Part 2 (1/2)
The schools devote about the usual a for the correct use of the rades is devoted to English grammar Composition receives only minor attention
TABLE 6--TIME GIVEN TO LANGUAGE, COMPOSITION, AND GRAMMAR ======================================================== | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time |-----------------------|------------------------ Grade | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities -------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 79 | 75 | 109 | 86 2 | 95 | 79 | 108 | 87 3 | 79 | 94 | 90 | 103 4 | 104 | 106 | 118 | 109 5 | 120 | 116 | 136 | 120 6 | 120 | 118 | 136 | 122 7 | 125 | 134 | 143 | 137 8 | 125 | 142 | 143 | 141 ======================================================== Total | 847 | 864 | 123 | 114 --------------------------------------------------------
In the teaching of grammar too much stress is placed on fore will be of service to the pupils in their everyday expression But such practical application of the knowledge is not the thing tohich the work actually looks The end really achieved is rather the ability to recite well on textbook graood exa atte done in a relatively effective way And when judged in the light of the kind of education considered best 20 years ago, the work is of a superior character
As a matter of fact, facility in oral and written expression is, like everything else, h much practice The forh the conscious and unconscious irammar plays, or should play, the relativelystudents to elirammar has this perfectly practical function to perforht; but ht should be constantly put to use by the pupils in their oversight of their own speech and writing Only as knowledge is put to work, is it really learned or assimilated The schools should require much oral and written expression of the pupils, and should enforce constant watchfulness of their own speech on the part of the pupils It is possible to require pupils to go over all of their written work and to exarammatical rules they have learned It is also possible for pupils to guard consciously against known types of error which they are accustomed to make in their oral recitations Every recitation in whatever subject provides opportunity for such training in habits of watchfulness Only as the pupil is brought to do it hi on the part of the teacher, is his education accora is a necessary preliminary step The purpose is an introductory acquaintance with certain basic forrammatical perspective This should be accomplished rapidly Like the prelie of the ill be relatively superficial Fullness and depth of understanding will co can not be learned ”incidentally” Such a plan fails on the side of perspective and relationshi+p, which are precisely the things in which the preparatory teaching of the subject should be strong
This prelirammar need not be either so extensive or so intensive as it is at present An altogether disproportionate ao to oral and written expression,--coht call it, except that the word has been spoiled because of the artificiality of the exercises
The composition or expression most to be reco in connection with history, geography, industrial studies, civics, sanitation, etc; and reports of observations on related matters in the community Topics of interest and of value are practically numberless Such reports will usually be oral; but often they will be written Expression occurs naturally and nor to be discussed
The present es in trees, disseration of birds, snow, ice, clouds, trees, leaves, and flowers” This type of coram under present conditions cannot be a vital one Eleht in the schools of Cleveland; and so the subject matter of these topics is not developed Further, it is the world of huraphy, travels, accounts of industry, comreater value for the purposes of education, as well as far greater interest for the student
Probably little tiram for composition The expression side of all the school work, both in the eleive the necessary practice The technical ht in occasional periods set aside for that specific purpose
The isolation of the coh schools and in considerable degree through the technical high schools also In the high schools the expression work probably needs to be developed chiefly in the classes in science, history, industrial studies, coraphy, physics, etc, where the students have an abundance of things to discuss Probably four-fifths of all of the training in English expression in the high schools should be accomplished in connection with the oral and written work of the other subjects
MATHEMATICS
To arither proportion of tie of cities
TABLE 7--TIME GIVEN TO ARITHMETIC =========================================================== | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time| Grade |----------------------------------------------- | Cleveland | 50 cities| Cleveland | 50 cities | ----------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 38 | 60 | 52 | 69 | 2 | 136 | 96 | 155 | 107 | 3 | 142 | 131 | 163 | 144 | 4 | 152 | 149 | 172 | 154 | 5 | 142 | 144 | 171 | 149 | 6 | 155 | 146 | 175 | 150 | 7 | 142 | 140 | 161 | 144| 8 | 158 | 142 | 179 | 141 | =========================================================== Total | 1065 | 1008 | 155 | 133 | -----------------------------------------------------------
That everybody should be well grounded in the fundamental operations of arithmetic is so obvious as to require no discussion Beyond this point, however, difficult problems arise The probabilities are that the social and vocational conditions of the coeneration will require that everybody be more mathematical-minded than at present
The content of mathematics courses is to be determined by hue upon which we are now entering is accurate quantitative thinking in the fields of one's vocation, in the supervision of our overn with reference to taxation, expenditures, insurance, public utilities, civic improvements, pensions, corporations, and the multitude of other civic and vocational ht involved in physics, astrono needs to be put in mathematical terms in order that it may be used effectively, so must it be with effective vocational, civic, and econoeneral Our chief need is not so much the ability to do calculations as it is the ability to think in figures and the habit of thinking in figures Calculations, while indispensable, are incidental to more important matters
Naturally before one is prepared to usethe many social and vocational problems, he must have mastered the fundae as practicable, should certainly give the necessary prelie of and practice in the fundamental operations of arithhness, but it should always be kept in mind that this is only a preli The other part of our problem is a development of the quantitative aspects of the vocational, econonition of this in Cleveland in the new arith quotations are typical:
”The irades is to enable the pupils to understand and deal intelligently with the most important social institutions hich arith the teaching of the mathe to the important place this subject holds in life, we should emphasize its informational value rather than its matheeneral features of this subject are presented from the standpoint of civics, the pupils should have no difficulty in solving the problems as no new principle is introduced”
Under stocks and bonds: ”Pupils should be taught to knohat a corporation is, its chief officers, how it is organized, what stocks and bonds are, and how dividends are declared and paid, in so far as such knowledge is needed by the general public”
These statenition of the most important principle that should control in the development of all of the mathematics, ele needed for accuracy and rapidity in the fundah to its logical conclusion, it will be observed that most of these developments will not take place within the arithmetic class, but in the various other subjects
Arith of pen tools that are to be used in matters that lie beyond The full development will take place within these various other fields For the present, it probably will be well for the schools to develop the matters both within the arith complete at present, each will tend to complete the other
On the side of the preli in the fundamental operations, the present arithmetic course of study is on the whole of a superior character It provides for reat variety of drill It emphasizes rapidity, accuracy, and the confidence that co up their results It holds fast to fundas of little practical use It provides easy advances from the simple to the coreat variety of directions so that pupils are e defect is the lack of printed exercise reatly increased effectiveness Such printed reat abundance