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 APPLIED ItvHGE |„e 
 
Overloading' of 
 s^c High School 
 Currfculum V ^ 
 
 loi 
 
 E. W. HAGARTY. B.A. 
 
 h 14 1 
 
THE OVERLOADING OF THE HIGH 
 SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 To the College and High School Department of the Ontario 
 Educational Association, April jrd, ii)oj. 
 
 BY E. W. HA(-,.\RTY, li.A. ' 
 

 u 
 
 1^-4! 
 
THE OVEUI.()AI)IN(; OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 
 CUKklClJUJM. 
 
 IIY K. W. KAfiAHTY. I(.A.. TOKONTO. 
 
 MANY STANDI'OINTS. 
 
 Tlieri! iiru many HtatidpoiiiU from which tliis Hubject can Ih> 
 viowut-I. Thurc in tlmt of the Univci-Hity und the H/lucation De- 
 piu'ttncnt on the one Hide, and that of the Hij^li School on the 
 other. There is tliat of tlie matlieinatica) professor and that of the 
 Hif^h Scltool teacher of matlieinatica. Similarly of the classical 
 professor and of tfie Hijfh School claRsical uacher. Likowi.se in 
 Modern Ijanguaj^os and in Science. There is, too, the standpoint 
 of- the honeat pupil at school and that of the intellijjent and 
 anxious parent at home. There i.s the standpoint of the examiner 
 who annually groans over results. There is the standpoint of the 
 medical adviser. Besides all these, and surely worthy of con- 
 fiideration, there is the standpoint of the impartial, disinterested 
 educator. This laiter, I take it, is the one which will be com- 
 placently and without argument on my part, adopted by the 
 majority, if not all, of my hearers. No doubt we all claim to be 
 ideal educators and to have an ideal standpoint. Let us make sure 
 that we have this standpoint before we begin the consideration of 
 the subject. I once had the temerity to enquire the opinion of a 
 university professor on a certain point. The professor was a 
 member of the senate and therefore, I suppose, ont who had a good 
 deal to do with the periodical attempts to balance and nicely 
 adjust our High School curriculum. The point on which 1 sought 
 lii.s opinion wa.s one of general educational interest, and ..e on 
 which any educationist, especially one charged with the duty of 
 assisting to frame a curriculum, ought to have and to exercise an 
 opinion. The answer I received was a diplomatic intimation that 
 the professor made a point of never {never, mark you, neither in 
 private conversation nor at senate committee meetings, I presume) 
 interfering in any question that did not concern his own depart- 
 ment. I could enlarge upon this, but my remarks at present are 
 merely introductory— on the subject of strndpoints. The applica- 
 tion is obvious. Now, are we going to bring this spirit of exclusive 
 departmentalism into the present discussion ? If so, our time will 
 
 ■c>Ofii:^U 
 
be WMtr I. Siir..ly it Ih nnt t,K. irmcli to cx|H,ct tlmt for on.. Iiric.f 
 ".iir. no nnittir wli.it our uttiiii.l.. in ovfryilay inacticf inuy )mw 
 
 iHM.n, w<. Kimil look n: thin important ,|UCTtion fron. » coi on, 
 
 ilisint..ru8t>.,l NUn,l|H,int. 1*1 ii.h c'iik,. to Iw Cluwiicaj or Motjurn, 
 Miithcumticil or Science, unci for thu wliil,. Lii,l..,,vor to \k in anirit 
 sinipli' uiliiditiiM 
 
 TIIK KVII.. 
 
 IlaviriK ll,u» ciciru.l tliu Kround, Iff niu proceml at onco to tin. 
 NnLject nndfr .liwii-wion. Kor many yt.arH I havo f,;lt that in 
 lliKh School work wu an; uttniii^lim, /,„, mu.l, awl „m,m,,IMi„,, 
 Inn I, til,'. With ad.h-.l y,.ar» of uxporiencc this conviction \xm 
 Krown upon »w. until now my olwrva(ion» liavf, during thi! last 
 ywir. cnlminati-d in a viry clow «ort .if personal ex|)erifnco prompt- 
 in« niu to make u movi- in the diruction of ljrinj;in); ahout a roforni. 
 K - yoars I hav,. felt the pinch of overwork in my own de])art- 
 men.. For years, in eonnnon with others, I have BtrUKjjIed for 
 relief. All this time I have Iwcn trying; to do two tliinKS?do the 
 work of education and " pass " my pupils : two very irreconcilable 
 thnifrs under present circumstances. In the latter, thanks to the 
 wretche,lly low standard, I think I have had a fair share of suc- 
 cess, liut in the foriner, I believe, I have been and am still a 
 'amentable failure. I have watched successive "generations" of 
 pupds strujjglin^' with an impossible task -that of mastering a 
 reasonable [wrtion of the work given them to do. I liave watched 
 them ainmally ground out of the examination mill as " passed " 
 and known in my heart that tliey were not, oven in thestajre from 
 which they had triumphantly emerged, educated This year 
 I have had the painful experience of watching a boy of my own 
 crushed under the iron tyranny of an exacting curriculum. I 
 knew what was coming when he reached the third year of his 
 High School course, and dreaded it. The first two years of our 
 course are preparatory, and we take our time to lay a foundation, 
 doing it with fair thorough.ess, except that, owing to the farcical 
 Part I examination, many pupils have slipped through to the 
 third year stage whom we, if left to divide . jr own standard of 
 promotion, would have forced to apply themselves with greater 
 zeal and intelligence to a reconsideration of the preparatory work. 
 However, even tor the average and more than average pupil the 
 third year of our High School course has terrors of a disastrous 
 kmd. It is there that they begin to wilt, to lag, and to drop into 
 a weary struggle for the paltry thirty- three per cent. 
 
Charity l«.;.;in« at liomo, ami to »liow thnt I Imvu not come 
 before you to-.Uy without flmt oniloftvoriiiK <■" ""' "ly <>wii hou»e 
 in order, I mk [KrmiMioii to (|Uot« n few words with which I 
 introtluced u nimilnr protest before the CloMicaJ Aaaocitttion loat 
 yc»r. 
 
 SpeHking of the cxccmivo currieuluni in Fjitin for [mns nmtricn- 
 Ution, I aniil : " The nii»tiiki! in being nia.le of re(|uirina ""i- I'upil" 
 to try tn do too much, and of comloning their fniliin' to do it 
 even lialf well by ■ letting tliem throu^rh ' on a nuHerahly low 
 ntandnrd. 
 
 " It is the duty of the secondary scliool (1 ) to lay a solid founda- 
 tion for what literary and scientihc work the studint may have to 
 do in the University, and (2) to give all its pupils, irresiHjctive of 
 their Univoraity career, * trainrng which, so far as it gix's, is pro- 
 ductive of powiT an.l conducive to a healthy, well-balanced mental 
 atmosphere. Now, I ask, • Is the teaching of Utin in our schools 
 to-day fulfilling either of these re.iuiiemonts ' ' So far as the 
 purposes of the IT.iiversity are concerned, the answer is forth- 
 coming from University instructors themselves. One professor 
 remarked to me the other day that he found his students not 
 nearly so accurate in the rudiments as they -vere .some fifteen years 
 ago. Another complains that even our honor gra<luate» in Cla.ssic8 
 make blunders in r|uantity which, a generation ago, would have 
 earned for a juvenile offender a thrashing. Why, if our matricu- 
 lants are being prepared as they ought, are these University 
 ^ Kindergarten ' classes in Latin grammar taking up the time of 
 instructors who are qualified and are paid to do more advanced 
 work?" Later in the same [laper I said : "I honestly believe 
 our High School programme is overcrowded— not necessarily in the 
 number of subjects, but in the amount of work attempted in each. 
 Latin, I believe, has of late years Ijeen one .:f the worst offenders." 
 Now, with one more year's e.spcriencc with the wider but pain- 
 ful experience I have referred to, namely, that of seeing my own 
 boy sit down night after night with an amount of home work, not 
 only in Latin but in other subjects, far in excess of even excep- 
 tional human ability to do with any degree of thoroughness, of 
 seeing him poring over his books for from three to four hours, and 
 then by sheer compulsion rising with tlie weary protest that he 
 had not done nearly all, of seeing him go to school day after day 
 with work only half prepared, always behind and with no hope of 
 having time to review or catch up— I say, with this added and 
 
painful experience, I now ieelare before this body of educators 
 that what I said of Latin last year may to a very large extent be 
 said of our curriculum as a whole. 
 
 Strange that my remarks of Inst year anent the dissatisfaction 
 felt by University men with the present state of affairs, should 
 find corroboration with regard to an entirely different department 
 in the words of a University professor. Prof. Young, of Trinity 
 University, in his admirable paper read at Ottawa last summer, 
 entitled, " What a Pupil has a Right to Expect as a Result of his 
 High School Training in French and German," says, speaking of 
 the sin of working for examinations, " Not only is the aim of the 
 teacher lowered, perhaps, insensibly, and independence stifled in 
 the pupil, but a great deal of hasty (therefore bad) teaching arid 
 inaccuracy is the result. On the latter point I feel stron-ly, for I 
 have just finished reading three sets of sdwlanldp papers (scholar- 
 ship papers, mark you) for the Universities of Ontario, the examin- 
 ation being conducted by the Education Department. Hardly one 
 of the candidates (about 120 in number) was able to give correctly 
 common forms of verbs in general use occurring in the prescribed 
 
 '*'"^ The same kind of mistake was found also and 
 
 more frequently in the answers to the German papers." 
 
 Now, this extract corroborates my statement that University 
 men do not deem the results satisfactory, and that, too, outside of 
 the Classical Department Without much trouble I think I could 
 f nd similar evidence with regard to Science and Mathematics. 
 Prof. Young, however, while complaining of the evil of inaccuracy, 
 finds fault with the teacher for working with the examination in 
 view. . Are we to have one kind of teaching in our schools and 
 another kind of examination ? What are examinations in our 
 schools for if they are not to be worked for both by teacher and by 
 pupil ? What are curricula for, if they are not to be followed ? 
 Dare we ignore either examinations or curricula ? Is it legal, to 
 say nothing of the moral aspect of the question ? Come and try 
 teaching according to your ideal, professor, for one year, and then 
 tell us. No, the fault Prof. Young complains of in High School 
 work is just the fault I complain of, haste, bad teaching, inaccuracy. 
 But it is not the fault of the teacher, it is the fault of a faulty 
 curriculum and faulty examinations based on said curriculum. 
 
 No one appears to be satisfied. Teachers themselves as a class, 
 I certainly believe, are not University examiners evidently are 
 not Parents (I speak as one) are not. The medical profession are 
 
loud in their protests against tlie injury being wrought the race by 
 our elaborate system of cramming. Just the other day an eminent 
 physician of the city, who in his time was one of the most success- 
 ful teachers in this Province, told me that in his own practice this 
 year he could point to three pupils who were rendered physical 
 wrecks before Easter. He thinks our whole system is wrong, 
 though, as an enthusiastic young " crammer " in his own day, he 
 thought the patent, cut-and-dried method of stuffing the pupils 
 was admirable. 
 
 I say the slip-shod inaccuracy of our teaching is due to an over- 
 loaded curriculum. Why, then, with so much dissatisfaction 
 on all aides, among University professors, among teachers, among 
 parents artd among the medical profession, to say nothing of 
 the groans and di'^couragoment among pupils themselves, has 
 this state of affairs been tolerated so long >, Simply because 
 we have been deceiving ourselves, deceiving our pupils, deceivinf»- 
 the public by the annual examination list, which never fails 
 to loom up in ;" md proportions, thanks to the miserable 33 
 per cent, standard. We soothe our conscience and allay the dis- 
 quiet of the piiblic by " passing " pupils who have not been edu- 
 cated, but crammed. A medical student came to me last .June to 
 be crammed in Latin for July. He had the most meagre know- 
 ledge of Latin accidence, had road no Caesar or Virgil, but wanted 
 to pass. I loathed the task, and at any rate was too busy. A 
 friend took compassion on him. The student pas.sed. Yea, verily, he 
 passed, with just a month's cramming. And this is the way our 
 University " Kindergarten " classes are filled up. No, worse than 
 that, they tell me it is not necessary even to pass in order to get 
 into the Kindergarten class at the University. That is it, they 
 give us too much to do properly, put lip a sham barrier, a low 
 hurdle so to speak, and then steal our pupils from us by letting in 
 at the back door those who cannot oven jump the miserable barrier. 
 " Is ours an educational system ? " I ask. 
 
 I might say, that in order to obtain specific proof of the way in 
 which home-work is pressing upon even good pupils, I recently 
 gave out to some dozen reliable students of the pass matriculation 
 class, blank forms to be filled in as a morin's record of their home- 
 work. A glance at these shows that the pressure is chiefly in the 
 languages, that practically the whole evening is spent by pupils in 
 attempting to get up translation without covering anything like 
 the work assigned. As far as ray observation goes, the work 
 
prescnbed in German translation is ridiculously (no I will say 
 painfully) large. It is about as absurd as the work in Latin. I do 
 not thmk It is any breach of confidence to say that I know that 
 lessons were assigned to beginners in German translation this year, 
 which the t«acher admitted would have taken her as a beginner two 
 hours to study. What time is left, I would ask. for other memory 
 , subjects, such as History, English Literature, Euclid, Physics 
 Chemistry, to say nothing of the enormous amount of time taken 
 in planning, composing, scribbling and re-writing the monthly 
 in Z f^"'*" ^"""P"'""™ ? The records I obtained show that 
 the bulk of the time at home was spent on looking up long lists of 
 words for translation, wrestling with about half or a third of the 
 sense, and that such subjects as History, English Literature, Science 
 were shghted. No home-work seems to have been expected in 
 Mathematics, at least practically none was obtained. Now this 
 may seem strange coming from a language man. But as a language 
 man I protest against such a stat« of affairs, especially seeing that 
 the results are so shabby even from a language standpoint 
 Practically the bulk of the pupil's time at home is spent on language 
 fagging (I will not call it study), with such scrappy results as 
 Mr. Young has portrayed. 
 
 THE CAUSE. 
 
 Now I have dwelt at some length on the evil. Let me point out 
 briefly how, m my opinion, all this has been brought about Why 
 have we so inflated, so disproportioned a curriculum ? I attribute 
 It simply and entirely to the way in which our matriculation 
 curriculum is made. 
 
 1. There is no common educational standpoint. 
 
 2. There is too much bickering among departments. 
 
 3. The views of High School teachers as to the capabilities of 
 th^r schools, and as to educational effects and ideals, are not 
 sufficiently studied and acted upon by our University authorities 
 
 4. Ihe pass curriculum is framed too much with an eye to the 
 requirements of the honor course in each department without 
 reference to the general effect. 
 
 As to the lack of a common educational standpoint, the incident 
 of the diplomatic professor who never ventured to express an 
 opimon on any matter outside J his own department may be taken 
 as an illustration. How can a committee which sits down to work 
 with each of Its members thinking solely of his own department 
 
frame a curriculum sufficiently well balanced, or kept within bounds 
 to have a goo<l general educational effect? It each thinks 
 exclusively of hie own department, who is to think of education ? 
 
 On the bickermg between departments let me quote Professor 
 Voung agam : — 
 
 " Classicist and Modern have fought in Ontario in the days cone 
 by and I am not sure that the tight is over yet. Instead of ^ doing 
 they ought to have been working together, as those whose cause is 
 one for the advancement of the interests of education generally " 
 
 How can a curriculum be duly adjusted and curtailed when this 
 kind of war .s going on ? Who is to decide between the warring 
 elements? Obviously those who know least about the points in 
 dispute-the outsiders, the representatives of other departments. 
 Hence the rule I suppose, as to non-interference a,lopted by our 
 diplomatic professor. Two departments engage in deLlly combat. 
 Ihe disinterested non-combatants who ought to bo standing bv to 
 give the umpires decision, quietly view the proceedings until I 
 suppose the contestants, like the Kilkenny cats, succeed in effacing 
 each other or, what is worse, arrive at a compromise in which the 
 cause of education is effaced in the mad struggle to see who will 
 pile on the most work. 
 
 In the comparatively insignificant .juestion whether Greek shall 
 off-set one modern language or two, a great deal of iKiwder is 
 wasted by experts on both sides, and a snap vote is taken, influenced 
 argely by the amount of pro-clossical or anti-classical prejudice in 
 the Senate. But, on the really important educational .mestion 
 how much Latin, German or Chemistry can properly be -tudied for 
 pass Matriculation, each department sits down as it were (that is 
 when they are not standing up to fight), with it. back to every other 
 department and decides. Such a thing as a mutual summing up or 
 balancing, with a view to a reasonable total amount, seems not to 
 be thought of. If there is an occasional peeping over the shoulder 
 to see what the other fellows are doing, it is not improbably with 
 the object of watching for some moment of weakness of which 
 advantage may be taken. To illustrate, I will quote a story as I 
 received it from my esteemed and unimpeachable friend the 
 Secretary : " Some years ago, owing to the protests of Mr. Smyth 
 and other Science teachers, the amount of Chemistry for pass 
 matriculation was reduced. This waa promptly followed by a 
 corresponding increase in the amount of _ .tin translation imposed 
 on the unfortunate student." And, I suppose, now a reduction in the 
 
10 
 
 amount of Latin will probably be followed by a corresponding 
 increase in something else. At least the fear of this I believe is 
 the chief obstacle to a retluction in Latin. 
 
 On my third and fourth iiaons for the faulty curriculum, the 
 failure to study and act upon the views of High School teachers, 
 and the tendency to base the pass curriculum on the needs of the 
 honor courses, I shall not enlarge. The views of High School 
 teachers are taken and sometimes sought. But this is not done 
 systematically, and there is no systematic method followed for 
 crystallizing such views and bringing them forcibly before the 
 Senate. The pa.ss course can be trusted to discover clever specialists 
 for the honor departments, but it should be adapted to the educa- 
 tional requirements of the average student Specializing should 
 not begin till the honor course has been embarked upon. The (jues- 
 tion should be, not " What pass work in his department should an 
 honor man know to begin with ? " but " What amount in all the 
 subjects can the average student in the pa.ss stage a.ssimilatc to his 
 own advantage ? " 
 
 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Now I come to the remedy. If you are not satisfied with things 
 as they are, if you agree with me that the evil of our system is 
 over-work and Us invariable coi-rehitlve, lack <,/ thorou.gh.nem, let 
 us, as mi;n and women of sense and consistency, stop and consider 
 what is to be done about it Surely we are not to content 
 ourselves with complaining. 
 
 In theory, no doubt, the remedy has already suggested itself : 
 
 1. Let us drop our narrow departmentalism and adopt a common 
 educational standpoint. 
 
 2. Let us advocate two things from tliis standpoint— a curtailment 
 of the work attempted, and the Kiising of the standard of thorough- 
 ness by increasing the pass limit to 50 per cent, on suitable papers. 
 
 In practice, 'low is this, to be attained ? I suggest and hereby 
 propose as follows : 
 
 1. That a permanent committee of eight be appointed by this 
 College and High School Department, to be called " The Educational 
 Committee." 
 
 2. That this committee be composed of two from each department, 
 one University and one High School representative. 
 
 3. That this committee be instructed to watch all proceedings 
 with reference to the Matriculation curriculum from a purely 
 
11 ■ 
 
 educational standpoint, utilizing departmental knowledge and 
 opinion only so far as is necessary to arrive at an intelligent' 
 decision on the broad issue of education. 
 
 Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have taken up your time at greater 
 length than I intended or wished. I have not sought to convince, 
 but merely to rouse to action those whom I believe to have been 
 already convinced. I am but a humble member of the teaching 
 profession, a mere private in the ranks. No doubt a good deal 
 that I have said may seem bold. Some may not agree with me. 
 But, at any rate, I beg of you to go at least this far with me. Ask 
 yourselves if you are satisfied. If not, what is the disturbing 
 element ? If you can make up your minds as to that, act, and act 
 ((uickly. I now beg leave to move ; 
 
 1. That the amount of work for pass matriculation be generally 
 reduced. 
 
 2. That the standard be raised to 50 per cent. 
 
 3. That a committee of eight be established to supervise details.