Part 5 (2/2)

It is impossible, in the limited space at our disposal, to discuss coes in the high school One group of educators sturdily defends the traditional classical course, with its great eently insists that if any foreign languages are taught, they ht are profoundly sincere in their conflicting beliefs Each side is absolutely certain that it is right and is unalterably of the opinion that there is no other side of the question to be even so rees with its own side is based on reason; anything opposed is but ignorant prejudice Under the circumstances the disinterested outsider may well suspect that where there is so much sincerity and conviction, there must be much truth on both sides And undoubtedly this is the case

Latin is a living language in our country in that it provides half of our vocabulary Pupils ould know English well should have a good knowledge of this living Latin If the Latinists would shi+ft their ground to this living Latin and provideit fully and effectively forschools of thought round upon which all could stand with soree of comfort and toleration When Latin study of the character here suggested is devised, it ought to be opened up to the students of all courses as an elective, so that it could be taken by all ish a full appreciation and understanding of their seht to be required of the clerical students of the High School of Commerce In the meantime, however, all will have to wait until the Latinists have provided the plans and the lish course in the acadees are omitted entirely In the third and fourth years Gerives rise to several questions If the foreign language is studied si its literature--the only value of the course in the case of most who take it--why should not French be elective also? By far the largest of the world's literatures, outside of the English, is the French The Spanish has but a ss, belles-lettres is not one of the of these electives If one is to study a foreign language at all, it is usually thought best to begin earlier than the third year of the high school, so as to finish these siain time in the later years for the ment

DIFFERENTIATION OF COURSES

Courses of training based upon human needs should be diversified where conditions are diversified Uniform courses of study for all schools within a city were justifiable in a for only for needs that were common to all classes

But as needs have differentiated in our large industrial cities, courses of training must also beconized in organizing the work of the special schools and classes For all the regular elementary schools, however, a uniform course of study has been used Under the present administration, principals and teachers are nominally pere part of this freedos One is the use by the city of the plan of leaving textbooks to private purchase

For perfectly obvious reasons, so long as textbooks are privately purchased, a uniform series of textbooks must be definitely prescribed for the entire city Uniform textbooks do not necessarily enforce a uniform curriculum In usual practice, however, they do enforce it as completely as a prescribed uniform course of study manual As the schools of different sections of the city are allowed to experiment and to develop variations froreater freedo their courses

The second condition enforcing a uniform course of study in certain subjects is the use of uniforest here that it is possible to use supervisory exa them uniform for all schools Different types of school may well have different types of examination

Different social classes often exist within the same school

Administrative limitations probably must prevent the use of le elerades is departh schools are developed, it will becorades Those practically certain of going on to higher educational work requiring foreign languages and higher in these studies by the sixth or seventh grade On the other hand, those who are practically certain to drop out of school at the end of the grah school should have full opportunities for applied science, applied design, practical iene, vocational studies, etc When the necessary studies are once organized and departe for the necessary differentiation of courses in the same school

Finally, courses of study should provide for children of differing natural ability Extra materials and opportunities should be provided for children of large capacity; and abbreviated courses for those of less than norh schools this can be taken care of rather easily by perhter pupils to carry more studies than normal, and the backward ones a smaller nuanization with classes so large and with so s for the teachers to do, it is practically impossible to effect such desirable differentiations

SUMMARY

1 The fundamental social point of view of this discussion of the courses of study of the Cleveland schools is that effective teaching is preparation for adult life through participation in the activities of life

2 The schools of Cleveland devote far e city In too largetheand in the analytical study of the manner in which the words are coraphs The ht rather than the study of the construction

Through it the children should gain life-long habits of exploring, through reading, the great fields of history, industry, applied science, life in other lands, travel, invention, biography, and wholesome fiction To this end the work should be made more extensive and less intensive As an indispensable means toward this end the books should be supplied by the schools instead of being purchased by the parents

3 The teaching of spelling should aiive the pupils completeand it should instil in the as they write Drill on lists of isolated words should give way to practice in spelling correctly every word in everything written The dictionary habit should be cultivated, and every written lesson should be a spelling lesson

4 The tirae city The chief result of the work as done in Cleveland is to enable the pupil to recite well on textbook grammar and to pass exara the pupils a foundation acquaintance with forra need not be so extensive and intensive as at present The tiiven to oral and written expression in connection with the reading of history, geography, industrial studies, civics, sanitation, and the like Facility and accuracy in oral and written expression are developed through practice rather than through precept They are perfected through the conscious and unconscious ih the advanced study of technical grae is put to work is it really learned or assiives e city The content of courses in mathematics is to be detere isabout our vocations, civic problems, taxation, income, insurance, expenditures, public improvements, and thequantities

We need to think accurately and easily in quantities, proportions, for, like the teaching of pen tools to be used in matters that lie beyond The present course of study is of superior character, providing for efficient eles of little practical use The greatest i over into the other fields of school work and in applying it in other classes as well as in the arithmetic class In the advanced classesto the needs of different pupils Algebra should be more closely related to practical onometry

6 History receives e city The character of the work is really indicated by the last sentence of the eighth-grade history assignhly mastered” The work is too brief, abstract, and barren to help the pupils toward an understanding of the social, political, economic, and industrial problems hich we are confronted It should be a on social welfare topics This reading should be biographical, anecdotal, thrilling dramas of human achievee on the level with the understanding and degree ofcan be covered rapidly

7 In Cleveland, where there has been an alressive hu of civics in the public schools receives too little attention It is recommended that the principals and teachers make such a civic survey as thatthe topics that should enter into a gra should be atteiven in the higher grades