Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924086340084 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 086 340 084 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 1999 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME PROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Mitnv^ W. Sage 1S91 .^///*?,?"^ '/r/Jp//^.TK... THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES BY De. J. M. EICE NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1893 CopyTigit, 1892, 1893, by tlie FOBUM PDBLISHIHG COMPACT. Copyright, 1893, by The Centukt Co. THE DEVINNE PRESS. CONTENTS PART FIRST Page Preface 1 Introduction 9 I The Pcjblic-sohool System of New York City 29 II The Public Schools of BjiiTiMORE 55 III The Public Schools op Buffalo 65 IV The Public Schools of Cincinkati 80 V The Public Schools of St. Louis and Indianapolis 92 Yl The Public Schools of Boston 121 VII The Public-school System of Phila- delphia 147 VIII The Public Schools of Chicago and St. Paul 166 IX Minneapolis, La Porte, and the Cook County Normal 193 X A Summary 217 vi CONTENTS PAET SECOND Page Inteoduction 233 I Indianapolis 239 II Minneapolis. — Lincoln School 256 III Minneapolis.— Othee Schools 272 IV La Poete Airo the Cook County Noemal 287 PART FIRST PREFACE THE material contained in this volume will con- sist of tlie most important of the data that I collected during a journey extending over a period of more than five months, made under the auspices of "The Forum," for the purpose of studying the public-school system of the United States. The facts presented in the first part of the present work do not vary materially from those presented in a series of articles recently published in that magazine. The matter contained in the second part, however, — the part devoted exclu- sively to the compositions written by the children and the drawings made by them, — appears here for the first time. In undertaking this journey it was my aim not only to learn what methods of instruction were commonly followed in our country, and the gen- eral condition of our schools, but also to investi- gate the manner in which the schools of different cities were managed. By the latter series of in- vestigation, I hoped to discover the causes of the marked variation in the general degree of excel- lence of the schools of various localities, fully conscious of the fact that the first logical step in 2 PREFACE permanently raising the standard of the schools must necessarily be the eradication of the causes of their inferiority. As the characteristic feature of the American school system lies in the fact that each city, each county, and in some States each country district has practically the privilege of conducting its schools in accordance with any whim upon which it may decide, it is but natural that the schools of different cities should vary considerably in their standing. As experience had taught me to place no reliance whatever on reports published by sebool ofSeials regarding the condition of their schools, such reports being frequently no more than purely political documents, and consequently, as a rule, entirely misleading, I relied, in studying the condi- tion of the schools, only on personal observation of class-room instruction. I endeavored, therefore, while on my tour, to witness as much teaching as possible, and I consequently passed, with few ex- ceptions, all the school hours of every school day during the entire trip, which lasted continuously from January 7 to June 25, 1892, in class-rooms. I was thus enabled to observe more than twelve hundred teachers at their work. In all, the schools of thirty-six cities, and some twenty institutions for the training of teachers, were visited. In the investigations made concerning the gen- eral management of the schools, the study of the by-laws of the various boards of ediication proved of some value. For the rest I was necessarily PREFACE 3 • compelled to rely on information received from superintendents, principals, teachers, and others in a position to know how the schools of their own city were conducted. "When possible I attended board and teachers' meetings as well as teachers' institutes. The length of time that I devoted to the study of the schools of a particular place varied consider- ably. It depended on the number of schools in the locality, on the special information that I sought there, as well as on whether the conditions were comparatively simple or com|)licated. In some cities nearly two weeks were spent in collecting the required data, while in others they were com- fortably obtained in a day or even less. The tour was made under exceptionally favorable circum- stances, as I was limited neither in regard to time nor to the territory to be covered. I therefore selected my own route, changing it whenever I thought it advisable to do so, and I continued my researches until the number of observations made justified my drawing certain definite conclusions. The following places were visited: Boston, Quincy, Lowell, Worcester, Springfield, and Hol- yoke, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut ; New York 'city, Brooklyn, Tonkers, and Buffalo, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland ; Washington, District of Columbia ; De- troit, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Jackson, Howell, and Ionia, Michigan ; Toledo, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, Ohio; Indianapolis and La Porte, Indiana; Chicago, 4 PREFACE Peoria, and Moline, Illinois ; Milwaukee, Wiscon- sin ; Davenport, Des Moines, and State Centre, Iowa; St. Louis, Missouri; and St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Besides these I visited the schools of Toronto, Canada, a number of State normal schools, and a few country district schools. It may not be inopportune to remark here that before undertaking the study of our own school system I spent a large part of my time during a stay of nearly two years abroad, devoted to the study of educational questions, in visiting the schools of various European countries. As to the criticisms that will be found, I beg that they be accepted in the spirit in which they are written, it being far from my purpose to in- flict injury on any one. It is to be hoped, how- ever, that the reader will bear in mind one thing, which, though frequently forgotten, I never for- get, as it is the foundation upon which this work rests, — namely, that the school exists for the bene- fit of the child, and not for the benefit of boards of education, superintendents, or teachers. In this work the child's side will be presented, and the spirit in which it is written is the same as that in which an advocate pleads for his client. And, having assumed the responsibility of plead- ing for justice to the child, I deem it my duty to present his case fairly and squarely, frankly and freely, and without fear or favor, just as it ap- peal's to me. It might be supposed that it is impossible to ' PREFACE 5 form a correct judgment of the standard of the schools of so many cities during the course of five and a half months. This, however, is not the case, for the reason that after the schools of a number of cities have been visited, various types of schools become clearly fixed in the mind, and when such types have once become fixed, the diagnosis of the standard of the schools subsequently visited can be readUy made. When one has gained a con- siderable amount of experience in investigating schools, much can be learned of the school system of any city during fifteen minutes spent in the ABC class of almost any school visited at ran- dom. The appearance of the room, the attitude of the teacher toward the child, the manner in which a recitation is conducted, the character of the busy-work,i and the answers to a dozen ques- tions put to the teacher concerning the general scope of her work, the teachers' meetings she at- tends, as well as what she does generally to im- prove her own mind, wUl frequently suffice to give a key to the whole situation. During my tour it was my custom, however, to exercise particular care to guard against con- demning the school system of a city when, in the first school visited, I was led to believe that it was conducted on a purely mechanical basis. In such cities I always visited enough schools to see 1 By busy-work is meant the silent work performed by the pupils of one section of a class, while the teacher is engaged in instructing those of another. 6 PREFACE at least thirty or thirty -five teachers at work. The usual number of schools that I studied in these cities was from six to eight; and in some cases I examined more. If, on observing the work of some thirty or thirty-five teachers, I found that the methods of all or nearly all of them were en- tirely unscientific, I felt that I had not formed a hasty conclusion. In my opinion, however, one would not go very far wrong by condemning the school system of any city after visiting only one school building, if he should find the teaching throughout that building exceedingly poor. It is only in cities where the conditions are extremely unfavorable that a school building can be found in which the teachers are accustomed to conduct sing-song recitations in spelling and arithmetic, hear chil- dren recite lessons verbatim from a text-book, or conduct concert recitations in geography. In every city where one such school is tolerated, many similar ones can be found. One is liable to find in any city a teacher here and there who fol- lows such methods of instruction, but in no city where the school system is conducted on scientifie principles can a single school building be found in which even one of the teachers is allowed, year after year, to instruct in that manner. In the progressive schools these methods are never tol- erated for any length of time after they have been detected, the teacher who follows them be- ing obliged either to abandon them or to forfeit PREFACE 7 her position. On the other hand, the school sys- tem of a city cannot be judged after visiting a single school building, if that school happens to be a good one, for the reason that even under the most unfavorable conditions some principals and teachers may be found who have succeeded in de- veloping good schools, not because good work was required of them, but because they were suf- ficiently interested in their work to do more than was required of them. And a school system must be judged not by what particularly en- ergetic teachers are, of their own accord, willing to do, but by what each teacher is required to do in order that she may retain her position. INTEODUOTION INTRODUCTION A GENERAL CONSIDERATION OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEM AS the character of the instruction which the XJL child receives represents the result of the general management of the schools, — the resultant, as it were, of the action of a number of forces, — to observe the teacher at her work without a knowledge of the whole school machinery would be observing in a very superficial manner. A brief analysis of the formation and action of the various elements that enter into the management of a school system will therefore be given at the outset. "With this knowledge the reader will more readily perceive that the description of ludicrous teaching found from time to time in this volume is given not for the purpose of ridiculing the teacher, but for the purpose of showing the results of un- scientific management. Besides, this analysis will be the means of showing clearly why the schools of different localities vary so much, and where the roots of all educational evils must be sought. 10 INTRODUCTION The elements that exert an influence on the condition of the schools of every city are four in number : The public at large, the board of edu- cation, the superintendent and his staff, and the teachers. First. The public at large. — As to the attitude of the public toward the schools, it must unfortu- nately be said that in the large majority of instan- ces the people take absolutely no active interest in their schools. I do not here refer to that form of interest which manifests itself on the part of the citizens of most localities in a certain pride in their own particular schools, which they consider the best in the country, but which pride is founded neither on a knowledge of what is going on in other schools, or even in their own schools, nor upon the slightest knowledge of the science of education; but I refer to an intelligent interest, an interest sufficiently deep to lead one to follow closely the actions of the board of education, the superintendent, and the teachers, and to seek some knowledge of the scientific development of children. If but one parent in a hundred would be interested to this extent, I believe that most of our flagrant educational evils would disappear. It is indeed incomprehensible that so manj"- lov- ing mothers whose greatest care appears to be the f welfare of their children are willing, without hesi- tation, to resign the fate of their little ones to the i tender mercies of ward politicians, who in many jinstances have no scruples in placing the children INTRODUCTION 11 in class-rooms the atmosphere of which is not fit for human beings to breathe, and in charge of teachers who treat them with a degree of severity that borders on barbarism. Second. The boards of education. — These boards are selected according to whims. Some are elected by the people, others are appointed, the appointing power lying in the hands of mayors, judges, or councilmen; or a board of education (as at Buffalo) may consist simply of a committee of the common council. In some cities the board of education is formed by two or three distinct bodies, each of which is so constituted that while it has enough independent power to create a considerable amount of mischief on its own account, it is nevertheless suf&ciently dependent on the others to be able to prove that the latter are at fault when anything goes amiss. The manner in which the boards conduct their affairs varies markedly. In some cities their actions are governed to a consider- able extent by selfish motives, whether political or other, while in other cities the members of the board are entirely unselfish in their official acts. Third. The superintendent and Ms staff. — The office of superintendent is, in my opinion, one the importance of which cannot be overestimated. Indeed, in the study of the educational conditions in any given locality, the superintendent may be regarded as the central figure, — as a careful con- sideration of what he is, what he does, as well as the circumstances under which he labors, will 12 INTRODUCTION scarcely fail to point out the reasons why the schools of that locality are on a comparatively high or low level. When he is a thorough educator, — that is, when he has made a profound study of the science of education, — spares no pains in instructing his teachers in educational methods and principles, and is fully sustained in his actions by the board of education, the schools in his charge, if there be not too many, improve rapidly and ever continue to advance. But a modification of any one of these conditions impedes the pro- gress of the schools. However thorough and enthusiastic a superintendent may be, if the board be not in sympathy with his movements, he is hampered, and cannot do his best. If he is ever so diligent a worker, but not sufficiently conversant with the science of education, the teaching wiU be liable to retain a mechanical stamp. Should he possess the necessary qualifications, but fail to devote enough time and energy to instructing his teachers, the schools wiU not be sufficiently benefited by his knowledge. And if he is the right man and does all in his power to raise the standard of his teachers, the extent to which his good in- fluence wiU be felt will depend on the previous training, the general character, and the size of his corps of teachers. But even when the superintendent labors under very unfavorable conditions, he seldom fails to stamp the schools with his individual pedagogical ideas, thus giving the education in his schools at INTRODUCTION 13 least a tendency in a certain direction, provided he remains long enough — say four or five years — in any one city. As a rule, however, superintendents do not remain long in any one place, and this is particularly true of the smaller cities. They frequently, for political or other reasons, fail to be reappointed, or they accept other positions by reason of higher salaries. Superintendents of small cities not uncommonly go from one locality to another for a consideration of one or two hun- dred dollars per annum. By reason of these changes the schools of many cities are always in a transitional stage, never reaching any distinctive character. One of the above points — that relating to the number of teachers in any given locality — requires special consideration. As the number of teachers that a single individual can carefully supervise is limited, the superintendents of the schools of the larger cities are compelled to deputize much of their work to their assistants. Indeed, in large cities, the duty of raising the standard of the teachers devolves mainly on the assistant superin- tendents. Consequently as much care should be exercised in the selection of an assistant superin- tendent as is exercised in the selection of the superior of&cer, a fact which, however, is unfor- tunately but too frequently forgotten. Last. The teachers. — This is, after all, the great- est problem. If all teachers were perfect, there would be little need to trouble with political cor- 1 4 INTBOD VCTION ruption and superintendents. But, as has already been intimated, this is far from the case. Indeed the professional weakness of the American teacher is the greatest sore spot of the American schools. In some localities we find earnestness, conscien- tiousness, and enthusiasm in abundance, but these characteristics, favorable as they are, no more con- stitute expert pedagogical qualifications than they do expert medical or legal qualifications. The truth is that as a rule our teachers are too weak to stand alone, and therefore need constantly to be propped up by the supervisory staff. It is for this reason that the character of the schools of any given locality depends so largely on the ability of a single or at most a few individuals. The weak- ness of the American teachers can be well ob- served even in those cities where only the best obtainable are employed. ^ The graduate of a good city training-school represents, generally speaking, the best this coun- try produces in the way of teachers. When the training received at one of these institutions is compared with that received at a normal school in Germany, the limited extent of the former be- comes apparent. The State normal schools are conducted upon a broader basis, it is true, but their requirements for admission are in most in- stances much lower. But the true professional incompetency of our teachers, taken all in all, does not become fully apparent until we consider that not more than a small percentage of persons INTBODVCTION 15 engaged in teaching in the public schools of this country are normal-school graduates. Of those teaching (besides the normal-school graduates), some are high-school graduates, others have sim- ply attended a normal school, high school, or academy for one or more terms, while a very large number of licenses to teach are granted to those whose education does not extend beyond that received at a grammar-school, with or with- out a little extra coaching. Then, again, each city is, to a great extent, free to make its own regulations regarding the quali- fications required for granting teachers' licenses, and entirely free to place the power of appointing its teachers in the hands of any individual or in- dividuals whom it may select for the purpose. And once a teacher is appointed, her position, in many cities, is secure. The office of teacher in the average American school is perhaps the only one in the world that can be retained indefinitely in spite of the grossest negligence and incompe- tency. It is in the appointment and discharge of superintendents and teachers that politics plays the greatest mischief in our schools. It is not my purpose to decry the good done by our training-schools. It is nevertheless true that the professional knowledge received at these in- stitutions does little more than open the book to the student, so that unless the studies be con- tinued after graduation, the effect of the peda^ gogical training soon becomes lost, the trained 16 INTJRODnCTION teacher falling to the level of the one who has had no training. Although matters are so thoroughly compli- cated that the conditions can be in no two cities exactly alike, my observations have nevertheless led me to conclude that when a few fundamental principles are observed in the management of a school system, the development of good schools is almost certain to follow ; and on the other hand, that the school evils increase in the same propor- tion as these laws are ignored. My principal object in following the plan of discussing our schools by cities, will be to show by what con- crete examples I have been led to appreciate the fundamental character of these laws. What will be said in criticism of the schools of individual cities, may be regarded therefore in large part as matters incidental to the main issue. As these laws are applicable to the schools of all our cities, my work, although it will touch on the schools of only a few cities, may nevertheless serve as a guide not only to the diagnosis of the standard of the schools of any locality, but also to the study of the causes of their standard, whether high or low, and the remedies suitable to each particular instance. Although, from what has been mentioned in the foregoing pages, the nature of these laws may be implied, I shall, nevertheless, before proceed- ing further, state them once more by way of a summary, so that the aim of my future discus- INTRODUCTION 17 sions may become perfectly clear. They are three in number: First. The school system must be absolutely divorced from polities in every sense of the word, in order that the members of the board of educa- tion may be free in all of their official acts to do what in their opinion will best serve the inter- ests of the child. In the same proportion as the members of the board allow partizanship or sel- fishness, of whatever nature, to influence their actions, and particularly in regard to the appoint- ment and discharge of superintendents and teach- ers, the evils are found to accumulate. Second. The supervision of the schools must be properly directed and thorough. By properly directed supervision, I understand that form of supervision the principal aim of which is to increase the professional strength of the teachers. The supervision is ideal when the superintendent and his assistants are able educators, who devote their time primarily to educating the teachers in their charge, both by pursuing with them, in teachers' meetings, the study of educational methods and principles, and by aiding them in the class-room in the practical application of the theories discussed at the meetings. Supervision that aims simply to secure results by a periodical examination of classes is productive of as much if not more harm than good, as it is destined to convert both teachers and pupils into automatons. The third law is implied in the second. It is, 2 1 8 INTBOD UGXION namely, that in order that the schools may ad- vance, the teachers must constantly endeavor to grow both in professional and in general intellec- tual strength. As my remarks will show, by far the most progress has been made iu those cities where the teachers themselves are the most ear- nest students. In whichever light we may regard the matter, it is, after all, the teacher that makes the school. My reasons for laying so much stress on the necessity for securing good school-boards and efficient supervision, have not been because I have lost sight of the fact that tlie teacher is the most important element, but because I recognize this fact so well. While the teacher makes the school, the superintendent in large part makes the teacher. And as the power to appoint botb superintendent and teachers in the vast majority of instances lies in the hands of the board of education, this body is ultimately the strongest factor in making or destroying the schools. "With a knowledge of these principles, the remedies for school evils suggest themselves. G-enerally speaking, it may be said that one half of the work of placing the schools of any locality upon a healthful foundation has been accom- plished when the members of the board of educar tion become endowed with a desire to improve the schools, a desire which, however, must be suffi- ciently strong to lead them to lay aside aU selfish- ness while legislating for the children intrusted to their care. The remaining half is done when the board appoints a superintendent competent to INTRODUCTION 19 undertake the task and sufSciently energetic to do all that is required of him, provided, how- ever, that he is given a suf&cient amount of in- dependent power to enable him to improve the schools in any manner that may to him seem fit. The board must give to the superintendent the right to select his teachers, retaining in their own hands not more than a veto power, and they must, in addition, give to him an ample number of able assistants. However flagrant the evils in the schools of any city may be, the institutions are not beyond hope. Under a conscientious board and an able staff of superintendents, the striking evils may be in a comparatively small time to a considerable extent eradicated. If pa- rents would but take sufficient interest in the welfare of their children to insist upon securing conscientious boards and able superintendents, the leading educational abuses would soon cease to exist. Until they take an active part in secur- ing such, they must be considered guilty of crimi- nal negligence. II THE OLD EDUCATION AND THE NEW IS my judgment concerning the degree of ex- jljL cellence of a school system is governed by the extent to which the teachers strive to abandon unscientific methods and to regulate their work according to the requirements of the new edu- 20 INTROVaCTION cation, it may be well, before entering on the discussions of the schools of individual cities, to describe what is generally understood by scien- tific and unscientific schools — by the " old " and the "new" education — as well as to point out wherein they differ. By an unscientific or mechanical school is meant one that is still conducted on the antiquated notion that the function of the school consists pri- marily, if not entirely, in crowding into the mem- ory of the child a certain number of eut-and-dried facts — that is, that the school exists simply for the purpose of giving the child a certain amount of information. As, in such schools, the manner in which the mind acquires ideas is naturally dis- regarded, it follows that the teachers are held responsible for nothing beyond securing certain memoriter results. Consequently, the aim of the instruction is limited mainly to drilling facts into the minds of the children, and to hearing them recite lessons that they have learned by heart from text-books. Such methods are termed anti- quated, because they represent instruction as it was before the time of the great educators, when a science of education was unknown. Further, as the manner in which the mind acquires ideas is not taken into account, the teacher makes no attempt to study the needs of the child, and con- sequently no bond of sympathy forms between the pupil and the teacher. In these schools the attitude of the teacher toward the child is as a INTRODUCTION 21 rule cold and unsympathetic, and at times actu- ally cruel and barbarous. The schools conducted on scientific principles differ widely from the mechanical schools. While the aim of the old education is mainly to give the child a certain amount of information, the aim of the new education is to lead the child to observe, to reason, and to acquire manual dexterity as well as to memorize facts — in a word, to develop the child naturally in all his faculties, intellectual, \ moral, and physical. As in these schools the i teacher is guided in her work by the nature of the child mind, — that is, by the laws of mental devel- opment, — she is constantly in search of such light as will guide her in giving the child the benefit of what is known of the nature of the mind and its mode of development. We find, therefore, widely distributed among the teachers a truly progressive spirit, much enthusiasm, and a desire to become conversant with the laws of psychology and the principles of education. It is almost exclusively in the cities where the teachers constantly pursue professional studies under the guidance of their superintendents that schools of this order are found. As it is no longer the text-book or the arbitrary will of the superintendent, but the laws of psy- chology, that now become the ruling spirit of the school, the order of things becomes reversed and, in consequence, the atmosphere of the school-room entirely changed. The teacher who endeavors to 2-2 INTRODUCTION instruct in accordance with the nature of the mind is of necessity obliged to study the child, so that she may understand him and know how to minister to his needs. In this manner a true bond of sym- pathy forms between the teacher and the child. The attitude of the teacher now changes from that of lord and master to that of friend and guide. She thus ceases to be cold and harsh, and becomes loving and sympathetic. The school-room loses its prison aspect and becomes characteristic of a refined and refining home. Further, when the teacher is guided in her work by the laws of psychology, there is a change in the methods of instruction as well as in the spirit of the class- room.. While in the mechanical schools the recita- tion periods are devoted either to hearing children recite lessons that they have studied by heart, or to drilling the pupils in facts, in the schools con- ducted on scientific principles such procedures are not tolerated, the teachers being obliged to devote these periods to actual teaching, and — to the best of their ability — in accordance with methods ap- proved by the educational scientists. It may therefore be seen that the new education recognizes that there are elements aside from measurable results that require consideration in educating the child. The first and foremost among these elements is the child himself. The old sys- tem of education thinks only of the results, and with its eye upon the results, forgets the child; while the new system is in large part guided by INTRODUCTION 23 the fact that the child is a frail and tender, loving and lovable human being. " By their fruits shall ye know them," is a proverb which, though frequently quoted in this connection, does not apply to schools at all, because it leaves out of consideration the fact that the child hves while he is being educated. Who would argue that the steerage is as good as the cabin because the steer- age passenger travels as quickly and as safely as the cabin passenger ? When natural methods are philosophically applied by the teacher, the child becomes interested in his work, and the school is converted into a house of pleasure. When, on the other hand, the child is taught by mechanical methods, his mental food is given to him in the most indigestible and unpalatable form, in conse- quence of which he takes no interest in his work, learning becomes a source of drudgery, and the school a house of bondage. And, further, under the new system elements are brought into play which, by reason of their refining nature, can scarcely fail to exert a favor- able influence on the moral character of the child. Among these are — first, the bond of sympathy that forms between the child and the teacher who strives to understand him, to interest him, and to make him happy. The atmosphere of the mechanical school is damp and chilly, while that of the progressive school is glowing with life and warmth. Second, the pursuit of studies that tend to develop the sympathetic and esthetic faculties 24 INTBODUCTION of the child, among which are, (1) nature studies — the study of plants when regarded from the sym- pathetic and poetic sides, and the study of animals from the standpoint of sympathy ; (2) the purely artistic studies — namely, music, poetry, drawing and painting from nature, the construction of beautiful forms (designing), and work with beau- tiful colors. But why do the mechanical schools still exist in an enlightened age and in a country so progressive as ours ? It is frequently claimed, in support of the mechanical system, that the old education is more practical than the new. This assertion, how- ever, is made in ignorance of facts. Indeed, facts prove that more is accomplished in a given period by scientific than by mechanical teaching. And, further, that system of education that leads the child to observe and to think, as well as to give him manual dexterity while memorizing facts, is certainly more prac'tical than the education whose aim is limited to leading the pupils to memorize facts. Again, it is claimed that in some localities the old system better answers the needs of the people than the new, and that the system of edu- cation must be regulated according to the needs of the individual community. In that case, the old system of education is applicable only to those communities where there is no necessity for the people either to observe or to reason, or to be dex- terous in the use of their hands. But where can such a community be found ? Again, we all know INTRODUCTION 25 that in many of our cities the pupils will never receive more than three or four years of schooling, and we aU agree that no pains should be spared to give such children at least some knowledge of the three R's before they begin theu' independent struggle for existence. If facts should prove that the best results in the three R's are obtained in the primary schools that devote practically all the time to these siibjects, and the poorest in the primary schools that spend the most time in leading pupils to observe, to reason, and to use their hands with facility, then the advocates of the reading, writing, and arith- metic schools would still have at least a crutch to lean upon. But it so happens that facts prove the contrary to be true; namely, that the pupils read and write better, and cipher at least as well, in the schools where the work is most thoughtful — that is, where most is done to lead the pupils to acquire ideas by being brought into relation with things instead of words, signs, and symbols. I found, with scarcely an exception, by far the best reading in the schools in which the pupils were taught to read through science lessons, and by far the best — not infrequently incredibly good — results in written language where the children began to express the results of their observations in their own words in writing, as early as the fifth or sixth month of school life. On the other hand, I found the results in reading and in writ- ten language almost universally poor in the 26 INTBODUCriON 'schools where the reading-matter, at least during the first two years, consisted of nothing but empty words, silly sentences, and baby-trash, and where the time spent in writing was devoted to copying such words and sentences from the blackboard or the reading-book. (But this much need be said here — namely, that unless the teachers be prop- erly prepared for their work, their teaching can- not be scientific. The new education in form without the spirit is a farce, and the spirit of the new education lies in the methods of teaching, and not in the subjects to be taught.) It is not therefore because the old system of education is more practical than the new, or that it better answers the needs of the people, or that it accomplishes more in a given period, that in so many of our cities the science of education is ignored. The real causes for the existence of the mechanical schools at the present stage of civili- zation are no other than corruption and selfish- ness on the part of school ofi&cials, and unjustifi- able ignorance, as well as criminal negligence, on the part of parents. It is in the cities where the school-boards appoint such superintendents as will make able tools, and fail to reelect them when they are conscientious; in cities where it is not merit, but friendship, business, or politics, that determines the appointment and discharge of teach- ers ; in cities where the parents permit the mem- bers of the school-board to use their children for selfish purposes, and, with few exceptions, in such INTRODUCTION 27 cities ouly, that the science of education does not enter the schools. In a few instances the antiquated system of education appears to be entirely the result of mis- directed and incompetent supervision. When the superintendents fail to instruct and inspire their teachers, or are unable to recognize the difference between scientific and unscientific instruction, the schools are, as a rule, mechanical in spite of hon- est government. In these cases the teachers are permitted, either through ignorance or careless- ness, to fall into ruts out of which they never rise. To divorce the schools from politics does not in itself mean to raise the standard of the schools, but simply to remove the pressure from them so that it becomes possible for them to ad- vance. When schools are no longer under the baneful influence of politics, they become, in nearly every instance, no more and no less than the superintendents make of them. A feature common to all of the purely mechanical schools is the fact that far too little, if anything, is done by their superintendents to inspire and instruct the teachers. In nearly all of them the num- ber of superintendents is too small, more than two hundred teachers being placed in charge of a single supervising officer. Fortunately the schools of many of our cities are now marching along the line of progress ; some of these, how- ever, are moving only with the pace of a snail. THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER I^ THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OP NEW YOEK CITY IN describing the schools of our cities, I begin with the discussion of the schools of New- York city because they represent a condition that may be regarded, in many respects, as typical of the schools of all of our large cities. They show clearly the elements that lead to an inferior order of schools ; and, further, the remedy that I pro- pose for the eradication of their evils is applicable to the school system of every large city. Before entering on the discussion of these schools, however, I desire, in order to prevent misunderstandings, once more to call attention to the fact that the degree of excellence of a school system is represented not by what is done by those teachers who are sufficiently interested to do more than is required of them, but by the 29 30 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YOKE degree of inferiority that the teaching may reach and yet be accepted as satisfactory. Therefore, in pronouncing a school system unscientiflc, I by no means desire to imply that no good schools can be found in that system, but simply that the good schools that do exist have been developed, not as a result of the system, but in spite of it. Now, what is the character of the instruction that will be passed as satisfactory by the superin- tendents of the public schools of New York city ? Surely no one can call me unjust when I answer this question by describing the work of a school whose principal has been marked imif ormly " ex- cellent" during the twenty -five years or more that she has held her present position. I cannot say that this school is a typical New York pri- mary school; I shall describe typical work later. But I do most positively assert that the mere fact that a superintendent is permitted to give a school of this nature his warmest indorsement is sufficient to prove that the school system of New York is not conducted for the benefit of the child alone. The principal of this school has pedagogical views and a maxim peculiarly her own. She be- lieves that when a child enters upon school life his vocabulary is so small that it is practically worthless, and his power to .think so feeble that his thoughts are worthless. She is consequently of the opinion that what the child knows and is able to do on coming to school should be en- PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YOUK 31 tirely disregarded, that he should not be allowed to waste time, either in thinking or in finding his own words to express his thoughts, but that he should be supplied with ready-made thoughts as given in a ready-made vocabulary. She has there- fore prepared sets of questions and answers, so that the child may be given in concise form most of the facts prescribed in the course of study for the three years of primary instruction. The instruc- tion throughout the school consists principally of grinding these answers verbatim into the minds of the chUdreiiTT The principal's ideal lies in giving each child the ability to answer without hesitation, upon leaving her school, every one of the questions formulated by her. In order to reach the desired end, the school has been converted into the most dehumanizing institution that I have ever laid eyes upon, each child being treated as if he pos- sessed a memory and the faculty of speech, but no individuality, no sensibilities, no soul. So much concerning the pedagogical views on which this school is conducted; now as to the maxim. This maxim consists of three short words — " Save the minutes." The spirit of the school is, " Do what you like with the child, immobilize him, automatize him, dehumanize him, but save, save the minutes." In many ways the minutes are saved. By giving the child ready-made thoughts, the minutes required in thinking are saved. By giving the child ready-made definitions, the min- utes required in formulating them are saved. 32 PUBLIC-SCHOOL S7STBM OF NEW YORK Everything is prohibited that is of no measurable advantage to the child, such as the movement of the head or a limb, when there is no logical reason why it should be moved at the time. I asked the principal whether the children were not allowed to move their heads. She answered, " Wiy should they look behind when the teacher is in front of them?" — words too logical to be refuted. During the recitations many minutes are saved. The principal has indeed solved the problem of how the greatest number of answers may be given in the smallest number of minutes. In the first place, no time is spent in selecting pupUs to answer questions, every recitation being started by the first pupU in the class, the children then answer- ing in turn, until aU. have recited. Secondly, time is economized in the act of rising and sitting dur- ing the recitations, the children being so drilled that the child who recites begins to fall back into his seat while uttering the last word of a defini- tion, the next succeeding child beginning his as- cent while the one before him is in the act of descending. Indeed, things appear as if the two children occupying adjoining seats were sitting upon the opposite poles of an invisible see-saw, so that the descending child necessarily raises the pupil next to him to his feet. Then, again, the minutes are saved by compelling the chil- dren to unload their aaswers as rapidly as pos- sible, distinctness of utterance being sacrificed to speed, and to scream their answers at the tops PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 33 of their voices, so that no time may be wasted in repeating words inaudibly uttered. For example, the principal's definition of a note — "A note is a sign representing to the eye the length or duration of time" — is ideally delivered, when it sounds something like "Notsinrepti length d'ration time." Another way in which time is saved is by com- pelling the children to stare fixedly at the source whence the wisdom flows. When the teacher is the source of Avisdom, all the children in the room stare fixedly in the direction of the teacher ; when a word on the blackboard is the source of wisdom, all eyes stare fixedly at a point on the blackboard. There is one more peculiarity. When material, of whatever nature, is handed to the children, enough to supply a whole row is given to the end child. The material is then passed along side- ways until each child in the row has been sup- plied. During this procedure the children are compelled to look straight in front of them, and to place their hands sidewise in order to receive the material, without looking whence it comes. The pupils are thus obliged to grope, as if they were blind, for the things passed to them. The principal assured me, however, that to drill the children in this groping is not attended with much difficulty, the pupils in the lowest primaiy grade — the little five-year-olds — learning to take and pass things like blind people during the first week or two of their school life. 3 34 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK Sense-training is a special feature of the school, and at least a half-dozen different methods, nearly aU of which are original, are used for the pur- pose. The first of these methods is one by means of which form and color are studied in combina- tion. I witnessed such a lesson in the lowest pri- mary grade. Before the lesson began there was passed to each child a little flag, on which had been pasted various forms and colors, such as a square piece of green paper, a triangular piece of red paper, etc. When each child had been sup- plied, a signal was given by the teacher. Upon receiving the signal, the first child sprang up, gave the name of the geometrical form upon his flag, loudly and rapidly defined the form, men- tioned the name of the color, and fell back into his seat to make way for the second child, thus : "A square; a square has four equal sides and four corners; green" (down). Second child (up): "A triangle ; a triangle has three sides and three corners ; red " (down). Third child (up) : " A tra- pezium ; a trapezium has four sides, none of which are parallel, and four corners; yellow" (down). Fourth child (up) : "A rhomb; a rhomb has four sides, two sharp corners and two blunt corners ; blue." This process was continued until each child in the class had recited. The rate of speed maintained during the recitation was so great that seventy children passed through the process of defining in a very few miniites. The children are drilled in these definitions as soon as they PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 35 enter the school, and the definitions are repeated from week to week and from year to year, until the child has finished his primary-school educa- tion. In oue of the higher classes I saw a modifica- tion of this procedure. Here each chUd was given a wooden geometrical form, and when the starting signal was given, instead of one child bobbing up and facing the teacher, two children sprang up, geometrical forms in hand, and faced each other. Then the following conversation ensued : The second child asked the first child : " What have you in your hand?" First child : " I have an oblong." Second child: "Why do you say it is an ob- long?" First child: "Because it has two long sides, two short sides, and four corners." When this answer had been rapidly screamed, a rather complicated triple motion, which was ac- complished almost instantaneously, ensued. At one and the same time the first child sat down, the second child wheeled around, and the thii-d rose to his feet and turned so as to face the sec- ond pupil. By the time the first pupil had fallen into his seat, the second and third pupils were already facing each other, and the third child was asking the second child, " What have you in your hand?" Second child : " I have a square." Third child: "Why do you say it is a square?" 36 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK Second child : " Because it has four equal sides and four corners." When this had been said the triple motion again took place, so that in the twinkling of an eye the third and fourth pupils were already star- ing each other in the face and beginning to talk. This process also was continued until each child in the class had recited. In the third lesson in form the teacher played the "star" part. This lesson was carried on as follows: The automatized teacher stood before the blackboard and began the exercise by draw- ing upon the board, with a rapid stroke, a straight line. When this stroke had been made, the following words were spoken : Teacher : " What is this ? " First pupil : " It is a line." Teacher : " What kind of a line ? " Second pupil : " It is a straight line." The teacher now drew a crooked line upon the blackboard, and asked : "What is this ?" Third pupil: "It is a crooked line." Teacher (to third pupil) : "Wrong." (To fourth pupil): "Why don't you get up when the child before you makes a mistake?" Fourth pupil : " It is a line." Teacher : " What kind of a line « " Fifth pupil: "It is a crooked line." The teacher here said to me that the third child was a new pupil, and had not yet learned the methods of the school ; but she assured me that PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 37 the new pupils come round all right in a few days. The reason why the third pupil's answer was considered wrong was not because it was wrong, but because each stroke of the chalk was intended to bring forth two questions and two answers, so that when the first question was answered in such a manner as to leave no occasion to ask the sec- ond question, the charm was broken, and the answer could not be accepted. In one of the rooms I saw a lesson in paper- folding which was so mechanical that a perfectly rhythmical motion was maintained throughout, and the children appeared to have been wound up for the occasion. A lesson in arithmetic that I attended was fully as machine-like as were the other exercises. The children ran through rows of figures just as they had run through definitions. "When they were told to add the twos, the first pupil rose to his feet and cried, "Two"; the sec- ond child rose and said, "Four"; the third child rose and said, "Six," etc. The expressions in this exercise being so short, no child remained during any perceptible period upon his feet ; so that the recitation consisted mainly of a bobbing up and down, and the class presented the appearance rather of a traveling pump-handle than of a large number of human beings. Even a good part of a lesson in music is de- voted to drilling the children in definitions. I heard the pupils in one of the classes give at least 38 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK tweaty-five music definitions. In penmanship, the pupils learn by heart any number of principles of writing', none of which is known to most of those who earn their livelihood with the pen. In reading, the word method is followed. The pupils are taught to read the number of words prescribed for the grade and no more, and they are taught to spell the words as they learn to read them. They are not encouraged to acquire the ability to read new words, each new word being developed before it is shown to the child, which means practically that the child is told what the word is before he is allowed to name it. But this method is typical of the New York primary schools. I asked the principal whether the chil- dren in the highest grade (third-year class) were not able to read new words without being told what they were. She answered in substance: " How can they know what a word is when they have never seen it before? Could, you recognize a thing that you had never before seen ? " In no single exercise is a child permitted to think. He is told just what to say, and he is drilled not only in what to say, but also in the manner in which he must say it. As the principal succeeds, however, in putting the children through the work of the grades, the superintendents see no reason why they should not criticize her most favorably. The typical New York city primary school, although less barbarous and absurd than the one PVBLIC-SGHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 39 just described, is nevertheless a hard, uosym- pathetic, mechanical-drudgery school, a school into which the light of science has not yet entered. Its characteristic feature lies in the severity of its discipline, a discipline of enforced silence, immo- bility, and mental passivity. The differences found in going from room to room and from school to school — I have seen many of them — are differences in degree only, and not in kind. One teacher will allow her pupils to move their heads a little more freely than the standard, another will allow a little more freedom to the shoulder- joints, but less freedom in moving the head, and a third will require the children to keep their hands in their laps, instead of behind their backs. The character of the instruction is identical with that found wherever this false system of dis- cipline prevails, being of that form which appeals to the memory alone. The aim of the teacher is simply to secure results by drilling the pupils in the facts prescribed for the grade. The pub- lic-school system of New York city offers, there- fore, a striking example of how, under unwise management, a trained teacher may be reduced to the level of one who has had no training. Many New York school-teachers have told me that the New- York school gave them no oppor- tunity to put their knowledge of psychology and pedagogy to practical use, and that they conse- quently felt the normal-school influence vanish soon after beginning to teach. 40' PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK As the methods are unscientific, little can be gained by dilating upon them. Reading is taught by the combined word and spelling method; that is, the child is taught to recognize a word at sight and to spell the word as soon as he is able to read it. Each new word is taught by the above-men- tioned development method. For example, if the teacher desires to develop the word " boat," she will say in substance : " The other day I went down to the river and I saw something with a whole lot of people on it floating on the water." She then writes the word boat on the blackboard and asks the pupils, " What do you think this word is?" One child will say, "ship"; another will say, "steamer"; and a third will say "boat." Many teachers really believe that when the child thus reads the word " boat " he has succeeded in finding it out by himself. The word " dog ' is developed by telling the children that it is some- thing that says " bow-wow," and the word " cow " by informing them that it is an animal with horns and says " moo." By the use of this method the child is actually prevented from exercising his reasoning faculties, and reading is converted into a pure and simple process of memorizing word-forms. I have always found the results of the exclusive use of the com- bined word and spelling method to be very infe- ly^viov. In New York city the primary reading is, as a rule, so poor that the children are scarcely able to recognize new words at sight at the end of the PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 41 second school year. Even the third-year reading is miserable. In many cities the children read better at the end of the second year than they do in New York at the end of the third. Indeed, I feel as if I could truthfully say that in Minne- apolis the pupils read as well at the end of the first year as they do in New York at the end of the third, and this in spite of the fact that the Minneapolis schools are charming and the pupils — even those from the poorest of homes — gov- erned by love and sympathy. In these schools many methods — the word method, the sentence method, phonics, word-building, etc. — are used in teaching reading. In the lowest grade of many of the New York primary schools the reading is exceptionally dry. In one of the schools I found seventy -five words written on a blackboard. I learned that these seventy-five words were those that the pupils had been taught to read prior to the time of my visit. Whenever a new word was learned it was added to the list and retained there, and the children were di'illed daily both in reading and in spell- ing these words. I asked the principal, who had accompanied me to the class-room, whether the children never read sentences. I was in- formed that the teacher occasionally formed sen- tences by pointing with her stick to various words on the list. Of course, sentences so read in no way retain the spirit of letting the child read a sentence because it is the unit of thought. 42 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK There is indeed no difference between reading sentences by pointing to isolated words and the mechanical reading of isolated words. I next asked the principal how the seventy-five words on the board had been selected. She told me that they represented words found in the reading-book the children would receive in the next higher grade. She said, further, that she generall}' selected from one hundred and twenty- five to one hundred and fifty words to be learned in this manner in the lowest grade, so that when the children took up the reading-book in the next class they would be able to read quite a number of the words contained in it. In the lowest grade, therefore, the children are not supposed to read thoughtfully, but simply to memorize a large number of word-forms. Can instruction be made less scientific ! In the same class I heard the children spell some of the words. When the spelling-lesson was announced, a nu.mber of children rose to their feet and turned their backs to the board, so that they might not be able to look at the words they were asked to spell. In the New York primary schools arithmetic is taught fuUy as unscientifically as the reading. It is mechanical and abstract from the very begin- ning. In the class of which I have Just been speaking, I heard the pupils add a column of " ones " and " twos " that had been written on the blackboard. The children added thus: "One PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 43 and one are two " ; " two and two are four " ; " four and one are five," and so on. I now asked the principal whether arithmetic was ever taught by a concrete method. " They will have concrete arithmetic work when they are a little.f urther along in their reading," she replied. " Win you kindly inform me what connection there is between reading and concrete arith- metic?" I asked. " You see," she answered, " when the children can read the word 'oranges' or 'apples,' the teacher writes the word 'oranges' or. 'apples' at the top of the column of figures, and then the pupUs, instead of saying, ' One and two are three,' ' three and two are five,' wiU say, 'One orange and two oranges are three oranges,' and 'three oranges and two oranges are five oranges.' In that way the work in arithmetic is made concrete." Space will not permit me to cite further instances showing that the methods followed in the New York primary schools are unscientific. But before beginning the discussion of the general management of the schools, I beg to repeat that the work described as typical may be found in all but very exceptional schools, the differences, not only in the discipline, but also in the methods, being differences in degree, and not in kind. I •have visited many of the New York primary schools, but have not yet found any exceptional ones. 44 PVBLIG-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW TOBK It is not difSicult to account for the low standard of the New York schools ; indeed, under existing conditions, it would be surprising if the instruc- tion were of a higher order. In the first place, there is absolutely no incentive to teach weU. If mechanical teaching be in general deemed satis- factory, why should the teacher trouble with the preparation of lessons and the study of educar tional methods and principles, and then teach upon scientific principles at the risk of not coveriugthe work of the grade ? Further, a teacher scarcely imperils her position by doing exceedingly poor work, the only penalty being that an incompe- tent teacher cannot claim the maximum salary after she has taught the required fourteen years. In New York city teachers are very rarely dis- charged, even for the grossest negligence and in- competency. In order that a principal may be discharged, sixteen of the twenty-one members of the Board of Education must vote against her, and for many reasons it is practically impossible to secure that numher of adverse votes. To discharge a teacher is also a matter attended with considerable difiiculty. Before a teacher can be removed, a number of barriers must be passed. The majority of the members of the Board of Trustees of any ward can recommend the re- moval of a teacher in the ward, but before she can be removed the consent of the majority of the inspectors of the district must be obtained in writing. But even after the consent of three PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YOBK 45 trustees out of five and two inspectors out of three has been obtained — and this consent is not easy to obtain — the teacher can appeal to the Board of Education, that body having the power to reverse the decision of the trustees and in- spectors and to order her reinstatement. Secondly, there is no source of inspiration, practically nothing being done by the supervis- ing officers to raise the standard of the teachers. Indeed, the supervision as now conducted is lit- tle more than a farce. The Superintendent of Schools may be said to be simply an executive officer. What he does, beyond meeting the assis- tant superintendents once a month and the prin- cipals three or four times a,nnually, and keeping certain sets of books, is a question that no one as yet appears to have answered. Besides the chief officer, eight assistant super- intendents are employed to supervise the work of four thousand teachers. Though some of them possess expert qualifications and the ability to educate teachers, the circumstances under which they labor appear to be such as to render their services of very little value. Even under the most favorable circumstances, a single supervis- ing officer cannot successfully direct the work of five hundred teachers. But, in addition, the method of supervision — if indeed there be a method — is so unsystematic as apparently to ren- der their services of least value. Each class-room in the city is supposed to be visited and examined 46 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW TOBK by several of the supervisors once a year.^ But there are no district lines, and the visits are consequently very irregularly arranged. Further, the visits are too few to be of real benefit to the teacher, and yet frequent enough to disturb the teacher's mental equilibrium during the interven- ing period. Under the circumstances, it were better for all concerned if there were no super- vision at all, and this is doubly true for the reason that whether or not the supervisors find the teach- ers competent is a matter of very little practical consequence. Besides examining classes, the as- sistant superintendents lecture from time to time. Each teacher attends in all three or four such lectures annually. The argument is used that the duty of instruct- ing the teachers does not devolve upon the super- visors, but upon the principals. The principals of the New York schools do not teach, and it is believed that their time should be devoted to the training of their teachers. But when we consider that in selecting principals expert quahfieations are not taken into account, the argument becomes worthless. Indeed, as a rule, the newly appointed teachers are better qualified professionally than the principals. While the new teachers are nor- mal-school graduates, many of the principals have had no professional training whatever, nor have they at any time, either with or without guidance, 1 Teachers with good records are exempt from regular supervision; the poorer teachers receive extra visits. PUBLIC-SCSOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 47 devoted a sufficient amount of time to profes- sional studies to learn the A B C of scientific pedagogy. Some principals read enough educa- tional matter to pick up a few devices, but those who may be said to be experts are very rare ex- ceptions. In the grammar departments quite a number of alive and active principals, who exert an excellent influence over their teachers, may be found. Some of these have, indeed, succeeded in developing comparatively good schools. I have not, however, as yet found a single primary school conducted on modern educational princi- ples. The typical primary principal does not appear to know that education means anything beyond cramming into the minds of the pupils a certain number of cut-and-dried facts. What the average principal does beyond keeping an accu- rate account of the attendance of pupils and teachers, and listening to complaints from pa- rents and teachers, is also a matter that has puz- zled more than one intimately acquainted with the New York public schools. Now, a word concerning those who are respon- sible for the condition of the schools — the mem- bers of the various boards of education. The Board of Education, properly speaking, consists of three independent bodies. The first of these is the central board, known as the Board of Educa- tion. It consists of twenty-one members, ap- pointed by the mayor. Secondly, there are eight boards of inspectors, each of which has three J^ FUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK members, who exercise a sort, of supervision over the schools of three wards. Inspectors also are appointed by the mayor. Thirdly, there are twenty-four boards of trustees;^ one for faph \wa£d^ ^fih_..ot wjncJi h as five^^m ambers. _. \ ^ Tlie> rustees are appoint ed by theB oa rd of Education J lere are, therefore, in all, one hundred and sixty- re persons directly connected with the manage- lent of the schools. Thin £■« ajTjTp.ar tn Vip prr an^ed among the se I bodies on the principle of power without resB Qii--- sibility.^. When anything goes amiss, it is impos- sible to discover which one of these one hundred and sixty-five persons is responsible. "No- one is responsible for anything," has become a byword among those who in any way seek to fix responsi- bility. In many of the schools a most horribly unsanitary condition of affairs prevails, for which, however, no one appears to be responsible. The course of studies is highly unscientific, but no one has constructed it, and no one is responsible for it. When appointments are to be made, every one is on the alert; when responsibility is to be fixed, no one is in readiness to step forward. Everything appears to be involved in a most .i ntricat e muddle. Th e power to appoint the tea chers is vesteiin_ the Board of Trustees, while the ap pointment of _^penntendents and principals lies in the h an ds ^of the Board of Education^ In no way has any ne connected with the~~-eaucational side of the PVJBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 49 system a word to say concerning the appointment or discharge of principals or teachers. /Nearly all appointments are made by " pulls," merit being a side issued The superintendents should naturally be held responsible for poor teaching, but justly they cannot be so held, for the reason that it is almost impossible for them to have incompetents discharged. Indeed, the superintendent has said that he has given up, as a hopeless task, attempt- ing to have incompetent principals and teachers discharged. Therefore the supervisors can justly lay the blame of poor teaching on the members of the Board of Education, while the Board of Edu- cation can justly throw this responsibility on the shoulders of those whose duty it is to secure proper teaching. So things have always been, and i so they will remain until a radical change is ef- fected. Meanwhile, none suffer but those for whom j the millions are appropriated — the children. , y In regard to the public, the mere fact that things are muddled as they are proves that th e citizens take no active interest in the schools^ As for the parents in particular, the fact that they send their children to unsajnitary schools — indeed, so unsan- itary as to be unfit for the habitation of human beings — is of itself sufficient to prove that they are in no way concerned with what the schools do with their children. This does not apply alone to the more ignorant classes, some of the most unhealthful schools in the city being attended by children from the best of homes. i 50 PUBLIC-SCBOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YOEK Now, how may the evils be eradicated and the schools improved? That the schools of small cities may be improved in a comparatively small time is a matter that has been repeatedly demon- strated; but how to improve the schools of large cities is a problem that has never been solved. The large cities should therefore learn the lesson taught by the small ones, — namely, that if the su- perintendent is an educator, spares no pains in endeavoring to improve the minds of his teachers, and is unhampered in his labors by the Board of Education, a few years will suffice to raise the standard of the schools, provided the number of teachers in his charge ie not too large. This principle might be applied to a large city by treating it as a collection of small ones. A superintendent cannot well care for more than one hundred and fifty, or at most two hundred, teachers ; in other words, he cannot properly care, without assistance, for a city of more than sev- enty-five thousand inhabitants at the utmost. As New York city has twenty times two hundred teachers, twenty times seventy-five thousand in- habitants, its schools should be divided into at least twenty independent districts, each one of which should be placed in charge of a superin- tendent having all the powers and responsibilities of a city superintendent. In the appointment of special supervisors, such as supervisors of draw- ing, music, etc., these district lines should be strictly observed, so that each district superin- PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 51 tendent might be held responsible in every way for the schools of his district. The district superin- tendent should be required to devote all his work- ing hours to visiting classes for the purpose of aiding the teachers, and to meeting teachers in order to instruct them in educational methods and principles as well as in their grade work. Under an arrangement of this nature, provided the right sort of superintendents be secured, there is no reason why the schools of each district should not improve as rapidly as the schools of a small city, when in good hands. Though each district would in great part be independent, it should nevertheless be regarded as but a part of a large system. Unity can and must be preserved. How, under these conditions, it may be preserved, I shall now endeavor to show. In the first place, there should then, as now, be a city superintendent responsible for the general condition of the schools throughout the city. The city superintendent should take an active part in improving the minds of the teachers. All his time should be devoted to visiting classes and to teaching teachers. One day in each month might be spent by him in one of the districts, and this would enable him to make his roiinds once a month. Three or four hours might readily be spent daily by the city superintendent in visiting classes, and the hours from four to six in the afternoon in meeting the teachers. He might meet the two hundred teachers of a district in a 52 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK body for the purpose of conducting an educa- tional conference. This would enable him to meet all his four thousand teachers once a month. Three or four hours devoted to visiting the schools of each district once a month would be suf- ficient to enable the superintendent to judge how things in any particular district were progress- ing. Such visits should be suggestive, and not examinational. The city superintendent should be in every sense an educator, and as such he would seek unity rather than uniformity, and he would give to each district superintendent liberty to develop his pedagogical powers, but would check that which partakes of the nature of license. The superintendent, principals, and teachers of each district would now be likely to do their utmost to develop the best schools in the city, and a health- ful competitive spirit might readily be maintained. In four or five years marked differences in regard to the degree of excellence of the schools of the various districts would appear. The schools of the incompetent and non-energetic superintend- ents woiild be likely to fall so far behind the best that such officers could not well retain their posi- tions, and a natural weeding out of incompetent persons would ensue. Secondly, a board of superintendents, of which each district superintendent should be a member and the city superintendent the presiding ofBeer, should be formed. This board should meet frequently for educational discussions, and all im- PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 53 portant matters concerning the pedagogical man- agement of the schools should be brought before it. The course of studies should result from the conferences of this board. Above all, the power to appoint principals and teachers should be vested in this board of superintendents. As each district superintendent would be held responsible for the condition of the schools of his district, his wishes concerning the persons to be appointed should be respected ; he should be allowed to nominate the teachers, but the board of super- intendents should confirm the nominations and retain a veto power. Under these conditions ap- pointments would be made for merit alone, and each district superintendent would certainly do his utmost to find proper persons to fill vacan- cies. Also, the power to discharge principals and teachers should be vested in the board of su- perintendents. The city superintendent should be appointed by the Board of Education, but as he would be held responsible for the schools of all the districts, he should have the power to nominate his assistants, and not more than a veto power should be vested in the Board of Education. The financial management of the schools should remain in the hands of business men, but all mat- ters pertaining to the educational part of the system — the construction of the course of studies, the appointment and discharge of principals and teachers — should be in the hands of the board of experts. 54 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF NEW YORK The addifcional expense that would be incurred under this plan would be, comparatively speak- ing, only nominal. An allowance of four thou- sand dollars for a district superintendent and ten thousand dollars to each district for special super- visors would require an additional expenditure of less than two hundred thousand dollars a year, an increase of only five per cent, over that now incurred by the maintenance of the corps of teachers. CHAPTER II THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMOEB AS in New York, so ia Baltimore, we find a J\. school system that represents mechanical education almost in its purity. Indeed, all things considered, the schools of Baltimore compare un- favorably even with those of New York. While the schools of New York are in the main mechan- ical, at least this much can be said in their fa- vor, — namely, that none but trained teachers are now appointed. In Baltimore, on the other hand, it is only in exceptional instances that trained teachers are added to the corps. A characteristic feature of the schools of Balti- more lies in the fact that in the lower primary grades an amount of time entirely beyond the needs of the case is devoted to the study of arith- metic, and in its most abstract form. Among the first of the lessons that I witnessed in that city was a recitation in arithmetic in an " advanced first grade" (actually the second school year). The description of this lesson will indicate in what a soul-inspiring manner from one fourth to one third of the time is spent in the average 56 THE PVBLIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMORE Baltimore primary school during the first two years of school life. On entering the class-room a large blackboard entirely covered with problems in addition, in endless variety, struck my eye. First there were columns such as — 1+1= 1+2= 2+1= 2+2= 3+1= 3+2= running down to 10 + 1 = and 10 + 2 =, re- spectively. Then there were columns of mixed figures, four lines deep, five lines deep, and ten lines deep; next, examples in horizontal lines, such as 3+6 + 8 + 4=, and columns where each succeed- ing figure was 5 greater than the one before: thus, 1, 6, 11, 16; 2, 7, 12, 17; and so on. " We are just adding," the teacher said to me. " I am very particular with their adding. I devote from one and a half to one and three quarter hours a day to this subject ; and I will tell you," she continued, growing quite enthusiastic, " my pupils can add ! " She then faced the class and said, "Start that column over again." A little boy (apparently the leader of the orchestra) now began to tap on the blackboard with a stick, beating time upon the figures, while the class sang in perfect rhythm : " 1 and 1 are 2 ; 2 and 1 are 3 ; 3 and 1 are 4," and so on until the column was completed ; next they began with 2 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMOliE 57 and 1, 2 and 2, etc. (When later they came to 5 and 8 are 13, 5 and 9 are 14, the rhythm was re- tained, but the effect was changed.) Next came a column of 2s, the children adding " 2 and 2 are 4 5 4 and 2 are 6," and so on. The teacher here said to me, " Now I shall let them add that column mentally." Upon receiving such an order, the children cried out, " 2, 4, 6, 8, 10." I discovered, therefore, that this teacher's idea of the difference between written and mental arithmetic was simply that in mental arithmetic the " and (2) are" is left ont. Thus 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 is mental arithmetic, while 2 and 2 are 4, 4 and 2 are 6 is the other kind. When the children had reached the bottom of the last column in sight, I thought that they had finished. But here I was mistaken. The board had two faces, and turned on pivots. In an in- stant it was swung around, and then I discovered that the other side of the board was also com- pletely covered with columns in addition. When this exercise was finished the children had some reading. The reading was fully as mechanical as the arithmetic. It amounted sim- ply to calling off words. Not only was there no expression, but there was not even an inflection, or a pause at a comma or a period. Nor did the teacher ever correct mispronounced words, or make any attempt to teach the pupils how to read. Before the children began to read the des- 58 TRB PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMORE ignated lesson, there was a ludicrously mechani- cal introduction, including the calling ofE of the words placed at the top of the page, thus : "Page 56, Lesson XVIII., The Dog and the Rat. Dog, Rat, Catch, Room, Run, Smell, Wag, Jump." And then came the story. Besides reading and arithinetic, there is, in this grade, oral spelling, a subject which is by no means neglected. This exercise is carried on both individually and in concert. The children also have instruction in penmanship. The re- mainder of the time is occupied as follows: Drawing twenty minutes twice a week, an object- lesson of thirty minutes once a week, and music fifteen minutes daily. Now, as to the modifications of the above meth- ods in the various schools, I found but few. In arithmetic this was mainly confined to the skill with which the children at the board wielded the baton while pointing to the figures and beating time. In some cases this procedure was ex- tremely complicated and still more ludicrous, Reading-lessons, such as the one described above, I found in abundance, and the results were, as might be expected, miserable. In one class I found that the children did use inflections while reading. They religiously raised their voices two tones at commas and dropped them four tones at periods. I asked one of the primary principals whether she believed in the professional training of teachers. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMORE 59 "I do not," she answered emphatically. "I speak from experience. A graduate of the Mary- land Normal School once taught under me, and she was n't as good a teacher as those who came from the High School." One of the primary teachers said to me: "I formerly taught in the higher grades, but I had an attack of nervous prostration some time ago, and the doctor recommended rest. So I now teach in the primary, because teaching primary children does not tax the mind." I had occasion to attend a number of geogra- phy lessons. Such a thing as teaching geography from pictures, from the molding-board and the like, was, as far as I could discover, unknown in Baltimore. It was all text-book work, and the words in the book were studied veriatim. In the highest primary grade, where geography is be- gun, the children learn how to rattle off defini- tions quite marvelously. I heard in one class the recitation of geographical definitions and of the boundaries of States in concert. In the grammar- schools, text-books were used in studying geog- raphy. The teachers, in most instances, opened their text-books at the page containing the sub- ject of the day's lesson, and asked — or rather read aloud — the questions printed upon the page; and in reply the children endeavored to recite, word for word, the text-book answers to these questions. I met one principal who was quite enthusiastic, but as she was hampered in her 60 THE I-UBLIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMORE work by lack of professional training, the teacli- ing throughout her school did not differ much from that of other schools. She informed me, while speaking of natural-science work, that phys- ics was studied quite thoroughly in the schools of Baltimore. " Do the children experiment for themselves," I asked, "or do the teachers perform the experi- ments?" " Oh, we have no experiments," she said. " We learn our physics from books. The city supplies us with no apparatus. We are at liberty to ex- periment if we desire. A friend of mine, a prin- cipal, informed me that she tried an experiment once, but it was a failure, and she vowed that she would never dream of making another one." In one class where they were having physi- ology, in answer to the question, "What is the effect of alcohol on the system ? " I heard a ten- year-old cry out at the top of his voice, and at the rate of a hundred miles an hour, "It — dwarfs — the — body, — mind, — and — soul, — weakens — the — heart, — and — enfeebles — the — memory." " And what are the effects of tobacco ? " asked the teacher. In answer to this, one boy called off, in rapid succession, more diseases than are known to most physicians. "What brings on these diseases, excessive or moderate smoking ? " " Moderate smoking," was the prompt reply. (/' THE PUBLIC SCBOOLS OF BALTIMORE 61 No-w, what do these illustrations mean? Sim- ply that I did not succeed in discovering any evi- dence that the science of education had as yet found its way into the public schools of Balti- more. Is the pedagogical law requiring that the time and energies of the child be used to the best possible advantage taken into account when an hour and a half are devoted daUy for two years to addition, and perhaps to a little subtraction; or when, in teaching children to read, two years or more are required to obtain results which (as the schools of a nximber of cities prove) might be at- tained in six months or less % Or is the law that the study of things must precede the study of words regarded when objective work is almost entirely neglected, and the sciences of physics and physiology are learned practically from books alone? What is there of a scientific nature in the teaching of geography — that study which can be made the means of opening channels of inter- est in so many directions — when the instruction dwindles down to little, if any, more than hearing the children recite the words they have learned verbatim from a text-book? Is the fundamental law of pedagogy not absolutely ignored when all interest is crushed out of the process of learning, and what can be less interesting to little children than the computation of abstract numbers by the hour, or calling off words in a meaningless way from a reading-book? Is there anything less in- teresting and more burdensome than learning 62 TEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMORE text-books by heart, and especially when the words convey little meaning to the learner? And, finally, what is there in the teaching above de- scribed which could not be undertaken by any one able to read, write, and cipher ? The causes of this deplorable condition of affairs in Baltimore are not difficult to discover. First. The citizens of Baltimore glory in the fact that their schools are among the best in the country; or, as the more modest claim, second to none but those of Boston. And if things are per- fect or nearly so, why interfere ? Secondly. The Board of Education of Baltimore is a purely political organization, its members be- ing elected, one for each ward, by the members of the Common Council. But whUe each member of the school-board is officially elected by a majority vote of the Common Council, he is — so far as I have been able to learn — practically appointed by the member of the Common Council from his own ward, — that is, he is nominated by him, and the nomination rarely fails to receive the official con- firmation. The Board of Education of the city of Baltimore is, therefore, a product of the ward politicians. Thirdly. The supervision is by far too meager. While the city has some twelve hundred public- school teachers, the siipervisory staff consists of only two members. With six hundred teachers in his own charge a superintendent is able to do very Uttle toward raising their standard. Besides, the schools of Baltimore have not even supervising THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMORE 63 principals, each principal having charge of a class of his own which he teaches during the entire school period. Fourthly. The schools of Baltimore are almost entirely in the hands of untrained teachers. Of those now in the system, some are high-school graduates, others have had no high-school educa- tion, and but comparatively few have ever received any professional training whatever. Further, po- litical influence appears to play a much greater part in their appointment than merit. Although they are officially appointed by a majority vote of the Board of Education, the power to appoint teachers lies practically in the hands of local com- mittees, consisting of two members, who have special charge of the schools of the two wards which they represent. These members nominate the teachers for the schools in their own wards, and the Board of Education simply confirms their nomination. Now, as each member of the school- board depends for his appointment on the coun- cilman from his ward, it may readily be perceived to what extent the appointment of Baltimore's teachers lies in the hands of its ward politicians. The teacher is at first appointed on probation, the probational period being ninety days. Should her services during this time prove satisfactory, she receives a permanent license, which entitles her to teach for ten years. But, unfortunately, the supervisory staff is so small that each school can be visited but seldom by its members, and the ninety days' probation may elapse before either 64 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BALTIMORE one of them gets a single chance to see the teacher at work in her class-room. This does not, how- ever, deprive her of the right of receiving her permanent license when the probational period has expired. The discharge of teachers for neg- ligence or incompetency is an almost unheard-of affair. There was one teacher who remained at home every time it rained, and yet she was not removed. In consideration of these conditions — the schools practically in the hands of ward politi- cians, the teachers untrained and the supervision far too scanty — it is but natural that the schools of Baltimore should he as they are. The causes of the evils are so manifest that the remedies actually suggest themselves. They con- sist in taking the schools out of the domain of politics, in employing more adequately prepared teachers, and in rendering the supervision more thorough. As the plan of school government that I suggested for the improvement of the schools of New York city has for its object the eradication of evils similar to those found in the schools of Baltimore, it consequently applies to the schools of the latter city as well as it does to those of New York. Under a management of some such nature the schools of Baltimore would undoubtedly, within a very few years, pre- sent an entirely different aspect. Until a material change is effected, those attending the schools of that city will be doomed, to a miserable childliood- CHAPTER III THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO THE public schools of Buffalo, like those of Baltimore, beloug, in my opinion, to the me- chanical order of schools. By mechanical schools I mean, as I stated in the introduction, those schools that aim to cram the minds of children with words without regard to the things they represent, with abstract ideas without regard to the concrete, and where, in consequence, the in- struction appeals to the mechanical memory rather than to the reasoning faculties. Whether in the present era mechanical instruc- tion be justifiable — that is, whether a teacher be justified in ignoring all that has been done by educational scientists toward placing education on a rational basis — may be a matter of opinion. But it is certainly not proper for school officials to condemn strongly all that pertains to the me- chanical, and to indorse warmly the views of educational scientists, and then to convey to the public the impression that they practise in their schools what they preach outside of them, when in truth the schools in their charge are pervaded 5 65 66 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO with just those things which they condemn, while those which they commend cannot be found in them. A striking instance of this nature may be found at Buffalo, and, in order to illustrate my meaning, I shall compare what the superintendent of schools in that city remarks in his annual re- port of 1889-90, in regard to what schools should do and what they should not do, with the instruc- tion as I found it in the schools in his charge. The following are extracts from that report : III bringing into our present system of instruction the innumerable material objects and the tools with which manual training works out its processes, we must note a strict adherence to the universally accepted psychological law that the concrete should precede the abstract. It goes without saying that a pupil's conception of an idea, embod- ied in a tangible form, will be infinitely clearer than that of one who tries to gi'asp it by means of a mere word-pic- ture of it. . . . For youthful minds, any system of education that deals almost wholly with abstractions is not so well adapted to the purposes of a mental discipline as one which employs the lucid and attractive methods of ex- perimental philosophy, as evinced in the working of con- crete substances. \.Page 107.] Following these are words to the effect that there is a tendency on the part of the school to make automatons of children, that there is a necessity of breaking up the extreme uniformity, and that we " must have some regard for the dif- fering assimilative powers of the young and pre- cious minds committed to our charge." THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OP BXJPPALO 67 On every side we see immistakable evidences of a new- adaptation of means to ends, and it would augur ill for the conceded [by whom conceded?] advancement of our own school department, were we content to labor with methods and materials that have long since been relegated to a merited obscurity, to make way for new, easier and more successful means of instruction. [Page 103.] my desire, to keep the school department of our city abreast of the foremost in the race for supremacy. iPage 102.] These remarljs indicate tliat the superintendent of schools of Buffalo desires to convey two dis- tinct impressions : First, that he is among those who favor natural development — teaching upon psychological principles — and that he is strongly opposed to all methods which savor of the me- chanical. Secondly, that in all things short of manual training, the teaching in the public schools of Buffalo is not only conducted on psy- chological principles, but that natural teaching had nowhere reached a higher stage of develop- ment than in the schools of that city, and conse- quently that no schools had done more than these toward discarding "methods and materials that have long since been relegated to a merited ob- scurity." How otherwise can we construe the words "my desire to keep the school department of our city abreast of the foremost in the race for supremacy " ? I shall now describe some of the teaching that I witnessed in the public schools of Buffalo, in order to give the reader an opportunity to judge 68 THE PUBLIC SCBOOLS OF BUFFALO for himself how well the claim to superiority bears the test of actual investigation. In a school that has the reputation of being one of the best in the city, I attended two lessons in geography, one in the fourth and the other in the sixth grade, which on account of their peculiar nature should not be passed by unnoticed. First, the fourth-gi-ade lesson. Tliis lesson was divided into two parts, a written and an oral. During the written part the children wrote on their slates the answers to map-questions, which the teacher read to them from the text-book in the order in which they were printed. After some twenty questions had been asked and answered in this manner, the teacher said : " That will do for the present; now let us see how many missed." She then told the class the correct answers, and while she did so the children looked at their slates in order to see how many misses they had made. When all the answers had been given, the teacher inquired, " How many had all right ? How many missed one ? How many missed two ? " etc., etc. This process completed, the teacher remarked : "Now we will have that lesson orally, and let us see how many will miss." During the written lesson nothing worth speak- ing of was done beside that which I have men- tioned. In the oral part the same questions were asked as in the written part, the only difference between the oral and the written lesson being that in the one the answers were spoken, while in the other they were written. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO G9 In the sixth grade the subject of the lesson was California. During this recitation no text-book was used by the teacher. The teacher opened the lesson with the question, " How long does it take to go to California?" Then correcting herself, she said, " No, tell me first why you would like to go to California," though no one had expressed any particular desire to go there. "I should like to take a drive around the moun- tains," answered one of the children. "I should like to see the Golden G-ate," said another. This answer was followed by a cry of " Chest- nuts ! " from one of the boys. This remark did not, however, attract the attention of the teacher. In fact, during the entire lesson there was a com- plete absence of discipline. After the children had given their reasons for desiring to go to California, the teacher remarked, " Now tell me how long it takes to go there." In reply to this all sorts of guesses were made, the lowest being five days, and the highest seven weeks. At last a little girl said: "I know. My ma- ma went to California last winter. She started on a Thtirsday evening — " This manner of solving the problem did not, however, appear to meet with unanimous ap- proval, as the child's remarks were cut short by a cry of " Come off!" Unfortunately, to the teacher herself, the whole subject of California appeared to be involved in 70 TBIi PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO as deep a mystery as the language of the Hin- doos. Indeed, the children appeared to do more toward the enlightenment of the teacher tlian the latter did to enlighten them. Nevertheless, she finally put an end to the agonizing suspense by saying, " I think it would take abotit a week." " Through what cities would you pass in travel- ing from Buffalo to Calif ornia ? " was the next question. " Chicago," said one of the children. "Let me see," the teacher remarked, as she walked to the wall-map to verify the answer. When other cities were mentioned, she did the same thing. "What can you tell me about San Francisco?" she asked later. "It is the largest city in California," a pupil replied. " It is one of the largest, but I don't know that it is the largest," said the teacher. This ridiculous recitation was closed with the reading of an extract from an article on Califor- nia, which one of the children had found in an encyclopedia. In one of the other schools that I visited the pedagogical absurdities were numerous, but in describing the work I observed there, I shall, for the purpose of economizing space, confine my re- marks to the curiosities which I found in one of the lower grades. The first thing I heard in that room was a spell- TEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO 71 ing-lesson. The teacher informed me that it was to be a new lesson, and that I should therefore have the opportunity to learn her method of teaching spelling. She announced the lesson by telling the children to ttirn to a certain page in their reading-books. When all the little ones were ready, they began to spell in concert, and continued doing so until the List of words on that page was completed. Each word was spelled twice in succession, and in a sing-song so marked that it resulted in a well- defined melody. As the effect cannot be repro- duced in words alone, I shall give the music as well as the words. The words "steal" and "their," for example, were sung as follows: Con espressione. -V- V— b»— 1»- 5— Steal s - t - e - a - 1 steal, steal s-t-e-a- 1 steal, ^~^~C=C= £^P g=r"^ - =C=rC=C:B ^^^^ their t-h-e-i- r their, their t-h-e-i- r their. When the children had sung all the words in the list, they were told to spell them once more. The whole process was then repeated. After the words had been spelled in this man- ner for the second time, the lesson took a new turn. The children were now told to close their books, and when this had been done the teacher heard them spell individually the words they had 72 TMJE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO just studied in concert. When all the words had been spelled by the children individually, I ex- pected to heai- another subject announced, but I learned, to my u.tter amazement, that the pupils were to be treated to a third course; for the teacher here remarked : " We will now write the words." This announcement was followed by a consider- able amount of bustle and confusion on the part of the children, and order was not restored until slates, pencils, and rulers had been placed in po- sition. When all was quiet, one of the pupils called out : '' I ain't got no ruler." In answer to this the teacher, without correct- ing or even paying the slightest attention to the incorrect language that had been used by the child, said to him : "You don't need a ruler. Do it the way you done it yesterday." Then the words of the oft-repeated list were slowly dictated by the teacher. When the word "steal" was reached, she remarked: " Spell the ' steal ' you spelled this morning, not the ' steel ' you spelled yesterday." When the word "their" was reached, the teacher asked, " How do you spell 'their'?" "T-h-e-i-r— their," sang the children. Wliat kind of a 't' do you use in their ? " " Capital ' t,' " one of the pupils answered. " That 's right," said the teacher. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO Y3 One of the children here remarked melodiously : can't make cap i 5=g I I kin." sang another. Here the teacher said to me, " They don't use capital letters regularly in this class ; I only let them use capitals when they write proper names and proper things." At last the spelling was over, and a lesson in arithmetic was hegun. The first example the teacher gave them was the following : 6—2+4=? After the children had written this upon their slates, motions were made by them which indi- cated that they had had a considerable amount of experience in counting on their fingers. One boy displayed quite an original method of calculating. He performed the example in this way : he made six strokes upon his slate, rubbed out two of them, added four strokes to those remaining, and fin- ished by counting the number of strokes then on his slate. It was all done with remarkable rapid- ity. When a number of examples had been per- formed the teacher said: " Now I will give you one in subtraction. You know that 's the kind you have to borrow in." 74 TSE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO I visited a number of classes in this building, and before leaving it I saw things which con- vinced me that the pedagogical skill of other teachers employed there was not much above that displayed by the one whose work I have just described. Space will not permit me to enter further into the detailed description of Buffalo's class-room work. Indeed it were needless to do so, for, owing to ' the general uniformity of methods in vogue in the public schools of that city, their gen- eral characteristic features may be summed up in a few words. An exception here and there among seven hundred teachers does not alter the rule. A subject on which much stress is laid, and which may be regarded as bearing to a great ex- tent the same relation to the schools of Buffalo as arithmetic does to those of Baltimore, is spell- ing. So much importance is attached to this sub- ject that even the five-year-old children are taxed with spelling-lessons twenty to twenty-five min- utes in duration. One of the teachers, while speaking to me on this subject, said: "I do wish we would return to the alphabet method of teaching reading, because those chil- dren who know their alphabet progress most rap- idly in spelling." Geography, a subject which, when treated sci- entifically, cannot only be made very interesting but can do much toward exercising the reasoning THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO 75 faculties, is taught by the "cramming" process, mere lesson-learning taking the place of true in- struction. Indeed the scientific teaching of ge- ography is an art, while the process of simply hearing children recite the geography lessons that they have studied can be undertaken by any one able to read. The methods employed in teaching technical grammar to the younger children are anything but modern. Reading is taught by the word method, a method which, when used without the aid of phonics (as is the case in Buffalo), does less to develop mental power and more to waste time than any that I know of — excejitmg, perliaps, the alphabet method. Arithmetic is taught in an almost purely abstract manner from the very beginning. And even physics — which is studied in the highest grade — is taught not by the experi- mental, but by the text-book method. In fact, taken all in all, I found very little in the public schools of Buffalo to indicate that in that city "methods and materials that have long since been relegated to a merited obscurity " had made way for " new, easier, and more successfiil means of instruction." Indeed I found but few cities where so little had been done toward lightening the burdens of the children — and particularly the younger ones — by discarding abstract in favor of objective and experimental methods. The causes of the deplorable condition of the public schools of Buffalo are the same as those that were mentioned as leading to a similar condi- 76 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO tion of affairs at Baltimore,— namely, politics, un- trained teachers, and scanty supervision. In regard to politics, the schools of Buffalo are even more deeply involved than those of Balti- more. That the Board of Education is a purely political body is evidenced by the fact that it is constituted by a Committee of Seven of the Common Council. As for the superintendent, he is elected directly by the people, and must therefore almost necessarily be a politician. And when we con- sider that the superintendent has the sole power to appoint teachers, it becomes clear that political influence is liable to play a very important part in their appointment. Until recently matters were apparently still worse, as the superintendent had the sole power to examine as well as appoint teachers; and. what is more, he had full power to regulate the character of the examination, with- out being restricted, as far as I can learn, to any fixed minimum. The result is that a large num- ber of incompetent teachers have found their way into the schools of Buffalo ; in fact, only a com- paratively small number of Buffalo's teachers are normal-school gradiiates. The supervision itself is of the scantiest, the city superintendent being the only supervising officer, although there are seven hundred teachers in the system. 'Wliat can a single person do toward raising the standard of seven hundred teachers'? Were he to devote all his time and energy to this end he could accomplish but little, THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO 77 and how much less can he do when a portion of his time and energy must necessarily be spent in work connected with his office from which the teacher can receive no direct benefit, and when an- other portion of his time and energy must be spent in " pulling wires " and otherwise working toward a reelection? When all these things are con- sidered, — supervision, office work, and electioneer- ing, — we find that (speaking with mathematical accuracy) Buffalo has, for the purpose of super- vising and raising the standard of seven hundred teachers, not even one, but only one third of one, superintendent. An action was recently taken at Buffalo which it was believed would lead to the improvement of the schools, — namely, a board was established for the purpose of examining candidates for teachers' positions and exercising a sort of general super- vision over the schools. But there are a number of reasons why this board is liable to do but little, if anything, toward raising the standard of the schools. First, the board is composed of laymen, and consequently of persons not qualified to in- quire into the true competency of a teacher, true competency depending on a knowledge of just those things of which laymen are supposed to know nothing, — namely, psychology and peda- gogy, the sciences upon which scientific teaching is founded. Secondly, the board has not the power to examine candidates as it sees fit, but only to formulate questions within certain limits 78 THE PUBLIC SCBOOLS 0I<' BUFFALO prescribed by the superintendent, who, as before, is privileged to make the standard as low as he chooses. Besides, this officer still retains the power to appoint teachers, the only restriction now laid on him being that the appointments must be made from among those who passed the examination of the board with an average of sev- enty per cent., or over — without, however, being obliged to regard the order of merit. Under these circumstances I fail to perceive why the superintendent should not conduct the examinations as heretofore, the advantage derived by an examination of the board over one given by the superintendent being a mystery to me. It is true that an examination by the board will pre- vent cheating on the part of the superintendent; but it certainly reflects badly on the city itself, if it feels the need of creating a board to watch a man who, above all others, should be scrupulously honest. Besides, as has been pointed out, the quality of the schools does not depend nearly so much on what the teachers know at the time of their ap- pointment as it does on what is done toward educating them professionally after their appoint- ment. It is true that the members of the Boai-d of Examiners are obliged to exercise a general supervision over the schools. But if they are expected to do anything toward raising the stan- dard of the teachers, which is the true essence of supervision, then they are supposed, as laymen, to TSE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO 79 be able to instruct teachers in the science of edu- cation and the art of teaching, which but renders their position doubly absurd. It follows that something much more radical must be done before the schools of Buffalo may be expected to improve to an appreciable extent. As the causes of evils in Buffalo — politics, un- trained teachers, and scanty supervision — are identical with those which were found at Balti- more, I can but suggest identical remedies for their eradication. To rid the schools of politics nothing hvA a complete reorganization of the whole school system will sufiice, for the reason that at Buffalo politics enter into every branch of the system. And to remedy the evils arising from incompetent teachers, I know of but one thing that can be relied upon,— namely, thorough supervision. CHAPTER IV THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI THE schools of Cincinnati are, in my opinion, upon much the same level as those of Balti- more and Buffalo, as little having been done here as in the other two cities toward substituting objective and experimental for abstract and me- chanical methods of instruction. It is true that principals and teachers who endeavor to obtain results by more rational means may here and there be found, but this is no less true of Balti- more or Buffalo. To review in detail the methods of instruction followed in the schools of Cincinnati would be, therefore, but to repeat in substance much of what was mentioned while speaking of the schools of Baltimore and Buffalo. I have said all, gener- ally speaking, when I remark that the schools of Cincinnati have as yet scarcely opened their doors to the new education. But there are a number of things besides me- chanical methods that serve to render miserable the lives of the children attending the public schools of Cincinnati. The child requires air and THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI 81 sunshine, but a large number of the buildings are dark and gloomy, and in many of them the laws of health are otherwise ignored, the class- rooms being overcrowded and poorly ventilated. I found one room where the furniture was so closely packed that the children were literally obliged to squeeze their little bodies in between the desks and the backs of their benches, there being scarcely room enough for them to expand their lungs, much less to move their limbs about freely. In another room the seats were so ar- ranged that a few of the children were obliged to sit veiy near a large stove. And, to cap the climax, corporal punishment is still used to a disgraceful extent in the public schools of Cincinnati. In some of the schools there appear to be hundreds of regular cases a month. This does not include incidental punishments, such as pulling the hair or the ears of the pupils, or pinching their cheeks. And yet we hear the board sing its song of praise. We hear it congratulate itself upon its own magnificence, and the citizens of Cincinnati upon their good fortune in securing a board so wonderful and teachers so fine. The following extracts from the report of the president of the Board of Education for the year ending August 31, 1891, published in the "Sixty-second Annual Report of the Public Schools of Cincinnati," will show that this is no exaggeration. I reproduce the words here, believing that they will scarcely fail to interest the careful reader, if for no other 82 TRE PUBLIC SCEOOLS OF CINCINNATI reason than that they wore written by one who is at the head of a public-school system. While we justly take credit to ourselves — that is, the board — for our new buildings, and for the excellent finan- cial condition of the board, and for all those things that but for which it might not be possible to accomplish the good we do, or be able to congratulate ourselves upon our great public-school system ; yet after all is said and done — after all of the school-houses are built and all of the money necessary provided and spent — what would it all go for, what credit to any one, if the end to be served was not realized? What is that end? The education of the youth of our city. To learn, one must be taught or teach them- selves. The child, being too young to educate itself, must ' be taught. To be taught, one must have a teacher, and there we are brought to the shrine before which the whole public-school system must bow — the work of the teacher. All the other matters are but incidental — are but the means to the end — to the crowning work of the teacher. When we consider the system, we look only for the re- sults — we think not of the buildings occupied, not of the amount of money expended, not of the care exercised in its expenditure, not of the personnel of the Board of Educa- tion. We '11 not be thought of in connection with the schools fifty years henee^not of the great financiers — all excellent and to be commended. It is not that the Building Committee shall be glorified and their names go down into coming time emblazoned on the front of the new buildings ; it is not that the Committee on Funds and Claims shall wear, the laurel wreath of the victor over the difficult financial questions ; not that the Committee on Heating, Fixtures, and Fuel shall properly make things warm. No, no ; none of these things stand as representative of the system of public instruction ; but it is the result of the whole, and the one nearest that result is the one through whose direct efforts the result is reached ; TBE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI 83 that one is the teacher. We point to the graduate from our higli schools as the representative of our public-school system. He is the presumed embodiment of all that goes to make us the name we have. He is the result of the teachers' work. It is the teachers' work which makes the record; which commands the pi-aise; which earns and is entitled to the highest appreciation. It is that which will live and benefit coming generations. The education of the youth, that is the end sought; that reached, crowns our success. And so here I give to the teachers, to the instructors, to the educators, the larger part of the praise for the magnifi- cent results secured during the year. From the opening of the Normal School to the close of the school year, they have been earnest in their work, faithful and attentive to their duties. In concluding this report, as the president of the board, I wish to publicly express my sincere thanks to the mem- bers for the kindness and courtesy shown me on all oc- casions during the past year. The assistance rendered me by the members has materially lightened the duties of my office. The Board of Education is entitled to the encour- agement and the confidence of the people of Cincinnati. We believe that the trust confided to our care has been carefully and judiciously managed, and that every act and deed of the board will bear the closest scrutiny and inspection. I again express my appreciation of courtesies shown me by the members of the Board of Education, in whose behalf this report is respectfully submitted. I shall now relate a few of my Cincinnati class- room experiences in order to show why I cannot indorse the sentiments expressed by the president. The most striking peculiarity of the Cincinnati 84 THJi PCBLIC SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI schools exists, in my opinion, in the fact that so much time is devoted to concert recitations, — a form of instruction than which there is none so preeminently fitted to deaden the soul and con- vert human beings into automatons. These reci- tations are heard, as a rule, as soon as a district (primary) school building is entered, and in tones so loud that the uninitiated might readily mistake them for signals of distress. My experiences of this nature w^ere frequent. In one of the schools I heard on entering the building sounds unusually shrill coming from one of the class-rooms, and being prompted by my desire to know the true cause of so much commotion, I entered the room whence they came. What did I see? Only this.- a teacher and about a dozen pupils standing before a black- board covered with lists of words, spelling the word " Quail" at the top of their voices, and in melodious tones, thus: Vivace, Quail q - u - a - i - 1 quail. Quail q - u - a - i - 1 qnail. When the teacher found occasion to take a moment's rest, she said to me : "These are my poorest spellers; they always need an extra drilling. Quail appears to be a very difficult word for them to remember. I must give them a little more drill upon it.'' THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI 85 She then returned to the blackboard and told the children to continue. As a signal for them to start, she pointed with her stick to the letter Q, and after they had begun she swept the stick from left to right along the word "Quail," en- deavoring in this manner to keep them in time while they were spelling the word. To keep them in time was, however, no easy matter. They kept together fairly well until they had spelled the word two or three times, but after that their voices became ever more independent, so that soon a regular medley ensued, some calling out the word "Quail," while others had only reached the letter " 1," and still others had gone no further than "i." The "mystery of the strange sounds" was solved. When the word "Quail" had been earnestly, thoroughly, and conscientiously studied, the word "Market" was begun. Although the spelling of this word was carried on upon the same principles as those which governed the spelling of the word "Quail," nevertheless the monotony was broken, for the reason that both the melody and the tempo were changed. While "Quail" was sung rapidly and with much spirit, "Market" was sung slowly and plaintively, thus : Andante con espressione. Mar mar k e t ket mar - ket. 86 TEE FVBLIC SCHOOLS OF CIJSICINNATI After a few more words had been studied in this manner, the teacher said that she would let me hear the whole class read. The sentence, "Is it a quail, John?" had pre- viously been written upon another blackboard, and the teacher asked the children to read it together. "Read it backward first," she said. The children then read the words as the teacher pointed to them with her baton, and after they had read the sentence backward and forward, they spelled all the words contained in it. The teacher endeavored to keep them in time by sweeping her stick across each word while the children were spelling it, as she had done in the other case. The effect, as near as I can reproduce it, was as follows : Moderato. Allegro. f\ A '-W^^i c^-f^ f=^-£=^f '-^'-^^ -cr^r- f John, quail, a it is, is it aqaaQ, John? i-s is, i-s is, h h A h A 2S=s=i I I l t» '— JK y l > t it. q-u-a-1-1 quail. ^^g^^|E£^^^^ q-u-a-i-l quail,cap'tal J-o-h-n John, cap'talJ- o - li - n Jolm. "You don't spell 'John' very well yet," the teacher now remarked. "Let us try it over again, but don't sing it." THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI 87 She then spelled the word for the class, imme- diately, however, falling into the sing-song which she had told the children to avoid. After she had sung it alone two or three times, the voices of the children began to chime in, but she con- tinued to spell with them. While teaching the children to spell the word "John," she adopted a different plan of leading them. She now beat time, and this she did most comically, by bringing her hands (with the backs upward) as near to her shoulders as possible, when she pronounced the word "capital," and thrusting them forcibly for- ward when she uttered the " J." "I do have such trouble in getting these chil- di-en to recite together," the teacher afterward said to me. If such teaching represents education upon psycho- logical principles, it is not at all surprising that so many persons should ie opposed to modern methods. In one of the other classes that I visited in this school, some of the children were reading while others were writing. After hearing some of them read, the teacher said to me : " Now I will let one of those engaged in writing read for you. I always like to see whether they can read what they write. They copy the words from the board, you know, and so I am not always sure that they can read what they wi'ite." She then said to one of the children : " Lucy, read what 's on your slate for that there gentleman." 88 THJi PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI Lucy then came forward courageously and read this thrilling tale : " The cows feed on the grass. At night they come to the barn." Allegro. f-doub-le-e d feed, f - donb-le - e - d feed. It must not be supposed that the above- described method of teaching spelUng is confined to this one school. Indeed my observations led me to believe that this was the method commonly used in the schools of Cincinnati. A reading-lesson that I attended in the third- year class of another school presented some spe- cial features, though the method in itself was typical. The lesson was announced soon after I entered the room. When all the children had placed their books upon the desks, the teacher said : "Position! Books in your left hands; right hands behind your backs ! " The lesson was conducted as follows : One child was called upon to read a paragraph, then an- other pupil was told to read the same paragraph over again, and lastly, this paragraph was read by the class in concert. The same course was pur- sued in all the paragraphs read. Taken all in all. TSE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI 89 this reading sounded like a piece of musie consist- ing of a solo, an echo, and a chorus. How inter- esting the story must have been to the children ! In one of the pieces read the word " merchant " appeared. "What is a merchant?" the teacher inquired after one of the children had read the word. " A merchant is a tailor," answered one. "A merchant is a man what keeps dry-goods stores," said another. "A merchant is a man what buys cheap and kin sell dear," remarked a third. At last a little boy, with a triumphant air, cried out, "A merchant is a man what sells goods." The teacher corrected none of these mistakes in language ; but when one of the children had read the sentence, "I broke the glass, and I will pay for it," the teacher said, "What mistake did he make?" " Teacher," answered one, " he said ' glass ' and he ought 'a' said ' glars.'" " Right," said the teacher. It is teaching of this nature that the president of Cincinnati's Board of Education calls magnifi- cent. But what this teaching shows beyond the fact that the teachers are not illiterates it is diffi- cult to perceive. In searching for the causes of the evils in the Cincinnati public schools, we are confronted at the outset with our old acquaintance — scanty super- vision, there being but one man to supervise and 90 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI professionally educate seven hundred teachers, but one person to do the work of half a dozen. As far as politics are concerned, the schools of Cincinnati are not now as obviously involved as those of Baltimore and Buffalo. Until a few years ago, however, the politicians were in pos- session of the schools. That they abused their power is only too well known in Cincinnati, and it cannot be doubted that the old board is respon- sible for many of the evils found in the schools of that city to-day. The power to appoint teachers, which is now in the hands of the superintendent, was then in the hands of the members of the board, and during the reign of the politicians many incompetent teachers were brought into the schools. As Cincinnati has an exceptionally stable corps of teachers, not more than five or six per cent, of changes occurring annually, the vast majority of those appointed years ago are still in the schools. This circumstance may, in large part, account for the fact that although during the past few years scarcely any but graduates of the Cincinnati Normal School have been ap- pointed, the corps of teachers on the whole is still so obviously lacking in professional qualification. But, after all, to fix the responsibility for the evils is of much less importance than to remedy them. As the most flagrant evils found in the schools of Cincinnati are due to the professional incompetency of the teachers, the chief remedy for Cincinnati's school evils lies in rendering the THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI 91 teachers competent by giving them a professional education. To educate them thoroughly, Cincin- nati, as Buffalo, would require a supervisory staff consisting of five or six educational experts. CHAPTER V THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS ALTHOUGH in the schools thus far described XA. the evils can be traced to several causes, their unscientific character might nevertheless be accounted for by a single element common to them all, — namely, the scantiness of the supervi- sion. In all of them the number of teachers in charge of a supervising officer is so large that even if the superintendents should labor under the most favorable conditions, it would be impos- sible for them to do much toward raising the standard of the schools. While, therefore, in previous chapters I have endeavored to point out that schools can scarcely be expected to improve when the supervision is inadequate in amount, it will be my purpose in the present chapter to show that supervision, even when quantitatively adequate, does not necessa- rily tend to improve the teaching; that there are, indeed, two diametrically opposed methods of supervision, only one of which has an elevating tendency, while tlie other is actually depressing ; ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 93 and that it is only that form of supervision the principal aim of which is to improve the minds of the teachers that leads to the advancement of the schools. I have selected, for the purpose of demonstrat- ing the results of those two widely differing methods of supervision, the school systems of St. Louis and Indianapolis, as I know of no schools better adapted to show where they lead when followed for any considerable period. But before entering on the detailed discussion of these schools, I shall consider, for the sake of clearness, the philosophy of the two methods of supervision and their natural consequences. In the first form of supervision the superinten- dent does little if anything beyond observing that the teachers succeed in putting the child through the studies prescribed for the grade. He visits each school from time to time in order to examine classes, which examination is intended as an ex- amination of the teachers, and the teachers are judged by the results. The important factor to be noted is that the results alone are considered, the manner in which they are reached being left entirely out of consideration. What follows? The teacher strives beyond all else to secure such results as will tell in her favor. Since nothing, as a rule, tells so well at an examination as a knowledge of facts, — mental power and moral strength being incapable of exact measurement, — it becomes the sole aim of the teacher to load 94 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF the memory of her pupils with facts. An ideal teacher, even when judged by results alone, will endeavor to secure the desired results without convei'ting her pupils into avitomatons or robbing them of their happiness. But when, under these conditions, a teacher is wanting in professional skill or sympathy, or both, her teaching will be likely to present a picture of a pure, unadulter- ated, old-fashioned grind. Her ability is judged by the number of facts which her pupils retain, and she therefore spends all her time in crowding the memory of her pupils with facts. To intro- duce into a lesson an illustrative story which con- tains no food for the examination, to allow the child to study an object when the facts relating to that object can be learned so much more quickly by words alone, to allow the pupils time to think or time to move, are things which simply waste the time of the teacher; and why should she waste her time at her own peril? Reading now becomes the art of recognizing printed or written words at sight without regard to the thought expressed ; arithmetic, the art of computing numbers without regard to the rela- tion of things; geography and history, physics and physiology simply represent so many words to be memorized by the pupils. If compelling pupils to memorize words be teaching, then in- deed is all training superfluous, as any one equipped with a knowledge of the three R's, a sound pair of lungs, and a stout ratan is able to ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 95 compel children to memorize words. And as long as words alone are taught and the teacher can read words, she is able to secure results regardless of what the subject may be. To her a page con- sists of a collection of words and a book a collec- tion of pages, and with her views upon education there is no reason why she should not teach Spinoza's "Ethics" as well as "Mother Goose's Mel- odies," "Physiological Chemistry" as well as " Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures," " Kant's Cri- tique of Pure Reason " as well as " What I Know About Farming." When the aim of the supervision is limited to securing results, though the children be rendered motionless and the room as silent as a grave, the school is entirely lawless, because the only laws which the school should obey — the laws of mental development — are entirely ignored. The super- intendent here reigns supreme; his rulings are arbitrary ; his word is law. But in exercising his license he deprives the child of his liberty. The child is twisted and turned or made immobile to suit the pleasure of the teacher, and the fact that the child is a frail and tender human being is entirely disregarded. The innocent child is thrust into bondage, the years of childhood are converted into years of slavery. The second form of supervision differs from the first in this, — namely, that the superintendents, while striving to obtain the prescribed results, do not accept the work of the teacher as satisfactory 96 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF unless her results have been secured by rational methods of instruction. To see that the child is taught by methods approved by the educa- tional scientists, that he is educated without being robbed of his happiness, that he is allowed to feel that centuries of labor have not been performed in his behalf in vain, is now the task of the super- intendent. It is here recognized that the school exists for the child, and that superintendents and teachers are employed not to use, but to serve the child. Where this sentiment prevails the child- mind is no longer compelled to suit the methods, but the methods are made to suit the mind. In- stead of turning and twisting the pupils at their pleasure, superintendents and teachers now turn and twist themselves in their endeavors to obey the laws of mental action. It is in schools of this nature, and in such schools only, that the spirit of the new education dwells. Wliat follows now ? The tendency is elevating throughout. The teachers are obliged to strive toward increasing their professional strength — first, by closely observing the child in the class- room, and secondly, by studying works on edu- cation so that they may be benefited by the experiences of others who have labored in the same direction. In all their work the teachers now look to the superintendent for guidance. Consequently the attitude of the superintendent becomes changed from that of examiner to the atti- tude of teacher, and as the teacher of his teachers ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 97 he labors to improve his own mind so that he may keep beyond his students. In studying the child the teacher tries to learn his innermost thoughts so that she may be able to render her guidance intelligible to him. As she learns to understand him she begins to sympa- thize with him, and in return she secures his love ; once his love is secured, he will follow her to the end of the earth, and the examinations will take care of themselves. Thus the weight of oppres- sion becomes removed from the child; he becomes free and happy in his freedom, and the school is converted into the loveliest of homes. In St. Louis we have an example of how sad the lot of the child may become when the super- intendents not only do practically nothing toward raising the standard of the teachers by instruct- ing them in the science of education, but where they do much to depress them by examining then- classes and judging them by results alone. This form of supervision results in greater depression in the schools of St. Louis than in the schools thus far discussed, for the reason that in St. Louis supervision is no longer nominal. There are, in that city, four supervising officers to oversee the work of twelve hundred teachers, the superinten- dents being thus enabled to visit each teacher at more frequent intervals. The consequence is that the teachers at all times labor under a high degree of pressure for results. To secure the 7 98 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF desired results is now their aim, and to secure them the children are ever relentlessly pushed. The fact that the child is a child is entirely for- gotten, and the characteristic feature of the St. Louis schools — absolute lack of sympathy for the child — ensues. The unkindly spirit of the teacher is strikingly apparent; the pupils, being completely subjugated to her will, are silent and motionless ; the spiritual atmosphere of the class- room is damp and chilly. In one regard the treatment of the children cannot be considered otherwise than barbarous. During several daily recitation periods, each of which is from twenty to twenty-five minutes in duration, the children are obliged to stand on the line, perfectly motionless, their bodies erect, their knees and feet together, the tips of their shoes touching the edge of a board in the floor. The slightest movement on the part of a child attracts the attention of the teacher. The recitation is repeatedly interrupted with cries of "Stand straight," " Don't bend the knees," " Don't lean against the wall," and so on. I heard one teacher ask a little boy : " How can you learn anything with your knees and toes out of order?" The toes appear to play a more important part than the reasoning faculties. The teacher never for- gets the toes; every few moments she casts her eyes " toe-ward." That such a barbarous procedure should be tol- erated in a civilized community to-day is surpris- ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 99 ing; and when we consider that it exists in a city which may bo called the home of the kinder- garten, it becomes trnly marvelous. In spite of the fact that the kindergarten has been a part of the public-school system of St. Louis for some fif- teen years, its spirit has not extended beyond the kindergarten itself, the children in the lowest pri- mary grade being treated with as little consider- ation as those in the higher grades. The fact that color work has been introduced into the pri- mary grade does not, in my opinion, alter the matter in the least, although it does alter it in the minds of the teachers of St. Louis. The intro- duction of a branch of study into the curriculum is no indication whatever that the proper spirit will enter with it. The spirit lies in the teacher, and not in the subject. When the true pedagogi- cal spirit is wanting, the instruction will be me- chanical, whatever the subject may be. On the other hand, when the teacher possesses the proper spirit she has the ability to endow the most me- chanical subject with life. I witnessed in a Bos- ton primary school a simple phonic drill which was so full of life that it made the children thoroughly enthusiastic. Though the methods of instruction followed in the schools of St. Louis are much less rife with absurdities than those employed in many other cities, they are nevertheless mechanical and cal- culated to crowd the memory with cut-and-dried facts. As they are not very suggestive, I shall 100 THE PUBLIC NCBOOLS OF not describe them in detail. The results from a quantitative standpoint are, in my opinion, very good. That they should be so is but the natural consequence of the fact that the children work constantly under pressure. The children learn a large number of facts, but the price they pay for them is a terrible one. During the recitations I found all spontaneity suppressed. Whenever a pupil volunteered to express an idea suggested to him by the recitation, he was cut short by some such remark as "Speak when you are spoken to," "Don't talk, but listen," "You must n't raise your hands." Arithmetic is taught mechanically and ab- stractly almost from the start. Objective work is at a minimum. The recitations in geography are so formal that the children themselves frequently keep the ball rolling, the teacher's part in the les- son being limited to saying "Right," "Wrong," "Next," "Don't lean against the wall," "Keep your toes on the line." One thing, however, may be learned of St. Louis, — namely, that when phon- ics are well taught — and they are well taught in that city — the children make very rapid progress in overcoming the mechanical difficulties in read- ing. At St. Louis the children certainly read as well at the end of four or five months as those attending many of the schools where no phonics are taught read at the end of two years. When the lot of the St. Louis school-child will become a happier one, it is indeed difficult to pre- ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 101 diet. The method of supervision, as we have seen, is certainly not calculated to advance the schools, its tendency being to lower rather than to raise the standard of the teachers, to suppress rather than to encourage attempts to teacH natu- rally — in a word, to reduce the trained to the level of the untrained teacher. Another eireumstanee that does much to prevent the St. Louis schools from advancing is the fact that they are almost exclusively in the hands of teachers who were brought up under the St. Louis system, and who, from actual experience, know practically nothing of what is going on in the educational world out- side of their own city. The scene presented in the Indianapolis class- room differs so widely from that presented in the school-room of St. Louis that it would scarcely appear that these two institutions had anything in common. This striking contrast is due to the fact that the, Indianapolis schools abound in the element which in St. Louis is so obviously lacking — consideration for the child, sympathy. The cold, hard, and cruel struggle for results is here unknown. The teacher uses every means at her command to render the life of the child happy and beautiful, without endangering its usefulness. I entered one of the rooms containing the youngest children at the time of the opening exercises. The scene I encountered was a glimpse of fairyland. I was in a room full of bright and 102 TEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF happy children, whose eyes were directed toward the teacher, not because they were forbidden to look in any other direction, but because to them the most attractive object in the room was their teacher. She undei'stood them, sympathized with and loved them, and did all in her power to make them happj'. The appearance of the room was charming. The window-sills were filled with plants, and plants were scattered hei'e and there throughout the room. The teacher's desk was strewn with flowers, and upon each of the chil- dren's desks flowers had been placed to welcome the little ones to school. After the children had sung a few little songs the first lesson of the day was in order. This was a lesson in science; its subject was a flower. It began with the recitation of a poem. The object of introducing these poems into the plant and animal lessons is to inspire the child with love for the beautiful, with love for nature, and with sympathy for all living things. In the lower grades of the schools of Indianapolis much more stress is laid on the life of the plant and the relation of the child to the plant than upon its structure; and the child is taught how to preserve and to protect it rather than how to dissect it, so that lessons upon plants (and animals) partake as much of moral as of science lessons. Before the teacher endeavored to bring out the points to which she desired to direct the special attention of the class, the children were urged ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 103 to make their own unaided observations and to express them. As each child was anxious to tell what he had observed in relation to the plant itself, what he otherwise knew of it, how it grew, where it grew, and perhaps some little incident that the flower recalled to him, the class was full of life and enthusiasm. A few minutes sufficed to bring the children to the point beyond which they could not proceed unaided. When this point was 104 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF reached the teacher came to the rescue, and by careful questioning led the children to observe the particular things to which she had decided to call their attention that morning. Her questions were not put to individual children, but to the whole class, so that every question might serve to set every pupil observing and thinking. That they did observe and think was shown by the number of hands that were raised in answer to every question. In all, fifteen minutes were de- voted to this lesson. When the science lesson was over, some of the children were called to the front of the room to read; and silent or busy work was assigned to those remaining at their seats. The book used during this reading-lesson was the book of nature — the plant they had just been studying. The scene presented by the happy little children each with a flower in his hand, sur- rounding the teacher, who was smiling npon them, was truly beautiful. For reading-matter the children were called upon for sentences express- ing thoughts concerning their flowers. The sen- tences were written upon the board by the teacher, and when a number of them had been written the pupils began to read them. The chil- dren were interested because they all took an active part in the lesson from the beginning to the end. They were all observing, all thinking, they all had something to say and were glad of an opportunity to tell what they had to say. The ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 105 teacher was fully as enthusiastic as were her pupils, and as much pleased as the children, when bright remarks were made by them. That, in spite of her gentleness, she had them completely under ^f)A7r/J/ xT^yfJfJy/xn / Z her control, was shown by the fact that they were more than willing to do anything she asked them to do. How shocked some of our so-called disciplinari- ans would have been had they witnessed this les- son ! The children were expected to talk, and they had much to say ; their hands were ever in sight. Our disciplinarian calls the child orderly only when he has nothing to say, when he has no ]iiO THE PUBLIC SCEOOLS OF thoughts to expi-ess, and wlien his hands are no- where in sight. Tlic children's toes were not on the line, but were so arranged that they might be as near their teacher as possible. Some of the lit- tle ones even committed the crime of laying their hands on the teacher, and she so far forgot her- self as to fondle them in return. Yet the disci- pline was perfect. What is perfect discipline in the class-room but perfect attention ? There was no noise, but there were everywhere signs of life, and such signs of life as become a gathering of young children. Meanwhile the pupils who had remained at their seats, though practically left to themselves, were far from idle. They had no time for idle- ness or mischief ; they were too deeply absorbed in their work for that. They as well as the oth- ers were studying the book of nature, and these little six-year-olds and seven-year-olds were do- ing thoughtful work even without the aid of the teacher. They were not only reading from their flowers, they were painting them, writing little stories about them, utilizing them for num- ber, form, and color work, and exercising their powers of observation and thought upon them ; and, strange to say, every ehUd was doing nearly all of these things at one and the same time. How can these little pupils perform such mira- cles? There are no miracles involved. The teacher had simply given the children each a box of paints, a brush, and a flower, and had told them .ST. LODJS AND INDIA NAFOLIS lOY to paint the flower and write a storj^ about it. That all these things resulted is shown by the accompanying illustrations, which represent the busy-work of various schools.^ (^gHEB 01133 HIiGiH;] H^EEH Sa IMS EHiHlIIQ 0ffl Has 0iE0 HiH 0311 EffllHII What has been described represents the work performed during the first twenty-five minutes of the morning session in the lowest primary grade. I shall not, in the present chapter, enter further on the detailed description of these schools, but I shall again refer to them in the second part of this book. Enough, however, has already been said to demonstrate the educational principle upon which they are conducted. The spirit mani- 1 The child is permitted to alternate "between the use of letter-eards and the pencil in forming his words, so that he may be relieved of the physical strain consequent upon writing. 108 TUE PUBLIC SCSOOLS OF fested in the room I have described is typical of the Indianapolis schools. Although the curriculum is broad and the work interesting, the results in reading, writing, and arithmetic (as I shall show further on) are cer- tainly not inferior to those obtained in the me- HB Q 03310 0iig 033 033 033^ [ZEHiQHIIZ] 0S] EQ3IH Him 03 H3I1Q chanieal schools. The differences between schools such as those of Indianapolis and schools of a nieeha,nical order are, principally, that in the former the children learn to think while memoriz- ing facts, and that they are educated without being deprived of their happiness. Reading-books are used as well as the book of nature, but the teachers endeavor to use these books in such a manner that the child will be benefited by the thoughts expressed in them, in addition to receiv- ing an exercise in recognizing words. I attended a lesson when the children were reading from the book the story of the snail. The pupils were in- ST. LOVIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 109 tensely interested, because the teacher had brought a living snail to school with her that morning in order to give the pupils an opportunity to follow its movements while reading about it. The atten- tion was absolutely perfect. Phonics also are taught, but the phonic drill is kept apart from the reading-lesson. In all the work throughout the schools, whether the subject be geography, history, language, or science, the thought is the main thing considered, purely mechanical cram-work, when found, being immediately stopped by the superintendents. In geography the molding-board is ever in use, and occasionally, though not with sufficient frequency, 033 bkl'I'I'IFOra \mM m 03 irom 0333 FR^ 0333 0333 033 IZEE0 111333033 Hii UB 1333 M^TO EQE0 HiS geographical excursions are taken. The busy- work above illustrated is simple, because it rep- resents the work of the first school year, but the idea upon which it is founded is utilized in all the grades. The vast difference between the schools of St. Louis and those of Indianapolis can be, as I have 110 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF already intimated, in large part accounted for by the difference in their methods of supervision. While in St. Louis practically nothing is done by the superintendents toward improving the minds of their teachers, in Indianapolis the education of the teachers is the primary aim of the supervi- sion. Indeed, the school system of Indianapolis I700EQEII0 EHiH 03303303313 03310 EHfHDQ represents a training-school of which the class- teachers are the students and the supervising offi- cers the teachers. The exact nature of the work done by the superintendents of Indianapolis %vill be best described by quoting their own words from letters which they were kind enough to ^vrite to me in answer to definite inquiries upon this point. Mr. L. H. Jones, who, at the time of my visit, had been superintendent of the schools of Indianapolis for eight years, writes as follows: My work of guidance is broadly divided into two parts : first, that done in clubs, teachers' meetings, grade meet- ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 111 ings, etc. ; and, secondly, that which is accomplished in conversation with individual teachers. The most im- portant of all is the principals' club. This meets every Tuesday evening during the school year, and the entire evening is devoted to the discussion of some phase of the science of education. I lead the discussion. We all find that the best thoughts evolved at the discussions soon unconsciously permeate the practice of all of us. Some of the most serviceable discussions have been upon such sub- jects as "The Rights of the Child in School," " How to Treat Children," "How to Manage a School so that its Administra- tion Shall of Itself Enforce Ethical Laws." These have led to numerous sub-topics, and we have taken time to follow each into its minutest ramifications. Much of our inspira- tion and many helpful things have come from books. The club has read, during the years since its organization, " The Philosophy of Education," by Eosenkranz, Froebel's "Ed- ucation of Man," Harris's "Educational Psychology," Painter's " History of Education," Bain's "Education as a Science," and others. The whole system of school man- agement for the city has been modified, tempered, and directed by the discussions of this club. Next, the monthly (Saturday) meetings of teachers have given me an opportunity to lecture upon these and similar topics. At these meetings, too, I have discussed the phi- losophy of instruction, and have talked at length upon the teaching of the various subjects of the course of study. At these meetings we have also frequently had lectures from prominent teachers of this and other States. Miss N. Cropsey, the assistant superintendent, whose special work lies in supervising the primary schools, writes : First, I try to keep in touch with the children and to make such tests as will give the facts upon which to base 112 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF judgment of progress. I try to have as thorough a kno'!^- ledge as possible of each school and each individual teacher. My noon hour and the time from 4.30 p. M. to 6 o'clock I spend talking with teachers individually. Secondly, I meet with the teachers for a philosophic study of the science of education and its application to our work. I have felt that teachers and superintendents should be learners, and have experienced what Dr. Arnold of Rugby felt to be a neces- sity — that his pupils should "drink from a running stream rather than from a stagnant pool." We have always had meetings of this kind since I have been engaged in this work. For the past six years I have met the teachers one afternoon of each week, to study for an hour (from 4.30 to 5.30) some great master in education. Two years were spent upon Proebel's "Education of Man"; one year upon Ros- mini's "Method in Education"; one year upon Emerson's " Nature Essays," taking the whole series ; part of one year upon the little book called "Apperception," by T. G. Rooper. This gives you some idea of the authors we have studied. Our method has been to read slowly and carefully, to let no difficulty pass unchallenged, and to bring to these profound thoughts our closest attention, feeling that we should get from them mental training of the severe kind. Thus we get our general view of education, which gives color to all we do in every school exercise. In our discus- sions we try to make an application to the subjects we teach and to determine what the environment of the child should be. Once a month we give Saturday forenoon to grade meetings. Some one of the school subjects is dis- cussed. Sometimes we have a class of children present. I also call grade meetings after school during the week. Sometimes (not often) I have had a meeting during the forenoon. I have met one section of the teachers at one of the schools. We have observed the work until recess, and after dismissing the children discussed it. We have found this very helpful. For grade work I meet the teachers in sections; for the study of psychology or the science of ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 113 education, in much larger sections, taking two or three grades tog-ether. These last-mentioned meetings are volun- tary, but all teachers come. The teachers' meeting is "by all means the greatest in- strumentality for making progress. Teachers are not un- willing, as a rule, to attend meetings if something of value is to be done. When I first began this work, we made much more of formal methods. I found that we fell into formal teaching, and that we needed a broader view of the human being. It is easy to lay out formal lessons. It is not easy to give such training as shall make self-active, powerful, helpful, beautiful, happy human beings — what we call in our school law "good citizens" in the best and true sense. I think the teachers are truly alive and working from the thought side. We know that we know very little about the science of education, but we are trying very hard to learn something. Miss Cropsey has held her present position for six years, though she has been connected with the schools of Indianapolis for a very much longer period. Besides the superintendent and the su- pervisor of primary schools, there are nine super- vising principals whose work partakes much of the same nature as the work of the critic-teachers of the Normal School. They attend the lessons of the class-teachers, criticize them, and themselves frequently give model lessons which are freely discussed. Throughout, the normal-school plan is retained. Bach school also has a principal of its own, but the duties of the principals do not extend beyond teaching a class of their own and exercising a general supervision over the building and the discipline of the school. As in other 114 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF cities, there are a number of special teachers. In all, there are some three hundred and fifty teachers. In regard to the appointment of teachers, al- though the power of appointing them lies legally in the hands of the Board of Education, their se- lection has been left in the hands of the superin- tendent. In no %vmj has politics ever come into play in relation to the selection and discharge of teachers, nor has it interfered in any other way with the management of the schools. The number of teachers appointed anntially is about thirty-five. Of these some twenty are graduates of the In- dianapolis Normal School, the others being selected from the schools of other cities. The educators of Indianapolis entertain an exceptionally high regard for the services rendered by Miss Nicholson, the principal of the Normal School. So each in his own sphere endeavors, to the best of his ability, to contribute his share toward the advancement of the schools; and great credit is due Superintendent Jones for the firmness with which his forces are combined and for the abso- lute harmony that prevails among them. To speak in detail of the philosophy of the work of the Indianapolis schools woiild require a vol- ume on the science of education. Nevertheless, a few words will suffice to point out the principle involved. The principle underlying the work of these schools is known in education as the idea of unification, which means the combination of the ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 115 various branches of knowledge so that they may- acquire more meaning by being seen in their rela- tions to one another. An isolated fact is food for the memory alone, and it is only when this fact is seen in its relations to other facts that it becomes interesting, and the reasoning faculties are brought into play. For example : spelling in itself is dry, mechani- cal, and uninteresting, and the same is true of penmanship. On the other hand, an amusing in- cident is full of life. Now, if spelling and pen- manship can be brought in relation to this inci- dent, they may be made to acquire enoiigh meaning to become in themselves interesting to the child. A little boy is much amused before breakfast by seeing his cat jump over a stick. Soon after this oc- currence he goes to school. The teacher instructs in reading by the sentence method. During the read- ing-lesson she calls on the children for little sto- ries, and as they are given she writes them upon the board for reading-matter. When our little boy tells his story, he says, " My cat kin jump." The teacher remarks, "My cat can jump," and writes this sentence upon the board. When the reading-lesson is over, each child is told to write his own story upon his slate. The little boy sets to work and draws the words of his story as he sees them on the board. He is happy to find that he has the ability to write a story about his cat, and he thinks school is a jolly place because it has something to do with his cat. He knows nothing 110 THE FUBLIC SCHOOLS OF of penmanship or spelling or language ; he has nevertheless received instruction in no less than four subjects: namely, composition, reading, pen- manship, and spelling. At another school the picture of a cat would have been shown to the child, the isolated word "cat" would have been written upon the blackboard, and he would have sung repeatedly, "C-a-t, cat; c-a-t, cat." After the reading-lessou he would have been sent to his seat to write upon his slate things entirely unin- teresting to him, such as columns of figures or dis- connected letters or words representing no ideas to him. He would have received instruction in reading, spelling, and penmanship, but he would have worked entirely without pleasure, and in a perfectly mechanical manner. The lessons would have been a bore to him, and he would have re- ceived the impression that school was a place that had nothing to do with the outside world. Again, the color-chart is dead; straight and curved lines are lifeless; the cube is a piece of wood with six sides. Give the child a paint-brush and a flower and tell him to paint the flower; then colors and geometrical forms become endowed with life. When our teacher told the child to paint the flower and to write a story about it, he set to work with enthusiasm upon no less than half a dozen subjects, each one of which served to render the others interesting. In the science-lesson that I have described, the poem endowed the flower with life and the flower the poem with life, and ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 117 poem and flower combined tonched the esthetic and sympathetic feelings of the child. In a similar manner geography renders history interesting, and history gives life to geography, and so on to the end of the list. But unification in itself does not make a good school, because it is not the course of studies, but the teacher, that determines the character of the school. What unification does, however, is to give the teacher an opportunity to develop her powers. A mechanical curriculum exerts a pres- sure upon the teacher and does much to prevent her from rising. With the introduction of a phil- osophical course of studies this pressure is re- moved ; but whether she will rise, and how much she will rise, will depend upon herself and upon the nature of the guidance she receives from others. The Indianapolis schools, though upon a rather high level, and, in my opinion, among our best, are not perfect. A perfect school means a perfect teacher, a teacher who possesses a beautiful char- acter, education, culture, and great professional strength. The Indianapolis teacher is not perfect. Her spirit is excellent, but her professional strength, though it compares favorably with the strength of the best of our teachers, is not yet great. The first steps toward the ideal have been made. The teacher works thoughtfully, and she has learned how to render instruction so interest- ing that the child will naturally attend. The ideal, however, consists not simply in securing the lis THE PUBLIC SCBOOLS OF attention of the child, but in utilizing it to the best possible advantage as well, so that none of the energies of the child shall be wasted. A thoroughly good lesson is a work of art. To witness one snch affords as much genuine pleasure as to hear a genius perform upon a musical in- strument. In order that a lesson may be perfect, a number of things must be observed. Some of these are, generally speaking (they are not always necessary), the following: first, the aim of the lesson must be clear and kept clearly in mind throughout the lesson, so that each question may lead the child nearer to the desired end; secondly, there must be a proper development, the points must be well brought out, the essential must be distinguished from the non-essential; and, thirdly, the development must be followed by a drill, so that the points which have been de- veloped may become firmly fixed in the mind of the pupil. When a lesson has failed in any of the essential elements, the energies of the child have not been utilized to the best advantage. Further- more, the pupil must be led to compare and to classify facts intelligently, and to apply principles after they have been gained ; in other words, the inductive and deductive processes must be applied in their proper places. The teacher plays upon far the most delicate instrument in existence — the human mind. To touch the proper chord with every question is a matter of great delicacy and difficulty. Simply to hear children recite lessons ST. LOUIS AND INDIANAPOLIS 119 they have learned by heart from text-books, is the music of an organ-grinder. In conducting a recitation the German school- master, in my opinion, stands preeminent. But even the best of schoolmasters seldom give les- sons in every way satisfactory to themselves. I have attended many lessons in Germany — and particularly in Jena, one of the world's centers of pedagogical thought — which were thoroughly planned and made interesting, but which were nevertheless considered failures because they were weak in one or more of the above-mentioned points. Here instruction is converted into a fine art. When our teachers combine the excellent spirit of the Indianapolis teacher with the tech- nic of the German schoolmaster, America will have the best schools in the world. To exchange our spirit for the German's technie would, I think, be taking a backward step. We must not be content until we have both. Considering education from the broader side, unification appears to be the proper basis for a philosophical development of the mind. But here again perfection can be sought, but never be reached. To unify to perfection is as difficult as to teach to perfection. To unify the proper studies, and not to force and overdo unification because unification in general is a good thing, are matters attended with insurmountable difficulties. And before perfection can be thought of, a third point must be considered, — namely, perfection in 120 ST. LOVIS AND INDIANAPOLIS consecutive 1) ess. To teach well is one thing, to unify properly another, and to educate the child so that the gradual development of his powers shall be secured, guarding carefully against cover- ing the same ground over and over again, and against skipping any links in the chain, is a third. The educators of Indianapolis are working in the proper direction; they have already accomplished much, and they wiU accomplish more. Everything will never be done, the ideal will never be reached. CHAPTER VI THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OP BOSTON WHILE on my tour of investigation, I dis- covered that tlie schools of no city were in better repute than those of Boston, and scarcely a day passed that I wrs not asked to express an opinion concerning them. In consideration of the good opinion so generally held of the Boston schools, I sincerely wish that I could close my comments upon them with the opening sen- tence, — that is, without examining into the facts of the case in- order to learn whether Boston has the game as well as the name. But for two rea- sons I cannot pass these schools by unnoticed: first, because the Boston child is entitled to as much consideration as the child of any other city; and, secondly, because a work on American schools that contained no account of the schools of Bos- ton would be as incomplete as a history of the United States without an account of George Washington. Being, therefore, in a measure forced by circumstances to write about the schools of Boston, I am in duty bound to speak as freely of them as of the schools of other cities. V2-2 TBE PVBLIC sCHoOL.i OF BO.iTOS If there be a citv where we have every right to exj:>eet to find a uuiformly high degree of exi-el- lenee in thrr schools, and where poor sc-hooL are less pardonable than in other cities, that city is Boston. For the cuuditions under which its schools labor are, and have been iov a compara- tively long period, in a measure ideal First, the school system is not a macbine, both principals and teachers being allowed enongh liberty xc< develop their powers. Secondly, the appointment of teaohei-s and principals is controlled, largely. by merit and but little by "pnlls.'' In the selec- tion of principals special care is exercised. As to the teachers, although the graduates of the Bos- ton Xormal Schoijl appear, other things being eqnal. to have the preference, others are preferred if they are found better qualified than the home candidates. To a certain extent the principals are permitted to select their own teachers, so that teachei-s are not usually forced upon principals, as they are in many other cities. Thirdly, no teacher receives a pennanent appointment until she has taught in the public schools of B^ ston for four years. Until that period has elapsed she is reap- pointed annually. Further, if, after receiving a permanent appointment, she pr>jves herself posi- tively incompetent she will be liable to lose her position, and no amount of "pull" will suffice to keep her in her place. Fourthly, Boston, with its twelve hundred teachers, has now. and has had for some fifteen yeai-s, a city superintendent and THE FVBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTOX 123 six assistant superint'-rj dents. Lastly, the cost of instruction p(:r capita is exceptional!}' high. In view of their superior advantages, the Boston .schools, generally sjjeaking, fall far short of what they ought to be. Their particular weakness lies in the primaiy grades, the grammar-schools being on a much higher level. ludeed, taken all in all, so marked is the difiEerence between the primary and the grammar schools that they .scarcely appear to belong to the same system and to be in charge of the same superintendents and principals. But even the grammai'-schools are very uneven, the unevenness being marked not only between the teaching found in different schools, but also be- tween that found in the different class-rooms of the same school, excellent and very inferior teach- ing frequently going on side by side. The Boston primary schools belong, in my opin- ion, to the purely mechanical-drudgery schools. The children are not obliged to sit motionless in a uniform position, it is true, but the teaching is highly unscientific, and the teachers, though not really severe in the treatment of the pupils, are nevertheless cold and unsympathetic. In the first school year there is very little objective work, what there is of it being limited to drawing, pa- per-cutting, and modeling. In the lower grades the sciences are not taught at all, and in the higher ones but little is done in the way of science-teach- ing. The unification of studies is not attempted in the primary grades. 124 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON I shall first describe the work I witnessed during the course of an hour spent in the lowest grade of what I consider one of the best of the seven pri- mary schools that I visited. I entered the room just as school was opening for the day. The morning session began with a song, and the song was followed by a short phonic drill in which all the children in the class took part. A short lesson in mechanical reading given to the whole class followed. That this reading was purely mechan- ical is proved by the fact that during the exercise the sentences read were of the following order: "I can eat," "I will wait," "Can you eat?" etc. When these two general lessons were over, — they lasted only a few minutes, — the teacher divided the class into two sections. To the first section she assigned some busy-work, and to the other she gave a lesson in number. The busy-work con- sisted of copying the following example, which the teacher wrote upon the blackboard : 00 -|- 00 = 0000. The little ones were obliged to write this upon their slates over and over again for fifteen minutes, — that is, during the whole period devoted to the number-lesson given to the other section. The number-lesson that was given meanwhile to the second section was also perfectly mechani- cal, although objects were used during a part of the time. Indeed, educators agree that objective work can be made fully as mechanical as purely abstract work when the teacher is wanting in pedagogical spirit. During the first part of the THE PUBLIC SCSOOLS OF BOSTON 125 lessou sticks were used, all the calciilations being made with visible sticks. In the latter part of the lesson the calculations were all made with invisi- ble cats. During the part of the lesson devoted to sticks the teacher held up oue or more sticks as occasion required, and asked such questions as the following : " How many sticks are two sticks and one stick?" "If you have two sticks and I give you two sticks more, how many sticks will you have ? " " If you have four sticks and I take two sticks away, how many sticks will you have left?" When some ten minutes had been devoted to " stick arithmetic," the teacher said, " Now see what we are going to talk about to-day." She then M'rote on the blackboard the word "Cats," drew a line under the word, and wrote under this line examples such as the following: l + l = ,2 + 2 = ,3 + 2=,3-l=,4-2=,5-l=,etc. After each example had been written the answers were asked for, and they were given in this way: "One cat and one cat are two cats," "Four cats less two cats are two cats," etc. The teacher evi- dently thought that the number work was made objective when the children said the word "cats" after the numbers. Nothing but sticks and cats were spoken of during the whole lesson. When this lesson was over, the whole class spent a few minutes in marching. After the marching, the teacher assigned busy-work to those pupils who had just finished their number-lesson, and gave a 1^0 TBE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON lesson in reading to the others. For busy-work the pupils of the second section copied on their slates the word " cats," as well as the examples that had been written on the board. During the read- ing-lesson now given to the pupils of the first sec- tion, the teacher wrote on the board for reading- matter all sorts of silly sentences, such as " I see a fat cat," " I see a fat rat." The above is a description of everything that was done in this class-room during the first school hour in the morning. Was there anything in this teaching that was not purely mechanical, or that did not partake of the nature of pure drudgery work? Owing to the fact that the chil- dren are thoroughly drilled in phonics, they become able to read new words without help veiy early; but reading-lessons such as those just described are certainly not calculated to make thoughtful readers. After leaving this room I heard some reading in the highest (third-year) class. I found it expres- sionless, thoughtless, and mechanical; and, compar- atively speaking, I should call it poor third-year reading. At half-past ten I entered a second-year class-room, and looked over some of the slates in order to see what the children had done in the early part of the morning. I discovered that the busy-work of this class was fully as mechanical as that of the one first visited. During a portion of the first hour and a half of the morning session the pupils of one section of the class had written THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON 127 on one side of their slates the sentence, " See the sun rise," and on the other side had copied a number of examples from the blackboard. One of the pupils had written the sentence nineteen times, and had written and calculated sixty such examples as the following: 12 + 3=, 13 + 2=, 14 — 2 =,13 — 1=, etc. In another first-year class of this school the children had written for busy- work a slateful of the word " little." One boy had written it forty- one times and another thirty-seven times. These two, who were sitting next to each other, told me that they had been racing. The slates themselves gave evidence enough that distinctness had been sacrificed to speed, for the word "little" had lost all resemblance to itself after it had been written for the twentieth time. I was present also when the teacher of this class assigned some busy-work to one of the sections. This was similar to that given in the first room visited, and consisted of the following example, which the children were obliged to copy for fifteen minutes upon their slates: 11 + 111= 11111. During a previous visit to this school I found the work fully as mechanical. At that time I heard much concert work and a ludicrously mechanical concert drill in phonics. One of the sounds taught was the sound of sh. The words "she," "ship," and others were used in teaching this sound. Bach one of these words was sounded 128 rms roBLic schools of boston in concert twice in succession, thus: "Sh-e, she; sh-e, she ; s, h says sh ; s, h says sh ; sh-i-p, ship ; sh-i-p, ship ; s, h says sh ; s, h says sh." I found that to say things twice whenever occasion for a drill arose was a custom closely adhered to in Boston schools, whether or not a repetition was in place. When sh had been studied for some time, one of the pupils went to the blackboard and sounded at least twenty words that had been written upon it. The process was exceedingly tedious not only to the child at the board, but also to the others who sat idly by. Neverthe- less, a second child was called upon to go over the same ground. None of the other pupils paid any attention whatever to what was going on at the board. In another room the children studied in concert the long sounds of the vowels. Such words as " name," " here," " fine," " bone," and "tune" had been written on the board. The drill was carried on thus: Beginning with the word "name," the pupils (this time pronouncing the letters instead of the sounds) recited together in a perfectly rhythmical singsong: "N-a-m-e, name; n-a-m-e, name ; e at the end of the word makes the a say its own name, e at the end of the word makes the a say its own name; h-e-r-e, here; h-e-r-e, here ; e at the end of the word makes the e say its own name, e at the end of the word makes the e say its own name." I repeat that the woi'k of this primary school was as good as that of any that I visited. It was THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON 129 only here and there that I found in Boston a primary-school teacher who did not teach me- chanically and who was endowed with a truly progressive spirit. In one of the poorer districts of Boston I found a primary school of a very inferior order both as regards methods and tone. I visited one of the highest classes of this school just after the chil- dren had a written examination in arithmetic. I saw the examination papers lying on the desk, and I asked the teacher's permission to glance over some of them. She answered my request by clutching the papers for dear life. Then she looked at the first one and said: "This is the poorest scholar in the class." I was not permitted to examine it. After looking over a second one she remarked, "This is also the poorest scholar in the class." She then looked at some twenty more and put them all aside with the remark that they all seemed to be the poorest scholars in the class. At last she found a passable paper, and handed it to me for inspection. The teacher here broke off the embar- rassing situation by saying to me, "I think we will have some physiology." Then, addressing the class, she said : " Begin your physiology and go right straight through with it." The children now began to recite their physiology in concert, and they continued the recitation without a single break for at least ten minutes. As the recitation was accompanied by many peculiar gestures, it may perhaps be more appropriately designated 130 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON as a "physiological performance." It ran as follows : 1 My body is built of bones, covered with flesh and slcin ; the blood flows through it all the time, from my heart. [The pupils here swept their hands up and down their bodies to imitate the circulation of the blood, and ended this part of the performance by pointing to the heart.] The parts of my body are the head, the trunk, the limbs. [The children touched with the forefingers of both hands most of the parts as they named them.] This is my head ; I am now touch- ing the crown of my head, the back of my head, the sides of my head, my face, my forehead, my two temples, my two eyes, my nose, my two cheeks, my mouth, my chin, my two ears, my neck, my two shoulders, my two arms, my two hands, my trunk, my back, my two sides, miy chest, my two legs, my two knees, my two feet [they sat back in their seats], and I am now sitting erect. I must be sure to keep my mouth closed when I am not talking or singing, es- pecially when I am walking, running, or asleep. My two nostrils are outside doors, always open to admit air, and inside of the upper part of the nose there are two other openings through which it passes into the throat. I must not use my mouth as a box or pincushion ; the pin or what- ever I have put into it may slip into my throat and cause my death. . . . My hand is used in holding, throwing, catching, and feeling. I am now touching the palm of my hand, the back of my hand, my fingers, my thumb, my fore- finger, . . . my knuckles, my nails, the ball of my thumb, and the lines where the flesh is bent. My leg has two parts : my thigh and my lower leg ; and three joints : my hip-joint, my knee-joint, and my ankle-joint. My foot is used in standing, walking, running, skating, and jumping. On my 1 The text-book in physiology used by the teacher was entitled " Object Lessons on the Human Body,'' by Sarah F. Buokelew and Margaret W. Lewis. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON 131 foot are my instep, ray toes, the sole of my foot, the ball, the hollow, the heeJ, the toe-joints, and my toe-nails, which protect my toes. My bones are hard; they make my body strong ; there are about two hundred hones in my body. The ioncs of my head are my skull and my lower jaw ; my face has fourteen bones, my ear has four small bones, at the root of my tongue is one bone. . . My upper arm has one bone, my forearm has two bones, my wrist has eight bones ; from my wrist to my knuckles are five bones, my thumb has two bones, each finger has three boiies, making nineteen bones in my hand. My thigh has one bone, my lower leg has two bones, my knee-pan is the cap which covers and protects my knee ; in my foot near my heel are seven bones, in the middle of my foot are five bones, my great toe has two bones, each of my four toes has three bones, making twenty-six bones in my foot. How long this process might have been con- tinued I do not know ; but after it had been kept up for some ten minutes the teacher suggested a song. What wiseacres these words must have made of the children ! But the words themselves were simple for third-year pupils compared with those printed on the tickets given to the good pupils of a Boston A, B, C class, namely: " Reward of Merit. Presented to Master as an honorable testimonial of approbation for industry, punctuality, and good conduct." In other class-rooms of this school I found things on much the same level. The busy-work throughout was limited to copying words and figures from the blackboard. In the lowest grade the children had written over and over again on their slates, " 5 hats -f 2 hats = 7 hats." In one 132 THE FUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON of the third-year rooms the pupils had been copy- ing seutences from a slip of paper on their slates, each sentence having been copied twice. The following sentences were written on one of these slips of paper: "Put the tumbler on the table." " Fanny, tie the horse tight." " Tom has broken his skates." "It is my turn to jiimp." "May took the best slate." " The tree grew very tall." "How much did the sled cost"? " " Put the pony in the barn." Taken all in all, this was one of the poorest schools I ever visited. The fact that the school is situated in a poor district, and attended by a poor class of children, makes matters worse. The poor- est children are most in need of good teaching and sympathetic surroundings. A single school of this nature in a city that has the advantages of Boston is one too many, but among the seven primaries that I visited I found three much upon the order of this school. An entirely different story may be told of the Boston grammar-schools. Although much me- chanical teaching may be found even here, the proportion of good work is comparatively large, and the tone is much better than it is in the primary schools. Some of the Boston grammar- schools are certainly among the best in the coun- try. That the difference between the primary and grammar-schools is so marked, in spite of the fact that they are in charge of the same princi- pals, is, in my opinion, largely because the princi- TBE FVBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON 133 pals are selected rather for their general culture than for their professional qualifLeations. This circumstance exerts a more unfavorable influence on the primary than on the grammar grades, for the reason that those better acquainted with the subject-matter to be taught than with the manner in which the mind acquires ideas are likely to have less sympathy with children before than after the mechanical difficulties in reading have been overcome, and the ability to cipher mode- rately well has been acquired. Persons who do not understand the nature of the child-mind too frequently believe that it matters little how a knowledge of the rudiments is acquired, so that, in their hands, the primary schools are liable to become drill-schools, wherein the work is con- sidered satisfactory when the prescribed results are obtained in a given period of time regardless of all other considerations. Educated teachers who do not possess the proper professional quali- fications consequently concentrate their thoughts principally upon the work of the grammar grades, where the subject-matter is much more interest- ing than it is in the primary grades. That so many Boston teachers, though scholarly, are weak in professional knowledge, accounts also for the fact that so much mechanical teaching is found in the grammar-schools. Although many of the Boston teachers endeavor to improve their minds, the time spent in study is usually devoted to sub- jects other than pedagogics. 134 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON There is another factor, though of secondary importance, to account for the difference between the grammar and the primary schools. Separate buildings are provided for these schools, from one to three primary schools being in charge of each grammar pi-incipal. When we consider that the principals are obliged, not only to supervise the grammar-schools, but also to teach in them ten hours a week, we find that the grammar-scliools necessarily receive the lion's share of their atten- tion, and that the primaries are more or less neg- lected. At a principals' meeting I heard one of the assistant-superintendents remark that the principals did not look after the primary as weU as after the grammar-schools. The consensus of opinion among the principals present was that they should be relieved of the duty of teaching, in order that more time might be at their disposal to supervise the primary schools. For general excellence, tone, and spirit no school of the country impressed me more favorably than the Everett School. In language-work particu- larly tbe results were far beyond those generally found in grammar-schools. Indeed, to compare the language, both written and spoken, used by the children of this school with that used in the average school throughout the counti*y is, in my opinion, one of the best means of showing how much time and energy are wasted in the average school. In the Everett School language is not de- veloped at the expense of other studies. In an TEE PUBLIC SGBOOLS OF BOSTON 135 eighth-year class several compositions were read in my presence, and they were, both in thought and in language, far above the average. In the highest (ninth-year) class the principal, Mr. Walter S. Pai'ker, suggested that I make a test of what- ever nature I desired. I proposed a fifteen-min- utes' composition on any topic in the history of the United States that the pupils might select. When I had mentioned the subject the princi- pal informed me that the pupils had not studied history during the previous eight months. He thought, however, that the test might be valuable in showing how well the scholars remembered what they had learned of history during previous years. The pupils protested, but the principal in- sisted, and the results were exceptionally good. The subjects chosen were various, and not one of the pupils selected a battle or a war. Their nar- rations were clear and full, and the language was excellent. The following are a few of these com- positions printed as they were handed to me after the first writing. They represent the average class-work. Thomas Jepperson Thomas Jefferson, our third president, was born in Vir- ginia. His father was a planter and owned much property. He sent his son to college from where he was graduated with high honors. He became a fine linguist, excellent penman, fluent orator, gallant horseman, expert violinist, and knew besides Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and Ital- ian languages. To him do we owe the change of the pound. 136 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON shilling, and pence, to our dimes, dollars, and cents. He was Secretary of State under Washington, Vice-President under John Adams, and afterward became President of the United States, serving two terms. He was often called the "Sage of Montieello," that being his home after presi- dential life. He died in the year 1826. Columbus In the year 1406, the city of Genoa in Italy, had the honor of giving birth to one of the noblest and most persevering men the world has ever seen. This man was Columbus. He was one of the many children of poor parents, who al- though poor, were industrious. Columbus' father was a wool-weaver, and it was only with the greatest of difficulty and sacrifice that he was able to send his son to school. Columbus repaid him, however, for he became a skillful student in astronomy and other sciences. Soon after leav- ing college he pined after a seafaring life. He accordingly became a sailor on his uncle's vessel, and here it was that his first ideas of another world began. In his many voy- ages around the world, he had noticed several things which led him to suppose that another world than the one then known existed. But when he made known his thoughts, they were met with scorn and ridicule. Even learned men laughed at the very idea, and kings and queens agreed with them. It was not until the good queen Isabella, of Spain, had determined to listen to the "foolish man," as he was called, against the wishes of the people, that the first ray of hope dawned npori Columbus' life. With a view of con- verting many poor savages, she succeeded in securing for him the necessary outfit of vessels and men, with which to take the new world by storm. George Washington A few days ago, on Febraary 22, we celebrated the anniversary of the birth of the "Father of our Country." TSE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON 137 Although nearly a century has passed since his death, his memory is as dear to us Americans as he himself was to our forefathers. His life and his deeds are related to the rising generations who in turn narrate them to their children; and in this way, as well as liy history, we have learned to love and revere the famous name of Washington. He was born in Virginia, the "birthplace of presidents," and, his father dying when he was a child, Washington received his early training from his mother. He had a comfortable home, but his mother saw fit to teach him while young to be self-reliant and self-denying; so, at the age of sixteen, after having received his education at the common schools of Va., he went into the wildest parts of his native State, among the forests, to survey land for his relative, Lord Fairfax. He lived in a hut, slept on abedof dry leaves, some- times his only food was acorn and nuts, and his only com- panions were the Indians and the wild beasts of the forests. Mr. Parker attributes these results in language largely to the fact that the teachers in all the grades endeavor to lead the children to use choice language both in speaking and in writing. He said furthermore, that the pupils were obliged to use their own words during the recitations in- stead of the words of the text-book, aiid that much could be done in the way of breaking pupils of the habit of using the words of the text-book by giving them very long lessons to learn in certain branches, so that they might not have enough time to learn them by heart, and yet have ample time to read them over with sufficient care to get the sense. The pupils thus became enabled to give, in their own words, long accounts, both oral and written, of what they had read. 138 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON Another excellent school that I visited was the George Putnam School, at Roxbury, where miich attention is given to natnral-science work. Mr. Henry L. Clapp, the principal, is much interested in this line of study, and he and his first assistant have made splendid collections of shells, minerals, and insects. Much is done in the way of drawing from natural objects, and these drawings are as fine as any of the kind that I have ever found in elementary schools. To those who are interested in teaching the natural sciences in the eletaentary schools, the George Putnam School is well worth a visit. But its admirable features are not limited to science-work, much being done, in other direc- tions as well, to develop spontaneity and to make the pupils love their school. In the highest grade, a club has been formed by the members of the class, and from time to time meetings are held in the school-room during the last fifteen minutes of the afternoon session. These meetings, one of which I attended, afford a good deal of amusement to the boys. The principal informed me that his object in organizing the club was to get the pupils accustomed to parliamentary rulings. Another interesting feature of the school, and one that acts as a stimulant to keep alive what the pupils have learned, is what Mr. Clapp calls " random recita- tions." The last twenty minutes of some of the recitation hours are devoted to these "random recitations," which are conducted by the scholars. Four subjects are usually taken i;p, five minutes THE PUBLIC SCSOOLS OF BOSTON 139 being devoted to each, the pupils being allowed to ask each other any questions that they are sup- posed to be able to answer. When one of the pupils has asked two or three questions he appoints another to take his place. During the "random recitations" the class is full of life and enthusiasm. I found the children very quick and generally well-informed. While these recitations are going on the teacher sits by and takes no part other than keeping the children from going astray. In contrast to the grammar-school work just described, I witnessed in one of Boston's celebrated grammar-schools, among others, three lessons in geography so perfectly mechanical that they were altogether out of harmony with the reputation of the school. In one of the classes the teacher began the lesson with the question : "With how many senses do we study geog- raphy ? " "With three senses: sight, hearing, and touch," answered the pupils. The children were now told to turn to the map of North America in their geographies, and to begin with the capes on the eastern coast. When the map had been found each pupil placed his forefinger upon "Cape Farewell," and when the teacher said "Start," the pupils said in concert, " Cape Farewell," and then ran their fingers down the map, calling out the name of each cape as it was touched. When the fingers were used in this manner the teacher imagined that the piTpils were 140 THE PUBLIC SCSOOLS OF BOSTOX utiliziDg the sense of touch in studying geography. After the pupils had named all the capes on the eastern coast of North America, beginning at the north and ending at the south, they were told to close their books. When their books had been closed, they ran their fingers down the cover and named from memoiy the eajies in their order from north to south. "How many senses are you using now?" the teacher asked. "Two senses, — touch and hearing," answered the children. When the capes had been repeated a number of times, the bays were studied in the same waj'. The size of the country was also spoken of and impressed upon the memory by repetition. The lesson throughout consisted of nothing beyond thus studying in concert a number of eut-and- dried facts; it could hardly have been more mechanieaL The second lesson also was limited to a me- chanical drill in facts, and, though differing in character from the first, was fully as absurd. During the lesson, the teacher was standing at the blackboard mentioning facts or asking questions relating to geographical facts, and when the facts had been mentioned, either by herself or by the pupils, she wrote them on the board. The first topic under consideration was "Newfoundland." The teacher remarked: "Newfoundland is in the North Temperate Zone; the climate is cold-tem- THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON 141 perate." She then wrote the word "Newfound- land " on the board, and the words " cold-temperate climate" under it. When these words had been written, she asked one of the pupils to give the size of Newfoundland. While she was engaged with this pupil, the others copied upon their slates what the teacher had just written. Those en- gaged in writing could, of course, pay no attention to what was said by those answering the teachei-'s questions. When the pupil called upon had given the size of Newfoundland, the teacher wrote upon the board, " Size — about 365 miles wide." When this had been piit down, the teacher asked a question of another pupil, the others meanwhile copying what the teacher had last written. This process of copying was kept up until within a few minutes of the end of the recitation period. During the whole lesson no incidents were re- lated, — nothing but facts were mentioned. A few minutes before the close of the lesson, the teacher told the pupils to stop writing, after which she asked them some questions relating to the points that had been written on the boar-d. Dur- ing this part of the lesson, the teacher said, "Chil- dren, you need not read the answers from the blackboard if you know them; but I have no objection to your reading them from the board if you wish to do so." When the pupils had finished reading all that had been written, the lesson was over. I asked the teacher what the pupils did with the work on their slates after the lesson. 142 THJi PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON " Why, they rub it off," was the reply. " Then why do they copy the words from the board '? " I inquired. "My only object in having them get the lesson in that way," she answered, "is to feel assured that they are all paying attention. Otherwise some of them would pay no attention." What a peculiar notion ! The third lesson was conducted in the following way : The teacher, after telling the pupils to open their text-books at a certain map, asked them some questions concerning the location of places on this map. The pupils wrote the answers on their slates. This process was continued during the larger part of the recitation period, and during the remaining time the teacher asked the same questions over again, reading them from the text- book, and requested the pupils in answer to read what they had written on their slates. These lessons stand in marked contrast to the geography lesson given in my presence by Miss Rich, the first assistant of the Dwight School, which was one of the best geography lessons I ever attended. The recitation was upon Africa. Geography and history were beautifully inter- woven, the pupils were full of ideas, and the en- thusiasm throughout the lesson was great. From the descriptions given, it is clear that, although some of the teaching in the Boston schools is excellent, unscientific teaching is ac- TRE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON 143 cepted by the superintendents as satisfactory, which means that good teaching is optional and not obligatory, and due not to the activity and progressive spirit of the system itself, but to the fact that some of the principals and teachers are sufficiently interested in their work to do more than is I'equired of them. That the bulk of the teaching is iinscientific is evidently because the vast majority of the teachers fail to comprehend the true spirit of modern methods. But why does this weakness exist in a school system that has labored under particularly favor- able conditions for so many years'? This, is my opinion, is due principally to the fact that far too little is done by the superintendents toward in- structing and inspiring the teachers. In Boston, although the number of supervisors is adequate (there is one supervisor to one hundred and seventy-five teachers), nothing is done by them toward materially improving the minds of the teachers, their labors being limited to visiting the teachers in their class-rooms and giving them prac- tical hints on teaching. That the average Ameri- can teacher is too weak to stand alone, and that the normal-school influence is soon lost unless she is inspired and instructed by the superintendents after she has received her appointment, is shown very clearly in Boston, where such unfavorable influences as politics and "pulls" are at a mini- mum and the number of supervisors is sufficiently large. That the Boston schools have everything 144 TB/i PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF liOSTON in their favor and yet make a poor showing can, in my opinion, be traced largely to the fact that the instructive and inspiring teachers' meetings are wanting. There is nothing on which the superintendents of those cities where the schools are progi-essive and where the best schools have been developed agree so generally as on the fact that the main source of inspiration lies in the teachers' meet- ings. Mr. Balliet, superintendent of the schools of Springfield, Mass., says upon this point: "I de- vote most of my strength to the teachers' meet- ings. I find that it is there that I direct the work of the schools most effectively." Dr. Bradley, for- merly superintendent of the schools of Minneapo- lis, says : "At the teachers' meetings I endeavored to get the teachers beyond the methods and de- vices to underlying pedagogical and psychological principles. I think I was more useful in thus get- ting almost every teacher to study and investigate for herself than in any other way." Miss Arnold, supervisor of the Minneapolis primary schools, de- pends largely on teachers' meetings to inspire the teachers. Miss Cropsey, supervisor of the Indian- apolis primary schools, says, as we have seen : " The teachers' meeting is by all means the great- est instrumentality for making progress." In Bos- ton there is a principals' club that meets once a month, the meetings being conducted by the city superintendent, and there are a few volunteer teachers' clubs that meet from time to time ; but THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON 145 the SLiperintendents do not meet their teachers for the purpose of instructing them. The number of supervisors in Boston is ample for doing the most admirable work through the instrumentality of teachers' meetings. There be- ing only twelve hundred teachers in Boston, the city superintendent might conveniently meet all his teachers once a month by dividing them into sections of one hundred and fifty and holding two educational conferences weekly. And the assis- tant superintendents might readily organize enough classes in psychology and pedagogy to meet all the teachers in smaller bodies once a week. Until something is done in this way to stimulate the teachers, no material advance of the Boston schools can reasonably be expected. Boston has for many years had rare opportuni- ties, so that, had the proper progressive spirit pre- vailed, its schools might to-day be in advance of all others in the country. Judged by their repu- tation, it is not at all improbable that they were ahead in previous years. During the last decade, however, there has been a great educational revo- lution in this country, nearly all the good schools now existing having been developed within that period. It would appear as if the Boston schools had during this time been resting, meanwhile al- lowing the progressive schools to run ahead of them, leaving them somewhere near the middle of the list. If the Boston educators fail to wake up soon, it is more than probable that before another 10 14G TBE rUBLIC"f>ClI()<)LS OF BOSTON deeacle has jiassed they will find their schools among those at the end of the list. It appears to me that they do not recognize their position. At a principals' meeting I heard a member say in sub- stance that he could not understand why people spoke so much of improving the Boston schools, as, in his opinion, they were already as good as elementary schools could be expected to be. At the same meeting I heard one of the assistant superintendents remark that the Boston schools were ahead and that they must try to keep them ahead. There certainly is no greater barrier to progress than the feeling that things are perfect. The sooner the Boston educators recognize the fact that their schools can safely stand a material advance the better will be their chances of getting them where they belong. CHAPTER VII THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OP PHILADELPHIA THE public schools of Philadelphia oifer a striking example of the difficulties involved in advancing schools, when those in authority use their offices for selfish motives, whether political or other, instead of for the purpose of furthering the welfare of the children intrusted to their care. And these schools show again the evils conse- qiient upon a school system conducted without a responsible head, a circumstance which gives rise to constant conflict among the hundreds of irre- sponsible heads, who, in struggling against each other for the pxirpose of preserving their own rights, forget that none of them has any rights ; for all rights belong to the children for whom the schools exist. That the superintendents of the Philadelphia schools might have done more than they have done, in spite of all hindrances and odds against them, is probable; but labor performed with little encouragement and without healthful support is, in the natural course of events, des- tined to lose in spirit as well as in energy. 147 148 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF FHJLJDJiLFHJA The public schools of Philadelphia were left without supervision until 1883. Before that time the most chaotic condition prevailed, for the rea- son that each individual school was conducted according to the whims of its principal, who, though simply a class teacher, prepared the course of studies and regulated the examinations and promotions without regard to what was going on in other schools. The schools were then, as now, governed by two distinct bodies: the Central Board, whose members — one from each ward — are appointed by the judges of the Court of Com- mon Pleas; and a Local Board of thirteen mem- bers for each ward, twelve of the members being elected by the people, the thirteenth being a member of the Central Board. There are now thirty-six wards in the city. Among these bodies matters are arranged to a considerable extent upon the principle of power without responsibility, there being enough over- lapping between the powers of the local and central boards greatly to weaken the responsi- bility of each. The power to appoint and dis- charge both principals and teachers lies in the hands of the local boards. The Central Board has a veto power, it is true, but this power is very rarely, if ever, exercised, practically all appoint- ments made by the local boards being confirmed by the Central Board. The feeling between tlie central and the local boards is not a friendly one. The local boards guard their rights most PVBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF PHILADELFEIA 149 jealously — so jealously that they are in the habit of looking upon suggestions that come from the Central Board as propositions to be opposed on principle. When the superintendent appeared on the scene matters became still further complicated. As the principals and teachers were appointed by the local boards, and consequently depended only upon the latter for their positions, it is clear that the power to regulate the authority and powers of the superintendent lay practically in the hands of the local boards, who could, if they chose, give the principals and teachers the privilege of ignor- ing or defying the superintendent. Now the local boards, fearing that the Central Board would gain in power through the instrumentality of the superintendent, decided not to look with favor upon him. The natural result was that the principals, who had hitherto been lords and mas- ters of their own schools, in many instances took advantage of the attitude of the local boards and vowed that they would not be governed by a sixperintendent. The superintendent was, there- fore, as a rule, not welcomed, but simply tolerated, and he was in conseqtienee obliged to feel his way slowly and carefully. The superintendent always received the support of the Central Board, it is true ; but the support of this board has, under the circumstances, been of comparatively little value. Further, even the actions of the Central Board are much deplored 150 PDBLIC-SCEOOL SYSTEM OF FBILADELPHIA by those who are in a position to know definitely what is going on. The board has the reputation of being conservative and by no means suiiiciently energetic successfully to cope with the various local boards. It has the further reputation of beiag to a considerable extent led by a single member — a thoroiigh politician — who, apparently for no rea^ son other than the pleasure of wielding power, is said to have done more to stand in the way of progress than any one connected with the public schools of Philadelphia. In regard to overcoming opposition. Dr. Mac- Alister, the iirst superintendent, was not very suc- cessful. While a large number of the teachers became strongly attached to him and more than welcomed his suggestions and teachings, many of them never took kindly to him, and he won as allies only a few of the thirty-odd local boards in the city. Dr. MacAlister appears to have kept aloof from the schools where he was not partic- ularly welcome, and there are schools in Phil- adelphia that he never visited. His influence was needed, if anywhere, at the Normal School, where nearly all the public-school teachers of Philadelphia are trained, and which is sorely in need of improvement. But he never gained a foothold in that institution. He very rarely visited the school, and the influence that he exerted over it was practically nil. He exerted as little influence over the Boys' High School as he did over the Normal School. PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF PBILADELPBIA 151 Tlie assistant superintendents — there are now six — have to a considerable extent shared the fate of the superintendent. It is owing in no small part to this constant conflict that the pub- lic schools of Philadelphia, after being supervised for ten years by a corps of earnest workers, are still but little beyond the beginning of a progres- sive movement. Although the schools that had been in the hands of able principals were doing good work, and indeed in some instances very excellent work, when Dr. MacAlister entered upon the duties of his office in 1883, yet, according to accounts, the condition of things, taken all in all, was at the time deplorable. Sing-song concert recitations were in vogue, pure memorizing was the order of the day, and the results in general were miserable. I have been informed that it is almost impossible to imagine how degraded things were at the time. In two ways the superintendent endeavored to make order oiit of chaos : first, by constructing a course of studies to be followed by all the schools ; and, secondly, by conducting regular semiannual examinations for promotion, the questions being formulated by him and sent to the schools of the city with minute directions as to the manner of conducting the examinations and marking the papers. Although regularly stated examinations for promotion are now looked upon as unscientific pedagogy, they were probably, under the circum- 152 PUSLIC-SCSOOL SYSTEM OF PBILADELFBIA stances, justifiable in Philadelphia at the time. In previous years the promotions had been largely regulated according to the number of vacant seats in the next succeeding grade. In some schools promotions had been made when the pupils received an average of forty or fifty per cent., while in others an average of seventy or seventy-five per cent, was required, so that the grading of the pupils varied greatly in different schools, — the children of a given grade of one school being perhaps no further advanced than those of a much lower grade of another school. In not a few instances members of the local boards had taken upon themselves the responsibil- ity of promoting pupils at the request of parents and against the judgment of the teachers, so that a number of schools became entirely ungraded. Even at the time of my visit, the custom of pro- motion by members of the local boards was stiU to a certain extent followed. The superintendent made the experiment of abolishing examinations for promotion a few years ago, but so perceptibly did the results become poorer that he decided to resume them. Dr. Brooks, the new siiperintendent, is once more trying the experiment. The course of studies constructed by Dr. MacAlis- ter, although not without marked flaws in certain instances, was nevertheless in general founded upon scientific principles. It certainly proved him to be a progressive man. But since scientific teach- ing was unknown to the vast majority of the PVBLIC-SCBOOL SYSTEM OF PHILADELPHIA 153 teachers, the new course of study was beyond their grasp, and it was consequently followed by them in form rather than in spirit. The influence exerted upon the schools by the new course of study, together with the attempt on the part of the superintendent and his assistants to break up the mechanical work without materially increasing the professional strength of the teachers, has been a most peculiar one. While the concert recitations and the mechanical rote-work have in the vast majority of instances been broken up, truly scien- tific teaching has not yet taken the place of the mechanical teaching, so that we find the instruc- tion at the end of ten years of supervision neither mechanical nor scientific. What we do find, how- ever, in very many instances, is the weakest teach- ing conceivable. In the average class-room there is a marked lack of force and application. I am informed by the superintendents, however, that the results are now far better than they were in former years. The effect of the destruction of the old without a proper substitution of the new is particularly apparent in the primary schools. The picture pre- sented by the average primary school is chaotic. The lower grades are, as a rule, divided into sec- tions of from ten to fifteen pupils. While some of the lessons are general, — that is, given to the whole class, — most of them are given to only one section at a time, so that in many of the grades the children receive direct instruction for no more 154 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF PBILADELPBIA than two or two and a half of the five hours spent in school, the pupils being engaged in busy-work more than half the time. In nearly every class that I visited, the busy- work meant little more than idleness and mis- chief. It was the most aimless work that I have ever found. In m.ost cases the teacher had no eye for any of the pupils excepting those in the sec- tion that she was instructing at the time. In some of the classes the children at times amused them- selves by walking around the room, or by talking so loudly that the hum which ensued was so dis- turbing that the teacher could scarcely communi- cate with the pupils whom she was at the time instructing. As to the busy-work itself, some of the pupils were simply scribbling all sorts of things on their slates ; others were copying words and figures from the blackboard, rubbing them out and writing them over again, without appear- ing to perform any definite task and without any supervision by the teacher. A favorite occupation appeared to be the drawing of borders consisting of moons and half -moons around their slates. In a word, the pupils, when not receiving direct in- struction, were generally without a task, wasting their time and learning habits of laziness and carelessness. The direct teaching itself was also in most in- stances not planned and not prepared, and the results were poor. I found the reading very bad, the arithmetic not very much better, and beyond PUBLIC-SCEOOL SYSTEM OF PEILADELFEIA 155 that but little was attempted. The object-lessons that I witnessed were ridicnlously weak. During a lesson in form that I attended, and which was fifteen minutes in duration, the pupils learned no- thing beyond the fact that the " surface " meant "the outside." A lesson on a stuffed frog given by another teacher was worth about as much. During a transitional period such conditions as these are perhaps preferable to the old-fashioned teaching, but a transitional period of ten years is entirely too long. As the primary schools lack completely in suggestiveness, it would scarcely be worth our while to enter into detail concerning special lessons that I witnessed. In the grammar- schools I found the teaching in general also weak and the results not very good. Much of the teach- ing is aimless and not prepared, and there is so much silent work and testing going on that it is not unusual to enter class-rooms and find no teach- ing at all at the time. There is, as in the primary schools, in many instances a noteworthy lack of force, although the chaotic condition that charac- terizes the primary schools is not found in the grammar grades. The grammar-schools are, how- ever, very uneven — much more uneven than the primary schools, so that while many of them are still very poor, some of the grammar principals have succeeded in developing very good schools. There are undoubtedly more good schools now than there were before the establishment of super- vising principalships. The establishment of these 156 PUBLIC-SGBOOL SYSTEM OF PHILADELPHIA prineipalships was perhaps the most important step toward progress taken while Dr. MacAlister was in office. In addition to the general weakness of the Philadelphia schools, the curriculum is very nar- row. It includes neither music nor the natural sciences. In the fall of 1892, clay-modeling was added to the couxse, this being the first real at- tempt to introduce manual training into the elementary schools of Philadelphia. A special supervisor of drawing has recently been appointed to aid the teachers in their efforts to teach draw- ing and modeling. Before his appointment Phila- delphia did not have a single special teacher of drawing. Sewing and cooking, however, have been taught in the schools of that city for a number of years. Although the standard of the public schools of Philadelphia, taken aU in all, may be said to be comparatively low, there are nevertheless a num- ber of noteworthy individual exceptions. And, furthermore, quite a number of interesting special features are included in the public-school system of that city. In regard to the individual exceptions, I may say that I have visited few schools in the United States that impressed me more favorably than the Lincoln School, which has been in good hands for many years. The teaching I witnessed there was in the main prepared and thoughtful, and the re- sults were good. The language work in the upper grades was very good. PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF PHILADELPHIA 157 Further, I found the Robert Morris School especially worthy on account of its suggestive- ness. The principal of that school has given a great deal of attention to illustrative teaching, many of the lessons being made valuable and in- teresting by the use of the magic lantern and the heliostat. He has made an excellent collection of hundreds of views from all parts of the world, which are frequently used by the class-teachers in the geography and history lessons. He has himself made many excursions for the purpose of photographing places of interest, and since my visit a large number of slides to be used in the same way in teaching natural history have been prepared by him. Quite a number of Philadelphia's principals are interested in work of this nature, and are introducing it into their schools. Some excellent features may be found also in the McClellan School. One of its interesting features is a club, entitled the Legion of Honor, which has been organized by the members of the highest grammar grade. The aim of this club is to build character, and the requisites for joining are truthfulness, honor, and politeness. The prin- cipal informed me that this club has exerted a very favorable influence on the school, the pupils knowing that they will not be eligible to member- ship unless they can be trusted. She furthermore said that the pupils had become so trained that they now work just as well when the teacher is out of the class-room as when she is with them. 158 rOBLIG-SGBOOL SYSTEM OF PEILADELPHIA Another interesting feature of this school lies in the fact that, when possible, the teachers take the pupils out of doors for instruction. One of the teachers has taken out as many as sixty pupils at a time without the slightest inconvenience or difficulty in preserving order. Among the pri- mary schools that I visited I found the Landreth School particularly interesting on account of its enthusiastic teachers, as well as its thorough equipment. Among the special features of Philadelphia's public-school system we find: First, the Manual Training High School, which in my opinion is one of the most interesting and thorough institutions of its kind in the country. In this school much has been done toward unifying the manual with the literary work. The school has proved a great success. Recently a second one has been opened. Secondly, the Public Industrial Art School. The aim of this school is to teach public-school teachers and pupils the arts of modehng and fi-ee- hand drawing. Some of the work of the school is very remarkable in its way. Thirdly, the kindergarten has formed a part of the pubhe-school system during the past few years, and Philadelphia has a special supervisor of kin- dergartens. Unfortunately, however, the kinder- garten training received at the Normal School is little more than nominal, being Hmited to one hour of daily instruction in theory for one year, and to five days of observation in the kindergar- PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF FBILADELPSIA 159 ten during that year. The students, therefore, re- ceive their diplomas as kindergartners without once having come into direct communication with kindergarten pupils. The kindergarten course forms a part of the regular teachers' training course, which is of one year's duration following a three years' course in the High School. A new Normal School building was, at the time of my visit, in process of erection, and it was the inten- tion of the hoard, on the completion of this build- ing, to increase the course of professional training to a term of two years. It is not difficult to understand why the Phila- delphia schools have progressed so slowly in spite of the establishment of a department of superin- tendence. It is an accepted fact that the school is as the teacher, and consequently the advancement of the schools of any particular locality means practically the elevation of the standard of its teachers. As there are but three ways in which the standard of the teacher may be raised, and as in Philadelphia two of them have not been appHed at all and the thii-d but imperfectly, it is clear that but httle has been done toward the advancement of the Philadelphia schools through the instru- mentality of the superintendent and his assis- tants. The means to be employed for improving the teaching are : first, the appointment of teach- ers superior to those previously appointed; sec- ondly, the gradual weeding out of incompetent 160 PUBLIC-SCSOOL SYSTEM OF PHILADELPHIA teachers ; and, thirdly, the education of the teach- ers after their appointment and while engaged in teaching. In regard to the teachers appointed, no material advance has been scored during the past ten years — first, because the Normal School has not materially improved; and, secondly, because the appointment of teachers is still entirely gov- erned by politics and "pulls." In the appoint- ment of principals and teachers the word of the "ward boss" still reigns supreme. A question not infrequently asked of those applying for posi- tions is, "Who are your voters'?" Those gradu- ating from the Normal School with an average of eighty-five per cent. — after a most superficial training — receive without further consideration permanent principals' certificates. Cases not in- frequently occur where unlicensed persons with a " pull " earn a livelihood by " substituting " in one school after another. Next, the discharge of in- competent teachers is a matter attended with a great deal of difficulty in Philadelphia. Some- times, after a considerable amount of agitation, an incompetent teacher is discharged, but it oc- casionally happens that a teacher, after being discharged by one local board, is soon after reappointed by another. The improvements that have taken place in the Philadelphia schools since the establishment of a department of superintendence are due, therefore, entirely to what has been done by the superinten- dents to improve the minds of the teachers after PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF PBILADELPSIA 161 their appointment. But even in this regard not very much has been done. Every teacher has been visited two or three times annually in her class-room by one of the assistant superintendents. But when visits are so infrequent they are valu- able only as a means of inspection ; they are not truly helpful. With five hundred teachers in his charge, no superintendent can be expected to be of much service to any individual teacher in her class-room. Neither has much been done in the way of teachers' meetings : regularly stated meet- ings called by the superintendents for the purpose of instructing the teachers in the science of edu- cation — meetings such as those held by the su- perintendents who have succeeded in developing good schools — have never been instituted in Philadelphia. It is true that a great many meetings are held by the assistant superintendents, nearly one hun- dred having been called during the first three or four months of the present school year (1892-93). But these meetings are as a rule held with small groups of teachers, so that eighty or ninety meet- ings do not necessarily mean more than one or two to an individual teacher. Although the work of five hundred teachers cannot be properly super- vised by a single person, yet even with that num- ber of teachers much could be done in the way of instructive teachers' meetings provided they were systematically arranged. By meeting teachers in groups of one hundred and twenty-five twice 162 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM' OF PEILADELPHIA weekly, each teacher inight be given the oppor- tunity to attend a meeting as often as once every two weeks. Some of the supervising principals meet their teachers regularly for the purpose of instructing them in the science of education, and much good has undoubtedly resulted from these meetings in individual schools. "While Dr. Mac- AMster was in office he delivered, for a number of years, lectures upon psychology and the science of education at the Normal School every Saturday morning. But attendance upon these lectures was voluntary, and not more than one teacher in five or six attended them. Besides, lectiu'es upon educational topics in no way take the place of edu- cational discussions in which each teacher takes an active part. That so little has been done by the superin- tendents toward instructing the teachers may possibly be accounted for to a certain extent by the fact that they have been hampered in their work by the members of the local boards. Some of the local boards have, however, cooperated with the superintendents, and others are now fol- lowing in their footsteps. The evidence that I have collected concerning the extent to which the members of the local boards have interfered with the efforts of the superintendents to aid the teachers by means of meetings is very conflicting. In addition to meetings organized by assistant superintendents, the city superintendent could readily meet with all the teachers of the city once PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF PHILADELPHIA 163 a month. Should he meet them in bodies of one hundred and fifty and conduct one conference daily, he would be enabled to meet aU. his three thousand teachers once in four weeks. I scarcely believe that it is asking too much of a superinten- dent to devote one hour a day to instructing the teachers in his charge. Dr. Brooks, the present superintendent, has a very inspiring influence upon the teachers, and on this account, as well as by means of his person- ality, I believe that he is destined to win the con- fidence and loyalty not only of the teachers, but also of the various boards of education. I fear, however, that he is making the mistake of en- deavoring to improve the schools by means of constructing new courses of study rather than by devoting much of his time to inspiring teachers, a work for which he is so well fitted. He is already becoming very popular among the teachers, for the reason that he has shown himself to be heartily in sympathy with them. He has in contemplation the organization of pedagogical centers through- out the city for the pm-pose of creating an educa- tional atmosphere. In the fall of 1892, an association known as the " Educational Club" was organized, only the male teachers and superintendents of Philadelphia be- ing eligible to membership. Dr. Brooks is lending this association his hearty support. At the meet- ings of the club, which take place once a month, papers on pedagogical subjects are read. The or- 164 PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF PMILADELPBIA ganizers of the club are in hopes that it will be productive of much good. It deserves every en- couragement in its noble efforts, but it must not be forgotten that similar institutions have existed in Philadelphia, as well as in other cities, without exerting any material influence upon the schools. The Educational Club should, therefore, learn by the mistakes of others. "What is now needed in Philadelphia more than anything else is the awakening of public sentiment, so that a true pub- lic demand for better teaching may be created. The club should, therefore, not remain purely a teachers' organization, but it should strive toward educating the public to the knowledge that there is a science of education, not only by admitting to membership non-professional citizens, but by endeavoring to obtain as many such members as possible. Until a demand for better work mani- fests itself on the part of the public, the school system is likely to continue very slowly its way toward progress. An educational society, the Teachers' Institute, has been in existence in Phila- delphia for many years, but the association has not been a marked success. Whatever might be done by the superintendents at Philadelphia under the present circumstances would be simply palliative. Before the Philadel- phia schools can be placed upon a firm foundation, it will be necessary to apply a remedy that will cure the most flagrant of the evils now existing. These evils, as we have seen, are : first, the want PUBLIC-SCSOOL SYSTEM OF FRILADELPBIA 165 of a responsiUe head ; secondly, the lack of thor- oughly trained teachers ; thirdly, the appointment of teachers by "pulls" instead of for merit, or, in other words, by politics; and fourthly, an in- adequate number of assistant superintendents. But how could a change so radical be effected ? This might, in my opinion, be most effectively done by giving the superintendents, upon whom de- volves the duty of advancing the schools, full op- portunity to advance them, and by reason of this opportunity holding them fully responsible for their condition. Unless the superintendents be given every opportunity to raise the standard of the teachers they cannot justly be held responsible. Consequently, the superintendents must be given full power to appoint and discharge teachers, as well as to use with authority such means as they may deem fit to improve the methods of the teachers. These requirements might be met by following, in Philadelphia, a system of school government such as I proposed for the govern- ment of the schools of New York city. In Phila- delphia, the number of assistant superintendents should be increased to at least fifteen. CHAPTER VIII THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO AND ST. PAUL IN the chapter on the public-school system of New- York city I stated that the problem of plac- ing the schools of large cities on a scientific foun- dation was one that had not yet been solved. My comments on the schools of New York, as well as on those of Philadelphia, tended to eonfii-m this opinion. The public schools of Chicago are not in advance of those of New York or Philadelphia.^ Indeed, the schools of that city may be justly re- garded as the least progressive of the three. In Chicago, not only is the supervision, as in New York and Philadelphia, much too scanty, but the qualifications of the teachers appointed are far below those of the teachers appointed in the other two cities. While in New York and Philadelphia those who have secured positions during, say, the last decade, have with few exceptions enjoyed both a high-school and a normal-school education, only 1 1 do not here include the schools that were developed beyond the city limits and did not form a part of the school system of Chicago until the districts to which they belong were incorporated with that city. 166 CHICAaO AND ST. PAUL 167 a small percentage of those until recently ap- pointed, and now teaching in the public schools of Chicago, are normal-school graduates. Most of them have never pursued any professional studies whatever, and many have not even completed a high-school course. A normal school once existed in Chicago, but it was closed about ten years ago. Previous to my visit, which was made in June, 1892, the qualifications required for passing the teachers' examination in Chicago were not much, if any, beyond those possessed by one who at- tended a high school for one year. After receiving their certificates the candidates for positions were placed in the schools as cadets, — that is, as assis- tants to the regular class-teachers. While serving as assistants they observed for several months the methods employed by teachers who, in the, large majority of instances, themselves never had any professional training. During the cadet period, the candidates had pursued no pedagogical studies. After serving as assistants for a few months, they received regular appointments.^ The quali- fications of the Chicago teachers at present in the system, therefore, taken all in all, compare un- 1 At the meeting of the Board of Education held on May 10, 1893, a law was passed requiring, first, that all cadets serve for five months before heing eligible to appointment, and secondly, that the morning hours alone be devoted to class-room work, while the afternoon hours be given to the study of the theory of education under the guidance of the superintendents. 168 TSE PUBLIC SCBOOLS OF favorably with those possessed by the teachers of most of the other large cities. When I investigated the schools of Chicago, Mr. Albert G. Lane, the present superintendent, had been in office less than a year. In so short a period no superintendent can be expected to exert an appreciable influence on the schools of any city, not to speak of one that maintains a corps of three thousand teachers. Mr. Lane has, however, through former labors, proved himself progressive and liberal-minded. Before being appointed su- perintendent of the Chicago schools, he was for many years superintendent of the schools of Cook County, where, during his term of office, some of the best schools in the country, were developed. Among these are the schools of Englewood and the Cook County Normal School. The latter has been, during the last ten years, under the direction of Colonel Francis W. Parker. The Cook County Normal School is one of the most progressive as well as one of the most suggestive schools I have ever visited. In his last annual report Mr. Lane laments that the qualifications of the teachers of Chicago are so meager, and urges the reestablishment of a training-school. There is no doubt that with proper support Mr. Lane would be able within a few years to effect a complete reformation. That schools may be rapidly improved when the con- ditions are rendered favorable has been repeatedly demonstrated in the smaller cities ; in none more CSICAGO AND ST. PAUL 169 forcibly than in St. Paul. The schools of St. Patil show what can be done, even in a short pe- riod, when all forces act in harmony and energeti- cally with no motive other than that of doing the best possible for the child. By following the ex- ample set by St. Paul, there is no reason why the character of the schools of Chicago should not be changed within a very few years. In asserting that the public schools of Chicago belong to the highly unscientific class, I by no means disregard the fact that a number of excel- lent schools may be found in that city, and that several of Chicago's principals are held in particu- larly high esteem. It is, however, unjust to the great mass of children to judge the standard of a school system by the privileges enjoyed by the few who are fortunate enough to reside in the vi- cinity of an exceptional school. As there is no- thing in any city to prevent teachers so inclined from striving toward an ideal, some excellent schools may be found in almost every city. But as I have already stated in substance, there is this aU-important difference between a scientific and an unscientific system : in the former every teacher is obliged to do her utmost toward keeping her methods abreast of the times, while in an unscien- tific system the most mechanical, antiquated, and absurd methods are tolerated, so long as certain memoriter results — results such as may be ob- tained by any one able to read, write, and cipher — are accomplished. 170 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF In the public schools of Chicago I found the in- struction, in general, so unscientific that in judg- ing them by the minimum requirement I should regard their standard as very low. Some of the teaching was by far the most absurd I have ever witnessed. The amount of objective work is ex- tremely limited, even in the lower grades, and the sciences are not included in the curriculum. In the lowest primary grade the work is particularly dry and mechanical. With the exception of a little singing, the pupils during the first six months do nothing but read, write, and cipher all day long. There is not even a recess to break the monotony. Owing to lack of accommodation in the rapidly growing districts, a number of the primaries have been converted into half -day schools, some of the pupils attending in the morning, while others at- tend in the afternoon. In some of the half-day schools the pupils do not even cipher during the first six months, all their time being devoted to reading and writing. The busy-work consists largely of copying words either from a book or from the board. The methods employed in teach- ing reading vary in the different schools. In some instances the pupils are taught by the word method, in others by the sentence method, and in still others by a variety of methods, including phonics and word-building. As a rule, I found the reading and the writing in the lower grades poor, in spite of the fact that so much time had been devoted to these subjects. CHICAGO AND ST. PAUL 171 In the first school visited, I attended lessons in several grades, some of which I shall now describe. In the lowest grade the proceedings were such as to remind me of a room used for playing school. The teaching was exceedingly weak and the results were poor, and yet the teacher took occasion to say to me, " You know this school has the reputa- tion of heing one of the best in the city." Some of the pupils were copying words from their read- ing-books on their slates, and the writing in some instances might have been mistaken for the foot- marks of flies with chalk legs. I heard some of the pupils read, and their read- ing was anything but good. I learned from the teacher that the children during mtich of the time had no opportunity to do any sight-reading. The city furnished them with only one reading- book, so that they were obliged to read the same book over and over again until the end of the term. The reading-lesson itself presented many absurdities. The teacher made an attempt to teach phonics ; but while the pupils had learned the sounds of the letters, they did not possess much power to combine them, so that, after sound- ing all the letters in a word, they frequently re- mained unable to name the word. When the pupils began a new lesson, they pronounced all the words in the column placed at the top of the lesson before going to the text. In pronouncing these words, each child was obliged to go through a set formula — thus, "That word is 'moon,'" 172 TBE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF " That word is ' dark,' " etc. When a pupil simply named a word without repeating the formula " That word is," the teacher said, " Well, tell me so " ; whereupoai the child would say, " That word is ' mice,' " or whatever it happened to be. In the fourth-grade class-room of this school, I witnessed a lesson in geography. The lesson, which was on "New England," was purely me- chanical, consisting of nothing beyond a drill in cut-and-dried facts. The teacher was good to the pupils, but her English was poor. " You was n't smart that time," "You was n't quick enough," were expressions used by her in speaking to the scholars. To me she said, " Some of the pupils get 'flustrated' when they recite." She used the word " flustrated " over and over again. In spite of her unscientific teaching and her imperfect English, she informed me that she thought the Chicago schools were the best in the country. In another class-room I attended a very original lesson in geography. During the lesson the piipils had their text-books open before them, and when one of them was called on to recite, he simply read a question from the text-book and searched for the answer on the map. Nothing beyond this was done during the entire lesson. The teacher of this class also informed me that the school had the reputation of being one of the best in the city. In another room I heard a third lesson in geogra- phy; as in the other classes, it was simply a drill in facts. Before leaving this building I visited CSICAGO AND ST. PAUL 173 several more class-rooms, but found nothing in any of them that was not mechanical and un- scientific. In the second school that I visited the condi- tions did not vary materially from those found in the one just described. In the lowest grade I found a teacher whose methods were of the most ancient type. The pupils were writing at the time of my entrance. In one of the sections they were writing "a hen" over and over again on their slates. During the lesson the teacher, in the good old way, went from pupil to pupil to write a model " hen " on each slate, and here and there she took the child's hand in her own and guided it over three or four " hens." In another section of this class the pupils wrote their slates full of the sentence, "Mama makes our caps." That even in the lowest grade pupils are capable of doing in- tellectual work is a fact that will be demonstrated in the description of the schools of St. Paul. In another class-room I attended a lesson in ge- ography, and in still another a lesson in history. During both these lessons nothing but purely memoriter work was attempted. The spirit of kindliness prevailed throughout the school, but from a pedagogical standpoint the school was, in my opinion, at the lowest ebb. (In all the schools I visited the pupils were treated with kindness. Corporal pimishment has been entirely abolished, and I found no undiie rigidity in any of the class- rooms.) In several class-rooms of this school I 174 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF also heard some reading. The reading repre- sented what to me appeared to be the result of the most perverted form of instruction I have ever found in any school. I learned that reading of this nature had been introduced in a large number of the Chicago schools. In one of them I followed the method in its details through the first four school years, and I shall describe it in connection with that school a little further on. I happened into another school — one of Chi- cago's jnost famous schools — while examinations for promotion were in progress. I spent some time in the fifth-grade room, where the pupils were passing an oral examination in the geogra- phy of Europe. Bach pupil, was obliged to pass through two processes. Besides answering sev- eral general questions given by the teacher on the geography of Europe, he was obliged to deliver, before the wall map, a sort of lecture, after a set formula, on one of the European countries. To each child had been given the privilege of selects ing any country he chose. In both forms of recita^ tion only purely memoriter work was represented. For general questions the teacher asked the pu- pils to name the rivers, capitals, mountains, or the productions of the various countries, as the case might be. After a pupil had answered the gen- eral questions, a card was given to him on which the formula for his lecture was printed. The topics on the card were intended to guide the child while at the map, as it appeared to be CHICAGO AND ST. PAUL 175 against the rules for the teacher to render the least assistance during a lecture. The topics were, as far as I can recall them — first, how to reach the coimtry; secondly, the boundaries of the country; thirdly, the mountains; fourthly, the rivers; fifthly, the productions; sixthly, the inhabitants; and lastly, facts. By facts were meant such things as the pupils knew about a country that were not included in the above-men- tioned topics. In several instances when a pupil stopped for a moment's reflection, the teacher remarked abruptly, " DonH stop to thinJc, but tell me what you ItnowP She never smiled or offered the slightest en- couragement; she sat in her chair as sober as a judge trying a criminal case. It could be readily seen that what the pupils said while at the map did not show how diligently they had worked dur- ing the term, but simply what they had crammed during the few days preceding the examination, either from a text-book or an encyclopedia. It was the kind of knowledge that is acquired by a few days of hard work and is forgotten within a few days after the examination. Most of the piipils while speaking were trembling from head to foot. Those who had the best verbal memories and who were the least nervous had by far the best chance of doing well. Under such circum- stances the nervous are likely to forget more than half they know as soon as they begin to talk. This examination, aside from its painful- 176 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF ness, violated all laws of scientific pedagogy. In another class-room of tMs school I witnessed an examination similarly conducted. I shall now describe what I saw and heard in the school in which I ohserved the peculiar method of teaching reading to which I have called atten- tion. The principal informed me, on my arrival, that her school was celebrated for its reading, and that she would show me how the method was car- ried out in all the grades. This school contained only the primary classes. We began with the lowest grade and ended with the highest. The method was intended to teach the pupils to read with expression, and was, I believe, founded on the Delsarte system. After entering the room containing the young- est pupils, the principal said to the teacher, " Be- gin with the mouth movements and go right straight through." Complying with the request of the principal, the teacher directed her attention to the class, and said, " Now let us see how nicely you can make the mouth movements." About fifty pupils now began in concert to give utter- ance to the sounds of a (as in ear), e, and oo, vary- ing their order, thus : a, e, oo, a, e, oo ; e, a, oo, e, a, 00 ; 00, a, e, oo, a, e ; oo, e, a, oo, e, a ; etc. The mouth movements made by the pupils while uttering these sounds were as exaggerated as the mouths would permit. While uttering the sound " a " the mouth was stretched open as far as it would go ; in " e " the corners were drawn as CSICAGO AND ST. PAUL 177 closely as possible to the ears, and in "oo" the lips were pointed. The facial expression of the pupils while performing these mouth movements was grotesque ; to see fifty pupils thus occupied at once presented a scene that beggars description. When some time had been spent in thus ma- nceuvering the jaws, the teacher remarked, " Your tongues are not loose." Fifty pupUs now put out their tongues and wagged them in all directions. The principal complimented the children highly on the superiority of their wagging. What an idea these pupils must have received of the pur- pose of a school, when from the start they were taught systematically how to make grimaces and wag their tongues ! But the mouth exercises constituted only a small part of this peculiar method. They were evidently intended simply to teach the pupils to enunciate clearly. The next series of exercises was one of head movements, intended more directly to develop the power of reading with expression. The teacher here said, " The mouth movements were splendid ; let us see whether you can do as well with the head movements." The head movements were, I believe, nine. They were supposed to be natural bodily expressions of the various emotions. I cannot recall the exact form of the process, either as regards words or movements, but in spirit it was as follows : The teacher : " Heads back." All the pupils here stretched their heads as far 12 178 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF back as they would go (attitude of pride), and said slowly and impressively, " I am proud because I know what I am." The teacher : " Heads on left shoulders." The pupils, with their heads poised on their left shoulders, glanced sideways and upwai'd (atti- tude of admiration), saying, " How beautiful that looks ! " The teacher : " Heads on right shoulders." With thei heads on their right shoulders, and their eyes glancing sideways (attitude of cun- ning), the pupils said, " Do you think you can fool me?" The teacher : " Heads down." The pupils, with heads on their chests (atti- tude of grief), said mournfully, "All my money is gone ! " The teacher : " Heads erect." With their heads erect (attitude of obstinacy), the pupils in strongly accentuated tones, slightly nodding their heads while uttering each word, said, " I won't do it." When the head movements were finished the teacher informed me that she would now prepare the pupils for reading. This direct preparation was intended to get the emotions into a flexible condition, so that the children might be more ready to change them, as occasion required, in going from sentence to sentence, and from para- graph to paragraph, in the reading-lesson. This "preparation" was carried on as follows: CHICAGO AND ST. PAUL 179 The teacher, addressing the pupils, asked, "How would you like to have an orange!" All the pupils here smiled moderately. The teacher : " How would you like to have a banana ? " The smile on the faces of the pupils broadened. The teacher : " How would you like to have a piece of candy °i " By means of these words the smile was con- verted into a moderate grin. The teacher : " How would you like to have some ice-cream?" Here the grin became as broad as each indi- vidual mouth would permit. Now the pupils were on the brink of a tremen- dous emotional revolution ; they were to be thrown from the height of joy into the depths of despair. While their thoughts were fully occupied with ice- cream, the teacher remarked suddenly, "How would you like to meet a bear?" The head movements were followed by a few breathing exercises, and when these were com- pleted the teacher said to me, " Now they are pre- pared." Then, directing her attention to the pu- pils, she told them to turn to a certain page in their reading-books. In every class I visited the pupils went through the same exercises before beginning to read. In the second grade, after the pupils had been " prepared," the teacher asked them to read a story called " Be a Good Girl," on page 46 of " Apple- 180 TBE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF tons' Second Reader." The teacher told me they knew how to read that piece because they had practised it. Bach child called on read a few sentences or a paragraph. While reading, the pupils were supposed to be able to assume the various attitudes in which they were drilled dur- ing the head movements. Their appearance and actions while reading were enough to make one shudder. To me, many of the pupils did not look rational when they read. The story ran as follows : "Be a good girl, Dolly! Don't do anything naughty when I am gone." And Katy shook her finger at Dolly as she opened the door to leave the room. And what do you think was in Katy's mind when she said this? — etc. When one of the pupils was called on to begin the story, she rose to her feet, holding the open book in her left hand. Before she began to read she glanced at the book for a moment; then, rais- ing her eyes, she stared so fixedly at me that her eyes became glassy. At last she said in slow and measured, even tragical tones, "Be a good girl, DoUy ! " Then, without removing her gaze from me, she raised the forefinger of her right hand to the front of her eye, shook it at me for a while, and at last said, "Don't do anything naughty when I am gone." Continuing to shake her fin- ger, she read, "And Katy shook her finger at Dolly as she opened the door to leave the room." She now put down her right hand, threw back her CHICAGO AND ST. PAUL 181 head, and without "withdrawing her eyes from me, said slowly and in accentuated tones, nodding her head at each word, " And what do you think was in Katy's mind when she said this ? " In this tragical manner the story was read through by the various members of the class. When the words, " She stopped to listen," had been read, the pupil placed herself in a listening attitude by throwing her head outward and for- ward, in which attitude she remained for fully six or seven seconds. One of the pupils read the words, " Katy stood wondering," and proceeded to the next sentence before fully acting her part. But the teacher checked her with the words, " You did n't stand wondering. Stand wondering, Annie." Then Annie assumed a pensive attitude by dropping her hands to her side and slightly bow- ing her head. For several seconds she remained in this position, motionless as a statue. The teacher here said to me that she liked this method so much because it made the pupils read so natu- rally. In another class-room the pupils threw their glances around in a horrible manner while read- ing ; they stared frightfully. I mentioned this to the principal, who informed me in reply that that room was noted for the manner in which the pu- pils used their eyes, and that it was, in conse- quence, generally known as "the eye-room." I cannot convey in words the impression made on me by the actions of the pupils in this room. 182 TBE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF But this remarkable form of expression was not limited to reading; it had been introduced into other subjects also. In the second grade I wit- nessed a highly dramatic lesson in arithmetic, as well as one in reading. A number of problems had been wiitten on the board, and on my express- ing a desire to hear a recitation in arithmetic, the teacher said to one of the pupils, " Willie, do the first example." Then Willie walked to the back of the room, which served as the stage for the arithmetic per- formance. After a few moments of mental prep- aration on his own behalf, the boy read, in tragic tones, "John walked eighteen miles, and Joe walked four miles further. How many miles did Joe walk 1 " Then came the solution : " If John walked eighteen miles, and Joe walked four miles further, then Joe walked eighteen miles and four miles, or twenty-two miles." During this performance the pianissimos, fortis- simos, crescendos, and diminuendos were perfect, and when the pupil had finished he stepped back to his seat with the air of a tragedian. I can in no way find a warrant for instruction of this nature. At best, it can lead to nothing but the highest form of self -consciousness and affecta- tion. If the pupils should act in every-day life as they act in a school of this kind, they would sim- ply subject themselves to constant ridicule. The principal cause of the low standard of the schools of Chicago is, as we have seen, a marked cmCAGO AND ST. PAUL 183 lack of professional strength on the part of the teachers ; consequently the remedy lies in raising the teachers' standard. The establishment of a training-school, and the appointment of none but trained teachers in the future, would be steps in the right direction, but they would leave unsolved the problem of improving the three thousand teachers at present employed. Unless something- energetic be done toward educating the present staff, no material improvement of the public schools of Chicago can reasonably be expected for many years. As I have previously remarked, the education of the teachers after their appointment is de- volved on the superintendent and his assistants. In Chicago, however, but little has been done by them, thus far, systematicaEy to instruct the teachers in educational methods and principles. As, in my opinion, the remedy for Chicago's school evils lies in raising the standard of the teachers by means of properly directed and thorough su- pervision, I should suggest for Chicago the remedy proposed for the eradication of the evils in the public schools of New York and Philadelphia. That, under favorable conditions, schools may become decidedly improved in a comparatively small time has recently been well demonstrated in St. Paul. Owing to the fact that politics had played such havoc with the schools of that city, an attempt was made to improve the conditions 184 TBE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF by a reorganization of the school system. This reorganization consisted in placing the power to appoint the members of the school board in the hands of the mayor, and in reducing then- number from fifteen to seven. A reorganization of this nature did not necessarily mean that the schools would become separated from politics ; but it so happened that the mayor appointed as members of the school board seven men of unquestioned character, not one of whom was a politician. Thus the schools of St. Paul were at a single sweep completely severed from politics. The ef- fect is excellent. My visits to the St. Paul schools were made in June, 1892, just fifteen months after the inauguration of the new board, and ah'eady at that time there was unmistakable evidence that the schools were rapidly improving. The present superintendent, Mr. C. B. Gilbert, entered on the duties of his office about six months before the advent of the new board. All evidence points to the fact that when he began his labors the schools were, generally speaking, in a very poor condition, the teaching being old-fash- ioned and mechanical and the discipline rigid. But Mr. Gilbert is an enthusiast on the subject of scientific pedagogy, as well as very energetic ; and, having the full support of the board, he set to work fearlessly and with zeal to break up the me- chanical methods and to instil life into the teach- ers. It was, therefore, not long before maa-ked signs of improvement became manifest. Believ- CBICAGO AND ST. PAUL 185 ing that efficient service should be demanded of a teacher as well as of any other person who is paid for his labor, he advised the dismissal of teachers who could not be made to do efficient work. The board never failed to act on his recommendations. The principle on which the superintendent acted is shown in the following extract from his annual report of 1892-93 : Good teachers will make good schools with or without good courses of study or suitahle appliances, and poor teachers will make poor schools under all circumstances. . . . Only those teachers should be appointed or reap- pointed who will serve the public well. The fact that an incompetent teacher has held a position for a long time is an argument not for his retention, hut for his rejection. The argument that the public should still be mulcted to support those unworthy because it has for a long time been so mulcted, is like saying that a man who has robbed you for a long time undetected, now has the right to rob you forever. In the same report the superintendent, in speak- ing of the endeavor on the part of the Board of Education to secure an efficient corps of teachers, says: The board undertook a herculean task whose magnitude and difficulty probably no one appreciated before, and they deserve the thanks of all good citizens for the firmness of their attitude and the success of their efforts. The fact that the teachers learned that they would not be retained unless they gave satisfactory ser- 186 TEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF vice was in itself a great stimulus to better work. And, for the reason that very inferior teaching was no longer tolerated, the minimum require- ment and consequently the standard of the schools were raised. During my visit I found much en- thusiasm among the teachers. Soon after his appointment, the superintendent constructed a new course of study based on the idea of unification; and he did much, directly and indirectly, to inspire the teachers in his charge. In September, 1890, the board engaged Miss Sarah C. Brooks as supervisor of the primary schools. Miss Brooks is energetic and enthusiastic, and is heartily in sympathy with the superintendent. The special supervisors are also in full accord with his plans. But a year and a half is a short time for improving a school system. Therefore, in spite of the rapid progress, the relies of the old system, manifested by undue rigidity and unscien- tific teaching, were at the time of my visit still visible in some of the schools. To show the principles on which all the schools of St. Paul are now conducted, I shall give a few examples of the work of the Sibley School, one of several schools that, for a number of years, have been laboring in this direction, and that conse- quently show the work in a higher stage of de- velopment than the average school. These illus- trations will indicate further the excellent results in language obtained when instruction is based on the principle of unification and language taught CHICAGO AND ST. PAUL 187 in large part incidentally, as a means of expres- sion, rather than directly as an isolated subject. Indeed, the results obtained in language in the primary grades of this school may serve as a model of what can be done in this branch even in the primary schools. The children were taught to read mainly through science-lessons. Com- positions like the following were written by pu- pils who had attended school for seven months (the compositions represent the results of direct observation) : 1. I have a pasque flower. The stamens are yellow. The stem is short. There are many stamens. My flower wears an overcoat. 2. I have a pasque flower. My pasque flower is violet. The stamens are in the center of the flower. My flower has an overcoat. 3. My pasque flower is violet. The stamen is greenish. The overcoat is furry. There are pistils in my flower. A little later in the first school year compositions of the following order were written (those here re- produced were written in ink, and the penmanship was as good as that usually found in a third or fourth year class) : 1. The wasp is larger than the "bee. The wasp has two pairs of wings on the back part of the chest. The insect has gauzy wings. My wasp has got his mouth open. My insect has a long sting. The hind part of the wasp is like an ovoid. There was once a wasp's house in our slant. Once we went down on the slant. Then they saw us. I got stung first, and the other girl got stung second. 188 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF 2. Miss Bgan took an orange yesterday and cut it to let us see the segments. She gave us a piece of rind to look at and see what we could find. She burned some oil that was in the rind. The oil is in little sacs in the rind. There are creases running through the orange to show us where to eut it. We looked through the magnifying glass to see the sacs. The orange is yellowish. The rind is very thick. The seeds are not in a core. When you look through the magnifying glass the rind looks rough. The pulp is very juicy. There is holes all over the rind. On the inside of the rind it is cream-color. The orange grows on an orange-tree. The orange tasted very sweet. They grow in the South. It is very 'warm there. The men in the stores make orange-oil out of the riud. The following, written as the result of direct observation, represents compositions by children who had been at school fifteen months : AUTTTMN The birds are going south, and the weather is growing colder. The flowers are all going to seed. Some trees give us fruit. Some worms make cocoons now. The leaves are falling off the trees and they are changing their color. The men are all cutting their wheat down. Some seeds have wings so that they can fly. The insects are making their houses. The asters bloom in autumn. The frost makes the days colder, and the sun is not so high in the afternoon as in the summer. The men go hunting for pheasants and chickens in autumn. Summer is gone, and winter will come next. The goldenrod is yellow, and it shines pretty in autumn. The night is longer than the day is. Compositions like the following were written about nineteen months after the children entered CBICAGO AND ST. PAUL 189 school. Some of the papers were illustrated by the pupils. The 20th a hoy in our school brought some peas and beans. We soaked them. Then we got a box and Bert got some black earth, and we planted them. In a few days when, the bean was in fresh earth it sent out the cauUcle. Is the pea the same? No; when you plant a pea it will send out the caulicle and pumule. Peas and beans will not grow when they have no water, earth, and sunshine. The pea has a finger called a tendril. This tendril will cling to a pole and climb up very high. When the peas get roots the pumule will grow up and make green leaves. The leaves of the pea are oval-shaped. The following composition, which, in my opinion, is remarkable for fullness and clearness of ideas, was written by a pupil at the end of the fourth school year. It was very neatly written and very prettily illustrated. The Pea The pea-pod is only a very large pistil. Inside of it are the peas all in a row. If you put the peas in water before you plant them, they will grow very nicely. If you take it out of the water when it has been there a few days, you will see it has a little cream-colored tail. I took the cream- colored skin off of my pea and broke it in two. Inside of it I saw a little plant. It was very light, for it had not yet seen the sunlight. The little plant just fitted in a little place between the two sides of the pea. These two sides are only two fat leaves. They are not for beauty, but for use. The little plant keeps growing and growing, and while it is so doing it feeds on these two fat leaves. By the time it has eaten the leaves all up it is above the ground. The sun 190 THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF feeds it now with, its warm sunlight, so it grows very fast. The little tail which we saw first does not want to see the sunlight, so it is growing f astly down into the rich soil. The farther it gets down into the soil the whiter it is getting. This is the root, and it spreads and gets many little roots. "We will now go back to the little plant which has just come up into the warm sunshine. It grows so high that it needs a stick to climb on. It gets many smooth leaves which have hair on them. Soon you see a little colored roll on your pea-plant. It is a bud, and soon opens. When the flower fades, take off one and you will see a little pod. This grows quickly, and you will see, it is - pod like the one we took the pea out of that we planted. The little plant inside of the pea is called the plumule and the little tail is the radical. In the second part of this book I shall give further illustrations of the work done by the chil- dren in the St. Paul schools. The science-work being a novelty to most of the teachers a few years ago, numerous efforts were made to instruct them both in the elements of the sciences and in the methods of teaching them. The work was introduced generally in the St. Paul schools in the spring of 1891. As to what has been done in preparing teachers for teaching the sciences, I have received the following note : In April, 1891, semi-weekly classes for the study of plants were organized in different parts of the city, under the auspices of the St. Paul Teachers' Association, and at- tended by from one hundred and fifty to two hundred teachers. These were under the general charge of Prin- cipal H. W. Slack and Mr. Charles B. Scott, a teacher of biological sciences in the High School. In the fall of the CHICAaO AND ST. FAVL 191 same year Mr. Scott organized a teachers' class for study- ing insects, and, at the request of the superintendent of schools, prepared a pamphlet of " Suggestions to Teachers " in regard to collecting, preserving, and studying insects. In the spring of 1892, the teachers organized through the Teachers' Association classes in many of the schools of the city for the study of plants, and the instructors of these classes, with other teachers from schools having no classes, met with Mr. Scott weekly. The second plan was so suc- cessful that this fall classes were organized by teachers in nearly all the schools, each under the charge of a teacher chosen by the others, or of the different teachers in turn. These instructors, to the number of forty or fifty, have met with Mr. Scott, first for the study of animals (caterpillars and snails), and later for the study of minerals. The class instruction has been entirely by laboratory work, the actual study of the plants, animals, and minerals. The work of the instructor has been to provide the proper material, stimulate and direct its study by questioning, and collect and put in order the facts obtained by the members of the class. Mr. Scott has prepared for each school a set of twenty-five specimens of minerals and rocks most common in our vicinity, also a pamphlet for the teachers on the " Study of Bocks," with special reference to the rocks about St. Paul. He has occasionally, as his regular high-school work would permit, visited the schools and examined the work. During last August, Mr. Scott had charge of classes for the study of minerals, plants, and animals, at the sum- mer school for teachers at the State University, which were attended by about one hundred teachers from the St. Paul schools. Mr. Scott has given his services gratuitously. Recently manual training was introduced in the elementary schools. The kindergarten also forms part of the public-school system. The teachers' training-school is well equipped, the spirit of the 192 CmCAGO AND ST. PAUL school is excellent, and the teachers are intensely enthusiastic. Last November a novel attempt was made in the way of practical moral training, with perhaps unparalleled success. A short time before Thanks- giving Day a number of the teachers, acting on their own behalf, asked the pupils to contribute a share, however small, toward rendering Thanks- giving Day happy for the poor. The suggestion met with a hearty response. On the following day every pupil who had been present brought something to school, each according to his means — some bringing only a single potato or a turnip, while others contributed liberally. Indeed, so many things were brought that the question of storing them became a difficult problem. Before long the news reached the ears of every teacher in the city. The result was that nearly every school-child in St. Paul contributed something, so that car-loads of food and clothing were collected. The charity organizations of the city undertook to distribute the things. Its officers declared that more than enough had been given by the children to supply all the poor of St. Paul with food and clothing throughout the winter. Lessons so aus- piciously begun are likely to be continued, and they cannot fail to make an indelible impression on young and plastic minds. CHAPTER IX MINNEAPOLIS, LA PORTE, AND THE COOK COUNTY NOKMAL IN the present chapter I shall endeavor to show again that it is possible to educate the child without robbing him of his happiness. While the schools of Minneapolis, Minnesota, La Porte, In- diana, and the Cook Coiinty Normal School at Englewood, Illinois, differ somewhat in regard to details, they have nevertheless a niunber of feat- \\res in common. In aU. of them we find, first, that the curriculum is founded largely on the principle of unification ; secondly, that the teachers strive to render instruction thoughtful and school life attractive ; and, thirdly, they all tend to prove that when the teachers are prepared for their work, literature, the sciences, and the arts can be taught, even in the primary grades, without detri- ment to the three R's. Indeed, as I stated in the introduction, I found by far the best reading and written language in schools where the curriculum was broadest, and the instruction most interest- ing and thoughtful, and the poorest reading and written language in the schools that devoted most time to the mechanical study of these subjects. 13 193 194 MINNEAPOLIS, LA FORTE, AND First, the schools of Minneapolis. My visits to the schools of Minneapolis were made during June, 1892, when Dr. Bradley was still their superin- tendent and just completing the sixth year of his service. He had been provided with two assistants, a grammar and a primary supervisor. Since the time of my visit, however, several changes have taken place. Dr. Bradley has accepted the pres- idency of the Illinois College, and the position of grammar supervisor has heen abolished. Mr. Jordan, who was then the principal of one of the high schools, is now superintendent. During his term of office, Dr. Bradley exerted a very favorable influence over the schools. What there had been of a purely mechanical nature dis- appeared, in large part, under his supervision. At the present time Minneapolis has a very earnest and progressive corps of teachers, who are always ready to enter with enthusiasm into the spirit of whatever in the opinion of the superintendents will tend to increase their professional strength. When, some two years ago, Mr. Alton, a teacher in one of the high schools, offered to conduct weekly classes in technical botany, and Miss Arnold, the supervisor of the primary schools, in the methods of teaching botany, nearly every teacher was anx- ious to join the classes, and many were disap- pointed because it was found necessary, for want of accommodation, to limit the membership to one hundred and twenty-five. In the autumn of 1892, an association known as the Primary Round Table TBE COOK COUNTY NORMAL 195 was organized. The society meets once in two weeks, nnder the leadership of Miss Arnold, to study the philosophy of education and to discuss current educational literature. The society was immediately joined by some two hundred teachers. Although in all the grades of the Minneapolis schools the spirit is excellent and the work con- ducted on broad lines, nevertheless the striking feature of these schools lies in the beautiful life led by the pupils in the primary grades. Being unhampered in her work, an earnest student of the science of education, and endowed with a pro- gressive spirit. Miss Arnold has succeeded in de- veloping a system of primary schools that has few equals. The primaiy schools of Minneapolis prove not only that when the teachers labor intelligently the curriculum is not broadened at the expense of the three R's, but they prove also that when the work is interesting the children from the poorest liomes are as responsive to sympathy as those who have the most favorable home surroundings. The Lincoln School, for example, is attended almost entirely by foreigners whose homes are in many instances so poor that the little ones are obliged to earn money by selling papers and blacking boots outside of school hours. And yet the school is overflowing with sympathy without detriment to the discipline. The Lincoln School, in my opinion, offers positive proof that when the teacher is competent it is not necessary to treat the chil- dren of poor immigrants with more severity than 196 MINNEAPOLIS, LA POBTE, AND the children of refined American parents. The teachers of the Lincoln School informed me that they experience no difficulty in controlling their pupils. What lends a peculiar charm to the primary schools of Minneapolis is the work in the elemen- tary sciences and in literature, and the fact that much of the work in the three R's is made in- cidental to subjects that tend to give the pupils beautiful thoughts. The children are introduced to school life by lessons on plants and animals, by fables, stories, and poems. The spirit underlying the instruction in the sciences and in literature, the objects to be at- tained thereby, and some of the favorable results of the work are expressed in the following very suggestive sketch which Miss Arnold was kind enough to write for me after my visit: My purpose in introducing the science and literature lessons was to lead the children to observe, to bring them into closer touch "with nature, to add to their enjoyment in and out of school (an " inalienable right "), and to fill their minds -with beautiful pictures and inspiring ideals so that there might be less room for the mean and low. Material for language-lessons, knowledge of facts, and greater power of expression were ends obtained through the lessons, but they were not the most important aims. The observation-lessons are actual observations from specimens. The work has thus far been confined to ob- servation of plants and animals, because the teachers them- selves still feel the need of instruction in these branches, so that we have not as yet been able to cover a broader field. THE COOK COUNTY NOSMAL 197 The time given to the work covers eight weeks of plant- lessons, and six for animal-lessons, in the spring, with equal periods in the fall. These lessons occur at the first morning period, and the other work of the day is related to them. If the Indian corn is studied, the story of Hiawatha's wrestling with Mondamin may be read, Whittier's " Corn Song" committed to memory, or the history of the plant as related to agriculture maj' he noted. The goldenrod and aster suggest Helen Jackson's " September," or " October's Bright Blue Weather." The animal-lessons follow the plant-lessons in the fall, and pre- cede them in the spring. Living specimens are observed as far as possible. It is not uncommon to find in the school- room doves, gophers, squirrels, rabbits, kittens, or mice, in cages, fed and cared for by the children. I said to some primary children in a room where I had found a basket of white rabbits, " Would n't it be better to have a picture of a rabbit for your lesson ?" " Oh, no ! you could n't see it run, or eat, or breathe, or drink, or feel its soft hair, or see its teeth." "And we could n't take care of it," added another. My hope in introducing the lessons was that the children from homes where poverty or heredity had made their lives barren might have a taste of the beautiful and learn to love nature. I have been delighted with the results. Bootblacks stop me in the street to tell me what beautiful flowers they had studied in the school that day. A little lad followed for several blocks the car in which he saw me to speak to me when I left the car and show me some lilac-huds that he was cherishing. A ragged newsboy accosted me on the street with, "Did you get that letter I wrote you about the bloodroot ? We had some in our school. They were awful pretty, so white ; but their petals all fell off and their roots are like blood. Say, I know where they grow." I have seen the ill-kept children from tenement-houses crowding around the table on which the flowers stood, writing their entries in their note-books as to petals, stamens, or leaves. One little class of Eussians and Bohemians learned to read through 198 MINNEAPOLIS, LA PORTE, AND seienee-lessons alone. They were alive with enthusiasm. Who can tell what this glimpse of the beautiful will he in their lives — a window into the Infinite ? ■ The same results in enthusiasm and inspiration were reached through the literature-lessons. The time not spent in observation-lessons in the winter has been given to poems, fables, and stories. Little children become friends with the "Village Blacksmith,'' with "Paul Eevere,'' with "Hiawatha;." In one school where the children from the flats by the river-bank meet the children from comfortable homes, the little seven-year-olds recited whole pages of " Hiawatha," and at the teacher's request played the part of Hiawatha, Nokomis, or the "Deer with Antlers." I shall never forget how those children forgot themselves and their visitors in living Hiawatha's life with him, listening to the "whispering of the pine-trees," to the "lapping of the water, sounds of music, words of wonder." One little Nor- wegian, who had just come to our shores with no knowledge of English, enacted the " Deer with Antlers," stamped vrith all his hoofs together and fell limp and lifeless at the touch of little Hiawatha's arrow. In another room where the children hear no English at home, the teacher read stanzas from Longfellow with the refrain, " A boy's will is the wind's will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." "Those are all you will understand," she said, closing the book. " Oh, please read us the rest even if we don't under- stand," they pleaded, delighted with the rhythm and the beauty which they felt even if they could not interpret. The third-grade boys from a school in the center of the city, where the immigrants of several nationalities seem to drift, wrote to me to beg longer time to read what Mr. Whit- tier had written. Their teacher said they begged over and over again for " Snow-Bound," .and she found phrases from the poem drifting into their language-lessons. These chil- dren live in dismal homes at the best. Their doors open on THE COOK COUNTY NORMAL 199 the street. Beautiful to hear them, with grimy hands clasped and dark eyes luminous, repeat Lowell's "First Snowfall," or Wordsworth's "We Are Seven." The poet within them responds to the soul of the poem and o'er- leaps their barren environment. These lessons open the door to new life. Now a few words concerning the three R's. In the primary grades of the Minneapolis schools the reading is exceptionally good; I have nowhere found it better. Miss Arnold has given much attention to the methods of teaching primary reading, and the subject has been much discussed at teachers' meetings. No single method is used by the teachers. The science method, the sen- tence and the word method, are all used, and much attention is given to phonics. Sentences express- ing the results of the observations of plants and animals usually constitute the reading-matter at first. In regard to the written language, the pupils begin very early to express the results of their observations and to reproduce in writing the stories they have learned. By constant prac- tice the pupils gain much facility in expressing their thoughts in writing. In the preceding chapter, while discussing the schools of St. Paul, I showed what excellent results in written lan- guage can be obtained by this method in a short time. In arithmetic the work is mainly objective in the lower grades, and the results are good. The instruction is based largely on Wentworth aud Reed's system. To a certain extent numbers 200 MINNEAPOLIS, LA PORTE, AND are taught in connectiou with the science work. Prang's system of drawing is used, but in addi- tion the pupils are trained from the start to draw from nature. The pupils in all the grades are led to illustrate their compositions with the pencil and with colors. Another advantage gained by introducing ob- servation and thought studies in the lower pri- mary grades is that through their instrumentality it is possible to render the busy-work thought- ful. In most of our schools the busy-work serves little purpose beyond keeping the pupils of one section of a class busy while the teacher is occu- pied in instructing those of another section. But besides being of little, if any, educational value, the busy-work is frequently a source of so much drudgery to the child as to deserve the name of cruelty. In the schools of some cities, the pupOs copy mechanically words and figures in one form or another for from one and a half to two hours daily. In the cities where the pupils are treated with much consideration, but where the work has not yet reached a stage as high as that attained in Minneapolis, the children are allowed to alter- nate the copying of words and figures with kin- dergarten work, such as stick and tablet laying, playing with the peg-board, assorting colors, etc. Here the busy-work is scrappy and disconnected. The tax upon the child is less severe than it is in the former case, biit the work is still aimless and wasteful of both time and energy. In schools THE COOK COUNTY NORMAL 201 where from the start the pupils are led primarily to observe and to think, there is an opportunity to render the busy-work not only attractive and in- teresting, but at the same time truly educational. In Minneapolis some of the busy-work is mechan- ical and some of it consists of kindergarten work, but it is in large part organically connected with the ideas acquired while the pupUs receive direct instruction from the teacher. They write out in their own words the results of their observations, they reproduce stories in writing, and they illus- trate their compositions by drawing and painting from nature. As so much time is devoted to busy- work in the primary grades of most of our schools — on an average at least one third of the school day — the question as to what it should consist of is clearly a most vital one. In only a few cities, however, has the subject as yet received serious consideration. The grammar grades of the Minneapolis schools differ somewhat from the primary grades in regard to the details of the work. The principle of unification is also followed to a certain extent in the grammar-schools; but as unification be- comes more difficult with each succeeding grade, when each individual subject is studied more in its details, it is not so manifest in the grammar as in the primary departments. As in the pri- mary grades, so in the grammar grades, all the branches are utilized in language work, the com- positions being based upon the ideas acquired in 202 MINNEAPOLIS, LA POBTE, AND lessons on history, geography, literature, and the sciences. The pupils appeared to me to be inter- ested and very earnest in their work. Miss Jennison, the grammar supervisor, de- voted considerable attention to language work. Compositions from the various schools were con- stantly sent to the superintendent's office, where Miss Jennison examined and commented upon them. Many of the compositions that I saw pre- sented a very good appearance. A large number of them were illustrated, and the penmanship was, as a rule, particularly good. As in other cities, some of the compositions were poorly written and contained bad mistakes in grammar and in spell- ing, but the general average was high, and a good proportion of them were surprisingly good in style, elegant in appearance, and without a flaw in gram- mar or in spelling. Some of the compositions written by the pupils of the Minneapolis schools will be found in the second part of this book. Much attention was given to the development of the esthetic faculties in some of the schools. In such schools the work in designing was very fine and the color-work exceptionally good, the latter being in some respects original. In the high schools much attention had been given to wood- carving, and this work was very artistically done. Dr. Bradley has given much thought to manual training, particularly on the artistic side. While the schools of Minneapolis are in many respects excellent, the teachers being earnest and THE COOK COUNTY NORMAL 203 enthusiastic, and endowed with a good spirit, they are nevertheless as yet far from perfect, for the reason that they still suffer from the weakness common to all our schools — namely, a lack of power on the part of the teachers to give a thorough and well-rounded lesson. There are comparatively few of our teachers who have as yet learned the art of conducting a recitation. A perfect lesson is one that not only interests the child, but one that uses his energies to the best advantage. In spirit our best teachers probably have no equal, but in conducting a recitation the Grerman schoolmaster excels. Having written at length on this point in connection with the schools of Indianapolis, it is needless for me to enter fur- ther into its discussion here. The comparatively high standard of the Minne- apolis schools can be traced to several factors. In the first place, for years previous to my visit, the schools had been entirely free from politics, so that merit alone had determined the selection of the teachers. The power to appoint teachers is vested in the Board of Education, but their ap- pointment had been left practically in the hands of the superintendent, the board never having failed to act upon his recommendations. The best available applicants were accepted regardless of whether or not they were residents of Minneapolis. The vast majority of those appointed in recent years have been trained teachers. Minneapolis has at present no training-school. Until recently 204 MINNEAPOLIS, LA POETE, AND a training-school conducted on very narrow lines existed in that city, but it has been discontinued. Secondly, the superintendents had done much to inspire the teachers and to increase their profes- sional strength. A regular teachers' meeting had been held on one Saturday morning of each month. In the early part of the morning the grammar-school teachers had met with Miss Jen- nison, and the primary teachers with Miss Arnold, to discuss methods of teaching with special refer- ence to the grade work. When these special dis- cussions were over Dr. Bradley met all the teachers in a body to talk to them on educational principles. Dr. Bradley attributes the success of the schools largely to the inspiring influence of the teachers' meetings. Besides the regular monthly meetings, many special meetings had been called by the superintendents, especially during the early part of each school year. In addition to attending meetings they are obliged to attend, many of the teachers are members of special classes, attend- ance upon which is voluntary. Among the volun- tary classes are those in botany and the Primary Round Table to which I have referred. As often as possible, the superintendents visit the teachers in their class-rooms for the purpose of aiding them in the practical application of the methods and principles discussed at the meetings. Unfortunately, at the time of my visit, the opin- ion was generally held that politics were finding their way into the school system, and much un- THE COOK COUNTS' NOliMAL 205 easiness was felt by those interested concerning the future of the schools. It is to be hoped that the rumors will prove false, but if they be true, that the citizens, for the sake of their children, will do their utmost to prevent a few selfish per- sons from interfering with the progress of the schools. Next, the schools of La Porte. To discuss in detail the schools of La Porte would be to repeat in large part what has been said of the schools of Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. Indeed, Mr. W. N. HaUmann, who has now been their' su- perintendent for ten years, was one of the first of our educators to introduce the lines of work that lend to the schools of this character their peculiar charm — namely, the sciences in organic connec- tion with reading and written language and artis- tic manual work in all its phases. Besides labor- ing arduously in his own limited circle, Mr. Hail- mann has, through his writings and his work in teachers' institutes and summer schools, done much to further the cause of the new education in America. As, in general, the work-ifi the La Porte schools does not now vary markedly from that found in other schools laboring in the same direction, I shall limit my remarks to their distinguishing features. First, the schools of La Porte appeared to me to be in advance in the artistic lines of work. Mr. Hailmann has given this subject much attention, and besides I know of no schools that 206 MINNEAPOLIS, LA POBTE, AND have for so many years worked systematically in this direction. The development of the power to construct original designs — the creative faculty — can be plainly seen in following the work of the pupils from grade to grade. I shall dem- onstrate this point further on. In the first school year this work is already comparatively well done, and in the higher grades it is truly artistic. From the start the designs are constructed with the pencil, with the brush, and with paper. The children also begin early to paint on clay, and some of the clay work is very fine indeed. Side by side with the designing, the pupils are taught to draw and to paint from nature. I found some nature drawings and paintings in the upper grades that one could scarcely believe to be the work of grammar-school pupils. The pupils also begin early to work in outdoor sketching. In the high school sketching excursions are made from time to time, and many of the pupils de- velop remarkable power in landscape work. On a pleasant afternoon I found the pupils of the second school year seated in front of one of the school buildings sketching the house on the oppo- site side of the street. Naturally these sketches were very crude. Besides the work in drawing and in painting, much attention has been given to work with colored paper. The color-work also is exceptionally good. Secondly. The feature peculiar to the schools of La Porte is the development of the social in- TRE COOK COUNTY NOBMAL 207 terest. From the start the pupils are encouraged to be helpful to each other. Already in the first school year the children begin to work together in groups and to assist each other in making and recording observations of plants and animals, of the wind and the weather, and they frequently sub- divide tasks. In the class-rooms are found small square tables around which the pupils sit, particu- larly when doing busy-work, performing tasks in which all the members of the group take part. In this way much of the form-work is done: each child, being supplied with a number of tablets, aids in the construction of a form of beauty. Many of the forms constructed in this way are made permanent and hung up in the class-rooms, and at the group tables things are made with which the rooms are decorated at the bi-monthly festivals which have become a custom at La Porte. Much of the number-work is done at the group tables. The pupils also work in groups at the molding-board. At the time of my visit they were reading the story of a little girl who lived in the country. For busy-work, a group of chil- dren, supplied with toy houses and trees and a number of sticks, placed upon the molding-board the house in which the little girl lived, and modeled in the sand the farm as well as the sur- rounding country. While working they consulted as to the best way of arranging the material. They placed the house in the center of the board, the trees on all sides of the house, and with their 208 MINNEAPOLIS, LA POBTE, AND sticks they constructed fences. They then made the roads, dng excavations to represent a lake and a river, and they molded hills in the back- ground. Again, long strips of colored paper are given to the pupils, and with these, in groups of two, three, or four, they construct, in the air, forms of various kinds from dictation. Not iu- frequently the pupils of the higher grades present objects, whether ornamental or useful, made by them to the younger children. In three of the five schools the kindergarten has been introduced. The pupils of the varioiis schools are often taken on geographical and botanical excursions. As may be seen, the schools of La Porte are guided by high ideals. Concerning the philosophy underlying the work, Mr. Hailmann writes to me as follows : We seek to arouse a sense of power in all direetions, the desire to observe clearly, to record observations truth- fuUj, to awaken the artistic (creative) fervor, a revei'ence for life and living things, a keen mutual (social) interest. The criteria of our methods are self-aotivity (spontaneity), harmony (wholeness), benevolence (love). In other words, what we do must lead the child to become strong and self- reliant, sensible and thorough, in his work earnest and cheerful, in his attitude sympathetic and helpful. I regard education as a process of liberation in which the child learns to control himself and his surroundings with reference to his purposes, great and small, and to measure the value of these by the criteria of love and reason. To me the child is never a "mere animal," but all his life manifestations are upward into humanity ; he is to me the embodied instinct of hunaanity, seeker after insight, lover, philosopher, artist, saint. THE COOK COUNTY NORMAL 209 While in certain lines the schools of La Porte are unique, and in others excellent, yet as in other cities they have their hmitations, because it is next to impossible to find a corps of ideal teachers. Nevertheless, the spirit of the teachers is very good, and Mr. Hailmann is doing all in his power to make them ideal. He strives to educate them in various ways; first, teachers' meetings are held as frequently as once a week or oftener. At these meetings the grade work is very carefully con- sidered, and educational works as well as current educational literature are discussed. Among the books read by all the teachers are the works of Colonel Parker and of Mr. Alex. Prey, Sully's " Psychology," Proebel's " Education of Man," and Mr. Hailmann's own works. For special guidance Mr. Hailmann prints on the mimeograph and the hectograph detailed suggestions. Secondly, model lessons are given by the superintendent and by those of his teachers who are particularly strong in certain lines of work. Thirdly, certain children are closely observed, the results of the observations being recorded in detail. Fourthly, each teacher is required to furnish the superintendent every two weeks with a report of what she has studied with the children during that period. As La Porte has only thirty teachers, Mr. Hailmann can visit them all frequently in their class-rooms. Thirdly. The Cook County Normal School. Of all the schools that I have seen, I know of none that shows so clearly what is implied by an \i 210 MINNEAPOLIS, LA PORTE, AND educational ideal as the Cook County Normal School. This school has been for ten years in charge of Colonel Francis W. Parker, who, as is almost too well known to require mention, has done as much if not more than any other single person to spread the doctrine of the new education throughout our country. That the school does not accomplish all that it sets out to do, and that it still has a long road to travel before it will reach per- fection, no one feels more keenly than Colonel Parker himself. As in other schools, mistakes are made by pupils in grammar and in spelling, some problems in arithmetic are inaccurately performed, some of the nature-paintings are daubs, some of the color-work is inharmonious, and some of the wood-work made by the children would not command a high price in the market. Indeed, taken all in all, the results as measured on the scale of one hundred are no better and no poorer than those obtained in other progressive American schools. In one regard, however, — namely, as a source of inspiration to those who desire to enter the pro- fession, — it is almost an ideal. This is true for two reasons : First, the school is almost uniqiie in its suggestiveness, due to the attempt on the part of the teachers to conduct all the work on purely psychological principles, to the completeness of the school from the standpoint of the "all-side" development of the child, and to the manner in which are utilized the opportunities to bring the THE COOK COUNTY NORMAL 211 child into close contact with nature in the beau- tiful park of twenty acres in which the school is situated. Secondly, Colonel Parker possesses to a remarkable degree the power to inspire his students. Of many institutions it may be said that they are the sources of knowledge, but of few that they are the sources of wisdom. Colonel Parker does not aim to convert his students into storehouses of knowledge, into walking encyclo- pedias, but rather to impress them with the idea that when they leave the school they wiU have re- ceived but a glimpse of the infinite ; and they do feel when they leave him that the development of the human miad is indeed a dif&ciilt problem, and that in justice to their pupils they are in duty bound ever to seek such light as will guide them in solving this problem. Colonel Parker sends out into the world no full-grown trees, but only seed- lings. In unfavorable soil the seedlings wither or are stunted in their growth ; but when the soil in which they are planted is favorable to their growth, they develop into tall and beautiful trees. The faculty of the normal department of the school is one of the most enthusiastic, earnest, progressive, and thoughtful corps of teachers that may be found anywhere, and they are con- tinually growing. The reason why the results in the primary and grammar grades are not, un- der these favorable conditions, superior to those obtained in other progressive schools is that it is extremely difScult to find grade teachers equal 212 MINNEAPOLIS, LA FORTE, AND to the task aud to retain the competent ones after they have become imbued with the spirit of the school. The corps of teachers in the elementary department is, therefore, a very unstable one, and it being consequently necessary continually to initiate new teachers into this difficult work, it is natural that imperfections should arise. That it is much more difficult for the grades than it is for the normal department to obtain thorough teachers and to retain them after they have had experience in the school is also natural, when the salaries paid to the grade teachers are only, say, one third as large as those paid to the teachers of the normal department. The great difficulty under which the schools of Quincy, Massachusetts, have been laboring since Colonel Parker made them famous, is that the Quincy teachers are so much in demand that the mere fact of having taught for a year or two at Quincy raises the teachers above the Quincy salaries. Last year as many as one third of the whole number of teachers left the Quincy schools, because higher salaries had been offered to them in other cities. In the primary and the grammar grades of the school, the work is conducted on the same gen- eral lines as those of Minneapolis and La Porte. A great deal of attention is given to the unifica- tion of studies, Colonel Parker being a strong advocate of this educational principle ; and in his talks to his students he is constantly impress- ing its value upon their minds. Throughout the TSE COOK COUNTY NORMAL 213 school, the curriculum includes the sciences, lit- erature, and the artistic lines of work, such as designing, color-work, and drawing and painting from nature. There is also a complete course in manual training. Language, and to a certain ex- tent arithmetic, are taught incidentally in connec- tion with the other subjects rather than directly, and from the start the pupils are led to illustrate their compositions. In geography the work is made as objective as possible by means of the molding-board, relief maps, pictures, and the magic-lantern, and from time to time the pupils are taken on geographical excursions. In history and in literature the work is in many respects excellent. The courses for the whole school are planned by the members of the normal-school faculty who have special charge of the various subjects throughout the school. In the lowest primary grade, which for many years has been in charge of Miss Griswold, the work appeared to me to be very suggestive, particularly in regard to busy-work. Several groups of children were doing busy- work at the same time, and in no two groups was it alike. In one group the pupils were painting a flower they had just been study- ing, in another they were writing a story about an animal that had just been utilized in a lesson in reading as well as in number, in a third they were reading silently in their reading-books. In teaching children to read much attention is given to phonics. 214 MINJSEAI'OLIS, LA POBTE, AND In the sciences, the work of the Cook County Normal School is in certain respects unique. Its park of twenty acres affords opportunities for doing ideal work in certain directions, and be- sides, Mr. Jackman, who has charge of the science department, has given much thought to the meth- ods of teaching the sciences in the elementary schools. He is now laboring hard to solve the dif&cult problem of how to teach the sciences systematically in these schools. In one portion of the park a rather large plot of ground has been laid out in beds for the cultivation of plants under the supervision of the pupils. This plot has been divided into square rods, one for each grade, each pupil having charge of a certain number of plants of whose growth he keeps a careful record in his note-book. These notes are illustrated with pictures showing the develop- ment of the plants at different stages. The park is also utilized for the study of trees. In this study pupils receive the task of observing closely and accurately the development of the foliage of particular trees, and of carefuUy noting the re- sults of their periodical observations. Some of the drawings and paintings made in their record- books are adniirable. I shall publish facsimiles of a few of them in the second part of this vol- ume. Much is also done in the way of studying insects in their natural environment. In the park are two very pretty lakes filled with fishes, the latter being used for the purpose of study. TEE COOK COUNTY NORMAL 215 A zoological gai-den is also found in the park, but at the time of my visit it contained few ani- mals. In addition to the park, the school has a museum containing a large number of stuffed animals, which are taken to the class-rooms when occasion for their use arises. In one of the class- rooms a lesson on birds was given during my visit, and it was richly illustrated with stuffed birds of numerous varieties. Besides botany and zoology, physics, chemistry, and geology are studied in all the grades. Mr. Jackraan also is a strong advocate of uni- fication, and he believes that the sciences can and should be taught in organic connection with the other branches of the curriculum. In an article that appeared in "The Educational Review" for January, 1893, he showed with great clearness that to teach arithmetic in connection with the sciences is greatly to enhance the value of both. He argues that this connection serves to render the observations and experiments more accurate and the arithmetic more interesting and practical. As an illustration of how this may be done, he cites, among others, the following problems : I. Germination. Absorption of water by seeds. 1. How many grams of water will ten grams of seeds absorb ? 2. Ten grams of seeds absorb what part of their weight or bulk of water? ... 4. Dry seeds will absorb what per cent, of their weight of water? 216 MlNJStJEJPOLlS, LA PORTIC, ETC. III. Mechanical constitueuts of soil. 1. Fifty grams of soil contain how much sand? . . 3. What is the ratio of sand in fifty grams of soil? etc. And lastly, the park, in addition to its useful- ness, is ornamental, and it adds much to the enjoyment of the pupils. Besides serving the purpose of biinging the children constantly in close communication with nature, portions of the park have been set aside as playgrounds both for the pupUs in the elementary school and the stu- dents of the normal class. When the weather is warm the kindergarten pupils play their games on the lawns and do much of their work in the open air. CHAPTER X A SUMMAEY IN order that I might do the best to prove my cause in a reasonable amount of space, I have limited the discussions of the schools of our cities almost exclusively to the schools of those cities that represent the extremes to be found in the schools of our country in regard to their general degree of excellence, thus leaving almost un- touched the large number of schools that are now advancing, but have not yet reached, the level of our best. Before closing the first part of this volume, however, I desire to give to those inter- ested my opinion concerning the standard of cer- tain schools that I visited, but did not undertake to discuss in detail. To do this most effectively in a small space, I shall make an attempt to clas- sify these schools according to their standard. Such a classification, given in the form of a summary, wOl enable me at the same time to point out, perhaps more clearly than I have thus far done, the essential points of difference between the various types of schools. 217 218 A SUMMARY Although the schools of no two of our cities are exactly alike, — those of each city presentiug certain features peculiarly their own, — nevertheless, when we judge them by their general degree of excel- lence, it is, in my opinion, possible to divide them into a number of more or less clearly defined classes. In some cities the schools have advanced so little that they may be regarded as representing a stage of civilization before the age of steam and electricity ; in others, the people are just awaken- ing to the fact that progress has been made in the spiritual as well as in the physical world ; and in still others, schools that have already advanced considerably along the line of progress may be found. My classification, however, wiU apply more fully to the primary than to the grammar grades, as in the different cities the former vary much more markedly than the latter. Indeed, the extreme differences in the grammar-schools are to a large extent differences only in degree, while the differ- ences between our best and our poorest primary schools are actually differences in kind. The rea- sons for this are: First. In all grammar-schools at least some subjects — for example, geography and history — are taught for the purpose of giving the pupils ideas, the principal difference between the schools lying in the manner in which the ideas are pre- sented. On the other hand, in our poorest pri- mary schools the work is practically all formal, the A SUMMARY 219 pupils learning meehanically to read, write, and cipher without acquiring any new ideas, while in our best primary schools the backbone of the work from the start is thought-work, the pupils learn- ing, in large part, incidentally to read and write, and to a certain extent to cipher, while engaged in the acquisition of ideas. Secondly. The extremes are not so great in the grammar as they ar,e in the primary grades, be- cause the standard of our best grammar-schools is not yet so high as that of our best primary schools. This is not difficult to explain. While the task of the primary-school teacher who endeavors to in- struct on scientific principles is an extremely diffi- cult one, that of the grammar-school teacher is so much more difficult that, imder existing circum- stances, it is practically impossible for her to do her work properly. It is less difficult to teach scientifi- cally in the primary than it is in the grammar grades, for the reason that in the primary grades the subject-matter is comparatively simple, a fact that enables the primary teacher to concentrate her mind largely on the methods of teaching, while the grammar-school teacher, in order to be suc- cessful, must be not only fully as conversant with the methods of teaching, but she must necessa- rily possess, in addition, a much wider range of gen- eral information than the primary-school teacher. And, with each succeeding grade, the subject- matter becomes more complicated. Further, no lesson is of much value unless it has been thor- 220 A SVMMAliY oughly prepared by the teacher, and it is simply impossible for any one teaching in the grammar grades to prepare thoroughly five or six lessons in a single evening. Before our grammar-schools can attain the level of our best primary schools, it will, in my opinion, be absolutely necessary to divide the work in such a way that no single grammar-school teacher shall instruct in more than a few subjects. In other words, I believe that our grammar-schools will not reach a very high standard until at least a limited departmental system is inti-oduced. The number of classes into which our schools may be divided is, in my opinion, three. They are as follows: In the first class I place the schools character- ized by the features that I designated in one of the introductory chapters as antiquated — that is, the purely mechanical schools, the schools that aim to do little, if anything, beyond crowding the memory of the child with a certain number of cut- and-dried facts. Among the schools of this order that I visited are those of Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati, New York, Worcester (Mass.), Milwaukee, St. Louis, Chicago, the Boston primary schools, and a few others. In Peoria, 111., I visited only three schools. In one of them I found the spirit good. The other two, however, were distinctly of this order, the discipline being similar to that found in the schools of St. Louis, which, in my opinion, are A SUMMABT 221 the most barbarous schools in the country. In Brooklyn the conditions are decidedly unfavor- able, and, although I have not examined them closely, I feel at liberty, from what I have seen and heard of them, to inform those interested in the schools of that city that I have every reason to believe that they also belong to this class. Al- though the schools of the cities I have just men- tioned differ to a considerable extent in regard to details, they do not vary much, in my opinion, in their general excellence. In all of them the vast majority of the teachers lack in professional spirit, and the instruction, regardless of subject, is in the main purely mechanical. The particular causes leading to the unfavorable condition of the schools of most of the above-mentioned cities, I have stated at length ia previous chapters. Although the schools of the second and third classes differ so widely in certain particulars that the latter may be justly regarded as having reached a higher stage of development than the former, they nevertheless have so many features in com- mon that they may be most profitably discussed together. Besides, their points of difference will be more clearly brought out by a method of comparison. Among the features common to the typical schools of these two classes are, first, the aim to develop the child in all his faculties instead of simply crowding his memoiy with facts ; secondly, the endeavor on the part of the teachers to render 222 A SUMMARY the instruction thoughtful and the work interest- ing by conforming their methods to the laws of mental development ; thirdly, the excellent spirit of the teachers and the kindly and considerate treatment of the children ; and, fourthly, the en- thusiasm and the progressive character of the teachers, and the constant striving on their part to increase their professional strength. In most of the schools of both the second and the third class, the secret of their success is found to be the fact that the supervision partakes largely of the nature of guidance, inspiration, and instruction rather than of the nature of inspection. The schools of the second and third classes differ, however, in this all-important element — namely, that in the second class of schools, al- though an attempt is made to teach scientifically, yet each branch of knowledge is still taught in large part independently of all others, while in the third class of schools the walls between the vari- ous branches, to a considerable extent, disappear, an attempt being made to teach the subjects in their natural relations to each other. In the latter class of schools, the mind is no longer regarded as consisting of a number of independent compart- ments — one for penmanship, a second for reading, a third for arithmetic, a fourth for geography, etc. ; but the ideas gained regardless of subject are led to support each other, and they become clearer by being seen in the light of each other. In other words, the schools of the third class are conducted A SUMMABT 223 throughout on the principle of unification, while in the second class of schools unification is scarcely attempted in the primary grades. While in most of our schools several hours are devoted daily to the independent study of language in its various phases, — namely, reading, penmanship, spelling, and composition, — in the schools con- ducted upon the principle of unification, language is regarded simply as a means of expression and not as a thing apart from ideas. Instruction in al- most every branch now partakes of the nature of a language-lesson, the child being led to learn the various phases of language in large part inciden- tally while acquiring and expressing ideas. Prom the start an attempt is made to devote most of the time either to gaining ideas or to rendering ideas more clear by expressing them in written lan- guage as well as with the pencil, the brush, and other tools. In such schools the pupils read for the purpose of gaining thoughts; but while gaining ideas from the written or the printed page, they are learning how to read. They write for the purpose of rendering more clear the ideas gained during the lessons in science, geography, history, and litera- ture; but while thus rendering their ideas more clear, they learn spelling, penmanship, the con- struction of sentences, and how to write composi- tions. The immediate use of these departments of language being thus seen by the chUd, even spelling and penmanship become interesting and 224 A SUMMARY lose their purely mechanical nature, and school life is, from the beginning, made fascinating. And, strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true that the results in reading and in the expression of ideas in writing are, at least in the primary grades, by far the best in those schools where language, in all its phases, is taught incidentally, and poorest in the schools that devote most time to mechanical reading and writing. The difference between the schools of the second and those of the third class is, however, much more marked in the primary than it is in the grammar grades, for the reason that unification has to a certain extent been carried out in the better grammar-schools of all our cities, while in the grammar grades of the third class of schools it has not yet reached a stage of development as high as that attained in the primar}'^ grades of this class of schools. It is not peculiar to the grammar grades of the third class of schools that the pupils are directed to write compositions on the subjects they have studied, or to combine history with geography, drawing with botany, and so on. This is common to the best grammar-schools of nearly all our cities. The grammar-schools of the second class, in particular, do not vary much from those of the third class. In the primary grades, the difference between the schools of the second and those of the third class is very marked. Although in the schools of the second class reading is to a certain ex- A SUMMARY 225 tent made interesting and arithmetic is taught thoughtfully, nevertheless the energies of the teacher are concentrated mainly on teaching the child to read and to cipher, little being done to lead him to acquire ideas. In the schools of the second class, therefore, the work still centers largely around words and figures. In the third class of schools, however, the work from the be- ginning centers almost entirely around ideas. Further, when the pupils are led immediately after entering school to acquire ideas, an opportunity is given — as I pointed out in detail in previous chapters, and particularly in the preceding one — to render the busy-work thoughtful and interest- ing from the start. In the character of the busy- work the schools of the third class are far superior to those of the second class. In the schools of the second class the busy work is still largely mechan- ical, laborious, uninteresting, and of little educa- tional value. Consequently, the primary schools of the third class are much more interesting to the child, they are much more endowed with life, and they are far more educational than those of the second class. The typical schools of the second class, like those of the first class, vary considerably in regard to the details of the work; but they do not, in my opinion, differ appreciably in their general degree of excellence, when aU things are considered. The cities whose schools may be considered, in my opinion, as typical of the second class of 15 226 A SUMMARY schools as above described, are the following: Washington, D. C; Yonkers, N. Y.; Springfield, Mass.; Jackson and Ionia, Mich.; Quincy and Brookline, Mass.; and others. In the schools of "Washington, D. C, there is a complete system' of manual training that does not skip a link from the kindergarten to the highest class of the high school, and many of the features of this work are excellent. In Quincy and Brookline, Mass., more has been done with the natural sciences than in the other schools of this class. In Springfield the primary arithmetic is very interesting and thoughtful, and throughout the schools a feature has been made of the scientific teaching of geog- raphy. The schools of Ionia, Mich., are peculiar in so far as they are conducted on the departmen- tal plan, each teacher instructing the children in only one subject. In Yonkers, N. Y., and in Jackson, Mich., I found the spirit excellent and the teachers earnest, but the curriculum rather narrow. The schools that I have just mentioned have reached a distinctive stamp of a comparatively high order for the reason that they have been for some time laboring under very favorable condi- tions. They have for a number of years been well supervised and in large part free from politics. In a large number of the cities that I visited I found the schools striving to break away from the old-fashioned methods and to accomplish what the typical schools of the second class have already A SUMMARY 227 accomplished. They have, however, for numerous reasons not yet reached the standard of the schools of the second class, being still in a transi- tional stage. In Philadelphia, for example, the superinten- dents have for many years been endeavoring to raise the standard of the schools, but their efforts have as yet met with but little success because the schools are practically controlled by ward politicians who are doing all in their power to use the schools for their own selfish ends. The schools of Cleveland, Ohio, were in former years in good condition, but have since been ruined by the poli- ticians. Last year a complete reorganization of the school system of Cleveland was effected. It is not improbable that under Judge A. S. Draper, who was appointed their superintendent in 1892, these schools will regain their former glory. The schools of Detroit appear to be laboring under the same difftculties as those of Cleveland. De- troit's training-school for teachers, however, ap- peared to me to be an excellent school. The schools of Davenport, Iowa, may be said to have crystallized on a lower plane than that of the typ- ical schools of the second class. While in Dav- enport the methods are not entirely unscientific, the pupils are treated with undue rigidity and the spirit is not good. These schools appear to be suffering from a degree of conservatism that is altogether out of harmony with the progressive spirit of the West. Next, there are a number of 228 A SUMMARY cities whose schools, owing to the excellence of recently appointed superintendents, are destined soon to reach a much higher than their present standard. Among these are the schools of Des Moines, Iowa; Lansing, Mich.; and Moline, 111. The spirit in these schools is excellent, and more scientific methods will be sure to follow. The schools of some cities never reach a distinctive character, for the reason that they are constantly changing their superintendents. Besides the cities I have named, I visited a num- ber that I do not feel at liberty to classify because I did not follow them in all their lines of work. I was attracted to some of them by special lines of work, and I visited others in the hope of finding hidden treasures. I visited Toronto, Canada, for the purpose of observing the reading, of which I had heard so much. Mr. Hughes, inspector (su- perintendent) of schools of that city, has given much attention to phonics. The results in read- ing as well as in penmanship in the lower primary grades are indeed remarkable. I found many of the children at the end of the fourth or fifth month of school life able to read almost any new word without assistance, and to write from dicta- tion, correctly and very rapidly, even words of several syllables. The penmanship of many of these little children is as good as that of the average adult. In Toronto the cheerfulness of the class-rooms is almost without a parallel. Now, the third class of schools. Among the A SUMMARY 229 thirty-six cities tliat I visited, I found only four whose schools were conducted upon the principle of unification. I have described them all more or less in detail in previous chapters. These cities are Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and La Porte (Indiana). I found this principle carried out, however, in several normal schools. The schools of Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and La Porte have long been free from politics, and in all these cities the superintendents have, for a number of years, been doing much toward instructing and inspiring their teachers. In St. Paul, on the other hand, the conditions for the development of good schools have only recently become favorable, so that they are not yet entirely free from the relics of an antiquated system. I may here add that I found the grammar-schools of Boston, taken aU in all, to be among the best in the country. While it is not difficult to discover to which of the three broad classes the schools of any one city belong, it is not so easy to mate the finer dis- tinctions — that is, to judge of the difference in the degree of excellence of the typical schools of a particular class. Such distinctions can be made only by a large number of tests in many direc- tions. As such fine distinctions were, however, beyond the scope of the present work, I decided to defer them to some future time. In the present chapter I have shown that my general impression of our elementary schools is 230 A SUMMARY not so unfavorable as might have been inferred from some of the earlier chapters. That I may have conveyed a more pessimistic view of the situation than I actually possess is owing entirely to force of circumstances, and not to any desire on my part to do so. It was because I deemed it my duty to direct the attention of the public primarily to those children who are most griev- oiisly wronged, and consequently to the schools most urgently in need of reform, that I was led to devote so much space to the discussion of such schools as are a disgrace to an enlightened nation. As I have pointed out in this chapter, the gen- eral educational spirit of the country is progres- sive, the schools of a large number of our cities now laboring in the right direction. But we must never forget that in the United States each community conducts its schools independently, so that the favorable condition of the schools of one locality reflects absolutely no credit on those who manage the schools of another loisality. In clos- ing, I will once more call attention to the fact that it is the duty of the public to lend all possible encouragement to those who are striving in the right direction. On the other hand, it is the duty of all parents to take active steps toward crush- ing school officials who have fallen so low as to sell, for their own profit, not only the happiness of the little ones intrusted to their care while in the school, but also their opportunity to become developed into sound men and women, intellec- tually, morally, and physically. PART SECOND INTRODUCTION THE principal aim of the second part of this book is to present further evidence in proof of the fact that, Avhen the teachers are properly prepared for their work, the curriculum can be indefinitely broadened without detriment to the three R's. It is possible, however, that inciden- tally the material may prove to be of suggestive value to teachers desirous of conducting their work on scientific principles. In order that I might be able to furnish addi- tional proof of the fallacy of the argument that the three R's must necessarily suffer when the curriculum is broadened, I undertook a second journey for the sole purpose of collecting more evidence on this particular point. This tour was made in the spring of the present year (1893), and was five weeks in duration. Dur- ing this period, I revisited the schools of Indiana- polis, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, as well as the Cook County Normal School. I made also a col- lection of material from the schools of La Porte. While on this trip I devoted my time almost exclusively to testing the pupils of the third school year in sight reading and arithmetic. But, 234 INTRODUCTION besides undertaking such tests as can be recorded only in a general way, I collected from all the grades a large amount of work capable of being more definitely recorded. The results of my sec- ond series of observations are as follows : First. The reading. — As my object in testing the reading was to learn how well the children were able to read at sight, I conducted the observations in such a manner as to be assured of hearing pure sight reading. I accomplished this by tak- ing with me into the class-room under observation not more than one or two copies of a book that the pupils had never before used. These books were passed from child to child, no opportunity being given to the pupUs even to look over the matter before reading it aloud. My tests in the third-year rooms were usually made with Harper's Third Reader. If, however, the children had been in the habit of reading from that book, I made the tests with Stiekney's, Swinton's, or Powell's Third Reader. As a result of these tests, I am able to state that in all the schools of Indianapolis and Minneapolis in which I made the observations the pupils in the third school year could read intelligently, at sight, from a third reader. While in some in- stances this reading was only fair, in others it was truly excellent. Indeed, in many of the classes a majority of the pupils read as fluently, and with as much expression, as might have been expected of any one. In some of the third grades the pupils INTRODUCTION 235 read as well in a fourth as thiey did in a third reader, and I found not a few class-rooms where the pupils, at the end of the second school year, were able to read fluently, under similar conditions, from a third reader. In the schools of St. Paul there was considerable ■variation, but in some in- stances the results were very good. The pupils of the Cook County Normal School stood the test admirably. In the lower grades of the Normal School of New Britain, Connecticut, — a school in which the curriculum is as broad as it can be found in any school in the country, — the children read re- markably well. No tests were made in the schools of La Porte. Taken all in all, I feel justified in saying that in the above-mentioned schools, all of which are conducted on a broad basis, the pupils read incom- parably better than the children of the same grade educated in the narrow mechanical reading, writ- ing, and arithmetic schools. Secondly. The arithmetic. — The tests made in arithmetic were directed mainly toward discov- ering whether there was any truth in the suppo- sition that the children instructed by modern methods were unable to compute numbers with rapidity. My observations in this direction justify my stating that the results at the end of the pri- mary school course in the progressive schools prove the fallacy of this supposition. I found, indeed, that in many of the thu'd grades of the schools visited on my second tour the pupils were remark- 236 INTRODUCTION ably quick in solving problems, particularly in mental arithmetic. As in reading, so in arithmetic, the degree of excellence depended entirely upon the teacher in charge of the class. From what I observed, I feel convinced that, when in any particular class the pupils taught by objective methods are slow in computing numbers, the f aiilt does not lie in the method, but that it can be traced either to the fact that the teacher herself is not rapid at figures, or that she has neglected to drill the pupils in rapid work. In the latter case, when the error is discovered, it is very easily rem- edied by means of frequent drills in the proper direction. Lastly. The written tests. — The results of these tests, as will be shown in the succeeding pages, were admirable. So good were they that, in my opinion, they offer positive proof to the effect that children educated in the progTCssive schools are certainly not less competent to express their ideas in good English sentences than those educated in the narrow mechanical schools. Indeed, I do not think it can be doubted that the results in the former class of schools are far superior to those obtained in the latter. In order that I might be able to draw my con- clusions on this point from a broad series of ob- servations, I requested the principals of a number of schools in several cities to be kind enough to furnish me with a written composition from every child in the school. In nearly every instance in INTRODUCTION 237 which I made the request both principals and teachers gladly complied. In a few of the class- rooms I was able to select woi-k that had been previously prepared, but in most cases the compo- sitions were specially written for me. When the work was specially prepared, the children were permitted to select their own subjects, so that they might not in any way be hampered. I accepted only the first draft, without any cor- rections by the teacher ; and, in the publication of this work, all the errors made by the pupils in grammar, spelling, and punctuation wiU. be re- tained. I collected, in all, some seven or eight thousand compositions. All these were read by myself, and in maldng my selections I was careful to choose only such as represented truly typical work. When isolated compositions, or only a few compositions from a particular class-room, were sent to me, they were in nearly every instance dis- carded. It was only when isolated compositions were particularly suggestive that I selected them for publication. This fact, however, wiU be in- dicated in connection with such specimens. As my principal object in presenting this work was to show what could be done with the majority of the pupils by a competent teacher, I made no selection from the work of a whole class unless a good proportion of the compositions of that class were nearly, if not quite, up to the standard of those here presented. In many instances it was impossible for me to decide which of a consider- 238 INTBODVCTION able number of compositions in a set was the best. Not every teacher is competent to teach under a progressive system ; but when scientific methods are properly applied it is possible to accomplish almost incredible results. The bulk of the work here reproduced is the work of the third and eighth school years, — work which demonstrates the results of the primary as well as the gram- mar school course. The compositions from other grades that will be found are published princi- pally on account of their suggestiveness. CHAPTER I INDIAJSTAPOLIS Third -Year Worlt MOUNTAINS A MOUNTAIN is a very, very Mgh Mil. Some momitaiiis are made of solid rock. Objects when viewed from the top of a mountain look very small. Mountains are so very steep that you cannot get up without the aid of a mountain staff and other mountains are so very, very steep that they have to use burrows. These animals are very sure footed and that is why they use them. They find gold, silver and coal in mountains. A valley is a low land between two high hills. When the little rills run down the mountain they carry the ant hOls and worm mounds with them, then they leave it there and that is why the low lands have richer soil than the high lands. I did not tell you the air is very rare on a mountain. At the base of a mountain there is a great many trees and bushes but as you go up the mountain they become less and less and at the top you very sel- dom find any trees at all. There are small lakes on top of a mountain, these lakes form streams. 240 INDIANAPOLIS.— TMIRD-YEAB WORK These streams come rushing and roaring down the mountain side, they meet other streams and form a big brook, and the brook flows into the river and the river flows into the sea which is the home for all rivers. — 3a Grade, School No. 2} APRIL April is the first month of spring. April when she comes along with her gentle showers, helps to waken the sleeping flowers. When it rains the sun draws the water into vapor, and some of the water goes into the earth and carries the sand and rich dirt with it to feed the roots of the trees and the roots of the flowers. April is a fickle month one time it is raining and one time the sun is shining bright. The cherry the peach and the plum trees are in blossom the pear trees are in blossom. Showers come often in April the showers is what wakens the flowers. Last night it rained very hard and to-day it is raining. — 3a Grade, School No. 2. MY JOURNEY I am a little raindrop and my home is in the sea. Every day great ships' pass me and my little brothers and sisters. One day the sun called to me and said, "little raindrop come up and mak 1 " 3a Grade " indicates the latter half of the third school year; "3b Grade," the first half of the third school year; " 8b Grade," the first half of the eighth school year, etc. INDIANAPOLIS.— TSIBD-TEAB WORK 241 me a viset." I said, I would come soon and one bright, sunny day I went. Up, Up I went, past light, houses and ships and people till I came to the clouds. Then I went to sleep for day had put on his jacket, and around his hurning bosom buttoned it with stars. In the morning I awoke and instead of finding myself over the sea I was just over the top of a high mountain. On the top of the mountain there was ice and snow. Just then a cold gust of wind came a blew other rain- drops and me together. And we feU in large drops from the clouds. I fell on the top of the mountain and rolled down the mountain. I kissed the pebles as I passed and heard them say they loved me. On the way down I met a little rill and I joined it. After that we met a hrook who said he was going to the sea and would take us if we wanted to go. I said I would go but the little rill said he din't want to go so I left him and went with the brook. "We went on till we came to the river Nile and we went with him. Soon we came to the city. There the people had built a bridge over him and he must flow quietly under it. We went on till we came to the sea and now my journeys ended. — 3a Grade, School No. 10. THE BEAN First we examened it. We found it was very hard, and smooth. When we looked on the side of 16 242 INDIANAPOLIS.— THIBD-YEAB WOBK the bean, we saw a little eye. The skin is wraped tightly around it. It is very glossy, and white. When it is put in water to soak, it gets quite large, and it is soft then. The skin would come o£E easy then. I broke it open, and found a little seed leaf inside. There were two seed leaves. When we got through describing it, we each planted our beans, in a box, that had sand in it. Frieday, we looked at our beans. We found they had pushed the sand off of them. They were white then. The teacher covered them over again. When, we came back Monday, we found they had pushed the sand off of them again, and had grown, quite large. Some of them had turned green. They left their coats down in the dirt. The stem is very large and green. The root is raged. It is brown. — 3a Grade, School No. 10. THE APPLE-BLOSSOM It grows in umbrella shaped clusters with five blossoms in each cluster. It has leaves growing around them. The leaves are arrow shaped and have a rough morgon. They have stipules at the bottom of the leaf. The buds are very round. The calyx is shaped like a cup and has five parts to it. It is very solid. It grows to be the apple. It has five large round pink petals. The stam- mens are white. They are fastened to the middle of the cup and there are 20 of them. On the end of each stammen is a little yeUow pollen box that INDIANAPOLIS.— TRIRD-TMAM WORK 243 is filled with pollen dust. It goes down through the pistil and into the cup and maks the apple. The pistil is in the middle of the stammens and has five parts to it. It belongs to the rose family because it has five of everything. — 3a Grade, School No. 10. MY JOURNEY INTO THE YARD Last Friday after noon our teacher took our class out into the yard. We went out the north door, then turned west into the girls yard. We noticed that the wind was coming from the east, and blew the snow toward the west. We went farther on and came to the north west corner of the building and then the wind was coming from the south. Soon the sun came out and threw the shadows toward the north east. When we were by the south west corner we could see two streets Buchanan st. on the side, and Beaty st. on the west side. The trees were full of buds, but the wind blew very many off. Some of the trees had buds, and others had little leaves, one of the trees bloomed low, but not high. The ground was wed and muddy. — 3a Grade, School No. 13. The following suggestive sketches on school excursions were written by the teachers who con- ducted them : Our children made several journeys for different pur- poses. This particular journey was made for the purpose 244 INDIANAPOLIS.— THIBD-TEAS WORK of seeing what we could learn by the brook. We left school at a quarter past one, and returned soon after four o'clock, walking each way a distance of over a mile. The children kept together, asked questions, and gave infor- mation concerning things we saw on the way. A short distance from the school, after crossing a railroad track, we came to a large planing-mill. We stopped before the doors, and for a few moments the children watched the men working at the great machines. Pupils gave reasons for having such buildings near railroads. We passed lumber-yards, and pupils noticed that these also were near the railroad. In one of these yards the children were surprised to see such immense logs, and they noticed the circles of wood across the ends. When told that these circles meant the growth of the tree in years, they were interested in finding the ages of the trees. Attention was called to the position of the sun, so that the children might note the directions in which we walked. The children kept together until a turn brought us before a slight elevation covered with green grass. This was the first appearance of a hill. When the hill came in sight, each face lighted up and each child ran toward it. Many of them were surprised to find that a winding stream of water with high banks separated them from the hill. The brook was now the chief point of attraction, and the pupils needed no urging to investigate. It was a pleasure to watch them. Some stepped out upon the largest rocks to be like the children who were "Caught by the Tide"; others were happy to hear the water ' ' gurgle "as it flowed over and around the rocks ; others began to feel the smooth sand and call attention of still others to the wavy appear- ance of the sand in the bed of the brook. Some were eagerly searching for wild flowers ; others were pleased with the different colored pebbles. Little seemed to escape them, and each must show and tell to others what he had found. A small dam which had been made across the INDIANAPOLIS.— THIBD-YE AS, WORK 245 stream afforded an opportunity to explain how larger ones eould be utilized in running machinery. Tiny streams trickling down the banks were observed. The winding course some of them took, contrasted with the direct course of others, led to the fact that the water fol- lowed the slope of the land. The children realized also that these little streams were all helping to furnish water for the brook. We also had a talk as to where this water came from, and how it reached this place. One tributary was followed until a hollow place was found high up on the bank, where the water was constantly bubbling up through the sandy bottom. Here they had found their spring, and each was eager to have a drink of the clear water. The little rill that flowed from this spring gave them a chance to observe what a slight obstacle will often cause the water to flow out of its course ; and again, that when the slope was more abrupt, the stream was strong enough to take everything in its path and form a straighter course. The soil was of such a nature that they eould see gently sloping banks and steep banks. They found also a small island, and a tiny falls, and they observed the increasing width of the stream as it flowed into the brook. Sticks were thrown into the water in different places to find where they moved the most rapidly. The sticks were watched until out of sight, and the children went with them on an imaginary journey to the ocean. The terms bed, banks, pond, rill, fall, rapids, currents, etc., were easily given by pupils. The pupils noticed that in some places the stream flowed faster than in others; and the cause for this occurrence was found. They also ex- plained that at times there must have been more water in the brook than now. Great trees were bending over the brook, and in places the banks were washed out to such an extent that the trees lay across the brook with their roots partly exposed. This led the children to tell of times when the brook was full, and even covering the land on each side in places. They told of bridges being carried away, 246 INDIANAPOLIS.— TBIRD-YEAU WORK and they pointed out great rocks that had come from the banks, many of which had been broken and worn and often carried great distances. On one of these walks a toad's house was discovered and the toad examined. Tadpoles were numerous, and some were taken home in tin cans. The changes they passed through kept us reminded of our visit to the brook for some time ; they also furnished material for work in. school. The following day each child was given the task of writ- ing an account of the walk (without outline), so that I might be able to see how each child had been impressed. There is much more difBculty in managing journeys of this nature than one who has not tried them would believe; and all children in a school of fifty or more do not see, hear, or become impressed with all points. They furnish, however, much material that can be utilized in school. An excursion serves as a basis for many lessons, both oral and written. — Third year. School No. 10. A JOURNEY ON A STREET-CAR We chartered a car so that changes might be avoided. "We left the building at one o'clock and returned home at five. A basket of fruit for the children was taken on our journey. The ride was planned so that we could pass the Court House, Market, Post Office, Soldiers' Monument, Circle (the original center of the city). State House and Library. The children were told to watch the sun, to ob- serve the directions taken by the car, as well as to note the names of the business streets. Churches, School Houses and Hotels were spoken of as we passed them, and the Union Depot was pointed out to the pupils. We rode through one of the avenues and two of the principal busi- ness streets, and this gave the pupils a basis for learning the map of the city. We crossed the Canal and White river. Many of the children had never before seen so large inDIANAPOLlS.—JFOTJMB-YEAR WORK 247 a stream of water. A small green island was a perfect de- light, and the great l)ridge a ■wonder to them. Some thought they should be afraid to walk across the latter. Elevators, Bound Houses, Car Shops, Pork Packing Estab- lishments were discussed as they were passed. We left the city and rode into the country. We rode for some distance along the bank of the river. The latter was compared with the brook. The children seemed to see and feel the power of the river, but they still loved the brook. Later we came to a village beyond the city limits. Here we left the car and walked until we reached a stream of water having different banks from the one previously vis- ited. We came to a ford. The children found many small islets, great varieties of pebbles, and sand of different de- grees of coarseness. The pupils could see fishes in small pools, and they found rapids and ponds. Many wild flow- ers and shells were found and collected. — Third year. School No. 10. Fourth -Year Worlc CHINA In the southeastern part of Asia lies China. The Chinese people have many peculiarities. They dress in white for mourning, and ride in carriages carried on the shoulders of servants. In the northern part of China is a great wall, this wall is about one thousand, five hundred miles long, and, wide enough for 6 horsemen to ride ahreast. The country of China is so crowded that some people have to Kve on the water in queer boats called Junks. The Chinese children tend silk-worms, by getting mulberry leaves for them to eat. In China, only the boys go to school, and, in school 248 INDIANAPOLIS.— SIXTH-TEAR WORK they turn their backs to the teacher, and study out loud. When a boy knows his lesson he takes his book and goes up to the teacher, bows, gives his book to the teacher, and, turning his back to the teacher he recites his lesson, explanes it, and takes his seat again. The Chinese live almost all- together on rice and tea. The people that live on water keep ducks. In the morning the people let the ducks out in the water and at night the master calls them in by a shriU whistle, then there is much confusion, the ducks croud in, pushing each other around with all their might, for they all want to get in first. Every year the Emporor and other men of state go out to plow a furrow as an example to the na- tion and the Queen raises silk-worms and spins the glossy threads with her own hand that other women may not feel too proud to labor. The Chinese men have great birds called cormorants that fish for them. — 4a Grade, School No. 2. Sixth -Year Worlc EASTERN OR HISTORICAL NEW YORK New York is called the "Empire State" not only because it exceeds every other state in the Union in population, wealth and commerce, but because it is noted for its historical events and was one of the first thirteen colonies. It was settled in 1613 by the early dutch settlers, or knicker- bockers as they called themselves. The dutch are INDIANAPOLIS.— EIGHTH-TEAR WOBK 249 a thrifty, healthy, strong people, and they soon had many little wooden houses with their queer gabled roofs and flying wind-mills built up every- where. There was not a peak of the mountains or valley or little deU, in those days but had its legend ; and when it thundered the children were told it was Henry Hudson and his men playing nine-pins among the clouds. In the eastern part extending almost through the whole length of the state flows the beautiful Hudson Eiver, discovered by Henry Hudson, in 1609 from whom it got its name. As he sailed up the river in his boat called " the half moon " the friendly Indians came out in their canoes wishing to trade with the saliors. The Hudson is the river on which the first steam-boat floated. It is noted for its beautiful scenery. New York City the largest city on this continent is situated at the junction of Hudson and East rivers on Manhattan Island. It was settled by the early Dutch in 1613. who named it New Amsterdam " after their own beloved Amsterdam " in Holland. It was named after the state when Peter Stuyvesant the first governor surrendered to the Duke of York. — 6a Grade, School No. 10. Eighth -Year . Worh THE TARIFF What is the Tariff % It is that great wall that is needed in every country to protect the laborers 250 INDIANAPOLIS-— EIGHTB-TEAR WORK and the industries. What would become of our manufacturing? England and others would send their cheaper goods over here and silence the whirling spindles and groaning wheels of manu- facturing forever were it not for this Tariff. It would throw thousands of men out of employment if we had free trade, or, perhaps reduce their wages to almost nothing. England has Free Trade it is true but what is the life of her peas- antry ? It is nothing but slavery and could we, Americans for one moment indure slavery 1 Free Trade to this country means poverty, slavery and destruction. Is not Englands sails fast lowering and are not we almost to the top of the ladder ? Then why should we stumble at this point ? Let England boast of her wonderful trade for the time will come, must come when she shall lower her sails forever. Did not all our ablest men favor Tariff? And was not it one of the firm layers of the founda- tions of our Government"? Then would it do to tear away a layer of the foundation of a house, would it not fall a little lower? So with the Union it would fall a step backwards and when you once begin to go downward it is not hard to reach the foot, and almost impossible to climb to the top again. Have we not prospered under the Tariff ? Has it not helped the laborer and manu- factorer alike? Then why is it the great question ? Because we listen to the boastful talk of our INDIANAPOLIS.— EiaHTH-TEAR WORK 251 neighbor instead of trying to see what is good and what is a evil to our country. It is said to be good to the manuf aeturor only. "Why then is the laborer's home here so much more pleasant and his life more prosperous than the foreign working class ? It is this the foreign laborer works hard perhaps harder than those here, and receives very small pay and with this money he has to support his family and help sup- port the ruler. While the working class here re- ceives very good salary and has to pay a very small tax and sometimes not any. There are many that want Free Trade and there may come a time when they will get their wish. Bxit I hope it will never be in power long for if so our country will fall from its prosperity. Is there any Ameri- can who is so disloyal as to wish that ? Then my comrades stand up for a Tariff. — 8b Grade, School No. 13. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES If you had chanced to walk up the footpaths of the old parsonage, a quaint gambreled roofed house in Cambridge on the 29th of August 1809, you would have found all happy and cheerful within, for on that day Rev. Mr. Holmes wrote in his calender " son b." This son was caUed Oliver Wendell after one of his ancestors. The boy grew up happy and cheerful kind to animals, fond of trees and flowers but very superstitious. 252 INDIANAPOLIS.— EiaSTH-TEAB WORK He had many queer ideas and that is the reason he was so afraid of the "sails of ships" and of that "dreadful hand" a sign of a glove maker. He never dared go into that direction for just as sure as he did that hand reached down, grabbed him and carried him he knew not where. At a very early age the child was send to a school kept by Madam Prentiss an old lady who took care of them almost as a mother. The next school that this restless little fellow attended was taught by Wm. Biglow. The next five years of his life was spent at a school in Cambridge where he had as schoolmates Margaret Fuller and Rich- ard Henry Dana. Dr. Holmes says " I was mod- erately studious and very fond of reading stories which I sometimes did in school hours, I was fond of whispering and my desk bore sad witness to my passion for whittling. For these violations of the rule I was often visited by the ferule." At the age of fifteen Holmes entered Philips Academy where he prepared himself for Harvard which he entered at sixteen. He was a scholar of high rank and was a contributor to the college periodicals and delivered several poems. He was graduated in 1829 with many other prominent per- sons. He was chosen " class poet " and one of the sixteen to enter the "Phi Beta Kappa Society." After his graduation he spent one year in the study of law in the Dana Law School at Harvard. Law not being to his taste he soon gave it up to be a doeter, studying two years and a half in the INDIANAPOLIS.— EiaHTE-YEAB WORK 253 Harvard medical department. Holmes was not satisfied with Ms instruction at Harvard but before taking his degree he went to practise in the hospi- tals and Lecture rooms of Paris and Edinburgh. He spent three years in this work and upon his return to Cambridge he received the title M. D. Holmes lectured so well that his students could never guess that he was a poet and his poems are so pleasing you could never guess that he was a docter. In 1836, he published a volume of poems including The Last Leaf" and Old Ironsides written at twenty one upon the vessel Constitu- tion. This poem was first published in the " Bos- ton Advertiser and was then copied far and wide. This poem had two results, Holmes became fa- mous and the vessel was saved. In 1840 Holmes was married to Miss Amelia Jackson. In 1836 Holmes was chosen Professor of Anatomy at Dartmouth but resigned this position after an elapse of two years to practise in Boston. In 1847 he was chosen Professor of Anatomy at Harvard. This position he held for thirty-five years. In 1882 when he resigned his position as Professor his class presented him with a " loving cup " on one side of which was engrave "Love bless" thee," joy crown thee " and God speed thy career. Holmes eldest son Oliver Wendell jr is a prom- inent lawyer in Boston and his youngest son although he has completed the course is not yet in practice. Holmes is always known as a warm hearted, unselfish man, a good lecturer and a re- 254 INDIANAPOLIS.— EIGETE-YEAB WORK liable physician. Holmes spends his winters in Boston but his summers are spent with his daughter now a widow at Beverly Farms near the sea. He intends to devote the remainder of his life to literature. — 8a Grade, School No. 13. "the one hoss shay" On the first of November seventeen hundred and fifty five the British Army under General Braddock was defeated at Fort Duquesne and the earthquake at Lisbontown also occurred. On this very same day the Deacon of the village completed his wonderful " one hoss shay." All of the shays that had been built before this were weak in some part ; so the Deacon determined to build a shay that was as strong in one part as it was in an- other. He inquired of the people who lived near where he could find the strongest oak, out of which he made the axles and the thills. He made the floor of this shay out of the wood of the elm tree. This shay was still used in eighteen hun- dred and ten but was now called a "hansome " kerridge " In 1830-40 it was stiU in use by the descendants of the maker, for in this time many deacons and deaconesses had died. On the first of November eighteen hundred and fifty-five, just one hundred years after the shay was finished, the deacon prepared for a drive. While passing through the streets he called to the little boys who were playing in the road to get INDIANAPOLIS.— EIGBTS-TEAB WORK 255 out of the way for wonderful one hoss shay was coming. During this drive the Deacon was think- ing on his morning sermon when suddenly his horse stopped and the shay began to quiver and the next the deacon knew he was sitting on a rock by the road side. When he looked around he found to his great dismay the old shay heaped in a little mound by the roadside. And thus ended the one hoss shay which had fulfilled the Deacon's expectations, which was for it to be just as strong in one place as the other. — 8a Grade, School No. 13. CHAPTER II MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL THE Lincoln School in Minneapolis is attended almost exclusively by children from homes where no English is spoken. In most instances the home surroundings are very poor. Some of the little ones indeed, as I have already mentioned, are obliged to earn money by selling papers and blacking boots outside of school hours. Owing to the fact that so many of the pupUs are foreigners, or, if American born, are of foreign parentage, a large proportion of them know very little, if anything, of the English language when they are first sent to school. Consequently, it is not surprising that much of the written work in the lower grades should present a rather peculiar mixture. After the children have attended the Lincoln School for a number of years, however, siirprisingly good results are obtained. Indeed, in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades — the Lin- coln School has no eighth grade — I found the compositions almost uniformly so excellent as al- most to discredit the fact that the home influences of the pupils were so very unfavorable. This 250 MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL 257 school offers, in my opinion, positive proof to the effect that when the teachers are competent it is entirely unnecessary for them to resort to unusual measures in a school attended by the children of a poor class of foreigners, either in regard to dis- cipline or to the methods employed in teaching the, English language. First -Year Work PLANT LESSON The parts of a plant are root stem leaves flower and fruit. The parts of a flower are stem calyx corolla stamens and pistil. Each leaf of the calyx is called a sepal. Each leaf of the coroUa is caUed a petal. — First Grade. PLANT LESSON Some leaves are simple and some are compound. Each part of a compound leaf is a leaflet. There are netted veined and parallel veined leaves. The two parts of a leaf are petiole and blade. The edge of a leaf is called margin. The part that is nearest to the petiole is the base. The apex of the leaf is the part farthest from the petiole. — First Grade. STRAWBERRY PLANT This little plant has thread like roots. The petiole grows from the roots. It is round furry, 17 258 MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL slender not very long and reddisli green. The leaf is compound and it has three little leaflets. Each leaf let is feather veined. The margin is serrate. The leaves are light green. The calyx of this blossom has ten sepals. The corolla has five nearly round white petals. There are more than ten stamens with yellow knobs holding the pollen. There are many pistils on a fleshy receptacle. The fruit is red fleshy with some thing like seeds all over it and I like it very much. — First Grade. Third -Year Worlt, DAMON AND PYTHIAS Once upon a time in a city the people had a very cruel king ; they made a plot to drive him out of the city, and the king discovered the plot ; he said, "The leaders shall be put to death." There was one leader who lived out of the city his name was Damon he went to the king and asked him to let him go home to say good-bye to his family he said, " I will be back by the time I am to be kUled." But the king would not believe him he said, "If you have a friend to take your place you may go," thought the king, " Nobody will take his place." Now Damon had a very dear friend the friend's name was Pythias he stayed in prison ; when the days were near for him to die the king came to see how he behaved when death MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL 259 was SO near. The king said, " Damon is not here," "I have no wife and children he has; Damon wonld be here if he possibly could." The day- came ; Pythias was put on the scaffold when he saw a man on a horse the horse was covered with white foam it was Damon he got on the scaffold and Pythias was not glad he had come. The king's hard heart melted at the sight he set them free only asking for them to be his friends also. — 3a Grade. PASQUE FLOWER The pasque flower is one of the first flowers out; it is a beautiful flower. It is covered with a kind of hairy covering. It is covered with the hairs because it wiU get cold out of doors with nothing to keep it warm and it will freeze. It has not any calyx because the colord leaves are in their place. The involucre starts from the stem like a fan. The flower is purple or lilac. It is a wild flower. The Pasque flower is an anemone which means wind-flower. The involucre kept the blossom tiet wrapped up when the snow was on the ground but when the bright sun-shine came out it opened and now its a beautiful flower. — 3a Grade. THE bean Miss Olson gave me two large beans. She gave me one soaked and one that was dry. The one 260 MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL that was soaked was twice as large as the one that was dry. I took the skin off of my bean and saw the seed leaves. The seed leaves are the two thick parts, and they keep the little plant warm. On the outside of the seed leaves are little veins. It is very smooth. The skin is thick and keeps the seed leaves together. The radicle is thick, smooth and is going to be the root. The Plumule is the two little leaves right by the radicle. When I took off the blankets, that is the skin, the seed leaves came apart, and I saw the Plumule. On the seed that was dry, I saw the scar where the stem was fastened and right there the skin was split. It tastes sweet, and the one that is soaked is soft and the one that is dry is hard. When the blankets are off, they will wilt and curl all up. I am going to take the one that is dry home and soak it. — 3b Grade. Fourth -Year Worli MINNEAPOLIS The first white man that saw the St. Anthony Palls was Louis Hennepin in 1680. The Indians used to think it was some great spiret and so they used to bring gifts to it. In 1766 Jonathan Carver from Connecticut made the first picture of the falls he said there was not a better place than this anywhere. In 1837 Franklin Steel built the first log cabin on the west side, and in 1848 the first MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL 261 saw mill was built. In 1849 the first school was made and a post office made at the same time. The first white baby was born in 1849 in the family of John H. Stevens but it did not live long. The first flouring mill was built in 1859 and St. Anthony & Minneapolis became one city called Minneapolis in the year of 1872. — Fourth Grade. Russian. COAL Long, long ago the earth was very rich, and the climate was very hot. You know that when the soil is very rich, and the climate is very warm that everything grows very high, and very fast. There were very heavey winds so that they threw trees over, and let them lie until they decayed. Some- times the sea would cover it over with sand, and after many years it turned to rock. After many thousands of years the rock mixed with the vege- table matter, and turned to black fuel. "We now find it in mines, and men always come from other countries to get it. The bituminous or soft coal is found near the surface; but the anthracite or hard coal is found so far down so that when the miners want to get it they have to get down in buckets, and send the coal away in cars. Coal is used to make oil, and gas. Sir Humphrey Davy was a poor boy. He invented a safety lamp ; he put wires around it so that the fire could not get through. — Fourth Grade. Eussian. 262 MINNEAPOLIS— LINCOLN SCHOOL Fifth -Year Work PUSSY WILLOW The first flower we studied about was the pussy willow. The pussy willow grows in damp and marshy places. There are two kinds of flowers the pistillate flower and the staminate flower. The pistillate flower holds the pistils and the staminate flower holds the stamens. The pussy willows grow in bushes and they grow about seven or eight feet high. In the pistillate flower the pistils are green and in the staminate flower the stamens are yellow. The stem of the pussy willow is hard. It peals easily and the color is brown. The stem has a white pith inside and it is smooth. The pussy willow has a few green leaves. There are two clefts at the top of the pistils showing that there are two seeds in the ovary. The pistillate flower and the staminate flowers do not grow in the same bush. The willows grow alternate. The color is sHvery gray. The leaves do not come out first like in other flowers. The bud comes out first and after wards the leaves come oiit. — Fifth Grade. SLEEPY HOLLOW A schoolmaster is generally of some importance in a country neighborhood and is considered idle among the ladies, and so was Ichabod Crane. MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL 263 When he visited some farmhouse the young ladies always put a dish of cakes and a silver teapot on the table. Every Sunday morning before the sermon took place he went around in the church- yard picking wild grapes for the country damsels while the more bashful bumpkins only stood and looked on. Most of the time he wandered about in the country and told tales about the people around there. Ichabod Crane had read a few books and knew Cotton Mather's History almost by heart and he had read it so many times that he believed every word of it. In the afternoon when school was dismissed he laid down outside of the school on a bed of clover until it grew dark. He then made his way home across the fields in the dark. He walked very slowly and as he walked along he sang a psalm which every body in Sleepy Hollow listened to. There was one thing which he liked, and that was to spend the long winter evenings with the Dutch wives listening to their tales of the head- less horseman or as the people called him the Galloping Hessian of the Hollow, and that they had heard some people say that they believed the earth was round. This sat him thinking that we were half the time standing on our heads. Every night when going from School to the farmhouse where he lodged at that time his mind was fuU of scenes which he thought he saw between the trees. Sometimes he was frightened by a shrub covered 264 MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL with snow which he thought was a ghost; and sometimes by the tramp of his own feet thinking it was the Galloping Hessian coming after him. One night in each week the young ladies and gentlemen gathered at his place and received in- structions in psalmody. Among them was a young lady by the name Katrina Van Tassel. She was the only child of a wealthy Dutch farmer with rosy cheeks and very neatly dressed in a short petticoat and gold which her great-great- grandmother had from Saardam. Ichabod had a f olish heart towards her which increased after he had visited her once in her home. Baltus Van Tassel's farm was situated on the bank of the Hudson River and he never thought of anything else except his beautiful farm. As Ichabod looked on Van Tassel's farm he imagined himself married to Katrina and that he now was going to sell all that she had possessed and set out for some other state on top of a wagon loaded with household goods and a whole family of chil- dren. When Ichabod Crane saw the house and as he entered the hall and peeped into the parlor where in one corner stood a cupboard with old gold and silver and also some china. Van Tas- sel's house was built in a style handed down from the first Dutch settlers. — Fifth Grade. Child came from Sweden two years ago. MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL 265 Sixth -Year Worlc Upernavik, Greenland, April 18, 1893. Dear Friend, I arrived in Upernavik safe less than a month ago, but as the ship did not arrive here for the mail till last week I did not have a chance to write sooner. Upernavik has less than a hundred inhabitants and includes only a few houses. As the family where I was staying were going to catch seals I joined them. It took us a day and a half to reach the place where we were going. Then we set to work to build a hut made of snow and driftwood. Then we left the women in the hut while we went out and watched the seal holes. We waited for hours till at last one appeared and was eagerly captured. It was then taken to the hut where there was great rejoicing for the seal is very valuable for its fur, fat and meat. The next day we thought we would not wait for the seals to come out and breathe as the sun was shining and the seals had come out al- ready to bask in the sun. So we took a sled and put a sail on it with a small hole in the top of it. To the seals this looked like an ice-berg, and as we neared them one of the Eskimos made a slight noise so that the seals would lift up their heads and we could get a better shot at them. That night we had three more seals and a grand feast was held within. 266 MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN 8CB00L The next day as we were walking along one of our men saw an iceberg, which, when we got over to it greatly surprised me, as it was a great deal bigger than a church. As we were returning to the hut we came in sight of a walrus which we hastened to capture. As we were about to throw the har- poon into it a second walrus appeared and we has- tened to tie the rope to which the first walrus was tied when he broke the ice on which we were standing throwing us into the water and nearly drowning us. But at last they were captured and taken to the hut where the women said that the sun had melted the hut some and it had begun to drip but this was soon mended with some more snow. The family said that they would return to Upernavik the next day and asked me if I would go with them which I did. We arrived at Uper- navik two days hence where I am now staying. I would like very much to take a trip up to Cape Kane as I have heard so much about it. I have myself seen flowers that Loekwood and Brainard had picked in a sheltered nook near Cape Kane. These two men you remember were lost in Grreenland while with Greely's crew who were then in search of the North Pole. So they were forced to push on with no one to cheer them sleeping at night in sleeping bags. There thero- menter at one time showed sixty one degrees be- low zero. They at last arrived at Cape Kane where they unfurled a beautiful silk flag with the stars and stripes upon it. MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL 267 The Eskimos of Greenland dress very warm. Their clothes being mostly made out of fur. Their houses are of a thimble shape made of snow and driftwood though they are very warm inside. The entrance is a long passage just large enough to admit a person so as to keep out the cold. You would wonder if they have any chairs over here, no they do not but they have furs and robes spread around the fire or lamp as they call it, which answers for a lounge or bed. If you looked under this soft bed you would be very much sur- prised to find rocks and ice under it to raise it up. The Eskimos food is lubber, peas, seaweed, fat and coffee of which he is very fond. You again would wonder if they have any horses over here, no they do not but they have dogs which takes the place of them. These dogs if treated well will grow up faithful, kind and true, but the treatment they receive from the Eskimos make them grow up snappish, thievish, ugly and hateful. The dogs are attached to a sled by a harness which can be easUy unhitched if by accident they run across a bear. These sleds are made of bone lashed to- gether with leather with side pieces made of wal- rus ribs. These sleds take patience and workman- ship to make them and are therefore costly and are handed down from one generation to another. There is a kind of duck which lines its nest with down and feathers plucked from its own breast. The Eskimo then comes and takes the feathers to line his clothing with and then waits 268 MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL till the duck lines it again when he will again continue his work. There are quite a numher of polar bears here which the Eskimos are always trying to kiU. The polar bear is as much at home on an iceberg as we are on land and he can swim as well as a fish. Although he is very ferocious he is very playful. One of his great sports is to get on the top of an iceberg and slide down on his haunches. The animals of Greenland are the walrus, seal, bear, otter, and reindeer. The birds are the eider-duck, penguin, and some sea gulls. — Sixth G-rade. BOOKS The books that I have read are, Through the Dark Continent, by Henry M. Stanley, Travels in Africa, by Dr. Junker, A Cabin in the Clearing, by Edward, S, Ellis, Luck and Pluck by Knox, and, A Chance for Himself by Trowbridge The book that I liked the best was. Through the Dark Continent by Henry M. Stanley. The book gave me much information whUe we were studying about Africa. There were many illus- trations showing pictures of the natives and the scenery. The next best was. Travels in Africa. It was full of adventures that had occvirred in Africa. A Cabin in the Clearing tells about the settling of Kentucky and adventures with the Indians. The latest book that I have read is Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. It tells about the MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL 269 pranks of a mischievous boy. — Sixth Grade. Bo- hemian. The boy helps his father tend bar. Seventh -Year WorTi QUEEN ELIZABETH Elizabeth, who was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, succeedded Mary. Elizabeth was very young when her mother was executed, but her father, Henry VIII, had her educated as was fit for a princess. During Mary's reign Elizabeth was always watched and she often said, that she wished she were a milkmaid in- stead of a princess, so she could be more inde- pendent. EUzabeth was about twenty-five years old when she came to the throne. There was great re- joicing when some of the lords went down to the place where she was living to go with her to Lon- don. On the coronation day many shows were made when she rode through the streets to West minster Abbey. She also received a great many presents as she was riding through the streets. The presents, which the corporation gave her, was a thousand marks in gold. She was very careful in choosing her ministers and those be- longing to the council, and that is why her reign was so glorious. Her prime minister was Sir William Cecil, who was afterward made Lord Burleigh. Some more of her advisers were Sir 270 MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCSOOL Nicholas Bacon and Sir Francis Walshingham. Her favorites were the Earl of Leicester and when he died the Earl of Essex was her chief favorite. Elizabeth and this Earl had many quar- rels and reconcilations, but at last he was exe- cuted. One of the greatest events that happened dur- ing tlie reign of Elizabeth was the trouble with Spain, for which piirpose the Spaniards built the "Spanish Armada" to invade England. The cause of this trouble was because Elizabeth helped the Protestants in the Netherlands who were fighting against Philip II of Spain. The Armada was composed of about one hun- dred and fifty ships, three thousand cannon and about twenty-seven thousand men. "When it en- tered the English Channel it was in the form of a cresent. The English did not have as many ships as the Spaniards but they had very brave com- manders, among whom were Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake. Although the English fleet was not as large as the Spanish, the English fought so well that they soon defeated the Span- iards. While going back to Spain the Armada was overtaken by a storm and only about fifty ships and six thousand men reached Spain. During this reign a great deal of commerce, be- tween England and other countries, was going on. There was also a great deal of ship-building in England and the English ship-carpenters were wanted in other countries. A trade with Russia MINNEAPOLIS.— LINCOLN SCHOOL 271 was opened and Japan and Greenland were vis- ited. Sir Walter Raleigh made voyages on the coast of North America and tried to establish set- tlements but failed. There was a good deal of Grothic Ajchitecture and the mode of living was more comfortable. Elizabeth, like all the Tudors was very haughty and cruel. She, like her father, believed that the Pope aught not to be at the head of the church. She was very vain and jeaulous and she thought a great deal of her beauty although she was not beautiful. She was tall, had red hair and blue eyes. Elizabeth died after having reigned forty- five years and when she was seventy years old. A day before she died she could not speak any more and when they asked her whether James VI of Scotland, Mary's of Scotland son, should succeed her, she put her hands over her head in the form of a crown and that meant, yes. Elizabeth is said to have been one of the best rulers that England ever had. — 7a Grade. Russian. Father is a peddler. CHAPTER III MINNEAPOLIS.— OTHER SCHOOLS First -Year Work THE BLOODEOOT THE bloodroot grows in the woods. It grows in May. It is colled bloodroot because it has a juice that looks like blood. Its a white flower Avith a yellow centre. The bloodroot has one thick root, and many fine roots. It has one grean leaf that is curled around the flower stem. It has eght flower leaves. It has many httle stamens And a little ledy in the middle which is called pistil. — Marcy School. Pupil seven months in school. Second -Year WorJc THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE Once upon a time a Hare made fun of a Tor- tois because she was so slow. "Well then said the Tortoise try a race with me and I will beat you. The hare thought he was only in fun but he said I will race with you, who will mark of the bounds and give the prize? They thought they would ask the Fox he was so wise and fair he showed them how far to run and where to start. The 272 MINNEAPOLIS.— OTSER SCHOOLS 273 Tortoise didnt waste a minute she started at once for the end. The Hare knew he could reach the end in two or three jumps so he lay down and took a nap pretty soon he awoke and ran fast. But the Tortoise was alredy thei'c. Slow and steady wins the race. — 2a Grade, Marcy School. THE BLUE JAY The Blue Jay goes south in the winter and some- tims stayes here. He comes back in the summer. "We have two Blue Jays and we think they are mother and father. The father is the prettiest. He is about as large as a robin his tail is longger and it is shaped like a fan. His back is purple and his breast is gray and his wings are light blue and tips of white His tail is blue with white and black stripes of black. His crest is blue and it has a ring of black feathers a round it. The Blue Jay's eyes are round and black. His bill is black and long. His nest is made of mude and hay. His voice is horse. He steals other birds nests. His feet has three toes in front and one long one in back. He is a percher. — Second Grade, Marcy School. Third -Year Work THE HEPATICA The hepatica is one of the earliest little flowers of spring and grows on the sides of hills and 274 MINNEAPOLIS— OTHER SCHOOLS sometimes in the woods. It is a very hardy little plant for sometimes when there are little patches of snow on the earth you can find it near these. The root is fibrous, very tough and strong and is black. It is strong because it comes so early that it has to bear many hardships. The leaf is radical because it gi-ows straight from the roots. It is called an evergreen leaf because it stays green all winter long under the snow. It is speckled very prettily and has three lobes. If the lobes are round it means that they grow on the south side of the hill and if its lobes are pointed it has grown on the north side. The flower grows on the top of the stem and the stem is slender, velvety and gi-een. The involucre is near the flower-cup and consists of three little green leaves. In my flower there are nine sepals and are usually bluish white or pure white. There are a great many little stamens and pistils in every little flower and the little pistils are green and always in the center. The stamens are white. I like to study flowers and and al- ways want to study them. — Third Grade, Marcy School. A BULL HEAD The Bull-head's head is bigger than his body and it gets smaller at the end of his tail and he has very little eyes. He has a very big mouth but his tongue is red like ours. He has three MINNEAPOLIS — OTHEB SCHOOLS 275 fins one on each side of his body, and one on the top of back. He is black on the top of his back and white under his body. He can pinch very hard when he wants too. He has teeth and it is him that knows how to use them. I went to see if he had teeth and he bit me on the end of the finger so I let him fall on the floor. — Third Grade, Marcy School. ECHO AND NARCISSUS Echo was a beautiful fairy or nymph who lived in the woods or forests. She was very fond of talking and she always wanted the last word. One day she offended Queen Juno and the Queen made up her mind to punish her. Juno said, "You shall lose the use of your tongue, except for one purpose. You shall still have the last word, but no power to speak first" Narsissus was a beautiful boy or youth who loved to hunt. And Echo loved him. One day Narcissus lost his companins and called "Who's here ? " and Echo answered " Here" Then Narsissus said come and she answered come Then she felt very glad and hastened to meet him But he said " I do not care to see you and went ofE and left her She felt very sad and went in the woods and she grew very thin and her bones changed to rock but her voice is still left.— Third Grade, Marcy School. 276 MINNEAPOLIS — OTHER SCHOOLS Eighth -Year Work OUB SCHOOL READING We are nearing the close of our school year, and also the end of the grammar grades ; we are soon to step upon a hroader threshold and see life in a fuller sense than we have before. But no matter where we are, or what we are doing, we must still read and one cannot tell the value our school reading has been to us ; for the impression made upon a person's mind when young, will be remembered through life; and in forming the habit of good reading when in school, he will cul- tivate his taste for beautiful literature and shun the books which do not do us any good. All of our reading has been very interesting as weU as instructive; and to anyone who loves to read it is very hard to decide which author is Uked best. We have read Joseph Addison, Sir Walter Scott Charles Lamb, Thomas Campbell, Lord Macaulay Tennyson, and Thackeray and Lowell this term besides several short articles from dif- ferent authors. The ' Vision of Mirza ' by Joseph Addison, is a very beautiful story, it is an allegory and teU. about a man viewing human life and the great hereafter, from the high hills of Bagdad. Of aU poems in the English language I think the ' Lady of the Lake,' is one of the most beautiful ; the MINNEAPOLIS.— OTHER SCHOOLS 277 description of tlie scenery and the nobleness of the characters, in it, cannot be improved upon. Charles Lamb is a very interesting wi'iter and there is a great deal of thought between the lines to many of his pieces, in "Modern Gal- lantry ' there is a moral which would be well for us all to remember. Thomas Campbell is also an interesting and good writer though his poems were not as interesting to me as Tennyson's. Tennyson's "Enoch Arden' is a very nicely written poem and is very simple and touching in the way it is written. Lord Macaulay is a different kind of a writer and writes about historical sub- jects; but they are none the less interesting and are much more instructive. Thackaray is an author which I don't think, as a general thing, people like very well, until they have read a great deal of him ; but when you understand the thought of the books you enjoy them very much indeed. This last part of the year we having been study- ing James Russell Lowell's works and as a class every one likes his poems as well if not better than any we have read. Among his principal works are, ' The Vision of Sir Launf al,' ' Under the Old Elm,' ' Prometheus,' and the " Biglow Papers.' Lowell has a very easy and graceful style and uses very beautiful language; he always expresses himself clearly and simply so the youngest may understand. In the ' Commemoration Ode ' he speaks with respect and feeling for the dead 278 MINNEAPOLIS.— OTHEH SCSOOLS soldiers who gave their Uves for their country's cause. Prometheus, the classic legend is veiy beauti- fully told and is full of deeper thoughts than can be comprehended at first sight ; but the obscurity only makes it more valuable to us for it teaches us to think about whatever we read. For if we read and do not think, we are not gaining any good from it ; but if we read good books and re- member what is said and how each different au- thor expresses himself, it ■will help us in forming our style and even oui* character. On the whole, our school reading, has been of great benefit to us and though we will soon take up different and harder reading, we will not forget the books we read and the good we got from them, when we first began to read, in the Marcy School. — Eighth Grade, Marcy School. THE BEHRING SEA QUESTION This is a question which is now greatly dis- cussed, and has been for several years. Congress has passed a number of regulations relating to "Alaska and the waters thereof," but they do not attempt to define the limits of these waters. When Grover Cleveland was president first time, he signed a bill stating, that no seal, beaver, mink, or other fur-bearing animals should be killed in the waters surrounding Alaska, mth- out especial permission. MINNEAPOLIS.— OIBEU SCHOOLS 279 One country has just as much right on the At- lantic Ocean, or any other ocean, for that matter. as another. Then they have equal ring Sea? It sea, therefore has no more than another, from the shore is considered the why shouldn't rights in Beh- is not a closed one country right to it / Three miles of any country propei'ty of that country, but heyond that it is free to all. Not- withstanding this English vessels have been cap- tured sixty miles from the shore. The international laws have always been care- fully kept by the United States. She has said that any one who broke these laws, put herself outside the family of civilized nations. Will it be worth while for her to break them for a selfish motive, which will only benefit the present? — Eighth Grade, Marcy School. Naples, Italy, Jan. 26, 1892. My dear friend, — Thank you very much for your last welcome letter. I was very glad to hear that you are re- gaining your lost health. A trip across the At- lantic and a visit to Italy would do you good, but as that cannot be, I will tell you a little about it myself. The two most important volcanoes of Europe are in the southern part. Their names are Etna and Vesuvius. Of these Vesuvius is the 280 MINNEAPOLIS — OTHER SCHOOLS most dangerous, and is the one I am going to tell you about. A beautiful city lies at the foot of this volcano, and with the sun shining on the foliage of the spicy palm-trees, it is a picture long to be remem- bered. It is noted for its many beautiful baths which are used alike by rich and poor. The peo- ple come to this city to take their enjoyment, and to escape the cares and worry of the town Uf e. Gentlemen are seen at marble tables drinking wine, while others lounge on marble benches piled with cushions. Slaves are seen everywhere prom- enading the streets, dressed in fantastic colors or amusing their masters with dancing or singing. Everywhere is seen luxury and ease. At the end of each street is a magnificent marble fountain, which pours out sparkling crystal water. Here in this pleasant climate the people live out of doors the greater part of the time, and feast on fruit and wines flavored with delicious spices. Nearly every house is a palace. The porches were supported by marble figures. The walls were painted or frescoed and hung with pictures. The seats were of gilt and cushioned with the most beautiful tapestry, and when guests reclined on them, they were attended by multitudes of ser- vants. The gardens were adorned with gold vases, and carved fountains which sent forth gushes of perfume and scented the atmosphere till one imagined himself in Paradise. It was the golden age, and all things worked together. MINNEAPOLIS.— OTHER SCHOOLS 281 One day, when the festivites were at their height, a change took place. The day became as dark as night and over Vesuvius an umbrella- shaped cloud hung. Soon it spread and the sky was filled with a fiery glow. A mighty eruption followed, the sea fell back, and streams of lava flowed down the mountain side and buried the beautiful city. When the few people who had escaped came back they found a black smoking plain — a dreary waste of ashes. Good-bye for the present and remember me always as. Your sincere friend. — 8b Grade, North Side High- school Building. GLIMPSES OP SPAIN Of all the countries in the world Spain is the most interesting, with its beautiful scenery of orange groves, palm trees, and old castles and grand cathedrals, one of the most noted of which is the Cathedral of Seville. It is four hundred and thirty-one feet long and three hundred and fifteen feet wide, containing seven isles and many lofty pillars. There are nine entrances to it, and of these the one called " The Crocodile," (because a stuffed crocodile once hung above it) and the Gate of Oranges are the finest. The walls are covered with a delicate lace work, colored and guilded, which gives a very beautiful effect. Another interesting cathedral is the Tarragona, built in 1089. The west front rises above a steep 282 MINNEAPOLIS — OTHER SCHOOLS flight of steps at the end of the principal street in Tarragona, and though unfinished it is very beau- tiful. The interior is hung with tapestries, bought at the sale of church furniture by Henry VIII and is said to have once decorated St. Paul's Cathedral. But the most interesting part of Spanish his- tory is connected with the Alhambra, the palace and fortress of the Moorish kings. It is built on a hill within the walls of the city of Granada. The name is said to be a corruption of the Arabic " Kalat al Hamra " or the red castle, so named be- cause the outer walls are made of fine gravel which contains a good deal of iron. The entrance is called the Gate of Justice, beneath which the Moorish kings passed judgment. Over the first arch is a hand Avith the fingers uplifted, and from the second arch a key is suspended. The Moors said that until the hand grasped the key the Al- hambra could not be broken. The interior is an immense circular court-yard, and an endless num- ber of doors lead from this to other parts of the castle. It is very beautiful, being ornamented and guilded in many different colors, somewhat like the interior of Seville Cathedral. Beyond the palace lie a little town, a church, a convent and many gardens, containing every variety of flowers, and fountains of great beauty, and over all is spred the beautiful blue sky, for which this ro- mantic country is noted. — 8b Grade, North Side High-school Building. MINNEAPOLIS.— OTSEU SCHOOLS 283 THE HORSE CHESTNUT The botanical name of the horse-chestnut, Aes- culus, conies from a Latin word which means eat- able. One would think it had been named in jest, but the name really comes from another great tree of the same family, the chestnut, whose nuts are eatable. The tree is popular as a street tree in towns and cities on account of its profuse blossoming and its early coming into leaf in the spring. Before the summer is over, how- ever, its leaves often become brown and shriv- elled. The nuts of the horse chestnut are very dear to the children, dearer, perhaps, because they are of no use but to look at and make bas- kets of. Grown men sometimes carry them in their pockets, cherishing a notion that they "keep off rheumatism." Sometimes, phraps, they carry the nuts in the pocket from a sort of idle liking for their round, polished brown surfaces, even when they have no belief in the rheumatism cure. If we plant a nut we shall be interested to see how it grows. The hard, white meat that makes the bulk of the nut belongs to the thick seed- leaves, which are stored full of food. The first leaves of the plantlet are within these thick seed leaves, and the little stem has a small pocket of its own in the brown shell. It must take a great deal of pressure to break this hard shell. The 284 MINNEAPOLIS.— OTHER SCHOOLS first leaves raise themselves above the ground, but the seed-leaves remain buried, and nourish the plantlet till it has roots and can get its own liv- ing. — 8b Grade, North Side High-school Building. JOHN PAUL JONES In the southern coast of Scotland, in 1747, John Paul Jones was born. He lived here until he was twelve years of age, then as he was daring and fond of adventure, he became a ship's ap- prentice. He was a bright boy and learned thor- oughly as statesmen do. At the age of twenty- two he settled in the West Indies as a merchant. As he left here he sold aU of his property for fifty pounds, and lived in Philadelphia one year and eight months on his fifty pounds. As he was living on his last guinea, the United States decided to have a navy. And Paul Jones at once presented himself to Congress. The Con- gress then seeing the true courage of Jones made him lieutenant. His first ship was called the Ranger and he at once set out for England. He landed at White- haven ant took thirty one men and two ships. Then finding the guards asleep he climbed the walls and spiked the guns, and took all the men prisoners and set the ships on fire. The men all ran to the shore and cried, " To the guns," but the guns were spiked. The next movement of Paul Jones was against the Serapis. On the evening MINNEAPOLIS.— OTHER SCHOOLS 285 of September 23rd he laid his own vessel the, "Bonhomme Richard," aside the Serapis and a desperate struggle ensued. In the midst of the engagement, the two ships were lashed together. They then fought hand in hand. The Bonhomme Richard was old and rotten and the water poured into the hold. The two vessels were both on fire three times, and about half past ten the Serapis surrendered. The American vessel was so badly cut up that Jones transferred his crew from the fast sinking vessel to the captured frigate, and then Sailed for Holland. France gave him a dia- mond hilted sword. The Russian government offered him a position as admiral in their navy, but soon being disgusted went to France where he died in 1792. John Paul Jones had a clear eye and a gentle voice, he was short and stout and brave as a lion. — 8a Grade, North Side High- school Building. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL At Elmwood, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a house which he occupied all his life time, James Russell Lowell was born February 22, 1819. His father was a Congregationalist minister of Boston, and the family to which he belonged had a strong representation in Massachusetts. John Lowell, his grandfather, was an eminent jurist. The city of Lowell was named after Francis Cabot Lowell, an uncle who was one of the first to begin the manufacturing of cotton in New England. 286 MINNEAPOLIS.— Ol'BEB SCHOOLS James Russell Lowell was a student at Harvard, and graduated at the age of nineteen. During the Mexican War he wrote the "First series of Biglow Papers," which did much to bring the war to and end. When the Civil, War broke out he wrote, the, " Second series of Biglow Papers." Longfellow and Lowell were life-long friends. He was Longfellow's successor at the Harvard College, as professor. In 1844 he was married to a lady named Miss White, who was beautifully accomplished, and a fit wile for a poet. He had three daughters but only one was spared. And the grief of the parents were acute and lasting. In 1857, he was manied the second time, to a lady from Maine. In 1877 went to Spain as a minister and afterwards was transferred to England. He was liked very much abroad and was often called upon to deliver addresses to large audiences. His wife died in London and then, as his only conso- lation, he returned to his old home again. He was a renowned poet and his works shall be everlasting. He wrote the "Vision of Sir Launf al," "A Fable for Critics," "The Atlantic Monthly," "Under the Old Elm," and "Longing," and others. In his Fable for Critics he say's. " There is Lowell who's striving Parnassus to climb With a whole bale of isms tied together with rhyme He might get on alone, spite of troubles and boulders But he cant with that bundle he has on his shoulders." Lowell died August 12, 1891.— 8a Grade, North Side High-school Building. CHAPTER IV LA POSTE and the COOK COUNTY NORMAL La Porte ri'^HE specimens of the work of the public schools J- of La Porte are presented for the purpose of showing the degi-ee of excellence in the artistic lines attained in these schools. As the work here shown is representative of what a large majority of the pupils are able to do, I believe that it does much toward proving that, under proper guidance, good results can be obtained, even in the artistic lines, with the average child. But, while the es- thetic faculties are developed to a considerable de- gree, the other branches are by no means neglected, no more than three hours a week being devoted to drawing. The results in written language in the primary grades are as good as those obtained in the schools of Indianapolis and Minneapolis, and compositions show that the pupils possess a large fund of general information. In the La Porte schools, as has already been mentioned, many forms of artistic work are car- ried on side by side. The work in designing is in- tended principally to develop the creative faculties. In constructing a design, each child is obliged to 287 288 LA POBTE AND exercise his own ingenuity, nothing but the cen- tral thought being given to him before he begins a new piece of work. Consequently no two de- signs in any particular set are exactly alike. In the designs here presented, the development of the creative powers of the children from grade to grade can be seen. The nature drawings also are representative of what most of the pupils are able to do. THE COOK COUNTY NORMAL 289 riKST-TEAK WORK, JOHN ERICSSON SCHOOI.. 19 290 LA POETE AND X C^^*a'^&tJ^^*^ FIEST TEAK. ''jA'0/Lm' HKST YEAE. A man started up town 'vritli 13 balloons. What do you think, four got away. How many had he left? H[e]had9 balloons left.— 13-4=9. — Second year. FIRST- AND SECOND- YEAR WORK, JOHN ERICSSON SCHOOL. T3E COOK COUNTY NORMAL 291 ■- ■' ' ' -'■ 11 ' ■-. ■. (M \ - •: -, ■ ^■:k4^ '■ :M^ ;• ■ ^ JJP' '■ I'/^'^i - ,.. if ■ ■- [■■SSi^W-Jl^ ■ r''-" -- , , ■^ ^ * . . !; L - ■ M . ^^ ■■ - -^ ^N Jl\a& ^ 1 1— ^ .til^Ac- ^ 1. — Ninth, week ; border dictated. 2. — Border dictated, center spontaneous ; three hours a week, all told. 3. — First 292 XA FORTE AND grade, central square dictated ; child then added rest, piece by piece. 4. — Second half of first year, eighth week ; eight- rayed star dictated. 5. — Dictation, circle with inscribed square. SIXTH-TEAE WORK, LA POKTE. C/:Er ^^J^s^.. me from the cold. The girls that have come to pick me this year I see wear a good deal of green TSE COOK COVNTT NORMAL 293 and blue so I must be in the " swim." That is what I heard some one say, so I suppose it must be right. My bonnet has six sepals. To trim my bonnet I have a great number of little yellow things called stamens. The stems of these stamens are filaments. At the end of my stamens are little round boxes called anther. In the anther is a dust called pollen. I also have pistils on my bonnet — that sounds dangerous but I assure you it isn't — and they have little parts called ovary, style and stigma. After I get above the ground there are plenty of people to pick me. Sometimes there are little boys and girls, they throw me in a basket with a great many of my brothers and sisters, and carry me home — if I am not lost on the way — then I am put in water, and kept until I die. Sometimes I am carried to sick people, they always seem glad to see me. Sometimes to old people. Indeed I go to many people and places. But where I am kept the longest is when a big boy picks me and gives me to a big girl, and she takes me home and presses me in a book. 294 LA POBTE AND SIXTH TEAR, LA POETE.— PENTAGONAL STAK INVENTION. TSE COOK COVNTY NORMAL 295 THE HORSE-CHESTNUT The Horse-chestnut tree is a native of Asia. The origin of the name of this tree is attributed to the nuts, as in Constantinople they are used for coughs and short-windedness in horses. The tree grows very rapidly in any soil, hut it flourishes best in a moist and sandy loam. It attains the height of sixty feet, its strong spreading branches assuming the shape of a pyramid. The color of the bark of the branches is a reddish- brown, and is dotted here and there with small white breathing-pores, which can be easUy seen on the smooth bark. This bark can be broken with- out difficulty, but the wood inside of it although soft is not yielding. The leaves are oval in shape and are of a dark green color. They are straight- veined, each leaf consisting of from five to seven leaflets, which fold inward from the midrib. The buds, which are remarkable for their size are protected by a covering of a sticky substance through which water cannot enter. In early Spring this substance melts and the bud-scales drop off. The buds are a. reddish-brown in color and are an-anged opposite to each other. In shape they are pyramidal, like the tree. The soft wood of this tree is used for making water-pipes, and as fuel. The bark is used for dyeing yellow and tanning. The nuts, when ground, are applied to flax, hemp, and linens for bleaching, and to woolen goods for the purpose of 296 LA POBTE AND cleaning. They are also used for the food of sheep and deer. The nuts are ripe in October and fall to the ground. They are covered with prickly husks which split open as the nut ripens. The flowers appear in May, but they do not develop well in this cUmate. The flowers grow in clusters and are surrounded by the bud-scales. — Seventh Grade, Webster School. THE COOK COVNTY NORMAL 297 BEES Of all insects none have more justly received the study of mankind than the bee. Naturalists have been engaged in this study for over two thousand years but like everything else they can always find something more to learn. There are many species of bees the most im- portant of which is the Honey or Hive bee, prob- ably imported from Europe. This bee is celebrated for its neatness and exactness with which it builds its cells. It is also very diligent in providing for winter. The wild honey bee builds its home in the stumps or tfees of woods and orchards. Its honey is not so sweet as the cultivated bee owing to the dryness of it. Honey bees live in swarms divided into three sects the drones, workers and one queen the only female in the hive. The drones are very lazy hav- ing nothing to do whatever and being killed by the workers at the end of the swarming season. The workers of which there is the greatest number are divided into two classes the inside workers and the outside workers. The bees body is divided into the head, chest and abdomen. The abdomen has six rings hav- ing a pair of wings, three pairs of legs and a pair of balancers. Like all insects they have no bones, a probosis and breathe through pores in the sides of their bodies. The queen's body is much longer than the drones which is larger than the workers : 298 LA FORTE AND As the drones have nothing to do we will talk first of the workers who are rightly named. First they build the cells which are made of wax and are ^ r^uZ^I^^^'- Jj^ ^ 4 5? ^ ^ ^^'*^'. ■fv:' ■ -X ^<-.*^;. V ■ ' ! ^ 00:- r" ), >i hexagonal shaped. This wax is pai-tiaUy formed inside of the worker's body and woi-ks its way out between the rings of the abdomen in little scales. Meanwhile the bees who are making wax are hanging in festoons from the top of the hive TSE COOK COUNTY NOBMAL 299 and as soon as the scales appear which are formed by eating a good deal of honey the bees begin to chew it and the effect that their saHva has upon it makes the wax. After the wax is made the cells are built. The cells in which the queen eggs are laid are verti- cal while those of the drones and workers are horizontal. In making honey the outside workers gather the honey from flowers, and putting it in their trans- parent honey bags on their legs. When they reach the hive they fly in and kicking of the honey with their legs any place walk straight out again with- out turning back. Then the inside workers put it in the cells and jam it down with their heads and feet. The queen's duty is to lay the eggs which are long and slightly curved and of a bluish color. She travels from cell to cell attended by several workers who feed her now and then. The workers eggs hatch in a few days coming out little white maggots and on the sixth day after hatching they are roofed over in a cell by the old workers and become chrysalises. On the twenty first day they become perfect bees. The drone emerges out the twenty fifth day and the queen on the sixteenth. In an average hive there are one queen, two thousand drones and twenty thousand workers. The queen who is ruling always tries to kill a ri- val queen but never stings any other object the workers doing that. — Eighth year. 300 LA POKTE AJfD EIGHTH YEAK, L.4. PORTE. THE COOK COUNTY NOBMAJL 301 EIGHTH TBAK, LA POETE. 302 LA POBTE AND C/^Mti^ /J.,>€ir2.'2.4ryyi/. i/^ m -■^/W-i-i-*^ ,^Hi^ --^-tZ-^/^ yC4.t'7^