370 H63e V\o . \ 5 == BULLETIN o V* OF THE FIRST DISTRICT NORMAL SCHOOL KIRKSVILLE, MISSOURI Volume XV Numbers 10 and 11 OCTOBER-NOVEMBER, 1915 Publisht Monthly Education Series No. 1 BULLETIN OF THE FIRST DISTRICT NORMAL SCHOOL KIRKSVILLE, MISSOURI Founded by Joseph Baldwin as .the North Missouri Normal School, September 2, 1867 Adopted as the First District Normal School, December 29, 1870 under Act of the General Assembly, Approved March 19, 1870 Opend as the First District Normal School, January 1 , 1871 Volume XV Numbers 10-11 OCT.-NOV., 1915 Publisht Monthly by the First District Normal School EDUCATION SERIES No. 1 Enterd as second class mail matter April 29, 1915, at the post office at Kirksville, Missouri, under the Act of Congress of August 24, 1912. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION JOHN R. KIRK, President WILLIAM ARTHUR CLARK, Professor of Education and Chairman of the Division of Education MARK BURROWS, Professor of Rural Education ROSAMOND ROOT, Associate Professor of Rural Education THURBA FIDLER, Instructor in Demonstration Rural School SUSIE BARNES, Director of Practice Schools EUDORA HELEN SAVAGE, Supervisor of English in Practice School LAURIE DOOLITTLE, Supervisor of History and Geography in Practice School GENEVIEVE KIRKBRIDE Supervisor in Primary Grades in Practice School CLARICE EVANS, Supervisor in Primary Grades and Instructor in Industrial Arts MARY PAINE Supervisor of Kindergarten FLORENCE FAIRMAN STUCKEY, Supervisor of Kindergarten 37 t>' /]/! b / 42* h** / CONTENTS . s Educational Diagnosis 5 W. A. Clark The Reorganization of Elementary and Secondary Schools 9 Eudora Helen Savage The Child’s Study of Industries 14 Clarice Evans The Aesthetic Influence of the Kindergarten 15 Florence Fairman Stuckey Play Elements in Primary Education 18 Genevieve Kirkbride A Brief for the Teaching of History 21 Laurie Doolittle The Role of the Practice School in the Later Preparedness through School Education Susie Barnes 25 The Rural Teacher Mark Burrows 32 Correlation in the Rural School Thurba Fidler 35 Rating Teachers Rosamond Root 39 3 PREFACE The matter contained in this Bulletin has originated in par- ticular interests of the individual members of the Department of Education. While the general plan of the publication was de- termined in the conference of a department meeting, no attempt has been made to secure logical coherence of the papers; each writer has determined his own subject, materials, and form of treatment and is to be credited individually with whatever in it is helpful to students of educational theory and practice* All the papers were specially written for the Bulletin, though the excellent longer article by Professor Barnes was read before the Faculty Club at its meeting in February, 1916. The quotations inter- spersed among the papers were selected by individual members of the Department as expressions of appreciation of stimulating thoughts found in their readings. 4 EDUCATIONAL DIAGNOSIS W. A. Clark Within the last decade there has come into use in educational discussions, in conventions and magazines, a new term as yet of somewhat vague meaning. The term “diagnosis” has been appropriated from the literature of the medical profession with little serious effort to adapt it to the description of the processes of education. It is the misfortune of the study of education that its terminology is almost wholly second-hand; it too often appears in the ill-fitting clothing of other fields of thought and action. While this newly adopted term is needed in the critical thinking of the present educational renaissance, it requires defining in both its technical meaning and its implications. When a doctor is called to see a patient, his first step is diag- nosis. He proceeds to determine on the basis of accepted stand- ards the status of the life with which he has to deal. His diag- nosis, unfortunately in the present stage of medical practice con- cerned too exclusively with defects in the vital function, is in its general significance a species of biological stock-taking. When properly made, it furnishes him a practical knowledge of a life situation. By this means he seeks to know his patient, in struc- ture and function in the condition in which he finds him, in order that he may treat him helpfully “according to nature.” It requires but a moment’s reflection for the student of pedagogy to discover that all rational educational treatment must begin with a similar diagnosis of life conditions. Too often such educational diagnosis has been deemed of minor importance. It is only in the last one hundred and fifty years — since the publication of Rousseau’^ “Emile” — that the diagnosis of the condition of the pupil has been given even a limited value in determining the aim and procedure of education. Under the leadership of Locke, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Herbart and Froebel modern pedagogy has become child-centered. Instead of dealing with his pupil in the interest of “grown-up life,” on the assumption that his present child life has meaning only as material put of which to form adult life, the disciple of Pestalozzi seeks to cultivate the fife of a child in the level where he finds him. By sympathetic 5 diagnosis he discovers the activities and needs of the child, and endeavors to stimulate and direct them “ according to nature.” It is with him no longer a question of converting children into adults as expeditiously as possible, at the expense of child life. The old assumption, ‘except ye become as grown-ups, your life has no value in human affairs’, is giving place to the truer bio- logical conception of the world’s greatest teacher, ‘except ye be- come as little children, ye cannot enter into full life’. The ideal in modem education is to cultivate each stage of the growth of the human organism in its own right, in the level where we deal with it; hence the necessity of “diagnosis” for the purpose of de- termining the actual status of the organism. Such biological stock-taking is as imperative for the teacher as for the doctor. There is another term used in medical literature that is equally significant in educational theory. The doctor considers his patient’s life not only in the critical examination of diagnosis to determine its present status but equally in a “prognosis” of its anticipated development. On his discovered knowledge of what the life now is, he seeks to forecast what it will become. In a similar manner the teacher should join to his educational diag- nosis an educational prognosis. It is only as the doctor ad- vances from a careful diagnosis of his “case” to an equally care- ful prognosis that he can determine what his “treatment” shall be. So the educator must base his “methods” of treating his pupil’s fife upon both diagnosis and prognosis of that life. This may be termed the biological conception of education, as dis- tinguished from the sociological and economical conceptions. As means in his diagnosis the doctor takes the temperature, counts the pulse beats, and examines various products of vital action; so the teacher has recourse to a variety of devices for de- termining life activity and educability. What the thermometer under the tongue of the patient is to the diagnosis of the doctor, the skilfully put “question” is to the diagnosis of the teacher. The question is the teacher’s chief means of diagnosis. He ques- tions his pupil, at least in his first question, to find his life con- dition, just as the doctor uses “percussion” on the chest to dis- cover the condition of the vital organs of his patient. The pupil’s response to a question is as valid an index to what he is as is the sound from the thorax of the patient under the doctor’s tapping. Qn the basis of his pupiFs answer the teacher makes his diagnosis and passes at once to a prognosis before he asks the next question. A teacher’s “ second question ” is essentially a “ teaching question, ” dealing specifically with his pupil’s life as revealed in the answer to the first question. It depends less upon the logical coherence of the material that he is using than upon the anticipated move- ment of the life he is cultivating. The skilful teacher has his eye upon the developing life of his pupil and adapts his questions to its progressive manifestations, just as the doctor changes his medi- cines from day to day as his patient’s condition appears to demand it. As a rule teachers are less flexible in treating their cases than are the doctors. It is a relic of the older adult-centered education that makes teachers anxious to incorporate “knowledge” into the child organism, rather than to satisfy it's growing activities in its present state. While the doctor holds his materia medica as a means only, valuable in promoting life, the teacher often looks upon his materia didactica as an end in itself, having value as a life possession. When the doctor has secured healthy life func- tioning, he gladly throws out of the window his unused drugs, without regret for their loss; on the other hand, the teacher, in his worship of “useful knowledge”, would use all his materials, whether needed or not in securing life, and he looks with suspicion upon the pupil who “has not taken the full course.” No greater advance could be made in education than to make it fully child- centered, with “diagnosis”, “prognosis”, and “treatment” such as modern medicine is using in its field. A favorite mode of formal educational diagnosis is the “ex- amination” given at intervals in the progressive treatment of the growing fife of the pupil. As commonly employed this rather over-anxious exploring of the contents of the pupil’s mind is di- rected chiefly to discovering how much of the didactic material insinuated into the life of the pupil has been retained unaltered. It is a stock-taking of static results, having less to do with present fife activities than with traces of fife already passed. The ab- surdity of this procedure is seen when we liken it to the doctor’s examination of his patient after some days of treatment. He does not explore his patient’s body, physically and chemically, to see whether his drugs are preserved in it; he is not concerned about what has become of his medicines, but about the structure and 7 functioning of the organism. He knows that any medicines found in the body of his patient, done up in the original package, are not evidences of success, but of failure. The materials which he has introduced into his patient’s living body in the progress of his treatment have disappeared in the metabolism of tissues, leaving no “traces” except in the improved vital activities of the organism. What he seeks to discover is the present status of the life and what further treatment is “indicated”. The teacher’s examination should be similarly directed. It should test dynamic activities, not static results. It is not stored-up knowledge, but quickened and directed life that is to be discovered. The ques- tions of an “examination”, whether a “written lesson” or a “final examination”, should aim primarily at present life activ- ities and abilities, dealing with advance movements in new sit- uations. Knowledge itself is dynamic; it is knowing, not the result of having known ; and the examination, properly employed, can reveal only life movements. The sciences of civilization are valuable as educative materials only as they are created anew in the individual life. They must become concrete in the pupil’s life, losing their formal structure in the active assimilation of the organism. They have no value as stored-up stuff. They must be individualized into the integral life structure, becoming po- tential of larger growth. Hence the teacher’s examination of his pupil’s knowledge is essentially a testing of ability to do. It is as truly “ a health inspection ” as is the doctor’s. It is concerned with the vigor of the life which the teacher is seeking to conserve. It is the function of education to promote life in its natural growth. Educational diagnosis is critical observation of life with a view of determining its condition in present achievements and possible developments. Such diagnosis is essentially pros- pective, rather than retrospective; it is concerned with the life that is to be. It uses the past only a providing materials for the anticipated future. The retrospective glance, like the sur- veyor’s backsighting, can at most aid in orienting the life in the desired line of its future progress. The teacher must know the life of his pupil as it faces larger and better things, and his diag- nosis is always a prophetic vision. 8 THE REORGANIZATION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS Eudora Helen Savage Probably no other public institution is receiving at the pres- ent time more criticism than the public schools. A part of this criticism is warranted. Much of the so-called failure of the schools to prepare their students for efficient living is directly traceable to remissness elsewhere. Those nearest, however, to the centre of life in the schools, recognize that there is need for a radical change in the principles upon which our schools are or- ganized. For more than two decades the attention of educators has been centered upon the seventh and eighth grades of the ele- mentary school and the first year of the high school, as the period in which the greatest adjustment of material and methods to students is needed. Gradually there has grown up a feeling that the old-time division of elementary school grades, one to eight inclusive, and high school grades, nine to twelve, is fundamentally wrong. Eu- ropean countries have for a long time recognized the end of the sixth grade as the time when the changing development of the child calls for a radical change in method and matter of the cur- riculum. The six-six plan is now before us for serious considera- tion. Accepting in this discussion the first six grades as they are commonly organized in our best schools and the last three years of high school in their present form, we shall center our attention on the remaining group, grades seven and eight of the elementary school and the first year of the high school. As the six-year high school has been tried out in many cities with varying degrees of success it is no longer a mere theory. There are, however, in this new organization phases which require critical analysis. Experiment is proving more and more con- clusively that merely taking the last two grades from the ele- mentary school and the first year from the high school, and placing this heterogeneous mass of youth in a separate building and calling it a “junior high school” fails to recognize the real change in our school system. To understand fully the fundamental principles underlying the specific changes needed in the reorganization of our school courses for this group of twelve to fifteen year old boys and girls is our first problem. The division of the school curriculum into six years for the elementary school and six years for the high school is based on the physiological changes that come to both boys and girls soon after the twelfth year of age. These physiological changes are ac- companied by mental changes so great that this epoch has been called a new birth. It is the theory of Dr. G. Stanley Hall and his school, that the child undergoes sudden and abrupt changes at this period. On the other hand Dr. Thomdyke and his followers, as a result of tests of mental traits as well as physical tests of chil- dren during adolescence, are inclined to the theory that the changes are gradual at this period. He says of these tests that ‘‘they give no support to the sudden rise of inner tendencies. Indeed every tendency that has been subjected to anything like a rigid scrutiny seems to fit the word ‘gradual’ rather than ‘sudden’ in its rate of maturing. ” As the experience of the writer, covering a period of a decade and a half of daily class-room work with chil- dren of the junior high school age, inclines her to the belief that children mature rather gradually during these years, we shall base our consideration of the problems upon that theory. Taking Dr. Crampton’s measurements of nearly five thousand New York City boys as an average, we reach the following conclusions re- garding boys under twelve years of age, that the proportion of them who are still undifferentiated children is so great that the adolescent boy under this age is very unusual. No statistics on as large a scale are available regarding girls, but the general opin- ion is that girls mature fully a year younger than boys. This still leaves the overwhelming majority of the children in the first six grades a practically homogeneous group of non-mat ure chil- dren. For this reason we find that the work of grades one to six is accepted by practically all the children with little questioning or protest. Dr. Crampton’s tables prove that by the beginning of the sixteenth year, over eighty-five per cent of the boys under obser- vation are matured. They have ceased to be the vital problem in adjustment to the school course that they have previously been. The case is even more markedly true with girls; those con- tinuing in school until their sixteenth year usually remaining to 10 complete their high school course. What then are the funda- mental principles underlying a proper organization of subject matter and method for this heterogeneous group of thirteen to fifteen year old boys and girls? The first step in solving the problem is clearly a definite recognition of the physiological phases peculiar to this period, for even considering the transition from childhood to manhood and womanhood to be somewhat gradual rather than saltatory, it is nevertheless a season of greatest importance in the life of the individual and must receive particular consideration. To quote Dr. O’Shea, “During this period the individual is being molded in flhal form in body and mind, and whatever impressions can be made upon him at this time will be likely to be permanent.” The school course for this group of Junior High School pupils, while not formulated to humor and pamper them, should take active account of the appearance of new interests and activities, and the development of extreme sensitiveness to various influences which characterizes these years. Every other factor in a proper organization of work for the Junior High School pupil must take cognizance of the kind of individual both physical and psychical that he is. The most troublesome factor in formulating a course of study for this group is the fact that there is great variation of maturity within the group. If for instance, we consider fourteen years as the average age at which boys mature we must make an allowance for at least a year and a half both below and above that age for variation from the central tendency. As girls mature a year or more younger than boys matters are complicated still farther, by making the range in a group composed of both boys and girls cover a period of at least four years. This physiological condition certainly demands at least two important reforms: a greater flexibility in the curriculum of grades seven, eight and nine; and greater stress in discipline and in teaching upon the consid- eration of each pupil as an individual. Prof. Calvin O. Davis speaks of the crux of the problem and the underlying principles, thus: “In formulating a program of studies for this group two guiding educational principles need to be kept constantly in mind. First, the period of early adolescence is a period of exploration and of self-discovery. Young people at this age are prone to dream 11 dreams and inclined to see visions. Varied and unstable ideals completely fill their horizon. But the power of persistent effort toward attainment of the ideal goals is usually far from commen- surate with the strength of the impelling desire. In consequence, the period is preeminently a period of developing the power of appreciation of forms and not to any considerable degree a time for the mastery of principles. The early years of adolescence should be years of self-testing and self-discovery, and the Junior High School is a testing-place and a testing-ground wherein op- portunities are provided for ‘browsing around’ and for disclosing aptitudes and interests.” “Second, once these dominant talents have been revealed, perfection of character and attainment can be gained only thru a systematic and continuous exercise of them. ” Thus while we shall demand a flexibility of the curriculum for our Junior High School, it is for the definite purpose of giving the individual pupil a chance to “find himself. ” As soon as this is done the school will use every effort to strengthen his purpose to make a continuous effort to attain his ideal goal. Accepting this statement of the problem, what definite ad- vantages has the six-six plan over the old eight-four plan? Under the former organization the child is initiated into the work of the Junior High School at an age when the law still has a hold on him. At twelve years of age he is not permitted to leave school to go to work. The departmental plan of work is more likely to interest him as each subject is taught by a specialist whose enthusiasm for his subject will without doubt insure better work from the stu- dent than can be secured where all subjects are taught by one teacher, who in the very nature of things cannot be equally pro- ficient in all subjects. Even a little added enthusiasm for their school work would keep in school many boys and girls who now drop out at fourteen years of age. In a regular Junior High School pupils are promoted by sub- jects, which is an advantage in many ways. A child showing marked ability in any one subject may often with a little extra help gain a year in that subject. There is great advantage to pupils in this organization as there is no time-consuming repeti- tion of work all the work in any one subject being planned by one teacher. A child failing in one subject has the encouraging feeling that altho he has failed in one he has succeeded in three subjects 12 and that his success is recognized by his teachers. He attacks the unmastered subject a second time with a stouter heart because of this recognition of his success. Many boys at the age of entrance into the seventh grade are confronted with the necessity of earning some money toward their own support. The departmental plan makes it possible for such children to carry a part of their school work easily and happily, at the same time devoting a part of their time and energy to some lucrative occupation. While it requires a longer time for pupils thus handicapped to complete the three years Junior High School work, it would keep many a boy and girl in school who under the present system has dropped out and is spending his time unprofitably. There can be no doubt that the proper solu- tion of the problem of keeping the thirteen-to-fifteen-year-old children interested in their school studies, will be the solution of the problem of a larger percentage attending and graduating from our high schools. Girls, during these years when they should be carefully shield- ed from nervous strain are often seriously overworked under the present system. The Junior High School properly organized would permit a girl to attend school a part of each day leaving the rest of her time free for outdoor exercise and whatever regime is best suited to insure good health in the future. The schools have not in the past given sufficient recognition to the fact that girls need much time and energy beside that required for school work. A mother surely has some right to a definite part of her daughter’s time each day, when in loving cbmpanionship the daughter may learn from her mother various phases of home- craft. At this age girls are interested in many things, and time should be provided for special work in art, music, athletics, danc- ing, or whatever activity the tastes and talents of the child sug- gest. Two vital factors in the success of the Junior High School are a course of study adapted to the special needs of pupils of this age, and the selection of teachers who by training, experience and personality are peculiarly fitted for this work. 12 THE CHILD’S STUDY OF INDUSTRIES Clarice Evans That children’s natural activities should be used in learning is a reform which has been firmly established for many years This idea found practical expression in surprisingly short time. The first gropings in this direction were manual training and domestic science. Some reasons for their so rapidly gaining a place are that they produced tangible results; pupils who could not do well in more formal abstract studies did well in these; their need was felt in economic pressure. Still they left much to be de- sired. They did not help the elementary school child, as they were seldom given before the sixth grade. They, at least in their earlier developments, were wasteful because there was not careful organization within the subjects themselves. They were not closely co-ordinated with the rest of the school curriculum, but were given as isolated subjects. Industrial art is not mere handwork, but the study of the processes of changing raw material into articles of higher value. As such it fills the long felt need for the elementary school. The Speyer School curriculum under the direction of Frederick Bonser proves that the study of industry, the materials and processes, may be just as carefully organized as any science. His plan fol- lows the needs of man, namely, food, shelter, clothing, utensils, tools, machines, weapons, and records. All this subject matter may be worked out in a series of projects which give the element- ary school child a chance to “learn by doing. These projects give many subjects the most natural and obvious correlations, as for instance the subject of shelter worked out by our own first grade in building a doll’s house. It motivated the arithmetic lessons in measuring materials, the nature study on trees, art as household decoration, beside laying the foundation for history. Fundamental lessons taught by the project not under formal headings might be mentioned as the part taken by various work- men, proper remuneration of workmen, interdependence, use of tools, muscular control, as well as the social and disciplinary values. With projects on food and clothing as worthy a list might be made. In fact with the exception of games, music, 14 literature and art given from the appreciation side, industrial arts might well be a binding tie for all school subjects. The whole aspect of the school room is now changed and we find instead of a “pouring in” of facts for which the child has no real need, rather a “drawing out” of information for which he has a real and immediate need. “Until the instincts of construction and production are sys- tematically laid hold of in the years of childhood and youth, until they are trained in social directions, enriched by historic inter- pretation, controlled and illuminated by scientific methods, we certainly are in no position even to locate the source of our eco- nomic evils, much less deal with them efficiently. Dewey. THE AESTHETIC INFLUENCE OF THE KINDERGARTEN Florence Fairman Stuckey If the Kindergarten accepts as a statement of its own belief, Handford Henderson’s transferral to life of Milton’s demands for poetry, that it be “simple, sensuous, and passionate”. What does it do to make real that ideal? What does it contribute to the richness of life? What means does it employ to develop in a child’s soul that love of fine things which, like the magic of a bed of glowing coals in a bare room, has the power to make an other- wise straitened life opulent? I think it has two means : one, the use of sense games, which we may refer to as the mechanics of cultivation; the other, the environment — the world of nature without, and within — the element of the kindergarten program and the furnishings of the kindergarten room. It is the seeing-eye, the hearing-ear, the sensitive hand that brings greatest riches to the waiting spirit; and so by means of sense games originated or suggested by Froebel, and developed 15 by his followers, not forgetting many of a similar nature given us by the Italian Physician, we proceed definitely to train the chil- dren’s senses. Elizabeth sits on a little red chair in the center of the circle, her hands stretched behind her, while the careful Adelaide selects from a trayful of treasures assembled from different parts of the room a certain object which she places in the waiting hands. The curious little fingers feel, — “I have a basket”, says Elizabeth. (Will you notice, incidentally, her perfect sentence?) Again, as we sing the song — “ Two little windows of brown or blue Each of us children is looking thru”, George, perhaps, is led to the window, and after a rapid glance, turns and tells us what he has seen. In the spring, or early summer, when the world is sweet with bloom, little Thriza closes her eyes and inhales the fragrance of the flower Immacolata has chosen from the several kinds in the room. — Yes, Thriza is right, it is a lilac. Simple games, these, and many like them, but thru them are the senses quickened, comparisons are made — from comparisons comes discrimination, and one of the outgrowths of discrimina- tion, and the only one with which this paper is concerned, is aes- thetic appreciation. That “ Painters, architects, poets, musicians, are the hands and voices which give utterance to that which is deepest and most vital in the soul of a race and an age”, is a cardinal tenet of the kindergarten creed, and to bring the work of those hands and the melody of those voices to the children is part of the daily effort of every kindergarten worthy the name of her calling. Let us trust that in after years the little one who has gazed with admiration upon the strong, fine lines of some good plaster cast upon the cupboard top or shelf, will feel no temptation to purchase the cheap and gaudy statuette of the Nubian slave girl which the enterprising keeper of a restaurant at the comer fondly imagines beautifies his Lunch Room. May that same child re- main so true to the beauty of the single masterpiece, a gracious Mother and Child perhaps, sole picture upon the Kindergarten walls — that Evening Prayer in three colors, partially submerged by gilt frame, will be as a cry to the deaf! 16 An increasingly great effort is being made that every song used in the Kindergarten may be good; and, while all music for children’s marches and rhythms must be simple, it need never be cheap. So much for music in development of the program; but music for its own glorious sake is just as much a part of the con- sistent Kindergarten as is the Madonna on the wall. Local con- ditions, of course, dictate the manner of its presentation; one Kindergarten most fortunate in that respect has set aside the last quarter of an hour Friday morning when the children have the privilege of entertaining as their guest one who plays for them upon his chosen instrument, or sings some very simple child-like song. It may be that a lullaby is to be played and perhaps the appeal of the imagination will be added to that of the senses — and a brief word-picture will be drawn of the tired baby’s bed-time and the children asked to listen in the music for the rocking cradle and the singing mother; — perhaps again, there will be neither comment nor appeal. How these wee children love poetry — how they rejoice in its musical lilt, its pulsing rhythm! Read to them from such a col- lection as “The Posy Ring”, and you will one day have difficulty introducing new poems, so urgent will they be in their requests for their beautiful, favorites. They have been known to choose poetry in preference to that other means to genuine appreciation of the best in literature, a good story. Here in the clean, simple Kindergarten, where a flaming mapfte bough, a white hyacinth, or a jar of golden daffodils is the occasion for a festival, these influences in behalf of the beautiful are daily at work. Out of doors, the children’s attention is directed to the blue, blue sky — with its scudding clouds, to the gorgeous sunset, — to the winter heavens with their majestic stars; to autumns’ ember glow, and the misty green of spring, tender background for the children’s own well-loved “Pretty little blue bird”! Such are some of the efforts of the Kindergarten to render life more sensuously beautiful — richer spiritually. If this plant- ing of Paul be watered by Apollos, who can measure what may be the increase given by God? 17 PLAY ELEMENTS IN PRIMARY EDUCATION Genevieve Kirkbride It was while he was looking on with delight at the plays of little children, their happy busy plan and make-believes, their intense interest in outward nature and in putting things together or taking them apart, that Froebel said to himself, ‘"What if we could give the child that which is called education through his voluntary activities, and have him always as he is at play!” Our sincere study of child nature must accomplish two things : first, conserve the biological succession under the best physio- logical conditions, thereby conserving desirable hereditary traits and powers and effecting the best possible organic development; second, devote those powers to the acquiring of such knowledge and such habits as will best further the child’s social usefulness and individual happiness. The child’s earliest development comes through play, then his education must begin with his play. The plea for a wider recognition of play in education is that the more successfully the child passes through the biological stages of development the more complete will he be as a man. In play the whole child takes part; and it is only by training the whole child that we may de- termine habits, cultivate emotions, and furnish motive for his subsequent action. But it is in the interpretation of play that the difficulty comes. Play has often been confounded either with idleness or exercise, and deemed only a useless waste of energy which might better be devoted to some task. Play is here thought of as “fooling” and is contrasted with work as meaning distasteful tasks. The joy- ousness of either work or play comes from the same sources: first, pleasure of exertion, which pleasure may be from surplus energy, desire to imitate or instinctive tendency, but it is natural ; second, pleasure of achievement, something to do; third, coopera- tion, the joy of acting together; fourth, satisfaction of exercise of intelligence, judgment or skill; fifth, the encountering of risks, dangers or adventures. There need be no distinction between work and play. Chil- dren like to work; and again their play may have an end that is 18 in itself worthy of the effort. Certainly one of the aims of educa- tion is to develop the joyousness in work, and this can be accom- plished by using the means and sources naturally used by the child in play, by transferring the habits of play to work — not making work play, but by studying the child at play to learn the natural desires of the child, and using these in his work. Education in harmony with the child’s development makes habitual a happy attidude of mind in both work and play. Work of the primary department of our schools is not play, but it may be pleasant work and may give forth the joy and satisfaction of play. In a study of children at the age they are in the primary grades certain characteristics are discovered. In contrast with an earlier period when one of the purposes of education is acquiring sensa- tions, non-sensations are organized and utilized. Earlier imita- tions are largely direct imitations of movements and sounds of adults; these imitations are continued, but less directly, and are adapted to play of their own; and imagination forms them anew. The earlier play is free activity, activity for its own sake and not for results. At the primary school age the end to be accomplished is considered, but crude results are accepted. Group play has begun, but within the group each child is an individual and “team work” is not very satisfactory. There are many ways in which the activity, imitation, imagination, constructions and collections of this age can be of real and valuable service to the primary teach- er. Real play', such as running, skipping, and playing ball, adds spirit and zest to the life of children and teacher, and a common basis of experience is established; characters are studied, learned, and understood, and surplus or misdirected energy is put to some good use. Some teachers have feared that the familiarity that comes through play might lead to disrespect, accepting the old saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt”. One author has ex- plained that familiarity shows us as we are and does not bring contempt unless we are contemptible. Thru play the child will know us as we are. Free play supplies exercise, relaxation, experience and con- trol. Representative play gives expression to impulses resulting from observation and imitation. In playing fire, for example, the child impersonates the fireman whom he has seen and admired. 19 And it is the thing the fireman does that the child most admires — the child’s activity is always objective. Thru his natural fond- ness for representing he may learn the activities of many types of people, such as the baker, carpenter and shoe-maker. As he imi- tates, he understands, not always the process but the purpose. Dramatic play is the means of expression that uses repre- sentation plus speech. Not only does the child represent the troll in the Billy Goat Gruff story, but he lives the life of the troll, he speaks the language of the troll, and he experiences the fears of the troll, when Great Big Billy Goat Gruff bears down upon him. As a result of dramatization the child gains pleasure, con- fidence, language and control. Constructive play, as in building a doll house and making furniture , for it, gives opportunity for oral expression, material for language and reading, and experience for study of arithmetic. There is no better opportunity for training for careful measurement than when selecting strips for the four legs of a chair or the four posts of a table. We do not need to emphasize the fact that the several windows are going to be the same size or that the walls must be measured before count- ing on the necessary amount of wall paper. The collecting instinct is utilized in gathering of buds, keeping count of birds seen in a season or flowers gathered, all these facts to be recorded in a Nature Study class. Here too is an oppor- tunity to use desire for adventure, in excursions and trips for ma- terials and experiences. Primary history is planned with the knowledge that at this time nothing will please the child better than to be a “Tree Dweller” or “Cave Man”, living their lives, using their imple- ments, and meeting their difficulties. Teachers without experience look upon this phase of school work as something so intangible, and so it is but love and sympathy will make a teacher inventive in the use of the play elements in the primary grades. A teacher who proves able to be a captain in a game or leader in a play is worthy to be followed in work tasks as well. 20 A BRIEF FOR THE TEACHING OF HISTORY l Laurie Doolittle An individual requires superior poise to select from the multi- plicity of activities that crowd upon him just those that will best contribute to his living a satisfyingly rich and serviceable life. To make this selection and retain sympathy for a wide range of activities is a task fit for a sage. The school, no less than the individual, feels the pressure of our complex life, and the crowded curriculum is the result. This condition makes it necessary that there be a good and sufficient reason for the presence of every subject found in the course of study. The value of those subjects whose purpose is to furnish the child tools with which to pursue his education, is so self-evi- dent that a statement of their value is no longer necessary. The same is true, to a lesser degree, in regard to those subjects whose purpose is to develop skill in the occupations and industries. Even the content subjects are now taken as a foregone conclusion; and this very fact has caused the teacher of history to assume an attitude that limits the educational value of the subject. For years it has been conceded that the study of history con- tributes much to the development of the individual. The most patent and widely accepted value is that it trains for citizenship and develops patriotism. It has been said, also, that it appeals to the dramatic instinct and aids in the interpretation of literature. “It teaches man how small he is by showing him many greater and purges him of conceit by revealing his fancied originalities as a commonplace of centuries gone. It overthrows his dogma- tism by proving to him that other men, no less honest than he, and much wiser, have been mistaken in their judgment.” It shows him that he is one of a long line of men and that all which these men have accomplished is his heritage and that all he can do he owes to others. It develops sympathy for it shows how individuals and institutions have grown out of the past. It aids in developing the judicial attitude. The Report of the Committee of Eight says: “In ordinary classroom work in science and mathematics, there is little opportunity for discussion, for differences of opinion, for balancing of probabilities, and yet in every day life we do not deal with mathematical demonstra- 21 tions or concern ourselves with scientific observations; we reach conclusions by judicious consideration of circumstances and con- ditions, some of them in apparent conflict with one another; and none of them susceptible of exact measurements or demonstra- tions. ” History also develops “ historical thinking/’ that is, the ability to judge men and movements in the light of chronology and ethnology. Other subjects as well as history, may have the above named functions; but the special function of history is to develop patriot- ism, good citizenship, the judicial attitude, and historical thinking. To secure these results and meet the conditions imposed by modem life there must be adjustments in the material and the method in history, perhaps more than is necessary in any other subject of the school curriculum. When these adjustments are made, his- tory can indeed make good the claim for an important place in the school program. The value of the results peculiar to history depends largely upon a well thotout curriculum and the point of view of the teacher; in other words it makes necessary a nice discrimination of facts as well as a correct method of presentation. For example, the wart on Cromwell’s nose may be an interesting fact but not particularly significant in the development of the Commonwealth in England. The value of the judicial attitude has been adequately set forth by the Committee of Eight. It leads to the “suspended judgment.” The judicial attitude waits for all the evidence and acts in accord with its conclusions. Patriotism taught thru history should discriminate between blind loyalty to the leaders of a nation and devotion to the highest humanitarian ideals for which a nation stands. This undiscrim- inating kind of patriotism may be held responsible for the strong nationalism of the present; and is of questionable value when one contemplates the nations of Europe engaged in a struggle that seems to have no other reason than this sort of patriotism; that is patriotism interpreted by loyalty to leaders rather than devotion to the highest ideals of a nation in its relation to humanity. H. Morse Stephens, President of the American Historical Association in a recent address before the Association says: “The belief in nationality has been in the nineteenth century as funda- 22 mental a doctrine as the belief in Christianity, or a monarchy, or an aristocracy in previous ages. Just as a fervent belief based on history and dogmatic theology led to a belief in the righteousness of slaying Mohammedans in the period of the crusades; just as a fervent belief in Catholicism or Lutheranism or Calvinism based upon history and dogmatic theology was held to justify religious persecution and religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe; just as a fervent belief in different political theories led, in part at least, to the civil wars in England in the seventeenth century and in the United States of America in the nineteenth century, as has the doctrine of nationality led to the enmity of nations in the nineteenth century. Historians have had their share in creating and justifying the fervor of political beliefs in the past, they have had their share in creating and maintaining the fanaticism of the present. ” If historians share in creating and maintaining the fanaticism of nationality, the teachers of history must also share the re- sponsibility as they have done all in their power to foster it. This has been done thru a mistaken notion of patriotism — a notion that patriotism is loyalty to leaders or individuals in power, instead of devotion to the highest ideals for which a nation stands. “Our country! In her intercourse with other nations may she always be right, but our country right or wrong” ; this declara- tion, found heading the editorial page of one of our leading daily newspapers, substitutes loyalty to country for devotion to hu- manity. The study of history should clarify any such notion of patriotism. It should lead to a clear understanding of the fact that a nation rises no higher than the mass of the people who con- stitute it; and the highest loyalty to a nation is coincident with the broadest sympathy with humanity. This is the quality of pa- triotism that should come thru history study; it helps the indi- vidual to make such adjustments as will secure the best possible relationship to the community. This is the essence of good citizenship. History renders another fundamental service by developing in the individual power to do what has been called “historical thinking”; that is the power to judge men and movements eth- nologically and chronologically. In some way or other, the fact that chronology and ethnology do not always coincide must be- come an integral part of the individual’s thinking. The idea of 23 race solidarity should come thru history study; and this may be secured by an intelligent interpretation of a properly organized course of study. Neither the elementary nor the high school can be expected to give the student sufficient power to make broad generalizations; but history teaching should give him the truths and the power of dealing with them that will enable the adult to form intelligent judgments of men, movements and events. In order to do this, history must give a longitudinal view of racial and institutional development. This leads to an understanding of what man has done under varying conditions and the results that are shown in the present status of the race. The student becomes, not only familiar with the deeds of men but takes into account the char- acter of reactions of man at various stages of racial development; he sees that savage man reacts in one way to a given stimulus while civilized man reacts in a wholly different manner. For instance some reactions that were usual and right during the middle ages would be very unusual and wrong at present. An act highly commendable in a former time may be wholly reprehensible now In the days of the Roman Republic, Regulus thot it wise to dis- arm the provinces, forbid intercourse and even incite wars between the provinces, that they might not unite and make war on Rome. Such policies survived for many years. But the twentieth century leader appreciates too much the value of cooperation to incite jealous rivalries in his party. If any student of history should observe such a short-sighted policy in force today he would recognize it as a survival of a past age. He would place its author with his proper label in the ethnic pigeon-hole assigned to the second century B. C. History teaches there is a fashion of thot just as surely as there is a fashion of dress, and the thotful indi- vidual would no more wish to show medieval habits of thot than he would wish to appear in a medieval costume. Time and cir- cumstances determine the wisdom of deeds; righteousness and wisdom are evolutionary. This seems to be a very important function of history study. The teacher of history must be held responsible for a large share of the background that determines the philosophy of life; and this is, I believe, the intrinsic value of history and the funda- mental reason why history should have an important place in the school program. 24 THE ROLE OF THE PRACTICE SCHOOL IN THE LATER PREPAREDNESS THROUGH SCHOOL EDUCATION Susie Barnes It is not the aim of this article to discuss abstractly the value of the Practice School, nor to argue for its maintenance in a pro- fessional school for teachers. All that is settled. The time was when purely academic attainment was deemed a sufficient qualification for teaching school, just as our forbears were content in case of illness with the scant skill of the Indian medicine man and the quack doctor, provided they carried pouches or saddle-bags well filled with herbs and roots. Modern civiliza- tion demands not only the content of a profession but also the stamp of successful practical experience. It is idle talk to con- tend that an individual, because he can sing a song to the satis- faction of his hearers or relate glibly the wisdom of ancient lore, is able without further preparation to teach most successfully any group of vitalized beings what they are capable of learning and what is of use for them to know. It is the purpose of the administration of this institution to make the Practice School of use to every member of the faculty in the Normal School whose subject is taught in the Practice depart- ment. It is, therefore, to the entire body of instructors, the school of applied doctrines about teaching. Every member of the Normal School faculty teaching stu- dents of College rank has the limits of his own vision circumscribed, not by the walls of the local institution, but by the boundaries of the schoolhouses and communities where his students are to teach. The success of a normal school teacher, depends on the results attained, by the application of his theories, made by his students on their students. It is, therefore, highly important, that the Normal School teacher should have opportunity to try out his methods, in order to find out whether they work, before giving them to others for use. This, every member of the faculty has opportunity to do in the department of practice. He may also use groups of children to demonstrate to students certain theories already tried out by him but which could not otherwise be made 25 so clear. By observing a student teach, one is often able to see how inadequate has been the help given him, and so an instructor may consequently be led through the Practice School teaching to strengthen his own work or supply additional needed materials to his classes. Young people are very imitative and many times when they go before a class of children, teach them, not as they have been taught to do, but imitatively after the manner of their own instructors. Teachers of personality and power frequently change their methods of procedure in many respects when they see those methods tried out on children by their imitators. If any one believes that abstract academic attainment is a sufficient guarantee of successful teaching ability, let him supervise for a while in the Practice School and ere long he will get his erroneous views corrected. After a period of supervision in the practice school, some members of the faculty so present the values of the department to their classes that students seek admittance for enrollment charged with an ambition to try out their ideas in actual teaching. In some cases the earliest criticisms and direc- tions given by supervisors have been largely academic in content. When observed that such aid, though important, is not sufficient, the corrections have taken on a more pedagogic flavor to the great improvement of the practice teaching. In this normal school, in addition to the six supervisors and one director who spend their entire time in the Practice school, there are on an average twelve members of the academic faculty each quarter who spend an hour or more every day in the prac- tice department assisting in supervising, organizing and directing the work. The departments represented by these instructors are mathematics, English, science, home economics, manual arts, fine arts, German, Latin, physical education, and music. This is not the extent of cooperation with the Practice school, however, as other members of the faculty, especially of the Departments of history and geography, render and receive mutual aid and may at any time assist in supervising, according to the exigency of the occasion. A member of the science department assisted by the teachers of physical education and the teacher of reading and speaking is making a diagnostic chart of each child. These charts give the results of examination of skeletal defects, malnutrition dental defects, nasal obstructions, deafness, eye-strain, nervous- ness, and speech defects. All such developmental deficiencies 26 and imperfections every teacher should be able to make diagnosis and prognosis of and advise treatment concerning in home and school. The results of these examinations will be brought to the attention of all student teachers and others in the school who are making special investigations and study in the direction of the physical development and care of the health of children. The traditional education considered from the standpoint of the elementary school consists of two fundamental factors. On the one hand is an undeveloped, animated, sentient, resilient being; on the other hand are the organized generalizations from the matured experiences of the civilized race, classified into sub- jects of study. Getting the one in possession of the other has been the burden of the educative process. The obvious way seemed to be to isolate the creature from his fellows, inside a bit of furniture where movement is practically impossible, have him listen or read and then say back until he remembers. This form of confinement and oppression has often resulted in making the sensitive human subjects miserable and so they have frequently sought to evade it by mischievous conduct, staying away from school, or dropping out altogether as soon as the law would allow. Parents have not always conspired to force attendance because they have not been able to see adequate returns. When the boys and girls have remained in school to the end of the course, they either forget what they have learned or else are not able to use their store of knowledge. Employers report that these young people are not able to cope with the situations they must meet in business. The higher institutions of learning find them incom- petent for the tasks they impose. Learning that demands a docile, passive, subservient attitude of mind produces easy sub- jects for the comparatively few trust managers and political bosses. The appeal of the modern picture show, ragtime music, cheap literature, and the bizarre in dress and ornament is sufficient proof that the traditional schools have failed in inculcating proper taste in pleasures, recreations, and amusements. All of these conditions are contributing evidences that the old education is leaving the contemporary generation in a melancholy state of unpreparedness. Then what shall the schoolmasters do to remedy these de- fects. What shall be the characteristics of the new school? If the end and aim of education were to secure the ability to 27 sit silently in an uncomfortable seat for hours, day after day; the ability to read books and repeat accurately their contents; the ability to give ear and be passive and receptive; the ability to do all this with lock step advancement, then the methods of the tra- ditional education would be a success, if they could be enforced. But after a period of from six to twelve years in this sort of prac- tice, society demands ability in a different way. The race re- quires of its posterity that it be capable of carrying on the work of the world, and that is not done by those skilled in sitting si- lently, but by those skilled in acting and doing. One able to express in his actions another’s ideas and not his own fulfills Plato’s description of a slave but does not fulfill the modern de- mand for persons capable of carrying out the productions of their own creative imaginations, and making right judgments with respect to persons and things. Outside the schoolroom, the passive and receptive are not sought, but the alert and active. Society demands that in its future self the needs of all should be met and the highest capabilities of each individual be realized. This cannot be done with the lock step uniformity of the average school. If this delineation of the traditional education seems over- drawn, harsh, and unadorned, compare it with your own chil- hood experiences, or step inside the classroom of most any well ordered school and you will observe that the teacher is doing practically all the work while the children are crowded into im- movable seats with heads erect, arms folded, answering questions, listening and absorbing, while the world outside is demanding men and women of action, spontaneity, and initiative. Why did the schools seem for so long to meet the needs? In the first place the learned professions have usually been well provided for and these may include the profession of school teach- ing as schools have been taught — the memorizing of facts from books and giving them back to someone else. Schoolmasters have had rightly the making of courses of study and management of education. They have failed to see, since, they were being prepared for their work, that the great mass of human beings were not being prepared for theirs by the system of preparation used. The future citizens were being educated for life’s work, how- ever, outside of the school. As Dr. Dewey has well described, a 28 few decades ago practically all the necessities of life were produced in the household or neighborhood. All the mysteries of the finished product from the growth of the raw material through various processes of transformation were exposed for the observa- tion and examination of the growing generation. And not only that, but as soon as age and capacity permitted, every member of the household participated in whatever was necessary to be done. So when the time was ripe for the young men and women to es- tablish homes and take upon themselves the economic responsi- bility of making a living, they had all the mental and physical equipment necessary. Now practically all the products are bought ready for use from the stores. And the money to purchase them must be earned in some trade, profession, or business. To attempt to require children to learn all the facts concern- ing all the trades, departments of business and professions of modern civilization would be impossible. To require them in groups to learn one trade, business, or profession would result in forced stratification and hence would be undemocratic. Then what shall the schools do today to satisfy the ambitions of the race for tomorrow? All agree that we must retain the best that civilization has worked out and recorded for future use. This we shall take as a guide in our course of study in science, in history, in the arts, in the industries, in pleasures and recreations. From the records and from the environment we shall choose ty- ical occupations, scenes, events and amusements according to the stage of ability of the child, and actually live them out through activities as nearly as the limits of school appliances will allow. While doing this, we shall give the children liberty to use their powers of initiative and resourcefulness and their natural instinct to move, to do, and to aqjt. This substitution of real work in the various activities of life, (as nearly as we can bring it about) for the committing of facts and laws to memory gives an under- standing of conditions, institutions, surroundings, and occupations so that choice of a vocation need not be limited by the dictation of necessity; and active participation in an embryonic social com- munity effort, freed from economic stress tests out the ability and natural aptitude of each individual and develops social power and insight. Such a school as this, and there are many of them throughout the country, this Normal School through its Practice School is attempting to establish. 29 To give the details of the activities of such a school would mean to write a course of study which the limits of this paper do not allow. But from these bare statements it is obvious that through such a school the objections to the traditional school will have been met. Children take pleasure in being active. They want guidance and direction but flee from repression, suppression and dictation. It is a commonplace that what we learn by doing we know and can use. Outside the schoolroom, we believe in practicing on the thing we want to learn to do. Then why not in the schoolroom, if the desirable thing is to become useful citi- zens, let the children practice actually doing the things useful citizens do. If it is necessary, in maintaining the democratic or- ganization, for each one on arriving at maturity to choose his business, trade, or profession, then through the eight or twelve years he is preparing for this choice, let him have opportunity to get an intimate acquaintance with types of many forms of occupa- tions so that he may choose according to his highest ability and natural aptitude, and through these various experiences have a sympathetic understanding with all the rest. What children gain by such a schooling in power, insight, self control, the spirit of industry and cooperation can best be told by those who have di- rected them through such study. That the course of study and methods of teaching have reached a state of completeness is not claimed by the advocates of the “new education”, but that results so far attained are highly gratifying is the least that may be said in favor of the “new school.” The organization and function of the Practice School with respect first, to the faculty of the institution and second, with re- spect to the children have been briefly sketched. It now remains to discuss the last part of this article by outlining a few ends stu- dents may hope to attain by coming into active relations with the Practice department. Persons whose intellectual interests are dominant may seem to be fairly successful teaching in the traditional type of school, without having had much special preparation. The two require- ments usually made that mark success in such a school are good order, and ability on the part of the children to answer questions. Good order under this conception means that the children are sitting quietly in seats, with hands folded on the desks, listening, 30 absorbing and speaking only when given permission to do so. Any person knows when he gets that and if the order is disturbed he knows what culprit to punish. When the test of the children’s progress consists in ability to answer questions, it takes only a limited experience to ascertain whether they are advancing. But the modern teacher must be prepared to direct a school with discipline of a different type, and must measure advancement by standards of another sort. Children brought up in a schnol where conditions approximate those of real life are free to move about, stand up, sit on the floor, or on chairs placed in irregular order. There is always bustle, some noise, and some seeming confusion where children are active and engaged in the natural expression of their varied conceptions of the school projects. Order is a relative thing. Intentional interference with the ad- vancement of the work, or rudeness and noise that are obnoxious to associates are to be eliminated, but necessity for this open official act of elimination rarely occurs where the spirit of social unity operates and where cooperation is the force used to attain results. The only discipline worth striving for is the discipline that comes through experience. This is a kind of discipline that the typical teachers have to learn. The instructor of children for the coming day must conceive of his school as a miniature community living out types of active ties, worth preserving for the future State, gathered from all past and contemporary life. Practice teachers are often confused when first placed with a group of children who have been allowed freedom of thought and action. They are frequently bewildered when called upon to assist in directing a cooperative activity. To aid children in enacting a series of their own ideas and interests concerning a certain definite problem, would be near to impossible with many an amateur. Few realize the part that the physical condition plays in the advancement and the daily behavior of school children. Even in cases where the conventional methods of teaching seem yet to obtain, many students need to learn how to make their practices correspond to their ideals. All these in- tending teachers the Practice school is designed to aid and, through its organization and management suggested by the brief state- ments above, it seeks to give teachers the right trend toward suc- cessful careers in directing and managing the “ schools of tomor- row 1 \ 31 THE RURAL TEACHER Mark Burrows Each profession sets its own standards. These include gen- eral education, technical preparation, attitude toward work, at- titude to other professions and activities. In all professions there is a steadily increasing demand for more general education. It is recognized that the cultured man has a decided advantage over the one who depends more largely upon mere technical prepara- tion. To illustrate, a few years ago there were many reputable schools that admitted students directly to the study of law or medicine. Now two years or more of college work must precede such technical study. The teaching profession is no exception to this demand for increased general preparation. Even the teacher with no higher qualification than a county certificate must, in Missouri by 1918, have finisht a standard four years course of study, in an accredited high school before being permitted to teach in a rural school. Many school boards, however, will not be content with these min- imum educational qualifications, but will set still higher standards. Especially will this be true as to the teachers of high school studies in the consolidated rural school, which will finally displace the one-teacher school just as inevitably as the modern shoe factory has displaced the village shoemaker. So as to increasing aca- demic preparation, the teaching profession in Missouri rural schools is progressing at a very encouraging rate. As to technical preparation for teaching in the rural schools, the situation is very encouraging. At one time the only visible evidence of this was the grade in pedagogy in the county certifi- cate, which could be made by exercising good judgment and read- ing in a more or less perfunctory way the current reading circle books. Now the least preparation possible for such a certificate would be two terms of study in pedagogy courses in a good normal school . In the last few years the normal schools are offering special courses leading to the rural state certificate, and first class high schools under strict regulation and supervision of the Department of Education are offering such courses, and aided by an annual 32 subsidy of $750 from the .State. Some of the technical prepara tion in the course in this normal school follow. Three quarters of work are offered in what may be designated as rural school pedagogy. The first quarter is school manage- ment, the second is rural school methods. In this a careful survey is made of the common branches, and some of the almost un- common ones in the ordinary rural school, such as music, draw- ing, handicrafts, and the like. Observation lessons and demon- strations are seen in the rural school on our campus, and in work in the regular practice school. The third quarter of work is given to rural sociology. In this course a greater insight is afforded as to the problems and possibilities of country life and the larger place that the rural school should hold in the life of country peo- ple. Other technical preparation comes in requiring a certain amount of work to be done in physical education, looking to the great possibilities of play and recreation in the lives of people; household arts, looking finally to better living conditions in the school and home; music and drawing, to give more understanding and sympathy with the importance of beauty in the scheme of living; and manual arts to develop mental and manual dexterity, and give a sounder attitude towards the dignity and culture that should be connected with all forms of manual labor. Sanitation, the new physiology, comes in for its share of attention in this course of study. A large enough reason for this study is because of the final effect this will have in bringing about better working conditions in the school plant. But a still larger reason is the final effect that it will have upon the health of the next generation. And a fitting close to this work of technical preparation is the year of work in agriculture. Missouri is one of the greatest agricul- tural states in the union, but until the last ten years no attention whatever was paid by school teachers and curriculum makers to this fact. One half of the children in school come from the farm. And now we have set our faces toward the great principle that that education is best which fits its pupils to make the most of the environment in which they are placed. The teacher’s attitude toward his work is changing. Here as in all worth while work, the one who lives in his work will ac- complish the most. No longer is the mere school room the teach- er’s workshop, but the entire district becomes a part of the school 33 premises, and everybody comes to school, and the teacher becomes a sort of director of school work and has many assistants. In a very few instances in Missouri at present the teacher works the year round, and has a cottage on or near the school plant. In the state of Washington more than one hundred such inducements are offered by enterprising communities to attract the sort of people who look upon teaching not as only a part of a year’s work but as a year of life. If we wish to see what such a scheme will effect upon the education and prosperity of a county neighbor- hood, we can see its best exemplification in the rural schools of Denmark and Switzerland. Closely connected with the teacher’s attitude to his work will be his attitude to other professions and activities. The broader education of the coming rural school teacher will make him more appreciative and sympathetic of all the great things that are being done about him. His work places him with a clientage that is charged with being too individualistic, unsympathetic, and aloof from other men and other manners. Because of the added culture expected in his profession and his being in the habit of looking toward the east, he should become one of the leaders in his community. At present we say that nowhere in the great republic are the democratic ideals of the early founders better preserved than they are in the great middle West, the farming section of the country. If to these ideals we bring about greater appreciation of the fine things of life; if every country school becomes a culture center, and city and country are equal sharers in the triumphs of civilization, — then it will be great work to be a teacher, and to help bring about the time when every man and woman will be introduced to an equal opportunity to share in the riches of the ages. “If all the voices of men called out warning you, and you could not join your voice with their voices. If all the faces of men were turned one way and you met them face to face, you going another, You still must not be persuaded to capitulation; you will remember that the road runs east as well as west. ” — Horace M. Traubel. 34 CORRELATION IN THE RURAL SCHOOL Thurba Fidler In spite of the fact that helpful grouping in the rural school course of study has lessened the number of classes a day, rural teachers feel that there is not sufficient time for any one class. From eighteen to twenty classes must be heard each day. Just so many recitations must be ground out, and the teacher begins school in the morning with the feeling that she must hold straight to the prescribed program and grind away. Inwardly she hopes that there will be no rocks in the material to stop the machinery. If it stops, four o’clock will come with several unheard recitations, and this, in the judgment of the people, means poor management. Always in order to get extra time to dramatize a history lesson she must plan ahead to give to the class whose time she will use, written work or something they can do without her direction. The state course of study prints this statement: “The resourceful and wide-awake teacher with experience no difficulty in devising ways and means of presentation, and in finding time to do the work.” The teacher who questions this statement thinks that it is easier to know what to teach than it is to find time to teach everything under the present course. Therefore she sets to work to discover how she can correlate or simplify her program. At present the greater part of the subject matter we give to children is lost, because the child does not associate the facts we are giving him with his oWn experiences. When a child learns by the natural method of exploration and questioning, he does not separate history from arithmetic or geography, but takes his ex- periences mixed, if they come that way, and they usually do. Then when he has asked enough questions to satisfy his longing for knowledge, he seeks new experiences, always building on the old ones. And when school days change to business life, he will not carry into his business the school program of arithmetic, grammar, history or literature, stored away in layers in the mind, but will draw upon the general storehouse of the mind, all his past experiences serving his needs. Since the child neither learns 35 facts alone nor uses them alone afterwards, there is no reason why the teacher should use so much effort in attempting to teach them alone. Just how to group subjects in an interesting and systematic way is the task for the teacher. The best method of correlation has not been worked out. In truth, no one course can be an ab- solute guide for all schools. If there should be special stress laid on the interest side of any subject in the rural school, it should be on agriculture. With agriculture almost any subject can be correlated, and in the agriculture work, the teacher who loves the country life finds many means of motivation without neglecting either the geography or literature. Part of a course is printed below which was worked out in order to shorten the daily pro- gram. During the three fall months stress was laid on the out- door agriculture work. The eighth and sixth grades (there was no seventh grade) worked together in the garden but the eighth grade also had text book work which was too difficult for the sixth grade. Not wishing to drop sixth grade work when winter set in, the following plan, which proved the most interesting of the year, was used. The course was called General Science; and while it was being given, there was no separate class work in agriculture, domestic science or geography in either grade. The texts used were two science books (one eighth grade and one sixth) geography, domestic science and agriculture texts, and encyclopedias. Each day the outline for the following day was written on the board. A. The science of light. 1. Cause of light (special topics to 8th grade.) 2. How light travels. (Experiments by sixth grade) 3. Transparent bodies. Translucent bodies. Opaque bodies. 4. Day and Night. (Experiments with globe.) 5. The light of the planets and stars. 6. Artificial light. 7. The eye and the camera. 8. The effect of light on plants and animals. Not all the above had been put into the teacher’s original plan, but the children asked for it, and forced it in by their ques- tioning. The questions on artificial light sent the whole school searching encyclopedias and surprising electricians by their sud- den interest in the town’s lighting system. B. The science of heat. 1. Cause of heat. (Iteport by 8th grade.) 2. Absorbed and reflected heat. 3. Heat belts of the earth. a. Width of zones. b. Globe work showing latitude lines. c. Winds caused by unequal heating. 4. Artificial heat. 5. Effect of heat on plants. ( C. The science of living. 1. Things necessary to life, air, food, water. 2. Study of air — composition and purity. 3. Study of water — kinds, uses, purity. 4. Foods necessary to health. a. Carbohydrates, protein, fats, minerals, water. b. Available foods in each class. c. Use of each food. Balanced school lunch. In this school, no separate time is taken for geography and history thruout the grades. The history course is planned from the first grade thru the eighth in such a way that no work is ever repeated, and the geography work fits into the history work. A schedule is used so that each boy or girl may have one hour a day in the manual training shop, but no one misses a regular recitation in order to work there. He simply uses the time between nine and four that he used to spend doing nothing. Not more than two use the shop in any one hour. The children work better when the shop is not crowded. The arithmetic work at times seems to cover almost everything. When it becomes so broad that it is using drawing and language work too, they are never told to put away their arithmetic work and get their language lesson, but are permitted to work out the problem at hand. We have been flying from one thing to another in the school room pro- gram, and then wondering why it was so hard to get the children to stick to a problem until it was worked out! Business is a series of problems. If a boy is interested in 37 plotting a garden, it will do him more good to spend two class periods on that garden than to stop in the middle of his work to study some beautiful selection from literature. But the teacher must measure results by the growth of the child, not by the number of recitations. The next day he may do three days work in lit- erature if he is allowed to do so when at the close of the recitation he begs to finish the story. Thirty minutes three times a week gives ninety minutes to reading, and fifteen minutes five times a week gives seventy-five minutes. So actually more time is given to reading in the first case than in the second and the results will be far more satisfactory, with a less chopped-up daily program. The plea that children become tired of a long recitation is non- sense, if it is the right kind of a recitation. A second grade group, according to the carefully “figured-out program”, was to have fifteen minutes each recitation for reading. One day after having used twenty minutes, they begged to read it “just once more,” because the wolf forgot to howl at the proper time and they had just discovered it. Correlation then must be based on the teacher’s ability to group problems. It matters not whether a child has twenty reci- tations in a month or ten, but it matters a great deal what kind of habits he forms and whether he can think or whether he merely quotes from a book. “That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task: who left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty or failed to express it; who always looked for the best in others and gave the best he had; whose memory is a benediction.” — Robert Louis Stevenson. “If increase of power is not accompanied by the enlargement of the social consciousness, it is apt to manifest itself in a dominat- ing or competitive spirit. If, however, the socializing process proceeds in harmony with the increasing power and means of control, the force which would otherwise express itself in a com- petitive way manifests itself in co-operation. ” — Dopp. 38 RATING TEACHERS Rosamond Root Introduction. — The aim in this study is (1) to show why the subject has become a topic for consideration in the administra- tion of education; (2) to discover the purposes of rating; (3) to point out the difficulties met in attempting to scientifically and justly rate teachers; (4) to determine by whom the rating shall be done; (5) to compare pioneer schemes for rating to find what items are essential for success together with their relative value; (6) to find what tests may be applied to determine the rating of the teacher in the various items of merit and, (7) to give some conclusions reached from a critical survey of the literature on the subject. A Topic of Administrative Concern. — In this twentieth century when efficiency and adaptability are possibly the two greatest words in the language of economics, industry and society in general we are forced to look for the qualities which make pos- sible these two characteristics, in whatever phase of society we are most concerned. We have passed into a scientific age when in all practical things we have begun to measure results instead of causes; when we consider actual accomplishment first and then study this in relation to the causes; when we no longer evaluate things in descrip- tive, nominative terms but measure them by definitive, quanti- tative standards. This scientific method is being demanded in education to the same extent that it is in measuring the elements of other enterprises, for education is now one of the largest enter- prises. It involves the expenditure of more than $375,000,000 annually for the services of half a million teachers to instruct one-fifth of our population which is in the public schools. The people are rightly demanding that they may know what results are being attained and whether this great expenditure is being made most economically. In Harvard Studies, Vol. 2, on “The Appointment of Teach- ers in Cities, ” Ballou says, “72% of school expenses goes to teach- ers, principals and supervisors . 1 Again “The teacher is the central factor in the problem of providing education and the most 39 important single asset which any school system can possess is a corps of efficient teachers.” I quote further: — “The difference between mediocre teachers and efficient teachers accounts largely for the difference between keeping the schools running and keep- ing them running at a maximum of efficiency. ” In securing efficient teachers the method of appointment becomes of supreme importance for responsibility and account- ability are placed upon the appointing officer. This brings us to our second question. Purposes of Rating. — We find one of the perennial prob- lems of school administration is that of judging and rating teachers to determine if they shall be retained in service, and this necessi- tates that the appointing officer be able to record a defensible judgment in favor of or against such retention. Another reason why teachers must be judged is the necessity for filling vacancies in the school system which demand superior ability. Unless one can rank teachers so this ability can be dis- covered there is opportunity to fail in making the right promotion within the force. A third reason is the necessity of appointing teachers from outside to fill vacancies or new positions. We find here a great handicap in that there is no uniform system of rating used in school systems; hence it is impossible to get a scientific evalua- tion of a teacher’s efficiency merits. Instead we are dependent upon general recommendations of supervisors or college officials whose estimates of the characteristics which constitute general excellence in a teacher vary widely. The fourth reason for determining the rank of a teacher’s efficiency is the recent tendency to increase salaries on the basis of merit, increased efficiency, professional improvement, or teach- ing ability rather than on the old basis of length of service. The fifth reason for rating teachers is to call their attention to their strong and weak points and thereby aid them in self- improvement and productive efficiency. Difficulties Met. — The attitudes toward the difficulties met in attempting to get a satisfactory rating of the teacher vary as widely as the opinions of administrators. We find expressions of these attitudes ranging from the one recorded by Gilbert in The 40 School and Its Life, — “ Teachers cannot be judged by a marking system,” to C. H. Johnston's opinion found in The Modern High School, — “ After numerous pioneer exploitations such as these have been recorded, and after some scientific collections and interpretations of those varied and measurably successful schemes have been made, it is certain that a definite schedule of measuring teachers and of promoting them on such a basis will come about. He makes reference in the above to E. C. Eliot's “ Tentative Scheme for Measuring Teaching Efficiency,” which has been so stimulating to school administrators. Another difficulty is that teaching is to quite an extent a spiritual process which is subjective and difficult to measure. Fur- thermore the results are not immediately manifest; the personal factors influencing results are intangible, abstract, and not par- ticularly objective. To that degree they are unscientific and immeasurable. The next difficulty is to find the test or measuring rod by which we can evaluate the respective items of merit. Lastly there is the diffiulty of getting a ranking or final esti- mate of a teacher’s efficiency which will not be colored by personal feeling or the opinion of the rating officer. The Rating Officers. — We now come to the question of who is the person best qualified to perform this very responsible and delicate task. It is the opinion of writers on the subject and investigators that it is a task demanding the services of an expert. The superintendent because of the fact that he is the professional executive officer of the Board of Education should be the most competent. E. W. Griffith, after securing the opinion of a large number of administrators, reports his findings in the American School Board Journal, Volume 47, pp. 12-13, 54-55 to be that the use of the combination method for rating employing the superin- tendent and his supervisory officers tends to divide responsibility, correct possible personal bias, and promote faithful and sustained effort among the teaching force. In Lincoln, Nebraska the officers for rating are named as follows: superintendent, principal, supervisor of art, supervisor of music, and supervisor of manual training. In other towns we find the grammar grade and primary supervisors included on the committee. 41 This is a very responsible work and necessitates the exercise of breadth of view, sanity of judgment, keenness of insight, and firmness of decision. Therefore it should be delegated to the proper persons even if it demands the evincing of sufficient interest in the cities to secure regulation by state legislatures. Necessary Items of Merit and Their Relative Value. — The problem of determining just what items of merit should be included in a rating system together with their relative values seems almost impossible of solution. The following factors enter into the consideration. (1) The influence of standards used thruout our earlier history is still present. We have passed thru epochs when the following standards were the basis of rank- ing a teacher, — (a) orthodoxy or ecclesiastical conformity; (b) personal or political affiliation and loyalty; (c) academic training; (d) professional training; and finally we are in the period when the selection, retention or rewarding is to be based on (e) direct efficiency. (2) Palmer suggests in his Ideal Teacher, “ There is no human excellence which is not useful for us teachers. ” We im- mediately see that the problem will necessarily have to be nar- rowed to, “What are those characteristics of the teacher without which he must fail, and what those which, once his, will almost certainly insure him success?” One author suggests we rate on negative items or those of demerit and the problem will be lessened. (3) Formerly supervisory officers have been accustomed, for all practical purposes, to rank their teachers by a method known as “snap-shot judgments. ” We find them reluctant then to adopt a scale which will demand the process of analysis, evalua- tion and synthesis and which will necessitate the knowledge of facts to arrive at an exact and just measurement. The time ele- ment, the anxiety and possibility of having to defend one’s judg- ment, and an addition to the already numerous details of super- vision are offered as good reasons for adopting brief schemes, in- volving few descriptive terms. These apparently have already proved insufficient as denoted by the current stress and effort to decide on a scientific scheme of measurement. 42 (4) There is a difference of opinion also as to whether these items shall be given definite, relative, values as shown in the Elliott plan, the Decatur plan, and the Indiana plan or whether the rank shall be checked as descriptive by items and the final or general rank be determined by the median as shown by Boyce in the “Fourteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. ” (5) The relative value of items of merit can be accurately de- termined only by a scientific investigation such as that tried by Ruediger and Strayer reported in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 1; pp. 272-278 and also in the above mentioned Yearbook. This investigation was conducted for elementary teachers. A similar experiment was tried by A. C. Boyce for high school teachers and reported in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 3; pp. 144-157. These experiments are yet insufficient because of the few cases and the unreliableness of the data secured. However by securing sufficient data, correlations may be determined which will be of value. In the experiments mentioned the correlations show no central tendency, but some interesting discoveries follow : (a) The lowest correlation was between Health and General Merit. This cannot be entirely relied upon for Health rank is difficult to give even with a medical examination, and this was not made in all cases reported, (b) Personal Appearance and General Merit correlations were slight showing importance placed upon this factor by teachers’ agencies is of commercial interest rather than being of special significance in teaching efficiency, (c) The highest correlations shown were between Teaching Skill and Keeping Order. These are essentials for consideration in appointing grade teachers, (d) Length of Service seemed to lose its importance after five years for no one who had taught less than five years ranked first or second. Also a number of those ranked lowest had taught eight years, and those second lowest nine years. The ten year period included 70% of the first rank; 60% of the second rank; 40% of the second lowest rank; and 30% of the lowest rank, (e) The distribution of good and poor teachers thru the grades showed the following: 43 Grade Rank Percent of 1 1 1-2 28 8 1-2 19 1 -2-7-8 1-2 69 4-6 Lowest 38 3-4-5-6 Middle 31 The inference would be that there must be a special fitness for the intermediate grades, (f) Salaries were best where teaching efficiency was highest if there was variation in salaries but in four of the nine systems there was equal pay. (g) Preparation showed a marked positive influence upon General Merit. The Normal School graduates ranked highest in the grades which is undoubted- ly due to their professional preparation instead of academic train- ing alone as given in most colleges, (h) Boyce’s correlations of most important items of merit with their relation to General Merit are in their order of importance given in the following table: Item of Merit Correlation Instructional Skill 90% Results 85% Stimulation of Individuals 80% Intellectual Capacity 71% Discipline 67% (i) All correlations were reasonably high when comparison of single qualities with Teaching Efficiency were made excepting General Appearance and Health, (j) Physical qualities rank lowest and dynamic qualities and achievement rank highest. This is evidence that superintendents are looking for results, (k) Experience ranks third from the last. (1) Moral qualities rank lower than administrative qualities and instructional ability. This data does not justify the order of importance commonly given to the various items. (6) (a) A comparison of these facts indicates that the order of relative importance will not be the same for all grades nor for all types of teaching. For example, items of merit for elementary teachers were in the following order when related in importance to General Efficiency. Item Correlation Discipline 56% Instructional Skill 54% 44 High School teachers we remember reversed this order of the two most important items, (b) Experience was plainly shown to modify teaching ability but was limited to five years and twenty- five years. After attaining a high degree of efficiency there was no decline until after twenty years of service beyond the pro- bationary period, (c) Elementary teachers were found to stay in the profession longer than high school teachers, (d) College graduates made better high school teachers and normal trained teachers succeeded best in the grades, (c) In both cases Results were most dependent upon Instructional Skill and Ability to Keep Order. These five impressions would indicate that the administrator should have another expression of judgment in order to make the best adjustments and promotions for the good of the school. (7) It has been suggested that teachers would not welcome such a rating system and therefore it would fail in one of the strongest purposes for which we urge it, — the desire to improve teachers in service. Johnston in “The Modern High School” however gives us the assurance that high school teachers do indorse the plan and show marked improvement where it has been applied. Typical expressions from high school teachers of which he gives several follow. “ Instead of making the teacher feel that the supervisor is an autocrat, to my mind it makes her feel that he is a just judge in that he puts into her hands his rule of measurement and permits her to feel that she has an opportunity to bring herself up to his standard”. “ I place a very high estimate upon its value, not only to the teacher but reaching out beyond her to the school. I believe that the scheme is in every respect a feasible one”. Also the eagerness with which Hyde’s “ Self-Measurement ” a scale of human values for self ranking in efficiency, — was re- ceived shows that all intelligent individuals are anxious to improve themselves in productive efficiency. Tests for Measurement. — Lastly should we decide upon the items to be included in our rating scheme, we would find it necessary to explain the terms in order to secure uniformity of interpretation and also determine what tests may be applied for each item to most accurately measure the teacher’s rank. 45 Helpful suggestions are offered by Edwin D. Pusey of Durham, North Carolina and published in the report of the National Education Association for 1914. He said, — “We can ratp teachers on items of a score card evaluating them by personal opinion and yet not have an efficient teacher in the corps. ” To quote him further, — “The proof of a teacher’s efficiency is to be found in the pupil whom the teacher advances and the pupil should have the following characteristics: (a) Punctuality; (b) Wellbehaved; (c) Has some definiteness of purpose; (d) can organize ideas; (e) has developed a power of reason commensurate with his age; (f) is self-reliant; (g) can take initiative”. A few tests of the teacher’s Technical Skill, Ability to Secure Results, and Disciplinary Ability are: (a) pupil attendance; (b) behavior of pupils on playground and in public; (c) tidiness of room and neatness of pupils; (d) pupils interest in material other than the text-book; (e) knowledge of the pupil’s environment possessed by the teacher; (f) teacher’s position of leadership in the community; (g) accuracy in keeping records and marking; (h) increased mental power of the pupils and their ability to apply their knowledge; (i) the quickness and accuracy with pupils do their work. Harvey in his “Principles of Teaching” suggests that the teacher can be tested through her questions as to “whether she is an artist in the profession or merely a plodder and artisan. ” H. E. Kratz in his Studies and Observations in the School- room gives some weight to the possibility of estimating a teacher by the impressions her pupils have of her and by what chaacter- istics impress them. It seems possible the teacher can be tested indirectly through measurement of results in the pupils. Conclusions. — I believe these conclusions may be safely drawn : — (1) Supervisory officers and administrators are compelled to determine the relative value of teacherfe because of the increased demand for efficiency and the present use of scientific methods. (2) There are definite measurable qualities of merit which determine teaching efficiency. (3) These measurements must be taken by a group of ex- perts' who will measure results through the changes that take 46 place in pupils in their habitfe, in method^ of work, in developed power of appreciation, in broadened and intensified interests, in awakened and nurtured ideals, and in increased knowledge. By having the work done by experts will prevent inaccuracies on account of unevenness of personal judgment and the possibility of personal bias. (4) These items of merit have a relative value of unequal degree in relation to teaching efficiency. Also the order of these degrees of value vary and change in consideration of the grade and type of teaching. (5) The most important items seemingly are found in the “ Efficiency Record”, — given on page 54 of The Fourteenth Year Book of the National Society for the Study of Education, and classified under sections IY and V as follows: IY. Technique of Teaching Definiteness and Clearness of Aim Skill in Habit Formation Skill in Stimulating Thought Skill in Teaching How to Study Skill in Questioning. Choice of Subject Matter Organization of Subject Matter. Skill and Care in Assignment Skilf wi Motivating Work Attention to Individual Needs V. Results — Attention and Response of the Class Growth of Pupils in Subject Matter General Development of Pupils Stimulation of Community Moral Influence This reduces the measurement scheme to a minimum of terms which will conserve time in rating and prevent confusion from a mass of details. It is also quite possible to test these abilities and effect's either directly or indirectly objectively. Furthermore they are the things without which efficiency is impossible, — in fact they are efficiency and that is what we are testing. Lastly they infer the presence of all other characteristics usually included 47 in a scheme unless they happen to be items which are practically zero in their correlations of influence. With the following change in order of importance it might be possible to use this scale attaching per cents of value or rate by use of the median. I. Results — 90% 1 2 3 4 5 II. Technique of Teaching — 10% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. . . 8 9 10 The blanks could be filled with a uniform terminology selected by common agreement. This would not be a difficult task for there seems a marked degree of uniformity in judgment concern- ing the characteristics at the present time. 6. A uniform scale, usable and intelligently applied would be a great inspiration to teachers and would be of real worth in scien- tific management of a school system. It could also be used to advantage in the training of teachers supervisors and principals. 7. A refined solution of the problem has not yet been attained but the results of pioneer effort point in the right direction. “What the wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children. Any other ideal acted upon is narrow and unlovely; acted upon it destroys democracy. ” — Dewey. 48 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 3 0112 062105512