Skinner, Mabel, note, p. 72 Slavson, R. S., 205 ff. social: social aims of edu- cation, 250; social con- tacts, 67; social democ- tracy, 7; social motive, 250; new social order, 237; social functioning of Gary schools, 100; socially regi- menting, 253; social sci- ence pamphlets, 135; social studies, 135 socialization, 67, 251; over- emphasized, 68 society, 128 Spain, Charles L., 109 speeding up, 76; violates principle of growth, 37 spelling, 154 spontaneity, 20, 237 Stelton, N. J., 2390 streets and alleys, ws. school, 102 Stationery store, 154, 155, 159-163 Stecher, Lorle W., 55, 590 stereotyped, 38, 150, 158 Stott, Leila V., 155, 158 INDEX Streatham, 84 student councils, 144 Stuttgart, Ark., 114 subjects, 3, 104; not taught by Collings, 43 subject matter: children not dominated by, 152; ex- trinsic vs. intrinsic, I15; revolt against, 124; units of, 96, 121 om subjective, 152; subjective difficulties, 203; subjective understanding, 203, 213 symbols, teaching of, 35 T talk, learning to, 38 tax dollar, 258 taxpayer, 90, 124 teaching methods change lit- tle, 104 _ Teachers College, 61, 69 Teachers Union, 9, 147, 243 teacher training schools, 254 technicians, 125 tests, 46, 116, 148, 154, 204; intelligence, 61, 157, 253 (see also mental testing, scales) think, will to, 4 thinking, in platoon schools, 114 time table, 76, 77, 87, 92 tool subjects, 105, 120 training vs. education, 60, 155 tyrannies, imposed, 253 U unconscious, 214 United States, Bureau of Education, 98, 108, III, 117; Commissioner of Ed- ucation, III 287 V variety, systematic use of, Kags shee vicarious living, 157 W Washburne, Carleton W., 83 (see also individual in- struction; Winnetka) Walden School, 4, 8, 61, 254; aiso’ Cha! XI. a childs world, 202; analytic psy- chology affects, 151; an- thropology course, 204; creative work of children in, 210 ff., programs vary in, 204; science in, 205 ff.; real freedom in, 202; sub- jective understanding of children, 203, 213; writing of children in, 215 ff. War and education, 240 Watson, Prof., 52 Wells, 137 West Virginia, 247 Winnetka, 253, 259 (also Ch. VII) ; curricular research in, 92-93; fractions, 93; group activities, 95; limita- tions of, 96-97; similar to Dalton plan, 92; tool sub- jects, 92; practice books, 03-94 Wirt, William, 98, 102, 106 work-study-play schools, 253, 259, also Ch. VIII, adopted in 93 cities, 110; advan- tages of, 115; balanced ws. peak load, 106-107; Bourne on, 99-100; characteristics of, 99-100; Dewey on, 100-101; educational pos- sibilities of, 114; equip- 288 INDEX ment, lavish in, 98-99; jectives of, 112; opposi- freer than traditional tion to, 118 ff.; school schools, 114; “factory sys- desks, 105; unwilling tax- tem” in, 119; housing ca- payers, reasons for, 124; pacity increased, 108; im- Wirt’s philosophy, 106-107 proves academic work, writing, of Walden school 116; limitations of, I2I- children, 215 ff.; writing 123; mass education in, period, 16 123; modern curriculum write, nerve strain of learn- requires new school set- ing to, 35 up, 105; money saving in, Yy 108; multiple use, 99, 105, 110; mechanization stage, Yale Psycho-Clinic, 58 122; national conferences Yoyth Movement (junior), on, III; national commit- 244 tees studying, III; no changes in curriculum, 7 121; no changes in class- room teaching, 122; ob- dZangwill, Israel, 8 bata Wiest Obegl Pet Pre 5) we he melp 4 3 yee baal 1 ife4; Nee she} and ae hay 4 Prins ene © Wp Atay toy rq My ibe 7 ia = “e uh r chee EAE ij pa > te * ba it vet > tee a oe ane “er psn y vic 558431