Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

EDITORIAL COMMENT

BY PROFESSOR M. V. O'SHEA, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.

THE OFFICE OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT. Elsewhere in this issue of the Journal mention is made of those who have declared themselves as

candidates for the office of state superintendent. It is probable that this announcement will be of unusual interest to every teacher in the state. With us the state superintendent exercises tremendous influence for good or ill upon every phase of our educational work. Logically he is at the head of the entire educational system. He is a member of the governing boards of the University and the normal schools; and by means of his control of public school funds, his appointment of institute instructors, and the like, he could be a czar in secondary and elementary education. His opportunities for good or for harm are well-nigh unlimited. Of course, no man would deliberately imperil the usefulness of any of our schools; but through indifference or hostility toward desirable reforms, or through unduly magnifying measures of minor importance, he might easily retard our development, or swing us off on a tangent to our very great disadvantage. On the other hand, we have had a chance to see that a man of insight and courage and strength, and endowed with the qualities which enable him to gain the confidence and good will of men, can keep this great commonwealth moving forward along the right lines, leading the sisterhood of states educationally.

The office of state superintendent in Wisconsin is of greater importance and dignity than that of any other state in this country, with two or three exceptions. The salary attached to the office is larger than it is in most states, and it is more than the majority of schoolmen in any position receive. The incumbent of the office is now practically independent of malicious political meddling; and he plays a tremendously important part in deter

No. 1

mining the curriculum and methods of teaching in the schools, alike of low and of high degree. As already intimated, his influence radiates into every phase of our educational work. How absolutely essential it is then that the state superintendent should be a man of broad experience educationally, an intelligent student of modern education, and that he should know how to secure the embodiment of contemporary ideals in the practical work of teaching from the rural school upward. He should know what is going on outside the confines of this state, to the end that he may draw upon the experience of the world for the betterment of conditions here. He should be a man free from personal jealousies, so that he may utilize the abilities of every man and woman among us who can in any way advance the educational interests of the state. It is of special importance that he should not be an autocrat, ready to stifle any progressive movement which he has not himself initiated, or of which he is not the conspicuous director.

A TIME FOR TEACHERS TO ACT. Which of the gentlemen who have announced themselves will meet these requirements most effectively? It is not proper that this Journal should intrude its own opinion upon its readers. Teachers ought freely to discuss the merits of the candidates; but it is manifestly unprofessional for any teacher to try to buldoze another into lending. his influence and support to a particular candidate who is favored for mere personal reasons. Perhaps one might not inappropriately support a man for president of a teachers' club, say, because he is a personal friend; but there can be no justification whatever for such action in reference to a state superintendent. The continual educational development of this state is of supreme importance, alike to teachers and to laymen, and the best avail

able man must. be chosen for this great task. In view of no other considerations can a teacher conscientiously use his influence for one or another of the candidates for this office.

But teachers should play the principal rôle in determining who shall be the chief educational officer in this state. They should be active in shaping the opinion of men in their respective communities. They ought carefully, and without prejudice, to study the personal qualities and the work of the gentlemen who will solicit their suffrage; and when they are assured that one man more than any other will measure up to the requirements of the office, they should pitch in and work for him. The office of state superintendent is now practically out of politics, and no teacher can be accused of pernicious activity if he does what he can in his community to enlighten people with respect to the relative merits of the candidates. therefor. It would be nothing less than weakness for teachers to sit back and let men who are not engaged in education settle this matter. Without doubt there will be busybodies who know nothing about education, but who will be very ready with and insistent upon their opinions, simply because they cannot resist the temptation to boss the job when an office is to be filled. But this one office should belong primarily to those who work in the schools, and who know better than anyone else what the qualities of a state superintendent should be. It will be no virtue but rather a shortcoming in a teacher to keep still and let barbarians determine public sentiment in respect to this vital question.

THE AGITATOR IN THE SCHOOLS.

It is in a way a compliment to our schools that every apostle of reform wishes to get access to our pupils. There is coming to this office constantly requests that the editor should urge teachers to advocate this or that cause in their classrooms. Teachers themselves are constantly besieged by enthusiasts to permit them to preach their various gospels in the schools. Even dull observers of human nature realize that the schools have the care of individuals during the most impressionable period of their lives. When men and women have become mature it is difficult, if not impossible, for them to adjust themselves to new views of life, and adopt new modes of conduct. They don't take kindly to suggestions regarding modifications in

such commonplace matters even as diet or sanitation or anything of the kind. When you propose simple reforms of this sort to them, they respond by saying that they were brought up in the old ways, and they got along very well; and what was good enough for them is good enough for their children. The average adult is hostile to "newfangled ways," no matter what they may be if they require him to readjust his ideas or his actions.

But it is altogether different during the plastic years of life. The young are by nature more inclined to follow new than old routes. It is one of nature's methods of securing progress, that the young should be eager to break with tradition, and strike out along new lines. If now this innovating disposition could be wisely guided in the schools genuine progress would be facilitated in the sanest and most effective way. From one point of view, the school exists for the purpose of presenting suitable nourishment to individuals during their innovating period; and it is right and proper that reforms of genuine value should be made most prominent in the schools. Take, for example, the war on tuberculosis. The schools everywhere should be open to competent men and women who can impress the young with the necessity for sanitary living. Take again, the crusade against patent medicine, against intemperance, and the like; it is eminently desirable that advocates of these reforms should be freely admitted to the schools.

But there are many cranks among us who are promoting schemes which are of no consequence in human life. They simply afford an opportunity for people who are good for nothing else to stir up the wind, and thus keep themselves in the public eye. Some of those who are busiest about us, hurrahing for this or that "cause," are genuine nuisances when they break into the school, and try to impress their vagaries upon the young. Teachers should stand between their pupils and mere scattered-brained agitators who, through not being steadied by an effort to do some definite task that the world needs done at the moment, fly into hysterics on the slightest provocation. In any plastic society like our own, there are sure to be cranks as well as genuine reformers, and it is not easy at first glance to tell them apart; but it is the sacred duty of a teacher to try to discriminate them and to safeguard his pupils against the malevolent in

fluence of mere agitators, while he must give every slaughter. It will sound commonplace to many to opportunity to the true reformer.

OVERSTRAIN IN THE SCHOOLS.

In one of the leading high-schools in this state the strenuous ideal is carried to the limit. The pupils are all required to be in their seats ready for the day's work at 8:30 o'clock A. M. The first heat lasts from 8:30 until 12:30 without a break. It requires a minute or two for the classes to pass from one recitation room to another; but otherwise some pupils hardly stand on their feet during the course of four hours. In certain cases pupils sit continuously for two hours. The school authorities acknowledge that this does not seem to be quite right from a physical standpoint; but they say they cannot plan the day's program so as to provide for intermissions, and accomplish all that is required of them in the regular work. The school is a large one, and the machinery required to keep it running smoothly is, of course, very complex, so it seems that the welfare of individual pupils must be sacrificed to some extent in order that the thing as a whole may be kept from going to pieces.

Throughout the civilized world today there is a deepening conviction on the part of physicians, educationists, and intelligent laymen that the school makes too heavy inroads upon the nervous energy of its pupils. In every progressive country the more observing people are aroused over what seems to be a grave danger to the nervous health and stability of the rising generation. Congresses of local, national, and international scope are calling upon the proper authorities to give more attention to the physical welfare of the children committed to their care. With scarcely an exception the physicians of Germany, England and America, who have expressed themselves upon the subject, declare that a large proportion of children in modern life are suffering from nervous overstrain.

NOT LESS WORK, BUT LESS WASTE.

Now, it is not at all certain that the typical high-school is requiring more intellectual work of a student than he ought to do, if only he could do it in the most economical way. But to keep any one, especially an adolescent boy or girl, continuously at work for four hours, sitting practically all the time in poorly ventilated and lighted rooms and in ill-adjusted seats is the next thing to man

say that economy and efficiency would be promoted by breaking up this four-hour stretch into four periods with ten minute's freedom between each. Investigations made at home and abroad warrant one in asserting that more can be accomplished with greater freshness and interest and less fatigue in relatively short periods of concentrated work than in long unbroken periods, when pupils remain in one attitude most of the time. An immature organism cannot well endure a four-hour period of continuous application to anything. Young pupils certainly cannot react effectively to educative stimulation under such a régime. It is not advocated that the amount of work required of pupils be lessened, but only that the conditions under which this work is done be determined with due regard to the nature of high-school pupils, and the principles of mental economy and hygiene.

PRACTICABLE REMEDIES.

In the school referred to above there is a wellequipped gymnasium; and it would be a simple matter so to organize the school that every pupil would have twenty minutes of gymnastic exercise during the morning session. This would, in a way at least, offset the disadvantages of long sitting in such seats as are found in the typical school. This gymnastic exercise would release the intellectual centers of the brain, and call into play the motor areas, thus tending to preserve a normal balance in cerebral functions. If there be no gymnasium in a school building, then a period for marching or freehand exercise in the assembly room or running out of doors should be provided. With all its disadvantages, this would be better than continuous application for an entire session.

In addition to the period for physical relaxation it is highly desirable to arrange for a ten or fifteen minute interval when pupils may eat a sandwich if they feel hungry, as is apt to be the case when they have had breakfast at 8 o'clock, and cannot have luncheon until about 1 o'clock. A hungry child is not in a condition to profit best by class-room instruction; and moreover, it is not conducive to physical well-being for many pupils to go for such long periods without nutrition.

NEW TIMES BRING NEW DANGERS.

If we could adapt our educational work to the nature and needs of the pupils we are training,

we could probably accomplish all we are now attempting, and without making too heavy demands upon their energies. This matter is today more important in American life than it has been at any time in the past, since children are being crowded into the cities, where the majority of them perhaps are greatly overstimulated in ways that induce constant nervous strain and stress. Of course, the school is not responsible for this unhappy condition of affairs; but at the same time it cannot ignore things as they are. It is the duty of the school to adapt itself to conditions as it finds them, provided it can not improve them. A principal of a school cannot sit in his office and work out an ideal logical scheme irrespective of the social conditions existing in the community in which his

school is situated. The school is the servant of the community, not its master; it is not even independent of the community. Its function is to do the best it can for the rising generation, taking into account all existing circumstances affecting the lives of the young. When this is done the chief concern of every school, in the city particularly, will be the conservation of the nervous health of its pupils.

A COURSE ON ETHICS.

In this issue of the Journal we print the first of a series of four articles by Professor Sharp of the University on the need of moral training in the schools, and practical methods of conducting a course in morals. The substance of these articles was presented in an address at the last meeting of the Western Association at Eau Claire, and those who heard the address were enthusiastic in praise of it. There was a general expression to the effect that our schools are greatly in need of a course in moral training, and the course suggested by Professor Sharp was regarded as both interesting and practical. The writer would suggest that as this course is printed in the Journal, a few special

ly qualified teachers should make a test of it in their schools, and report the results to Professor Sharp, who is desirous of making such modifications in the course as experiments may show to be advisable. This may be the best time, perhaps, to call the attention of teachers to an exceedingly in teresting and valuable Bulletin by Professor Sharp on "A Study of the Influence of Custom on the Moral Judgment." It has just been published by the University, and information regarding it may be had by writing the secretary of the Board of Regents, at Madison.

RECENT BOOKS ON EDUCATION By PROFESSOR M. V. O'SHEA

The Theory and Art of Teaching.

It is rare that books on teaching are written in such a pleasing, cultured, and effective style as is The Teacher, by George Herbert Palmer and Alice Freeman Palmer (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). The authors of this volume have had unusually broad and illuminating experience as teachers, and it would not be easy to name persons who could more appropriately and helpfully discuss the duties and opportunities of the teacher, and the large problems of education. It is a matter of common knowledge that Mrs. Palmer was and Professor Palmer still is a great teacher in the full sense of the term; an even if one did not know this before taking up The Teacher, he could hardly go far before discovering that he was following in the lead of masters in the subtle art of informing the minds and shaping the conduct of young people.

Everywhere throughout the book one feels poise, balance, insight, and a comprehensive grasp of the subjects discussed. For the practical teacher needing counsel in respect to the everyday problems of his class-room, the first three chapters on "The Ideal Teacher," "Ethical Instruction in Schools," and "Moral Instruction in Schools" may be of chief importance; though all the chapters can be read with genuine pleasure and profit by any person interested in questions of education. The book makes a distinct contribution to the literature of teaching, on account alike of its literary and its professional value.

In the issue of this Journal for June, 1908, attention was called to the large number of strictly professional books coming from the presses of publishers throughout the country. The activity in this field seems to be increasing rather than di

minishing. Since the last general article reviewing professional books a number of others have appeared, and many more are announced for early publication. The Educational Process by A. C. Fleshman, is a book out of the usual order. It is published in the Lippincott Educational Series, and is edited by Superintendent Brumbaugh of Philadelphia. As one goes through this book he can with difficulty convince himself that it has just come from the pen of an American writer. It reads more like a German book on Philosophy, or possibly like some of the books on education which were published in our country thirty or forty years ago, when the philosophic spirit was dominant among educational theorists. The book is philosophical throughout; it lacks concreteness, and ignores altogether the point of view taken by contemporary educational and child psychology. The author is seemingly not in sympathy with or unaware of the contributions which have been made by contemporary science to the problems of education. His quotations are taken mainly from the philosophers, or from books on education which are for the most part out of date. This is not to say that his point of view is not a valuable one, but it is not in accord with the trend in American education.

The present reviewer thinks the book is not suited to the needs and interests of practical teachers, but only to those rare individuols who have a speculative and philosophical interest in problems of life and of education. For ninety-nine out of every hundred teachers in America most of this book would be unintelligible, in the sense at any rate that they could not see the bearing of its discussion upon the actual problems of class-room instruction and training. This statement may be illustrated by a quotation taken at random. In discussing the "Idea in Education" the author says (page 288):

"IDEA IN EDUCATION.-The fundamental triadic process in education is source, separation and return. Source is the ideal, constructive energy originating the school and its processes. Separation is the object

ified idea developing the course of study and formu

lating a body of doctrines to be taught in the school. To return from this separation back to the original source is the final aim in education and is attained in

and through the teaching process. It is through the activity of the human soul that the cycle of the world is made to harmonize with the cycle of thought. It is the purpose of education to objectify the self into the world of thought and to bring that enriched self back through a subject-object process called knowledge."

Again (page 301):

"The logical process traces the absolute intelligence in its movement to self-consciousness, separating itself and returning to itself in order to know and understand itself. The cosmic process reveals the mind principle in nature and unfolds the process by which nature loses its identity and becomes spirit. The spiritual process explains how this estrangement is removed, how spirit identifies itself with itself and how it attains its formal essence, freedom. The mind buried in nature gradually unfolds itself into consciousness, self-consciousness and reason. This awakening from its bondage, by which it identifies itself with the object immediately, by which it knows itself in determining the object and by which it knows the object as its own process is an act of spiritual creativity. The mind in its final evolution becomes rational and universal by completing the cycle and recognizing in its otherness a spiritual principle akin to itself. The mind's impulse to think and to act, splits itself into a scission of the real and the ideal. The primal activity of spirit is to assert itself in contradistinction to the not-self, to separate itself from itself, and to return from this estrangement to itself, enriched and enlarged."

One of the most useful men in the educational world today is Professor Michael E. Sadler, of the University of Manchester, England. Progressive teachers are familiar with Mr. Sadler's epoch-making reports when he was chief of the Bureau of Education in England a few years ago. Since resigning his office under the government he has, in addition to his professorial duties, been conducting inquiries respecting various phases of educational policy and administration. Later year he edited an unusually interesting and timely volume on Continuation Schools, which was reviewed in this Journal. There has just come from the press a still more important work edited by Professor Sadler on Moral Instruction and Training in Schools, (Longmans, Green & Co., New York). It is published in two volumes, and is the report of an international inquiry. It is easily the most thorough-going treatment of this subject which has been attempted thus far. Leading educators n all countries have contributed to the work. Volume one is devoted to a review of moral instruction and training throughout the united kingdom, together with critical articles by various leaders in education, politics, religion, and so on. Volume two discusses moral instruction and training in France, Belgium, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Germany, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. The entire work can be commended very highly to students of education, to religious leaders, to legislators, and particularly to practical teachers. The editor has eliminated all merely technical discussion, so that the various

« ÎnapoiContinuă »