The New Education

ment in Soc

"Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" queried a doubter. Answers, in bell tones, the philosopher, "If a man can build a better house or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he fix hi

had worked to secure. When the time came to go before the Park Board over in the center of the city, to secure a playground near the Oyler School, the local bank furnished automobiles, and dozens of business men, leaving their offices, took the opportunity to endorse the w

gs he thought about the relation between the school and the community, wondering why the two were so completely divorced from one another. Then the problem was focused on one concrete example-a boy named John, nearly sixteen years old, who had succeeded in getting only as far as the eighth grade. John, who had never taken kindly to language or grammar, began thinking pretty seriously toward the end of his l

e boy, forgetting his shortcomings, and magnifying his peculiar talents, which I felt sure were considerable along mechanical lines. They acceded to my request, giving John a place in the school, to which he walked three miles back and forth daily for three years. For many years John has been superintendent of the lighting plant of a large city, and his experience has always stood out before me as a terrible rebuke to the then dominant educational regime, which could offer Joh

eir squalid tenants, and worst of all there were the rough, boisterous, over-age, uninterested, incorrigible boys and girls, who flitted from school to home, to street, to jail, and then,

ildren in school and the Juvenile Court couldn't keep them out of jail. Even the majesty of the law is lost on children, you know." The children

l for Appli

ries, wretched homes, parental ignorance, social neglect, educational impotence-f

tion with the grade work of the Oyler School. "As I become more and more familiar with existing conditions in our school district," he wrote, "I am convinced that a Manual Training Depart

ds as well as trained minds they could render a much more useful service, which, in time, would not only show itself in more profitable retur

al need should make a stronger appeal for support than

thousand dollars." Manual training was assured! No! Not yet. The Board of Education reached the conclusion that manual training in the grades was undesirable. "W

The manufacturers were not only interested in education, but were willing to support it financially. There was a change of administration.

ng a Loca

eeping Oyler children out of mischief and in school. The conventional type of manual train

ey were-most of them-of that unfortunate class that has seen more trouble in a few years than most of us see in a lifetime. I was constantly asking myself: 'Where do these folks come in?' 'What is our school doing to help their function in life?' 'Are we really of any assistance to them after all?' 'Is it worth their while to

at spirit, beginning by sizing up the needs of the community, continuing by becoming imbued with an idea of the community needs and ending by presen

which he availed himself in an astoundingly short space of time by introducing a system o

d shops. Subnormal pupils in the third, fourth and fifth grades were to have four and one-half hours (one school day) for applied work each week. In order to give special help to backward pupils they were sent in small groups to the seventh and eighth grade teachers while their classes were d

ss" work palatable to the sterner sex much of it takes the form of instruction in camp life-cooking in tin cans and other handy home-made devices. In a community where boys have always been trained to regard home

ms of sewing-darning, hemming, sewing on buttons. At th

Science Whic

r that name. The children at Oyler have a peculiar need for domestic science, because in many of the homes mother works out, and even when she is not away her knowledge of domestic arts is so

ng and sewing they are carefully trained in buying. They must make the dollar go a long way-buying in season the things cheapest at that time and preparing them

meat

tomat

hett

ese

ad

r, et

0

re boy, makes t

t $

toes

bag

ad

lk

ter

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s, one thing at a time, until they reach the upper grades,

e-where frequently a darning needle is unknown-they teach the mother and older sisters how to sew, until whole families, under the influence of one school child, improve their w

-rooms are ignorant of the simplest devices known to civilization for the making of comfortable homes. The domes

rcial Products

surfaces the boys turn out finished, marketable products. The eighth grade boys, with the aid of the instructor, have built a drill-press from the scraps of machinery which were found lying about. Now they are at work on an engine. Ela

nvy. These same boys made a book and magazine rack, of rather elaborate design, and an umbrella rack for each of the schools in Cincinnati. These racks, displayed in the offices of the various principals, would stand co

ial. The school machines are theirs, subject to their use at any time. Taking advantage of this, the boys sharpen the home knives and hatchets, ma

Interest

ey find the children interested. Strange to relate, an interest in school came in at the front door with Mr. Voorhes' new plan for applied education. The wild boys and dis

gh spirits of the older ones, and at the same time give them an applied education of which they feel the value. Tha

ldren and later with the assistance of the Mothers' Club

Mother

ever came into our school." Yet the kindergarten here, as elsewhere, has had a life and death grapple for existence. In the West End, dominated by its conservative, German atmosphere, the pleas for kindergartens fell on deaf ear

g to the mothers, and trying to persuade them that this was not failure, but merely th

her did not come to the Mo

ouldn't lea

one expected her to leave the baby. Tel

many as three, who were too young to go to school. At one Mothers' Meeting, after the club had be

January) seventy of the eighty-five paid up members were present, intelligent, eager, interested, participating heartily in the discussions

and it when they refused to do what I told them. The other day my mother said to me, "You're about the most patient woman I ever saw. What's done it?" And I sa

ldren in the upper grades as well as in the kindergarten go to the grade teachers too, seeking advice, or making suggestions. They have learned to

the grades refuse has been cleaned and kept from the streets. The club maintains, out of its fund, a medicine ch

very child had the high water mark on his wrist, and their clothes and bodies were filthy. They didn't know a bathtub from a horse trough; th

ght her," "This is mine!" with a delighted satisfaction in having added something to the club. The kindergarten, filling t

appearance o

ago the discipline problem in this school was more serious than in any school in town.

he Mothers' Club and the kindergarten, for it was in the kindergarten that the first real attempt was made to bring this school into closer relations with the home by home visiting. Little by little the example told on the grade teachers, who went to see the children when they were absent; nor

call and see him. She went hesitatingly, however, for this boy had been rough and troublesome all through school, but particularly to her. At last her mind was made up

, Tom's been l

er?" the te

hat he would get well right quic

s to which he was not accustomed? Is it strange that he should have

see its results in the changed homes and lives about them. The children engaged in occupations which they enjoy and

community which he had studied carefully, by providing for it an education that met its needs. Though revolutionary from an educational viewpoint

Spirit

center its activities about the needs of the community in which it is located, but they put their belief into practice, studying the community diligently and seeking to

chool man in Cincinnati. The teachers feel the same way. Never yet have we had a teacher who wanted to leave. Each one has h

not do very much. One visitor spent half a day obs

alf a day and I haven't seen you

sk, ready to get behind any one of my teachers, with two hundred and fifty pounds from th

school does commands the respect of the people of Cincinnati. In the school, as we

e of the west end, and an invaluable cog in the educational machinery of the city. Its tone has changed, too. Mr. Roberts, who came, a total stranger, to assist in the work while Mr. Voorhe

er looked upon high school attendance much as a New York gunman looks at Sunday School. Last year of the thirty-three children in the eighth grade, eighteen-more than half-went to high school. The tradition against high school has been replaced by a healthy des

enthusiastically engaged in school work. The complexion of the neighborhood has changed, too. It is less rough, the police have less to do. Houses are neater, children better clothed and cared for. Oyler has won the hearts of its people, i