The New Education

Kinder

gs, the children's sports of these kindergarten years, make a joyous entry-way into the grades. In Gary the kindergarten child sees life. The flowers, leaves, grasses, lichens, fruits, butterflies, moths, and birds are usually brought to the classroom. The Gary children go on expeditions to explore nature's wonderland, besides making excursions to squares, parks, and to the open country. The kindergartners of Cincinnati plant tulip bulbs in the c

ating the

gartens, only a small portion of the children attend them. On the other hand, since practically all sc

ike the kindergarten, it must provide for child needs. Everywhere schools are turning from the old methods of teaching spelling, multiplication, and syntax to the new methods of teac

the city. In addition to these complete maps, each child is given a series of small maps, each of which centers about a familiar square, store, or public building. Then, from this simple beginning, the child fills in the surrounding streets and buildings. Newark geography begins in the third grade with a description of the school yard and the s

t on a background of the geography of yards, alleys, squares, streets and playgrounds with which the

ing at M

ents through addition, subtraction and the abatis of multip

ation is

's twice

f three pe

ice drive

-the desire to win-these little scorekeepers learn addition. As they advance in the work, they take up practical problems-measure the room for flooring and measure the school pavement for cementing. At school No. 4, in Indianapolis, one of the tea

of meats, groceries, and other household articles; the cost of heating and lighting the home; the cost of home furnishing; the construction of buildings; cost-keeping in various factories; the manag

Well taught, it becomes a part of the real experiences of child

el Engli

h it, sell with it, converse with it, write with it, adore with it, and protest with it. English is the open sesa

en were writing original poems, fables and stories! The monotony of routine English work was completely b

broomstick, with a cat at her side, riding toward the moon. Each child wa

as an o

w up in

sit t

shining

oved somewhat upon

at was as bla

as her ha

eyes which l

d high over

ld have done a better piece of work than

ONLIGH

stars are

und with sn

are jus

e the mor

moonlig

ing here

now whit

g ever

to write down what they believed were the circumstances under which Riley composed t

ool Life," are a few of the titles. Having chosen his title, the child outlines the work and then begins on it, writing it week by week, illustrating the text with drawings, illuminating and decorating the margins with water colors, painting a tasty cover, a

r morning, out in the squares, the parks and the fields, watching for the birds. He became absorbed in writing his book, but at the same time the teachers of other subjects found him taking additional interest in them. The whole tone of his

Spalding, "he showed a deeper knowledge of the su

rades, should have stepped with me into the class of an Indianapolis teacher of seventh grade English. The teacher sat in the back of the room. The class be

a venison. And then Jacob, he took the venison-I mean the goat's meat to Isaac, and Isaac couldn't tell it wasn't Esau b

Miss Howes, "has any on

uarters of the cla

, Edw

spoke quietly to the boy

ud enough. Then you should rai

ed to make the same criticism) sat

, Ma

asn't very good. You

ulness, criticisms were made. When the

This is your first time

es

are and precision she outlined his mistakes, suggest

es on quite pretentious forms. Beginning with Aesop's Fables, the children tell fairy tales, Bible stories, Greek legends, Norse legends, animal stories,

a description of the day in a Season Journal; Thursday is set aside for the revision and correction of compositions; and on Friday, the letters for the

ginal Fa

one girl, Dorothy Morrison, selects as her title, "How the Witch got the Black Cat for h

accompanied her on her midnight rides. That wicked person was always

an, who had no reason to do so. This good fairy, Eilene, finally decided to take the shap

she assumed the form of a fairy and entreated him to

sed to do

e moon and on spying Eilene she exclaimed, 'Aha, jus

t then Crono grabbed at her, but she was too quick for her, for she

the girl she muttered

se she thought that she could outwit Crono with all her fairy power, but she was mistaken, for Crono had more power than she. One day, while sitting at the moon's knee, listening

w always accompanies her on her Halloween rides when she tel

eps near him, and even to this day, if we look up at the moon, we can see the picture of Eilene.

ow and th

ws" was announced as a topic, and one Irish

AND THE

species. Accordingly I went, and after passing numerous cages containing all kinds of animals, I arrived at the bird cages

teadily for a few seconds and then actually winked at me. 'Well, young man,' he said in a throaty

scratching up his potatoes. All his shouting and screaming did not scare us a bit. One day one of my companions came winging with the news that Silas had a farm hand. I laughed and said, "If there is another man on the farm then Silas Whimple must be dead." Off we flew to investigate. Sure enough, out in a patch of potatoes was a man. Watching him quite a while, I saw he did not move or make a noise as Silas would. He just stood still. I came down to take a closer look, when who should come to the door

e up with something to eat, so

he children write with ardor and read eagerly the literatur

erest if they are linked to life. The most irksome task has its pleasa

hool a

f wretched homes near one school in a crowded district. The boys in the school renovated the homes, converting one into a rug shop, another into a mop factory, and still a third into a shoe-shop. In these shops the children of the school did their trade work.

dge, has received nation-wide recognition. Six hundred dollars, appropriated by the Board o

day. The hours are 4 to 6, or 7:30 to 9:30. On Friday, anyone comes who cares to. The day pupils are from the grammar schools and the eve

owed her tastefully arranged apartment. "The girls in the Technical High School worked out the color schemes

ach case preparing menus and cooking the food. A meal is served nearly every day. The service falls to the housekeeping class, which is also responsible for cleaning up, tending the furnace, washing, ironing and the like. Included in this part of the work are a number of thorough discussions of personal hygiene and home sanita

dy, or else, if you please, there are as many courses as there

es, together with canned fruits, jellies, jams and pickles, which the girls put up, give the school s

papered and painted themselves. "Two of them have since done the same thing with

h the facts of life as the girls who come to school see t

aking Ne

ng is, perhaps, a medical inspection of schools which involves a thorough physical examination of all school children by experts. By this scheme

ted, in the interims of time between manual activities. Weaving, woodworking, folding and similar employments hold the attention of sub-normal children where intellectual work will not. The special school, freed from the throttling

ver, the windows are notable by their absence. The school supplies caps and army blankets, a milk lunch in the middle of the forenoon and the afternoon, and a plain, wholesome dinner at noon. A few mont

mplaint. The children are too lively. Fancy! They get a supply of oxygen sufficient to stimulate them into life during school hours. How tragic this mus

nd a number of other cities trailing behind. When you remember that the Chicago School Board reported that in the Chicago schools there were "five thousand child

t place to be occupied outside of school hours. Chicago, with an unequaled system of playgrounds, and Philadelphia, with a department

ool and th

daytime. Every progressive city and town has a night school now, and the scholars who come after working hours use the same expensive equipment that is furnished to the regular classes. Machines, cooking apparatus, maps and blackboard all do doubl

d with its school or library system, while in a center like New York, the Board of Education has established an elaborate organization for the delivery of l

Why should the mothers and fathers not be organized into "Home and School Leagues," meeting in the schools as they do on a large scale in Philadelphia? Why should not the social sentiment of a community be crystal

lant must be made to yield a return in broad

ys for O

l, they have introduced new courses which aim to open larger fields for child experience. Hygiene, nature study,

eveloping into something of which every boy and girl may be proud. Beginning with nature study and elementary science, the hygiene course in Indianapolis emphasizes, first, the care of the body and then, in the seventh and

cale, in all progressive educational systems. There is an education in watching things grow; an educat

ce. Trips to factories teach them the relation between industry and the individual life, while social concepts are developed by newspaper and magazine reading, book reading and class discussions of the articles and books wh

high degree. In Gary, Indianapolis and Cincinnati, seventh and eighth grade girls make their own garments, cook and serve meals to teachers or to other classes; while in the advanced

athematics, geography, history and science of the seventh and eighth grades is supplemented by social dancing, physical training and music in all of these courses; and in addition for the Commercial Course by typewriting, shorthand, bookkeeping, business arithmetic and designing; fo

he end of the eighth grade. Curiously enough, all types of children have flocked into it. Sons of doctors, lawyers and well-to-do business men; boys and girls preparing for college, and children who must stop school in a year or two are all clamoring for admission. In spite of the fact that pupils are kept in these school

to meet the needs or wants of any class of children or of any individual child. The storehouse of the

ool an

or not. With them, the problem of education shapes itself into this question: "Shall they be well or badly prepared for their work?" The boys ente

uction of youths over fourteen years of age who are engaged in regular employment, such board of education is authorized to require all youths who have not satisfactorily completed the eighth grade of the elementary schools to continue their schooling until they are sixteen

In Cleveland they are voluntary; in Cincinnati they are compulsory. In both cities, children

protest. Yes, but

wing and designing, shop-work, millinery, dressmaking and domestic science. In som

hich are intended to provide a technical training for the boys

earlier age than fourteen and Mr. MacNary insists, where possible, that they complete the regular seventh grade work before coming to him. His school, which includes pattern making, cabinet work, carpentry and machine shop work, is run on the "job" plan. That is, a boy is assigned to a job such as making a head-stock

hit on the plan of letting each boy divide his time as he needed to. When he has drawing and estimating to do, he does that and when the

chers in conference to discuss their work a

e work, and of these "grade failures," many succeed admirably in the new school. During the two years of this shop-work, the boys get a training which enables them t

ich cities are making to bring school and shop toge

a Chanc

f homework. On the one hand, homework for the sake of homework may be elimina

ove; the floor was littered with children and rubbish, and just under the window a child sat, her book before her on the supper-covered dining table, doing multiplication examples-her homework. The well-to-do child, less than

chool. Why then should the school not be open for the child? "Why, indeed," asked the schoolmen of Newark, N. J

tion, lent library books in batches of forty, for two months at a time. Evening after evening, the boys and girls assemble and with tex

g Satan in th

so summer vacations became the established rule, but the city street needs neither the boy nor the girl at any time of the year. Idlene

chool is designed primarily to interest the child. Games, stories, gardening, manual wo

nd, have established vacation schools in which children may make up

the able children to advance more rapidly in school, and, in general, as a means of keeping c

ced to his children that school would start again on the following Monday. Fearfully he approached the building. The streets about the school seemed unusually deserted that Monday morning. Suppose no one should be there! When the gong sounded, however, more

od work could be expected. There was no attendance officer on duty, but the children were regular. Order was so good that on hot days we put up the sashes betwee

tween the first and eighth grades by one-third, which means a saving to them and to the school. Since it is the able children who come, the

the Whole Ch

step from t

writing and

tune of the

authorities are providing for the whole child in their schools. Many schools have manual training and domestic science; many schools have school gardens and playgrounds; many schools have nature w

itting each child to advance in his subject when he is ready to do so; third, by keeping the school open morning, afternoon and evening during practically the entire year; fourth, by making the work of interest to each indivi

y schools. John's school day (from 8:30 A. M. to 4:00 P. M.) is divided equally between regular work (reading, writing, geogr

s, sports and gymnastics, und

udy, elementary science

ods-Reading, writing,

ch

-Playground

Drawing and m

ods-History, political

ead and his hands, and alternated the work in such

e one period of play. The four special subjects (drawing and manual training, music and literature, nature study and science, and

re forty children in each class. For science and manual training these classes split in two. At the end of each period, or of each two periods, depending on the subject, the ch

age, and perhaps placed in a lower arithmetic class. He may even be transferred to another teacher for special arithmetic work. Th

ght, or during the summer months. The schools afford him every chance to keep up in every subject, and if he cannot make his

l seeks to bridge the limitations, expand the possibilities, and give John Frena a thousand and one reasons for bel

g the Scho

stem of promotion which once in each year, with automatic precision, separated the sheep

e goats, it was a tragedy. The child who had failed in one out of six branch

d upon in Springfield, Mass., by the division of each grade into three divisions-advanced, normal and backward. These divisions the teacher handles separately so that when promotion tim

n Indianapolis, the child entering the sixth grade, takes all English with one teacher from that time until the end of the eighth grade. If the child is strong in English, he advances rapidly. If he is weak in English,

work in nature study or history. The departmental work is strengthened in Gary, in Indianapolis, and in a number of other cities, by afternoon work, Saturday classes and vac

h any other children who do not fit into any grade, are placed in an ungraded class. A typical ungraded class of fifty pupils contained Germans, Russians, Greeks, French, Italians and Polish children, who

aling with special cases. The case of any child who, for this reason or that, cannot keep up with the work in a

round for An El

ood work. They may be welded into a unified system, aglow with the real interests of real life. It is possible to correl

as an example School No. 52, which is located in an average district. The children, neither very ric

an hour and a half per week is devoted to simple weaving, knife-work, raffia work, sewing and basketry. Grade six has four and a half hours of similar work each week, while in grades seven

. "How can the necessary subjects be taught in two-thirds of the

apply their knowledge get as good or better marks in the academic work than the three-thirds children. That, howeve

for basketry and pottery. In the English classes, the problems of caning and weaving are written and discussed. The mathematical problems are problems of the school. Children in the sixth year keep careful accounts of personal receipts and expenditures-accounts which are balanced semi-weekly. The boy in one woodworking class makes out an order for materials. A boy in another class makes the necessary computations and fills the order. All c

baskets are taken home. Eighty chairs are caned by the children each year. The bindery binds magazines, songs and special literature. The boys make sleds and carts, hall stands, umbrella racks, center tables and stools. They make cupboards and shel

rved P

s printed

had taken up the study of book-making. They even went to a bindery and saw a book bou

Bo

ut

8 A

ans of entertainments; an essay by Hazel Almas on "The History of Books," one by Adele Wise on "The Printing of a Book," and one by

ad learned their lesson, to come and talk to them on Commencement Day. He came, made a splendid address

re investigating wool and silk; while in Eighth B the girls are studying cotton and flax. This "study" means much. Not only do the children discuss the t

description of pin-making, so she asked the class to write out a letter to

ol N

s, Ind., Oc

n Pin C

bury,

gh to send us, I have decided to write and ask you if you would k

into the world in January, and your process of ma

out the making of pins, and we are

sinc

Har

Company sent immediately twenty d

hey are as enthusiastic as the pupils. Four years' trial has convinced them. On the day that I visited the school, I walked into

r, "is off at a teachers' meeting. She left these

fascinating whole as the most fortunate adults find in later life? Out of such a school may we not well develop harmony and keen life? Nev

azed Trail to

of educational progress has led away from the three R's along a trail, blazed at first by a few men and women who dreamed and stepped forward hesitatingly. Often they retraced their s

behold the way, explored by hesitating, derided pioneers, no longer a trail, but a broad highway. Others have gone-their name is legion-and have succeeded. The three R's are but the beginning of an adequate elementary curriculum. You, in your o