Reprinted from the Educational Review, New York, March, 1915 Copyright, 1915, by Educational Review Publishing Co. 7 •UMMWtJCtV II HIGH SCHOOL TERMINOLOGY^ With the rapidly growing literature of secondary educa- tion, scientific investigations of its problems are multiplying, college courses and textbooks for these courses are^ becoming more common, technical issues are arising, and some con- troversies, such as the one of vocational education within or independent of our single system of high schools, are becoming acute and widespread. The questions of peda- gogy, of management, of administration and of supervision are complicated ones. Even the ‘‘fields” of secondary edu- cation are being differentiated. No longer may we disre- gard the prevailing confusion in usage of common terms. At a certain stage of development of every well-recognized division of knowledge vague terms, which suffice for general surmises and prognostications and exhortations, have to be made more precise, less ambiguous. Psychology, for example, for its own purposes, had to make over our common- ISlguage terms such as “sensation,” “feeling,” “image,” and “perception” into terms with specialized and un- ambiguous yet simple connotations. In no other way could scientific investigation of such mental processes and formu- lation of the laws proceed. Such of course must be the case ^ The terms below, with precise meanings given in each case, were pre- sented at the general session of the National Commission on the Reorganiza- tion of Secondary Education at Richmond, Va., February 25, 1914. They have also since then been submitted for criticism to every state superintendent of education in the United States. Sixteen of these men, or high school experts officially designated by them to represent the attitude of their office, were kind enough to send me detailed criticisms and suggestions of various sorts. Some of these I have incorporated, others I have not been able to use, altho in every case I have profited by the good point raised. Most of the writers exprest the intention of adopting all or a great portion of the terms as suggested below. It is hoped, and indeed definitely planned for these formulations to bring to a head certain genuine issues. The purpose is accomplished upon either the definite acceptance or the definite rejection of the particular terms. High school terminology 229 with the fundamental terms in the literature of secondary- education. Thus far it has not been quite disastrous to use inter- changeably “vocationar’ education and “industriar’ edu- cation, or “college preparatory” and “cultural” curricu- lums; but henceforth such distinctions are absolutely es- sential. Otherwise even our statutes will continue to have little meaning, or will continue to be open to several inter- pretations. As it is, in most recent legislation regarding vocational education we find “school,” “department,’ “curriculum” and “course of study” used interchangeably or each in different senses, and the real issues in question most hopelessly confused. In the more general literature writers use the term “curriculum” in several, and “course of study” in at least three distinct senses in printed announcements of “courses of study” and in other school reports. The collegiate terms “department,” “major,” “minor,” and “unit” have been vaguely adopted in high school literature; but in the future, as high school administration and pedagogy become more securely based on scientific studies of high school problems, such terms must mean in the language on intercommunication of high schools and colleges what they mean actually in high school practise. Colleges think of high school work in terms of their own practises with refer- ence to problems of a department, curriculum, or major and minor. The principles of entrance requirements will finally be written cooperatively by joint committees of high schools and colleges after this common language shall have been established. Again “curriculum thinking” is just coming into the pro- fessional consciousness of high school principals and teachers. This is a sign of professional progress which will from now on develop rapidly. One reason for such vagueness and confusion in usage of the terms “curriculum,” “course of study” and “programme of studies,” as all who study this literature now find to be so common, is that there are prac- tically no genuine curriculums, differentiated with refer- -3 73 , J 230 LO^, X Educational Review [March ence to distinctive educational functioning of each such organization of studies. Hence, looking only at our present practise, we actually can not distinguish in high school administration between programmes of study and curricu- lums (as defined below) on the one hand, or between genuine curriculums and certain arbitrarily grouped “allied” or .Q sequentially related courses. ^ It is evident and inevitable that the following system of terminology contemplates an ideal scheme for the reorganiza- tion of the entire public school system. The following is a dogmatic sketch of its general architectural features. First there would be the kindergarten of one year with a plan of supervision of this coordinately with the first grade of the elementary school described below. This ideal kindergarten must by all means retain all its present good features, and under this proposed plan of supervision it must also effect a combination of those good native ele- ments with those elements and methods of the Montessori system which can be made adaptable to our American chil- dren under American conditions. Following this we must have an elementary school of six years. The primary purpose of this proposed national unit must be and will be more succinctly statable in terms of child life and child nature. This smaller unit, for curricu- lum purposes, will lend itself more readily to characteriza- tion in terms of educational values and distinguishable func- tion. The two distinguishit^ g characteristics will be some- thing like the following: First, a normal deftly planned environment for the preadolescent child to grow — not memorize — ^in; second, a school whose secondary purpose will be to make the child in this prepubescent period a lover of reading; a master of the fundamentals of arithmetic, so that these naturally unfatiguing and naturally enjoyable operations will become an automatic and dependable part of his thinking (easier when we know better how to do it and when we have no adolescent problem in the same en- vironment to confuse the issue); and one who can write High school terminology 231 1915] legibly — perhaps typewrite — and who, by a simplified (!) method can spell accurately. Then would come our intermediate or junior high school of, in most cases, three years. Here our work must resemble that of the high school proper, but with one important difference : it must retain the best grammar grades methods, personalized instruction, and in no case attempt more than partially vocationalized training in its partially differ- entiated curriculums. Following this would come our senior high school of three, four or five more years, the curriculum extension de- pending upon the size and character of the community. This branch of the public school system will be the great socializing and vocational, as well as the chief cultural institution of our democracy. We are probably at the present time arriving at that stage of our educational de- velopment, so far as state systems of education are concerned, when it may be wise to incorporate into the local systems, by state financial encouragement if necessary, the hundreds of struggling private colleges of the country which, hampered by lack of proper equipment, are doing at best but a high grade of the type of work contemplated for the senior high schools. Coupled with and in some vital way affiliated with this great differentiated public high school system will be our national system of school extension including part-time schools of every variety, continuations for every class and for every age, evening schools equipt and administered as effectively as the public day schools, and vacation schools, all-the-year-schools, to naturalize us to national as well as individual education which has no end and should have no end, and, when properly adjusted and adapted and varied, no intermittance. With all this instructional and training function of the high school thus extended it will be but a natural step and an easy one for the high school to take over from the universities the “community service” work of elementary character — which consumes the time of expen- sive experts on university staffs now. 232 Educational Review [March It will be seen clearly that genuine reorganization of public education contemplates an educational condition in which it may be possible for real universities to exist independently of the secondary features by which they seek now, necessarily, to attract students. It is more in keeping for the high schools to render service “directly conducive to the general good” as is the prevailing elementary univer- sity “extension service” of water analysis, popular advice in sanitary and other forms of engineering, of agriculture and public health; and “to give instruction in the arts and facts of civilized Hfe;” and leave the universities proper free from these temporizing but laudable contributions to the ordinary needs of the community, and by more general assent definitely committed to the cause of “the higher intellectual interests and strivings of mankind.” Terminology, left alone, reflects practise. Refined, even somewhat artibrarily, it may serve to suggest a better practise. With this in mind, and in order to provoke fur- ther discussion and criticism the following commonly used terms are defined : “Secondary education” has for its particular sphere the general information and training in the facts and arts of civilized Hfe. It may be roughly distinguished from ele- mentary education as being primarily concerned, on the side of subject-matter, with the differentiated character of the various subjects of instruction, and from collegiate education by the essentially elementary and general charac- ter of these differentiated fields of knowledge. On the side of method — secondary education may be distinguished from elementary in that it involves primarily an appeal to the pupil’s appreciation, judgment, and sense of relative values, and places its greatest emphasis upon self-revelation and trained individuality rather than upon the “organization of instincts and impulses of children into working interests and tools, the formal aspects and instruments of edu- cation. In method — secondary education is to be dis- tinguished from collegiate education in that the former * Dewey. 1915] High school terminology 233 wholly excludes and the latter only includes subjects in- volving relative maturity of mind and of treatment. The latter requires a mental attitude of detachment from the materials dealt with, whereas in method high school teaching requires the personalization and evaluating of content of studies.^ “High school” is that part of the public school system in which are administered courses organized into one or more cultural or vocational curriculums (or either or both), entrance to which ordinarily presupposes the completion of an elementary curriculum of six, seven, eight or nine years, or which may have for entrance requirements, instead of such scholastic standards, the equivalents in age, maturity of development and vocational needs of entering pupils. A high school may extend its courses and its cur- riculums over periods of four, five, six, seven or eight years. The existence of a high school implies in any case, pupils, teachers and courses organized into one or more curriculums, and an institution whose internal government and adminis- tration is distinct from and coordinate with that of the ele- mentary school embracing the first six years. “Junior high school” is that portion of the public school work above the sixth elementary grade, including the 7th and 8th or the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades, which is organized ^ One of my kind critics, State Supt. H. C. Morrison, of New Hampshire, suggests the necessity of a distinction between “education” and ‘‘training,” looking upon “education” in general as being “an adaptive process in the individual, making for individual growth and development with the ultimate object in view of adaptability; and meaning by ‘training’ the specific drill and habit organization which results in specific skill in a particular occupa- tion. We already have a good many curriculums and courses in high schools, and we probably shall have more, in which the purpose is essentially in- dustrial or vocational education as such, that is to say, the development of vocational adaptability. We have also in existence a good many independent schools of the industrial type in which the object is essentially and specifically training, that is, the development of skill thru the organization of habits. Most of the work described (in the terminology list) is, as a matter of fact, probably essentially ‘educative’ work. Some of it, as for instance courses in stenography and typewriting in the high school, is essentially ‘training.’ As our ideas clarify on the matter, we shall undoubtedly come to have many schools toward the end of the adolescent period, or after its close, devoted specifically to industrial ‘training’ purposes.” 234 Educational Review [March tinder a distinctive internal management with a special principal and teacher, and which provides for departmental teaching, partially differentiated curriculums, pre-vocational instruction, and a system of educational advice and guidance.^ “Senior high school” is that portion of the public school work above the 9th grade which is organized under a dis- tinctive internal management of special principal and teacher and which includes in its curriculums instruction covering three, four or five years beyond the junior high school, and whose minimum requirement for graduation is the com- pletion of courses to the amount of fifteen credit units above the eighth grade. “Junior college” is that portion of the public school work which embraces the years and courses of instruction beyond the 12th grade, and which may be considered as equivalent to the corresponding work on the first two years of a stand- ardized college curriculum. KINDS OK HIGH SCHOOD EDUCATION Only rough and arbitrary distinctions may be made be- tween general and special, or vocational education. These distinctions have for the present purpose only adminis- trative, not pedagogical value. Educationally at every point any particular “course” has both elements which blend into each other. “Curriculums,” however, must be constructed with some dominating emphasis upon a dis- tinguishing purpose. “General education” (for this administrative purpose) is education in which the dominating emphasis is placed upon equipping the individual for effective participation in the esthetic, intellectual and other cultural activities of civilized ^ There is in every state a large number of school systems in which one or more years of high school instruction of an academic character is added to the grade work. These grade extensions should not be called high schools. We might possibly call them “partial high schools” or “grade extension schools” or “incomplete high schools.” They should not be called junior high schools as they have not the requisite administrative and pedagogical distinctiveness. In the event of finding no suitable generic term we may call them simply one-year, two-year or three-year high schools, or perhaps nine-grade, ten-grade or eleven-grade schools. 1915] High school terminology 235 life, and for the appreciation of the products of such activi- ties, and which is deliberately planned with reference to the postponement of any specialized training or information bearing upon the particular duties and opportunities of a recognized vocation. “Vocational education”^ (for this administrative purpose) is any education the immediate and definite purpose of which is to fit for profitable employment by providing special training or skill in and information concerning a given vocation. “ Pre- vocational education” includes all the instruction and training of the years immediately following the first six years of elementary education which may be distinguished from the general, or academic education of these same years by the fact that in content and method it is designed to prepare the pupils for carrying on the operations and pro- cesses common to groups of fundamental vocations. It is distinguished from “vocational education” in the limita- tions in definiteness of its special training and in the only partially differentiated curriculums provided. “Industrial education” is, in any instance, that form of vocational education which is designed to fit for a par- ticular trade, craft, or other wage-earning pursuit, including the occupation of girls and women carried on in stores, work shops and other establishments, but excluding house- hold service (see below). “Agricultural education” is that form of vocational education which is designed to fit for the vocations con- nected with the tillage of the soil, the care of domestic animals, forestry and other wage-earning or productive work on the farm. ® This group of definitions represents an attempt to modify, supplement and adapt some of the terms recently embodied in legislative enactments, concerning vocational education in Massachusetts, Indiana, Pennsylvania and several other states. The chief difference is that on the present basis vocational education is made broad enough to include, in addition to the types of training referred to in the above statutes, commercial curriculums and teacher-training curriculums — equally as important, truly as vocational i n character, and as clearly demanded of high schools. 236 Educational Review [March “Domestic education” is that form of vocational educa- tion which is designed to fit for vocations connected with the household, such as sewing, millinery, dressmaking or nursing. “Commercial education” is that form of vocational edu- cation which is designed to fit for any kind of clerical duty connected with the operation of commercial establishments, such £is bookkeeping, stenography and typewriting and clerkships ; and also any form of education of the same years which is designed to equip pupils for secretarial positions, or to become salesmen, business directors, or general trans- actors of business on their own account. “Teacher-training education” in “high schools” is that form of vocational education which is designed to fit for the profession of teaching and classroom management in rural schools, and which, furthermore, is definitely planned for that group of high school pupils who plan to teach immedi- ately upon graduation. “Independent industrial, agricultural, domestic, or teacher- training high school”® is an organization of pupils, teachers, and correlated courses designed primarily to pro- vide industrial, agricultural, domestic, commercial, or teacher- training education and which is administered by a dis- tinctive management independent of the management of the high school. “ Industrial, agricultural, domestic, commercial, or teacher- training curriculum” is in each instance courses of secondary grade and character organized and clearly de- signed for the vocational needs of a particular group of high school pupils, but administered and supervised by the same management that administers the “general” curricu- lum of the high school. “Evening class” is an independent industrial, agricul- tural, domestic, commercial, or teacher-training high school,. ® This type of public high school (which does not exist in the United States) is here defined so as to bring out clearly a legislative issue now critical- in some states. The paragraph should be contrasted with the one immediately following, which describes more nearly the existing state types of high schools. 1915] High school terminology 237 or in any of these curriculums of a high school is a class receiving such training as can be taken by persons already employed during the working day. This instruction may be general j or it may deal with the subject-matter of the day employment and be so carried on as to relate to the day’s employment, or it may be training designed to equip the individual for a different kind of occupation from the one in which he at the time is engaged. “Part-time class” is an independent industrial, agri- cultural, domestic, commercial, or teacher-training high school, or in any such curriculum in a high school, is a vocational or general class for persons giving a part of their working time to profitable employment and receiving in- struction complimentary to the practical work carried on in such employment. Such persons must give a part of each working day, week, or longer period to the part-time class work during the period in which it is in session. “Continuation school” (besides including the types of education of “evening class” and of “part-time”) refers also to any courses of “general” as distinguished from “vocational” character which may be offered by publicly employed school officers and teachers to persons not enrolled as pupils in the day high school, nor in independent voca- tional schools as defined above. TERMINOLOGY TOR INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPER- VISION OF HIGH SCHOOLS^ “Programme of studies” refers to all the high school subjects offered in a given school without reference to any principle of organizing these subjects and courses into curriculums. “Schedule of classes” is the daily and weekly arrangement ^ The terms “programme of studies,” “curriculum” and “course of study” have been defined by the Committee on College Entrance Require- ments (Report p. 42). With the change of “course of study” to “course,” thus avoiding the natural and frequent confusion of the term with “curri- culum,” and with modifications in phraseology and some further restrictions in connotations, the general distinction approved by this committee with reference to these two items has been here preserved. Educational Review [March 238 of classes showing the time of day, place and frequency of meeting and the instructor in charge of the course. “Curriculum” (course of study) is any systematic and schematic arrangement of courses which extends thru a number of years and which leads to a certificate or diploma, and which is planned for any clearly differentiated group of high school pupils. Administratively a “curriculum” represents an arrangement of courses within which a student is restricted in his choice of work leading to graduation. A four-year curriculum should represent not more than 16 (and not less than 15) credit units of work. “Allied group of “courses” refers to studies whose subject matter is closely related, as for example two or more courses in physical science or biological science or agricul- ture or language. “Allied group” of “high school subjects” suggests such large combinations (often helpful in the ad- ministration of group requirements, majors and minors, and as a guide in the assignment of work to teachers) as the sciences, the humanities, the fine arts and the prac- tical arts. ‘ ‘ Sequential group ’ ’ of courses refers to courses in a given high school subject or in closely related high school subjects which are planned for certain pupil groups that are to con- tinue electing courses within this group thru several dif- ferent “school classes.” These courses are so administered and taught that, because of the logical relationships, graded difficulty and partial curriculum purpose, each course in the group implies the next, credits for any often being con- tingent upon completion of the group. ‘ ‘ Department ’ ’ in high school work is any administrative unit in the assignment of subjects, of allied groups of sub- jects, or of courses to teachers. , “High school subject” refers to any one of the well-rec- ognized divisions of knowledge, one or more courses or ® As there are few distinctive curriculum differentiations as yet in high schools of any kind, and many partial curriculums, "allied group" and “sequential group” of courses are useful descriptive terms for this transition period in the evolution of high school curriculums and are here defined. 1915] High school terminology 239 half courses in which are offered in the programme of studies, such as history or German. “Course” is the quantity, kind and organization of subject matter of instruction in any high school subject, offered within a definite period of time for which a credit unit or a fraction of a credit unit toward graduation is granted, as second year hatin or first year algebra. “Credit unit” represents a year’s study in any high school subject constituting approximately a quarter of a full year’s work of a high school pupil. With a four-year high school curriculum as a basis a school year’s work of from 36 to 40 weeks is assumed, and’ it is further assumed that a school year’s work in any subject will approximate 120 sixty-minute periods, and that any course will be pur- sued for four or five periods per week. “Extra credit” represents the satisfactory completion of those additional requirements for graduation for which “credit units” are not granted, as for example is often the case with vocal music, gymnasium work or hand- writing. “Outside credits” refers to the official school recognition of work done by pupils outside the school building and out of school hours. “Unit of instruction” applies to those relatively limited number of larger and more important topic-divisions (fundamental as distinguished from accessory topics) into which the subject matter of a given course may be broken up. These “units of instruction” usually represent di- visions of the course whose treatment extends over a half- dozen or a dozen or even more class periods, depending partly upon the character of the subject matter itself and partly upon the individual teacher’s preference.^ “Graduation” means ordinarily the completion of courses to the amount of 15 credit units beyond the eighth grade and the fulfillment of all other requirements relating to * This unit of instruction, generally a larger division of school work that the recitation and smaller than the course, is both an administrative and a pedagogical unit, and should in every case be determined beforehand thru cooperation of teacher and supervisor. 240 Educational Review [March standards of scholarship, observance of school discipline and standards of morality generally. “School year” is the normal time required for the com- pletion of the courses amounting to four credit units or their equivalent. “Class period” means the time, varying from 40 to 120 minutes, spent continuously upon one course under the teacher’s active supervision in classroom work. “Subject class” means any group of pupils who recite or in any other way work together cooperatively during a class period upon any high school subject under the im- mediate direction of a class teacher. SYSTEMS OT ADMINISTERING COURSES “Elective system” is the plan of administering the choice of subjects and courses whereby each pupil individually may receive from the principal or a designated teacher, guidance in his selection of courses, but may not be restricted in this selection. “Group system” is the plan of administration of pupils’ choices of subjects and courses which places restrictions upon these elections of courses, generally making selections contingent upon the remainder of the work planned for the given school year or other years, these prescriptions and alternatives being pointed out in the schedule of classes or otherwise by some system of advice and guidance made clear to the students. As with the elective system the group system allows for individual combination courses. “Curriculum system” implies the organization of courses into distinctive curriculums definitely planned with refer- ence, not to each individual’s personal needs primarily, but with reference to the different educational requirements of special groups of pupils, curriculums based upon social rather than upon psychological considerations. This sys- tem emphasizes chiefly the election of curriculums only, allowing some leeway within each curriculum, but allowing little freedom for individual choice of studies belonging to other curriculums than the one to which the pupil has been assigned. 1915] High school terjtinology 241 “High school major” means three credit units done in sequence in any high school subject as English, Latin, German, history, mathematics ; or three credit units in some “allied group” such as physical science, biological science, social science, manual training, household arts, or fine arts. “High school minor” means two credit units of work similar in character to that described for a major. “Pupil” rather than “student” or “scholar” designates boys and girls enrolled in elementary and high schools. “School class” refers to that group of high school pupils whose school status, based upon their school marks and promotion records, is officially defined with reference to their year of graduation, as senior class. “Grade” (with the year 9th, loth, etc., attached) as loth grade, is used to distinguish the “school class” of high school pupils, rather than “freshman,” “sophomore,” “junior,” and “senior.” “Marks” (not “grades”) means the qualitative estimates of the pupil’s work in courses which constitute the official school record. “Honorable dismissal”^® refers to conduct and character only, and is never to be given unless the pupil’s standing as to conduct and character is such as to entitle him to continuance in the school granting the dismissal. In this statement full mention should also be made of any proba- tion, suspension or other temporary restriction imposed for bad conduct, the period of which restriction is not over when the papers of dismissal are issued. “Statement of record” refers to the recorded results of a pupil’s work in the classroom, and in every instance contains all the important facts pertaining to the pupil’s admission, classification and scholarship. The definitions of these last two terms are adaptations of resolutions adopted by the sixth conference of the National Conference Committee on Standards of Colleges and Secondary Schools, February 19, 1913, as is, substantially, the definition of “credit unit” given above. 242 Educational Review [March EXPI.ANATORY COMMENTS ON THE TERMINOLOGY definitions All the terms, with the obvious exceptions, “secondary education” and “unit of instruction,” are defined in an administrative sense and do not have primarily pedagogical distinctions in view. Apologies are frankly offered for venturing to define secondary education qualitatively. It seemed necessary to preface the other terms with some such rough characterization of the field. “High school” is defined above broadly so as to include all education of public character which may be of secondary grade, whether vocational or general, composite or special, junior or senior. “General” and “vocational” education, having refer- ence to curriculum education, and not to the character of any isolated course or subject, are distinguished primarily as to immediate purpose, the former offered mainly for those (about one-fourth of the high school enrollment) who have expectations of further education of more advanced grade ; the latter offered for those who either before or upon high school graduation definitely plan to engage in some wage-earning pursuit, and also offered to attract still others who are not enrolled at all. There is no implication here that general education has no vocational value, algebra for example, nor that vocational education has no cultural value, an agricultural curriculum for example; but that in a curriculum with the former as its emphasis the pupil is clearly postponing specific vocational training, and in the latter type of curriculum he is consciously preparing to enter immediately upon it. One state superintendent writes: “l approve of all your terms ex- cept youi too broad definition of high school. It seems to me we should limit the term high school to the institution that has been so long regarded as the standard, based upon an eight-year elementary course and lasting four years.” On the contrary I have here taken the position that nobody does right now know how to characterize the “standard institution,” and that the term “high school” may now well become a generic term, as “college” to an extent has become in the literature of university catalogues. 1915] High school terminology 243 i The various kinds of vocational education of secondary grade are defined so as to represent them as equally voca- tional and as thus coordinate in function. Enrollments in these curriculums reported in Bulletin No. 22 for 1912 of U. S. Bureau of Education justify also this coordinate ranking. An examination of several hundred printed high school “courses of study,” “curriculums” according to our proposed terminology, seems to indicate the prevailing tendency of large high schools to organize their programmes of study into substantially the five curriculums defined above, altho there are more than five terms for the corre- lated instruction offered. The terms distinguishing between “independent voca- tional schools” and the same kind of education in the form of a vocational curriculum in a high school of the standard type are so defined as to make clear the difference between the prevaihng “single system” of high schools and the pro- posed “dual system” seriously advocated in some states, as Illinois, at the present time. Even the legal terminology thus far of the different states that have past legislation is confusing on this point. In many educational discussions the administrative and the pedagogical issues involved are anything but clear. The average layman, for example, identifying high school with the general curriculum will not think of other possible curriculums for the same high school. He will naturally think that a new kind of school must come into existence for the new function. Seeing the contrasting pedagogical functions of the two kinds of instruction proposed he assumes that with this difference must exist also the administratived istinction — in short, that different schools must be administered. The termi- nology items seek to show the equal possibility of thinking the two kinds of curriculums, general and vocational, within or without the present system of public schools, while admitting in either case their pedagogical distinctive- ness. In other words they seek to avoid the confusion of using “school” and “department” or “curriculum” or “division” as identical or equivalent. 244 Educational Review [March The terms relating to matters of internal school manage- ment, supervision and especially reporting and formulating of policies, are proposed with a view to clearing up a certain evident confusion in the minds of many high school principals. It should be noted that “subject class” and “school period” are here so defined as to refer either to the old “recitation” type of class meeting, or to the laboratory period, or to the class period (single or double) in which a good portion of the time may be devoted to supervised study or other partial substitutes for this traditional activity of formal reciting. It might be a good thing, perhaps, to drop the term “recita- tion” altogether. The assumption in defining “curriculum” is that eventu- ally every high school will design and administer some genuine curriculum, the small high school often only one, the large high school many, and different types of large high schools different sets of curriculums. It is clear here that the proposed connotation and usage of this term and of the term “course” below will cause, at first, great in- convenience, as the custom is widespread in all circles to use “course of study” in the four-fold sense of “programme of studies,” “curriculum,” “high school subject,” and also of “course.” We are just entering, as is pointed out above, an era of curriculum building, curriculum thinking, and curriculum controversy. It is a critical period in high school development. Proponents of general and of voca- tional high school education often do not understand each other. College and university faculties do not understand the demands of high school principals with reference to entrance requirements; and these principals do not under- stand the conclusions to which these faculties come in their academic discussions of this question. If “curriculum,” “high school department,” “course of study,” “high school major” or “minor” and other such terms, reflecting clearly actual school practise, should mean approximately the same thing in our printed catalogues and other edu- cational literature, and if our educational journals could all adopt this elementary framework for necessary dis- 1915] High school terminology 245 cussions of these fundamental issues, it is more likely that we should get somewhere in our teachers’ association meet- ings and local conferences, and get further in our practise and in the institutional cooperation of school and college. The term “department” here is temporarily rescued from its ambiguous use in certain legislation on vocational education, and is adopted to call attention to the fact that it is an administrative unit and that its meaning in high school administration, from the nature of secondary edu- cation, must, as with “major” and “minor,” convey a meaning quite different from “college departmentalism,” certainly in the large majority of high schools. An “extra credit” has reference entirely to high school graduation, a “credit unit” refers to the evaluation of high school work by higher institutions. High school gradu- ation and college entrance standards may or may not be identical. The very difficult questions of the “unit” and “credit unit” values of the 9th and loth grade work, as compared with the nth and 12th grade, or of the effect upon unit value of work done in “allied” subjects upon a credit unit in a given subject in this group or of the differ- ent “unit” and “credit unit” values of different qualities of work (as designated by “marks”) can, in these prelim- inary suggestions, be barely mentioned as a problem later to face. “Units of instruction” is introduced and so defined as to give, thru official recognition and sanction, some basis for high school classroom supervision. If teacher and supervisor are essentially in agreement as to “units of in- struction,” supervision of teaching becomes possible. This evaluation of subject matter of courses in terms of class period time is one of the first steps toward standardization of high school courses. This “unit of instruction” is de- fined at the risk of introducing confusion because of the great need that the attention of school men be drawn to the super- visory practise it suggests. The suggestion should not be interpreted as advocating necessarily the same units of instruction, and time values, for different teachers of the 246 Educational Review [March same course. It merely means that no course should be conducted in disregard of this principle. Several of my cooperating critics among the state super- intendents do not wish to restrict “graduation” to the com- pletion of 15 units. They think those completing work in two- and three-year high schools should be allowed to “graduate.” This paper, notwithstanding, advocates the restriction suggested in the definition above, even in case the “junior high school” should become an established feature. The common confusion from interchange of usage of “marks” and “grades” is famihar to all school men. The usage suggested is proposed as a corrective. “Pupils” rather than “student” or “scholar” seems to be the decided preference of the large majority of high school principals and teachers as the characterizing term to apply to their charges, and is, therefore, here recom- mended. Attention may well be called to the attempt to describe “commercial education” in broader and more Hberal terms. It is noteworthy that many state superintendents inde- pendently comment upon the necessity of dignifying and also differentiating curriculums supplying training for different business occupations. It should be reahzed also that “ teacher- training education” in high schools is a fact, with state laws authorizing its support in a good number of states, — not a theory about the functions of high schools. This revolutionary measure bids fair, if it is more than a temporary makeship in teacher training, to revolutionize the high schools in extent of years of schooHng as well as in character of instruction and “setting” in a state system of education. There is a feature of the definition of “evening class,” which represents an attempt to improve upon what appears to be a blunder in the formation of recent laws relating to vocational education in Indiana, Massachusetts and other states, in that the character of instruction offered in such publicly supported education need not necessarily be re- 3 0112 062160111 1915] High school terminology 247 stricted in subject matter to that dealt with in the day em- ployment, a law which is working injustice already and which is defeating the vocational interests it was framed to foster. The phrase “course of study” is dropt as it now frequently enjoys the three usages recommended in turn for programme of studies, curriculum and course as noted above. The writer suggests these restricted uses for the above terms partly because he believes they are in the main correct and that they will clear up certain obscure but important current issues in high school administration. The chief reason for offering them, however, is to arouse discussion and to receive suggestions. Any criticisms, suggested addi- tions to the hst or suggested omissions will be seriously considered in the hope that eventually some definite pro- posals may be made to different educational associations and journals, by the adoption of which they may contribute also to clearness in educational thinking, so far, at any rate as it is concerned with the administration and super- vision of secondary education. CharIvES Hughes Johnston University of Illinois