Part 5 (1/2)

The est of the child's surroundings consist of the things about him He lives in a world, a very little world to be sure, but to hih a study of geography Beginning with the geography of his native town (not with the basin of the Ganges) he can learn successively about the geography of the county, the state, the country, and then of the world

Surrounding the child on every hand are plants and anient interest in theeneral nature study y; and the forces of nature may be examined in astronomy, chemistry, and physics: but most of these subjects are too specialized for the eleh schools

There is a group of courses which belongs in every school--eleh school--namely, the courses which prepare children for life activity Growth and training in the art of living enable children to fulfill the third function of their being--that of doing Every man and every woman needs work in order to live, and it is a part of the duty of education to prepare them for that work

First of all, as modern society has developed, everytrade or occupation; hence it is the duty of the schools to provide trade and professional educations (really the sa under different names) No child should be permitted to leave the schools until he is proficient in so must be altered to suit the locality, but the principle is absolute

Further, since men should not devote their entire lives to the sae of occupation, the school should aim to provide an avocation, or secondary occupation, which riculture, art work, and civics will supply different people with occupations for spare time

Finally, since one of the chief duties of society is to insure a healthy and increasingly valuable supply of huh do for parenthood While this training should be given in a irls, and should include biology, hygiene, cheh the ele these lines that training should be given to every future housekeeper and mother

V What Schools Must Provide to Meet Child Needs

If, up to this point, we have rightly described child needs, the school rowth and play, for instructing the child in a knowledge of people, institutions, things and ideas, and for preparing every child to do his work in life

These subjects rades that each child has the benefit of theh school is a continuation of the eleh school that children should begin to specialize, because specialization before the beginning of adolescence is undesirable; but since, in many localities, alh school, these subjects s every childto drop school at fourteen, as three-quarters of the American school children do, he oes to high school he iven an opportunity to complete and intensify the education which the elementary school has started

We believe that these fundamental principles of education are sufficiently flexible to fit any community in the United States; they will apply to places of the ent school needs

VI The Educational Work of the S the schee of three thousand inhabitants, a typical industrial coe more than nine-tenths of the children leave school at or before fourteen years of age, so that whatever school training they get es of six and fourteen

The kind of activities that the children will take up in life is fixed by the custoo into the irls help around the home until they marry A small number work in stores and factories

The life is rather primitive; the houses are set far apart; the children have an abundance of play space; they are required to do chores in ho The town affords an unparalleled opportunity to learn nasty things in a nasty way

Almost all of the educational work in such a town h school facilities ly se of the children

The eleaanized sports for the older ones; a sufficient a to insure robust bodies; careful instruction in physiology, body hygiene, and sex hygiene; sih preparation in the reading and writing of English; the fundaraphy with particular reference to the geographic conditions in the immediate locality; civics and history--particularly Alish and American literature; a , ; an extensive system of nature study, supplemented by field trips

This course should be required of boys and girls alike In addition to these studies the boys in a coal-y, particularly in the ion in which the , and shop work; and a sufficient training in agriculture to enable the is one of the chief avocations of men in such a co for boys the schools should provide for girls a thorough course in domestic science, with particular e, and an education for parenthood, including hygiene, dietetics, psychology, and nursing

Such a course of study given in a typical e would tend to irls educated, trained mothers To be sure this course would not make of the boys railroad presidents or United States senators; but even that is not a drawback because, incredible as it may sound to many old-fashi+oned ears, the vast majority of these boys will be miners and ood miners or bad ones? United States senatorshi+ps bother them not a whit

If there are, as there alill be in such a village, a few exceptional children who desire more advanced work, the teacher can do exactly what he does now--naive them special instruction

Such an educational syste in the teachers, and an additional outlay for tools and school-rooe to live their lives effectively

The e educational problem is rendered especially easy of solution because the community is small in size, and because there are only two occupations, o