Part 3 (2/2)
Mathee child So raphy While subject matter coned to e conditions is a possibility
The moment, however, that the schools cease to teach subjects and begin to teach boys and girls, such a proceeding is out of the question
The terouped by hundreds and thousands, to allow the detail of administration to overtop the functions of education is often irresistible The teacher with forty pupils learns to look upon her pupils as units The superintendent and principals, seeking ardently for an overburdened co else to the perfection of the s, child individuality has only the barest chance for survival
VII The Vicious Practices of One ”Good” School
There are school systerown child welfare, in which pedagogy has usurped the place of teaching In such systems the teacher teaches the prescribed course of study, whether or no The officers of ad at some mechanical ideal, shape the schools to meet the requirements of system
The proneness of some teachers and school administrators alike to overemphasize mechanics, and to underemphasize the welfare of individual children is well illustrated in a recent state of a first-hand investigation made in a city in the Northeast, describes a condition which he says ”I know by fairly authoritative reports does exist in a considerable number of cities and towns--not enerally and characteristically
”In the city to which I definitely refer,” Dr Chancellor continues, ”I found that the interrade teachers had systematically, deliberately, and successfully sacrificed hundreds of boys and girls upon the altar of exaood schools They have been so anxious to have good schools that they have kept an average of 20 per cent of their pupils one grade lower than they belong In soe runs to above 35 per cent
”Some teachers and some school superintendents cannot see that the school is siirls; cannot see that the machine in itself is worthless save as it contributes to hue the souls and bodies of hues their souls when the75 per cent in every subject, keep boys and girls in grae”[19] Dr
Chancellor continues with a stinging arraignment of school officials who sacrifice children to syste chord in the experiences of alow, and, with a troubled face, spoke of his daughter's ill-health
”She is not sick,” he said, ”but just ailing These first May days have taken her appetite She needs the country air”
The daughter was a dear little girl of twelve--any one ht have envied the father of his treasure--and we offered to keep her with us for a o over her school ith her every day
The father accepted our proposal on the spot, but two days later he caements
”It cannot be done,” he explained, ”because the school will not let her off I told the principal about e of a month in the country with her school work carefully supervised Her school is rather crowded, and as I want her to go on with her class in the autue to keep her place for her In reply he said,--
”'I cannot do as you wish Such cases as yours interfere seriously with the working of the school'”
VIII Boys and Girls--The One Object of Educational Activity
Perhaps our language was not as temperate as it should have been, but we told that father so which ould fain repeat until every educator and every parent in the United States has heard it and written it on the tables of his heart,--
THE ONE OBJECT OF EDUCATION IS TO assIST AND PREPARE CHILDREN TO LIVE
Why have we established a billion-dollar school system in the United States? Is it to pay teachers' salaries, to build new school houses, and to print text-books by the s are incidents of school business, but they are no more reason for the school's existence than fertilizer and seed are reasons for arden
Gardens are cultivated in order to secure plants and flowers; the school organization of which Americans so often boast exists to educate children
”Of course,” you exclaim, ”we knew that before” Did you? Then as hter's health and the disarrangement of a bit of school machinery? Why is Dr
Chancellor able to describe a situation existing ”generally and characteristically,” in which the welfare of children is bartered away for high proes? The truth is that society still tolerates, and often accepts, the belief that the purpose of education is the formation of a school system We have yet to learn that, to use Herbert Spencer's phrase, the object of education is the preparation of children for co
Education exists for the purpose of preparing and assisting children to live To do that work effectively, it must devote only so much effort to school administration and to school irls that very effective service