Part 1 (1/2)
The Reconstructed School
by Francis B Pearson
PREFACE
In our school processes there are htful people On the other hand, there are many variables which should be subjected to close scrutiny to the end that they est possible returns upon the investment of time and effort These phases of school procedure constitute the real problees represent an effort to point the way toward larger and better results in the realeneral, the aims and purposes of the worker determine the quality of the work done If, therefore, this voluoals of their endeavors, it will have accomplished its purpose--FBP
THE RECONSTRUCTED SCHOOL
CHAPTER ONE
A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE TASK BEFORE THE SCHOOL
When people co begets unison in action It is often said that the rown to resemble each other; but the resemblance is probably in actions rather than in looks; the fact is that they have had cohout the ether and so have come to act in unison The wise teacher often adjusts difficult situations in her school by inducing the pupils to think toward a cooal In their zeal for a coet their differences and attain unison in action as the result of their unison in thinking The school superintendent knows full well that if he can bring teachers, pupils, and parents to think toward a cooal, he will soon have unity of action When people catch step mentally, they do the sa the paths of their coe until, in ti side by side in aer world outside the school, co and consequent unity of action The pastor finds it one of his larger tasks to establish a focus for the thinking of his people in order to induce concerted action If the enterprise is one of charity, the neighbors soon find theood will In the zest of a coht in working with people whose society they once avoided They can now do teah and worthy goal; lines of demarcation are obliterated and spirits blend in a common purpose Unity of action beco becomes unified
Cooperation follows close upon the heels of coreat cala-established animosities disappear in the zeal for beneficent action In the case of fire or flood people are at one in their actions because they are thinking toward the coether only when they think together Indeed, cooperation is an i Herein lies the efficacy of leadershi+p It is the province of the leader to induce unity of thinking, to ani that united action will certainly ensue If he can cause the thinking of people to center upon a focal point, he establishes his claim to leadershi+p
What is true of individuals is true, also, of nations Before they can act in concert, they must think in concert, and, to do this, they oals If, to illustrate, all nations should cooal of de theovernment would coain, if all nations of the world should set up the quality of courage as one of the objectives of their thinking they would be drawn closer together in their feelings and in their conduct If the parents and teachers of all these nations should strive to exorcise fear in the training of children, this purpose would constitute a bond of syed by the reflection that this high purpose was anie, of course, is of the spirit and typifies h grade It is quite conceivable that these qualities of the spiritin all lands Thus the nations would be brought into a relation of closer harmony Had a score of boys shared the experience of the lad who grew into the likeness of the Great Stone Face, their differences and disparities would have disappeared in the zeal of a coanization in thinking toward the saoal
We cannot hope to achieve the brotherhood of man until the nations of the world have directed their thinking toward the saoals shall be h the process of education When we think in unison we are taken out of ourselves and becooal tohich we are thinking If ere to agree upon courage as one of the spiritual qualities that should characterize all nations and organize all educational forces for the develop closer to one another with this quality as a coives freedom, and in this freedom the nations would touch spiritual elbows and would thus beco and developing this and other spiritual qualities the nations would beco and actions would surely ensue Since love is the greatest thing in the world, this qualityof all nations shall be directed When all peoples cooal, hatred and strife will be banished and peace and righteousness will be enthroned in the hearts of men When there has been developed in all the nations of the earth an ardent love for the true, the beautiful, and the good, civilization will step up to a higher level and we shall see the dawn of unity
We who are indulging in dreae our concept of society before we can hope to have our dreams come true It is a far cry from society as a strictly A of our schools has had a distinct tendency to restrict our notion of society to that within our own national boundaries
In this we convict ourselves of provincialiser than America, or China, or Russia, or all the islands of the sea in co at the mental leash to win this concept of society, but it must be won as a condition precedent to a fair and just estimate of what the function of education really is and what it is of which the schoolhouseall nations, tribes, and tongues In our thinking, the word ”society” est the hut that nestles on the mountain-side as well as the palace that fronts the stately boulevard It est the cape that indents the sea as well as the vast plain that stretches out froest the toiler at his task, the eer on the ocean, the soldier in the ranks, the child at his lessons, and theher baby to sleep
We descant volubly upon the subjects of citizenshi+p and civilization but, as yet, have achieved no adequate definition of either of the terms upon which we expatiate so fluently Our books teem with admonitions to train for citizenshi+p in order that we may attain civilization of better quality But, in all this, we imply American citizenshi+p and Aain, we show forth our provincialism But even in this restricted field we arrive at our hazy concept of a good citizen by the process of eliood citizen does not do this and does not do that; yet the teachers in our schools would find it difficult to describe a good citizen adequately, in positive terue and misty and, therefore, our concept of civilization is equally so
Granting, however, that we may finally achieve satisfactory definitions of citizenshi+p and civilization as applying to our own country, it does not follow that the saood citizen according to the Chinese conception ood citizen in the United States Topography, climate, associations, occupations, traditions, and racial tendenciesa definition Before we can gain a right concept of good citizenshi+p as a world affair we , we may have occasion to modify and correct some of our own preconceived notions and thus extend the horizon of our education
What society is and should be in the world at large; what good citizenshi+p is and ought to be in the whole world; and what civilization is, should be, and may be as a world enterprise--these considerations are the foundation stones upon which we must build the temple of education now in the process of reconstruction Otherwise the ill be narrow, illiberal, spasmodic, and sporadic It must be possible to arrive at a common denominator of the concepts of society, citizenshi+p, and civilization as pertaining to all nations; it must be possible to contrive a composite of all these concepts to which all nations will subscribe; and it must be possible to discover some fundamental principles that will constitute a focal point tohich the thinking of all nations can be directed Once this focal point is deter of the world focused upon it, the work of reconstruction has been inaugurated
But the task is not a simple one by anyin its scope However difficult the task, it is, none the less, altogether alluring and worthy It is quite within the range of possibilities for a book to be written, even a textbook, that would serve a useful purpose and meet a distinct need in the schools of all lands At this point the question of languages obtrudes itself When people think in unison a coe is reduced to the plane of a mere convenience, not a necessity The buyer and the seller e but, somehow, they contrive to effect a satisfactory adjust is centered upon the sa becomes cosmopolitan, conduct becomes equally so If this be conceded, then it is quite within the range of possibilities to formulate a course of study for all the schools of the world, if only we set up as goals the qualities that willof people in all lands True, the means may differ in different lands, but, even so, the ends will remain constant A thousand people may set out from their homes with Rome as their destination They will use all es as they journey forward, but their destination continues constant and they will use the best oal Similarly, if we set up the quality of loyalty as one of our educational goals, the e and, therefore, the nations will be actuated by a common purpose in their educational endeavors
The one thing needful for the execution of this a is to have in our schools teachers who are world-minded, who think in world units Such teachers, and only such, can plan for world education and world affairs, and bring their plans to a successful issue Some teachers see; others of a town or townshi+p; still others of a state; so A person can be no larger than his unit of thinking One who thinks in small units convicts himself of provincialisates to himself superiority and inclines to feel somewhat conte If he thinks his restricted horizon bounds all that is worth knowing, he will not exert hiain a wider view He is disdainful and intolerant of whatever lies beyond his horizon, and his attitude, if not his words, repeats the question of the culpable Cain, ”Am I my brother's keeper?” He is encased in an armor that is impervious to ordinary appeal He is satisfied with himself and asks merely to be let alone He is quite content to be held fast bound in his traditionalof sympathy for the world as a whole
The reverse side of the picture reveals the teacher who is world-nanimous; intolerance has no place in his scheress toward light and right; and he is interested in all world progress whether in science, in art, in literature, in economics, in industry, or in education To this end he is careful to inform himself as to world movements and notes with keen interest the trend and develop a world-citizen himself, he strives, in his school work, to develop in his pupils the capacity and the desire for world-citizenshi+p With no abatehness in the work of his school, he still finds time to look up from his tasks to catch the view beyond his own national boundaries If the superintendent who is world-minded has the hearty cooperation of teachers who are also world-ether they will be able to develop a plan of education that is world-wide To produce teachers of this type may require a readjust schools to the end that the teachers they send forth may measure up to the requirements of this world-wide concept of education But these institutions can hardly hope to be immune to the process of reconstruction They can hardly hope to cite the past as a guide for the future, for traditional lines are being obliterated and new lines are being er and newer import
CHAPTER TWO
THE PAST AS RELATED TO THE PRESENT