Part 1 (2/2)

This knowledge could rarely be obtained sufficiently through travel and observation There arose the new need for the systeraphy What had hitherto not been a human necessity and therefore not an educational essential beca at education from this social point of view it is easy to see that there was a ti, science, vocational studies, civics, etc, beyond what one could acquire bywith one's associates in the community

These were therefore not then essentials for education It is just as easy to see that changed social conditions of the present e of ideas in each of these fields than one can pick up incidentally These things have thereby beco today is an educational ”essential” or not sees: whether it is a human necessity today; and whether it is so co The nueneration Those today who proclai fros have since beco added year by year The nors not yet put into the schools, is participation in those things One gets his ideas fro There is no reason to believe that as the school lends its help to so can be set aside and another substituted Of course the schools must take in hand the difficult portions of the process Where coe is needed, the schools e Where drill is required, they e and the drill should be given in their relation to the human activities in which they are used As the school helps young people to take on the nature of adulthood, it will still do so by helping them to enter adequately into the activities of adulthood

Youth will learn to think, to judge, and to do, by thinking, judging, and doing They will acquire a sense of responsibility by bearing responsibility They will take on serious fors which require serious thought

It cannot be urged that young people have a life of their ohich is to be lived only for youth's sake and without reference to the adult world about them As a matter of fact children and youth are a part of the total community of which the mature adults are the natural and responsible leaders At an early age they begin to perform adult activities, to take on adult points of view, to bear adult responsibilities Naturally it is done in ways appropriate to their natures At first it is imitative play, constructive play, etc--nature'schildren to observe the serious world about the into it

The next stage, if normal opportunities are provided, is playful participation in the activities of their elders This changes gradually into serious participation as they grow older, beco at the end of the process responsible adult action It is not possible to deterroithout looking at the same time to that entire world of which youth forms a part, and in which the nature and abilities of their elders point the goal of their training

The social point of view herein expressed is so utilitarian It may be so; but not in any narrow or undesirable sense It de be as wide as life itself

It looks to huious activities; civic activities; the duties of one's calling; one's fa and s that are done by the complete man or woiven to reading in the elee ti table:

TABLE 1--TIME GIVEN TO READING AND LITERATURE ======================================================== | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time |-----------------------|------------------------ Grade | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities -------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 317 | 266 | 43 | 31 2 | 317 | 235 | 36 | 26 3 | 279 | 188 | 32 | 21 4 | 196 | 153 | 22 | 16 5 | 161 | 126 | 18 | 13 6 | 136 | 117 | 15 | 12 7 | 152 | 98 | 17 | 10 8 | 152 | 97 | 17 | 10 ======================================================== Total | 1710 | 1280 | 25 | 17 --------------------------------------------------------

During the course of his school life, each pupil who finishes the elerades in Cleveland receives 1710 hours of recitation and directed study in reading as against an average of 1280 hours in progressive cities in general This is an excess of 430 hours, or 34 per cent The annual cost of teaching reading being about 600,000, this represents an excess annual investment in this subject of so is justified depends, of course, upon the way the ti only at the usualand the usual introductory acquaintance with si more time and labor than other cities consider needful If, on the other hand, this city is using the excess ti chosen for its content value in revealing the great fields of history, industry, applied science, manners and custoraphy, etc, and in fixing life-long habits of intelligent reading, then it is possible that it is just this excess tiest educational returns upon the investment

[Footnote A: Henry W Holmes, ”Time Distribution by Subjects and Grades in Representative Cities” In the Fourteenth Year Book of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part I, 1915 University of Chicago Press]

It would seem, however, from a careful study of the actual work and an examination of the printed docu in this city is, to use the ter in rich, well-modulated tone”

It is true that other aie of expressions and allusions, acquaintance with the leading authors, appreciation of ”beautiful expressions,” etc Properly emphasized, each of these purposes is valid; but there are other equally valid ends to be achieved through proper choice of the reading-content that are notaccepted, but of the apparent failure to recognize other equally i-content is referred to only in the recorades it should relate to the seasons and to special occasions Even in reference to the supple, where content should be the first concern, the only statement of purpose is that ”children should read for the joy of it” Unfortunately, thisthe schools of the nation How one reads has received an undue amount of attention; what one reads in the school courses e share of ti and valuable books for other educational purposes at the same ti is conized as an i is not thereby neglected It is given its proper function and relation, and can therefore be better taught

So far as one can see, Cleveland is atte work littleThe thirty-four per cent excess time may be justified by the city on the theory that the schools are coet the work done one-third better than in the average city The reading tests made by the Survey fail to reveal any such superiority The city appears to be getting no better than average results

Certainly people should read well and effectively in all ways in which they will be called upon to read in their adult affairs For the estions, and infors involved in their several callings; in connection with their civic problehtenazines, and books Most reading will be for the content It is desirable that the reading be easy and rapid, and that one gather in all the ideas as one reads Because of the fact that oral reading is slower, more laborious for both reader and listener, and because of the present easy accessibility of printedier should the central educational purpose be the develop

It should be rapid and effective silent reading for the sake of the thought read

To train an adult generation to read for the thought, schools ht in the ways in which later as adults they should read After the priht the ele for the sake of entering into as ht and experience as possible The work ought to be rather more extensive than intensive The chief end should be the develop which is so e While works of literary art should constitute a considerable portion of the reading prograraarded as the most iraphy, advance in the world of industry and applied science, discussions of social relations, political adjustments, etc, which adults need s that children for curriculum needs to be looked after in two i The texts beyond the prirades are now for the most part selections of literary art Very little of it has any conscious relation, immediate or remote, to present-day probleround Probably children should read many more selections of literary art than are found in the textbooks and the supplementary sets noned by the schools But certainly such cultural literary experience ought not to crowd out kinds of reading that are of s of serious importance in the everyday world of hu work of every school

It is true that the supplementary sets of books have been chosen chiefly for their content value Many are historical, biographical, geographical, scientific, civic, etc, in character On the side of content, they have advanced much farther than the textbooks tohat should constitute a proper reading course Unfortunately, the schools are very incompletely supplied with these sets If we consider all the sets of supplementary readers found in 10 or ned for fourth-grade reading are found in one-quarter of the buildings and none are in half of them The sarades Sorades are found in s, but there is none that is found in as reatly needed to i practice One learns to do a thing easily, rapidly, and effectively by practice The course of study in reading should therefore provide the opportunity for ate for the eight grades soht to read es per hour, and a graes per hour Since rapidity of reading is one of the desired ends, the practice reading should be rapid At thetexts ought to be read in some 80 hours

This is 10 hours' practice for each of the eight school years, an altogether insufficient a practice Of course the texts can be read twice, or let us say three ti 30 hours of practice per year But even this is not more than could easily be accomplished in two or three weeks of each of the years--always presuhtly adapted to the mental maturity of the pupils This leaves 35 weeks of the year unprovided for To s are furnished with supplee to supply entire classes The average nu table:

TABLE 2--SETS OF SUPPLEMENTARY READING BOOKS PER BUILDING

Grade Average number of sets 1 100 2 63 3 51 4 55 5 63 6 53 7 55 8 60

A fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth-grade student ought to be able to read all thetexts and all kinds of suppleht to do it easily in six weeks' work, without encroaching on recitation time

He can read all of it twice in 10 weeks; and three ti three times over, there still remain 24 weeks of each year unprovided for