Part 1 (1/2)
What the Schools Teach and Might Teach
by John Franklin Bobbitt
FOREWORD
This report on ”What the Schools Teach and Might Teach” is one of the 25 sections of the report of the Education Survey of Cleveland conducted by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation in 1915 Twenty-three of these sections will be published as separatea suular work of the public schools, and a second si to industrial education Copies of all these publications may be obtained from the Cleveland Foundation They may also be obtained froe Foundation, New York City A coether with prices
PREFATORY STATEMENT
For an understanding of some of the characteristics of this report it is necessary to mention certain of the conditions under which it was prepared
The printed course of study for the elementary schools to be found in June, 1915, the tiathered for this report, was prepared under a former administration While itsdeparted from in individual schools in many respects Except occasionally it was not possible to find record of such departures It was believed that to accept the printedcurrent procedure would do frequent injustice to thoughtful, constructive workers within the system But it must be remembered that courses of study for the city cover the work of twelve school years in a score and s Only a s any week of the school year; and of this fraction only a relatively small amount could actually be visited by one man in the time possible to devote to the task In the absence of records of work done or of work projected, unduly large weight had to be given to the recommendations set down in the latest published course of studyplanned for the elementary schools
This in itself indicated that the arded as an authoritative expression of the ideas of the adood arithraphy course, little indication could be found as to what the details of the new courses were to be The present report has had to be written at a ti the courses of study laid out in the old manual, and yet before the new courses were formulated Under the circu forth the _facts_, since not even the administration knew yet what the new courses were to be in their details It was not a safe ti course of study requirements The situation was too unformed for either In the matter of the curriculue constructive program Its face was toward the future, and not toward the past; not even toward the present
It was felt that if the brief space at the disposal of this report could also look chiefly toward the future, and present constructive recos that observation indicated should be kept in est service The time that the author spent in Cleveland was mostly used in observations in the schools, in consultation with teachers and supervisors, and in otherwise ascertaining what appeared to be the main outlines of practice in the various subjects This was thought to be the point at which further constructive labors would necessarily begin
The reco in this report does not indicate that it has hitherto been non-existent or unrecognized in the system
The intention rather is an econo attention to what appear to be certain funda that seem nowadays more and more to be employed by judicious constructive workers
The occasional pointing out of incoarded as criticism Both school people and community should remember that since schools are to fit people for social conditions, and since these conditions are continually changing, the work of the schools rowth is never coeneration
The work of education in preparing for these ever-new conditions can likewise never be coe as fast as social conditions rowth-needs is not criticism The intention is to present the disinterested, detached view of the outsider who, although he knows indefinitely less than those within the systeet the perspective rather better just because his mind is not filled with the details
THE POINT OF VIEW
There is an endless, and perhaps ide, controversy as to what constitutes the ”essentials” of education; and as to the steps to be taken in the teaching of these essentials The safe plan for constructive workers appears to be to avoid personal educational philosophies and to read all the essentials of education within the needs and processes of the co this social point of view in estions for Cleveland, it seems desirable first to explain just e mean Some of the matters set down may appear so obvious as not to require expression
They need, however, to be presented again because of the frequency hich they are lost sight of in actual school practice
Children and youth are expected as they grow up to take on by easy stages the characteristics of adulthood At the end of the process it is expected that they will be able to do the things that adults do; to think as they think; to bear adult responsibilities; to be efficient in work; to be thoughtful public-spirited citizens; and the like
The individual who reaches this level of attainh he may never have attended school The one who falls below this level is not truly educated, even though heone's nature to full maturity, as represented by the best of the adult corows up, is true education for life in that co less than this falls short of its purpose
Anything other than this is education misdirected
In very early days, when community life was sih participating in co Fro more complex Adults have developed kinds of activities so complicated that youth cannot adequately enter into the
At first these things were feith the years they have grown very numerous
One of the earliest of these too-co, spelling These matters became necessities to the adult world; but youth under ordinary circumstances could not participate in them as perforht; and the school thereby ca developed about the same time was the complicated number system used by adults It was too difficult for youth to ht, and it offered a second task for the schools In the early schools this teaching of the so-called Three R's was all that was needed, because these were the only adult activities that had beco Other things were still si people could enter into them sufficiently for all necessary education
As community vision widened and men's affairs cae of the outlying world