hlz£ LB I Advance Sheets from the EDUCATIONAL REVIEW For March, i8gj HENRY HOLT & CO., Publishers New York "^^A. PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN Appointed hw" the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association at Boston, Mass., February, 189) 1. On the training of teachers Horace S. Tarbell (Chairman), Edward Brooks, Thomas M. Balliet, Newton C. Dougherty, and Oscar H. Cooper 2. On the correlation of studies in elementary education William T. Harris (Chairman), James M. Greenwood, C. B. Gilbert, L. H, Jones, and William H. Maxwell 3. On the organization of city school systems Andrew S. Draper (Chairman), Edwin P. Seaver, Albert G. Lane, Addison B. Poland, and W. B. Powell Submitted at Cleveland, O., February ig, 189^ ) ^>-:^Q :f^^ Copies of the March issue of the Educational Review, containing these reports in full, may he obtained at ^^ cents each, by addressing EDUCATIONAL REVIEW 29 W. 23d Street New York, N. Y. Copyright, 1895, by Hhnry Holt & Co. If / EDUCATIONAL REVIEW MARCH, i8g5 COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS This report treats of the training of elementary and secondary teachers, considering first that training which should precede teaching in elementary schools. By elementary schools are meant the primary and grammar departments of graded schools, and ungraded or rural schools. 5 That teachers are " born, not made," has been so fully the world's thought until the present century that a study of sub- jects without any study of principles or methods of teaching has been deemed quite sufficient. Modern educational thought and modern practice, in all sections where excellent schools are lo found, confirm the belief that there is a profound philosophy on which educational methods are based, and that careful study of this philosophy and its application under expert guidance are essential to making fit the man born to teach. CONDITIONS FOR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING — AGE AND ATTAINMENTS It is a widely prevalent doctrine, to which the customs of 15 our best schools conform, that teachers of elementary schools should have a secondary or high-school education, and that teachers of high schools should have a collegiate education. Your committee believe that these are the minimum acquire- ments that can generally be accepted, that the scholarship, cul-20 ture, and power gained by four years of study in advance of 2 Educational Review [March the pupils are not too much to be rightfully demanded, and that as a rule no one ought to become a teacher who has not the age and attainments presupposed in the possessor of a high- school diploma. There are differences in high schools, it is 5 true, and a high school diploma is not a fixed standard of attainment ; but in these United States it is one of the most definite and uniform standards that we possess, and varies less than college degrees vary or than elementary schools and local standards of culture vary. lo It is of course implied in the foregoing remarks that the high school from which the candidate comes is known to be a repu- table school, and that its diploma is proof of the completion of a good four-years' course in a creditable manner. If these con- ditions do not exist, careful examination is the only recourse. 15 If this condition, high-school graduation or proof by exam- ination of equivalent scholarship, be accepted, the questions of the age and attainment to be reached before entering upon professional study and training are already settled. But if a more definite statement be desired, then it may be said that 20 the candidate for admission to a normal or training school should be eighteen years of age and should have studied English, mathematics, and science to the extent usually pur- sued in high schools, should be able to write readily, correctly, and methodically upon topics within the teacher's necessary 25 range of thought and conversation, and should have studied, for two or more years, at least one language beside English. Skill in music and drawing is desirable, particularly ability to sketch readily and effectively. TRAINING SCHOOLS The training of teachers may be done in normal schools, 30 normal classes in academies and high schools, and in city train- ing schools. To all these the general term " training schools " will be applied. Those instructed in these schools will be called pupils while engaged in professional study, and pupil- teachers or teachers-in-training while in practice-teaching pre- 35 paratory to graduation. Teachers whose work is to be observed 1895] Committee of fifteen 3 by pupil-teachers will be called model-teachers ; teachers in charge of pupil-teachers during their practice work will be called critic-teachers. In some institutions model-teachers and critic-teachers are the same persons. The studies usu- ally pursued in academies and high schools will be termed 5 academic, and those post-academic studies to be pursued be- fore or during practice-teaching as a preparation therefor will be termed orofessional. ACADEMIC STUDIES Whether academic studies have any legitimate place in a normal or training school is a question much debated. It can- 10 not be supposed that your committee can settle in a paragraph a question upon which many essays have been written, many speeches delivered, and over which much controversy has been waged. If training schools are to be distinguished from other sec- 15 ondary schools they must do a work not done in other schools. So far as they teach common branches of study they are doing what other schools are doing, and have small excuse for ex- istence ; but it may be granted that methods can practically be taught only as to subjects, that the study done in professional 20 schools may so treat of the subjects of study, not as objects to be acquired, but as objects to be presented, that their treat- ment shall be wholly professional. One who is to teach a subject needs to know it as a whole made up of related and subordinate parts, and hence must 25 study it by a method that will give this knowledge. It is not necessary to press the argument that many pupils enter normal and training schools with such slight preparation as to require instruction in academic subjects. The college with a prepara- tory department is, as a rule, an institution of distinctly lower 30 grade than one without such a department. Academic work in normal schools that is of the nature of preparation for professional work, lowers the standard and perhaps the useful- ness of such a school ; but academic work done as a means of illustrating or enforcing professional truth has its place in a 35 4 Editcational Review [March professional school as in effect a part of the professional work. Professional study differs widely from academic study. In the one, a science is studied in its relation to the studying mind ; in the other, in reference to its principles and appHca- 5 tions. The aim of one kind of study is power to apply ; of the other, power to present. The tendency of the one is to bring the learner into sympathy with the natural world, of the other with the child world. How much broader becomes the teacher who takes both the academic and the professional view! He lowho learns that he may know and he who learns that he may teach are standing in quite different mental attitudes. One works for knowledge of subject-matter; the other that his knowledge may have due organization, that he may bring to consciousness the apperceiving ideas by means of which matter 15 and method may be suitably conjoined. How to study is knowledge indispensable to knowing how to teach. The method of teaching can best be illustrated by teaching. The attitude of a pupil in a training school must be that of a learner whose mental stores are expanding, who 20 faces the great world of knowledge with the purpose to survey a portion of it. If we insist upon a suf^cient preparation for admission, the question of what studies to pursue and espe- cially the controversy between professional and academic work will be mainly settled. PROFESSIONAL WORK 25 Professional training comprises two parts : {ci) The science of teaching, and {U) the art of teaching. In the science of teacJiing zxo. included: (i) Psychology as a basis for principles and methods ; (2) Methodology as a guide to instruction ; (3) School economy, which adjusts the 30 conditions of work; and (4) History of education, which gives breadth of view. The art of teaching is best gained: (i) by observation of good teaching ; (2) by practice-teaching under criticism. RELATIVE TIME The existence and importance of each of these elements in 1895] Committee of fifteen 5 the training of teachers are generally acknowledged. Their order and proportionate treatment give rise to differences of opinion. Some would omit the practice work entirely, launch- ing the young teacher upon independent work directly from her pupilage in theory. Others, and much the greater number, 5 advise some preparation in the form of guided experience be- fore the training be considered complete. These vary greatly in their estimate of the proportionate time to be given to practice during training. The answers to the question, " What proportion ? " which your committee has received, range from 10 one-sixteenth to two-thirds as the proportion of time to be given to practice. The greater number, however, advocate a division of time about equal between theory and practice. The normal schools incline to the smallest proportion for practice-teaching, the city training-schools to the largest. It 15 should be borne in mind, however, that city training-schools are a close continuation, usually, of high schools, and that the high-school courses give a more uniform and probably a more adequate preparation than the students entering normal schools have usually had. Their facilities for practice-teaching are much 20 greater "than normal schools can secure, and for this reason also practice is made relatively more important. As to the relative merits of city training-schools and normal schools, your com- mittee does not desire to express an opinion ; the conditions of education demand the existence of both, and both are necessities 25 of educational advancement. It is important to add, however, that in the judgment of your committee not less than half of the time spent under training by the apprentice-teacher should be given to observation and practice, and that this practice in its conditions should be as similar as possible to the work she 30 will later be required to do independently. SCIENCE OF TEACHING — PSYCHOLOGY The laws of apperception teach that one is ready to appre- hend new truth most readily when he has already established a considerable and well-arranged body of ideas thereon. Suggestion, observation, and reflection are each most fruit- 35 6 Educatio7ial Review [March ful when a foundation of antecedent knowledge has been pro- vided. Hence your committee recommends that early in their course of study teachers in training assume as true the well- known facts of psychology and the essential principles of 5 education, and make their later study and practice in the light of these principles. These principles thus become the norm of educational thought, and their truth 'is continually demon- strated by subsequent experience. From this time theory and practice should proceed together in mutual aid and lo support. Most fundamental and important of the professional studies which ought to be pursued by one intending to teach is psy- chology. This study should be pursued at two periods of the training-school course, the beginning and the end, and its 15 principles should be appealed to daily when not formally studied. The method of study should be both deductive and inductive. The terminology should be early learned from a suitable text-book, and significance given to the terms by introspection, observation, and analysis. Power of introspec- 2otion should be gained, guidance in observation should be given, and confirmation of psychological principles should be sought on every hand. The habit of thinking analytically and psychologically should be formed by every teacher. At the close of the course a more profound and more completely 25 inductive study of physiological psychology should be made. In this way, a tendency to investigate should be encouraged or created. STUDY OF CHILDREN Modern educational thought emphasizes the opinion that the child, not the subject of study, is the guide to the teacher's 30 efforts. To know the child is of paramount importance. How to know the child must be an important item of instruction to the teacher in training. The child must be studied as to his physical, mental, and moral condition. Is he in good health ? Are his senses of sight and hearing normal, or in what degree 35 abnormal ? What is his temperament ? Which of his faculties 1895] Coinmittee of fifteen 7 seem weak or dormant? Is he eye-minded or ear-minded? What are his powers of attention ? What are his Hkes and disHkes? How far is his moral nature developed, and what are its tendencies? By what tests can the degree of difference between bright and dull children be estimated ? 5 To study effectively and observingly these and similar ques- tions respecting children, is a high art. No common-sense power of discerning human nature is sufBcient ; though common sense and sympathy go a long way in such study. Weighing, measuring, elaborate investigation requiring appa- 10 ratus and laboratory methods, are for experts, not teachers in training. Above all, it must ever be remembered that the child is to be studied as a personality and not as an object to be weighed or analyzed. METHODOLOGY A part of the work under this head must be a study of the 15 mental and moral effects of different methods of teaching and examination, the relative value of individual and class instruc- tion at different periods of school life and in the study of dif- ferent branches. The art of questioning is to be studied in its foundation principles and by the illustration of the best 20 examples. Some review of the branches which are to be taught may be made, making the teacher's knowledge of them ready and distinct as to the relations of the several parts of the subject to one another and of the whole to kindred subjects. These and many such subjects should be discussed in the class 25 in pedagogy, investigation should be begun, and the lines on which it can be followed should be distinctly laid down. The laws of psychology, or the capabilities and methods of mind-activity, are themselves the fundamental laws of teach- ing, which is the act of exciting normal and profitable mind- 30 action. Beyond these fundamental laws, the principles of edu- cation are to be derived inductively. These inductions when brought to test will be found to be rational inferences from psychological laws and thus founded upon and explained by them. 33 8 Educatio7ial Review [March SCHOOL ECONOMY School economy, though a factor of great importance in the teacher's training, can be best studied by the teacher of some maturity and experience, and is of more value in the equipment of secondary than of elementary teachers. Only its outlines 5 and fundamental principles should be studied in the ordinary training-school. HISTORY OF EDUCATION Breadth of mind consists in the power to view facts and opinions from the standpoints of others. It is this truth which makes the study of history in a full, appreciative way so influ- loential in giving mental breadth. This general advantage the history of education has in still larger degree, because our in- terest in the views and experiences of those engaged like us in training the young, enables us to enter more fully into their thoughts and purposes than we could into those of the warrior 15 or ruler. From the efforts of the man we imagine his surround- ings, which we contrast with our own. To the abstract element of theoretical truth is added the warm human interest we feel in the hero, the generous partisan of truth. The history of education is particularly full of examples of noble purpose, ad- 2ovanced thought, and moral heroism. It is inspiring to fill our minds with these human ideals. We read in the success of the unpractical Pestalozzi ■ the award made to self-sacrifice, sym- pathy, and enthusiasm expended in giving application to a vital truth. 25 But with enthusiasm for ideals history gives us caution, warns us against the moving of the pendulum, and gives us points of departure from which to measure progress. It gives us courage to attack difificult problems. It shows which the abiding problems are — those that can be solved only by wait- 3oing, and not tossed aside by a supreme effort. It shows us the progress of the race, the changing ideals of the perfect man, and the means by which men have sought to realize these ideals. We can from its study better answer the question. What is education, what may it accomplish, and how may its 1S95] Committee of fifteen 9 ideals be realized ? It gives the evolution of the present and explains anomalies in our work. And yet the history of edu- cation is not a subject to be treated extensively in a training school. All but the outlines may better be reserved for later professional reading. 5 TRAINING IN TEACHING Training to teach requires (i) schools for observation, and (2) schools for practice. Of necessity, these schools must be separate in purpose and in organization. A practice school cannot be a model school. The pupil-teachers should have the opportunity to observe the 10 best models of the teaching art ; and the manner, methods, and devices of the model-teacher should be noted, discussed, and referred to the foundation principles on which they rest. Allowable modifications of this observed work may be sug- gested by the pupil-teacher and approved by the teacher in 15 charge. There should be selected certain of the best teachers in reg- ular school work whom the pupil-teachers may \ e sent to observe. The pupil-teachers should take no part in the school work nor cause any change therein. They should, however, 20 be told in advance by the teacher what purpose she seeks to accomplish. This excites expectation and brings into con- sciousness the apperceiving ideas by which the suggestions of the exercise, as they develop, may be seized and assimilated. At first these visits should be made in company with their 25 teacher of methods, and the work of a single class in one sub- ject should be first observed. After such visits the teacher of methods in the given subject should discuss with the pupil- teachers the work observed. The pupil-teachers should first describe the work they have seen and specify the excellences 30 noted, and tell why these things are commendable and upon what laws of teaching they are based. Next the pupil-teachers should question the teacher of methods as to the cause, pur- pose, or influence of things noted, and matters of doubtful propriety — if there be such — should be considered. Then 35 lo Educational Review [March the teacher in turn should question her pupil-teachers as to matters that seem to have escaped their notice, as to the motive of the model-teacher, as to the reason for the order of treatment, or form of question, wherein lay the merit of her 5 method, the secret of her power. When pupil-teachers have made such observations several times, with several teachers and in several subjects, the broader investigation maybe made as to the organization of one of the model rooms, its daily programme of recitations and of study, the methods of discipline, the rela- lotions between pupils and teacher, the "school spirit," the school movements, and class progress. This work should be done before teaching groups or classes of pupils is attempted, and should form an occasional exercise during the period of practice-teaching as a matter of relief and inspiration. If an 15 artist requires the suggestive help of a good example that stirs his own originality, why should not a teacher ? THE PRACTICE-SCHOOL During the course in methodology certain steps closely pre- paratory to practice-teaching may be taken, i. The pupil- teacher may analyze the topic to be taught, noting essentials 20 and incidentals, seeking the connections of the subject with the mental possessions of the pupils to be considered and the sequences from these points of contact to the knowledge to be gained under instruction. 2. Next, plans of lessons may be prepared and series of questions for teaching the given sub- 25Ject. 3. Giving lessons to fellow pupil-teachers leads to familiarity with the mechanism of class work, such as calling, directing, and dismissing classes, gives the beginner ease and self-confidence, leads to careful preparation of lessons, gives skill in asking questions and in the use of apparatus. 30 The practice-teaching should be in another school, prefera- bly in a different building, and should commence with group- teaching in a recitation room apart from the schoolroom. Actual teaching of small groups of children gives opportunity for the study of the child-mind in its efforts at reception and 35 assimilation of new ideas, and shows the modifications in lesson 1895] Committee of fifteen 1 1 plans that must be made to adapt the subject matter to the child's tastes and activities. But the independent charge for a considerable time of a schoolroom with a full quota of pupils, the pupil-teacher and the children being much of the time the sole occupants of the room — in short, the realization 5 of ordinary school conditions, with the opportunity to go for advice to a friendly critic, is the most valuable practice ; and no practice short of this can be considered of great value except as preparation for this chief form of preparatory practice. All this work should have its due proportion only, 10 or evil may result. For example, lesson plans tend to formal- ism, to self-conceit, to work in few and narrow lines, to study of subjects rather than of pupils ; lessons to fellow-pupils make one self-conscious, hinder the growth of enthusiasm in work, and are entirely barren if carried beyond a very few 15 exercises; teaching groups of children for considerable time unfits the teacher for the double burden of discipline and instruction, to bear both of which simultaneously and easily is the teacher's greatest difificulty and most essential power. A critic-teacher should be appointed to the oversight of 20 two such pupil-teachers, each in charge of a schoolroom. The critic may also supervise one or more teachers practicing for brief periods daily with groups of children. The pupil-teachers are now to emphasize practice rather than theory, to work under the direction of one who regards 25 the interests of the children quite as much as those of the teacher-in-training. The critic must admit the principles of education and general methods taught by the teacher of methodology, but she may have her own devices and even special methods that need not be those of the teacher of 30 methodology. No harm will come to the teachers-in-training if they learn that principles must be assented to by all, but that methods may bear the stamp of the personahty of the teacher ; that all things must be considered from the point of view of their effect upon the pupils; the critic maintaining the 35 claims of the children, the teacher of methods conforming to the laws of mind and the science of the subjects taught. The 12 Educational Review [March critics must teach for their pupil-teachers and show in action the justness of their suggestions. In this sense they are model- teachers as well as critics. The critic should at the close of school meet her pupil- 5 teachers for a report of their experiences through the day : What they have attempted, how they have tried to do it, why they did so, and what success they gained. Advice as to overcoming difficulties, encouragement under trial, caution if need be, help for the work of to-morrow, occupy the hour, lo Above all, the critic should be a true friend, a womanly and cultivated woman, and an inspiring companion, whose presence is helpful to work and improving to personality. LENGTH OF TRAINING-SCHOOL COURSE There are three elements which determine the time to be spent in a training school — the time given to academic studies, 15 the time given to professional studies, and the time given to practice. The sum of these periods will be the time required for the training course. Taking these in the inverse order, let us consider how much time is required for practice work with pupils. The time given to lesson outlines and practice \vith 20 fellow pupil-teachers may be considered a part of the profes- sional study rather than of practice-teaching. The period of practice with pupils must not be too short, whether we con- sider the interests of the pupils or of the teachers-in-training. An effort is usually made to counteract the effect upon the 25 children of a succession of crude efforts of teachers beginning practice by strengthening the teaching and supervision through the employment of a considerable number of model and super- visory teachers, and by dividing the pupils into small groups so that much individual work can be done. These arrange- 30 ments, while useful for their purpose, destroy to a considerable degree the usual conditions under which school work is to be done and tend to render the teachers-in-training formal and imitative. The practice room should be, as far as may be, the ordinary 35 school, with the difficulties and responsibilities that will be met 1S95] Committee of fifteen 13 later. The responsibility for order, discipline, progress, records, reports, communication with parents and school authorities, must fall fully upon the young teacher, who has a friendly as- sistant to whom she can go for advice in the person of a wise and experienced critic, not constantly at hand, but constantly 5 within reach. Between the critic and the teacher-in-training there should exist the most cordial and familiar relations. These relations are based on the one hand upon an appreciation of wisdom and kindness, on the other, upon an appreciation of sincerity and 10 effort. The growth of such relations, and the fruitage which follows their growth, require time. A half-year is not too long to be allotted for them. During this half-year experience, self-confidence and growth in power have been gained ; but the pupil-teacher is still not ready to be set aside to work out her 15 own destiny. At this point she is just ready for marked ad- vance, which should be helped and guided. To remain longer with her critic friend may cause imitation rather than inde- pendence, may lead to contentment and cessation of growth. She should now be transferred to the care of a second critic of 20 a different personality, but of equal merit. The new critic is bound by her duty and her ambition to see that the first half year's advancement is maintained in the second. The pupil- teacher finds that excellence is not all upon one model. The value of individuality impresses her. She gains a view of solid 25 principles wrapped in diverse characteristics. Her own indi- viduality rises to new importance, and the elements of a growth not at once to be checked start up within her. For the care of the second critic a second half year must be allowed, which extends the practice work with pupils through an entire 30 school year. For the theoretical work a year is by general experience proven sufficient. The ideal training course is, then, one of two years' length. Provision for the extended practice which is here recom- mended can be made only by city training-schools and by 35 normal schools having connection with the schools of a city. To set apart a building of several rooms as a school of practice 14 Educational Review [March will answer the purpose only when there are very few teachers in training. In order to give each pupil-teacher a year of practice the number of practice rooms must equal the number of teachers to be graduated annually from the training school, 5 be the number ten, or fifty, or live hundred. In any con- siderable city a school for practice will not suffice ; many schools for practice must be secured. This can be done by selecting one excellent teacher in each of a sufficient number of school buildings, and making her a critic-teacher, giving her lo charge of two schoolrooms, in each of which is placed a pupil- teacher for training. This insures that the teaching shall be done as nearly as may be under ordinary conditions, brings the pupil-teachers at once into the general body of teachers, makes the corps of 15 critics a leaven of zeal, and good teaching scattered among the schools. This body of critics will uplift the schools. More capable in the beginning than the average teacher, led to professional study, ambitious for the best things, they make greater progress than they otherwise would do, and are suffi- 2ocient in themselves to inspire the general body of teachers. For the sake of the pupil-teachers, and the children, too, this plan is best. Its economy also will readily be apparent. This plan has been tried for several years in the schools of Provi- dence, with results fully equal to those herein claimed. TESTS OF SUCCESS 25 The tests of success in practice-teaching are in the main those to be applied to all teaching. Do her pupils grow more honest, industrious, polite? Do they admire their teacher? Does she secure obedience and industry only while demanding it, or has she influence that reaches beyond her presence ? Do 30 her pupils think well and talk well? As to the teacher her- self : Has she sympathy and tact, self-reliance and originality, breadth and intensity? Is she systematic, direct, and business- like ? Is she courteous, neat in person and in work ? Has she discernment of character and a just standard of requirement 35 and attainment ? 1895] Committee of fifteen 15 These are some of the questions one must answer before he pronounces any teacher a success or a failure. Admission to a training school assumes that the pupil has good health, good scholarship, good sense, good ability, and devotion to the work of teaching. If all these continue to be 5 exhibited in satisfactory degree and the pupil goes through the prescribed course of study and practice, the diploma of the school should naturally mark the completion of this work. If it appears on acquaintance that a serious mistake has been made in estimating any of these elements, then, so soon as the 10 mistake is fairly apparent and is probably a permanent condi- tion, the pupil should be requested to withdraw from the work. This is not a case where the wheat and the tares should grow together until the harvest at graduation day or the examination preceding it. With such a foundation continually maintained, 15 it is the duty of the school to conquer success for each pupil. Teaching does not require genius. Indeed genius, in the sense of erratic ability, is out of place in the teacher's chair. Most good teachers at this close of the nineteenth century are made, not born ; made from good material well fashioned. 20 There is, however, a possibility that some idiosyncrasy of char- acter, not readily discovered until the test is made, may rise between the prospective teacher and her pupils, making her influence over them small or harmful. Such a defect, if it exist, will appear during the practice-teaching, and the critic 25 will discover it. This defect, on its first discovery, should be plainly pointed out to the teacher-in-training and her efforts should be joined with those of the critic in its removal. If this effort be a failure and the defect be one likely to harm the pupils hereafter to be taught, then the teacher-in- 30 training should be informed and requested to withdraw from the school. There should be no test at the close of the school course to determine fitness for graduation. Graduation should .find the teacher serious in view of her responsibilities, hopeful because she has learned how success is to be attained, inspired 35 with the belief that growth in herself and in her pupils is the 'great demand and the great reward. 1 6 Educational Review [March TRAINING OF TEACHERS FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS Perhaps one-sixth of the great body of public school teachers in the United States are engaged in secondary work and in supervision. These are the leading teachers. They give educational tone to communities, as well as inspiration to 5 the body of teachers. It is of great importance that they be imbued with the pro- fessional spirit springing from sound professional culture. The very difficult and responsible positions that they fill demand ripe scholarship, more than ordinary ability, and an intimate acknowledge of the period of adolescence, which Rousseau so aptly styles the second birth. The elementary schools provide for the education of the masses. Our secondary schools educate our social and busi- ness leaders. The careers of our college graduates who mainly 15 fill the important places in professional and political life are determined largely by the years of secondary training. The college or university gives expansion and finish, the secondary school gives character and direction. It should not be forgotten that the superintendents of public 20 schools are largely taken from the ranks of secondary teachers, and that the scholarship, qualities, and training required for the one class are nearly equivalent to that demanded for the other. Our high schools, too, are the source of supply for teachers 25 in elementary schools. Hence the pedagogic influences ex- erted in the high school should lead to excellence in elemen- tary teaching. The superintendent who with long foresight looks to the improvement of his schools will labor earnestly to improve 30 and especially to professionalize the teaching in his high school. The management which makes the high school an independent portion of the school system, merely attached and loftily superior, which limits the supervision and influence of the superintendent to the primary and grammar grades, is 35 short-sighted and destructive. 1895] Committee of fifteen 17 There ought also to be a place and a plan for the training of teachers for normal schools. The great body of normal and training schools in the United States are secondary- schools. Those who are to teach in these schools need broad scholarship, thorough understanding of educational problems, 5 and trained experience. To put into these schools teachers whose scholarship is that of the secondary school and whose training is that of the elementary is to narrow and depress rather than broaden and elevate. If college graduates are put directly into teaching without 10 special study and training, they will teach as they have been taught. The methods of college professors are not in all cases the best, and, if they were, high school pupils are not to be taught nor disciplined as college students are. High school teaching and discipline can be that neither of the grammar 15 school nor of the college, but is sui generis. To recognize this truth and the special differences is vital to success. This recognition comes only from much experience at great loss and partial failure, or by happy intuition not usually to be expected, or by definite instruction and directed practice. 20 Success in teaching depends upon conformity to principles, and these principles are not a part of the mental equipment of every educated person. These considerations and others are the occasion of a grow- ing conviction, widespread in this land, that secondary teachers 25 should be trained for their work even more carefully than ele- mentary teachers are trained. This conviction is manifested in the efforts to secure normal schools adapted to training teachers for secondary schools, notably in Massachusetts and New York, and in the numerous professorships of pedagogy 30 established in rapidly increasing numbers in our colleges and universities. The training of teachers for secondary schools is in several essential respects the same as that for teachers of elementary schools. Both demand scholarship, theory, and practice. The 35 degree of scholarship required for secondary teachers is by common consent fixed at a colleeiate education. No one — 1 8 Educational Review [March with rare exceptions — should be employed to teach in a high school who has not this fundamental preparation. It is not necessary to enter in detail into the work of theo- retical instruction for secondary teachers. The able men at the 5 head of institutions and departments designed for such work neither need nor desire advice upon this matter. And yet for the purposes of this report it may be allowable to point out a plan for the organization of a secondary training school. Let it be supposed that two essentials have been found in 10 one locality, (i) a college., or university having a department of pedagogy and a department of post-graduate work ; (2) a high school, academy, or preparatory school whose managers are willing to employ and pay a number of graduate students to teach under direction for a portion of each day. These two 15 conditions being met, we will suppose that pedagogy is offered as an elective to the college seniors. Two years of instruction in the science and art of teaching are to be provided ; one, mostly theory with some practice, elective during the senior year ; the other, mostly practice with 20 some theory, elective for one year as post-graduate work. During the senior year is to be studied : THE SCIENCE OF TEACHING The elements of this science are : I. Psychology in its physiological, apperceptive, and experi- mental features. The period of adolescence here assumes the 25 prominence that childhood has in the psychological study pre- paratory to teaching in lower schools. This is the period of beginnings, the beginning of a more ambitious and generous life, a life having the future wrapped up in it ; a transition period, of mental storm and stress, in which egoism gives way 30 to altruism, romance has charm, and the social, moral, and religious feelings bud and bloom. To guide youth at this formative stage, in which an active fermentation occurs that may give wine or vinegar according to conditions, requires a deep and sympathetic nature, and that knowledge of the chang- 35 ing life which supplies guidance wise and adequate. 1895] Committee of fifteen 19 II. Methodology : a discussion of the principles of educa- tion and of the methods of teaching the studies of the sec- ondary schools. III. School Economy should be studied in a much wider and more thorough way than is required for elementary 5 teachers. The school systems of Germany, France, England, and the leading systems of the United States should also be studied. IV. History of education, the tracing of modern doctrine back to its sources ; those streams of influence now flowing 10 and those that have disappeared in the sands of the centuries. V. The philosophy of education as a division of an all- involving philosophy of life and thought in which unity is found. THE ART OF TEACHING This includes observation and practice. The observation 15 should include the work of different grades and of different localities, with minute and searching comparison and reports upon special topics. How does excellent primary work differ from excellent grammar-grade work? How do the standards of excellence differ between grammar grades and high-school 20 grades ? between high-school and college work ? What are the arguments for and against coeducation in secondary schools as determined by experience? What are the upper and lower limits of secondary education as determined by the nature of the pupil's effort ? 25 In the college class in pedagogy much more than in the elementary normal school can the class itself be made to afford a means of practice to its members. Quizzes may be con- ducted by students upon the chapters of the books read or the lectures of the professors. These exercises may have for their 30 object review, or improved statement, or enlarged inference and application, and they afford an ample opportunity to cultivate the art of questioning, skill in which is the teacher's most essential accomplishment. The head of the department of pedagogy will of course 35 20 Educational Review [March present the essential methods of teaching, and the heads of other departments may lecture on methods pertaining to their subject of study ; or secondary teachers of known success may still better present the methods now approved in the several 5 departments of secondary work. POST-GRADUATE YEAR To those graduates who have elected pedagogy in their senior year may be offered the opportunity of further study in this department, with such other post-graduate work as taste and opportunity permit. From those selecting advanced lowork in pedagogy the board in charge of the affiliated second- ary school should elect as many teachers for its school as are needed, employing them for two-thirds time at one-half the usual pay for teachers without experience. Under the pro- fessor of pedagogy of the college, the principal, and the heads 15 of departments of the school these student-teachers should do their work, receiving advice, criticism, and illustration as occa- sion requires. The time for which they are employed w^ould provide for two hours of class work and about one hour of clerical work or study while in charge of a schoolroom. These 20 student-teachers should be given abundant opportunity for the charge of pupils while reciting or studying, at recess and dismissals, and should have all the responsibilities of members of the faculty of this school. Their work should be inspected as frequently as may be by the heads of the departments yi 25 which they teach, by the principal of the school, and by the professor of pedagogy. These appointments would be virtually fellowships with an opportunity for most profitable experience. In the afternoon of each day these students should at<"end to college Avork and especially to instruction from the pro- Sofessof in pedagogy, who could meet them occasionally with the heads of the departments under whose direction they are working. On Saturdays a seminary of two hours' duration might be held, conducted by the professor of pedagogy and attended by the 35 student-teachers and the more ambitious teachers of experi- 1895] Committee of fifteen 21 ence in the vicinity. These seminaries would doubtless be of great profit to both classes of participants and the greater to each because of the other. [Such a training school for sec- ondary teachers in connection with Brown University and the Providence High School is contemplated for the coming year.] 5 It will not be needful to specify further the advantages to the student-teachers. The arrangement likewise affords advan- tage to the afifiliated school, especially in the breadth of view this work would afford to the heads of departments, the intense desire it would beget in them for professional skill, the 10 number of perplexing problems which it would force them to attempt the solution of. The visits of the professor of pedagogy, and the constant comparison he would make between actual and ideal conditions, would lead him to seek the improvement not only of the stu-15 dents in practice but of the school as a whole. When several earnest and capable people unite in a mutual effort to improve themselves and their work all the essential conditions of progress are present. Horace S. Tarbell, Chairman, 20 Superintendent of Schools, Providence, R. I. Edward Brooks, Superintendent of Schools, Philadelphia, Pa. Thomas M. Balliet, Superintendent of Schools, Springfield, Mass. 25 Newton C. Dougherty, Superintendent of Schools, Peoria, 111. Oscar H. Cooper, Superintendent of Schools, Galveston, Tex. II COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE CORRELATION OF STUDIES IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION The undersigned Committee agrees upon the following report, each member reserving for himself the expression of his individual divergence from the opinion of the majority, by a statement appended to his signature, enumerating the 5 points to which exception is taken and the grounds for them. I. CORRELATION OF STUDIES Your Committee understands by correlation of studies: /. Logical order of topics and branches First, the arrangement of topics in proper sequence in the course of study, in such a manner that each branch develops in an order suited to the natural and easy progress of the child, loand so that each step is taken at the proper time to help his advance to the next step in the same branch, or to the next steps in other related branches of the course of study. 2. Symmetrical zvhole of studies in the zvorld of himan learning Second, the adjustment of the branches of study in such a manner that the whole course at any given time represents all 15 the great divisions of human learning, as far as is possible at the stage of maturity at which the pupil has arrived, and that each allied group of studies is represented by some one of its branches best adapted for the epoch in question ; it being implied that there is an equivalence of studies to a greater or 20 less degree within each group, and that each branch of human learning should be represented by some equivalent study ; so that, while no great division is left unrepresented, no group 22 Committee of fifteen 23 shall have superfluous representatives and thereby debar other groups from a proper representation. J. Psychological symmetry — the whole mind Third, the selection and arrangement of the branches and topics within each branch considered psychologically with a view to afford the best exercise of the faculties of the 5 mind, and to secure the unfolding of those faculties in their natural order, so that no one faculty is so overcultivated or so neglected as to produce abnormal or one-sided mental development. ^. Correlation of pupiVs course of study with the world in wJiich he lives — his spiritual and natural environment Fourth and chiefly, your Committee understands by corre- 10 lation of studies the selection and arrangement in orderly sequence of such objects of study as shall give the child an insight into the world that he lives in, and a command over its resources such as is obtained by a helpful co-operation with one's fellows. In a word, the chief consideration to which all 15 others are to be subordinated, in the opinion of your Com- mittee, is this requirement of the civilization into which the child is born, as determining not only what he shall study in school, but what habits and customs he shall be taught in the family before the school age arrives ; as well as that he shall 20 acquire a skilled acquaintance with some one of a definite series of trades, professions, or vocations in the years that fol- low school; and, furthermore, that this question of the relation of the pupil to his civilization determines what political duties he shall assume and what religious faith or spiritual aspirations 25 shall be adopted for the conduct of his life. To make mor^ clear their reasons for the preference here expressed for the objective and practical basis of selection of topics for the course of study, rather than the subjective basis so long favored by educational writers, your Committee would 30 describe the psychological basis, already mentioned, as being merely formal in its character, relating only to the exercise of the so-called mental faculties. 24 Educational Review ^ [March It would furnish a training of spiritual powers analogous to the gymnastic training of the muscles of the body. Gym- nastics may develop strength and agility without leading to any skill in trades or useful employment. So an abstract 5 psychological training may develop the will, the intellect, the imagination, or the memory, but without leading to an exer- cise of acquired power in the interests of civilization. The game of chess would furnish a good course of study for the discipline of the powers of attention and calculation of abstract lo combinations, but it would give its possessor little or no knowledge of man or nature. The psychological ideal which has prevailed to a large extent in education has in the old phrenology, and in the recent studies in physiological psy- chology, sometimes given place to a biological ideal. Instead 15 of the view of mind as made up of faculties like will, intel- lect, imagination and emotion, conceived to be all necessary to the soul if developed in harmony with one another, the concept of nerves or brain-tracts is used as the ultimate regu- lative principle to determine the selection and arrangement of 20 studies. Each part of the brain is supposed to have its claim on the attention of the educator, and that study is thought to be the most valuable which employs normally the larger num- ber of brain-tracts. This view reaches an extreme in the direction of formal as opposed to objective or practical grounds 25 for selecting a course of study. While the old psychology with its mental faculties concentrated its attention on the mental processes and neglected the world of existing objects and rela- tions upon which those processes were directed, physiological psychology tends to confine its attention to the physical part 30 of the process, the organic changes in the brain cells and their functions. Your Committee is of the opinion that psychology of both kinds, physiological and introspective, can hold only a sub- ordinate place in the settlement of questions relating to the 35 correlation of studies. The branches to be studied, and the extent to which they are studied, will be determined mainly by the demands of one's civilization. These will prescribe 1895] Committee of fifteen 25 what is most useful to make the individual acquainted with physical nature and with human nature so as to fit him as an individual to perform his duties in the several institutions — family, civil society, the state, and the Church. But next after this, psychology will furnish important considerations that 5 will largely determine the methods of instruction, the order of taking up the several topics so as to adapt the school work to the growth of the pupil's capacity, and the amount of work so as not to overtax his powers by too much or arrest the devel- opment of strength by too little. A vast number of subor- 10 dinate details belonging to the pathology of education, such as the hygienic features of school architecture and furniture, programmes, the length of study hours and of class exercises, recreation, and bodily reactions against mental effort, will be finally settled by scientific experiment in the department of 15 physiological psychology. Inasmuch as your Committee is limited to the consideration of the correlation of studies in the elementary school, it has considered the question of the course of study in general only in so far as this has been found necessary in discussing the 20 grounds for the selection of studies for the period of school education occupying the eight years from six to fourteen years, or the school period between the kindergarten on the one hand and the secondary school on the other. It has not been pos- sible to avoid some inquiry into the true distinction between 25 secondary and elementary studies, since one of the most impor- tant questions forced upon the attention of your Committee is that of the abridgment of the elementary course of study from eight or more years to seven or even six years, and the corresponding increase of the time devoted to studies usually 30 assigned to the high school and supposed to belong to the secondary course of study for some intrinsic reason. II. THE COURSE OF STUDY — EDUCATIONAL VALUES Your Committee would report that it has discussed in de- tail the several branches of study that have found a place in the curriculum of the elementary school, with a view to dis-35 26 Educational Review [March cover their educational value for developing and training the faculties of the mind, and more especially for correlating the pupil with his spiritual and natural environment in the world in which he lives. 5 A. Language studies There is first to be noted the prominent place of language study that takes the form of reading, penmanship, and grammar in the first eight years' work of the school. It is claimed for the partiality shown to these studies that it is justified by the fact that language is the instrument that makes lo possible human social organization. It enables each person to communicate his individual experience to his fellows and thus permits each to profit by the experience of all. The written and printed forms of speech preserve human knowledge and make progress in civilization possible. The conclusion is 15 reached that learning to read and write should be the leading study of the pupil in his first four years of school. Reading and writing are not so niuch ends in themselves as means for the acquirement of all other human learning. This considera- tion alone would be sufficient to justify their actual place in 20 the work of the elementary school. But these branches require of the learner a difficult process of analysis. The pupil must identify the separate words in the sentence he uses, and in the next place must recognize the separate sounds in each word. It requires a considerable effort for the child or the 25 savage to analyze his sentence into its constituent words, and a still greater effort to discriminate its elementary sounds. Reading, writing, and spelling in their most elementary form, therefore, constitute a severe training in mental analysis for the child of six to ten years of age. We are told that it is far 30 more disciplinary to the mind than any species of observation of differences among material things, because of the fact that the word has a twofold character — addressed to external sense as spoken sound to the ear, or as written and printed words to the eye — but containing a meaning or sense addressed to 35 the understanding and only to be seized by introspection. 1895] Committee of fifteen 27 The pupil must call up the corresponding idea by thought, memory, and imagination, or else the word will cease to "be a word and remain only a sound or character. On the other hand, observation of things and movements does not necessarily involve this twofold act of analysis, intro- 5 spective and objective, but only the latter — the objective analysis. It is granted that we all have frequent occasion to condemn poor methods of instruction as teaching words rather than things. But we admit that we mean empty sounds or characters rather than true words. Our suggestions for the 10 correct method of teaching amount in this case simply to lay- ing stress on the meaning of the word, and to setting the teaching process on the road of analysis of content rather than form. In the case of words used to store up external observa- tion the teacher is told to repeat and make alive again the act 15 of observation by which the word obtained its original mean- ing. In the case of a word expressing a relation between facts or events, the pupil is to be taken step by step through the process of reflection by which the idea was built up. Since the word, spoken and written, is the sole instrument by which 20 reason can fix, preserve, and communicate both the data of sense and the relations discovered between them by reflec- tion, no new method in education has been able to supplant in the school the branches, reading and penmanship. But the real improvements in method have led teachers to lay greater 25 and greater stress on the internal factor of the word, on its meaning, and have in manifold ways shown how to repeat the original experiences that gave the meaning to concrete words, and the original comparisons and logical deductions by which the ideas of relations and causal processes arose in the mind 30 and required abstract words to preserve and communicate them. It has been claimed that it would be better to have first a basis of knowledge of things, and secondarily and subsequently a knowledge of words. But it has been replied to this, that the progress of the child in learning to talk indicates his ascent 35 out of mere impressions into the possession of true knowledge. For he names objects only after he has made some synthesis 28 Educational Review ■ [March of his impressions and has formed general ideas. He recog- nizes the same object under different circumstances of time and place, and also recognizes other objects belonging to the same class by and with names. Hence the use of the word 5 indicates a higher degree of self-activity — the stage of mere impressions without words or signs being a comparatively pas- sive state of mind. What we mean by things first and words afterward, is therefore not the apprehension of objects by pas- sive impressions so much as the active investigation and ex- loperimenting which come after words are used and the higher forms of analysis are called into being by that invention of rea- son known as language, which, as before said, is a synthesis of thing and thought, of outward sign and inward signification. Rational investigation cannot precede the invention of lan- iSguage any more than blacksmithing can precede the invention of hammers, anvils, and pincers. For language is the neces- sary tool of thought used in the conduct of the analysis and synthesis of investigation. Your Committee would sum up these considerations by say- 2oing that language rightfully forms the center of instruction in the elementary school, but that progress in methods of teach- ing is to be made, as hitherto, chiefly by laying more stress on the internal side of the word, its meaning; using better graded steps to build up the chain of experience or the train of 25 thought that the word expresses. The first three years' work of the child is occupied mainly with the mastery of the printed and written forms of the words of his colloquial vocabulary; words that he is already familiar enough with as sounds addressed to the ear. He has to 30 become familiar with the new forms addressed to the eye, and it would be an unwise method to require him to learn many new words at the same time that he is learning to recognize his old words in their new shape. But as soon as he has acquired some facility in reading what is printed in the colloquial style, 35 he may go on to selections from standard authors. The literary selections should be graded, and are graded in almost all series of readers used in our elementary schools, in such 1895] Committee of fifteen 29 a way as to bring those containing the fewest words outside of the colloquial vocabulary into the lower books of the series, and increasing the difficulties step by step as the pupil grows in maturity. The selections are literary works of art possess- ing the required organic unity and a proper reflection of this 5 unity in the details, as good works of art must do. But they portray situations of the soul, or scenes of life, or elaborated reflections, of which the child can obtain some grasp through his capacity to feel and think, although in scope and com- pass they far surpass his range. They are adapted therefore to 10 lead him out of and beyond himself, as spiritual guides. Literary style employs, besides words common to the collo- quial vocabulary, words used in a semi-technical sense expres- sive of fine shades of thought and emotion. The literary work of art furnishes a happy expression for some situation of the 15 soul, or some train of reflection hitherto unutterable in an adequate manner. If the pupil learns this literary production, he finds himself powerfully helped to understand both himself and his fellow-men. The most practical knowledge of all, it will be admitted, is a knowledge of human nature — a knowl-20 edge that enables one to combine with his fellow-men and to share with them the physical and spiritual wealth of the race. Of this high character as humanizing or civilizing, are the favorite works of literature found in the school readers, about one hundred and fifty English and American writers being 25 drawn upon for the material. Such are Shakspere's speeches of Brutus and Mark Antony, Hamlet's and Macbeth's solilo- quies, Milton's L'Allegro and II Penseroso, Gray's Elegy, Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade and Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, Byron's Waterloo, Irving's 30 Rip Van Winkle, Webster's Reply to Hayne, The trial of Knapp, and Bunker Hill oration, Scott's Lochinvar, Marmion, and Roderick Dhu, Br3^ant's Thanatopsis, Longfellow's Psalm of Life, Paul Revere, and The Bridge, O'Hara's Bivouac of the Dead, Campbell's Hohenlinden, Collins' How Sleep the 35 Brave, Wolfe's Burial of Sir John Moore, and other fine prose and poetry from Addison, Emerson, Franklin, The Bible, 2,0 Edtuational Review [March Hawthorne, Walter Scott, Goldsmith, Wordsworth, Swift, Milton, Cooper, Whittier, Lowell, and the rest. The read- ing and study of fine selections in prose and verse furnish the chief aesthetic training of the elementary school. But this 5 should be re-enforced by some study of photographic or other reproductions of the world's great masterpieces of architec- ture, sculpture, and painting. The frequent sight of these reproductions is good ; the attempt to copy or sketch them with the pencil is better; best of all is an aesthetic lesson on lo their composition, attempting to describe in words the idea of the whole that gives the W'Ork its organic unity, and the devices adopted by the artist to reflect this idea in the details and re-enforce its strength. The aesthetic taste of teacher and pupil can be cultivated by such exercises, and once set on the 15 road of development this taste may improve through life. A third phase of language study in the elementary school is formal grammar. The works of literary art in the readers, re-enforced as they ought to be by supplementary reading at home of the whole works from which the selections for the 20 school readers are made, will educate the child in the use of a higher and better English style. Technical grammar never can do this. Only familiarity with fine English works will insure one a good and correct style. But grammar is the science of language, and as the first of the seven liberal arts it has long 25 held sway in school as the disciplinary study /^r excellence. A survey of its educational value, subjective and objective, usually produces the conviction that it is to retain the first place in the future. Its chief objective advantage is that it shows the structure of language, and the logical forms of subject, predi- 3ocate, and modifier, thus revealing the essential nature of thought itself, the most important of all objects because it is self-object. On the subjective or psychological side, grammar demonstrates its title to the first place by its use as a disci- pline in subtle analysis, in logical division and classification, 35 in the art of questioning, and in the mental accomplishment of making exact definitions. Nor is this an empty, formal disci- pline, for its subject matter, language, is a product of the 1895] Committee of fifteen 31 reason of a people not as individuals but as a social whole, and the vocabulary holds in its store of words the generalized experience of that people, including sensuous observation and reflection, feeling and emotion, instinct and volition. No formal labor on a great objective field is ever lost wholly, 5 since at the very least it has the merit of familiarizing the pupil with the contents of some one extensive province that borders on his life, and with which he must come into correla- tion; but it is easy for any special formal discipline, when con- tinued too long, to paralyze or arrest growth at that stage. 15 The overcultivation of the verbal memory tends to arrest the growth of critical attention and reflection. Memory of acces- sory details too, so much prized in the school, is also cultivated often at the expense of an insight into the organizing principle of the whole and the causal nexus that binds the parts. So 10- too the study of quantity, if carried to excess, may warp the mind into a habit of neglecting quality in its observation and reflection. As there is no subsumption in the quantitative judgment but only dead equality or inequality (A is equal to or greater or less than B), there is a tendency to atrophy in the fac-20 ulty of concrete syllogistic reasoning on the part of the person devoted exclusively to mathematics. For the normal syllogism usesjudgments wherein the subject is subsumed under the pred- icate (This is a rose — the individual rose is subsumed under the class rose; Socrates is a man, etc.). Such reasoning con- 25 cerns individuals in two aspects, first as concrete wholes and secondly as members of higher totalities or classes — species and genera. Thus, too, grammar, rich as it is in its contents, is only a formal discipline as respects the scientific, historic, or literary contents of language, and is indifferent to them. A 30 training for four or five years in parsing and grammatical anal- ysis practiced on literary works of art (Milton, Shakspere, Tennyson, Scott) is a training of the pupil into habits of indifference toward and neglect of the genius displayed in the literary work of art, and into habits of impertinent and trifling 35 attention to elements employed as material or texture, and a corresponding neglect of the structural form which alone is 2,2 Educational Review [March the work of the artist. A parallel to this would be the mason's habit of noticing only the brick and mortar, or the stone and cement, in his inspection of the architecture, say of Sir Chris- topher Wren, A child overtrained to analyze and classify 5 shades of color — examples of this one finds occasionally in a primary school whose specialty is "objective teaching" — might in later life visit an art gallery and make an inventory of colors without getting even a glimpse of a painting as a work of art. Such overstudy and misuse of grammar as one finds in the lo elementary school, it is feared, exists to some extent in sec- ondary schools and even in colleges, in the work of mastering the classic authors. Your Committee is unanimous in the conviction that formal grammar should not be allowed to usurp the place of a 15 study of the literary work of art in accordance with literary method. The child can be gradually trained to see the technical "motives" of a poem or prose work of art and to enjoy the aesthetic inventions of the artist. The analysis of a work of art should discover the idea that gives it organic unity; 20 the collision and the complication resulting; the solution and denouement. Of course these things must be reached in the elementary school without even a mention of their technical terms. The subject of the piece is brought out; its reflection in the conditions of the time and place to heighten interest by 25 showing its importance; its second and stronger reflection in the several details of its conflict and struggle; its reflection in the denouement wherein its struggle ends in victory or defeat and theethical or rational interests are vindicated, — and the results move outward, returning to the environment again in 30 ever-widening circles, — something resembling this is to be found in every work of art, and there are salient features which can be briefly but profitably made subject of comment in familiar language with even the youngest pupils. There is an ethical and an sesthetical content to each work of art. It is profitable .35 to point out both of these in the interest of the child's growing insight into human nature. The ethical should, however, be kept in subordination to the aesthetical, but for the sake of the 1895] Committee of fifteen 33 supreme interests of the ethical itself. Otherwise the study of a work of art degenerates into a goody-goody performance, and its effects on the child are to cause a reaction against the moral. The child protects his inner individuality against effacement through external authority by taking an attitude 5 of rebellion against stories with an appended moral. Herein the superiority of the aesthetical in literary art is to be seen. For the ethical motive is concealed by the poet, and the hero is painted with all his brittle individualism and self-seeking. His passions and his selfishness, gilded by fine traits of bravery and 10 noble manners, interest th^ youth, interest us all. The estab- lished social and moral order seems to the ambitious hero to be an obstacle to the unfolding of the charms of individuality. The deed of violence gets done, and the Nemesis is aroused. Now his deed comes back on the individual doer, and our sym- 15 pathy turns against him and we rejoice in his fall. Thus the sesthetical unity contains within it the ethical unity. The lesson of the great poet or novelist is taken to heart, whereas the ethical announcement by itself might have failed, especially with the most self-active and aspiring of the pupils. Aristotle 20 pointed out in his Poetics this advantage of the aesthetic unity, which Plato in his Republic seems to have missed. Tragedy purges us of our passions, to use' Aristotle's expression, because we identify our own wrong inclinations with those of the hero, and by sympathy we suffer with him and see our intended deed 25 returned upon us with tragic effect, and are thereby cured. Your Committee has dwelt upon the aesthetic side of liter- ature in this explicit manner because they believe that the general tendency in elementary schools is to neglect the literary art for the literary formalities which concern the 3° mechanical material rather than the spiritual form. Those formal studies should not be discontinued, but subordinated to the higher study of literature.' Your Committee reserves the subject of language lessons, composition writing, and what relates to the child's expression 35 of ideas in writing, for consideration under Part 3 of this Report, treating of programme. 34 Educational Review [March B. Arithmetic Side by side with language study is the study of mathematics in the schools, claiming the second place in importance of all studies. It has been pointed out that mathematics concerns the laws of time and space — their structural form, so to speak — 5 and hence that it formulates the logical conditions of all matter both in rest and in motion. Be this as it may, the high posi- tion of mathematics as the science of all quantity is universally acknowledged. The elementary branch of mathematics is arith- metic, and this is studied in the primary and grammar schools lo from six to eight years, or even longer. The relation of arith- metic to the whole field of mathematics has been stated (by Comte, Howison, and others) to be that of the final step in a process of calculation in which results are stated numerically. There are branches that develop or derive quantitative func- 15 tions : say geometry for spatial forms, and mechanics for move- ment and rest and the forces producing them. Other branches transform these quantitative functions into such forms as may be calculated in actual numbers ; namely, algebra in its common or lower form, and in its higher form as the differential and 20 integral calculus, and the calculus of variations. Arithmetic evaluates or finds the numerical value for the functions thus deduced and transformed. The educational value of arith- metic is thus indicated both as concerns its psychological side and its objective practical uses in correlating man with the 25 world of nature. In this latter respect as furnishing the key to the outer world in so far as the objects of the latter are a matter of direct enumeration, — capable of being counted, — it is the first great step in the conquest of nature. It is the first tool of thought that man invents in the work of emancipating 30 himself from thraldom to external forces. For by the com- mand of number he learns to divide and conquer. He can proportion one force to another, and concentrate against an obstacle precisely what is needed to overcome it. Number also makes possible all the other sciences of nature which depend on 35 exact measurement and exact record of phenomena as to the 1895] Committee of fifteen 35 following items: order of succession, date, duration, locality, environment, extent of sphere of influence, number of mani- festations, number of cases of intermittence. All these can be defined accurately only by means of number. The educa- tional value of a branch of study that furnishes the indispen- 5 sable first step toward all science of nature is obvious. But psychologically its importance further appears in this, that it begins with an important step in analysis; namely, the detachment of the idea of quantity from the concrete whole which includes quality as well as quantity. To count, one 10 drops the qualitative and considers only the quantitative aspect. So long as the individual differences (which are quali- tative in so far as they distinguish one object from another) are considered, the objects cannot be counted together. When counted, the distinctions are dropped out of sight as indif-15 ferent. As counting is the fundamental operation of arith- metic, and all other arithmetical operations are simply devices for speed by using remembered countings instead of going through the detailed work again each time, the hint is furnished the teacher for the first lessons in arithmetic. This hint 20 has been generally followed out and the child set at work at first upon the counting of objects so much alike that the qualitative difference is not suggested to him. He constructs gradually his tables of addition, subtraction, and multiplica- tion, and fixes them in his memory. Then he takes his next 25 higher step, namely the apprehension of the fraction. This is an expressed ratio of two numbers, and therefore a much more complex thought than he has met with in dealing with the simple numbers. In thinking five-sixths he first thinks five and then six, and holding these two in mind thinks the result 30 of the first modified by the second. Here are three steps instead of one, and the result is not a simple number but an inference resting on an unperformed operation. This psycho- logical analysis shows the reason for the embarrassment of the child on his entrance upon the study of fractions and the other 35 operations that imply ratio. The teacher finds all his resources in the way of method drawn upon to invent steps and half steps, 2,6 Educational Review [March to aid the pupil to make continuous progress here. All these devices of method consist in steps by which the pupil descends to the simple number and returns to the complex. He turns one of the terms into a qualitative unit and thus is 5 enabled to use the other as a simple number. The pupil takes the denominator, for example, and makes clear his conception of one-sixth as his qualitative unit, then five-sixths is as clear to him as five oxen. But he has to repeat this return from ratio to simple numbers in each of the elementary operations — 10 addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and in the reduction of fractions — and finds the road long and tedious at best. In the case of decimal fractions the psychological process is more complex still; for the pupil has given him one of the terms,' the numerator, from which he must mentally deduce 15 the denominator from the position of the decimal point. This doubles the work of reading and recognizing the fractional number. But it makes addition and subtraction of fractions nearly as easy as that of simple numbers and assists also in multiplication of fractions. But division of decimals is a 20 much more complex operation than that of common fractions. The want of a psychological analysis of these processes has led many good teachers to attempt decimal fractions with their pupils before taking up common fractions. In the end they have been forced to make introductory steps to aid the 25 pupil and in these steps to introduce the theory of the com- mon fraction. They have by this refuted their own theory. Besides {a) simple numbers and the four operations with them, {b) fractions common and decimal, there is (r) a third step in number, namely the theory of powers and roots. It is 30 a further step in ratio, namely the relation of a simple number to itself as power and root. The mass of material which fills the arithmetic used in the elementary school consists of two kinds of examples, first, those wherein there is a direct appli- cation of simple numbers, fractions, and powers, and secondly 35 the class of examples involving operations in reaching numer- ical solutions through indirect data and consequently involv- ing more or less transformation of functions. Of this character 1 895] Co7nmittee of fifteen 37 is most of the so-called higher arithmetic and such problems in the text-book used in the elementary schools as have, not inappropriately, been called (by General Francis A. Walker in his criticism on common-school arithmetic) numerical "conun- drums." Their difficult}^' is not found in the strictly arith- 5 metical part of the process of the solution (the third phase above described), but rather in the transformation of the quan- titative function given into the function that can readily be calculated numerically. The transformation of functions belongs strictly to algebra. Teachers who love arithmetic, 10 and who have themselves success in working out the so-called numerical conundrums, defend with much earnestness the cur- rent practice which uses so much time for arithmetic. They see in it a valuable training for ingenuity and logical analysis, and believe that the industry which discovers arithmetical 15 ways of transforming the functions given in such problems into plain numerical operations of adding, subtracting, multi- plying, or dividing is well bestowed. On the other hand the critics of this practice contend that there should be no merely formal drill in school for its own sake, and that there should 20 be, always, a substantial content to be gained. They contend that the work of the pupil in transforming quantitative func- tions by arithmetical methods is wasted, because the pupil needs a more adequate expression than number for this pur- pose; that this has been discovered in algebra, which enables 25 him to perform with ease such quantitative transformations as puzzle the pupil in arithmetic. They hold, therefore, that arithmetic pure and simple should be abridged and elementary algebra introduced after the numerical operations in powers, fractions, and simple numbers have been mastered, 30 together with their applications to the tables of weights and measures and to percentage and interest. In the seventh year of the elementary course there would be taught equations of the first degree and the solution of arithmetical problems that fall under proportion or the so-called "rule of three," together 35 with other problems containing complicated conditions — those in partnership for example. In the eighth year quadratic 38 Educational Review [March equations could be learned, and other problems of higher arith- metic solved in a more satisfactory manner than by numerical methods. It is contended that this earlier introduction of algebra, with a sparing use of letters for known quantities, 5 would secure far more mathematical progress than is obtained at present on the part of all pupils, and that it would enable many pupils to go on into secondary and higher education who are now kept back on the plea of lack of preparation in arithmetic, the real difficulty in many cases being a lack of 10 ability to solve algebraic problems by an inferior method. Your Committee would report that the practice of teaching two lessons daily in arithmetic, one styled "mental" or "intel- lectual" and the other "written" arithmetic (because its exer- cises are written out with pencil or pen) is still continued in 15 many schools. By this device the pupil is made to give twice as much time to arithmetic as to any other branch. It is con- tended by the opponents of this practice, with some show of reason, that two lessons a day in the study of quantity have a tendency to give the mind a bent or set in the direction of 20 thinking quantitatively with a corresponding neglect of the power to observe, and to reflect upon, qualitative and causal aspects. For mathematics does not take account of causes, but only of equality and difference in magnitude. It is fur- ther objected that the attempt to secure what is called thor- 25 oughness in the branches taught in the elementary schools is often carried too far; in fact, to such an extent as to produce arrested development (a sort of mental paralysis) in the mechanical and formal stages of growth. The mind in that case loses its appetite for higher methods and wider general- Soizations. The law of apperception, we are told, proves that temporary methods of solving problems should not be so thor- oughly mastered as to be used involuntarily or as a matter of unconscious habit, for the reason that a higher and a more adequate method of solution will then be found more difficult 35 to acquire. The more thoroughly a method is learned, the more it becomes part of the mind and the greater the repug- nance of the mind toward a new method. For this reason 1895] Co7nmittee of fifteen 39 parents and teachers discourage young children from the prac- tice of counting on the fingers, believing that it will cause much trouble later to root out this vicious habit and replace it by purely mental processes. Teachers should be careful, especially with precocious children, not to continue too long 5 in the use of a process that is becoming mechanical ; for it is already growing into a second nature, and becoming a part of the unconscious apperceptive process by which the mind reacts against the environment, recognizes its presence, and explains it to itself. The child that has been overtrained in arithmetic 10 reacts apperceptively against his environment chiefly by notic- ing its numerical relations — he counts and adds ; his other apperceptive reactions being feeble, he neglects qualities and causal relations. Another child who has been drilled in recog- nizing colors apperceives the shades of color to the neglect of 15 all else. A third child, excessively trained in form studies by the constant use of geometric solids and much practice in looking for the fundamental geometric forms lying at the basis of the multifarious objects that exist in the world, will as a matter of course apperceive geometric forms, ignoring the 20 other phases of objects. It is, certainly, an advance on immediate sense-perception to be able to separate or analyze the concrete, whole impression, and consider the quantity apart by itself. But if arrested mental growth takes place here the result is deplorable. That 25 such arrest may be caused by too exclusive training in recog- nizing numerical relations is beyond a doubt. Your Committee believes that, with the right methods, and a wise use of time in preparing the arithmetic lesson in and out of school, five years are sufificient for the study 30 of mere arithmetic — the five years beginning with the sec- ond school year and ending with the close of the sixth year; and that the seventh and eighth years should be given to the algebraic method of dealing with those problems that involve difificulties in the transformation of quantitative indirect func-35 tions into numerical or direct quantitative data. Your Committee, however, does not wish to be understood 40 Edticatio7ial Review [March as recommending the transfer of algebra, as it is understood and taught in most secondary schools, to the seventh year or even to the eighth year of the elementary school. The algebra course in the secondary school, as taught to pupils in their 5 fifteenth year of age, very properly begins with severe exer- cises with a view to discipline the pupil in analyzing complex literate expressions at sight and to make him able to recognize at once the factors that are contained in such combinations of quantities. The proposed seventh-grade algebra must use lo letters for the unknown quantities and retain the numerical form of the known quantities, using letters for these very rarely, except to exhibit the general form of solution or what, if stated in words, becomes a so-called "rule" in arithmetic. This species of algebra has the character of an introduction or 15 transitional step to algebra proper. The latter should be taught thoroughly in the secondary school. Formerly it was a common practice to teach elementary algebra of this sort in the preparatory schools and reserve for the college a study of algebra proper. But in this case there was often a neglect of 20 sufficient practice in factoring literate quantities, and as a conse- quence the pupil suffered embarrassment in his more advanced mathematics, for example in analytical geometry, the differ- ential calculus, and mechanics. The proposition of your Committee is intended to remedy the two evils already 25 named: first to aid the pupils in the elementary school to solve, by a higher method, the more difficult problems that now find place in advanced arithmetic; and secondly, to pre- pare the pupil for a thorough course in pure algebra in the secondary school. 30 Your Committee is of the opinion that the so-called mental arithmetic should be made to alternate with written arithmetic for two years and that there should not be two daily lessons in this subject. C. Geography The leading branch of the seven liberal arts was grammar, 35 being the first of the Triviiun (grammar, rhetoric, and logic). 1895] Committee of fifteen 41 Arithmetic, however, led the second division, the Quadri- viiim (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). We have glanced at the reasons for the place of grammar as leading the humane studies as well as for the place of arithmetic as leading the nature studies. Following arithmetic as the second 5 study in importance among the branches that correlate man to nature is geography. It is interesting to note that the old quadrivium of the Middle Ages included geography, under the title of geometry, as the branch following arithmetic in the enu- meration ; the subject matter of their so-called "geometry"being 10 chiefly an abridgment of Pliny's geography, to which were added a few definitions of geometric forms, something like the primary course in geometric solids in our elementary schools. So long as there has been elementary education there has been something of geography included. The Greek education laid 15 stress on teaching the second book of Homer containing the Catalogue of the Ships and a brief mention of the geography and history of all the Greek tribes that took part in the Trojan War. History remains unseparated from geography and geometry in the Middle Ages. Geography has preserved this 20 comprehensiveness of meaning as a branch of the study in the elementary schools down to the present day. After arith- metic, which treats of the abstract or general conditions of material existence, comes geography with a practical study of man's material habitat 2,x\d its relations to him. It is not a 25 simple science by itself, like botany or geology or astronomy, but a collection of sciences levied upon to describe the earth as the dwelling-place of man and to explain something of its more prominent features. About one-fourth of the material relates strictly to the geography, about one-half to the inhabitants, 30 their manners, customs, institutions, industries, productions, and the remaining one-fourth to items drawn from the sciences of mineralogy, meteorology, botany, zoology, and astronomy. This predominance of the human feature in a study ostensibly relating to physical nature, your Committee considers necessary 35, and entirely justifiable. The child commences with what is nearest to his interests, and proceeds gradually toward what is 42 Educatio7ial Review [March remote and to be studied for its own sake. It is therefore a mistake to suppose that the first phase of geography presented to the child should be the process of continent formation. He must begin with the natural differences of climate and lands 5 and waters and obstacles that separate peoples, and study the methods by which man strives to equalize or overcome these differences by industry and commerce, to unite all places and all people, and make it possible for each to share in the productions of all. The industrial and commercial idea is therefore the lo first central idea in the study of geography in the elementary schools. It leads directly to the natural elements of difference in climate, soil, and productions, and also to those in race, religion, political status, and occupations of the inhabitants, with a view to explain the grounds and reasons for this 15 counter-process of civilization which struggles to overcome the differences. Next comes the deeper inquiry into the process of continent formation, the physical struggle between the process of upheaving or upbuilding of continents and that of their obliteration by air and water; the explanation of the 20 mountains, valleys, and plains, the islands, volcanic action, the winds, the rain-distribution. But the study of cities, their location, the purposes they serve as collecting, manufacturing, and distributing centers, leads most directly to the immediate purpose of geography in the elementary school. From this 25 beginning, and holding to it as a permanent interest, the inquiry into causes and conditions proceeds concentrically to the sources of the raw materials, the methods of their produc- tion and the climatic, geologic, and other reasons that explain their location and their growth. 30 In recent years, especially through the scientific study of physical geography, the processes that go to the formation of climate, soil, and general configuration of land masses have been accurately determined, and the methods of teaching so simplified that it is possible to lead out from the central idea 35 mentioned to the physical explanations of the elements of geographical difference quite early in the course of study. Setting out from the idea of the use made of the earth by 1895] Committee of Jifteeft 43 civilization, the pupil in the fifth and sixth years of his schooling (at the age of eleven or twelve) may extend his inquiries quite profitably as far as the physical explanations of land-shapes and climates. In the seventh and eighth year of school much more may be done in this direction. But it is believed that 5 the distinctively human interest connected with geography in the first years of its study should not yield to the purely scientific one of physical processes until the pupil has taken up the study of history. The educational value of geography, as it is and has been in 10 elementary schools, is obviously very great. It makes possible something like accuracy in the picturing of distant places and events and removes a large tract of mere superstition from the mind. In the days of newspaper reading one's stock of geographical information is in constant requisition. A war on 15 the opposite side of the globe is followed with more interest in this year than a war near our own borders before the era of the telegraph. The general knowledge of the locations and boundaries of nations, of their status in civilization and their natural advantages for contributing to the world market, is 20 of great use to the citizen in forming correct ideas from his daily reading. The educational value of geography is even more apparent if we admit the claims of those who argue that the present epoch is the beginning of an era in which public opinion is 25 organized into a ruling force by the agency of periodicals and books. Certainly neither the newspaper nor the book can influence an illiterate people: they can do little to form opinions where the readers have no knowledge of geography. As to the psychological value of geography little need be 30 said. It exercises in manifold ways the memory of forms and the imagination ; it brings into exercise the thinking power in tracing back toward unity the various series of causes. What educative value there is in geology, meteorology, zoology, ethnology, economics, history, and politics is to be found in 35 the more profound study of geography, and, to a proportionate extent, in the study of its merest elements. 44 Educational Review [March Your Committee is of the opinion that there has been a vast improvement in the methods of instruction in this branch in recent years, due in large measure to the geographical soci- eties of this and other countries. At first there prevailed 5 what might be named sailor geography. The pupil was com- pelled to memorize all the capes and headlands, bays and har- bors, mouths of rivers, islands, sounds, and straits around the world. He enlivened this to some extent by brief mention of the curiosities and oddities in the way of cataracts, water-gaps, lo caves, strange animals, public buildings, picturesque costumes, national exaggerations, and such matters as would furnish good themes for sailors' yarns. Little or nothing was taught to give unity to the isolated details furnished in endless number. It was an improvement on this when the method of memoriz- ising capital cities and political boundaries succeeded. With this came the era of map drawing. The study of watersheds and commercial routes, of industrial productions and centers of manufacture and commerce, has been adopted in the better class of schools. Instruction in geography is growing better 20 by the constant introduction of new devices to make plain and intelligible the determining influence of physical causes in producing the elements of difference and the counter-process of industry and commerce by which each difference is rendered of use to the whole world and each locality made a partici- 25 pator in the productions of all. D. History The next study, ranked in order of value, for the elementary school is History. But, as will be seen, the value of history, both practically and psychologically, is less in the beginning and greater at the end than geography. For it relates to the 30 institutions of men, and especially to the political state and its evolution. While biography narrates the career of the indi- vidual, civil history records the careers of nations. The nation has been compared to the individual by persons inter- ested in the educational value of history. Man has two selves, 35 they say, the individual self, and the collective self of the L 1895] Co77imittee of Jifteeji 45 organized state or nation. The study of history is, then, the study of this larger, corporate,, social, and civil self. The importance of this idea is thus brought out more clearly in its educational significance. For to learn this civil self is to learn the substantial condition which makes possible the existence 5 of civilized man in all his other social combinations — the family, the Church, and the manifold associated activities of civil society. For the state protects these combinations from destruction by violence. It defines the limits of individual and associated effort, within which each endeavor re-enforces 10 the endeavors of all, and it uses the strength of the whole nation to prevent such actions as pass beyond these safe limits and tend to collision with the normal action of the other individuals and social units. Hobbes called the state a Levi- athan, to emphasize its stupendous individuality and organized 15 self-activity. Without this, he said, man lives in a state of "constant war, fear, poverty, filth, ignorance, and wretched- ness; within the state dwell peace, security, riches, science, and happiness." The state is the collective man who "makes possible the rational development of the individual man, like 20 a mortal God, subduing his caprice and passion and compelling obedience to law, developing the ideas of justice, virtue, and religion, creating property and ownership, nurture and educa- tion." The education of the child into a knowledge of this higher self begins early within the nurture of the family. 25 The child sees a policeman or some town ofificer, some public building, a court house or a jail; he sees or hears of an act of violence, a case of robbery or murder followed by arrest of the guilty. The omnipresent higher self, which has been invisible hitherto, now becomes visible to him in its symbols and still 30 more in its acts. History in school, it is contended, should be the special branch for education in the duties of citizenship. There is ground for this claim. History gives a sense of belonging to a higher social unity which possesses the right of absolute 35 control over person and property in the interest of the safety of the whole. This, of course, is the basis of citizenship ; the 46 EducaHo7tal Review [March individual must feel this or see this solidarity of the state and recognize its supreme authority. But history shows the colli- sions of nations, and the victory of one political ideal accom- panied by the defeat of another. History reveals an evolution 5 of forms of government that are better and better adapted to permit individual freedom, and the participation of all citizens in the administration of the government itself. People who make their own government have a special interest in the spectacle of political evolution as exhibited in 10 history. But it must be admitted that this evolution has not been well presented by popular historians. Take, for instance, the familiar example of old-time pedagogy, wherein the Roman republic was conceived as a freer government than the Roman empire that followed it, by persons apparently misled by 15 the ideas of representative self-government associated with the word republic. It was the beginning of a new epoch when this illusion was dispelled, and the college student became aware of the true Roman meaning of republic, namely, the supremacy of an oligarchy on the Tiber that ruled distant provinces in 20 Spain, Gaul, Asia Minor, Germany, and Africa, for its selfish ends and with an ever-increasing arrogance. The people at home in Rome, not having a share in the campaigns on the borderland, did not appreciate the qualities of the great leaders who, like Caesar, subdued the nations by forbearance, mag- 25 nanimity, trust, and the recognition of a sphere of freedom secured to the conquered by the Roman civil laws, which were rigidly enforced by the conqueror, as much as by the violence of arms. The change from republic to empire meant the iinal sub- ordination of this tyrannical Roman oligarchy, and the recog- 3onition of the rights of the provinces to Roman freedom. This illustration shows how easily a poor teaching of history may pervert its good influence or purpose into a bad one. For the Roman monarchy under the empire secured a degree of freedom never before attained under the republic, in spite of the election 35 of such tyrants as Nero and Caligula to the imperial purple. The civil service went on as usual administering the affairs of distant countries, educating them in Roman jurisprudence, and 1895] Committee of fifteen 47 cultivating a love for accumulating private property. Those countries had before lived communistically after the style of the tribe or at best of the village community. Roman private property in land gave an impulse to the development of free individuality such as had always been impossible under the 5 social stage of development known as the village community. To teach history properly is to dispel this shallow illusion which flatters individualism, and to open the eyes of the pupil to the true nature of freedom, namely the freedom through obedience to just laws enforced by a strong government. 10 Your Committee has made this apparent digression for the sake of a more explicit statement of its conviction of the importance of teaching history in a different spirit from that of abstract freedom, which sometimes means anarchy, although they admit the possibility of an opposite extreme, the danger 15 of too little stress on the progressive element in the growth of nations and its manifestation in new and better political devices for representing all citizens without weakening the central power. That the history of one's own nation is to be taught in the 20 elementary school seems fixed by common consent. United States history includes first a sketch of the epoch of discoveries and next of the epoch of colonization. This fortunately suits the pedagogic requirements. For the child loves to approach the stern realities of a firmly established civilization through 25 its stages of growth fey means of individual enterprise. Here is the use of biography as introduction to history. It treats of exceptional individuals whose lives bring them in one way or another into national or even world-historical relations. They throw light on the nature and necessity of governments, and 30 are in turn illuminated by the light thrown back on them by the institutions which they promote or hinder. The era of semi-private adventure with which American history begins is admirably adapted for study by the pupil in the elementary stage of his education. So too the next epoch, that of coloni-35 zation. The pioneer is a degree nearer to civilization than is the explorer and discoverer. In the colonial history the pupil 48 Educational Review [March interests himself in the enterprise of aspiring individualities, in their conquest over obstacles of climate and soil; their con- flicts with the aboriginal population; their choice of land for settlement; the growth of their cities; above all, their several 5 attempts and final success in forming a constitution securing local self-government. An epoch of growing interrelation of the colonies succeeds, a tendency to union on a large scale due to the effect of European wars which involved England, France, and other countries, and affected the relations of their 10 colonies in America. This epoch too abounds in heroic per- sonalities, like Wolfe, Montcalm, and Washington, and perilous adventures, especially in the Indian warfare. The fourth epoch is the Revolution, by which the Colonies through joint effort secured their independence and afterward 15 their union in a nation. The subject grows rapidly more com- plex and tasks severely the powers of the pupils in the eighth year of the elementary school. The formation of the Consti- tution, and a brief study of the salient features of the Con- stitution itself, conclude the study of the portion of the 20 history of the United States that is sufificiently remote to be treated after the manner of an educational classic. Every- thing up to this point stands out in strong individual out- lines and is admirably fitted for that elementary course of study. Beyond this point, the War of 1812 and the War of 25 the Rebellion, together with the political events that led to it, are matters of memory with the present generation of parents and grandparents, and are consequently not so well fitted for intensive study in school as the already classic period of our history. But these later and latest epochs may be and will be 30 read at home not only in the text-book on history used in the schools, but also in the numerous sketches that appear in news- papers, magazines, and in more pretentious shapes. In the intensive study which should be undertaken of the classic period of our history, the pupil may be taught the method 35 appropriate to historical investigation, the many points of view from which each event ought to be considered. He should learn to discriminate between the theatrical show of events and 1895] Comvtittee of fifteen 49 the solid influences that move underneath as ethical causes. Although he is too immature for very far-reaching reflections, he must be helped to see the causal processes of history. Armed with this discipline in historic methods, the pupil will do all of his miscellaneous reading and thinking in this province 5 with more adequate intellectual reaction than was possible before the intensive study carried on in school. The study of the outlines of the Constitution, for ten or fifteen weeks in the final year of the elementary school, has been found of great educational value. Properly taught, it 10 fixes the idea of the essential threefoldness of the constitution of a free government and the necessary independence of each constituent power, whether legislative, judicial, or executive. This and some idea of the manner and mode of filling the oflficial places in these three departments, and of the character 15 of the duties with which each department is charged, lay foun- dations for an intelligent citizenship. Besides this intensive study of the history of the United States in the seventh and eighth years, your Committee would recommend oral lessons on the salient points of general history, 20 taking a full hour of sixty minutes weekly — and preferably all at one time — for the sake of the more systematic treatment of the subject of the lesson and the deeper impression made on the mind of the pupil, E. Other branches Your Committee has reviewed the staple branches of the 25 elementary course of study in the light of their educational scope and significance. Grammar, literature, arithmetic, geog- raphy, and history are the five branches upon which the dis- ciplinary work of the elementary school is concentrated. Inas- much as reading is the first of the scholastic arts, it is interesting 30 to note that the whole elementary course may be described as an extension of the process of learning the art of reading. First comes the mastering of tJie colloquial vocabulary in printed and script forms. Next come five incursions into the special vocabularies required {a) in literature to express the fine shades 35 50 Educational Review [March of emotion and the more subtle distinctions of thought, {p) the technique of arithmetic, {c) of geography, {d) of grammar, {e) of history. In the serious work of mastering" these several technical 5 vocabularies the pupil is assigned daily tasks that he must pre- pare by independent study. The class exercise or recitation is taken up with examining and criticising the pupil's oral state- ments of what he has learned, especial care being taken to secure the pupil's explanation of it in his own words. This 10 requires paraphrases and definitions of the new words and phrases used in technical and literary senses, with a view to insure the addition to the mind of the new ideas corresponding to the new words. The misunderstandings are corrected and the pupil set on the way to use more critical alertness in the 15 preparation of his succeeding lessons. The pupil learns as much by the recitations of his fellow-pupils as he learns from the teacher, but not the same things. He sees in the imperfect statements of his classmates that they apprehended the lesson with different presuppositions and consequently have seen 20 some phases of the subject that escaped his observation, while they in turn have missed points which he had noticed quite readily. These different points of view become more or less his own, and he may be said to grow by adding to his own mind the minds of others. 25 It is clear that there are other branches of instruction that may lay claim to a place in the course of study of the elemen- tary school ; for example the various branches of natural science, vocal music, manual training, physical culture, drawing, etc. Here the question of another method of instruction is sug- Sogested. There are lessons that require previous preparation by the pupil himself — there are also lessons that may be taken up without such preparation and conducted by the teacher, who leads the exercise and furnishes a large part of the informa- tion to be learned, enlisting the aid of members of the class for 35 the purpose of bringing home the new material to their actual ex- perience. Besides these there are mechanical exercises for pur- poses of training, such as drawing, penmanship, and calisthenics. 1895] Comfnittee of fifteen 51 In the first place there is industrial and aesthetic drawing, which should have a place in all elementary school work. By it is secured the training of the hand and eye. Then, too, drawing helps in all the other branches that require illustra- tion. Moreover, if used in the study of the great works of art 3 in the way hereinbefore mentioned, it helps to cultivate the taste and prepares the future workman for a more useful and lucrative career, inasmuch as superior taste commands higher wages in the finishing of all goods. Natural science claims a place in the elementary school not 10 so much as a disciplinary study side by side with grammar, arithmetic, and history, as a training in habits of observation and in the use of the technique by which such sciences are expounded. With a knowledge of the technical terms and some training in the methods of original investigation employed 15 in the sciences, the pupil broadens his views of the world and greatly increases his capacity to acquire new knowledge. For the pupil who is unacquainted with the technique of science has to pass without mental profit the numerous scientific allusions and items of information which more and more 20 abound in all our literature, whether of an ephemeral or a permanent character. In an age whose proudest boast is the progress of science in all domains, there should be in the elementary school, from the first, a course in the elements of the sciences. And this is quite possible; for each science 25 possesses some phases that lie very near to the child's life. These familiar topics furnish the doors through M'hich the child enters the various special departments. Science, it is claimed, is nothing if not systematic. Indeed, science itself may be defined as the interpretation of each fact through all other 30 facts of a kindred nature. Admitting that this is so, it is no less true that pedagogic method begins with the fragmentary knowledge possessed by the pupil and proceeds to organize it and build it out systematically in all directions. Hence any science may be taken up best on the side nearest the experience 3*5 of the pupil and the investigation continued until the other parts are reached. Thus the pedagogical order is not always 52 Educational Review [March the logical or scientific order. In this respect it agrees with the order of discovery, which is usually something quite different from the logical order, for that is the last thing dis- covered. The natural sciences have two general divisions: one 5 relating to inorganic matter, as physics and chemistry, and one relating to organic, as botany and zoology. There should be a spiral course in natural science, commencing each branch with the most interesting phases to the child. A first course should be given in botany, zoology, and physics, so as to treat loof the structure and uses of familiar plants and animals, and the explanation of physical phenomena as seen in the child's playthings, domestic machines, etc. A second course covering the same subjects, but laying more stress on classification and functions, will build on to the knowledge already acquired from 15 the former lessons and from his recently acquired experience. A third course of weekly lessons, conducted by the teacher as before in a conversational style, with experiments and with a comparison of the facts of observation already in the possession of thechildren,willgo far to helping them to an acquisition of the 20 results of natural science. Those of the children specially gifted for observation in some one or more departments of nature will be stimulated and encouraged to make the most of their gifts. In the opinion of your Committee there should be set apart a full hour each week for drawing and the same amount for 25 oral lessons in natural science. The oral lessons in history have already been mentioned. The spiral course, found useful in natural science because of the rapid change in capacity of comprehension by the pupil from his sixth to his fourteenth year, will also be best for the 30 history course, which will begin with biographical adventures of interest to the child, and possessing an important historical bearing. These will proceed from the native land first to Eng- land, the parent country, and then to the classic civilizations (Greece and Rome being, so to speak, the grandparent coun- 35 tries of the American colonies). These successive courses of oral lessons adapted respectively to the child's capacity will do much to make the child well informed on this topic. Oral 1895] Committee of fifteen 53 lessons should never be mere lectures, but more like Socratic dialogues, building up a systematic knowledge partly from what is already known, partly by new investigations, and partly by comparison of authorities. The best argument in favor of weekly oral lessons in natural 5 science and general history is the actual experiences of teachers who have for some time used the plan. It has been found that the lessons in botany, zoology, and physics give the pupil much aid in learning his geography and other lessons relating to nature, while the history lessons assist very much his com- 10 prehension of literature, and add interest to geography. It is understood by your Committee that the lessons in physiology and hygiene (with special reference to the effects of stimulants and narcotics) required by State laws should be included in this oral course in natural science. Manual 15 training, so far as the theory and use of the tools for working in wood and iron are concerned, has just claims on the elemen- tary school for a reason similar to that which admits natural science. From science have proceeded useful inventions for the aid of all manner of manufactures and transportation. 20 The child of to-day lives in a world where machinery is con- stantly at his hand. A course of training in wood- and iron- •work, together with experimental knowledge of physics or natural philosophy, makes it easy for him to learn the manage- ment of such machines. Sewing and cookery have not the 25 same but stronger claims for a place in school. One-half day in each week for one-half a year each in the seventh and eighth grades will suf^ce for manual training, the sewing and cookery being studied by the girls, and the wood- and iron-work by the boys. It should be mentioned, however, that the advocates 30 of manual training in iron-and Avood-work recommend these branches for secondary schools, because of the greater maturity of body, and the less likelihood to acquire wrong habits of manipulation, in the third period of four years of school. Vocal music has long since obtained a well-established place 35 in all elementary schools. The labors of two generations of special teachers have reduced the steps of instruction to such 54 < Educational Review [March simplicity that whole classes may make as regular progress in reading music as in reading literature. In regard to physical culture your Committee is agreed that there should be some form of special daily exercises 5 amounting in the aggregate to one hour each week, the same to include the main features of calisthenics, and German, Swedish, or American systems of physical training, but not to be regarded as a substitute for the old-fashioned recess estab- lished to permit the free exercise of the pupils in the open air. lo Systematic physical training has for its object rather the will training than recreation, and this must not be forgotten. To go from a hard lesson to a series of calisthenic exercises is to go from one kind of will training to another. Exhaustion of the will should be followed by the caprice and wild freedom 15 of the recess. But systematic physical exercise has its suffi- cient reason in its aid to a graceful use of the limbs, its development of muscles that are left unused or rudimentary unless called forth by special training, and for the help it gives to the teacher in the way of school discipline. 20 Your Committee would mention in this connection instruc- tion in morals and manners, which ought to be given in a brief series of lessons each year with a view to build up in the mind a theory of the conventionalities of polite and pure-minded society. If these lessons are made too long or too numerous, 25 they are apt to become offensive to the child's mind. It is of course understood by your Committee that the substantial moral training of the school is performed by the discipline rather than by the instruction in ethical theory. The child is trained to be regular and punctual, and to restrain his desire to 30 talk and whisper — in these things gaining self-control day by day. The essence of moral behavior is self-control. The school teaches good behavior. The intercourse of a pupil with his fellows without evil words or violent actions is insisted on and secured. The higher moral qualities of truth-telling and sin- 35 cerity are taught in every class exercise that lays stress on accuracy of statement. Your Committee has already discussed the importance of 1895] Committee of fifteen .55 teaching something of algebraic processes in the seventh and eighth grades with the view to obtaining better methods of solving problems in advanced arithmetic; a majority of your Committee are of the opinion that formal English grammar should be discontinued in the eighth year, and the study of 5 some foreign language, preferably that of Latin, substituted. The educational effect on an English-speaking pupil of taking up a language which, like Latin, uses inflections instead of prepositions, and which further differs from English by the order in which its words are arranged in the sentence, is quite 10 marked, and a year of Latin places a pupil by a wide interval out of the range of the pupil who has continued English grammar without taking up Latin. But the effect of the year's study of Latin increases the youth's power of appercep- tion in very many directions by reason of the fact that so 15 much of the English vocabulary used in technical vocabularies, like those of geography, grammar, history, and literature, is from a Latin source, and besides there are so many traces in the form and substance of human learning of the hundreds of years when Latin was the only tongue in which observation 20 and reflection could be expressed. Your Committee refers to the programme given later in this report for the details of co-ordinating these several branches already recommended. The difference between elementary and secondary studies In recommending the introduction of algebraic processes in 25 the seventh and eighth years— as well as in the recommenda- tion just now made to introduce Latin in the eighth year of the elementary course— your Committee has come face to face with the question of the intrinsic difference between elementary and secondary studies. 3° Custom has placed algebra, geometry, the history of English literature, and Latin in the rank of secondary studies: also general history, physical geography, and the elements of physics and chemistry. In a secondary course of four years trigonometry may be added to the mathematics; some of 35 56 Educational Review [March the sciences whose elements are used in physical geography may be taken up separately in special treatises, as geology, botany, and physiology. There may be also a study of whole works of English authors, as Shakspere, Milton, and Scott. 5 Greek is also begun in the second or third year of the secondary course. This is the custom in most public high schools. But in private secondary schools Latin is begun earlier, and so, too, Greek, algebra, and geometry. Sometimes geometry is taken up before algebra, as is the custom in 10 German schools. These arrangements are based partly on tradition, partly on the requirements of higher institutions for admission, and partly on the ground that the intrinsic difficul- ties in these studies have fixed their places in the course of study. Of those who claim that there is an intrinsic reason 15 for the selection and order of these studies, some base their conclusions on experience in conducting pupils through them, others on psychological grounds. The latter contend, for example, that algebra deals with general forms of calculation, while arithmetic deals with the particular instances of calcula- 2otion. Whatever deals with the particular instance is relatively elementary, whatever deals with the general form is relatively secondary. In the expression a + b = c algebra indicates the form of all addition. This arithmetic cannot do, except in the form of a verbal rule describing the steps of the operation : its 25 examples are all special instances falling under the general form given in algebra. If, therefore, arithmetic is an elemen- tary branch, algebra is relatively to it a secondary branch. So, too, geometry, though not directly based on arithmetic, has to presuppose an acquaintance with it when it reduces 30 spatial functions into numerical forms, as, for example, in the measurement of surfaces and solids, and in ascertaining the ratio of the circumference to the radius, and of the hypot- enuse to the two other sides of the right-angled triangle. Geometry, moreover, deals with necessary relations; its demon- 35 strations reach universal and necessary conclusions, holding good not merely in such material shapes as we have met with in actual experience, but with all examples possible, past. 1895] Committee of fifteen 57 present, or future. Such knowledge transcending experience is intrinsically secondary as compared with the first acquaintance with geometric shapes in concrete examples. In the case of geometry it is claimed by some that what is called "inventional geometry" may be properly introduced into 5 the elementary grades. By this some mean the practice with blocks in the shape of geometric solids and the construc- tion of different figures from the same; others mean the rediscovery by the pupil for himself of the necessary relations demonstrated by Euclid. The former — exercises of construe- 10 tion with blocks — are well enough in the kindergarten, where they assist in learning number, as well as in the analysis of material forms. But its educational value is small for pupils advanced into the use of books. The original discovery of Euclid's demonstrations, on the other hand, belongs more prop- 15 erly to higher education than to elementary. In the geometrical text-books recently introduced into secondary schools there is so much of original demonstration required that the teacher is greatly embarrassed on account of the differences in native capacity for mathematics that develop among the pupils of the 20 same class in solving the problems of invention. A few gifted pupils delight in the inventions, and develop rapidly in power, while the majority of the class use too much time over them, and thus rob the other branches of the course of study, or else fall into the bad practice of getting help from others in the 25 preparation of their lessons. A few in every class fall hope- lessly behind and are discouraged. The result is an attempt on the part of the teacher to correct the evil by requiring a more thorough training in the mathematical studies preceding, and the consequent delay of secondary pupils in the lower grades of 30 the course in order to bring up their "inventional geometry." Many, discouraged, fail to go on; many more fail to reach, higher studies because unable to get over the barrier unnecs^s- sarily placed before them by teachers who desire that no pupils' except natural geometricians shall enter into higher studies. 35 Physical geography in its scientific form is very properly made a part of the secondary course of study. The pupil in 58 Educational Review [March his ninth year of work can profitably acquire the scientific technique of geology, botany, zoology, meteorology, and ethnology, and in the following years take up those sciences separately and push them further, using the method of actual 5 investigation. The subject-matter of physical geography is of very high interest to the pupil who has studied geography in the elementary grades after an approved method. It takes up the proximate grounds and causes for the elements of differ- ence on the earth's surface, already become familiar to him lo through his elementary studies, and pushes them back into deeper, simpler, and more satisfactory principles. This study performs the work also of correlating the sciences that relate to organic nature by showing their respective uses to man. From the glimpses which the pupil gets of mineralogy, geology, 1 5 botany, zoology, ethnology, and meteorology in their necessary connection as geographic conditions he sees the scope and grand significance of those separate inquiries. A thirst is aroused in him to pursue his researches into their domains. He sees, too, the borderlands in which new discoveries may be 2omade by the enterprising explorer. Physics, including what was called until recently "natural philosophy," after Newton's Priiicipia {PJiilosophice naturalis principia matheniaticd), implies more knowledge of mathe- matics for its thorough discussion than the secondary pupil is 25 likely to possess. In fact, the study of this branch in college thirty years ago was crippled by the same cause. It should follow the completion of analytical geometry. Notwithstand- ing this, a very profitable study of this subject may be made in the second year of the high school or preparatory school, 3oalthough the formulas can then be understood in so far as they imply elementary algebra only. The pupil does not get the most exact notions of the quantitative laws that rule matter in its states of motion and equilibrium, but he does see the action of forces as qualitative elements of phenomena, and understand 35 quite well the mechanical inventions by which men subdue them for his use and safety. Even in the elementary grades the pupil can seize very many of these qualitative aspects and learn the 1895] Committee of fifteen 59 explanation of the mechanical phenomena of nature, and other applications of the same principles in invention, as for example, gravitation in falling bodies : its measurement by the scales; the part it plays in the pump, the barometer, the pen- dulum ; cohesion in mud, clay, glue, paste, mortar, cement, etc. ; 5 capillary attraction in lamp-wicks, sponges, sugar, the sap in plants; the applications of lifting by the lever, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, and screw; heat in the sun, combustion, fric- tion, steam, thermometer, conduction, clothing, cooking, etc. : the phenomena of light, electricity, magnetism, and the 10 explanation of such mechanical devices as spectacles, tele- scopes, microscopes, prisms, photographic cameras, electric tension in bodies, lightning, mariner's compass, horseshoe mag- net, the telegraph, the dynamo. This partially qualitative study of forces and mechanical inventions has the educational 15 effect of enlightening the pupil, and emancipating him from the network of superstition that surrounds him in the child world, partly of necessity and partly by reason of the illiterate adults that he sometimes meets with in the persons of nurses, servants, and tradespeople, whose occupations have more 20 attraction for him than those of cultured people. The fairy world is a world of magic, of immediate interventions of supernatural spiritual beings, and while this is proper enough for the child up to the time of the school, and in a lessening degree for some time after, it is only negative and harmful in 25 adult manhood and womanhood. It produces arrested devel- opment of powers of observation and reflection in reference to phenomena, and stops the growth of the soul at the infantine stage of development. Neither is this infantine stage of wonder and magic more religious than the stage of disillusion 30 through the study of mathematics and physics. It is the arrest of religious development also, at the stage of fetichism. The highest religion, that of pure Christianity, sees in the world infinite mediations, all for the purpose of developing independent individuality; the perfection of human souls not 35 only in one kind of piety, namely that of the heart, but in the piety of the intellect that beholds truth, the piety of the will 6o Educational Review [March that does good deeds wisely, the piety of the senses that sees the beautiful and realizes it in works of art. This is the Chris- tian idea of divine Providence as contrasted with the heathen idea of that Providence, and the study of natural philosophy sis an essential educational requisite in its attainment, although a negative means. Of course there is danger of replacing the spiritual idea of the divine by the dynamical or mechanical idea and thus arresting the mind at the stage of pantheism instead of fetichism. But this danger can be avoided by further lo education through secondary into higher education, whose entire spirit and method are comparative and philosophical in the best sense of the term. For higher education seems to have as its province the correlation of the several branches of human learning in the unity of the spiritual view furnished by 15 religion to our civilization. By it one learns to see each branch, each science or art or discipline, in the light of all the others. This higher or comparative view is essential to any complete- ness of education, for it alone prevents the one-sidedness of hobbies, or "fads" as they are called in the slang of the day. 20 It prevents also the bad effects that flow from the influence of what are termed "self-educated men," who for the most part carry up with them elementary methods of study, or at best, secondary methods, which accentuate the facts and relations of natural and spiritual phenomena, but do not deal with their 25 higher correlations. The comparative method cannot, in fact, be well introduced until the student is somewhat advanced, and has already completed his elementary course of study dealing with the immediate aspects of the world, and his secondary course dealing with the separate formal and dynam- 3oical aspects that lie next in order behind the facts of first observation. Higher education in a measure unifies these separ- ate formal and dynamic aspects, corrects their one-sidedness, and prevents the danger of what is so often noted in the self- educated men who unduly exaggerate some one of the subordi- 35 nate aspects of the world and make it a sort of first principle. Here your Committee finds in its way the question of the use of the full scientific method in the teaching of science in 1895] Committee of fifteen 61 the elementary school. The true method has been called the method of investigation, but that method as used by the child is only a sad caricature of the method used by the mature scientific man, who has long since passed through the fragmen- tary observation and reflection that prevail in the period of 5 childhood, as well as the tendencies to exaggeration of the importance of one or another branch of knowledge at the expense of the higher unity that correlates all ; an exaggeration that manifests itself in the possession and use of a hobby. The ideal scientific man has freed himself from obstacles of 10 this kind, whether psychological or objective. What astronom- ical observers call the subjective coefficient must be ascer- tained and eliminated from the record that shows beginnings, endings, and rates. There is a possibility of perfect speciali- 'zation in a scientific observer only after the elementary and 15 secondary attitudes of mind have been outgrown. An attempt to force the child into the full scientific method by specializa- tion would cause an arrest of his development in the other branches of human learning outside of his specialty. He could not properly inventory the data of his own special sphere unless 20 he knew how to recognize the defining limits or boundaries that separate his province from its neighbors. The early days of science abounded in examples of confusion of provinces in the inventories of their data. It is difficult, even now, to decide where physics and chemistry leave off, and biology begins. 25 Your Committee does not attempt to state the exact propor- tion in which the child, at his various degrees of advancement, may be able to dispense with the guiding influence of teacher and text-book in his investigations, but they protest strongly against the illusion under which certain zealous advocates of 30 the early introduction of scientific method seem to labor. They ignore in their zeal the deduction that is to be made for the guiding hand of the teacher, who silently furnishes to the child the experience that he lacks, and quietly directs his special attention to this or to that phase, and prevents him 35 from hasty or false generalization as well as from undue exag- geration of single facts or principles. Here the teacher adds 62 Edticational Review [March the needed scientific outlook which the child lacks, but which the mature scientist possesses for himself. It is contended by some that the scientific frame of mind is adapted only to science, but not to art, literature, and religion, 5 which have something essential that science does not reach; not because of the incompleteness of the sciences themselves, but because of the attitude of the mind assumed in the obser- vation of nature. In analytic investigation there is isolation of parts one from another, with a view to find the sources of the lo influences which produce the phenomena shown in the object. The mind brings everything to the test of this idea. Every phenomenon that exists comes from beyond itself, and analysis will be able to trace the source. Now, this frame of mind, which insists on a foreign origin of 15 all that goes to constitute an object, debars itself in advance from the province of religion, art, and literature as well as of philosophy. For self-determination, personal activity, is the first principle assumed by religion, and it is tacitly assumed by art and literature, Classic and Christian. The very definition 20 of philosophy implies this, for it is the attempt to explain the world by the assumption of a first principle, and to show that all classes of objects imply that principle as ultimate presuppo- sition. According to this view it is important not to attempt to hasten the use of a strictly scientific method on the part of 25 the child. In his first years he is acquiring the results of civilization rather as an outfit of habits, usages, and traditions than as a scientific discovery. He cannot be expected to stand over against the culture of his time, and challenge one and all , of its conventionalities to justify themselves before his reason. 30 His reason is too weak. He is rather in the imitation stage of mind than in that of criticism. He will not reach the com- parative or critical method until the era of higher education. However this may be, it is clear that the educational value of science and its method is a very important question, and 35 that on it depends the settlement of the question where specialization may begin. To commence the use of the real scientific method would imply a radical change also in methods 1895] Committee of fifteeii 63 from the beginning. This may be realized by considering the hold which even the kindergarten retains upon symbolism and upon art and literature. But in the opinion of a majority of your Committee natural science itself should be approached, in the earliest years of the elementary school, rather in the 5. form of results with glimpses into the methods by which these results were reached. In the last two years (the seventh and eighth) there may be some strictness of scientific form and an exhibition of the method of discovery. The pupil, too, may to some extent put this method in practice himself. In 10 the secondary school there should be some laboratory work. But the pupil cannot be expected to acquire for himself fully the scientific method of dealing with nature until the second part of higher education — its post-graduate work. Neverthe- less this good should be kept in view from the first year of the 15 elementary school, and there should be a gradual and con- tinual approach to it. In the study of general history appears another branch of the secondary course. History of the native land is assumed to be an elementary study. History of the world is certainly 20 a step further away from the experience of the child. It is held by some teachers to be in accordance with proper method to begin with the foreign relations of one's native land and to work outward to the world-history. The European relations involved in the discovery and colonization of America furnish 25 the only explanation to a multitude of questions that the pupil has started in the elementary school. He should move out- ward from what he has already learned, by the study of a new concentric circle of grounds and reasons, according to this view. This, however, is not the usual course taken. On beginning 30 secondary history the pupil is set back face to face with the period of tradition, just when historic traces first make their appearance. He is by this arrangement broken off from the part of history that he has become acquainted with and made to grapple with that period which has no relation to his previous 35. investigations. It is to be said, however, that general history lays stress on the religious thread of connection, though less now 64 Educational Review [March than formerly. The world history is a conception of the great Christian thinker, St. Augustine, who held that the world and its history is a sort of antiphonic hymn in which God reads his counsels, and the earth and man read the responses. 5 He induced Orosius, his pupil, to sketch a general history in the spirit of his view. It was natural that the Old Testament histories, and especially the chapters of Genesis, should furnish the most striking part of its contents. This general history was connected with religion and brought closer to the 10 experience of the individual than the history of his own people. To commence history with the Garden of Eden, the Fall of Man, and the Noachian Deluge was to begin with what was most familiar to all minds, and most instructive, because it concerned most nearly the conduct of life. Thus religion fur- 15 nished the apperceptive material by which the early portions of history were recognized, classified, and made a part of experience. Now that studies in archaeology, especially those in the Nile and Euphrates valleys, are changing the chronologies and the records of early times and adding new records of the past, 20 bringing to light national movements and collisions of peoples, together with data by which to determine the status of their industrial civilization, their religious ideas, and the form of their literature and art, the concentric arrangement of all this material around the history of the chosen people as a nucleus 25 is no longer possible. The question has arisen, therefore, whether general history should not be rearranged for the secondary school, and made to connect with American history for apperceptive material rather than with Old Testament history. To this it has been replied with force that the idea 30 of a world history, as St. Augustine conceived it, is the noblest educative ideal ever connected with the subject of history. Future versions of general history will not desert this stand- point, we are told, even if they take as their basis that of ethnology and anthropology, for these, too, will exhibit a plan 35 in human history — an educative principle that leads nations toward freedom and science, because the Creator of nature has made it, in its fundamental constitution, an evolution or 1895] Committee of fifteen 65 progressive development of individuality. Thus the idea of divine Providence is retained, though made more comprehen- sive by bringing the whole content of natural laws within his will as his method of work. These considerations, we are reminded by the partisans of 5 humanity studies, point back to the educative value of history as corrective of the one-sidedness of the method of science. Science seeks explanation in the mechanical conditions of, and impulses received from, the environment, while history keeps its gaze fixed on human purposes, and studies the genesis of 10 national actions through the previous stages of feelings, con- victions, and conscious ideas. In history the pupil has for his object self-activity, reaction against environment, instead of mechanism, or activity through another. The history of English literature is another study of the 15 secondary school. It is very properly placed beyond the ele- mentary school, for as taught it consists largely of the biographies of men of letters. The pupils who have not yet learned any great work of literature should not be pestered wdth literary biography, for at that stage the greatness of the 20 men of letters cannot be seen. Plutarch makes great biogra- phies because he shows heroic struggles and great deeds. The heroism of artists and poets consists in sacrificing all for the sake of their creations. The majority of them come off sadly at the hands of the biographer, for the reason that the very 25 sides of their lives are described which they had slighted and neglected for the sake of the Muses. The prophets of Israel did not live in city palaces, but in caves ; they did not wear fine raiment, nor feed sumptuously, nor conform to the codes of polite society. They were no courtiers when they approached 30 the king. They neglected all the other institutions — family, productive industry, and state — for the sake of one, the Church, and even that not the established ceremonial of the people, but a higher and more direct communing with Jehovah. So with artists and men of letters it is more or less the case that 35 the institutional side of their lives is neglected, or unsymmet- rical, or if this is not the case it will be found prosaic and 66 Educational Review [March uneventful, throwing no light on their matchless produc- tions. For these reasons should not the present use of literary biography as it exists in secondary schools, and is gradually 5 making its way into elementary schools, be discouraged, and the time now given to it devoted to the study of literary works of art? It will be admitted that the exposure of the foibles of artists has an immoral tendency on youth : for example, one affects to be a poet, and justifies laxity and self-indulgence lo through the example of Byron. Those who support this view hold that we should not dignify the immoral and defective side of life by making it a branch of study in school. Correlation by synthesis of studies Your Committee would mention another sense in which the expression correlation of studies is sometimes used. It is held 15 by advocates of an artificial center of the course of study. They use, for example, De Foe's Robinson Crusoe for a reading exercise, and connect with it the lessons in geography and arithmetic. It has been pointed out by critics of this method that there is always danger of covering up the literary features 20 of the reading matter under accessories of mathematics and natural science. If the material for other branches is to be sought for in connection with the literary exercise, it will dis- tract the attention from the poetic unity. On the other hand, arithmetic and geography cannot be unfolded freely and com- 25 prehensively if they are to wait on the opportunities afforded in a poem or novel for their development. A correlation of this kind, instead of being a deeper correlation such as is found in all parts of human learning by the studies of the college and university, is rather a shallow and uninteresting kind of corre- 3olation that reminds one of the system of mnemonics, or arti- ficial memory, which neglects the association of facts and events with their causes and the history of their evolution, and looks for unessential quips, puns, or accidental suggestions with a view to strengthening the memory. The effect of this is to 35 weaken the power of systematic thinking which deals with 1895] Committee of fifteen 67 essential relations, and substitute for it a chaotic memory that ties together things through false and seeming relations, not of the things and events, but of the words that denote them. The correlation of geography and arithmetic and history in and through the unity of a work of fiction is at best an 5 artificial correlation, which will stand in the way of the true objective correlation. It is a temporary scaffolding made for school purposes. Instruction should avoid such temporary structures as much as possible, and when used they should be only used for the day, and not for the year, because of the 10 danger of building up an apperceptive center in the child's mind that will not harmonize with the true apperceptive center required by the civilization. The story of Robinson Crusoe has intense interest to the child as a lesson in sociology, show- ing him the helplessness of isolated man and the re-enforce- 15 ment that comes to him through society. It shows the impor- tance of the division of labor. All children should read this book in the later years of the elementary course, and a few profitable discussions may be had in school regarding its sig- nificance. But De Foe painted in it only the side of adventure 20 that he found in his countrymen in his epoch, England after the defeat of the Armada having taken up a career of con- quest on the seas, ending by colonization and a world com- merce. The liking for adventure continues to this day among all Anglo-Saxon peoples, and beyond other nationalities there 25 is in English-speaking populations a delight in building up civilization from the very foundation. This is only, however, one phase of the Anglo-Saxon mind. Consequently the his- tory of Crusoe is not a proper center for a year's study in school. It omits cities, governments, the world commerce, 30 the international process, the Church, the newspaper and book from view, and they are not even reflected in it. Your Committee would call attention in this connection to the importance of the pedagogical principle of analysis and isolation as preceding synthesis and correlation. There should be rigid 35 isolation of the elements of each branch for the purpose of get- ting a clear conception of what is individual and peculiar in a 68 Educational Review [March special province of learning. Otherwise one will not gain from each its special contribution to the whole. That there is some danger from the kind of correlation that essays to teach all branches in each will be apparent from this point of view. III. THE SCHOOL PROGRAMME 5 In order to find a place in the elementary school for the several branches recommended in this report, it will be nec- essary to use economically the time allotted for the school term, which is about two hundred days, exclusive of vacations and holidays. Five days per week and five hours of actual lo school work or a little less per day, after excluding recesses for recreation, give about twenty-five hours per week. There should be, as far as possible, alternation of study-hours and recitations (the w^ord recitation being used in the United States for class exercise or lesson conducted by the teacher 15 and requiring the critical attention of the entire class). Those studies requiring the clearest thought should be taken up, as a usual thing, in the morning session, say arithmetic the second half hour of the morning and grammar the half-hour next succeeding the morning recess for recreation in the open air. 20 By some who are anxious to prevent study at home, or at least to control its amount, it is thought advisable to place the arithmetic lesson after the grammar lesson, so that the study learned at home will be grammar instead of arithmetic. It is found by experience that if mathematical problems are taken 25 home for solution two bad habits arise, namely, in one case, the pupil gets assistance from his parents or others, and thereby loses to some extent his own power of overcoming difficulties by brave and persistent attacks unaided by others ; the other evil is a habit of consuming long hours in the preparation of a 30 lesson that should be prepared in thirty minutes, if all the powers of mind are fresh and at command. An average child may spend three hours in the preparation of an arithmetic lesson. Indeed, in repeated efforts to solve one of the so- called " conundrums," a whole family may spend the entire 35 evening. One of the unpleasant results of the next day is 1895] ~ Co7ninittee of fifteen 69 that the teacher who conducts the lesson never knows the exact capacity and rate of progress of his pupils ; in the recitation he probes the knowledge and preparation of the pupil, plus an unknown amount of preparatory work borrowed from parents and others. He even increases the length of the 5 lessons, and requires more work at home, when the amount already exceeds the unaided capacity of the pupil. The lessons should be arranged so as to bring in such exer- cises as furnish relief from intellectual tension between others that make large demands on the thinking powers. Such exer- 10 cises as singing and calisthenics, writing and drawing, also read- ing, are of the nature of a relief from those recitations that tax the memory, critical alertness, and introspection, like arithme- tic, grammar, and history. Your Committee has not been able to agree on the question 15 whether pupils who leave school early should have a course of study different from the course of those who are to continue on into secondary and higher work. It is contended, on the one hand, that those who leave early should have a more practi- cal course, and that they should dispense with those studies 20 that seem to be in the nature of preparatory work for sec- ondary and higher education. Such studies as algebra and Latin, for example, should not be taken up unless the pupil expects to pursue the same for a sufficient time to complete the secondary course. It is replied, on the other hand, that it 25 is best to have one course for all, because any school education is at best but an initiation for the pupil into the art of learn- ing, and that wherever he leaves off in his school course he should continue, by the aid of the public library and home study, in the work of mastering science and literature. It is 30 further contended that a brief course in higher studies, like Latin and algebra, instead of being useless, is of more value than any elementary studies that might replace them. The first ten lessons in algebra give the pupil the fundamental idea of the general expression of arithmetical solutions by means 35 of letters and other symbols. Six months' study of it gives him the power to use the method in stating the manifold con- yo Educational Review [March ditions of a problem in partnership, or in ascertaining a value that depends on several transformations of the data given. It is claimed, indeed, that the iirst few lessons in any branch are relatively of more educational value than an equal number of 5 subsequent lessons, because the fundamental ideas and princi- ples of the new study are placed at the beginning. In Latin, for instance, the pupil learns in his first week's study the to him strange phenomenon of a language that performs by inflections what his own language performs by the use of prep- loositions and auxiliaries. He is still more surprised to find that the order of words in a sentence is altogether different in Ro- man usage from that to which he is accustomed. He further begins to recognize in the Latin words many roots or stems which are employed to denote immediate sensuous objects, 15 while they have been adopted into his English tongue to signify fine shades of distinction in thought or feeling. By these three things his powers of observation in matters of language are armed, as it were, with new faculties. Nothing that he has hitherto learned in grammar is so radical and far- 20 reaching as what he learns in his first week's study of Latin. The Latin arrangement of words in a sentence indicates a dif- ferent order of mental arrangement in the process of appre- hension and expression of thought. This arrangement is ren- dered possible by declensions. This amounts to attaching 25 prepositions to the ends of the words, which they thus convert into adjectival or adverbial modifiers; whereas the separate prepositions of the English must indicate by their position in the sentence their grammatical relation. These observations, and the new insight into the etymology of English words hav- 30 ing a Latin derivation, are of the nature of mental seeds which will grow and bear fruit throughout life in the better command of one's native tongue. All this will come from a very brief time devoted to Latin in school. Amount of time for each brancli Your Committee recommends that an hour of sixty minutes 35 each week be assigned in the programme for each of the fol- 1895] Committee of fifteen 71 lowing subjects throughout the eight years : physical culture, vocal music, oral lessons in natural science (hygiene to be included among the topics under this head), oral lessons in biography and general history, and that the same amount of time each week shall be devoted to drawing from the second 5 year to the eighth inclusive ; to manual training during the seventh and eighth years so as to include sewing and cookery for the girls, and work in wood and iron for the boys. Your Committee recommends that reading be given at least one lesson each day for the entire eight years, it being under- 10 stood, however, that there shall be two or more lessons each day in reading in the first and second years, in which the recitation is necessarily very short, because of the inability of the pupil to give continued close attention, and because he has little power of applying himself to the work of preparing lessons by him- 15 self. In the first three years the reading should be limited to pieces in the colloquial style, but selections from the classics of the language in prose and in poetry shall be read to the pupil from time to time, and discussions made of such features of the selections read as may interest the pupils. After the 20 third year your Committee believes that the reading lesson should be given to selections from classic authors of English, and that the work of the recitation should be divided between {a) the elocution, {p) the grammatical peculiarities of the lan- guage, including spelling, definitions, syntactical construction, 25 punctuation, and figures of prosody, and (<:) the literary con- tents, including the main and accessory ideas, the emotions painted, the deeds described, the devices of style to produce a strong impression on the reader. Your Committee wishes to lay emphasis on the importance of the last item, — that of literary 30 study, — which should consume more and more of the time of the recitation from grade to grade in the period from the fourth to the eighth year. In the fourth year and previously the first item — that of elocution, to secure distinct enunciation and correct pronunciation — should be most prominent. In the 35 fifth and sixth years the second item — that of spelling, defin- ing, and punctuation — should predominate slightly over the 72 Edticational Review [March other two items. In the years from the fifth to the eighth there should be some reading of entire stories, such as Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, Rip Van Winkle, The Lady of the Lake, Hiawatha, and similar stories adapted in 5 style and subject-matter to the capacity of the pupils. An hour should be devoted each week to conversations on the salient points of the story, its literary and ethical bearings. Your Committee agrees in the opinion that in teaching language care should be taken that the pupil practices much loin writing exercises and original compositions. At first the pupil will use only his colloquial vocabulary, but as he gains command of the technical vocabularies of geography, arithme- tic, and history, and learns the higher literary vocabulary of his language, he will extend his use of words accordingly. Daily 1 5 from the first year the child will prepare some lesson or por- tion of a lesson in writing. Your Committee has included under the head of oral grammar (from the first to the middle of the fifth year) one phase of this written work devoted to the study of the literary form and the technicalities of composition 20 in such exercises as letter writing, written reviews of the several branches studied, reports of the oral lessons in natural science and history, paraphrases of the poems and prose litera- ture of the readers, and finally compositions or written essays on suitable themes assigned by the teacher, but selected from 25 the fields of knowledge studied in school. Care should be taken to criticise all paraphrases of poetry in respect to the good or bad taste shown in the choice of words ; parodies should never be permitted. It is thought by your Committee that the old style of com- 30 position writing was too formal. It was kept too far away from the other work of the pupil. Instead of giving a written account of what he had learned in arithmetic, geography, grammar, history, and natural science, the pupil attempted artificial descriptions and reflections on such subjects as 35 " Spring," " Happiness," " Perseverance," " Friendship," or something else outside of the line of his school studies. Your Committee has already expressed its opinion that 1895] Committee of fifteeri y$ a good English style is not to be "acquired by the study of grammar so much as by familiarity with great masterpieces of literature. We especially recommend that pupils who have taken up the fourth and fifth readers, containing the selections from great authors, should often be required to 5 make written paraphrases of prose or poetic models of style, using their own vocabulary to express the thoughts so far as possible, and borrowing the rechercJie words and phrases of the author, where their own resources fail them. In this way the pupil learns to see what the great author has done to en- 10 rich the language and to furnish adequate means of expression for what could not be presented in words before, or at least not in so happy a manner. Your Committee believes that every recitation is, in one aspect of it, an attempt to express the thoughts and informa-15 tion of the lesson in the pupil's own words, and thus an initial exercise in composition. The regular weekly written review of the important topics in the several branches studied is a more elaborate exercise in composition, the pupil endeavoring to collect what he knows and to state it systematically and 20 in proper language. The punctuation, spelling, syntax, pen- manship, choice of words, and style should not, it is true, be made a matter of criticism in connection with the other lessons, but only in the language lesson proper. But the pupil will learn language, all the same, by the written and oral recitations. The 25 oral grammar lessons from the first year to the middle of the fifth year, should deal chiefly with the use of language, gradually introducing the grammatical technique as it is needed to describe accurately the correct forms and the usages-violated. Your Committee believes that there is some danger of wast- 3^ ing the time of the pupil in these oral and written language lessons in the first four years by confining the work of the pupil to the expression of ordinary commonplace ideas not related to the subjects of his other lessons, especially when the expression is confined to the colloquial vocabulary. Such 35 training has been severely and justly condemned as teaching what is called prating or gabbling, rather than a noble use of 74 Educational Review [March English speech. It Is clear that the pupil should have a digni- fied and worthy subject of composition, and what is so good for his purpose as the themes he has tried to master in his regular lessons ? The reading lessons will give matter for 5 literary style, the geography for scientific style, and the arith- metic for a business style ; for all styles should be learned. Your Committee recommends 4;hat selected lists of words difficult to spell be made from the reading lessons and mastered by frequent writing and oral spelling during the fourth, fifth, loand sixth years. Your Committee recommends that the use of a text-book in grammar begin with the second half of the fifth year, and con- tinue until the beginning of the study of Latin in the eighth grade, and that one daily lesson of twenty-five or thirty min- 15 utes be devoted to it. For Latin we recommend one daily lesson of thirty minutes for the eighth year. For arithmetic we recommend number work from the first year to the eighth, one lesson each day, but the use of the text-book in number should not, in our opinion, 20 begin until the first quarter of the third year. We recommend that the applications of elementary algebra to arithmetic, as hereinbefore explained, be substituted for pure arithmetic in the seventh and eighth years, a daily lesson being given. Your Committee recommends that penmanship as a separate 25 branch be taught in the first six years at least three lessons per week. Geography, in the opinion of your Committee, should begin with oral lessons in the second year, and with a text-book in the third quarter of the third year, and be continued to the close of 30 the sixth year with one lesson each day, and in the seventh and eighth years with three lessons per week. History of the United States with the use of a text-book, your Committee recommends for the seventh and the first half of the eighth year, one lesson each day ; the Constitution of 35 the United States for the third quarter of the eighth year. The following schedule will show the number of lessons per week for each quarter of each year : 1895] Committee of fifteen 75 Reading-. Eight years, with daily lessons. Penmanship. Six years, ten lessons per week for first two years, five for third and fourth, and three for fifth and sixth. Spelling Lists. Fourth, fifth, and sixth years, four lessons per week. Grammar. Oral, with composition or dictation, first year to middle of fifth 5 year, text-book from middle of fifth year to close of seventh year, five lessons per week. (Composition writing should be included under this head. But the written examinations on the several branches should be counted under the head of composition work.) Latin or French or German. Eighth year, five lessons per week. 10 Arithmetic. Oral first and second year, text-book third to sixth year, five lessons per week. Algebra. Seventh and eighth year, five lessons per week. Geography, Oral lessons second year to middle of third year, text-book from middle of third year, five lessons weekly to seventh year, and three 15 lessons to close of eighth. Natural Science and Hygiene. Sixty minutes per week, eight years. History of United States. Five hours per week seventh year and first half of eighth year. Constitution of United States. Third quarter in the eighth year. 20 General History and Biography. Oral lessons, sixty minutes a week, eight years. Physical Culture. Sixty minutes a week, eight years. Vocal Music. Sixty minutes a week, eight years. Drawing. Sixty minutes a week, eight years. 25 Manual Training, Sewing and Cooking. One-half day each week in sev- enth and eighth years. Your Committee recommends recitations of fifteen minutes in length in the first and second years, of twenty minutes in length in the third and fourth years, of twenty-five minutes in the fifth 30 and sixth years, and of thirty minutes in the seventh and eighth. The results of this programme show for the first and second years twenty lessons a week of fifteen minutes each, besides seven other exercises occupying an average of twelve minutes apiece each day ; the total amount of time occupied in the continuous 35 attention of the recitation or class exercises being twelve hours, or an average of two hours and twenty-four minutes per day. For the third year twenty lessons a week of twenty minutes each, and five general exercises taking up five hours a week or an average of one hour per day, giving an average time per day of 40 two hours and twenty minutes for class recitations or exercises. In the fourth the recitations increase to twenty-four (by reason of four extra lessons in spelling) and the time occupied 76 Educational Review [March in recitations and exercises to thirteen hours and an average per day of two hours thirty-six minutes. Branches \st year id year ■^d year \thyear ^thyear 6tkyear T thy ear Zthyear Reading lo lessons a week 5 lessons a week Writing 10 lessons a week 5 lessons a week 3 lessons a week Spelling lists... 1 1 4 lessons a week English Grammar Oral, with composition lessons 5 lessons a week with text-book 5 lessons Arithmetic .... Oral, 6o minutes a week 5 lessons a week with text-book Algebra 5 lessons a week Geography Oral, 6o minutes a week * 5 lessons a week with text-book 3 lessons a week Natural Science + Hygiene. Sixty minutes a week U. S. History.. S lessons a week U. S. Constitu- tion il General History Oral, sixty minutes a week Physical Culture Sixty minutes a week Vocal Music. . . Sixty minutes a week divided into 4 lessons Drawing Sixty minutes a week Manual Train. or Sewing -|- Cookery. One-half day each No. of Lessons daily exer. .20+7 daily exer. 20+5 daily exer. 24+5 daily exer. 27-f5 daily exer. daily exer. 23+6 daily exer. 2S+6 daily exer. Total Hours of Recitations 12 12 1 ixi 13 16J i6i 17* I7§ Length of Reci- tions IS min. 15 min. 20 min. 20 min. 25 min. 25 min. 30 min. 30 min. * Begins in second half year In the fifth and sixth years the number of recitations increases to twenty-seven per week, owing to the addition of 1895] Cominittee of fifteen 'jy formal grammar, and the total number of hours required for all is 161^ per week, or an average of 3^ per day. In the seventh and eighth years the number of lessons decreases to twenty-three, history being added, penmanship and special lessons in spelling discontinued, the time devoted 5 to geography reduced to three lessons a week. But the reci- tation is increased to thirty minutes in length. Manual train- ing occupies a half-day, or 2^ hours, each week. The total is 19 hours per week or 3^ per day. The foregoing tabular exhibit shows all of these particulars. 10 IV. METHODS AND ORGANIZATION Your Committee is agreed that the time devoted to the elementary school work should not be reduced from eight years, but they have recommended, as hereinbefore stated, that in the seventh and eighth years a modified form of algebra be introduced in place of advanced arithmetic, and that in the 15 eighth year English grammar yield place to Latin. This makes, in their opinion, a proper transition to the studies of the secondary school and is calculated to assist the pupil materially in his preparation for that work. Hitherto, the change from the work of the elementary school has been too 20 abrupt, the pupil beginning three formal studies at once, namely algebra, physical geography, and Latin. Your Committee has found it necessary to discuss the ques- tion of methods of teaching in numerous instances, while con- sidering the question of educational values and programmes, 25 because the value and time of beginning of the several branches depends so largely on the method of teaching. The following recommendations, however, remain for this part of their report : They would recommend that the specialization of teachers* 30 work should not be attempted before the seventh or eighth year of the elementary school and in not more than one or two studies then. In the secondary school it is expected that a teacher will teach one or at most two branches. In the ele- mentary school, for at least six years, it is better, on the whole, 35 78 Educational Review [March to have each teacher instruct his pupils in all the branches that they study, for the reason that only in this way can he hold an even pressure on the requirements of work, correlating it in such a manner that no one study absorbs undue attention. In this Sway the pupils prepare all their lessons under the direct super- vision of the same teacher, and by their recitations show what defects of methods of study there have been in the preparation. The ethical training is much more successful under this plan, because the personal influence of a teacher is much greater ID when he or she knows minutely the entire scope of the school work. In the case of the special teacher the responsibility is divided and the opportunities of special aquaintance with char- acter and habits diminished. With one teacher, who supervises the study and hears all the 15 recitations, there is a much better opportunity to cultivate the two kinds of attention. The teacher divides his pupils into two classes and hears one recite while the other class prepares for the next lesson. The pupils reciting are required to pay strict attention to the one of their number who is explaining 20 the point assigned him by the teacher — they are to be on the alert to notice any mistakes of statement or omissions of im- portant data, they are at the same time to pay close attention to the remarks of the teacher. This is one kind of attention, which may be called associated critical attention. The pupils 25 engaged in the preparation of the next lesson are busy, each one by himself, studying the book and mastering its facts and ideas, and comparing them one with another, and making the effort to become oblivious of their fellow-pupils, the recitation going on, and the teacher. This is another kind of attention, 30 which is not associated, but an individual effort to master for one's self without aid a prescribed task and to resist all dis- tracting influences. These two disciplines in attention are the best formal training that the school affords. Your Committee has already mentioned a species of faulty 35 correlation wherein the attempt is made to study all branches in each, misapplying Jacotot's maxim, " all is in all " {tout est dans tout). 1895] Committee of fifteen 79 A frequent error of this kind is the practice of making every recitation a language lesson, and interrupting the arithmetic, geography, history, literature, or whatever it may be, by call- ing the pupil's attention abruptly to something in his forms of expression, his pronunciation, or to some faulty use of English ; 5 thus turning the entire system of school work into a series of grammar exercises and weakening the power of continuous thought on the objective contents of the several branches, by creating a pernicious habit of self-consciousness in the matter of verbal expression. While your Committee would not venture 10 to say that there should not be some degree of attention to the verbal expression in all lessons, it is of the opinion that it should be limited to criticism of the recitation for its want of techni- cal accuracy. The technical words in each branch should be discussed until the pupil is familiar with their full force. The 15 faulty English should be criticised as showing confusion of thought or memory, and should be corrected in this sense. But solecisms of speech should be silently noted by the teacher for discussion in the regular language lesson. The question of promotion of pupils has occupied from time 20 to time very much attention. Your Committee believes that in many systems of elementary schools, there is injury done by too much formality in ascertaining whether the pupils of a given class have completed the work up to a given arbitrarily fixed point, and are ready to take up the next apportionment 25 of the work. In the early days of city school systems, when the office of superintendent was first created, it was thought necessary to divide up the graded course of study into years of work, and to hold stated annual examinations to ascertain how many pupils could be promoted to the next grade or 30 year's work. All that failed at this examination were set back at the beginning of the year's work to spend another year in reviewing it. This was to meet the convenience of the super- intendent who, it was said, could not hold examinations to suit the wants of individuals or particular classes. From this arrange- 35 ment there naturally resulted a great deal of what is called " marking time." Pupils who had nearly completed the work of 8o Educational Review [March the year were placed with pupils who had been till now a year's interval below them. Discouragement and demoralization at the thought of taking up again a course of lessons learned once before caused many pupils to leave school prematurely. 5 This evil has been remedied in nearly one-half of the cities by promoting pupils whenever they have completed the work of a grade. The constant tendency of classification to become imperfect by reason of the difference in rates of advancement of the several pupils, owing to disparity in ages, degree of lo maturity, temperament, and health, makes frequent reclassifica- tion necessary. This is easily accomplished by promoting the few pupils who distance the majority of their classmates into the next class above, separated as it is or ought to be, by an interval of less than half a year. The bright pupils thus pro- ismoted have to struggle to make up the ground covered in the interval between the two classes, but they are nearly always able to accomplish this, and generally will in two years' time need another promotion from class to class. The Procrustean character of the old city systems has been 20 removed by this device. There remain for mention some other evils besides bad systems of promotion due to defects of organization. The school buildings are often with superstitious care kept apart exclusively for particular grades of pupils. The central build- 25 ing erected for high school purposes, though only half filled, is not made to relieve the neighboring grammar school, crowded to such a degree that it cannot receive the classes which ought to be promoted from the primary schools. It has happened in such cases that this superstition prevailed so 30 far that the pupils in the primary school building were kept at work on studies already finished, because they could not be transferred to the grammar school. In all good school systems the pupils take up new work when they have completed the old, and the bright pupils are 35 transferred to higher classes when they have so far distanced their fellows that the amount of work fixed for the average ability of the class does not give them enough to do. i89s] Committee of fifteen 8i In conclusion your Committee would state, by way of expla- nation, that it has been led into many digressions, in illus- trating the details of its recommendations in this report, through its desire to make clear the grounds on which it has based its conclusions and through the hope that such 5 details will call out a still more thorough-going discussion of the educational values of branches proposed for elementary schools, and of the methods by which those branches may be successfully taught. With a view to increase the interest in this subject your 10 Committee recommends the publication of selected passages from the papers sent in by invited auxiliary committees and by volunteers, many of these containing valuable suggestions not mentioned in this report. William T. Harris, Chairman United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. I dissent from the majority report of the Committee in 15 regard to the following points : Arithmetic I. As to fractions : In teaching arithmetic there does not exist any greater diiificulty in getting small children to grasp the nature of the fraction as such than in getting them to grasp the idea of the simpler whole numbers. It is true that 20 the fractions 3^, ^, Y^, etc., as symbols, are a little more com- plex than are the single digits ; but as to the real meaning, when once the fractional idea has been properly developed by the teacher and the significance of the idea appre- hended by the pupil, it is as easily understood as any 25 other simple truth. Children get the idea of half, third, or quarter of many things long before they enter school, and they will as readily learn to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions as they will whole numbers. In using fractions they will draw diagrams and pictures representing 30 the processes of work as quickly and easily as they illustrate 82 Edticational Review [March similar work with integers. It is of course assumed that the teacher knows how to teach arithmetic to children, or rather, how to teach the children how to teach themselves. There is really no valid argument why children in the second, 5 third, and fourth years in school should not master the fun- damental operations in fractions. Not only this, they will put the more common fractions into the technique of per- centage, and do this as well in the second and third grades as at any other time in their future progress. There is only one lonew idea involved in this operation, and that consists in giving an additional term — per cent. — to the fractional symbol. When one number is a part of another, it may be regarded as a fractional part or as such a per cent, of it. A great deal of percentage is thus learned by the pupils early in the course. 15 Children are not hurt by learning. Standing still and lost motion kill. Every recitation should reach the full swing of the learner's mind, including all his acquisitions on any given topic. But if the teaching of fractions be deferred, as it usually is in most 20 schools, the time may be materially shortened by teaching addition and subtraction of fractions together. This is simple enough if different fractions having common denominators are used at first, such as f-f f = ?, and | — | = ? Then the next step, after sufficient drill on this case, is to take two fractions 25 (simple) of different units of value, as >^ + >^ = ?, and ^ — ^ = ? Multiplication and division may be treated similarly. In decimals, the pupil is really confronted by a simpler form of fractions than the varied forms of common fractions. 30 Devices and illustrations of a material kind are necessary to build up in the pupil's mind at the beginning a clear concept of a tenth, etc., etc., and then to show that one-tenth written as a decimal is only a shorthand way of writing yV as a com- mon fraction, and so on. He sees very soon that the deci- 35mal is only a shorthand common fraction, and this notion he must hold to. This is the vital point in decimals. The idea that they can be changed into common fractions and 1895] Committee of fifteen 83 the reverse at will, establishes the fact in the pupil's mind that they are common fractions and not uncommon ones. Fixing the decimal point will, in a short time, take care of itself. In teaching arithmetic the steps are : (i) developing the 5 subject till each pupil gets a clear conception of it ; (2) necessary drill to fix the process ; (3) connecting the sub- ject with all that has preceded it ; (4) its applications ; (5) the pupil's ability to sum up clearly and concisely what he has learned. 10 2. As to abridgment : Under this head, I hold that a course in arithmetic, including simple numbers, fractions, tables of weights and measures, percentage and interest, and numerical operations in powers, does not fit a pupil to begin the study of algebra. That while he may carry the book under his arm to 15 the schoolroom, he is too poorly equipped to make headway on this subject, and instead of finishing up algebra in a reason- able length of time he is kept too long at it, with a strong probability of his becoming disgusted with it. There are subjects, however, in the common school arith-20 metic that may be dropped out with great advantage, to wit, all but the simplest exercises in compound interest, foreign exchange, all foreign moneys (except reference tables of values), annuities, alligation, progression ; and the entire sub- jects of percentage and interest should be condensed into 25 about twenty pages. Cancellation, factoring, proportion, evolution, and involution should be retained. Cancellation and factoring should be strongly emphasized owing to their immense value in shortening work in arithmetic, algebra, and in more ad- 30 vanced subjects. Some drill in the Metric System should not be omitted. J. As to mental arithmetic : Till the end of the fourth year the pupil does not need a text-book of mental arithmetic. So far his work in arithmetic should be about equally divided 35 between written and mental. At the beginning of the fifth year, in addition to his written arithmetic, he should begin a 84 Educational Review [March mental arithmetic and continue it three years, reciting at least four mental arithmetic lessons each week. The length of the recitation should be twenty minutes. A pupil well drilled in mental arithmetic at the end of the seventh year, if the school 5 age begins at six, is far better prepared to study algebra than the one who has not had such a drill. There are a few problems in arithmetic that can be solved more easily by algebra than by the ordinary processes of arithmetic, but there are many numerical problems in equations of the first degree that can be more 10 easily handled by mental arithmetic than by algebra. To attack arithmetical problems by algebra is very much like using a tremendous lever to lift a feather. Those who have found a great stumbling-block in arithmetical " conundrums," have, if the inside facts were known, been looking in the wrong direc- iStion. A deficiency of "number-brain-cells" will afford an adequate explanation. 4.. Rearrangement of stibjects : There should be a rearrang- ing of the topics in arithmetic so that one subject naturally leads up to the next. As an illustration, it is easily seen that 20 whole numbers and fractions can be treated together, and that with United States money, when the dime is reached, is the proper time to begin decimals, and that when " a square " in surface measure first comes up, the next step is the square of a number as well as its square root, and that solid measure logic- 25 ally lands the learner among cubes and cube-roots. When he learns that 1728 cubic inches make one cubic foot he is pre- pared to find the edge of the cube. What is meant here is pointing the way to the next above. All depends upon the teacher's ability to lead the pupil to see conditions and rela- 3otions. My contention is that truth, so far as one is capable of taking hold of it when it is properly presented, is always a simple affair. 5. As to algebra : If algebra be commenced at the middle of the seventh year, let the pupil go at it in earnest, and keep at 35 it till he has mastered it. Here the best opportunities will be afforded him to connect his algebraic knowledge to his arith- metical knowledge. He builds the one on top of the other. 1895] Committee of fifteen 85 The skillful teacher always insists that the learner shall estab- lish and maintain this relationship between the two subjects. To switch around the other way appears to me to be the same as to omit certain exercises in the common algebra, because they are more briefly and elegantly treated in the calculus. It 5 is admitted that a higher branch of mathematics often throws much light on the lower branches, but these side-lights should be employed for the purpose of leading the learner onward to broader generalizations. Unless one sees the lower clearly, the higher is obscure. Build solidly the foundation on arith- 10 metic — written and mental — and the higher branches will be more easily mastered and time saved. History of the United States In teaching this branch in the public schools, there does not appear, so far as I can see, any substantial reason why the pupils should not study and recite the history of the Rebel- 15 lion in the same manner that they do the Revolutionary War. The pupils discuss the late war and the causes that led to it with an impartiality of feeling that speaks more for their good sense and clear judgment than any other way by which their knowledge can be tested. ■ They may not get hold of all 20 the causes involved in that conflict, but they get enough to understand the motives which caused the armies to fight so heroically, and why the people, both North and South, staked everything on the issue. Just as the men who faced each other for four years and met so often in a death grapple will 25 sit down now and quietly talk over their trials, sufferings, and conflicts, so do their children talk over these same stirring scenes. They, too, so far as my experience extends, are singularly free from bitterness and prejudice. It is certainly a period of history that they should study. 30 The spelling-book In addition to the " speUing-lists," I would supplement with a good spelling-book. So far, no " word-list," however 86 Educational Review [March well selected, has supplied the place of a spelling-book. All those schools that threw out the spelling-book and undertook to teach spelling incidentally or by word-lists failed, and for the same reason that grammar, arithmetic, geography, 5 and other branches, cannot be taught incidentally as the pupil or the class reads Robinson Crusoe, or any other similar work. It is an independent study and as such should be pursued. James M. Greenwood, Superintendent of Schools, Kansas City, Mo. While affixing my signature to the report of this Committee as expressing substantial agreement with most of its leading lo propositions, I beg leave also to indicate my dissent from cer- tain of its recommendations and to suggest certain additions which, in my judgment, the report requires. I. There are other forms of true correlation which should be included with the four mentioned in the first part of the 15 report and which should be as clearly and fully treated as are these four. The first is that form of correlation which is popularly understood by the name, and which is also called by some writers, concentration, co-ordination, unification, and alludes 20 in general to a division of studies into content and form ; by content meaning that upon which it is fitting that the mind of the child should dwell, and by form the means or modes of expression by which thoughts are communicated. Or, it may be thus expressed : The true content of education is, (i), phi- 25 losophy or the knowledge of man as to his motives and hidden springs of action indicated in history and literature, and (2), science, the knowledge of nature and its manifestations and laws. Its form is art, which is the deliberate, purposeful, and effective expression to others of that which has been produced 30 within man by contact with other men and with nature, and is commonly referred to as divided into various arts, such as reading, writing, drawing, making, and modeling. The relation of content and form is that of principle and subordinate, the 1895] Committee of fifteen 87 latter receiving its chief value from the former. In a true education they are so presented to the mind of the child that he instinctively and unconsciously grasps this relation and is thereby lifted into a higher plane of thinking and living than if the various arts are taught, as they too commonly are, with- 5 out reference to a noble content. This relation of form to content is vaguely referred to in the report, but nowhere definitely treated. It seems to me that it is a true form of correlation, and, as such, deserves special and definite treat- ment. Moreover, it is at present much in the minds of the 10 teachers of this country, often in forms that are misleading and harmful. The fact that it adds the important element of interest to the dry details of common school life makes it especially attractive to progressive and earnest teachers, and this Committee should recognize its importance and make such 15 an utterance upon it as will guide the average teacher to a clear comprehension of its meaning and to a wise use of it in the schoolroom. Second, there is a still higher form of correlation which is definitely referred to later in the report as that *' of the several 20 branches of human learning in the unity of the spiritual view furnished by religion to our civilization." This in the report is assigned absolutely to the province of higher education. While I do not wish to dissent wholly from this view, since it is doubtless true that this higher unity cannot be comprehen- 25 sively stated for the use of a child, yet a wise teacher can so present subjects to even a young child that a sense of the unity of all knowledge will, to a certain degree, be unconsciously developed in his mind. In regard to certain of the great divisions of human knowledge, this relation is so evident that 30 they cannot be properly presented at all unless the relation be made clear. Such studies are history and geography. 2. The recommendations upon the subject of language should be broadened to cover the production of good English by the child himself, with the suggestion of suitable topics and 35 proper methods. This report confines itself to the absorptive side of education and ignores that development of power over 83 Educational Review [March nature, man, and self, which comes from free exercise of facul- ties and free expression of thought. The study of language as something for the child to use himself, the great means by which he is to assert his place in civilization, and exert his 5 influence for good, is nowhere referred to except in the vaguest way. This statement in regard to language applies almost equally well to drawing, and here is made evident the impor- tance of the form of correlation to which I have just referred. The proper material for the training of the child in expression lois that which is furnished by the study of man and nature. His mind being filled with high themes, he asserts his individu- ality, expresses himself in regard to them, and thereby gains at once both a closer and clearer comprehension of what he has studied, and also the power by which he may become a 15 factor in his generation. 3. I would wish to omit the word " weekly " where it occurs in the discussion of the subjects of general history and science, unless it be understood to mean that an amount of time in the school year equivalent to sixty minutes weekly be given to 20 each of these subjects. It is often better to condense these studies into certain portions of the year, giving more time to them each week and using them as the basis, to a certain degree, of language work. I believe that, especially with young children, clearer concepts are produced by such con- 25 nected study, pursued for fewer weeks, than by lessons seven days apart. 4. In my judgment manual training should not be limited to the seventh and eighth grades, but should begin in the kindergarten with the simple study of form from objects and 30 the reproduction in paper of the objects presented, and should extend, in a series of carefully graded lessons, through all the grades, leaving, however, the heavier tools, such as the plane, for the seventh and eighth grades. By these means an inter- est is kept up in the various human industries, sympathy for 35 all labor is created, and a certain degree of skill is developed ; moreover the interest of the pupils in their school is greatly enhanced. Manual training has often proved the magnet by 1895] Committee of fifteen 89 which boys at the restless age have been kept in school instead of leaving for some gainful occupation. 5. I desire to suggest that geometry may be so taught as to be a better mathematical study than algebra to succeed or ac- company arithmetic in the seventh and eighth grades. I do not 5 refer particularly to inventional geometry, to which the Com- mittee accords a slighting attention, but to constructive geom- etry and the simplest propositions in demonstrative geometry, thus involving the comprehension of the elementary geometric forms and their more obvious relations. This study may be 10 made of especial interest in connection with manual training and drawing, while it presents fewer difiiiculties to the imma- ture mind than the abstractions of algebra, since it connects more directly with the concrete, by which its presentation may often be aided. 15 6. While agreeing fully with the majority of the Committee that the full scientific method should not be applied to the study of elementary science by young children, yet I am com- pelled to favor more of experimentation and observation by the child, and less of telling by the teacher than the report 20 would seem to favor. 7. I would go farther than the majority of the Committee, and insist that, except in rare cases, there should be no special- ization of the teaching force below the High School, and that even in the first years of the High School, so far as possible, 25 specialization should be subordinated to a general care of the child's welfare and oversight of his methods of study, which are impossible when a corps of teachers give instruction, each in one subject, and see the student only during the hour of recitation. 30 8. While in the main I agree with the bald statements under the head " Correlation by synthesis of studies," since reference is made to only a very artificial mode of synthesis not at all in vogue in this country, I must dissent emphatically from this portion of the report as by inference condemning a most im-35 portant department of correlation, to which I have referred earlier. The doctrine of concentration is not necessarily arti- 90 Educational Review [March ficial ; rather it refers to the higher unity, of which this Com- mittee has spoken in glowing terms as belonging to the prov- ince of higher education. It also includes the division of the school curriculum into content and form, which this Committee 5 inferentially adopts in its treatment of language. I do not believe, any more than do the majority of the Committee, that the entire course of study can be literally and exactly centered about a single subject, nor do I believe in any arti- ficial correlation ; but there is a natural relation of all knowl- lo edges, which this Committee admits in various places, and which is the basis of a proper synthesis of studies, according to the psychological principal of apperception. 9. If by the term " oral," as applied to lessons in biography and in natural science, the Committee means, as the word would 15 imply, that the instruction is to be given in the form of lec- tures by the teacher, I cannot in full agree with the Commit- tee's conclusions. As I have already stated, in natural science the work should be largely that of observation, and in history and biography, while in the very lowest grades the teachers 20 should tell the children stories, as soon as it is possible the desired information should be obtained by the student through reading. To this end the reading lesson in school should be properly correlated with his other studies, and he should be advised as to his home reading. The information thus 25 obtained should be the subject of conversation in the class, and should furnish the material for much of the written lan- guage work of the children. 10. I must dissent emphatically and entirely from that por- tion of the report which recommends that a text-book in 30 grammar be introduced into the fifth year of the child's school life. It is a question in my mind whether it would not be better if the text-book were not introduced into the grades below the High School at all. Certainly it should not appear before the seventh year. Such knowledge of grammar as will 35 familiarize the child with the structure of the sentence, the basis of all language, and as will enable him to use correctly forms of speech which the necessities of expression require, 1895] Committee of fifteen 91 should be given orally by the teacher in connection with the child's written work, when needed ; but against the introduction of a text-book upon grammar, the most abstruse of all the sub- jects of the school curriculum, when the pupil is not more than ten years old, I must protest. Instead of that the child 5 should devote much time, some every day, to writing upon proper themes in the best English he can command, furnish ing occasion to the teacher to correct such errors as he may make, and acquiring by use acquaintance with the correct forms of grammar. If, as will doubtless be the case in most 10 cities, local conditions render the introduction of Latin into the eighth grade inadvisable, this study of grammar may be made in that grade somewhat more intensive. II. If by a text-book in geography is meant that which is commonly understood by the term, and not simply geographi-is cal reading matter, in my judgment, it should not be intro- duced earlier than the fifth year. These suggestions and expressions of dissent, if approved by the Committee, would necessitate some change in the pro- gramme submitted, the most important of which would be the 20 making room for the production of English in the grades. This could be provided in the first and second grades by tak- ing some of the time devoted to penmanship and doing the work partly in connection with the reading classes. In the third and fourth grades it should take some of the time 25 devoted to penmanship and should be studied also in connec- tion with geography and reading, and in the fifth and sixth grades it should take all of the time given to grammar. I regret to be compelled to express dissent upon so many points, but as most of them appear to me vital and as the 30 differences appear to be not merely superficial but funda- mental, affecting and affected by one's entire educational creed, I cannot do otherwise. To most of the report I most gladly give my assent and approval. Charles B. Gilbert, Superintendent of Schools, St. Paul, Minn. 92 Educatio7tal Review [March I agree most heartily with the main features of the fore- going report of the sub-committee on correlation of studies It is so admirable in its analysis of subjects and in its state- ment of comparative education values, and so suggestive in its 5 practical applications to teaching, that I regret to find myself appearing in any way to dissent from its conclusions. Indeed my principal objection is not against anything contained in the report (unless it be against a possible inference which might be drawn at one point), but it refers rather to what seems to lome to be an omission. In addition to all the forms of correlation recommended in the report, it seems to me possible to make a correlation of subjects in a programme in such way that the selection of sub- ject-matter maybe to some extent from all fields of knowledge. 15 These selections should be such as are related to one another so as to be mutually helpful in acquisition. They should be the main features of knowledge in the different departments. These different departments from which the chosen sub- jects should be taken must be fundamental ones and must be 20 sufficiently numerous to represent universal culture. The report itself indicates conclusively what these are. Reference is made in the report to various attempts that have been made to correlate subjects of study. A very just criticism is made upon that attempt at correla- 25 tion by the use of the story of Robinson Crusoe as a center of correlation. It is distinctly pointed out in the report that the experiences of Robinson Crusoe are lacking in many of the elements of universal culture, and in many elements of educa- tion needed to adjust the individual properly to the civiliza- 30 tion of our time and country. It is equally evident that the attempt to make this story the center of correlation leads directly to trivial exercises in other subjects in order to make them " correlate " with Robinson Crusoe. It is also shown in the report that it naturally leads to fragmentary knowledge 35 of many subjects very much inferior to that clear, logically connected knowledge of a subject which may be had by pur- suing it without reference to correlatine it with all others. iSgs] Committee of fifteen 93 It is at this point that in my judgment a wrong inference is permitted by the report. It does not, as it seems to me, follow that, because correla- tion based on Robinson Crusoe is a failure, all correlations having the same general purpose will necessarily prove 5 failures. For my own part I do not believe that correlation needs any " center," outside the child and its natural activi- ties. If, however, it seems wiser to give special prominence to any given field of acquisition, it should, in my judgment, be accorded to language and its closely related subjects — 10 reading, spelling, writing, composing, study of literature, etc., etc. Indeed language as a mode of expression is organically related to thinking, in all fields of knowledge, as form is related to content. A " system " or '' programme " of cor- relation on this basis would seek for fundamental ideas in 15 all the leading branches and make them themes of thought and occasions of language exercises. The selections would omit all trivialities in all subjects, and would not attempt to correlate for the mere sake of correlation ; but would seek to correlate wherever by such correlation kindred themes may be 20 made to illuminate one another. To illustrate, concrete prob- lems in arithmetic would be sought that would clearly develop and illustrate mathematical ideas and their applica- tion ; but in a secondary way these problems would be sought for in the various departments of concrete knowledge — 25 geography, history, physics, chemistry, astronomy, meteor- ology, political, industrial, or domestic economy. But none of these themes would be so relied upon for problems as to com- pel one to choose unreasonable or trivial relations on which to base them. The problems themselves should represent 30 true and important facts and relations of the other subjects as surely and rigidly as they should involve correct mathe- matical principles ; and all such exercises should be rightly related to the child's education in language. In like manner, when a child is engaged in nature study of 35 any kind, some valuable problems in mathematics may be found rightly related both to the subject directly in hand and 94 Educational Reviezv [March the child's natural progress in arithmetic. Also many of the lessons in nature study are directly related to some of the finest literature ever produced, in which analogies of nature are made the means of expression for the finest and most 5 delicate of the human experiences. When the child has mastered the physical facts on which the literary inspiration is based is the true time to give him the advantage of the study of such literature. These ideas are not only rightly related to one another, but to the mind itself. It is, so to speak, the 10 nascent moment when the mind can easily and fully master what might else remain an impenetrable mystery ; and all be- cause subjects and occasion have come into happy conjunction. This is not the place in which to attempt any elaboration of such a system of correlation. But I feel that its absence 15 from the report may make many persons feel that the latter. is so far incomplete. L. H. Jones, Superintendent of Schools, Cleveland, O. With the main lines of thought in this report I find myself in agreement. With many of its details, however, I am not in accord. I regret to have to express my dissent from its con- 20 elusions in the following particulars : 1. The report makes too little of the uses of grammar as supplying canons of criticism which enable the pupil to cor- rect his own English, and as furnishing a key (grammatical analysis) that gives him the power to see the meaning of 25 obscure or involved sentences. 2. For the study of literature, complete works are to be pre- ferred to the selections found in school readers. 3. That species of language exercise known as paraphras- ing I regard as harmful. 30 4. The study of number should not be omitted from the first year in school. Practice in the primary operations of arith- metic should not be omitted from the seventh and eighth years. The quadratic equation should be reserved for the High School. iSps] Committee of fifteen 95 5. The foreign language introduced into the elementary- school course should be a modern language — French or German. Latin should be reserved for those who have time and opportunity to master its literature. 6. In the general programme of studies, the school day is 5 cut up into too many short periods. The tendency of such a programme as that in the text would be to destroy repose of mind and render reflection almost an impossibility. 7. I desire to express my agreement with the opinions stated in Sections 2, 3, 6, and 9 of Mr. Gilbert's dissenting 10 opinion ; and, in the main, with what Mr. Jones says on the correlation of studies. William H. Maxwell, Superintendent of Schools, Brooklyn, N. Y. Ill COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS It is understood that the Committee is to treat of city school systems which are so large that persons chosen by the people to manage them, and serving without pay, cannot be expected to transact all the business of the system in person, 5 nor to have personal knowledge of all business transactions ; and which are also so large that one person employed to supervise the instruction cannot be assumed to personally manage or direct all of the details thereof; but must, in each case, act under plans of organization and administration established by lolaw, and through assistants or representatives. The end for which a school system exists is the instriiction of the cJiilch'en, the word instruction being used with the meaning it attains in the mind of a well-educated person, if not in the mind of an educational expert. 15 To secure this end, no plan of organization alone will suffice. Nothing can take the place of a sincere desire for good schools, of a fair knowledge of what good schools are and of what will make them, of a public spirit and a moral sense on the part of the people, which are spontaneous or which can 20 be appealed to with confidence. Fortunately the interest which the people have in their own children is so large, and the anxiety of the community for public order and security is so great, that public sentiment may ordinarily be relied upon, or may be aroused to action, to choose proper representa- 25 tives and take proper measures for the administration of the schools. If, in any case, this is not so, there is little hope of efficient schools. Wherever it is so, it alone will not suffice; but proper organization may become the instrument of public 96 Committee of fifteen 97 sentiment and develop schools that will be equal to the needs of all and become the safeguards of citizenship. Efificient schools can be secured only by providing suitable buildings and appliances and by keeping them in proper order, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, by employ- 5 ing, organizing, aiding, and directing teachers so that the instruction shall have life and power to accomplish the great end for which schools are maintained. The circumstances of the case naturally and quickly separate the duties of administration into two great departments: one 10 which manages the business affairs, and the other which super- vises the instruction. The business affairs of the school system may be transacted by any citizens of common honesty, correct purposes, and of good business experience and sagacity. The instruction will be ineffective and abnormally 15 expensive unless put upon a scientific educational basis and supervised by competent educational experts. There will be a waste of money and effort, and a lack of results, unless the authorities of these two departments are sympathetic with each other; that is, unless, on the one hand, 20 the business management is sound, is appreciative of good teaching, looks upon it as a scientific and professional employ- ment, and is alert to sustain it; and unless, on the other hand, the instructors are competent and self-respecting, know what good business management is, are glad to uphold it, and are 25 able to respect those who are charged with responsibility for it. To secure ef^ciency in these departments, there must be adequate authority and quick public accountability. The problem is not merely to secure some good schoolhouses, but good schoolhouses wherever needed, and to avoid the use of 30 all houses which are not suitable; it is not to get some good teaching, but to prevent all bad teaching and to advance all the teaching to the highest possible point of special training, of professional spirit, and of life-giving power. All of the business matters must be intrusted to competent business 35 hands and managed upon sound business principles; and all of the instruction must be put upon a professional basis. To 98 Educational Review [March insure this, there must be deliberation and wisdom in deter- mining policy, and then the power to do what is determined upon must be present and capable of exercise, and the respon- sibility for the proper exercise of the power must, in each 5 case, be individual and immediate. It is imperative that we discriminate between the legislative and the executive action in organizing and administering the schools. The influences which enter into legislative action looking to the general organization and work of the schools 10 must necessarily and fundamentally flow directly from the people and be widely spread. The greater the number of people, in proportion to the entire population, who can be led to take a positive interest and an active part in securing good schools the better will the schools be, provided the people can 15 secure the complete execution of their purposes and plans. But experience has clearly shown that many causes inter- vene to prevent the complete execution of such plans; that all the natural enemies of sound administration scent plenty of plunder and are especially active here; that good school 20 administration requires much strength of character, much business experience, much technical knowledge, and can be measurably satisfactory only when the responsibility is ade- quate and the penalties for maladministration are severe. Decentralization in making the plan and determining what 25 shall be done, and centralization in executing the plan and in doing what is to be done, are perhaps equally important. It should be remembered that the character of the school work of a city is not merely a matter of local interest, and that the maintenance of the schools does not rest merely or mainly 30 upon local authority. The people of the municipality, acting, and ordinarily glad to act, but in any event being required to act, under and pursuant to the law which has been ordained by the sovereign authority of the State, establish and maintain schools. They must have the taxing power which the State 35 alone possseses in order to enable them to proceed at all. They must regard the directions which the State sees fit to give as to the essential character of the schools, when it exer- 1895] Committee of Jifteen 99 cises in their behalf, or when it delegates to them, the power of taxation. The plan should be flexible for good while inflexible for evil. After meeting essential requirements, the people of the municipality may and should be empowered to proceed as much 5 farther as they will in elaborating a system of schools. The higher the plane of average intelligence, and the more generally and the more directly the people act in deciding what shall be done, and the greater the facility and completeness with which the intelligence of the city is able to secure the proper 10 execution of its plans by officers appointed for that purpose, the more elaborate and the more efficient will be the schools. It is idle to suggest that centering executive functions is un- wisely taking power away from the people. The people cannot execute plans themselves. The authority to do so must neces- 15 sarily be delegated. The question simply is: Shall it be given to a number of persons, and, if so, to how many? Or, to only one? This question is to be decided by experience, and it is of course true that experience has not been uniform. But it is doubtless true that the general experience of the communi-20 ties of the country has shown that where purely executive functions are conferred upon a number of persons, jointly, they yield to antagonistic influences and shift the responsibility from one to another; and that centering the responsibility for the proper discharge of executive duties upon a single 25 person, who gets the credit of good work and must bear the disgrace or penalty of bad work, and who can quickly be held accountable for misdeeds and inefficiency, has secured the fullest execution of public plans and the largest results. To call this "centralization," with the meaning which commonly 30 attaches to the word, is inaccurate. Instead of removing the power from the people, it is keeping the power closer to the people and making it possible for the citizen, in his individual capacity, and for organized bodies of citizens, to secure the execution of plans according to the purpose and intent with 35 which those plans were made. Indeed it is safe to say that experience has shown that it is the only way in which to pre- I oo Educational Review [March vent the frequent thwarting of the popular will and the defiance of individuals whose interests are ignored or whose rights are invaded. . So much, it seems to us, is strongly supported both by 5 reason and by experience, and is clearly manifest. But all the people of a city whose population is numbered by hundreds of thousands or millions cannot meet in a legislative assemblage to formulate plans for school government, any more than they can all meet to make plans for municipal government. loThey cannot even gather in mass meetings, and, if they could, mass meetings cannot deliberate. Even their legislative action must flow not from a primary but from a representative assembly. What shall such a representative legislative body be called? How shall it be chosen? Of how many members shall it be 15 composed? And what shall be its powers? These and other similar questions are all-important and must be determined by the law-making power of the State. The sentiments of the city, as expressed through the local organizations and particu- larly through the newspapers, must of course have much 20 weight with the legislature if there is anything like unanimity or any very strong preponderance of opinion in the city; for the plan for which a community expresses a preference will surely be likely to operate most effectually in that community. But the local sentiment is not conclusive. When divided, it 25 is no guide at all. The legislature is to take all the circum- stances into consideration, take the world's experience for its guide, and, acting under its responsibilities, it must exercise its high powers in ways that will build up a system of schools in the city likely to articulate with the State educational 30 system and become the effective instrument of developing the intelligence and training the character of the children of the city up to the ideals of the State. The name of the legislative branch of the school govern- ment is not material, and the one to which the people are 35 accustomed may well continue to be employed. There is no name more appropriate than the "Board of Education." The manner of selecting the members of this legislative 1895] Committee of fifteen loi body may turn somewhat upon the circumstances of the city. We are strongly of the opinion that in view of the well-known difBculty about securing the attendance of the most interested and intelligent electors at school elections, as well as because of the apparent impossibility of freeing school elections from 5 political or municipal issues, the better manner of selection is by appointment. If the members of the board are appointed, the mayor of the city is likely to be the official to whom the power of appoint- ment may most safely be intrusted. The mayor is not sug-io gested because his ofifice should sustain any relations to the school system, but in spite of the fact that it does not and should not. The school system should be absolutely emanci- pated from partisan politics and completely dissociated from municipal business. But we think the appointments should 15 be made by some one person rather than by a board. The mayor is representative of the whole city and all its interests. While not chosen with any reference to the interests of the schools, he may be assumed to have information as to the fit- ness of citizens for particular responsibilities and to be desirous 20 of promoting the educational interests of the people. If he is given the power of appointment, he should be particularly enjoined, by law, to consider only the fitness of individuals and to pay no regard to party affiliations, unless it be particu- larly to see to it that no one political party has an overwhelm- 25 ing preponderance in the board. The mayor very commonly feels constrained, under the pressure of party expediency, to make so many questionable appointments that he is only too glad, and particularly so when enjoined by the law, to make very acceptable appointments of members of school 30 boards, in order that he may gratify the better sentiment of the city. We are confident that the problem of getting a representative board of education is not so difficult as many think, if the board is not permitted to make patronage of work and of salaried positions at the disposal of the public school 35 system. Under such circumstances, and more and more so as we have approached such circumstances, appointment in the I02 Educational Review [March way we suggest has produced the best school boards in the larger cities of the country. Attempts to eliminate partisanship from school administra- tion, by arraying an equal number of partisans against each 5 other in school boards do not at least aim at an ideal. At times such boards have worked well and at others have led to mischievous consequences. The true course is to insist that all who have any share in the management of the schools shall divest themselves of partisanship, whether political or religious, 10 in such management, and give themselves wholly to the high interests intrusted to them. If it be said that this cannot be realized, it may be answered, without admitting it, that even if that were so it would be no reason why the friends of the schools should not assert the sound principle and secure its 15 enforcement as far as possible. We must certainly give no countenance to makeshifts which experience has shown to be misleading and expensive. The right must prevail in the end, and the earlier and more strongly it is contended for the sooner it will prevail. 20 The members of school boards should be representative of the whole population and of all their common educational interests, and should not be chosen to represent any ward or subdivision of the territory or any party or element in the political, religious, or social life thereof. Where this principle 25 is not enforced, the members will feel bound to gain what advantage they can for the sub-district or special interests they represent; bitter contests will ensue, and the common interests will suffer. The number of the members of a board of education should 30 be small. In cities of less than 500,000 inhabitants it should not be more than nine, and preferably not more than five. In the very largest cities it may well be extended to fifteen. The term for which m.embers are appointed should be a long one, say five years. 35 We think it an excellent plan to provide for two branches and sets of powers in the board of education; the one to have the veto power, or at least to act as a check upon the acts of 1 895 J Committee of fifteen 103 the other. This may be accomplished by creating the office of School Director and charging the incumbent with execu- tive duties on the business side of the administration, and by giving him the veto over the acts of the other branch of the board, which may be called the School Council. Beyond 5 the care and conservatism which are insured by two sets of powers acting against each other, this plan has the advantage of giving the chief executive officer of the system just as high and good a title as that of members of the board ; it is likely to secure a more representative man, and gives him larger pre- 10 rogatives in the discharge of his executive duties and better standing among the people, particularly among the employees and teachers associated with the public school system. If this plan is adopted, the school director should be required to give his entire time to the duties of his position 15 and be properly compensated therefor. He should be the custodian of all property and should appoint all assistants, janitors, and workmen authorized by the board for the care of this property. He should give bond with sufficient sureties and penalties for the faithful and proper discharge of all his 20 duties. He should be authorized by law to expend funds, within a fixed limit, for repairs, appliances, and help, without the action of the board. All contracts should be made by him and should run in his name, and he should be charged with the responsibility of seeing that they are faithfully and 25 completely executed. All contracts involving more than a limited and fixed sum of money should be let upon bids to be advertised for and opened in public. He should have a seat in the board of education, should not vote but should have the power to veto, either absolutely or conditionally, any of 30 the a-cts of the board through a written communication. This officer and the school council should together constitute the board of education. The board of education should be vested only with legisla- tive functions and should be required to act wholly through 35 formal and recorded resolutions. It should determine and direct the general policy of the school system. Within reason- I04 Educational Review [March able limits, as to amount, it should be given power, in its dis- cretion, to levy whatever moneys may be needed for school purposes. It should control the expenditure of all moneys beyond a fixed and limited amount, which may safely and 5 advantageously be left to the discretion of the chief executive business officer. It should authorize, by general resolutions, the appointment of necessary officers and employees in the business department, and of the superintendent, assistants, and teachers in the department of instruction, but it should be lo allowed to make no appointments other than its own clerk. With this necessary exception, single officers should be charged with responsibility for all appointments. This plan, not in all particulars, but in the essential ones, has been on trial in the city of Cleveland, O., for nearly three years, 15 and has worked with very general acceptability. If this plan is adopted, the chief executive officer of the system is already provided for and his duties have already been indicated. Otherwise it will be necessary for the board to appoint such an officer. In that event the law should declare him independ- 2oent, confer upon him adequate authority for the performance of executive duties, and charge him with responsibility. But we know of no statutory language capable of making an officer appointed by a board, and dependent upon the same board for supplies, independent in fact of the personal wishes of the 25 members of that board. And right here is where the troubles rush in to discredit and damage the school system. We now come to the subject of paramount importance in making a plan for the school government in a great city, namely, the character of the teaching force and the quality of 30 the instruction. A city school system may be able to with- stand some abuses on the business side of its administration and continue to perform its function with measurable success, but wrongs against the instruction must, in a little time, prove fatal. The strongest language is none too strong here. The 35 safety of the Republic, the security of American citizenship, are at stake. Government by the people has no more dan- gerous pitfall in its road than this, that in the mighty cities of 1895] Committee of fifteen 105 the land the comfortable and intelligent masses, who are dis- criminating more and more closely about the education of their children, shall become dissatisfied with the social status of the teachers and the quality of the teaching in the common schools. In that event, they will educate their children at 5; their own expense, and the public schools will become only good enough for those who can afford no better. The only way to avert this is by maintaining the instruction upon a purely scientific and professional footing. This is entirely practicable, but it involves much care and expense in training la teachers, the absolute elimination of favoritism from appoint- ments, the security of the right to advancement, after appoint- ment, on the basis of merit, and a general leadership which is kindly, helpful, and stimulating to individuals, which can secure harmonious co-operation from all the members, and 15 which lends energy and inspiration to the whole body. This cannot be secured if there is any lack of authority, and experience amply proves that it will not be secured if there is any division of responsibility. The whole matter of instruction must be placed in the hands of a superintendent of instruction, 20 with independent powers and adequate authority, who is charged with full responsibility. The danger of inconsiderate or improper action by one vested with such powers is of course possible, but it is remote. Regardless of the legal powers with which he may be indi-25, vidually vested, he is in fact and in law a part of a large system. He must act through others and in the presence of multitudes. There is great publicity about all he does. When a single officer carries such responsibility he is at the focus of all eyes. There are the strongest incentives to right 30 action. Without discovery, at least by many persons, he can- not act wrongfully. If he is required to act under and pur- suant to a plan, the details of which have been announced, and of which we shall speak in a moment, a wrongful act will be known to the world and he must bear the responsibility of 35 it, and the danger of maladministration is almost eliminated. Moreover, we must consider the alternative. It is not in 1 o6 Educational Review [March doubt. All who have had any contact with the subject are familiar with it. It is administration by boards or committees, the members of which are not competent to manage profes- sional matters and develop an expert teaching-force. Yet 5 they assume, and in most cases honestly, the knowledge of the most experienced. They override and degrade a superintendent, when they have the power to do so, until he becomes their mere factotum. For the sake of harmony and the continuance of his position he concedes, surrenders, and lo acquiesces in their acts, while the continually increasing teach- ing-force becomes weaker and weaker and the work poorer and poorer. If he refuses to do this, they precipitate an open rupture and turn him out of his position. Then they cloud the issues and shift the responsibility from one to another. There 1 5 are exceptions, of course, but they do not change the rule. It will be unprofitable to mince words about this all-impor- tant matter. If the course of study for the public schools of a great city is to be determined by laymen, it will not be suited to the needs of a community. If teachers are to be 2o appointed by boards or committees, the members of which are particularly sensitive to the desires of people who have votes or influence, looseness of action is inevitable and unworthy considerations will frequently prevail. If the action of a board or committee be conditioned upon the recommendation 25 of a superintendent, the plan will not suffice. No one person is stronger than the system of which he is a part. Such a plan results in contests, between the board and the superintendent, and such a contest is obviously an unequal one. There is little doubt of the outcome. In recommending for the 30 appointment of teachers, the personal wishes of members of the board, in particular cases, will have to be acquiesced in. If a teacher, no matter how unfit, cannot be dropped from the list without the approval of a board or committee after they have heard from her friends and sympathizers, she will remain 35 indefinitely in the service. This means a low tone in the teaching force and desolation in the work of the schools. If the superintendent accepts the situation, he becomes less and 1895] Committee of fifteen 107 less capable of developing a professional teaching service. If he refuses to accept it, he is very likely to meet humiliation-, dismissal is inevitable unless he is strong enough to make him- self secure by doing the right thing and going directly to the people and winning their approval. 5 The superintendent of instruction should be charged with no duty save the supervision of the instruction, but should be charged with the responsibility of making that professional and scientific, and should be given the position and authority to accomplish that end. 10 If the board of education is constituted upon the old plan, he must be chosen by the board. If it is constituted upon the Cleveland plan, he may be appointed by the school director with the approval of two-thirds or three-fourths of the council. The latter plan seems preferable, for it centralizes the main 15 responsibility of this important appointment in a single indi- vidual. In either case, the law and the sentiment of the city should direct that the appointee shall be a person liberally educated, professionally trained, one who knows what good teaching is, but is also experienced in administration, in touch 20 with public affairs and in sympathy with popular feeling. The term of the superintendent of instruction should be from five to ten years, and until a successor is appointed. In our judgment it should be determinate so that there may be a time of public examination, but it should be sufificiently long 25 to enable one to lay foundations and show results without being carried under by the prejudices which always follow the first operation of ef^cient or drastic plans. The salary should be fixed by law and not subject to change in the middle of a term or except by law. 30 For reasons already suggested, the superintendent, once appointed, should have power to appoint from an eligible list all assistants and teachers authorized by the board, and unlimited authority to assign them to their respective posi- tions and reassign them or remove them from the force at his 35 discretion. To secure a position upon the eligible list from which io8 Educational Review [March appointments may be made, a candidate, if without experience, should be required to complete the full four years' course of the city high schools, or its equivalent, and in addition thereto pass the examination of the board of examiners, and complete 5 at least a year's course of professional training in a city normal training school under the direction of the superintendent. If the candidate has had say three years of successful experience as a teacher, he should be eligible to appointment by passing an examination held by a general examining board. This lo board may be appointed by the board of education, but should examine none but graduates of the high school and training school unless specially requested so to do by the superintend- ent of instruction. The number admitted to the training schools should be limited, and the examinations should be 15 gauged to the prospective needs of the elementary schools, for new teachers. The supply of new teachers may well be largely, but should not be wholly, drawn from this local source. The force will gain fresh vitality by some appoint- ments of good and experienced teachers from outside. 20 The work of putting a large teaching force upon a profes- sional basis, of making the teaching scientific and capable of arousing minds to action, is so dif^cult that a layman can scarcely appreciate it. It has hardly been commenced, it has been made possible only when the avenues of approach to the 25 service have been closed against the unqualified and unworthy. After that, the supervision must be close and general as well as sympathetic and decisive. The superintendent must have . expert assistants enough to learn the characteristics and measure the work of every member of the force. They must 30 help and encourage, advise and direct, according to the cir- cumstances of each case. The work must be reduced to a system and the workers brought into harmonious relations. Each room must show neatness and life, and the whole force must show ardor and enthusiasm. By directing the reading, 35 by encouraging an interchange of visits, by organizing clubs for self-improvement, by frequent class, grade, and general meet- ings, the professional spirit must be aroused and the work 1895] Committee of fifteen 109 energized. Those who show teaching power, versatility, amiability, reliability, steadiness, and growth, must be re- warded with the highest positions; those who lack fiber, who have no energy, who are incapable of enthusiasm, who will not work agreeably with their associates, must go upon the retired 5 list. Directness and openness must be encouraged. Attempts to invoke social, political, religious, or other outside influences to secure preferment must operate to close the door to advancement. In general and in particular, bad teaching must be prevented. In every room, a firm and kindly management 10 must prevail and good teaching must be apparent. All must work along common lines which will insure general and essen- tial ends. Until a teacher can do this and can be relied upon to do it, she must be helped and directed; when it is manifest she cannot or will not do it, she must be dismissed : when she 15 shows she can do it and wants to do it, she must be left to exercise her own judgment and originality and do it in her own way. In the schoolroom, the teacher must be secure against interference. In all the affairs of the school, her judg- ment must be trusted to the utmost limit of safety. Then 20 judgment will strengthen and self-respect and public respect will grow. The qualities which develop in the teacher will develop in the school. To develop these qualities with any degree of uniformity, in a large teaching force, requires steady and uniform treatment through a long course of years under 25 superintendence which is professional, strong, just, and cour- ageous; which has ample assistance and authority ; which is worthy of public confidence and knows how to marshal facts, present arguments, and appeal to the intelligence and integrity of the community with success. 30 It is the business of the plan of organization to secure such superintendence. It cannot be secured through an ordinary board of education operating on the old plan. It is well known what the influences are that are everywhere prevalent and must inevitably prevent it. It may be secured in the 35 law, and it must be secured there or it will not be secured at all. no EdiLcatioiial Review [March In concluding this portion of the report, the Committee indicates briefly the principles which must necessarily be observed in framing a plan of organization and government in a large city school system. 5 First. The affairs of the school should not be mixed up with partisan contests or municipal business. Second. There should be a sharp distinction between legis- lative functions and executive duties. Third. Legislative functions should be clearly fixed by lo statute and be exercised by a comparatively small board, each member of which is representative of the whole city. This board, within statutory limitations, should determine the policy of the system, levy taxes, and control the expenditures. It should make no appointments. Every act should be by a 15 recorded resolution. It seems preferable that this board be created by appointment rather than election, and that it be constituted of two branches acting against each other. Fourth. Administration should be separated into two great independent departments, one of which manages the business 20 interests and the other of which supervises the instruction. Each of these should be wholly directed by a single ofificial who is vested with ample authority and charged with full responsibility for sound administration. Fifth. The chief executive officer on the business side 25 should be charged with the care of all property and with the duty of keeping it in suitable condition: he should provide all necessary furnishings and appliances : he should make all agree- ments and see that they are properly performed : he should appoint all assistants, janitors, and workmen. In a word, he 30 should do all that the law contemplates and all that the board authorizes, concerning the business affairs of the school system, and when anything goes wrong he should answer for it. He may be appointed by the board, but we think it preferable that he be chosen in the same way the members of the board 35 are chosen, and be given a veto upon the acts of the board. Sixth. The chief executive officer of the department of instruction should be given a long term and may be appointed 1895] Committee of fiftee7i iii by the board. If the board is constituted of two branches, he should be nominated by the business executive and confirmed by the legislative branch. Once appointed, he should be independent. He should appoint all authorized assistants and teachers from an eligible list to be constituted as provided by 5 law. He should assign to duties and discontinue services for cause, at his discretion. He should determine all matters relating to instruction. He should be charged with the responsibility of developing a professional and enthusiastic teaching force and of making all the teaching scientific and 10 forceful. He must perfect the organization of his department and make and carry out plans to accomplish this. If he can- not do this in a reasonable time he should be superseded by one who can. The government of a vast city school system comes to have 15 an autonomy which is largely its own and almost independent of direction or restraint. The volume of business which this government transacts is represented only by millions of dol- lars: it calls not only for the highest sagacity and the ripest experience, but also for much special information relating to 20 school property and school affairs. Even more important than this is the fact that this government controls and deter- mines the educational policy of the city and carries on the instruction of tens or hundreds of thousands of children. This instruction is of little value, and perhaps vicious, unless it is 25 professional and scientific. This government is representative. All citizens are compelled to support it, and all have large interests which it is bound to promote. Every parent has rights which it is the duty of this school government to pro- tect and enforce. When government exacts our support of 30 public education, when it comes into our homes and takes our children into its custody and instructs them according to its will, we acquire a right which is as exalted as any right of property, or of person, or of conscience, can be ; and that is the right to know that the environment is healthful, that the man- 35 agement is kindly and ennobling, and that the instruction is rational and scientific. It is needless to say to what extent 112 Editcational Review [March these interests are impeded or blocked, or how commonly these rights of citizenship and of parentage are denied or defied, or how helpless the individual is who seeks their enforcement under the system of school government which 5 has heretofore obtained in some of the great cities of the country. This is not surprising. It is only the logical result of the rapid growth of cities, of a marvelous advance in knowl- edge of what is needed in the schools, of the antagonism, of selfish interests by which all public administration and particu- lolarly school administration is encompassed, and of the lack of plan and system, the confusion of powers, the. absence of indi- vidual responsibility, in the government of a system of schools. By the census of 1890 there are seven cities in the United States, each with a population greater than any one of sixteen £5 States. The aggregate population of twelve cities exceeds the aggregate population of twenty States. Government for edu- cation certainly requires as strong and responsible an organiza- tion as government for any other purpose. These great centers of population, with their vast and complex educational prob- 2olems, have passed the stage when government by the time-" honored commission will sufifice. No popular government ever determined the policy and administered the affairs of such large bodies of people successfully, ever transacted such a vast volume of business satisfactorily, ever promoted high and benefi- 25 cent ends, ever afforded protection to the rights of each indi- vidual of the great multitude, unless in its plan of organization there was an organic separation of executive, legislative, and judicial functions and powers. All the circumstances of the case, and the uniform experience of the world, forbid our expect- 3oing any substantial solution of the problem we are considering until it is well settled in the sentiments of the people that the school systems of the greatest cities are only a part of the school systems of the States of which these cities form a part, and are subject to the legislative authority thereof: until there is a 35 plan of school government in each city which differentiates executive acts from legislative functions; which emancipates the legislative branch of that government from the influence of 1895] Committee of fifteen 113 pelf-seekers; which fixes upon individuals the responsibility for executive acts, either performed or omitted ; which gives to the intelligence of the community the power to influence legislation and exact perfect and complete execution ; which affords to every citizen whose interests are ignored, or whose 5 rights are invaded, a place for complaint and redress ; and which puts the business interests upon a business footing, the teaching upon an expert basis, and gives to the instruction that protection and encouragement which is vital to the development of all professional and scientific work. 10 We have undertaken to indicate the general principles which we think should be observed in setting up the frame- work of government of a large city school system. While we have no thought that any precise form of organization which could be suggested, would, in all details, be imperative, we are 15 confident that the form or plan of organization is of supreme consequence, and that any which disregards the principles we have pointed out will work to disadvantage or lead to disaster. Andrew S. Draper, President of the Illinois State University, Champaign, 111. W. B. Powell, Superintendent of Schools, Washington, D. C. A. B. Poland, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Trenton, N. J. I find myself in general accord with the doctrines of the report. There is only one feature of it from which I feel 20 obliged to dissent, and that is an important though not neces- sarily a vital one. I refer to the office of school director. I see no need of such an officer elected by the people, and I do see the danger of his becoming a part of the political organi- zation for the dispensation of patronage. 25 All power and authority in school affairs should reside ulti- mately in the board of education, consisting of not more than eight persons appointed by the mayor of the city, to hold office four years, two members retiring annually and eligible for reappointment once and no more. This board should 30 1 1 4 Educational Review appoint as its chief officer a superintendent of instruction, whose tenure should be during good behavior and efficiency, and whose powers and duties should be to a large extent defined by statute law, and not wholly or chiefly by the regu- Slations of the board of education. The superintendent of instruction should have a seat and voice but not a vote in the board of education. The board of education should also appoint a business agent, and define his powers and duties in relation to all matters of buildings, repairs, and supplies, sub- lostantially asset forth in the report in relation to the school director. All teachers should be appointed and annually reappointed or recommended by the superintendent of instruction, until after a sufficient probation they are appointed on a tenure 15 during good behavior and efficiency. All matters relating to courses of study, text-books, and examinations should be left to the superintendent and his assistants, constituting a body of professional experts who should be regarded as alone competent to deal with such 20 matters, and should be held accountable therefor to the board of education only in a general way, and not in particular details. Edwin P. Seaver, Superintendent of Schools, Boston, Mass. I concur in the recommendations of the Sub-committee on the Organization of City School Systems as summarized in the con- 25 eluding portion of the report, omitting in item Third, the words " And that it be constituted of two branches acting against each other." Omit Fifth, " But we think it preferable that he be chosen in the same way that members of the board are chosen and be given veto power upon the acts of the board." I 30 recommend that the veto power be given to the president of the Board. Albert G. Lane, Superintendent of Schools, Chicago, 111. LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 019 823 540 4 { / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 019 823 540 '