Part 26 (2/2)
THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW EDUCATION
I The Standard of Education
The educational experi chapters are replete with the spirit of the New Education From the virile educational systeainst traditional formalism School ht Each concept, each auntlet of critical analysis It is not sufficient to allege in support of an educational principle that the results derived from its application have been satisfactory in the past Insistently the question is repeated, ”What are its effects upon the problems of to-day?”
Educational ancestor worshi+p is no ressive spirit of the Western World than is ancestor worshi+p in any other form
The past hasit For the contribution the present is grateful, but it must steadfastly refuse in its own name, and in the name of the future, to be bound by any decree of the past which will not stand the acid test of present experience
The old education was beset by traditionalism Under its dominance, education, defined once and for all, was established as a standard to which es along the straight path to knowledge, ht, with perfect confidence, admonish them, ”Lo here, the three R's is education,” or ”Lo there, Greek and higherhad been in the three R's or in Greek In either case he felt certain of his general ground Once and for all the educational standard had been set By that standard new ideas were judged, and either justified or condemned
Under this predetermined scheme there was a for bread or pickling pork The formula was applied to each child who presented himself to the administration If the formula worked successfully the child was declared educated in the same way that pork which has been successfully treated by the proper processes is declared to be pickled If the formula did not work the child was not educated He sat in school with a dunce-cap upon his head, or else played hookey and spent his hours in fishi+ng, swi
Perhaps, in view of the recent contributions of science, it would beto say that the old education inoculated the child with a predetermined educational virus If the virus ”took” the child was declared inorance, illiteracy, stupidity and other prevalent social complaints If the virus did not take the schoolmaster ostentatiously washed his hands of the recreant
II Standardization Was a Failure
Only one argu the educational problem--it did not work In the first place, the most brilliant school successes often turned out to be the most arrant life failures, while the school derelicts frequently beca man the inference was plain; the formula was not an unqualified success Not only was this true of the children ent through school, but there were crowds of children for whom the school held no attraction whatever They attended a few sessions, wasted a scant bit of energy in educational effort, and then dropped out, hopeless of obtaining results by further ”study”
The old education read out of the school those children who could not benefit by its teachings How utterly different the concept which has gripped the uidance education has become what Herbert Spencer called it--a preparation for coer a fixed, objective standard, education has been recognized as an enlargeirl in the community ”Teach us individual needs,” proclairessives, ”and ill tell you what the character of education must be”
Thus has education ceased to be an objective standard, created by one age and handed down rigidly i Instead it is accepted as a fulfilment--a coarded as a process oflife and character
The chief difference between the old and the new education is that the old education made a mold, and then forced the child to fit thethe character of child needs, and then fits the mold to the needs The old education was like the farmer who built a corn-sheller, and then attempted to find ears of corn which would fit into the sheller; the new education is like the farmer who first measured the corn and then built his sheller to fit the corn The old education selected the class which was able to conform to its requirements; the new education serves all classes
III Education as Growth
Under the iiven to it by rowth, rather than the application of a for creature It has becouide the development
Nor do the modern schools consider mental developrowth is an equally essential part of child life Therefore the direction of physical growth becomes just as vital a part of the educational rowth require like emphasis Each phase of child life receives independent consideration
The old education throughway before the new education through physical, mental and spiritual expression Expression is the essence of growth; and since the school is to foster child growth it must place child expression in a place of paramount importance
Child needs, rather than abstract standards, have thus become the basis of school activity The old education developed its course of study by surveying the interests of adults, and picking fro them those, apparently the most simple, which were fit for children The new education applies the laboratoryits other findings, the quite evident fact that children enter into life as whole-heartedly as adults; that the field of their interest lies, not in the left-over problems of older people, but in their own problems and processes; and that therefore the educatorof the child and child needs
There is in the world a phenomenon called adult life, with its phases, problems and ideals There is likewise in the world a phenomenon called child life, with its phases, proble of either h a study of the other
Child needs exist separate from and different from adult needs It is the business of the new education to understand the the ears of the modern educator: the first, the appeal of the child; the second, the appeal of the community The appeal of the child is an appeal for the opportunity of developing all of its faculties Physically, children grow The school, recognizing this fact, is orous effort to break the shell of custom, which has confined its activities to purely intellectual pursuits, and provide a physical training which will lead the school child to perfect norrowth of nizing the iht, rather than a passive storehouse for inforrowth is beco importance in the new education Above all, the aesthetic side of child life is being expanded in an effort to round out a completed adulthood
IV Child Needs and Conition of child needs, which forral a part of the new education, is paralleled by a siressive educator is laying aside for ahimself the pertinent question: ”What should the community expect in return for the annual expenditure of a billion dollars on public education?” What are community needs if not the needs for manhood and womanhood? They are well summed up in three words--virility, efficiency, citizenshi+p Possessed of those attributes a group of individuals rounds itself inevitably into a vigorous, progressive community They are normal qualities which a people must demand if their social standards are to be maintained Since they constitute so vital an element in social life, a community lavish in its expenditures for schools may surely expect the school product to be virile, efficient, worthy citizens The new education, recognizing the justice of this de out insistently for social, as well as individual, training in the school