Part 2 (2/2)

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 16: Portions of this chapter originally appeared in The Journal of Education]

[Footnote 17: ”The Education of Man,” F Froebel Translated by W N Halliman, New York; D Appleton & Co 1909, p 103]

[Footnote 18: Ibid, p 187]

CHAPTER II

TEACHING BOYS AND GIRLS

I The New School Machinery

The influence which the industrial changes of the past hundred years has had on education is considerable With the transformation of the home workshop into the factory has coreat industrial cities and towns The introduction of specialized machinery has placed upon education the burden of vocational training More imented the size of the educational problem that an intricate system of school machinery has been devised to keep the whole in order

The rural, or village, school was a one or two-roo a handful of pupils Aside from matters of discipline, the administration of the school was scarcely a problem General superintendents, associate superintendents, co departments were unknown The school was a simple, personal business conducted by the teacher in very rocer conducted his store--on faith and rowth of cities and towns necessitated the introduction of elaborate school machinery In place of a score of pupils, thousands, tens, and even hundreds of thousands were placed under the saeneral authority City life made some for size of the school syste cities the school systerowth of the population,--leads to increase in class size A school of twenty pupils is still corades of Aators find fifty, sixty, and in soe of one teacher, while the average number, per teacher, is about forty

Recrirowth in school population is greater than the rate of growth in the school plant The schools in ht up with their educational problem The result is a multiplication of administrative problems, not the least of which is the question of class size

II Rousseau Versus a Class of Forty

A toilsome journey it is from the education of an individual child by an individual teacher (Rousseau's Emile) to the education of forty children by one teacher (the normal class in American elementary city schools)

Rousseau pictured an ideal; we face a reality--co

The difference between Rousseau's ideal and the modern actuality is more serious than it appears superficially Rousseau's idea permitted the teacher to treat the child as an individuality, studying the traits and peculiarities of the pupil, building up where weakness appeared, and directing freakish notions and ideas into conventional channels The modern city school with one teacher and forty pupils places before the teacher a constant temptation, which at ti necessity, to treat the group of children as if each child were like all the rest A teacher who can individualize forty children, understand the peculiarities of each child, and teach in a way that will enable each of the children to benefit fully by her instruction, is indeed a master, perhaps it would be fairer to say a super-y A class of forty is alroup

There is another feature about the large school system which is even more disastrous to the welfare of the individual child Rousseau studied the individual to be educated, and then prescribed the course of study

The city teacher, no matter how intimately she may be acquainted with the needs of her children, has little or no say in deciding upon the subjects which she is to teach her class Such roup of officials--principals, superintendents, and boards of education,--all of whoed primarily in adht at all, nor entered a psychological laboratory, nor engaged in any other occupation that would give first-hand, practical, or theoretical knowledge of the proble a course of study

A course of study h soe of the points at issue

The method by which it is devised is of peculiar importance to this discussion The ade child, prepare a course of study which will e child's needs Theoretically, the plan is admirable It suffers froe child

III The Fallacious ”Average”

Averages are peculiarly te to Americans They supply the same deeply-felt want in statistics that headlines do in newspapers They tell the story at a glance In this peculiar case the story is necessarily false

An average e the figures 3, 4, and 8 by adding thee is 5 Such a process isthe 3, 4, and 8 are exactly alike One of the premises of matheed

Unlike mathematical units, all children are different They differ in physical, in mental, and in spiritual qualities Their hair is different in color and in texture Their feet and hands vary in size So, and still others at both subjects Soation,--an active conscience,--others have little or no moral stamina No two children in a family are alike, and no two children in a school-room are alike After an elaborate coists announce that the chance of any two hu exactly alike is one in five septillions In silish, it is quite remote