LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE^ 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE 
 
 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR C. PERRY, JR., PH.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 "THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL" 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 
 1910 
 

 COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 

 PREFACE 
 
 THIS study of the elementary school consists of two 
 parts; the first is concerned with the broad general 
 problems dependent upon its organic structure, the 
 second with specific phases of its work as planned and 
 directed by the principal of a school or the teacher of 
 a class. Although these two parts might imply each 
 its own audience, I venture the hope that the general 
 discussion in Part One may not only give the general 
 student and the lay reader food for reflection, but that 
 it may also meet responsive interest in the thought of 
 earnest practical teachers. 
 
 For the past few years our teachers have been the 
 subject of rather microscopic study; their shortcom- 
 ings have been duly analyzed and their responsibili- 
 ties extensively chronicled. While they have been 
 diligently tilling the educational soil, the educational 
 geologists have looked on with voluminous criticism 
 of their methods and manners, and latterly show a 
 tendency to charge the teachers with responsibility 
 for the very faults and fissures which inhere in the ed- 
 ucational substratum. It seems but just that the 
 
 iii 
 
 207827 
 
PREFACE 
 
 teachers should seek to deflect this charge, and the 
 first three chapters of this book may, in one sense, be 
 construed as a brief in their behalf. 
 
 It is clearly impossible for an essayist to make form- 
 al acknowledgment of all the sources of his inspira- 
 tion. The student of education keeps his mind open 
 to the influence of every honest word whether spoken 
 by the thinkers of old or by the seers of to-day, and he 
 keeps his heart open to the influence of the living 
 child, to whom all educational systems owe their ex- 
 istence. And who shall say which speaks the more 
 effectively, Plato and Emerson and Mark Hopkins, or 
 the tow-headed boy in the fourth seat in the third row 
 and the patient teacher who is leading him, helpfully 
 and hopefully, according to her lights? 
 
 So I make no attempt to catalogue in full my indebt- 
 edness to the many writers and preceptors who have 
 touched me. I must, however, record with pleasure 
 my obligation to Mr. E. W. Fielder for his counsel, es- 
 pecially regarding the statistical work at page 12, and 
 to Professor Henry W. Holmes, of Harvard University, 
 and Superintendent C. N. Kendall, of Indianapolis, 
 for constructive criticism. Finally, it would be an 
 inexcusable breach of duty were I to pass over in 
 silence the names of Miss Mary A. Mason, now prin- 
 cipal of Public School Number 79, Brooklyn, and 
 Miss Alice H. Story and Mrs. Jessie N. Mainwaring, 
 
 iv 
 
PREFACE 
 
 heads of department in Public School Number 85, 
 who have in turn so ably carried to successful fruition 
 the work described in the last chapter. It would be 
 presumptuous for me to offer them any word of com- 
 mendation; the memory of their service to scores of 
 girls will ever speak to them with a glowing eloquence. 
 
 ARTHUR C. PERRY, JR. 
 BROOKLYN, N. Y., March, 1910. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE iii 
 
 PART ONE: PROBLEMS IN ORGANIZATION 
 
 I. THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 3 
 
 II. THE CURRICULUM . .36 
 
 III. MORAL TRAINING 57 
 
 PART TWO: PROBLEMS IN METHOD AND 
 MANAGEMENT 
 
 INTRODUCTION 77 
 
 IV. ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 COMPOSITION 81 
 
 GRAMMAR Ill 
 
 V. HISTORY FACTS 118 
 
 VI. SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 THE FUNDAMENTAL OPERATIONS . . . 132 
 A SPECIAL EXERCISE IN FUNDAMENTAL OPER- 
 ATIONS 145 
 
 MULTIPLICATION DRILL CHART . . . 150 
 THE MENSURATION OF THE TRAPEZOID . .154 
 
 LONGITUDE AND TIME 156 
 
 VII. THE USE OF THE BLACKBOARD .... 161 
 
 VIIL THE SCHOOL MUSEUM ...... 177 
 
 IX. THE ALUMNI 185 
 
 X. THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS .... 199 
 
 INDEX 221 
 
 vii 
 
PART ONE 
 PROBLEMS IN ORGANIZATION 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 CIVILIZED societies have developed many argu- 
 ments in favor of the proposition of state support 
 of education. Although some of these flow from 
 philosophic and altruistic premises, it is evident 
 that by far the most potent of all arguments is the 
 practical, egoistic one of self-protection and self-pres- 
 ervation. In this the social group is but the analogue 
 of the human individual, for although man has 
 become so civilized a creature that under normal 
 conditions his primal impulses are successfully sub- 
 merged under the refinements of modern ideals, never- 
 theless his basic instincts persist and it takes but a 
 little disturbance of normal condition to bring them to 
 the surface. 
 
 The most fundamental instinct, the very life- 
 spring of the actions of primitive man, is that of self- 
 preservation. The modern man, in polite society, has 
 inlaid and overlaid this elementary function with a 
 mosaic of modern conventions, so that very many of 
 
 3 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 his acts -bear the stamp of genuine altruism. But let 
 there be a disastrous fire on shipboard or in a crowded 
 building, and rapidly indeed do the modern conven- 
 tions fall away before the ancient impulses. Excep- 
 tionally fortunate is the record of such a disaster that 
 does not show scores of men reduced to blind followers 
 of the primal forces. Thus, however much altruism 
 may function in the daily routine of the individual, 
 we cannot ignore the fact that self-preservation and 
 its correlated instincts remain the most potent regu- 
 lators of the conduct both of men and of nations. 
 
 Society recognizes, in general, two distinct require- 
 ments as to the education of its members which are 
 necessary to its own proper development, namely, sat- 
 isfactory, universal, mass intelligence, and a contin- 
 uous and sufficient supply of exceptional ability. The 
 first of these conditions the existence of the state; 
 the second, its progress. The intelligence of all its 
 members must be kept at so high an average as shall 
 prevent deterioration; the intelligence of a few of 
 its members must so far reach above the average as 
 to insure progressive leadership. In consequence 
 there are to be seen everywhere two phases in the 
 provision of public education, the compulsory phase 
 and the opportunity phase. These in turn impose 
 the duty of education on the one side and extend the 
 privilege of education on the other. 
 
 4 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 To all its members of worth and promise, the state 
 extends the invitation to avail themselves of the op- 
 portunity to pursue the educational privilege to the 
 utmost. America stands foremost among the nations 
 in the richness and fullness of this invitation, in its 
 lavish provision of educational institutions of the 
 highest type. To every young man of ability and de- 
 termination, however humble his birth, however ob- 
 scure his ancestral line, however limited his financial 
 resources, there is issued this invitation to a liberal ed- 
 ucation. The state cheerfully contributes to the sup- 
 port of that education out of all proportion to the im- 
 mediate return which it is possible for the youth to 
 make all with the hope as to each particular youth, 
 that he may prove in his maturity to be the one who 
 shall render back to the state in intelligent leadership 
 such service as shall justify the outlay expended upon 
 a hundred of his contemporaries. 
 
 This leadership is no more necessary to progress, 
 however, than is an intelligent constituency necessary 
 to that stability which is the prerequisite of progress. 
 Unerring leading could not construct a successful mod- 
 ern state out of an inert and stupid following. For 
 one leader there are hundreds who are led. Whether 
 or not these hundreds appreciate or desire education, 
 the state of to-day gives them no option. Our very 
 stability, our very safety, it says to them, require that 
 
 5 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 you shall not remain unintelligent; although we offer 
 you the opportunity to educate yourselves liberally, we 
 cannot compel you to do so, but we can and will compel 
 you to rise above ignorance and illiteracy. Compulsory 
 education dates back to 1717 in Germany, to 1833 in 
 France, to 1842 in Sweden, and to-day is in effect in 
 some form in nearly every European state. In America, 
 limited but definite efforts in this direction are record- 
 ed even in colonial times; and to-day a majority of our 
 American states recognize in their statutes this phase 
 of educational effort. 
 
 In general, the compulsory education laws apply 
 only to children between the ages of eight and four- 
 teen, although a few states extend this a year or two 
 in either direction. This means that the compulsory 
 phase of school provision concerns itself chiefly with 
 what we have come to call a " common-school" edu- 
 cation, or that grade of our school system which we 
 term elementary, whereas the opportunity phase ex- 
 tends downward to the kindergarten and upward to 
 the secondary school, the college, and the university. 
 Hence we see that the elementary school is unique in 
 that it is the only grade of school in which both the 
 compulsory and opportunity purposes are operative. 
 
 The chief problem of the elementary school in 
 America, as abroad, is concerned with the organic struc- 
 ture of the school, and it is intimately connected with 
 
 6 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 the primary distinction between the two phases above 
 emphasized. It is true that both phases are officially 
 recognized in scattering records from the Massachu- 
 setts Colony 1 down to date, and yet many a current 
 discussion of the needs of the elementary school is be- 
 fogged by lack of appreciation of this fundamental 
 distinction in the purposes of the state as related to 
 its schools. 
 
 The problem as it exists in America is the converse 
 of that in Germany and in France. A few words in 
 reference to the school organizations of all three coun- 
 tries will help to make this clear. In America, the ele- 
 mentary school, with its course of seven, eight, or 
 nine years, enrolls children from all walks of life, those 
 with every advantage of good breeding and good for- 
 tune, and those with the handicap of parental igno- 
 rance and incompetency; those of physical robustness 
 and those of physical weakness; those of innate alert- 
 ness and those with inherited mental inertia; those 
 destined to trade or the trades and those scheduled 
 for a liberal education and the learned professions; in 
 short, every possible type of child in the land. And 
 this because, in the words of our distinguished mon- 
 itor and adviser, Dr. Eliot, " We are trying to prepare 
 
 1 See Edwin Grant Dexter, " A History of Education in the 
 United States," Macmillan, 1904, p. 584. 
 
 7 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 all American boys and girls for a life of unprece- 
 dented freedom freedom of thought and speech; 
 freedom to travel, to change the place of abode, and 
 to change the occupation; freedom to enter into any 
 sort of public or secret association or union; freedom 
 from everything resembling castes or insurmountable 
 social or political barriers." 1 
 
 To the American turning his thought to the Ger- 
 man schools, the characteristic which first arrests his 
 attention is the definition of "higher schools" which 
 there denote, not a higher grade of school in the Amer- 
 ican sense, but schools of whatever extent of grade, 
 which lead to higher grade work. The lower school is 
 the popular Volksschule with its course normally of 
 eight years; the higher schools are all those which, 
 beginning at the fifth school year or even lower, carry 
 pupils forward parallel to those of the Volksschule but 
 through a different curriculum, and beyond into work 
 of collegiate grade. Somewhat similarly in France, 
 " the division between primary and secondary schools 
 is purely a longitudinal one. . . . The secondary 
 school which begins normally at nine years and con- 
 tinues for nine years has always a preparatory section, 
 so that the child may really enter at six or seven years 
 
 Charles W. Eliot: "More Money for the Public Schools," 
 Doubleday, Page, 1903, p. 57. 
 
 8 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 of age and follow work which is of exactly the same 
 nature as that given in the primary school. . . . 
 The primary school in France is in no sense a prepara- 
 tion for the secondary school. " 1 
 
 The problem abroad is recognized, as in Germany, 
 where "many of the leaders of the pedagogic world 
 are crying out for the Einheitsschule one school for 
 all and in some bright spots the system is actually 
 at work. As the barriers of social life in modern Ger- 
 many are broken down as doubtless they will be 
 so will disappear the barriers between the various 
 types of German schools. " 2 Part of the criticism of 
 the German schools is that "it is as difficult for a lad 
 to pass from one school to another as in German social 
 life it is to rise from one class of society to another," 
 although it is admitted that "this statement may 
 seem too general." The assumption seems to be 
 made by the German reformers that the establishment 
 of the Einheitsschule is their salvation. 
 
 The American problem is the converse of this. We 
 have the Einheitsschule and are beginning to awaken 
 to a realization of its inadequacy and imperfections. 
 
 'Frederic Ernest Farrington: "The Public Primary School 
 System of France," Teachers College, Columbia University, 1906, 
 p. 12. 
 
 2 R. E. Hughes: "The Making of Citizens," Walter Scott Pub. 
 Co., 1902, p. 8. 
 
 2 9 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 We may state the criticism of our present system, per- 
 haps not too strongly, as follows. Into the same school, 
 into the same classroom, we thrust those pupils to 
 whom we wish to extend the opportunity of seeking 
 a liberal education and also those others, in the sub- 
 stantial majority, upon whom we are placing the duty 
 of securing that minimum of instruction consistent 
 with proper usefulness in a republic. We place these 
 two groups of pupils, with such divergent interests, 
 into the same classroom, under the guidance of the 
 same teacher, and put them through the same cur- 
 riculum, and then wonder at the confessed failure of 
 the public school to prepare great numbers of its 
 pupils for life. 
 
 The influence of the college has been exerted upon 
 the secondary schools to the end that they may proper- 
 ly and adequately prepare their pupils for college en- 
 trance. The secondary schools have extended that 
 influence and pressure down upon the elementary 
 schools demanding that they shall make adequate 
 preparation for the high school. The elementary 
 school has consequently turned itself into a prepara- 
 tory school for high schools. In recent years we note 
 a tendency upon the part of some of those responsible 
 for elementary school organization and direction to 
 assert their independence and to consider their charge 
 upward from the child and not downward from the 
 
 10 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 college. Immediately we turn our faces in this direc- 
 tion we discover that the pupils of our elementary 
 schools are not preparing for college, have no thought 
 or desire so to prepare, and in most cases lack the in- 
 nate ability so to prepare. This, with the exception 
 of a small group of pupils; how small that group is we 
 scarcely realize until we consult the statistics and there 
 find that ninety per cent of our pupils never go be- 
 yond the elementary school grade. 1 Only ten per cent 
 are scheduled for the secondary school and but one 
 tenth of these for the college. 
 
 Yet the casual observer of our schools might be 
 warranted in supposing that we were all quite blind 
 to this statistical fact, for here we are, pushing ninety 
 per cent and ten per cent alike through the identical 
 curriculum. And why? Because of our peculiar concept 
 of democracy ; because of our strange belief, as a people, 
 in the efficacy of law and education to equalize the un- 
 equal; because of our mistaken loyalty to our demo- 
 cratic ideals which makes it almost a crime to suggest 
 that natural caste can and must exist even in a repub- 
 lic. Year after year we see pupils whose earthly des- 
 tiny is to walk humbly in the nonscholastic paths of 
 life, compelled to spend an allotted period inside of 
 
 1 Cf . " The work of the elementary schools is not to be shaped 
 with special reference to preparing pupils for college, because 
 more than ninety-five per cent of all the pupils of the elementary 
 
 11 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 the schoolhouse, released at last, disgusted with 
 school life, and yet ill fitted for the real life which lies 
 before them. 
 We have mistaken our duty to these thousands ; we 
 
 schools never go beyond them." Andrew S. Draper, "American 
 Education," Houghton, Mifflin, 1909, p. 129. 
 
 The enrollment of pupils for 1907-8, according to the Report 
 of the Commissioner of Education, Washington, 1908, p. 22, is 
 
 as follows 
 
 In public Plus those in 
 
 schools private schools 
 
 Elementary 16,069,305 17,373,852 
 
 Secondary 771,687 961,786 
 
 Universities and colleges 53,623 149,700 
 
 Professional schools 11,517 63,256 
 
 Normal schools 62,428 70,439 
 
 16,968,560 18,619,033 
 
 This shows a distribution of enrollment as follows: 
 
 In public In public and 
 
 schools private schools 
 
 Elementary 94.7% 93.3% 
 
 Secondary 4.6% 5.2% 
 
 Universities and colleges, profes- 
 sional schools, and normal 
 
 schools 7% 1.5% 
 
 100. 100. 
 
 These percentages show the proportion of pupils found in the 
 various grades at a given time, but they do not properly indicate 
 the proportion of pupils who go forward from one grade to an- 
 other. That is to say, the statement that at any time ninety- 
 four per cent of our pupils are in the elementary schools is not 
 
 12 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 have argued that because democracy has formulated 
 the ambitious programme to try " to prepare all Amer- 
 ican boys and girls for a life of unprecedented free- 
 dom, etc.," it is disloyalty to see the self-evident, to 
 
 equivalent to the statement that ninety-four per cent of the ele- 
 mentary school pupils do not go beyond them. 
 
 To calculate the percentage of pupils who go beyond the ele- 
 mentary school, it is necessary to ascertain, first, the total num- 
 ber of pupils entering school in a given year, and second, the num- 
 ber of those pupils who, some years later, enter secondary schools. 
 In the absence of these exact figures, it will be approximately 
 correct to substitute for the first, the number of all pupils in the 
 United States found, in any given year, in the first-year grade 
 of the elementary school, and for the second, the number of all 
 pupils in the United States found, eight years later, in the first 
 year of the secondary school. Even these figures seem unob- 
 tainable at the present time; hence, a further approximation must 
 be made. 
 
 The following deduction is submitted, based upon statistics 
 from the reports of the United States Commissioner of Education. 
 
 The most recent figures for high school enrollment are for the 
 year 1907-8 (Report, 1908, p. 859), when there were 770,456 
 pupils enrolled in the public high schools. 
 
 In 1906-7 there were in 7,624 of these high schools, enrolling 
 667,305 pupils, 288,748 pupils in the first year, or 43.27 per cent 
 (p. 862). Assuming the proportion to hold for the following 
 year for all schools, there were 333,386 pupils in the first year 
 of the high school. These pupils presumably entered the ele- 
 mentary school, on an average, eight years prior to 19078, or 
 in the year 1899-1900. 
 
 The total enrollment for the year 1899-1900 in our public ele- 
 mentary schools was 14,821,969 (Report, 1903, p. xix). Figures 
 
 13 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 admit that, as a matter of frigid fact, the average 
 American boy or girl simply cannot have a life of un- 
 precedented freedom. We establish our premise : any 
 boy or girl qualified to secure and appreciate a liberal 
 
 as to the distribution of these pupils among the various grades 
 are not at hand, but for the year 1902 they are given (Report, 
 1903, p. xvi) as: 
 
 First year or grade 5,149,296 
 
 Second 2,912,462 
 
 Third 2,426,263 
 
 Fourth 2,168,956 
 
 Fifth 1,288,114 
 
 Sixth 700,885 
 
 Seventh 405,693 
 
 Eighth 323,607 
 
 Total 15,375,276 
 
 This shows 33.5 per cent of the pupils in the first-year grade. 
 Assuming that this percentage held for the year 1899-1900, there 
 were in that year 4,965,360 pupils in the first-year grade. 
 
 Roughly speaking, then, the 350,000 pupils now entering our 
 American high schools represent a survival of seven per cent of 
 the 5,000,000 pupils who entered school eight years ago. 
 
 It is quite probable that the figure 5,000,000 somewhat over- 
 estimates the admissions to the elementary schools for one year. 
 I have chosen, therefore, to make a most conservative estimate, 
 and to assume that 3,500,000 more closely states the fact. This 
 would amply justify the statement used in the text that ninety 
 per cent of our pupils do not go beyond the elementary school. 
 For all the purposes of the argument of these three chapters, this 
 statement is sufficiently accurate; indeed, it might be widely 
 aberrant without invalidating that argument. 
 
 14 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 education should be offered every opportunity to pre- 
 pare for that education. Only in very fine print, as a 
 footnote, do we observe that only one boy or girl in 
 every ten is so qualified. Then we debonairly jump 
 to our conclusion : therefore, every boy or girl should 
 be made to prepare for that education. Again, only in 
 fine print do we note that nine of the ten leave us with 
 only this " preparation" for something which they can- 
 not have, and which nearly everyone knew all the 
 while that they could not have; and what is more un- 
 fortunate, they leave us without having made proper 
 preparation for that which is their inevitable work in 
 life. 
 
 It is surely time that we should cease to deceive 
 ourselves or attempt to deceive others with the theory 
 that because we call our nation a democracy, a repub- 
 lic, a United States, there results a transformation in 
 the intrinsic quality of the children of the nation a 
 transformation claimed for the children of no other 
 country the world over. It is indeed a false concep- 
 tion of democracy, and a mistaken notion of loyalty, 
 which proceeds on the theory that this a mere form 
 of government can in itself affect the fundamental 
 distinctions that exist in human individuals, how- 
 ever much it may be credited with having amelio- 
 rated the conditions of existence for the average 
 man. 
 
 15 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 The continental problem is to reform the caste 
 school and approach the Einheitsschule; the American 
 problem is to reform our wantonly simple Einheits- 
 schule so that natural distinctions shall be rationally 
 recognized. The continent cannot solve her problem 
 by taking over the American universal school; Amer- 
 ica cannot solve her problem by transplanting to her 
 soil the German school, or the French, or the Swed- 
 ish, or any other. Each nation must work out its own 
 salvation with due deference to the national tradi- 
 tions and the national institutions, and yet each na- 
 tion must cast aside provincialism and complacency 
 and accept from its fellow nations whatever may be 
 received with profit. 
 
 We may certainly benefit from the continental ex- 
 perience. In Germany, the man whose social and 
 financial position is such as to guarantee his inability 
 to give his son a liberal education sends him to the 
 people's school, where he is frankly accepted as he ac- 
 cepts himself, as one in need of such training as shall 
 best prepare him during his few school years for the 
 work of his life as it is bound to be, and not for the 
 work of some other boy's life as it may be. His daily 
 work in the classroom is not interrupted by the pres- 
 ence of boys scheduled for a university career. Such 
 boys are early diverted into schools which specialize 
 for them, and their progress is not impeded by the 
 
 16 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 pace set by pupils uninterested in acquiring an edu- 
 cation for which they can have no reasonable use. 
 
 It is true that we must recognize that in America 
 social orders are much more fluent than abroad, that 
 the cobbler's son of to-day may to-morrow be the 
 mayor alike for shoemaker and scion. But the fact is 
 that the criticism of the continental arrangement rests 
 not nearly so much in the presence of separate schools 
 for separate needs of the people as in the charge of a 
 tuition fee in the higher schools, while the people's 
 schools remain free. It is really this fee which accen- 
 tuates caste abroad, and not the school organization. 
 We have already put our public schools of all grades 
 on a no-tuition basis, so that we are in little danger 
 of ever falling into this form of caste-encouraging 
 blunder. 
 
 Even under our present organization we have come 
 to recognize the need of differentiation in high-school 
 work, but in providing distinctive courses we certain- 
 ly have sacrificed none of our democratic freedom nor 
 have we in any measure encouraged caste. Ask this 
 boy which high school he attends or which course he 
 is pursuing and he tells you the classical school or 
 course; ask the boy next door the same question and 
 he replies no less proudly surely with no thought of 
 self-depreciation that he is taking the commercial 
 course. Wherein has caste been established? It 
 
 17 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 would be a very different matter if, following con- 
 tinental custom, we offered one of the courses free to 
 all and charged a fifty-dollar fee to the other groups 
 of students. Then might the one student look down 
 with assumed superiority upon the other; but it is 
 just at this point that our sane American democracy 
 intervenes to save us from any such anticlimax. In 
 our attitude toward our high-school students we have 
 learned to estimate with equal dignity and apprecia- 
 tion all honest workers, in whatever department they 
 are found. It remains for us to carry this same spirit 
 into our treatment of the elementary school problem. 
 Our problem, then, is so to reorganize our American 
 schools that the child who is scheduled for six or eight 
 years of schooling and then an immediate entrance 
 into vocational life shall be given an education that 
 shall be his, and not the education that belongs to 
 the child who has before him a university career and 
 the preparation therefor. The resultant organization 
 must give to each of these two great groups, and to all 
 of those intermediate to these, that education which 
 fits its special needs. It must provide for the great 
 ninety per cent for whom education is a duty, and 
 also for the important ten per cent for whom it is a 
 privilege; and must so provide by intelligent differen- 
 tiation and not, as now, by the offering of a universal 
 hodgepodge. Moreover, it must be so flexible as to 
 
 18 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 permit the exceptional child to transfer from one of 
 these groups of pupils to another upon occasion; this 
 is of prime importance, for we must riot subject our- 
 selves to the criticism now fairly leveled against the 
 continental systems in this respect. 
 
 No doubt exception will be taken in many quarters 
 to the use of the word scheduled, but it has been em- 
 ployed advisedly in the preceding paragraph. Many 
 of our American educational thinkers shrink from 
 using such a word as this on the ground that no 
 American child is to be considered as scheduled for 
 any career until he schedules himself. We are not 
 justified, they say, in assuming in advance that his 
 educational programme is in any way limited. Now 
 the present criticism is that the contrary assumption is 
 an unwarranted one because it is an ideal one, and 
 that our present school organization is built upon this 
 imaginary ideal instead of upon a known state of 
 affairs. We are forced to admit that the actual con- 
 dition is this: that only a tenth of our children take 
 advantage of the opportunity phase of the state's 
 educational purpose, while the entire after life of the 
 remaining nine tenths is built upon the schooling of 
 the elementary grades only. 
 
 It is of course conceivable that a supersocialistic 
 government might take over the entire nurture and 
 education of all the children of its people, leaving 
 
 19 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 little or nothing of responsibility to the individual 
 parents. In that case each child might be so suc- 
 cessfully evaluated as to result in his receiving the 
 education which exactly fitted his innate ability; and 
 we can imagine further that under this form of pa- 
 ternalistic government, ninety instead of ten per cent 
 would be given a secondary schooling. But why 
 speculate upon an all-providing government which 
 has, and can have, no actual existence? And why 
 maintain a school organization founded upon some 
 such speculation? 
 
 The fact is that every child, short of those subject 
 to charity, is dependent upon the material prosperity 
 of his parents for the measure of his scale of living. 
 His clothing is costly, his fare is elaborate, his housing 
 is luxurious, all in proportion to the ambition and 
 ability of his parents to provide these for him and 
 it is the same with his education. There comes a 
 time in his life, of course, when he is thrown more, if 
 not entirely, upon himself, when either through his 
 own industry he manages to provide more lavishly 
 for himself, or else through his own inertness he loses 
 some of what he has been enjoying at his father's 
 expense. 
 
 The average father estimates himself pretty ac- 
 curately. The moderate wage-earner to-day, what- 
 ever his hopes, knows that, for all practical purposes, 
 
 20 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 he must assume that eight years from now he will 
 still be a moderate wage-earner. He knows that if 
 his six-year-old boy were to-day fourteen, it would be 
 out of all question for him to support him longer as 
 an unproductive member of his family; and he knows 
 that the chances are many to one that the same will 
 be true when his child has actually reached the age 
 of fourteen. He clearly recognizes this fact and we 
 have no right to ignore it. Moreover, we may recog- 
 nize it without yielding one point in our devotion to 
 the true ideals of our American democracy. We may 
 recognize it without assuming that the boy must 
 necessarily follow his father's trade ; we may recognize 
 it without charging the father with neglect of duty 
 or even implying the charge; we may recognize it 
 without relegating the boy or his family to the posi- 
 tion of a subordinate caste; above all, we may recog- 
 nize it without injury to the occasional boy who 
 decides for himself that he will, through his own 
 efforts, pursue education beyond the point marked 
 by his father's interest or ability to provide. 
 
 We have too long accepted Huxley's figurative de- 
 scription of our school organization as " a great edu- 
 cational ladder with one end in the gutter and the 
 other in the university." When we recover from the 
 anaesthesia induced by the implied compliment and 
 begin to study the picture, the fact is revealed that 
 
 21 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 our children are climbing this ladder with some rather 
 disastrous results. We see the ladder with one end 
 planted in the "gutter," if you will have it so, and 
 the other end leaning against the university portal. 
 Below the university floor in the house of life, however, 
 are several others, the high-school graduates' floor, the 
 grammar-school graduates' floor, the elementary vo- 
 cational floor; and as we come down through the build- 
 ing we notice that the crowd increases wonderfully 
 until you find some four fifths of all the inhabitants 
 occupying the first floor. But the curious thing is 
 that as you come down, the ladder stands farther 
 away from the building. Shall we picture it a little 
 more clearly? (See diagram p. 23.) 
 
 The disaster is shown in the thousands of children 
 who are jumping or tumbling from the educational 
 ladder to the first floor, landing approximately upon 
 their feet rather by virtue of the natural toughness 
 and agility of the human youth than by any foresight 
 of our school administration. 
 
 We notice two saving features in this diagram in 
 the form of two supplementary ladders. Our typical 
 secondary schools offer to their students a variety of 
 courses so that they may prepare either for college or 
 for the business life which lies before them at the end 
 of their high-school career. They may choose the ap- 
 propriate ladder before mounting, and on it climb to 
 
 22 
 
Occupied by 
 those doing 
 university or 
 coordinate 
 work. 
 
 Fourth Floor. 
 
 Occupied by 
 those who enter 
 business upon 
 graduation 
 from the high 
 school. 
 
 Third Floor. 
 
 Occupied by 
 those who enter 
 business upon 
 graduation 
 from the ele- 
 mentary school. 
 
 Second Floor. 
 
 Occupied by 
 those who must 
 leave school as 
 early as the law 
 permits. 
 
 First Floor. 
 
 THE BUILDING 
 
 WE CALL 
 
 LIFE. 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 their natural goal. It is true that there are a few stu- 
 dents who, going through high school with the ex- 
 pectation of passing on to college, find that the college 
 course, for some personal reason, is closed to them. 
 These must jump to the nearest life platform, but 
 there are considerably fewer making the jump, and 
 the jump is not so long a one as in the great disaster 
 nearer ground. 
 
 The other cross ladder is a private one, but one em- 
 ployed by thousands of boys and girls who have been 
 marooned on the big ladder, who dislike the flying 
 leap to the first floor, and whose parents, having al- 
 ready paid a school tax for something they did not 
 want, yet have enough left over to buy that which 
 they do want. This ladder is the private commercial 
 school, thriving throughout the land, 1 which takes the 
 graduates of our public elementary schools and pro- 
 ceeds in a few months to teach them to write a busi- 
 ness letter and to add a column of figures. 
 
 Now both of these short ladders have proven to be 
 safe and serviceable and are already in a position of 
 stable equilibrium. Why shall we be so timid about 
 running out one or two more? Why not run one di- 
 
 ' Over 150,000 students were enrolled in commercial and 
 business schools in the United States, 1907-8. Commissioner's 
 Report, 1908, p. 930. This does not include the great number 
 reached by the correspondence schools. 
 
 24 
 
The Gutter 
 
 Second Floor 
 
 Occupied by 
 those who must 
 leave school as 
 early as the law 
 permits. 
 
 First Foor. 
 
 THE BUILDING 
 
 WE CALL 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 25 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 rectly from the gutter to the first floor and another 
 from the gutter to the second floor? For fear and 
 this seems to be the only substantial argument heard 
 against it that there may be a few soaring souls 
 who, finding themselves well up one of these lad- 
 ders, discover that they ought to be on the uni- 
 versity ladder. They may easily be accommodated 
 by giving them a public return ladder, or they might 
 be left to patronize private ladders as we now leave 
 so many to do who are traveling in the opposite 
 direction. Compare this proposed arrangement with 
 the present. (See diagram p. 25.) 
 
 We have eliminated the great disaster, and at the 
 worst, we have substituted for the private ladder, 
 carrying thousands, another private ladder though 
 we might well make it a public one carrying scores. 
 Is this to be construed as an unwarranted assault upon 
 the bulwarks of democracy? 
 
 It may be that experiment would prove that it is 
 not necessary to start the supplementary ladder from 
 the gutter in order to secure the best results at a min- 
 imum of stress in reorganization. Very likely all 
 groups of pupils might be kept at the same work at 
 the same pace for the first two, three, or four years of 
 school. As to this, however, we can make no dogmatic 
 prophecy. We are bound to suspend judgment on 
 this point until sufficiently extensive experimentation 
 
 26 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 provides us with adequate data upon which to gener- 
 alize. 
 
 The National Education Association, at its 1909 
 convention, unanimously adopted a " Declaration of 
 Principles and Aims" which throughout breathes a 
 noble spirit of democracy. "Our free schools," it 
 says, "must advance along the lines of educational 
 democracy in the sense that they must provide equal 
 educational opportunities to all." However hearty 
 may be our assent to this statement, it still remains 
 for us to make a conscientious attempt to discover in 
 what "equal educational opportunities" really con- 
 sist. Certain it is that we are not giving such equal 
 opportunities when we say to ten per cent of our chil- 
 dren "The education you desire is freely yours," and 
 to the ninety per cent " You, too, are welcome to as 
 much of this education provided for the ten per cent 
 as you care to take, but you must not expect any- 
 thing meeting your distinctive needs." Indeed, this 
 bears all the marks of a purpose to establish caste, 
 although we well know that such a purpose has been 
 farthest from the thoughts of the organizers and ad- 
 ministrators of our schools. 
 
 This, then, is the greatest, the fundamental prob- 
 lem of our elementary schools. Until it is solved the 
 most important of our other problems stand in abey- 
 ance. In particular, the problems of the curriculum 
 
 27 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 and of moral training are irrevocably dependent upon 
 this one. Or, to make a better statement by trans- 
 posing the equation, an overwhelming difficulty is 
 introduced into the solution of these two problems by 
 our failure to recognize this fundamental defect in 
 our school organization, and the pity of it is that this 
 disturbing factor may readily be eliminated. For 
 the repair of this defect is entirely a question of senti- 
 ment, intention, and authority; in the working out of 
 the details it would seem to present no serious tech- 
 nical difficulties. 
 
 It is a question of sentiment because educational 
 leaders have not yet learned to face bravely such facts 
 as this: the American child does not schedule himself; 
 he is scheduled by heredity and by circumstance. It 
 is a question of sentiment because as yet the call of 
 the demagogue meets so large a measure of unthink- 
 ing response when he talks glibly of a liberty, frater- 
 nity, and equality, the truest and highest interpreta- 
 tion of which is beyond his own powers of imagination. 
 It is a question of intention because once the Ameri- 
 can people sense the defects in their school organiza- 
 tion, they will set about to repair it. It is a question 
 of authority because once they determine to perfect 
 the organization, they will command their educational 
 officials to do the work. 
 
 Once given this command, this authority, based 
 28 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 upon the aroused sentiment of the people, our school 
 administrators will have little difficulty in working 
 out the details of reorganization. 
 
 The movement of our pupils along the education- 
 al rails is a matter of routes and speeds. We must 
 first reform our routes so that each pupil is taking 
 approximately that one which leads to his normal 
 destination. In this we must reform our curric- 
 ulum for both the child booked for the secondary 
 route and the one booked for the elementary route. 
 As to the latter, I have reserved the second chapter 
 for a discussion of his needs. As to the former, only 
 a hint of possible reform is here given and that by a 
 single illustration. The French and the Germans 
 have satisfied themselves that the time to start the 
 boy on his secondary route is not at the end of his 
 eighth school year but at the end of the fourth. One 
 result is that the German gymnasial student, for in- 
 stance, is given in his fifth school year eight periods 
 a week of Latin or six periods of French. Contrast 
 this with our American scheme which keeps our boy 
 waiting four years before he gets his smattering of a 
 foreign language. 
 
 Next we must reform our speed laws. The strug- 
 gling and sincere attempts already made to solve this 
 problem of speed regulation foreshadow what might 
 be done in this respect if their authors had freedom 
 
 29 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 of manipulation commensurate with the gravity of 
 the problem. It is needless to review here any of these 
 schemes; they must at best remain makeshifts until 
 we strike deeper at the problem and get authority to 
 use our schoolhouses, our school materials, our school 
 moneys with the same degree of freedom which the 
 trainmaster has in directing the movements of his 
 rolling stock and equipment. 
 
 We have long been accustomed to regard man in 
 his threefold make-up, mental, moral, and physical. 
 So long have we had this trinity of words incorporated 
 in our daily speech that we have grown careless in 
 their use and prone to overlook their vital significance. 
 Only in recent decades has there been in school man- 
 agement a practical recognition of the necessity for a 
 balanced culture of these three attributes. Mental 
 training has taken a long-distance precedence over 
 moral nurture and physical development in every con- 
 sideration of our public schools. To offset this, how- 
 ever, there is evidenced to-day a very determined effort 
 in many directions to reduce the emphasis usually 
 placed upon the training of the intellect and to divert 
 a proper amount of attention to physical and moral 
 development. This is in part due to the recognition of 
 the inevitable interdependence of the three phases, as 
 we find it stated in such self-evident propositions as 
 that an unsound body cannot ordinarily support a 
 
 30 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 sound mind, that moral delinquencies may be due to 
 physical deficiency, that the intellectual giant may 
 yet be a moral coward, etc. 
 
 Of these three groups of problems, that dealing with 
 the physical welfare of the child seems most hopeful 
 of solution. In the first place, this is the only one of 
 the three groups which is in any measure though not 
 entirely independent of the organic structure of the 
 school system. The hygiene of the child who is set at 
 the wrong intellectual tasks or is put to doing his work 
 in the wrong way is not so very different from the hy- 
 giene of the child who is undergoing a normal mental 
 training. Hence, whatever reforms must yet be made 
 in the direction of school hygiene and physical culture 
 need not wait upon the reform in school organization. 
 
 Moreover, there are few unsettled points along the 
 line of progress in physical education. The laws of 
 physical growth have been well established and clear- 
 ly formulated, there is a large and powerful body of 
 medical experts constituting the natural leaders in the 
 movement for improvement, and there is little room 
 for argument as to the proper hygienic conditions un- 
 der which people should work. As fast as the state 
 makes the necessary financial outlay for bettered con- 
 ditions in respect to physical education and physical 
 environment, those betterments can be materialized, 
 for the technical difficulties are few. We have such 
 
 31 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 encouraging signs as the organization of the American 
 School Hygiene Association, in 1907, and of kindred 
 influences, working for improvement in material 
 school equipment. It is evident that the idea of 
 formal gymnastics as a necessary means to physical 
 training is increasingly accepted as a part of pedagogic 
 dogma. In the language of Dr. Payne, " it seems fair- 
 ly settled in the public mind that the school shall pro- 
 vide for the child a physical training to parallel his 
 mental training. . . . Evidently the time has already 
 come when a school to be called progressive must make 
 provision for some sort of physical culture." 1 
 
 Doubtless there is need for conscientious study of 
 pedagogic technique on the part of teachers and direct- 
 ors of physical culture, but it may be safely assumed 
 that no one more fully recognizes this need than they 
 themselves. It may be many years before the rights 
 of the child to his physical education are fully assured 
 to him, but annually our schoolhouses are improving 
 in quality, our people are more and more appreciative 
 of the importance of hygienic protection and physical 
 training, and our communities are increasing their 
 financial support of the public schools. Along this 
 line we may well be optimistic in our hope for the 
 future. 
 
 Bruce Ryburn Payne : " Public Elementary School Curricula," 
 Silver, Burdett, 1905, p. 24. 
 
 32 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 But when we turn our attention to the other two 
 phases mental and moral development we are in- 
 clined to be less sanguine. For both of these are inti- 
 mately dependent upon the organic structure of the 
 school system, and so long as that structure stands 
 aslant we cannot hope for rectangular solution of the 
 problems of mental and moral training. As to the 
 latter of these we must note, as an additional difficulty, 
 that the proposition that moral training is a legitimate 
 function of the public school is by no means es- 
 tablished. Dr. Butler proclaims that " That democ- 
 racy alone will be triumphant which has both 
 intelligence and character. To develop them among 
 the whole people is the task of education in a democ- 
 racy." 1 
 
 Other writers drive home this same thought, as for 
 instance Hughes and Klemm, who say : " Every school 
 must have a twofold object, (1) to give technical 
 knowledge and train the intellect, and (2) to ennoble 
 the soul and establish character. " 2 The pulpit preach- 
 er and the lay speaker reiterate, amplify, and vivify 
 this proposition day after day. We cannot say that 
 they are unheard, nor that thoughtful men do not 
 
 1 Nicholas M. Butler: "The Meaning of Education," Macmillan, 
 
 1906, p. 101. 
 
 2 "Progress of Education in the Century," Linscott Pub. Co., 
 
 1907, p. 447. 
 
 33 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 promptly accept the thesis that character training 
 should be a vital aim of the school. 
 
 But who would venture the assertion that the aver- 
 age man is very effectively impressed? It is to be 
 feared that to his mind the school is, in return for 
 his taxes, to teach his boy arithmetic, not integrity; 
 writing, not righteousness; reading, not religion; and 
 mental acumen, not moral insight. And can we 
 much blame him so long as the school itself seems 
 to take this view; so long as the school officer con- 
 tinues to ask of the teacher, "Why did your class 
 get only 69.3 per cent on this grammar test when 
 the general average was 70.1 per cent?" and never 
 thinks of asking, " What gain in honesty and self- 
 control have you effected among your boys this 
 term?" 
 
 If we were willing to accept as the idea of moral 
 training, of character building, the usual content of 
 the pedagogue's time-worn term discipline, we would 
 have to admit that the school is permeated with the 
 distinction between intellectual and moral culture. 
 Indeed, instruction and discipline are universally 
 contraposed in pedagogic thought and we even go to 
 the length of "rating" a teacher in each of these 
 separately. But so long as discipline in the school 
 sense is merely synonymous with control such con- 
 trol as is exercised by the animal trainer over his 
 
 34 
 
THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE 
 
 charges we cannot admit that true moral training 
 has far advanced. 
 
 Having distinguished between mental and moral 
 training, we are immediately impressed with the ab- 
 sence of any consensus of conviction as to the treat- 
 ment of either phase. In this they differ from 
 the physical phase : for instance, we well know that 
 the pupil's eyes must be protected he must not 
 read badly printed text-books, he must not work 
 facing the windows, he must not write in incor- 
 rect posture, etc. all of this and very much more 
 is axiomatic. But there is no great body of axioms 
 covering the training of the intellect and the will. 
 Hence, both the curriculum and moral training, the 
 formulae through which we seek the development of 
 intellect and character, must be regarded as prob- 
 lems which, so long as they remain unsolved, are 
 legitimate subjects for discussion. 
 
 In the two chapters following, the relation of these 
 problems to the fundamental one of the form of school 
 organization will receive foremost consideration. 
 
II 
 
 THE CURRICULUM 
 
 DURING the many decades which have elapsed since 
 our public elementary schools first took form, "the 
 curriculum has undergone many modifications, and 
 received additions, until it has lost all resemblance to 
 its former self." 1 " From the testimony of men who 
 were educated in the common schools prior to 1800, 
 it appears that the course of instruction was limited 
 to spelling, reading, writing, and the elements of 
 arithmetic." 2 This seems meager indeed when com- 
 pared with our present-day elementary curriculum. 
 
 The development of the course of study in the 
 direction of the inclusion of new subjects is signifi- 
 cantly presented in the comparative tables which 
 appear 3 in Dr. Payne's interesting and valuable 
 study, "Public Elementary School Curricula," with- 
 out appreciative reference to which any discussion of 
 the subject would be shamefully lacking. In these 
 tables are compared the curricula of 1868, 1888, and 
 
 Dexter: op. cit., p. 155. * Ibid., p. 156. 
 
 P. 53, et seq. 
 
 36 
 
THE CURRICULUM 
 
 1904, for each of the five cities, New York, Boston, 
 Chicago, St. Louis, and Louisville. Perhaps the most 
 striking change revealed is in the case of St. Louis, 
 where, in 1868, the course consisted of but seven 
 grades. Reading, arithmetic, physical training, and 
 singing appeared in all seven, and writing in all but 
 the first ; spelling was provided in three grades, decla- 
 mation and geography each in four; while grammar and 
 history for the seventh year only, completed the list. 
 In 1904, in an eight-year course, reading, arithmetic, 
 physiology, and singing, as before, together with 
 writing and four new subjects morals and manners, 
 language, nature study, and drawing making a total 
 of nine subjects, are found in all grades. Geography 
 has extended to six grades, history to two, and spell- 
 ing to seven, while grammar and declamation as 
 separate subjects have disappeared. 
 
 We may note a corresponding variation among the 
 courses of study of the present day throughout the dif- 
 ferent cities. For instance, in addition to the ortho- 
 dox subjects, Boston introduces bookkeeping; Chicago, 
 German and Latin; Kansas City, civil government; 
 San Francisco, cooking; New York, civics, algebra, 
 English history, and options in foreign languages. 
 
 The changes in the content of the curriculum, 
 variant both as to time and locality, have not been 
 brought about except after strenuous conflict between 
 
 37 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 conservative and radical forces. Circumagitating 
 this conflict, which has by no means ended, there has 
 developed a technical terminology to which passing 
 reference must be made. 
 
 The utilitarian aim in public education has so strong 
 a grip upon popular opinion and sentiment as to have 
 incorporated into our daily speech the expression " the 
 three R's," used to represent the alliterative staples 
 of the old curriculum, reading, writing, and arith- 
 metic. In more refined circles this is replaced by the 
 term, "the essentials," which at once has the advan- 
 tage of saying less and meaning more, and so is grate- 
 fully received into the polite society of pedagogic 
 parlance. The essentials have been alternately lauded 
 and anathematized, yet the fact remains " that to-day, 
 even after all our talk about the new education, the 
 three R's are in the ascendency." 1 
 
 Another way of indicating the contention between 
 conservatism and radicalism is to distinguish between 
 the "form" and the "content" studies. Included in 
 the former are those of the old discipline, such as 
 arithmetic, spelling, and writing; and in the latter, 
 those of more recent introduction, such as geography, 
 literature, and history. Although the reformers have 
 been persistently attacking the preponderance of the 
 
 1 Payne: op. cit., p. 22. 
 38 
 
UNIVFR5M 
 
 OF 
 
 r THE CURRICULUM 
 
 formal studies in the curriculum, the programmes for 
 ten typical cities 1 show "that the formal studies re- 
 ceive sixty-two per cent of the assigned time, while 
 the numerous studies known as the content studies 
 receive but little more than thirty per cent." 2 
 
 Yet another style of referring to the demands of 
 the reformer is to refer to him as pleading for "en- 
 richment." New York stands preeminent among the 
 cities for the high degree 3 of enrichment of its course 
 
 1 New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, Co- 
 lumbus, Ga., Louisville, Jersey City, New Orleans, and Kansas 
 City, Kan. 2 Payne: op. cit., p. 39. 
 
 3 The New York curriculum boasts twenty-five subjects, of 
 which twenty-one are compulsory. They are: 
 
 1. Physiology and Hygiene 14. English History 
 
 2. Organized Games 15. Civics 
 
 3. Composition 16. Arithmetic 
 
 4. Reading 17. Algebra 
 
 5. Memorizing Selections 18. Geometry 
 
 6. Grammar 19. Nature Study 
 
 7. Spelling 20. Elementary Science 
 
 8. Penmanship 21. Drawing 
 
 9. German 22. Sewing 
 
 10. French 23. Cooking 
 
 11. Spanish 24. Shop Work 
 
 12. Geography 25. Music 
 
 13. United States History 
 
 Only one of 9, 10, or 11, optional with 12, in eighth year. 
 Only one of 23 or 24, in seventh and eighth years; 23 for girls, 
 and 24 for boys. 
 
 39 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 of study, and the question arises, in the words of Dr. 
 Payne, "Will the New York curriculum in its ex- 
 treme movement toward what are known as the 
 content studies be followed by these superintendents 
 [of other large cities], or will New York under force of 
 popular conservative opinion be forced to retreat from 
 its present curriculum?" l 
 
 Let us glance at both sides of the question. We 
 may look upon the enrichment of the curriculum as 
 the result of a philanthropic desire to set before the 
 elementary-school pupil a more varied diet than he 
 otherwise would enjoy. Not only shall he be fed the 
 meat and potatoes of the essentials, but these must be 
 supplemented with entrees and desserts in the form 
 of content studies, so that when he arises from his 
 educational repast he shall have no epicurean desire 
 unsatisfied. Now the chief danger from such a diet 
 is that the subject may, through the continued gusta- 
 tory appeals, partake too freely. Moreover, in his 
 eagerness to get all that is put before him, or what is 
 more likely, in the zeal of his servitors to have him not 
 miss anything on the table, he is quite likely to bolt 
 his food and in consequence suffer severely from in- 
 digestion. A too highly enriched curriculum meets 
 its chief objection in the danger that a chronic mental 
 dyspepsia will seize the child. 
 
 1 Op. tit., p. 62. 
 40 
 
THE CURRICULUM 
 
 State it less figuratively and a little more con- 
 cretely. I put my son into the care of the pedagogue. 
 He tells me that the boy must learn to read, to write, 
 and to cipher, to which I cordially assent, and he pro- 
 ceeds to instruct him in these important articles of 
 faith. But presently, of a summer's evening, as I sit 
 out in the open under the starlit dome, with my nine- 
 year-old on my knee, I find myself discoursing with 
 him of planets and satell tes and comets and meteors 
 and signs and seasons, in all of which he seems much 
 interested. I know that the hour is a delightful one 
 to me and surmise that it has been equally so to 
 him. 
 
 Then the next day, as I recall my own pleasure and 
 the boy's delight and interest, I grieve to think that 
 not every boy can sit out an evening with his father 
 and listen to the music of the spheres; and I wonder 
 why the schools cannot do something for the other 
 boy, and for my own, too, for I am unable to spend 
 every evening with h m and the stars, and so I pass 
 my thought on to the pedagogue. " Why certainly," 
 says he, "we ought to teach astronomy. It is very 
 important and instructive; no intelligent man should 
 be uninformed in the subject; I will introduce it at 
 once." And next there is complaint that my son has 
 neglected his homework in astronomy, and that he had 
 only 57 per cent in the last examination in that sub- 
 4 41 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 ject. Exaggerated? Yes, certainly. No elementary 
 school schedules astronomy as a formal subject? I 
 know that, of course. But, after all, is this so very 
 far from illustrating the spirit which has prompted 
 our campaign of enrichment? 
 
 To have a first-hand acquaintance with the natural 
 environment is very desirable, very desirable; the 
 more we repeat the statement, the more convinced 
 are we that it is not only very desirable but absolutely 
 indispensable. Yes, " nature study " must go into the 
 curriculum. And the laws of physics, an under- 
 standing of which is so necessary to a proper inter- 
 pretation of the moving world about us; and the his- 
 tory of England, a knowledge of which is so essential 
 to a proper appreciation of the history of our own 
 country; and the elements of algebra, without which 
 we cannot get a glimpse of the glories of higher 
 mathematics all these subjects, and many more, 
 must be added so that the child may not be deprived of 
 anything which may have a possible value to him in 
 either a practical or a cultural sense. And so he is 
 jerked from forty minutes of this to twenty minutes 
 of that, to thirty minutes of something else, essentials 
 and non-essentials all held officially imperative, until 
 at the end of the school day he is released, merely to 
 transfer his activities to his home, with an armful of 
 text-books and the demand for the production of a 
 
 42 
 
THE CURRICULUM 
 
 bulk of "home work." Can we wonder that the 
 average boy or girl finally goes forth from our ele- 
 mentary school possessed of an ill-digested jumble of 
 facts and fictions, Jack of all subjects, but master of 
 none? This, then, is the case against the enriched 
 course of study. 
 
 But this is only one side of the question. If enrich- 
 ment has its risks, certainly impoverishment is not 
 free from danger. If we seek relief from overfeeding 
 and indigestion, we cannot find it in malnutrition. 
 The child for whom school means nothing but a cease- 
 less grind in the machine shop of the formal studies 
 is deserving of the same pity which we accord the child 
 employee of any other factory. No wonder that con- 
 templation of him has incited the indignation of the re- 
 former. No wonder that in the name of Childhood our 
 curriculum has been wrested from the clutches of those 
 who would make of it a treadmill. Much of the crit- 
 icism of the curriculum-enricher is the natural out- 
 break of the taskmaster protesting against the demand 
 that he shall learn new arts and new manners. This 
 protest takes the convenient form of attacking the 
 "fads." Indeed, as some one has said, the chief fad 
 of the day is pounding the fads. But no epigram- 
 matic assault upon the new education is going to re- 
 sult in a return to the three R's as the sole substance 
 of the curriculum. If the case against excessive en- 
 
 43 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 richment is strong, surely the case against complete im- 
 poverishment is equally strong. 
 
 Like many another educational problem, this of 
 the curriculum has both its ideal and its practical 
 phases. The closet philosopher may evolve a paper 
 curriculum which proves flawless when tested by even 
 the highest ideals of the educational theorists. The 
 private tutor responsible for the progress of one or two 
 children in a wealthy family may devise a course of 
 study for his wards which may quite measurably ap- 
 proach the ideal schemes offered by the philosophers. 
 But the school board, face to face with a city public- 
 school system, encounters a very different problem. 
 Here, as in so many troublesome places in school 
 administration, the root of the difficulty is financial, 
 and, carrying out the figure, two main branches are the 
 burden of large classes and the handicap of untrained 
 teachers. 
 
 Of course each of these terms is used comparatively; 
 a large class is large only when contrasted with a 
 smaller one, and an untrained teacher is untrained 
 only as we consider him less trained than another. 
 Just what shall constitute a normal class as to size or 
 a normal teacher as to training, is open to argument. 
 But it is evident that in order to increase its standard 
 in either respect, a school system must spend more 
 money. As compared with present conditions, con- 
 
 44 
 
THE CURRICULUM 
 
 sider a school system wherein all teachers possessed 
 a professional training equal to that of our best trained 
 physicians, and wherein no class exceeded fifteen in 
 number. Without doubt the expense would be at 
 least quadrupled, but can we not also assume that 
 there would be a commensurate increase in effective- 
 ness? Many a curriculum, now existing only on paper, 
 could then be materialized in the minds and hearts of 
 the children. But the mere hope that we may some 
 day have such favorable conditions is not sufficient to 
 warrant us in prescribing a curriculum keyed up to 
 those imaginary conditions, but actually to be used 
 under practical conditions several tones lower in the 
 scale. Let us then avoid Utopian visions and keep to 
 the practical view of the problem. 
 
 We have already noted the fact that ninety per cent 
 of our public-school pupils do not go beyond the ele- 
 mentary school. For the ten per cent who do, it may 
 be that the average course of study is fairly well adapt- 
 ed, though this may be questioned. At any rate, in 
 recognition of the limits of the present discussion, we 
 will not give the point further attention. Rather, let 
 us consider the ninety per cent one would naturally 
 suppose that these would enlist the chief interest of 
 the school administrators when they manufacture 
 courses of study and examine more closely into what 
 is the opportunity which ought to be offered these pu- 
 
 45 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 pils. The hasty sketch which we have already drawn 
 of the conflict between the opposing protectors of the 
 curriculum has foreshadowed the fact that this offer- 
 ing should be of two distinct kinds. 
 
 Our first duty is to train the child in the use of cer- 
 tain tools in order that he may qualify for an intelli- 
 gent and profitable share in the world's work. He 
 must learn to read and to write. These two essen- 
 tials, which include spelling, should be studied until 
 they become habits, until there is an immense group 
 of automatic reactions set up, so that the printed word 
 calls forth easy and rapid rendering either orally or 
 mentally, and the need for expression impels the hand 
 to write in accordance with form conventional as to 
 spelling, penmanship, and the arrangement of a social 
 or business letter. Added to these are certain other 
 elementary habits which must be acquired. One of 
 these is the ability to express oneself in well-formed 
 sentences, without hesitation and without violation 
 of the ordinary rules of grammar. Another is the 
 ability to perform simple arithmetical computations 
 and to reason rigorously in simple practical problems 
 involving numbers. A thorough development of these 
 habits will enable a child forced into the business 
 world at the age of fourteen to offer a satisfactory 
 groundwork upon which his employer can train him 
 along the special lines of his employment, and upon 
 
 46 
 
THE CURRICULUM 
 
 which he may in his unemployed hours build up a 
 technical equipment entitling him to advanced con- 
 sideration in the labor market. 
 
 But it would be cruel indeed to send the hyperes- 
 sentialized child out from the school with an eye blind 
 to the beauties of nature, with an ear deaf to the voice 
 of the poet, with a mind dull to the joys of the phi- 
 losopher, in short, with a soul dead to the things of 
 the higher and broader life and incapable of cultural 
 growth. Therefore a second kind of offering must be 
 provided the child must be given a taste and an ap- 
 petite for those studies which are outside the realm 
 of immediate practical utility. 
 
 Now these two offerings represent in turn just what 
 the two contesting forces have been fighting for: the 
 conservatives have striven to magnify the essentials; 
 the radicals, to magnify the culture studies. But, un- 
 fortunately, the struggle has resulted in a compromise, 
 when what is needed is an arbitrament; and it is the 
 child who has suffered from the effects of the compro- 
 mise. It is as though the educational court had award- 
 ed the custody of the child to the joint guardianship 
 of the utilitarian and the culturist with the result that 
 each of these good Samaritans has him by an arm and 
 is tugging at him hourly with unremitting attention. 
 A saner decree would be to grant to each of his guard- 
 ians full control of the child for a specified number 
 
 47 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 of hours daily, and to hold each responsible for the 
 child's progress along his special line. 
 
 Let us particularize. There are two great harms 
 done the child as a result of the compromise between 
 the two ideas of utility and culture, namely, the harm 
 of teaching the utilities in the cultural spirit and the 
 harm of teaching the culture studies in the utility 
 spirit. 
 
 The difficulty that is introduced into the teaching 
 of the utility subjects by the spirit of the new educa- 
 tion is multifold. First of all there is the difficulty 
 with the time schedule. In their zeal to enrich the 
 curriculum through the introduction of new subjects, 
 the programme makers have been obliged to abbre- 
 viate the time allowed the essentials, and yet the work 
 to be done in these subjects has not been reduced 
 materially if at all. This is axiomatic : a twenty-five- 
 hour week given over to fifteen subjects cannot allow 
 each subject so long a period as when the same week 
 is apportioned to ten subjects. 
 
 In the second place, the more recently developed 
 methods appropriately applicable to the teaching of 
 the content studies have been carried over into the 
 teaching of purely formal studies. The method of the 
 recitation in geography, for instance, has extended to 
 those subjects whose chief aim is the development of 
 formal habits; and the spirit of laissez faire has 
 
 48 
 
THE CURRICULUM 
 
 superseded that of drill. In fact, good old-fashioned 
 drill is at a discount, and emphasis of its importance 
 is too frequently rated as a punishable educational 
 heresy. 
 
 A few pages back the utilitarian essentials of the 
 curriculum were outlined. That presentment occu- 
 pies but a few lines of print, and yet it constitutes in 
 itself a course of study which well might employ a 
 teacher and her forty or fifty pupils for three hours a 
 day throughout six or more years of the elementary 
 school course. For, and this is the rock on which the 
 enriched curricula go to wreck, there is nothing in the 
 new education which has succeeded in nullifying the 
 law of habit-building, so accurately expressed by Dr. 
 Bagley as " Focalization of consciousness upon the 
 process to be automatized, plus attentive repetition of 
 this process, permitting no exceptions until automa- 
 tism results." l The italics are my own. 
 
 Charles Dickens, the lay teacher, had no obscure 
 notions on this subject. Reread your "Oliver 
 Twist" and along toward the end of the ninth chap- 
 ter you will recall how Mr. Fagin drilled his pupils, 
 through "a very curious and uncommon game" in 
 the art of extracting "with the most extraordinary 
 
 1 William C. Bagley: "Classroom Management," Macmillan, 
 1907, p. 16. 
 
 49 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 rapidity, snuffbox, note case, watchguard, shirt- 
 pin, pocket handkerchief, even the spectacle case," 
 from the pockets of "the merry old gentleman." 
 Nowhere throughout the account do we hear of prep- 
 aration, presentation, association, but we do learn 
 that this game was repeated "a great many times." 
 Even sixty pages farther along in the narrative we 
 are told that the two boys, not what we would call a 
 large class, "played the old game with the Jew every 
 day." Drill, drill, and more drill, was the method, 
 and carefully indeed did Fagin the pedagogue avoid 
 the modern educator's curious vagary of supposing 
 that if a lesson is "presented" once to a class it is 
 sure to be at the recall of all the members of the 
 class weeks afterwards. 
 
 Moreover, from the practical exigencies of school 
 management, the effects of insufficient drill are sadly 
 cumulative. A certain standard in a subject is fixed 
 for a certain grade. At the end of the term an ortho- 
 dox proportion of pupils must be promoted out of that 
 into the succeeding grade. These pupils are duly 
 forwarded. The requirements of the new grade are 
 definitely scheduled on the supposition that the class 
 which the teacher confronts is grounded in the pre- 
 liminary work and prepared to take up the advanced 
 work without review of the old. This assumption is 
 quite contrary to the fact, as practical class teachers 
 
 50 
 
THE CURRICULUM 
 
 well know. There is no time in the new grade to rivet 
 the work presented in the grade below. 
 
 From grade to grade the difficulty accumulates, the 
 pupil's incompetency increasing as the square of his 
 distance from the starting point of his school career. 
 We are speaking, be it remembered, of the ninety per 
 cent. In their interest the work demanding drill 
 should be reduced in quantity. For instance, in 
 mathematics, cut out, not a topic here and there, but 
 fully half of the work ordinarily presented, retaining 
 at least all of the time now allotted to the subject, and 
 then teach that half. 
 
 To give but a single illustration of the present situa- 
 tion, contemplate the eighth-year girl, the girl whose 
 destiny it is to leave school within a year to busy 
 herself in the home or in outside vocational employ- 
 ment, and picture her as she flounders around in a 
 swirling Sargasso of cylinders, cones, trapezoids, 
 pi-r-squares, x y's, and yet is quite incompetent to 
 audit her mother's grocery bill I mean to add it up 
 once and be sure it is correct. She has been taught 
 the distinction between adjectives and adjective 
 participles, that is, the distinction has been duly and 
 pedagogically " presented" to her, but if she is not 
 serious-minded, it dwells with her but fleetingly, and 
 if she is, worse luck, it takes the part of an unbridled 
 evil spirit in her troubled dreams. In the midst of 
 
 51 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 her struggles to do her "home work" in parsing, 
 imagine her mother saying to her, offhandedly, some 
 evening: "By the way, daughter, I forgot to order 
 some white muslin when I was at Brown's Emporium 
 to-day. Drop them a note and ask them to send two 
 yards of the eight-cent quality to-morrow when they 
 send what I ordered to-day. Be sure that they send 
 it to-morrow without fail, as I must have some of it 
 to mend Robert's shirt that he tore yesterday. They 
 can charge it, of course." Do you, gentle reader, 
 picture her saying cheerfully, "Yes, mother," and in 
 a few minutes presenting a note for her mother's in- 
 spection, concise, correctly worded, legibly written, 
 and properly addressed? If so, you are a remarkably 
 venturesome optimist. I seem to hear her petulant 
 appeals, such as: "What paper shall I use? Do you 
 spell Emporium with a u or an o ? Is this the 19th? 
 Shall I write Tuesday in the date? Was it white you 
 said? How do you spell muslin? What shall I tell 
 them about Bob's shirt? Do they know you have an 
 account there?" ad libitum until the overworked 
 mother resolves not to bother daughter another time 
 with so plebeian a task while she has verbals and 
 parallelograms to groom for to-morrow's appearance 
 at school. 
 
 Thus far, we have been contemplating the damage 
 done to the utility subjects by the uncurbed influence 
 
 52 
 
THE CURRICULUM 
 
 of the enriching subjects. Conversely the new and 
 cultural subjects have suffered acutely at the hands 
 of the drillmasters. For teachers of the old school, 
 the time-hardened drillers, there is no method of 
 attacking any subject except through formal teach- 
 ing. Hence we see cultural studies subjected to drill 
 methods. Even if such a teacher waxes enthusiastic 
 over the new subjects, his zeal comes perilously near 
 complying with Professor Santayana's definition of 
 fanaticism which he says "consists in redoubling 
 your effort when you have forgotten your aim." 
 
 We are told that the word school is from the 
 Greek, "a transferred use of o-%oX??, spare time, 
 leisure." Would it be such an alarming matter if we 
 were to revive this idea, and frankly treated part of 
 our school day as leisure, or spare time? The boy or 
 girl who is one of the fortunate ten per cent, scheduled 
 for higher education, may perhaps justifiably be put 
 to a formal and persistent study of the cultural sub- 
 jects in preparation for their more intensive con- 
 sideration later on. But for the ninety per cent, 
 may we not safely provide the environment and the 
 seductive atmosphere of culture on an extensive but 
 necessarily shallow scale, and then let these pupils 
 browse about, under skillful guidance, not compelled 
 to absorb it all, but free to pick and choose much of 
 it for themselves? 
 
 53 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 No one person can reasonably be expected to evince 
 an absorbing interest in all departments of culture. 
 Here is a boy who delights in bees but eschews 
 Browning; here is another who relishes Shakespeare 
 but hates science. Must we beat and hammer each 
 into a duplicate of the other, and turn him out a 
 composite pseudo-scientist and dilettante litterateur? 
 We know some first-class scientists who are wretch- 
 edly indifferent to Browning; and we know some men 
 of letters who are hopelessly ignorant of the habits of 
 bees; and yet we do not think of any of these as un- 
 cultured. Is it not more reasonable for us to en- 
 courage the bee-boy to become a thoroughgoing 
 scientist and the Shakespeare-boy to become a thor- 
 oughgoing student of literature? As Superintendent 
 Chancellor puts it, "The general fact is that at the 
 present time the fashion in the schools is to carry out 
 too narrow, too uniform a curriculum. It needs to 
 be broadened and enriched. But it does not need to 
 be increased in the case of any individual child." l 
 
 The culturist must abandon his hope of so schooling 
 our children that they may go forth at the age of 
 fourteen with a "finished" education. He must 
 modify his hope so that it may reasonably become an 
 
 1 William E. Chancellor: "Our Schools, their Administration 
 and Supervision," Heath, 1905, p. 282. 
 
 54 
 
THE CURRICULUM 
 
 expectation, and work for the coming of the day when 
 the child meets his practical adult world equipped in 
 the essential utilities so that his material progress 
 is assured, and yet imbued with the spirit of reading 
 and research, of discontent with the limits of his in- 
 formation and his mental grasp, and of determination 
 to persist in his self-education all the days of his life. 
 Give him this double equipment, and you will be giv- 
 ing him that which surely the average public ele- 
 mentary school of to-day lamentably fails to give him. 
 
 These two main purposes, then, must we have in 
 our public education: to teach the child to work while 
 he works, and to teach him to browse while he 
 browses; to teach him to work honestly, earnestly, 
 unremittingly, and effectively, to browse intelligently, 
 profitably, and joyously. We cannot effect these two 
 purposes by permitting them to contest throughout 
 the school day for the possession of the child there 
 must be arbitrament, not contest. 
 
 To restate it in more specific terms, this is the pro- 
 gramme : give the essentials two or three hours of the 
 school day; give the culture subjects the balance. 
 Give the essentials those portions of the morning and 
 afternoon sessions during which the pupil has a maxi- 
 mum of available energy. Cut down the details of 
 the essentials, prune them to a very simple but a very 
 definite programme, then teach thoroughly, relentless- 
 
 55 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 ly, demanding of the child unremitting and increasing 
 concentration of attention. Let this complete his 
 school day so far as hard work is concerned, leaving 
 nothing to be done at home. For the balance of the 
 day introduce him to the content studies and the arts, 
 but extend this to him in the spirit of privilege, not 
 as a duty or task. Give him a reasonable liberty, 
 growing in amount as he grows, to cull for himself that 
 which his individuality demands. Most important of 
 all, do not hamper or depress him with home work, 
 tests, or examinations, in these subjects. 
 
 We may well agree with Dr. Hanus when he says 
 that "The education demanded by a democratic so- 
 ciety to-day is an education that prepares a youth to 
 overcome the inevitable difficulties that stand in the 
 way of his material and spiritual advancement." 1 
 But we need to make very sure that our schools are 
 giving a true preparation, and above all, that they are 
 not themselves augmenting the "inevitable diffi- 
 culties." 
 
 Paul H. Hanus: "A Modern School," Macmillan, 1905, p. 3. 
 
Ill 
 
 MORAL TRAINING 
 
 HE would be presumptuous indeed who would 
 undertake to discuss with any air of finality the sub- 
 ject of moral education. The large and excellent 
 bibliography on the subject serves to emphasize both 
 the seriousness and the intricacy of the problem and 
 the earnestness and sincerity of the attempts at its 
 solution. " Moral Training in the Public Schools" 
 is of such gravity as to have elicited a volume, 1 bear- 
 ing this title, in which are gathered five from out of 
 a total of three hundred essays which were submitted 
 in competition for cash prizes offered by a citizen of 
 California. Upon reading these selected essays one 
 is impressed not alone by their uniform excellence and 
 scholarly spirit, but perhaps even more by the im- 
 mensity and complexity of the subject, as evidenced 
 by the variety of viewpoint, of method of treatment, 
 and of suggested solution, advanced by the different 
 authors. And so, I repeat, one who presumed to 
 dispose of this subject in a chapter would be giving 
 
 1 C. E. Rugh, et al, Ginn, 1907. 
 5 57 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 prima facie evidence of his total inability to discuss 
 the subject at all. In these pages, therefore, the 
 subject can be touched only tangent ially, and the 
 tangent will be drawn from the point of view of the 
 preceding chapters. 
 
 By way of introduction, we may remind ourselves 
 that moral development is a threefold phenomenon. 1 
 Conduct, our "three fourths of life," is the index by 
 which we gauge moral ability in others. Each of us 
 has a supplementary gauge which he can apply to him- 
 self, but to himself only, namely, the quality of such of 
 his own thought as issues not in specific action. But 
 in evaluating the moral strength of our fellows we have 
 only their tangible acts upon which to base our judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Conduct, as we have said, has a trinitarian basis: it 
 is dependent upon the exercise of intellect, feeling, and 
 will. The child may be both quite eager and quite 
 willing to do the right in a specific case, and yet be 
 honestly in doubt as to which constitutes the right 
 act; that is, his deficiency is not one of feeling or of 
 will, but of knowledge. Again, he may know per- 
 fectly which of two actions is the right, may have a 
 will thoroughly capable of leading him to one or the 
 other of these actions as he may decide, and yet fail 
 
 > Cf. "The Management of a City School," p. 247, et seq. 
 58 
 
MORAL TRAINING 
 
 through an utter indifference as to whether his acts 
 are right or wrong; that is, his intellect and his will are 
 not at fault, but a moving feeling for the right is 
 absent. Or again, he may clearly see the right, may 
 ardently desire to do the right, and yet find himself 
 too weak-willed to do that which his intellect and 
 his feeling prompt him to do. 
 
 And all this is true, of course, not only of man in his 
 childhood but throughout the entire span of his life. 
 The only difference is that the school and the home are 
 prone to assume a degree of moral perfection in its chil- 
 dren which it rarely demands of the adult. Witness the 
 mother who daily exclaims : " I don't see why George 
 acts so," George being the five-year-old whose de- 
 ficiencies in arithmetic and reading are taken for 
 granted, whose aesthetic shortcomings elicit no com- 
 ment, and yet whose moral ability is regarded as 
 something that ought to grow up of itself. All of 
 which suggests that if the school is to concern itself at 
 all with moral training it must consider it just as 
 seriously as it does the training of the pupil in intel- 
 lectual acumen, manual skill, or art appreciation. 
 
 There is just one unanswerable reason why the school 
 must consider the moral training of its pupils, and that 
 is because it cannot possibly leave it unconsidered. 
 The child is bound to get a moral training of some kind 
 wherever he goes; he is particularly sure to get a moral 
 
 59 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 training of some kind when he goes to school. So that 
 the question is not, " Shall the school give moral train- 
 ing?" but, "The school is giving moral training; what 
 kind shall it be?" The school may rightfully be held 
 accountable in the matter. If the school environment 
 gives a moral training in grade below that of the child's 
 environment outside the school, then must the school 
 be condemned as an institution dangerous to the wel- 
 fare of society. But the school cannot hope to escape 
 this condemnation by merely letting well enough 
 alone; it must give positive attention to the moral 
 growth of its pupils. 
 
 For there is nothing intrinsically moral in the school. 
 I mean by this that the mere fact that a child enters 
 a school building and there meets scores of other chil- 
 dren and with them is compelled, one way or another, 
 to acquire certain information, is no guarantee that he 
 is thereby to grow in moral ability. That ability is 
 bound to be affected in some way, but not necessarily 
 in the direction of growth and improvement. It may 
 be so affected as to make him morally weaker than if he 
 had remained on the street; or again, it may be so af- 
 fected as to make him tremendously stronger morally 
 than if he had remained on the street. The child can- 
 not go to school, nor anywhere else, and remain un- 
 affected morally; his environment trains him positively 
 either toward morality or toward immorality. 
 
 60 
 
MORAL TRAINING 
 
 Were it possible for the school to deal with the child 
 intellectually only and have no effect whatever upon 
 his moral nature, whether for better or for worse, then 
 the teaching of morals might be considered an ex- 
 traneous thing, and the advocates of its intrusion 
 would be on the defensive. But the case is not so. 
 Select any incident at random in the pupil's school 
 day. Here, for instance, is a boy who has just solved 
 a problem in arithmetic. He carries his paper to his 
 teacher, who looks over his work and disposes of it. 
 In all of this simple procedure there is a definite moral 
 tone which has its inevitable, though not always star- 
 tling or recognized, effect upon the boy. The spirit in 
 which he attacked the problem, the manner in which 
 he walked to the teacher's desk, what the teacher said 
 and how he said it, the boy's reaction toward the 
 teacher's attitude all these have their moral value, 
 all have their sure effect, be it ever so little in quan- 
 tity, upon the boy's moral progress or retrogress. 
 Thus every exercise and event in the school touches 
 the moral spirit of the pupil the school cannot escape 
 its responsibility. 
 
 We are not to suppose that the child himself is ana- 
 lytic concerning his own gain or loss in moral culture. 
 He, like the adult, ordinarily "senses" things, not syl- 
 logizes them. For example, he does not often say : " I 
 did so and so; the teacher treated it thus; that was un- 
 
 61 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 just; therefore, I am unjustly treated; therefore, I 
 will . . . etc." Rather has he an indefinite rankling 
 sensation that he is not being fairly treated; but his 
 consequent conduct is no less positive because it is 
 based on a general feeling and not on a specific intel- 
 lectual inference. This preambles the thought that 
 the very organization of the school cannot fail to ex- 
 ercise an indirect though nevertheless powerful effect 
 upon the moral training of its pupils. It is this influ- 
 ence of the organic structure of the school system upon 
 the problem of moral culture that constitutes the 
 theme of this chapter. 
 
 America unfurls the flag of democracy on which are 
 emblazoned " liberty, fraternity, and justice," and we 
 all cheer lustily. But as she takes up the educational 
 banners upon which are inscribed the golden word 
 " opportunity, " and proceeds to distribute them to a 
 meager tenth of her children, and then, in stepmother- 
 ly fashion, gives to the others the simple privilege of 
 shouting while- her favorites march by, can she reason- 
 ably demand from these an enthusiastic devotion either 
 to democracy or to the abstractions of justice and 
 right? Even though he says little about it at the time, 
 does not the fourteen-year-old boy, suddenly cast up- 
 on the maelstrom of life, untrained to pull an oar or 
 reef a sail, still sense the fact that America had appren- 
 ticed him to a horticulturist and not to a navigator? 
 
 62 
 
MORAL TRAINING 
 
 Retardation is the euphemistic technical term, re- 
 cently discovered, applied to the patent fact that our 
 children do not get along well at school. There is, 
 though, a certain felicity in the selection of the word, 
 for it implies that the mishap of the pupil is something 
 for which he is not responsible retardation must 
 mean that the child is retarded by something or some- 
 body. In spite of much current talk on the subject, 
 it is a question as to whether we quite know what it 
 is all about. Shall we measure a child against an aver- 
 age standard, against an abnormally high standard, 
 or against an exceptionally low standard? Why not 
 simply measure himself against himself? And how can 
 we measure him against himself if we give him another 
 person's work to do instead of his own? 
 
 Having set up a school machine that is not con- 
 structed to do the work required of it, shall we stand 
 off and wonder why the products of the machine are 
 mutilated and defective? Instead of rebuilding the 
 machine, we continue to patch it here and there, hope- 
 ful that by some chance stroke we may improve the 
 product. Then when the tinkering is unsuccessful, 
 recourse is had to shifting the blame to the engineers. 
 There is surely no teacher who would pretend to have 
 fully mastered the teaching art, nor any principal who 
 would claim to manage his school faultlessly; it is to 
 be hoped that each employee in the school system is 
 
 63 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 ready to acknowledge his own shortcomings in his 
 position; and yet he would seem justified in protesting 
 against being charged with defective results which 
 are presumptively due to false organization. Retarda- 
 tion is not an indictment against the teacher and his 
 teaching method so much as it is against the organic 
 structure of the school. 
 
 It may seem that this reference to retardation would 
 more properly have been made while we were consid- 
 ering the curriculum, but it belongs right here. Moral 
 nurture requires all the favoring conditions which it 
 can command. Moral integrity is so tender a plant 
 that we should not take any chances in trying to raise 
 it in poor soil. Pupils, set to doing the wrong tasks, 
 are making the struggle to grow morally, in arid 
 soil: Undoubtedly the plant is not conscious of its 
 meager growth nor does it philosophize about the 
 quality of the soil from which it springs but the 
 gardener is nevertheless responsible. The child has no 
 very clear notion of why he stumbles in his moral 
 progress, or even perhaps of the fact that he is stum- 
 bling. But whether the retarded child realizes it or 
 not, his very retardation is a force making against his 
 moral growth and the school is responsible. Re- 
 organize the school ; measure the child against a stand- 
 ard appropriate to himself; eliminate the strain on 
 his moral development which results when, owing 
 
 64 
 
MORAL TRAINING 
 
 him one kind of schooling, we thrust another upon 
 him. 
 
 We may look at this subject of moral training with 
 advantage if we reconsider it in its relation to the 
 curriculum, and once more recall the contest between 
 the formalist and the culturist for the possession of 
 the child. To give the child naught but the disciplin- 
 ary, the formal, the utilitarian, subjects of study, and 
 to compel him to toil throughout his school day and 
 school year in their atmosphere, is to exclude all the 
 incentives to moral growth which inhere in the culture 
 group of studies. 
 
 It is true that there is a certain knowledge of the 
 right to be acquired through the study of the truths 
 of mathematics; there is a certain feeling for the right 
 to be experienced through the ideals of mathematical 
 accuracy and precision; there is a certain development 
 of the will power resulting from the struggle with the 
 formal processes and the rigorous reasoning involved 
 in mathematical calculations. And yet to depend 
 wholly upon arithmetic and the other formal studies 
 for the culture of the knowledge, the feeling, and the 
 will, which function in every moral act, is unneces- 
 sarily to limit opportunity and to employ a method 
 needlessly harsh and forbidding. There is very much 
 in the realm of literature, of science, of history, of art, 
 of handicraft, that teaches effectively the knowledge 
 
 65 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 of and feeling for moral issues, and we are demanding 
 the impossible of the child when we exclude him from 
 this realm of profit and yet hold him to a high-quality 
 virtue. 
 
 On the other hand, to give the average child a cur- 
 riculum overloaded with content studies studies 
 which he should pursue not as a preparation for further 
 formal study in higher institutions but solely for inter- 
 est and inspiration is to set his mind in such a whirl 
 that the moral virtues are in danger of being sub- 
 merged and lost. In their laudable eagerness to 
 relieve the child from the severities of the utilitarian 
 programme, the culturists have weakened him in all 
 three departments which make for moral strength. 
 
 In the first place, knowledge of right and wrong 
 comes either through the acceptance of dogmatic 
 teaching or through careful thinking on a few well- 
 considered facts, never from slipshod thinking about 
 a vast multitude of facts. Was it Josh Billings who 
 told us that " it is better not to know so many things 
 than to know so many things what ain't so"? Who- 
 ever the author, it is the expression of a saner peda- 
 gogy than many of the professional pedagogues preach 
 or practice. The digestive capacity of the average 
 child is as limited for mental food as for bodily food; 
 when his mind is stored with innumerable scraps of 
 knowledge and then these are tamped down day after 
 
 66 
 
MORAL TRAINING 
 
 day so as to stuff in still more, he is sure to be harbor- 
 ing, many, many things "what ain't so." And the 
 pity of it is that either he charges the school with bad 
 faith when his condition is finally revealed to him, or 
 else he never learns his plight and goes through life 
 thinking hazily and lazily. If a boy cannot think ac- 
 curately in terms of arithmetic, or of geography, or 
 of civics, how are we to suppose him capable of think- 
 ing accurately in terms of moral precepts and moral 
 definitions? 
 
 In the second place, the pressure of the culture 
 studies on the time schedule reduces the total time 
 given to the formal group; and the inclusion of an 
 immense number of totally unnecessary topics in the 
 various formal studies, materially reduces the time 
 available for each topic. The result is that the teacher, 
 under average conditions, cannot teach thoroughly, 
 with the further result that the ideal of thoroughness 
 is shattered. Pupils present indifferent work; the 
 teacher knows that it should not be accepted, that a 
 higher standard should be set before the pupil and 
 compliance therewith imperatively demanded. But 
 to maintain this standard is a physical and mental 
 impossibility, and so the child accepts as his standard 
 the carelessness which circumstance compels the 
 teacher to accept from him. Now carelessness is dis- 
 tinctively an immoral ideal. How can we expect a 
 
 67 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 child whose ideal has been thus untrained or wrongly 
 trained in regard to intellectual tasks, to carry over 
 to the moral realm careful ideals of duty and truth? 
 In the third place, the spirit of the cultural studies 
 has exerted a decided influence upon the teaching of 
 the formal group. The keynote of the new education 
 is interest, and even the teaching of the multiplica- 
 tion table may be made, in a way, interesting, intrin- 
 sically so in its presentation and artificially so in its 
 drill. But there is an acquisition of formal knowledge 
 and power which can come only through intense con- 
 centration of attention. To make a subject interest- 
 ing through the petty devices of teaching method, is 
 to make it fruitless in will training. And so the in- 
 fluence of the interest-rousing spirit upon those essen- 
 tials of the curriculum which are to be acquired only 
 by brute force, as it were, has not been altogether a 
 profitable one. Moral development, while dependent 
 upon knowledge and feeling, is predominantly a mat- 
 ter of will. The education of the will, by very defini- 
 tion, means fundamentally training in doing what we 
 do not especially desire to do. It follows then that 
 will training cannot be made "interesting." This is 
 true when we mean by interest any direct stimulus 
 which compels attention; it is of course not true if we 
 extend it to include that higher interest which func- 
 tions indirectly through ideals. 
 
 68 
 
MORAL TRAINING 
 
 Consider a single crude illustration. A boy is left 
 alone in a room with a luscious red apple in sight which 
 belongs to another boy. He knows that to appro- 
 priate that apple to his own use would be a wrong 
 act an act which he has learned to call stealing. His 
 general sentiment, his ideal, is honesty; his higher self 
 prompts him to overrule his appetite and not take the 
 apple. If he succeeds in so controlling his will that it 
 is obedient to his ideal and not to his appetite, he has 
 won a moral victory and has made a distinct advance 
 in the subjection and training of his will. If we call 
 this ideal an interest, as probably we should, then we 
 must admit that interest does factor favorably. But 
 suppose, as the boy is about to steal the apple, he 
 suddenly recollects that he has an orange of his own 
 in his lunch-box, and also that he really likes oranges 
 better than apples. This direct interest, this demand 
 upon his involuntary attention, though it does result 
 in his not stealing, has done little or nothing in 
 training him in the virtue of honesty. Or again, sup- 
 pose that while he is debating the question with him- 
 self and is about to take the apple, his teacher 
 suddenly appears upon the scene and imposes her 
 will upon his. Although the act of stealing has been 
 averted, it is clear that there has been no advance in 
 the training of the boy's will. In other words, the 
 essence of moral power is the ability to do, of one's 
 
 69 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 own volition, those things which we desire not to do; 
 it is the victory of the imperative ought over the se- 
 ductive please. 
 
 When the teacher attempts to give the pupil the 
 elements of the formal studies through an interest 
 which aims to inveigle him or trick him into their ac- 
 quisition, he is depriving the child of the very train- 
 ing in will development which is his due. Of course 
 the drillmaster is not to construe this into a license to 
 do naught but drill his class in intellectual perform- 
 ances; there is no moral virtue in drill, per se. It is 
 only when the pupil submits himself to unattractive 
 drill through the operation of some ideal which he rec- 
 ognizes for himself, that he is gaining in will power. 
 
 I recall the case of a girl sent to me by her teacher 
 with a "commendation card" for an excellent geog- 
 raphy recitation. As I indorsed the card with my sig- 
 nature, I said, "So you like geography, do you?" 
 Her frank reply came with explosive promptness, 
 " No, I hate it. " It was evident that she had made an 
 important gain in the power of self-application to a 
 distasteful task, and it was no less evident that the 
 teacher was alive to her responsibilities for the train- 
 ing of her girls toward moral conquest. 
 
 Now, the essence of an ideal is that it shall in some 
 way represent an ultimate and transcendent "good." 
 It must have a recognizable " value. " The pupil must, 
 
 70 
 
MORAL TRAINING 
 
 in one way or another, be brought to sense his duty, 
 which is but his epitome of ideals. He learns that it 
 is his duty to do his school work including all the 
 disagreeable phases of it because, broadly speaking, 
 it is right for him to become educated and wrong for 
 him to grow up in ignorance. But if we recognize the 
 fact that the so-called education which we put upon 
 him is not the education which will make him most 
 effective, either individually or socially, how can we, 
 with any conscience, lead him to a faith in this mis- 
 directed education as an ideal? A curriculum which 
 gives pupils so much to do that they can do none of 
 it thoroughly, which leads them to believe that their 
 full duty consists in passive submission to the active 
 determination of the teacher to interest we had al- 
 most said amuse them, which seems to teach them 
 that it is easily possible to get something for nothing, 
 is a curriculum immoral certainly in its effects, if not 
 in and of its very self. 
 
 The central thought of the kindergarten, as I 
 understand it, is to provide the child, early in his 
 life, with practical ideals which shall become effective 
 motives in directing his activities and shall gradually 
 transform his aimless play into purposeful work. 
 It must be admitted, however, that this spirit has 
 been misinterpreted by many of the enthusiastic 
 disciples of Froebel. They seem to have read the 
 
 71 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 word play in enlarged capitals and to have entirely 
 overlooked the great moral implications of the kinder- 
 garten idea. Hence the plea that the spirit of the 
 kindergarten be extended through the elementary- 
 school grades has all too frequently resulted in attempts 
 on the part of misguided teachers to convert into play 
 those activities of the school which must ever involve 
 work, hard work, work in the performance of which 
 inheres the essence of moral stamina and true virtue. 
 Professor Wendell, in his essay on "Our National 
 Superstition," scores the weakening effect of these 
 misdirected ideas in the so-styled "new education." 
 "The whole new system of education, from a child's 
 first school to a man's last degree, is based on this 
 principle, which we may call the principle of the kin- 
 dergarten not literally, of course, but as a matter of 
 general temper. You must try to find out just what 
 everybody likes best, and then help him to do it 
 just as kindly as you can." 1 He traces the effect of 
 this principle in these words: "boys fitted for college 
 at schools where the new education has supplanted the 
 old, seem to me, almost year by year, when they get 
 to college, flabbier and flabbier in mind," and he il- 
 lustrates with the story of the Harvard sophomore 
 whom he advised to "take in hand some hard and 
 
 1 Barrett Wendell: "The Privileged Classes," Scribnera, 1908, 
 p. 157. 
 
 72 
 
MORAL TRAINING 
 
 solid subject, and therewith to plow out the traces 
 of the kindergarten." 
 
 Probably Professor Wendell would not wish his 
 essay construed as an attack upon the kinder- 
 garten per se, nor do we need to make any such 
 attack in order to convince ourselves that the power 
 of relentless concentration is not one of the virtues de- 
 veloped by the latter-day pedagogy. And if the effect 
 upon the chosen one per cent of children who go to 
 college is so marked, can we wonder that the ninety 
 per cent in our elementary schools succumb to the 
 enervating spirit of dolce far nientef We may well 
 question our right to demand of our pupils that they 
 shall exhibit in the moral sphere a will power which 
 we neglect to develop in their intellectual training. 
 
 How can we expect the child who has never learned 
 to face forbidding and distasteful intellectual tasks and 
 conquer them through sheer force, to meet the moral 
 crises of his life with infallible strength of will? 
 
 There are many other causes, some of them pain- 
 fully patent, of the present unsatisfactory relation of 
 our public schools to moral education, but I purposely 
 refrain even from referring to them. I wish rather 
 to support the single thesis that the curriculum it- 
 self exercises an influence upon the moral develop- 
 ment of the pupils to whom it is applied, an influence 
 which may neither be lightly disregarded nor readily 
 6 73 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 measured. The substance and spirit of the curric- 
 ulum should therefore be such as to promote and not 
 to impede this development. Our American curric- 
 ulum, so closely related to our illogical school organ- 
 ization, is on trial charged with increasing the diffi- 
 culties attending the problem of moral training when 
 it should be one of the most powerful and positive 
 contributions toward its solution. 
 
PART TWO 
 PROBLEMS IN METHOD AND MANAGEMENT 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE distinction has elsewhere been drawn l be- 
 tween the general and the specific relations which the 
 school principal and the class teacher sustain toward 
 the state. The problems discussed in the preceding 
 chapters are such as ordinarily concern the subordi- 
 nate in a school system only as he is interested in ful- 
 filling his general obligation to society. His specific 
 contract does not call upon him to settle general pol- 
 icies or to solve the broad problems of school admin- 
 istration. Nevertheless, as an honest student and a 
 thoughtful observer he is bound to have some opin- 
 ions regarding these policies and these problems; and 
 it is in recognition of the general duty which the state 
 imposes upon him as one of its professional members 
 that he offers the results of his study and his obser- 
 vation, hopeful that they may be received at their 
 face value and render to society a service proportioned 
 to their merit. But as attention is transferred from 
 these broader problems to the details of school and 
 
 1 "The Management of a City School," p. 9. 
 
 77 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 class management, the specific obligations of princi- 
 pals and teachers come into view. 
 
 So long as the whole subject of educational theory 
 and practice is in a state of unstable equilibrium, each 
 school must be considered an experiment station, and 
 each executive head whether of a class, a school, or a 
 system must regard himself as a research student in 
 the pedagogical laboratory. The principal particu- 
 larly has a unique opportunity to work out tentative 
 solutions to definite problems in both management 
 and methods. He occupies a position midway 
 between the enthusiastic exponent of educational 
 reforms and the practical teacher upon whom falls 
 the burden of attempting to realize those reforms. 
 His consequent function is that of intermediary be- 
 tween theory and application, and his philosophy will 
 be a practical idealism. Keeping his head in the 
 radiant but shifting clouds, he yet grounds his feet 
 squarely upon the prosaic and solid earth. He 
 recognizes the value of ideals and appreciates the 
 sincerity of those educational writers whose ex- 
 pression is largely in terms of the ideal; but he also 
 sympathizes with the class teacher whose devotion 
 to the philosophic phase of her work is imperatively 
 diverted by the demands of a very present and actual 
 condition of fact. Through receptive sympathy the 
 most ardent thought of the progressive educationalist 
 
 78 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 may be properly tempered by the cool judgment of 
 a practical principal and safely passed on to the 
 teacher for her to apply to the factual situation. 
 
 Those who are directly engaged in school and class 
 management are in search not so much of the state- 
 ments of new theories, though the motivating value 
 of these is duly acknowledged, as of reports of the 
 applications of such theories in actual current prac- 
 tice. From which it follows that, in proportion as 
 the school executive has opportunity to experiment, 
 it is his duty to report upon the results of his experi- 
 ments to his fellow workmen. It is with a sense of 
 this duty, which overrides my own recognition of the 
 shortcomings of the following pages, that I send them 
 forth. 
 
 My lines have fallen in pleasant places, and the 
 large elementary school which I have had the good 
 fortune to administer for several years has afforded 
 an excellent opportunity for the study of definite 
 problems as well as encouragement to attempt their 
 solution. But however willing the spirit may be to 
 devote itself to work of this character, the time left 
 for such work after the hours demanded by the daily 
 routine have been subtracted from the school day, is 
 all too brief. Of the specific subjects treated herein, 
 those of chapters four to seven may more properly 
 be considered as problems of methods and those of 
 
 79 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 the succeeding chapters as problems of management. 
 I have aimed to include nothing that has been defi- 
 nitely worked out in the same way by other school men 
 and already described in published form. If it should 
 prove that I have been anticipated in any respect by 
 matter already published which has escaped my no- 
 tice, I here record my assurance .that it is in spite of 
 a conscientious effort to acquaint myself with the 
 bibliography of the various subjects. 
 
 It seems unnecessary to apologize to practical teach- 
 ers for entering quite fully into working details. It is 
 the interchange of views in just such detail that is 
 most desired by craftsmen already grounded in the 
 philosophy of education and the essentials of method. 
 At this point, too, I may, once for all, express my 
 apology if apology be needed for the prevalence 
 of the first person in the language of many of the 
 following pages. Most of the sentences could be 
 recast so as to give them the air of impersonality, but 
 the results of experience seem to be most effectively 
 presented in the direct speech of the deponent, and 
 any formal attempt to avoid the possible criticism of 
 egoism would seem an unnecessary affectation. 
 
IV 
 
 ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 COMPOSITION l 
 
 "COMPOSITION," as it is understood in its limited 
 school sense, is the art of composing thoughts, that 
 is, of putting thoughts together properly. The ex- 
 pression of a detached, random thought or collection 
 of thoughts may no more be dignified by the term 
 composition than the careless daub of the brush is 
 deemed a composition in the pictorial arts. Hence 
 the essence of composition teaching is to train the 
 pupil to arrange his thoughts. He needs to learn 
 this art for both its personal and social value. It 
 is the latter phase which perhaps comes most prom- 
 inently to mind when we consider composition work 
 in the schools, namely, the necessity for proper 
 thought conveyance so that the individual may be 
 
 1 Particularly sixth-, seventh-, and eighth- year grades. For 
 primary composition, see, among others: Percival Chubb, "The 
 Teaching of English," The Macmillan Co., 1907, pp. 106-117, 
 and Joseph S. Taylor, "Composition in the Elementary School," 
 A. S. Barnes and Co., 1906. 
 
 81 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 an effective and agreeable member of his social 
 group. 
 
 Equally important, however, is the development of 
 the habit of clear and orderly thinking, even when 
 there follows no immediate formal expression of the 
 results of this thinking. This is necessary to any 
 substantial progress in the personal cultural life of 
 the individual. By way of illustration we have only 
 to note how unthinking is the reading of even in- 
 telligent people. For many, the novel is the only 
 literary form with which they are at all intimate. 
 The value of the novel is certainly not to be min- 
 imized its power to stimulate, to soothe, to interest, 
 even to instruct but as a means of intellectual dis- 
 cipline how far inferior it is to such a form of literary 
 composition as the essay. 
 
 Few people read in order to think. Quite frequently 
 their reading results in a substantial inhibition of their 
 own impulse to thinking, with danger of an eventual 
 atrophy of the power to think in any true sense of the 
 word. Compared to the number whose only concep- 
 tion of reading is the absorption of the plot and in- 
 cident of the novel, few indeed are they who are 
 willing to read one page, say of Emerson's Essays, 
 and think five pages, and extremely few are those 
 who have deliberately cultivated such a habit. The 
 development of the habit of self-reliant thinking, 
 
 82 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 then, is an aim of school training justified by con- 
 sideration not only of the child's responsibility as a 
 social unit, but also of his personal culture. 
 
 Thought arrangement is impossible, moreover, 
 without the presence of a store of thoughts. Of 
 course no person can be absolutely thoughtless, and 
 yet there exists an undeniable necessity, in any 
 method of training, for deliberately providing a sup- 
 ply of thoughts. 
 
 Composition teaching consequently involves definite 
 cultivation of (1) the pupil's power and habit of 
 searching for and seizing upon the raw materials of 
 the thinking process, (2) the ability to work over 
 these raw materials so that they may be properly 
 classified and correlated in his mental storehouse, 
 and (3) the ability intelligently to convey the results 
 of his thinking to others by means of verbal ex- 
 pression. For convenient reference, we may des- 
 ignate these three stages: (1) Acquisition, (2) Organ- 
 ization, (3) Expression. 
 
 (1) Acquisition is directed toward materials which 
 will work up into various forms of literary composi- 
 tion and is concurrent with all the instructional ex- 
 ercises of the school. Every subject of the curriculum 
 forces upon the pupils' attention materials which are 
 stowed away in consciousness, where they remain 
 subject to a more or less ready recall. The skillful 
 
 83 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 teacher recognizes that in teaching each subject he is 
 not only working toward the specific ends by virtue 
 of which that subject has a place in the curriculum, 
 but he is also accumulating for the pupil subject- 
 matter which the pupil is to reorganize for the dis- 
 tinctive purpose of exercising his powers of ex- 
 pression. That is, he is teaching each subject not 
 only directly for itself, but also indirectly for results 
 in composition. Hence he will bear in mind the 
 various uses to which the acquired facts may be put 
 in the work in composition, and the pupils themselves 
 in their progress through the grades will gradually 
 learn to classify the chief kinds of production. 
 
 The forms which verbal composition may take are 
 those which constitute the time-honored categories 
 of rhetoric, namely, narrative, description, expo- 
 sition, and argument. Professor Gardiner 1 groups 
 these into the literature of thought (the last two) 
 and the literature of feeling, and includes, too, in the 
 former group a type which is scarcely to be con- 
 sidered in the elementary school, criticism. 
 
 All acquisition may lead toward any one of the four 
 kinds of composition; and the pupil, unless he is de- 
 liberately acquiring facts for a particular kind of com- 
 position, will absorb ideas regardless of the exact form 
 
 1 J. H. Gardiner: "The Forms of Prose Literature," Scribners, 
 1900. 
 
 84 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 of their eventual use. However, certain school studies 
 and exercises seem to be better adapted to the devel- 
 opment of one rhetorical form than another and hence 
 to be most prolific in supplying this particular need. 
 This field of the subject has been well worked over l 
 and is not further referred to here. 
 
 (2) Organization makes such a selective arrange- 
 ment of the raw materials already acquired as will 
 dispose them economically in the mental storeroom 
 and prepare them for appropriate expression. 2 "An 
 agglomeration of material has no literary value, any 
 more than a stone-heap has an architectural value. 
 If the author has done nothing but amass he is unin- 
 teresting. " 3 Under the head of " organization " should 
 come the study of the model, considered as a compo- 
 
 1 Chubb, op. cit., p. 178, et seq. Gardiner, op. cit., pp. 25-181. 
 Scott-Denney: "Elementary English Composition," Allyn and 
 Bacon, 1906, p. 88, et seq. Scott-Southworth : " Lessons in Eng- 
 lish," Book II, Sanborn and Co., 1906, p. 287, et seq. Emerson- 
 Bender: "Modern English," Book II, Macmillan, 1906, p. 341, 
 et seq. On argumentation, see Frances M. Perry: "An Intro- 
 ductory Course in Argumentation," American Book Co., 1906. 
 William Trufant Foster: " Argumentation and Debating," Hough- 
 ton, Mifflin, 1908. 
 
 2 "To compose is to organize; you cannot get a well-organized 
 product from a disorganized mind. This we would keep as the 
 root idea of composition in the Grammar Grades." 
 
 Chubb, op. cit., p. 174. 
 
 3 Charles F. Johnson: "Elements of Literary Criticism," Har- 
 pers, 1898, p. 16. 
 
 85 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 sition whole, and models for this purpose should ex- 
 emplify not alone beauty of language but excellence 
 of logical arrangement. 1 In addition to the analytic 
 study of the model, formal synthetic exercises in or- 
 ganization should be given, wherein the pupils have 
 set before them a series of detached sentences, or less- 
 er elements, which they are to rearrange into proper 
 sequence. 2 The teacher may most readily get mate- 
 rial for such exercises by disarranging the sentences in 
 a model. It will add interest to the work if the pupils 
 know the source of the material and are permitted to 
 compare the results of their efforts at reorganization 
 with the original. 
 
 The discussion incident to the study of the model 
 and the reorganization of material will afford oppor- 
 tunity for the inductive development of the funda- 
 mental rules for rhetorical unity. The rules thus de- 
 rived may in turn be taken as the basis for application 
 
 1 " ... there must be impression from good models, what 
 the child hears and reads. The depth of the impression depends 
 largely upon the intensity of the interest that accompanies the 
 experience, and the frequency of repetition under the influence 
 of alert, active interest." 
 
 Robbins-Rowe: "Essential Studies in English," Book I, 
 Row, Peterson and Co., 1907, p. 5. 
 
 2 " One way of showing what a paragraph is, is to show what 
 it is not." 
 
 Adams Sherman Hill : " The Foundations of Rhetoric," Har- 
 pers, 1899, p. 313, et aeq. 
 
 86 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 in organization exercises. Chief among these rules 
 are: "put but one main assertion and appropriate 
 modifiers in a sentence, treat one subordinate topic in 
 a paragraph, refer, when possible, in the closing sen- 
 tence of a paragraph to the subject introduced in the 
 opening, arrange paragraphs according to a well-con- 
 sidered plan, review the main positions in the close, 
 give digressions an evident relation to the main prop- 
 osition. . . . " x 
 
 One other form of exercise is indispensable in devel- 
 oping the organizing faculty: the making of outlines 
 for compositions on given subjects, unaccompanied by 
 either the acquisition process for the particular sub- 
 jects considered or their expression in amplified form. 2 
 The paragraph heading will be the first unit of sub- 
 division, followed by subtopical notes. 3 Care must 
 
 1 Johnson, op. cit., p. 23. 
 
 2 " Making outlines " is discussed (p. 132) in Carpenter, Baker, 
 and Scott, " The Teaching of English in the Elementary and the 
 Secondary School," Longmans, 1903. This also contains an ex- 
 tensive bibliography in English work. 
 
 3 " A paragraph is to a sentence what a sentence is to a word 
 . . . the principles which apply to the composition of para- 
 graphs are the same that apply to the composition of sentences." 
 
 -p. 119. 
 
 "Words and sentences are subjects of revision; paragraphs 
 and whole compositions are subjects of prevision." 
 
 Barrett Wendell: "English Composition," Scribners, 1897, 
 p. 117. 
 
 87 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ( UNIVERSITY 
 
 &LIFO 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 be exercised in the selection of subjects, 1 and they 
 should be more truly subjects than the more limited 
 titles which are often prescribed for finished composi- 
 tions. 2 For instance, the subject of a class exercise 
 may be " Vacation Experiences" and the titles of the 
 several compositions quite dissimilar, as: "A Snake 
 and a Stick," "An August Afternoon," "When the 
 Golden-Rod Blossoms," etc. 
 
 (3) Expression is the final stage. This of course 
 does not mean that, in the development of the pupil, 
 all expression is postponed until he has mastered the 
 arts of acquisition and organization, but that in the 
 construction of any single composition, expression is 
 the goal, with the other two exercises merely prelim- 
 inaries in reaching it. In this stage the whole question 
 
 1 A list of 325 subjects for themes is given in Brainerd Kel- 
 logg: "A Text-Book on Rhetoric," Maynard, Merrill, 1906. 
 One thousand graded composition subjects are provided in 
 Albert W. Emerson: "Composition and Criticism," Bardeen, 
 1893, p. 46, et seq. Many subjects are suggested and discussed 
 in Gilbert-Harris: "Guide Books to English," Book II, Silver, 
 Burdett, 1908, and in A. Howry Espenshade: "The Essentials 
 of Composition and Rhetoric," D. C. Heath and Co., 1907, pp. 
 175, 368. 
 
 2 "Give ideas, not subjects. The former inspire, the latter 
 deaden. Do not trouble about the subject; a paper can be 
 named after it is written." 
 
 Rosa V. Winterburn: "Methods in Teaching," Macmillan, 
 1907, p. 81. 
 
 88 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 of style l comes to the front, and the detailed arrange- 
 ment of words becomes the subject of careful and crit- 
 ical study. 
 
 All composition is verbal, but its expression may be 
 either oral or written. From the pedagogic viewpoint 
 I would make a further distinction by classifying all 
 school composition exercises in expression as formal 
 or informal. The formal exercise plans to produce a 
 complete composition of some one of the four rhetor- 
 ical forms. The informal exercise seeks to strengthen 
 expression in points of detail and has only incidental 
 by-products, consisting of some unit less than a com- 
 position whole. 
 
 Under the informal phase there should be no rigid 
 distinction between oral and written exercises. 
 Teacher and pupils should not hesitate to go from 
 one to the other in the most informal manner. Dur- 
 ing an oral composition, for instance, the teacher may 
 say: "John, you expressed that extremely well; see 
 if you can write it as well as you talked." John 
 dashes it off quite informally while the rest of the 
 
 1 Extended discussion of the elements of style clearness, 
 force, ease, elegance, etc. will be found in any standard text 
 in rhetoric. Among these are : Barrett Wendell, op. cit., Adams 
 Sherman Hill, op. cit., and G. R. Carpenter: "Elements of 
 Rhetoric and English Composition," Macmillan, 1906, pp. 220- 
 242. On correct use of words, see Rossiter Johnson : " The Alpha- 
 bet of Rhetoric," Appleton, 1903. 
 7 89 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 class proceed with their oral work. Conversely, dur- 
 ing an informal written exercise. Lender this head 
 may be grouped a great variety of exercises, some of 
 which are here enumerated. 
 
 (1) Drills on correct grammatical forms, as, for in- 
 stance, the correct use of prepositions, of personal 
 and relative pronouns, of irregular verbs, the proper 
 location of explanatory modifiers, correct syntax, 
 substitution of language for the pupils' " slanguage." 
 
 (2) Preparation for the formal composition involv- 
 ing search for and discussion of subject matter, 
 arrangement of topical outlines, reports of indi- 
 viduals or committees assigned to research work. 
 
 (3) Discussion and criticism of pupils' formal com- 
 positions. Samples of the best and worst the latter, 
 of course, incognito may be read or written on the 
 blackboard. 
 
 (4) Reports on home reading, current events, per- 
 sonal adventures, topics studied in geography, history, 
 and the other subjects of the curriculum. 
 
 (5) A series of pupils each talking to a single topical 
 title of an outlined composition whole. 
 
 (6) Very brief five-minute or so written compo- 
 sitions, with no emphasis upon mechanical features, 
 dealing with whole subjects or single paragraphs or 
 topics, or reproducing stanzas of poetry or paragraphs 
 of prose from memory or more immediate dictation. 
 
 90 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 (7) Exercises in condensation, such as advertise- 
 ments, "lost and found" items, the reporting of events 
 and incidents in telegrams of a limited number of 
 words. 
 
 (8) Exercises in expansion, such as invention of de- 
 tails of the story of "Jack and Jill," "Old Mother 
 Hubbard," "The boy was Benjie; the bear was 
 bulgy; the bulge was Benjie/' etc. 
 
 (9) Speed exercises, in which pupils endeavor to 
 report in writing as much as possible of a vivid narra- 
 tive within a certain time limit. This is allied to the 
 work of the newspaper reporter who strives, in the 
 parlance of his trade, to "get a scoop." 
 
 Formal expression may be classified, somewhat 
 arbitrarily, thus: 
 
 Declamation 
 Debate 
 
 ORAL 
 
 WRITTEN { Letter 
 I Theme 
 
 The declamation is the oral essay presented without 
 thought of immediate rejoinder, 1 whereas the debate 
 deliberately sets one declamation against another. 
 The letter is the written essay directed to a particular 
 audience with corresponding modification in form 
 
 'See Edwin DuBois Shurter: "The Rhetoric of Oratory/'" 
 Macmillan, 1909. 
 
 91 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 and substance, whereas the theme is addressed to a 
 general and impersonal audience. Both kinds of 
 formal expression require systematic cultivation, but 
 the pedagogy of each differs. One large aim is com- 
 mon to both: the development of facility in thought 
 expression, or more specifically, the cultivation of 
 proper habits as to logical arrangement, rhetorical 
 style, and grammatical correctness. 
 
 Another important aim, that of the development of 
 facility in mechanical arrangement and accuracy, is 
 present only in the written expression. Hence, in 
 general, it may be laid down that in the criticism of 
 written compositions only those matters of detail 
 should be given attention which are unreachable in 
 the oral composition. Detailed correction, in a 
 written exercise, of errors in rhetoric and grammar, 
 or even their indication, is inadvisable for many 
 reasons, but chiefly because it tends to repression 
 rather than to expression. 1 The pupil to whom is 
 returned his two-page effort in composition, com- 
 pletely reticulated with colored cabalistic advertise- 
 ment of his incompetency, is distinctly discouraged, 
 and his next attempt will be cautiously abbreviated 
 
 1 "Fluency must be sought for before correctness; or, in other 
 words, the teacher must have freedom and spontaneity in view." 
 B. A. Hinsdale, "Teaching the Language Arts," Appleton, 1896, 
 p. 113. 
 
 92 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 to a single page. The pupil is in need of every 
 possible encouragement to express himself freely and 
 fearlessly. If deprived of ample opportunity to prac- 
 tice expression without fear of consequences, he will 
 never develop any skill in composition. His errors 
 in rhetoric and grammar should therefore be pointed 
 out to him orally when they occur in his written ex- 
 ercises, or referred to in written criticism in general 
 terms only. The habit of making these errors must 
 be deliberately and systematically overcome through 
 the class exercises of informal character and his own 
 formal oral compositions. 
 
 The ability to write is certainly not more than half 
 of what is sought in composition study, so that we 
 are safe in limiting written exercises at most to half 
 of the time allowed for the entire subject of compo- 
 sition. Again, not more than half of the time allotted 
 to written composition should be devoted to formal 
 exercises. 1 That is to say, one-fourth of the entire 
 composition time should be the maximum limit set 
 
 1 "In ordinary life oral language predominates over the writ- 
 ten. So it should be in the language period. The oral expres- 
 sion should precede and prepare the way for written work . . . 
 writing involves all the difficulties of oral expression, with the 
 added burden of spelling, punctuation, and manipulation of pen, 
 ink, and paper." 
 
 Sarah L. Arnold: " Waymarks for Teachers," Silver, Bur- 
 dett, 1906, p. 123. 
 
 93 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 for the writing of formal compositions. This results, 
 under the usual programme, in one formal written 
 composition about every two weeks. These exercises 
 are both tests and drills. As tests they indicate the 
 measure of success of the teaching of expression dur- 
 ing the other three-fourths of the time, and conse- 
 quently will afford a basis for subsequent teaching, 
 showing what faults in rhetoric and grammar that 
 teaching should especially aim to correct. As drills, 
 they afford opportunity to train the pupil in the 
 mechanics of written expression. 
 
 It follows, then, that the problem in devising a 
 scheme for the criticism of formal written composi- 
 tions is how best to develop correct mechanics. The 
 mechanical points introduced by the written compo- 
 sition are four: arrangement, spelling, capitalization, 
 and punctuation. None of these has a place in oral 
 expression; all four are unavoidable incidents to the 
 formal written exercise. Arrangement (not to be 
 confused with thought organization) applies to the 
 proper adjustment of the written matter to the space 
 at hand. Proper margins must be allowed at left 
 and right of the page. In a theme, the title must be 
 distinctly set apart from the subject matter; in a 
 letter, the distinctive elements of address, subscrip- 
 tion, etc., must occupy the conventional positions. 
 The turning of the sheet from its obverse to its re- 
 
 94 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 verse page must be in one direction or in another 
 according to whether the collected sheets are to be 
 bound at the top or at the side. Spelling, as it must 
 be in a language so devoid of phonic consistency as is 
 ours, is chiefly a matter of correct visualization and of 
 effective training of the hand so that the writing of 
 words correctly becomes for the most part submerged 
 below the realm of conscious attention into that of 
 automatic habit. Capitalization is but a phase of 
 spelling with the distinction that it is particularly 
 subject to the application of formal rules. Punctua- 
 tion is to written expression what emphasis, pause, 
 and gesture are to oral expression, and like these must 
 be reduced to a subordinate position in the mind 
 while it is engaged in conscious expression of thought. 
 With these considerations in mind the following 
 scheme for the review of formal written compositions 
 is offered: 
 
 1. All the pupils of the class are to write one such 
 composition every fortnight. 
 
 2. The teacher is to read critically one half of these 
 compositions each time. Thus each pupil will have 
 his exercise reviewed once in four weeks. 
 
 3. The teacher will annotate each composition re- 
 viewed as follows : 
 
 a. Indicate all errors in mechanical arrangement 
 by the simplest marking of the paper or a statement 
 
 95 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 thereon; e. g., if the margin is not properly provided, 
 draw a line showing the correct bounding of the 
 margin. If the title is not sufficiently indented, in- 
 dicate its correct position by vertical boundary lines. 
 
 b. Indicate each error in spelling by two crosses, 
 one at the misspelled word and one in the margin on 
 the same line. 
 
 c. Indicate each error in capitalization by a cross 
 at the word and by a sign in the margin on the same 
 line, thus: C5, meaning that capitalization rule 5 has 
 been violated. 
 
 d. Indicate each error in punctuation by a cross at 
 the place of error and a sign in the margin, thus: 
 P12, meaning that punctuation rule 12 has been 
 violated. 
 
 6. Do not indicate or correct errors in grammar or 
 rhetoric; but at the top of the sheet write a brief 
 critical statement of the composition as a whole. 
 
 4. No first-draft compositions are to be written 
 at home. 
 
 5. Every pupil who receives his composition re- 
 viewed as above described is to rewrite it, preferably 
 as a home exercise, correcting in the second draft 
 all errors indicated on the first. In addition he will 
 write correctly each misspelled word five times and 
 every violated rule once, together with the incorrect 
 sentence correctly written to show the application of 
 
 96 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 the rule. This written work is to be submitted to the 
 teacher within a certain time limit at the option of 
 the teacher. The half of the class whose compositions 
 are not reviewed make no second draft. 
 
 Corollaries to and explanations of these directions 
 are: 
 
 1. It is understood that the limitation of one per 
 fortnight applies only to the formal written compo- 
 sition. There will be frequent exercises of an in- 
 formal character as already indicated. 
 
 2. The reading of half of the total number is 
 merely a minimum requirement. Naturally, if a 
 teacher will read more, the returns will be commen- 
 surate with the added labor. 
 
 3. No errors are actually corrected; they are only 
 indicated. 
 
 a. Penmanship may be included under this head 
 to the extent of noting general criticisms, such as 
 " Penmanship is careless," " Attend to slant in pen- 
 manship," " Avoid flourishes in penmanship," etc. 
 Too much attention must not be paid, however, to 
 the penmanship of the first draft, for the mind of 
 the pupil must be concentrated upon verbal expres- 
 sion. More may be demanded in the second draft, 
 for he is then relieved from the stress of composition. 
 
 (6) The pupil is to discover for himself, by the use 
 of the dictionary, the correct spelling. 
 
 97 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 (c) and (d) The pupil is to discover what constitutes 
 his error by applying the rule cited in capitalization 
 and punctuation. 
 
 (e) Errors in rhetoric and grammar are reachable 
 in oral and in informal written exercises; hence their 
 correction should be left in the main to those exercises. 
 The pupil has sufficient difficulty in strengthening his 
 habits of correct formal mechanics without introduc- 
 ing these other matters of thought-expression into the 
 sole exercise which involves the mechanics. The lan- 
 guage of our most honored professional authors is open 
 to the criticism of competent experts. Art perfection 
 is wholly a matter of degree, as shown, for in- 
 stance, in the comparative ability of the primary 
 pupil and his teacher. There is no absolute in art. 
 With the mechanics it is different. The modes of 
 arrangement, spelling, and for the most part punc- 
 tuation, are arbitrarily fixed. The professional nov- 
 elist and the grammar-school pupil are at a level 
 when it comes to spelling; they must both reduce the 
 drudgery of spelling to a habit, and when they have 
 fixed the habit they will both find themselves spelling 
 the same words in the same way, however wide may 
 be the chasm between their respective abilities as lit- 
 erary artists. The pupil's shortcomings in style may 
 be safely left unremarked when he is under the strain 
 of literary expression plus attention to mechanical 
 
 98 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 details. The teacher will by no means overlook these 
 shortcomings, but will carefully note them and upon 
 them build up his subsequent language teaching. He 
 should, however, pass a definite general judgment upon 
 each pupil's effort considered apart from its mechan- 
 ical merits. This judgment will find expression in 
 brief statements at the head of the sheet such as: An 
 interesting story; Very entertaining; Consult me about 
 paragraph three; Where is the verb in paragraph two?; 
 You have improved much in construction; A very 
 clever invention. 
 
 (4) There is much to be said against a pupil's writ- 
 ing a composition at home, as indeed there is against 
 his preparing any written home work. At any rate, 
 by having the original draft written in school the 
 teacher has a guarantee of the authenticity of the 
 pupil's work and thus insures to all pupils the oppor- 
 tunity for performing the school exercise under equally 
 favorable environment. 
 
 (5) There is less danger in letting pupils write second 
 drafts at home, for this work is almost entirely me- 
 chanical and involves no " composition. " The rules 
 laid down above as to the rewriting of misspelled 
 words, etc., are quite arbitrary and may well be mod- 
 ified to suit varying conditions. Correct spelling must 
 become a matter of habit. In misspelling a word the 
 pupil's habit has followed in the wrong groove and in 
 
 99 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 consequence has deepened that groove. To insure 
 its following the proper path the next time there is 
 occasion to write the same word, it is not sufficient 
 that he become aware that he made the error, but it 
 is further necessary that he deliberately send his men- 
 tal and muscular rolling stock to change the meta- 
 phor slightly over the proper track a number of 
 times. What this number shall be, depends upon cir- 
 cumstances and particularly upon the personal co- 
 efficient of the individual pupil. If he is ordinarily a 
 "good" speller, five is perhaps more than is necessary, 
 though it can certainly do him no harm; if he is a 
 "wretched" speller, perhaps ten would be none too 
 many. The slip in capitalization or punctuation is 
 also a habit gone wrong. Something here must be 
 done to focus the attention not upon the error but 
 upon the error corrected. This may be done by writ- 
 ing the violated rule, or by writing correctly the word 
 miscapitalized or the sentence in which the punctua- 
 tion error occurred, or by a combination of these two 
 such as has been suggested above. To carry out this 
 scheme of criticism, a set of rules for capitalization 
 and punctuation must be agreed upon. Such will 
 be found in every standard text in grammar. The 
 rules should, however, be carefully graded, and all 
 violations of rules not yet reached by pupils of any 
 grade should be entirely disregarded. 
 
 100 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 A suggestive graded set of such rules follows: 
 
 PUNCTUATION 
 GRADE RULE No. RULE 
 
 4A Ix l A PERIOD is placed at the end of 
 
 every statement. 
 2 A PERIOD is placed after every 
 
 abbreviation. 
 3x A HYPHEN is used when a word 
 
 is broken at the end of a line. 
 4x A QUESTION MARK is placed at the 
 
 end of every question. 
 
 5 QUOTATION MARKS are used to in- 
 close words written or spoken by 
 some other person exactly as given. 
 
 6 An APOSTROPHE is used to show 
 the omission of a letter or of letters. 
 
 4B 7x An EXCLAMATION MARK is placed 
 
 after a word expressing strong 
 feeling. 
 
 8 An APOSTROPHE is used in a 
 
 noun to show that it expresses own- 
 ership. 
 
 5A 9 The name of a person addressed is 
 
 set off by COMMAS. 
 
 1 The x indicates that this rule is not stated in its final form. 
 It reappears (in 6A) in new and final form when the pupil has 
 learned the meaning of declarative and imperative sentences, 
 at which time the form learned in 4 A is dropped. 
 
 101 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 PUNCTUATION Continued 
 
 GRADE RULE No. RULE 
 
 5B 10 A quotation is set off from the rest 
 
 of the sentence by a COMMA or 
 COMMAS, unless it is formally in- 
 troduced. 
 
 11 A HYPHEN is used to join the 
 parts of compound words and ex- 
 pressions. 
 
 6A 1 (To re- A PERIOD is placed at the end of 
 place Ix) every declarative and every im- 
 perative sentence. 
 
 3 (To re- A HYPHEN is used to show that 
 place 3x) one or more syllables of a word will 
 be found at the beginning of the 
 next line below. 
 
 12 Two or more words in the same 
 grammatical relation are separated 
 from each other by COMMAS, un- 
 less all the conjunctions are ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 13 When words connected by a con- 
 junction follow in successive pairs, 
 a COMMA is used after each pair. 
 
 6B 4 (To re- An INTERROGATION MARK is placed 
 place 4x) at the end of every interrogative 
 sentence, phrase, or word. 
 102 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 PUNCTUATION Continued 
 GRADE RULE No. RULE 
 
 6B 7 (To re- An EXCLAMATION MARK is placed 
 place 7x) after an exclamatory word, phrase, 
 or sentence. 
 
 14 An adverbial phrase preceding the 
 verb and its subject, is usually fol- 
 lowed by a COMMA. 
 
 15 An adverbial phrase coming be- 
 tween the subject and the verb, or 
 between the parts of the predicate, 
 is set off by COMMAS. 
 
 16 A word, a phrase, or a clause in ap- 
 position, unless it is closely con- 
 nected with the word it modifies, is 
 set off by COMMAS. 
 
 7A 17 PARENTHESES are used to inclose 
 
 a remark that might be omitted 
 without destroying the sense of the 
 sentence. 
 
 18 Certain adverbs (again, first, finally, 
 thus, and the like), particularly 
 when they begin a sentence, are 
 usually set off by COMMAS. 
 
 19 An adverbial clause preceding its 
 principal clause, is followed by a 
 COMMA. 
 
 103 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 PUNCTUATION Continued 
 GRADE RULE No. RULE 
 
 7A 20 An adverbial clause introduced 
 
 within a clause is set off by COM- 
 MAS. 
 
 21 The omission of a predicate verb is 
 indicated by a COMMA. 
 
 22 A quotation or an enumeration of 
 particulars, when formally intro- 
 duced, is preceded by a COLON. 
 
 7B 23 A very long subject is usually sep- 
 
 arated from the predicate by a 
 COMMA. 
 
 24 When the same object follows two 
 or more prepositions, a COMMA is 
 placed after each preposition. 
 
 25 When a quotation or an illustration 
 is introduced by as or namely, a 
 SEMICOLON is placed before the 
 introductory word, and a COMMA 
 after it. 
 
 26 A DASH is used when a sentence 
 breaks off abruptly. 
 
 8A 27 A nonrestrictive relative clause is 
 
 separated by a COMMA from the 
 noun or pronoun whose meaning it 
 modifies. 
 104 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 PUNCTUATION Continued 
 
 GRADE RULE No. RULE 
 
 8A 28 The members of a compound sen- 
 
 tence when they are not themselves 
 subdivided by commas, and are re- 
 lated in meaning, are separated by 
 COMMAS. 
 
 29 The members of a compound sen- 
 tence when they are themselves sub- 
 divided by commas, are separated 
 by SEMICOLONS. 
 
 30 A DASH is used when there is a 
 sudden change in the thought. 
 
 8B 31 The members of a compound sen- 
 
 tence, when they are themselves 
 subdivided by semicolons, are sep- 
 arated by COLONS. 
 
 32 A DASH is sometimes used be- 
 fore words which are used to ex- 
 plain the meaning of preceding 
 words. 
 
 CAPITALIZATION 
 
 GRADE RULE No. RULE 
 
 3B 1 Begin with capitals the names of 
 
 the days of the week and the months 
 
 of the year. 
 
 4A 2 Begin with a capital the first word 
 
 of every sentence. 
 8 105 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 CAPITALIZATION Continued 
 GRADE RULE No. RULE 
 
 4A 3 Begin with a capital the first word 
 
 of every line of poetry. 
 
 4x Begin with capitals all names of per- 
 sons and places. 
 
 5 Write the words 7 and as capitals. 
 
 6x Begin with a capital every quota- 
 tion. 
 
 4B 4y (To re- Begin with capitals all names of per- 
 place 4x) sons and places and words formed 
 from them. 
 
 7 Begin with a capital every name or 
 title of the Deity. 
 
 8x Begin with capitals the important 
 words in the subject of any com- 
 position. 
 
 9 Begin with a capital every title of 
 honor or respect. 
 
 5B 8y (To re- Begin with capitals the important 
 place 8x) words in the title of a book, or in 
 the subject of any other composi- 
 tion. 
 
 6A 6 (To re- Begin with a capital every direct 
 place 6x) quotation when it is a complete sen- 
 tence. 
 
 106 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 CAPITALIZATION Continued 
 GRADE RULE No. RULE 
 
 6A 8 (To re- Begin with capitals the important 
 place 8y) words in the title of a. book, in the 
 subject of any other composition, 
 or in an epoch or event of history. 
 
 10 Begin with capitals the names of 
 points of the compass when they de- 
 note sections of a country. 
 
 11 Begin with a capital the name of 
 every religious denomination. 
 
 6B 4 (To re- Begin with a capital every proper 
 place 4y) noun and every proper adjective. 
 
 8B 12 Begin with a capital every person- 
 
 ified common noun. 
 
 In the formal oral composition the pupil is freed 
 from consideration of mechanical points and hence 
 may be more closely held to subject matter and 
 expression. Declamations are of various sorts, chiefly 
 according to the circumstances of their delivery. 
 Among them are the oration, the speech, the lec- 
 ture, the address, and the sermon. The pupil may 
 be encouraged to regard his efforts as looking toward 
 any of these. It must not be forgotten that he is in 
 the elementary stage. His early declaiming will 
 quite as closely resemble an oration as will his theme 
 
 107 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 the finished product of the mature essayist. He 
 should make the same preliminary preparation in 
 acquisition and organization as he does for the 
 theme. He should learn to use the ordinary adjuncts 
 in acquisition, such as notes, reference-books, statis- 
 tical tables, reports, etc., and in organization, such 
 as an outline of topics and subtopics. His progress 
 in oral expression will be measured on the one hand 
 by the increased ease and freedom from awkwardness 
 with which he refers to these, and on the other hand 
 by the degree to which he can free himself from their 
 use. 
 
 In the elementary school the debate should be used 
 sparingly and probably only in the higher grades. 
 Its chief value, in addition to the interest which it 
 may be made to arouse, is in promoting a breadth of 
 view and a spirit of toleration. It is better that a 
 pupil should not be interrupted in the course of his 
 formal oral composition. The class and the teacher 
 should be alert to note faulty organization and errors 
 in expression. These may then, after the pupil has 
 concluded, be made the subject of frank and imper- 
 sonal discussion. 
 
 In addition to the two criteria which we have 
 already seen must be applied in the classification of 
 compositions, namely, those of rhetoric and of form 
 of expression; the pedagogical factor necessitates yet 
 
 108 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 another classification coordinate with these. The 
 pupil is led through various stages of dependence 
 upon models. In one sense he never fully gets away 
 from a model, but there is an ascending scale 
 through which his originality functions. The teacher, 
 therefore, is forced to recognize several degrees of 
 originality and classifies the formal composition ac- 
 cordingly. Lowest in the scale is the copy, either 
 through eye or through ear, of the model, at which 
 stage the pupil's originality is at a minimum, practi- 
 cally at zero. Next is reproduction, in which the 
 pupil reproduces the model in thought but not in 
 exact language. If he is deliberately abbreviating 
 the model, he is producing an abstract; if deliber- 
 ately amplifying it, an expansion or elaboration; if 
 neither, a paraphrase. Imitation is the next higher 
 stage, wherein style and general elements of form are 
 reproduced without using the same thought sub- 
 stance. Recall is a form differing from reproduction 
 in that the material used is supplied by memory and 
 must be newly organized, and from imitation in that 
 no model is employed. Research is the deliberate 
 setting out for material, purposeful and specific 
 acquisition, and differs from recall in that the latter 
 is a search not in the present but in the past. 
 Finally, when no model is used, and the raw material 
 is the subject of neither recall nor research, but of 
 
 109 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 original creation, then is reached the highest degree 
 of originality, Invention. 
 
 In conclusion, the following classification summar- 
 izes the criteria already noted as applying to the 
 formal composition for purposes of elementary -school 
 pedagogy 
 
 As to 
 
 Literature 
 
 Rhet . 
 
 j Prose 
 1 Poetry 
 
 Expression * 
 
 rOral 
 
 Written 
 
 Cop; 
 
 Originality 
 
 Oration 
 Speech 
 
 i Declamation ^ Lecture 
 . Address 
 Debate 
 Letter 
 
 k Sermon 
 
 | Theme 
 
 by eye 
 by ear 
 
 /Social 
 1 Business 
 
 (Abstract 
 
 , , . Paraphrase 
 
 Reproduction ^ Expj f nsion (= Elabora- 
 
 L tion) 
 
 Imitation 
 Recall 
 Research 
 Invention 
 
 110 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 GRAMMAR 
 
 It may be questioned whether the study of formal 
 grammar should find any place in the curriculum of 
 the elementary school, but there are few school sys- 
 tems which have yet had the hardihood to banish it. 
 Whatever may be the psychology of the matter, it 
 is certain that the analysis of sentences and the pars- 
 ing of words present considerable difficulty to the 
 average pupil, and any device which makes for the 
 simplification of the subject is helpful. 
 
 The pupil must be led to see that analysis in 
 grammar is merely a matter of descriptive classi- 
 fication, and that in this it differs but little from 
 our ordinary daily classification of common things. 
 Before us stands a person; we observe him, analyze 
 him, and make note of the results of our analysis. 
 We do not always formally state this result, but if 
 we did, it would be succinctly something like this: 
 person, boy, red hair, freckles, dimpled chin, long 
 arms, bow legs, etc., etc. When, instead of a person, 
 there stands before us a word, we have to go through 
 the same process, and state the result as before, 
 thus: word, noun, collective, common gender, ob- 
 jective case, etc. Now there may be no inaccuracies 
 in the statement of the analysis either of the boy 
 or of the word, but the pupil must learn that as 
 
 111 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 grammar is a science, there has long since been es- 
 tablished a conventional form of analysis. 
 
 When the government agent issues a passport, he 
 has to enter upon his record a description of the 
 person to whom it is issued. He might describe that 
 person in a three-page essay, but that is not required 
 of him. His government has already prescribed the 
 form of his record, and it is left to him merely to 
 enter the specific results of his analysis in their ap- 
 propriate places. For instance, his record form may 
 call for analysis of the person in respect to Sex, Age, 
 Height, Weight, Complexion, Color of Eyes, etc., and 
 his only duty is to make the entry in the blank space 
 opposite each item. Moreover, if he were making an 
 oral analysis of the person to, let us say, some other 
 official who understood the form prescribed, he would 
 not describe him by any such circumlocution as: 
 Well, he is a boy; and he says he is twelve years 
 old but he looks to be fifteen; he's tall for his 
 age, I should say five feet eight inches, and so on. 
 Instead, he would give a mere summary of results 
 in this fashion: Male, twelve, five-eight, blond, and 
 so forth. 
 
 In the same way certain conventional forms have 
 been established for the analysis of sentences and 
 words, and the pupil must be made to recognize this, 
 so that his parsing of the word man, for example, is 
 
 112 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 not the discursive guesswork which we so frequently 
 hear: Man is a, is a noun, it's in the third person, 
 masculine gender, it's a common noun. . . . What 
 should be required is a crisp catalogue of character- 
 istics, thus: Man, noun, common, third, singular, 
 masculine, nominative, subject of the verb threw. 
 The pupil may understand that the order in which 
 these characteristics is to be given is largely arbitrary, 
 but it is no less binding upon him to conform with this 
 conventional requirement. 
 
 Hence when the pupil begins his work in formal 
 analysis he should be provided with the conventional 
 form which is to be used throughout all his subsequent 
 study of grammar. He may have this form before 
 him, just as the passport writer or any other cata- 
 loguer has his list of required items before him. After 
 a while we expect the pupil to reach the point where 
 he is not dependent upon the form, that is, where he 
 has learned the various items and the order in which 
 they stand. This form is to be regarded as one of 
 the pedagogic crutches, of which we have to use 
 so many, and the general rule as to the use of crutches 
 applies here. The crutch is for the lame only; just 
 as soon as the lameness can be made to disappear, take 
 away the crutch. Not to provide a crutch to the lame 
 is cruelty ; to keep a sound person on crutches is absurd. 
 Accurately to measure each pupil's need of such 
 
 113 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 a help is one of the characteristics of a superior 
 teacher. 
 
 This form may be provided the pupil as a printed 
 sheet, or he may write it for himself on dictation at 
 the beginning of the term, or, as a chart, it may be 
 kept ready for display before the class. The form 
 here given has proved satisfactory, and requires but 
 little explanation. In following it, the pupil learns 
 that he must first state whether the word or group of 
 words which he is considering is a sentence, a phrase, 
 or a word (grammatically speaking). He then, from 
 each line in what follows, selects the particular designa- 
 tion which describes the word or words which he is 
 analyzing. The words in parenthesis are key words 
 and are not to be given in the analysis. Designations 
 marked | f rnay not apply at all in some cases: 
 
 SENTENCE : 
 
 (use) declarative; imperative; interrogative 
 
 t exclamatory f 
 (form) simple; compound; complex 
 
 (if simple) * subject: 
 
 predicate : 
 
 f (complement) object: ; 
 
 attribute: f 
 
 t subject modifiers: t 
 
 t predicate modifiers: t 
 
 t complement modifiers: | 
 
 114 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 SENTENCE : Continued 
 
 (if compound) first member: 
 
 second member: 
 
 I third member: t 
 
 etc. 
 
 f connective(s) : t 
 
 (proceed from *) 
 
 (if complex) principal clause : 
 
 subordinate clause (s) : 
 
 (with syntax) 
 (proceed from *) 
 PHRASE : 
 
 (use) noun; adjective; adverbial 
 
 (form) prepositional; infinitive; participial 
 
 (syntax = ) 
 
 (WORD) : 
 NOUN: 
 
 (class) proper; common 
 
 (person) first; second; third 
 
 (number) singular; plural 
 
 t collective t 
 
 (gender) masculine; feminine; neuter; common 
 
 (case) nominative; possessive; objective 
 
 (syntax = ) 
 
 VERB: 
 
 (class) regular; irregular 
 
 (principal parts = ) , . . . . , . . . . , 
 
 (use) transitive; intransitive; copulative 
 (if transitive, voice) active; passive 
 115 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 VERB : Continued 
 
 (mood) indicative; potential; subjunctive; im- 
 perative 
 
 (tense) present; past; future; present perfect; 
 past perfect; future perfect 
 
 (form) simple; progressive; emphatic 
 
 (syntax = ) 
 
 ADJECTIVE: 
 
 (class) descriptive; demonstrative 
 (comparison) positive; comparative; super- 
 lative 
 (syntax = ) 
 
 ADVERB : 
 
 (class) time; place; degree; manner; inter- 
 rogation; negation; assertion 
 
 (comparison) positive; comparative; superla- 
 tive 
 
 (syntax = ) 
 
 PRONOUN: 
 
 (class) personal; relative; interrogative; ad- 
 jective 
 
 (person) first; second; third 
 (number) singular; plural 
 (gender) masculine; feminine; neuter; common 
 (case) nominative; possessive; objective 
 (syntax = ) 
 
 116 
 
ENGLISH IN THE UPPER GRADES 
 
 PREPOSITION : 
 
 (syntax = ) 
 
 CONJUNCTION : 
 
 (class) coordinating; subordinating 
 (syntax = ) 
 
 INTERJECTION : 
 
 VERBAL : 
 
 (class) participle; infinitive 
 
 (if participle) noun; adjective 
 
 (if infinitive) noun; adjective; adverbial; 
 
 predicate 
 (syntax = ) 
 
HISTORY FACTS 
 
 IN discussing examinations in my book on "Man- 
 agement/ 7 I endeavored to draw very sharply the 
 distinction between the testing of the memory and 
 of the judgment. " Memory tests concern the prod- 
 ucts of judging; Judgment tests concern the processes 
 of judging." Just as we must make this distinction 
 in the testing of school work, so must we carry this 
 distinction throughout the work itself, for, as I 
 quoted from Bain, there are "the two different in- 
 tellectual energies, called respectively, Memory and 
 Judgment." Much of our failure to secure what we 
 call "results" comes from failure to recognize this 
 fundamental distinction. In all of the content 
 studies we present a great variety of data, both facts 
 and principles, with no expectation that the pupil 
 will either remember or be able to recall any consider- 
 able number of these data. 
 
 To put it into mathematical terms, for the sake of 
 clearer illustration, let it be assumed that in the 
 teaching of an hour's lesson in geography, one hun- 
 
 118 
 
HISTORY FACTS 
 
 dred distinct facts have been presented. At the 
 close of the hour the number of these facts that have 
 been absorbed by the different pupils of the class will 
 vary to a large degree. The phlegmatic A has caught 
 and held five of these; the nervously attentive B, 
 twenty; C, who has given but indifferent attention, 
 ten; and so on throughout the class. Now while this 
 variation in acquisition is to be expected and cannot 
 be prevented, we are at least responsible to see that 
 five of the facts that A and B and C each get are five 
 of the important ones and not five lacking in vital 
 significance. The greatest common divisor of the 
 numbers of facts each pupil acquired should consist 
 of the most significant and important of the hundred 
 facts presented. That is, although our lesson, through 
 pedagogic considerations, has included the presenta- 
 tion of a host of data, there is a small selection of these 
 which it is really important that the pupil should re- 
 member. All of the data are in a sense important, 
 yet this selected group is necessary to him, and so it 
 is our duty to compel him to get this group, what- 
 ever becomes of the rest of the material. 
 
 For example, if the pupil remembers some incident 
 which befell Captain Peary on his trip to the Pole, 
 enlivening and interesting and true as that incident 
 may be, and fails to learn and carry with him the fact 
 that it was the North Pole and not the South Pole 
 
 119 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 which he visited, the pupil cannot be credited with 
 having " learned his lesson." Again, the apochryphal 
 narrative concerning the Father of his Country and 
 the mischievous hatchet may serve to add zest and 
 background to the study of Washington, but if the 
 child recalls this and remains ignorant of the fact that 
 Washington was the first President of the United 
 States, the history lesson has not been a true success. 
 But this is just what is likely to happen unless the 
 teacher takes special precautions. Each lesson must 
 be thoroughly clinched after the facts have been driven 
 home. It is not sufficient to trust to luck that the 
 pupil is retaining the essentials of a lesson, or that he 
 is carrying the essentials of any subject through its 
 successive lessons. 
 
 It has been found practicable in managing a school 
 to provide a schedule of important facts in certain 
 subjects, notably history, which shall serve as the 
 skeleton upon which the pupil shall hang all his study 
 of the subject. The memorizing of any one of these 
 facts is never to precede the presentation by the 
 teacher and the consideration by the pupil of all the 
 material surrounding this fact. There is a serious 
 danger, however, that without final concentration of 
 the attention upon the essential points of history, 
 the chronological perspective will be lost. The fol- 
 lowing sets of facts, one in American, and the other 
 
 120 
 
HISTORY FACTS 
 
 in English history, have proven satisfactory. The 
 facts are memorized in the grades indicated, and are 
 constantly reviewed in the succeeding grades. By 
 this means each pupil has always at hand an appro- 
 priate background against which he may put, in its 
 proper place, whatever comes to him in his study of 
 history, his general reading, or his discussion of cur- 
 rent topics. 
 
 ) 
 UNITED STATES HISTORY 
 
 Discovery 
 
 (5A) 1. Columbus discovered America in 1492 and 
 established Spanish claim to territory. 
 
 2. The Cabots discovered the mainland of 
 North America in 1497 and established Eng- 
 lish claim to territory. 
 
 3. America was named for Americus Vespu- 
 cius. 
 
 4. Raleigh made two attempts to found a 
 colony in Virginia, and though they were un- 
 successful they turned the thought of the Eng- 
 lish toward the New World. 
 
 5. Carrier's discovery of the St. Lawrence and 
 La Salle's exploration of the Mississippi, estab- 
 lished French claim to territory. 
 
 6. Hudson explored the Hudson River in 1609 
 and established Dutch claim to territory. 
 
 9 121 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 Settlement 
 
 (5B) 7. The first permanent English colony was 
 founded at Jamestown, Virginia, 1607. 
 
 8. Slavery was introduced into Virginia in 
 1619. 
 
 9. Massachusetts was first settled by the Pil- 
 grims, at Plymouth, 1620. 
 
 10. New Netherlands was first settled by the 
 Dutch, who founded New Amsterdam in 1626, 
 but was conquered by the English in 1664. 
 
 11. Pennsylvania was settled by William Penn 
 and other Quakers. 
 
 12. Maryland was settled by Lord Baltimore 
 and other Catholics. 
 
 Colonial Wars 
 
 13. Four colonial wars were waged between 
 France and England because both countries 
 claimed the territory between the Allegheny 
 River and the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 14. The last and most important of the colonial 
 wars was the French and Indian, 1755-1763. 
 
 15. The enmity of the Iroquois toward the 
 French was a valuable aid to the English in 
 controlling the Hudson Valley. 
 
 16. The battle of Quebec, 1759, was one of the 
 most important in United States history as 
 it put an end to French power in America. 
 
 122 
 
HISTORY FACTS 
 
 The Revolution 
 
 (6A) 17. The Revolutionary War, 1775-1783, was 
 caused by England's unjust treatment of her 
 colonies, as to taxation and trade laws. 
 
 18. The Declaration of Independence was 
 signed at Philadelphia, July 4, 1776. 
 
 19. In the battle of Long Island, August, 1776, 
 the Americans were defeated and forced to 
 retreat eventually to New Jersey. 
 
 20. The battle of Trenton, December 25, 1776, 
 was an encouraging victory for the Americans. 
 
 21. By the surrender of Burgoyne's army, 
 1777, the English were prevented from carry- 
 ing out their plan to divide the colonies along 
 the Hudson. 
 
 22. The victory at Saratoga finally decided 
 the French to aid the Americans. 
 
 23. The Revolutionary War was concluded by 
 the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington, at 
 Yorktown, 1781. 
 
 24. By the treaty of Paris, 1783, at the close 
 of the Revolutionary War, England recognized 
 American independence, and boundaries were 
 fixed at the Mississippi River, Florida, and 
 Canada. 
 
 The Nation 
 
 25. The many weaknesses of the Articles of 
 Confederation, under which the colonies had 
 
 123 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 been governed, led to the adoption of the Con- 
 stitution in 1788. 
 
 26. George Washington was inaugurated first 
 President of the United States in 1789. 
 
 27. Our national capitals have been New York, 
 Philadelphia, Washington. 
 
 28. Louisiana Territory was purchased from 
 France in 1803, and afterwards explored by 
 Lewis and Clark. 
 
 29. The Second War with England, 1812-1815, 
 was caused by British impressment of Ameri- 
 can sailors and other interference with Ameri- 
 can commerce. 
 
 30. Perry 's victory on Lake Erie and Harri- 
 son's victory at the Thames River gave the 
 United States control of Lake Erie and saved 
 the Northwest Territory. 
 
 31. The treaty of peace was signed December, 
 1814, though the battle of New Orleans was 
 fought the next month. 
 
 32. The Second War with England secured 
 independence for American commerce and 
 gained the respect of European nations for 
 the United States. 
 
 (6B) 33. Florida was purchased from Spain in 1819. 
 
 34. By the Missouri Compromise, 1820, Mis- 
 souri was admitted as a slave State, while 
 124 
 
HISTORY FACTS 
 
 slavery was prohibited in all of the rest of the 
 Louisiana Territory north of 36 degrees, 30 
 minutes. 
 
 35. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825. 
 
 36. The first American railroad was operated 
 in 1828. 
 
 37. The Mexican War, 1846-1848, was caused 
 by the annexation of Texas and dispute over 
 its southern boundary. 
 
 38. The Americans were uniformly successful 
 throughout the Mexican War, which was con- 
 cluded by the capture of Mexico City under 
 General Scott. 
 
 39. The results of the Mexican War were the 
 fixing of the boundary at the Rio Grande, and 
 the purchase from Mexico of California and 
 New Mexico. 
 
 40. Gold was discovered in California in 1848. 
 
 41. By the Compromise of 1850 California was 
 to be admitted as a free State, and Utah and 
 New Mexico as they might decide. 
 
 42. The Kansas-Nebraska Law, 1854, repealed 
 the Missouri Compromise by allowing new 
 States to decide the slave question for them- 
 selves. 
 
 43. The Dred Scott Decision, 1857, virtually 
 permitted slavery in free States. 
 
 125 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 The Civil War 
 
 44. The Civil War, 1861-1865, was caused by 
 slavery, and more directly by the secession of 
 the Southern States. 
 
 45. In the Civil War the plan of the North 
 was to blockade Southern ports and thus cut 
 off supplies to the Confederacy; open up the 
 Mississippi and thus divide the Confederacy; 
 and to capture Richmond, the seat of the 
 Confederate Government. 
 
 46. The Monitor-Merrimac engagement, 1862, 
 was the beginning of the effective blockade of 
 the Southern ports. 
 
 47. By Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, 
 January 1, 1863, the slaves were freed in the 
 seceding States. 
 
 48. The attempt of the Confederates to invade 
 the North was decisively checked by the battle 
 of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863. 
 
 49. The Confederacy was divided at the Mis- 
 sissippi by the capture of Vicksburg, July 4, 
 1863; and across Georgia by Sherman's march 
 to the sea in 1864. 
 
 50. Lee left Richmond and surrendered in 
 April, 1865. 
 
 51 . President Lincoln was assassinated in April, 
 1865. 
 
 52. The Civil War resulted in the abolition of 
 slavery and the 4 reunion of the States. 
 
 126 
 
HISTORY FACTS 
 
 Reunion 
 
 53. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867. 
 
 54. The War with Spain, 1898, was caused by 
 cruel treatment of Cubans by Spaniards. 
 
 55. The chief events of the Spanish War were 
 the capture of Manila and of Santiago. 
 
 56. As the result of the Spanish War, Cuba 
 was freed, Porto Rico was ceded to the United 
 States, and the Philippines were bought from 
 Spain. 
 
 Industrial 
 
 57. Important American inventions in their 
 chronological order are: Whitney's cotton gin, 
 Fulton's steamboat, Morse's telegraph, Field's 
 ocean cable, Bell's telephone. 
 
 ENGLISH HISTORY 
 
 Roman Britain and Saxon England 
 
 (7A) 1. Caesar first landed in Britain in 55 B.C., and 
 the Romans began settling there soon after. 
 
 2. In 410 the Romans left Britain and the 
 country was next settled by the Saxons. 
 
 3. Of the Saxon kings, Egbert was the first to 
 be called King of England, and Alfred was 
 the wisest and greatest. 
 
 4. England was conquered by the Danes in 
 1013, and was ruled for a while by Danish kings. 
 
 127 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 The Normans and Plantagenets 
 
 5. By the victory at Hastings, 1066, William 
 the Conqueror established the Norman line of 
 kings. 
 
 6. Henry II became king in 1154, establishing 
 the Plantagenet line. 
 
 7. Ireland came under English rule during 
 the twelfth century and Wales during the thir- 
 teenth. 
 
 8. From the Plantagenet kings the people 
 wrested political rights, securing the Magna 
 Charta in 1215 and the House of Commons in 
 1265. 
 
 9. The Scots repulsed the English at the Battle 
 of Bannockburn, 1314, and became an in- 
 dependent nation in 1328. 
 
 10. Wiclif and Chaucer, of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, were the first important names in English 
 literature. 
 
 11. The Hundred Years' War, 1338-1453, was 
 an unsuccessful attempt to secure the French 
 crown for English kings. 
 
 12. The deposition of Richard II in favor of 
 Henry IV led to the War of the Roses between 
 the houses of Lancaster and York. 
 
 13. The battle of Bosworth Field, 1485, ended 
 the War of the Roses and established the Tudor 
 line under Henry VII. 
 
 128 
 
HISTORY FACTS 
 
 The Tudors 
 
 14. During the reign of the Tudors there was 
 a " Revival of Learning" brought about by 
 explorations and discoveries and the invention 
 of printing. 
 
 15. Spain's attempt to conquer England was 
 ended by the defeat of the Armada in 1588. 
 
 16. The reign of Elizabeth was especially 
 brilliant and was marked by political, commer- 
 cial, and literary activity. 
 
 17. Among the leading men of the Eliza- 
 bethan period were Drake, Frobisher, and 
 Raleigh in exploration, and Spenser, Bacon, 
 and Shakespeare in literature. 
 
 The House of Stuart 
 
 (7B) 18. James I, son of Mary Queen of Scots, suc- 
 ceeded Elizabeth in 1603, and thus established 
 the Stuart line. 
 
 The Commonwealth and Protectorate 
 
 19. The treacherous and arbitrary rule of 
 Charles I led to civil war, the execution of the 
 king, in 1649, and The Commonwealth and 
 Protectorate. 
 
 The Restored Stuarts 
 
 20. In 1660, the Stuarts were restored to 
 the throne under Charles II. 
 
 129 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 21. Prominent names in literature under the 
 Stuarts were Milton, Bunyan, Addison, and 
 Pope. 
 
 The Orange-Stuart Period 
 
 22. The reign of William and Mary was marked 
 by increase in religious and political liberty and 
 freedom of the press. 
 
 23. England and Scotland were reunited in 
 1707. 
 
 24. By Queen Anne's War England gained 
 Gibraltar, Hudson Bay Territory, Nova Scotia, 
 and Newfoundland. 
 
 25. The Stuart line ended with Anne, who 
 was succeeded in 1714 by George I of Hanover. 
 
 The House of Brunswick 
 
 26. Under George I, Walpole established the 
 modern cabinet system, and became the first 
 prime minister. 
 
 27. English rule in India was established by 
 Clive in 1756. 
 
 28. The capture of Quebec, by Wolfe, in 1759, 
 secured Canada to England. 
 
 29. The American Revolution occurred during 
 the reign of George III and resulted in English 
 recognition of American independence in 1783. 
 
 30. Eighteenth-century literature included 
 Johnson, Goldsmith, and Burns. 
 
 130 
 
HISTORY FACTS 
 
 31. In the War with France, decisive victories 
 were gained at the naval battle of Trafalgar 
 in 1805, and the land battle of Waterloo in 1815. 
 
 32. English slave trade was abolished in 1807, 
 and the slaves were emancipated in the colonies 
 in 1833. 
 
 33. The invention of the steam engine and of 
 textile machinery during the reign of George 
 III led to the factory system and stimulated 
 mining and commerce. 
 
 34. Factory reform and the repeal of the corn 
 laws, in the middle of the nineteenth century, 
 contributed to the betterment of social con- 
 ditions. 
 
 35. Under Victoria occurred the Opium War 
 with China, the Sepoy rebellion in India, the 
 Crimean War with Russia, and the Boer War 
 in South Africa. 
 
 36. Nineteenth-century literature included 
 Scott, Macaulay, Dickens, Thackeray, and 
 Tennyson. 
 
 37. The present government of England is 
 republican in character and the rule of the 
 sovereign is nominal. 
 
VI 
 
 SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 THE FUNDAMENTAL OPERATIONS 
 
 THE distinction between Judgment and Memory 
 holds as well for the formal studies as for the content 
 studies. In fact, there is even greater necessity that 
 a substantial fund of memorized judgments shall be 
 accumulated in the study of arithmetic, for instance, 
 than for history or geography. The elementary judg- 
 ments of arithmetic, once memorized, must be* sub- 
 ject to a recall so immediate as to merge into habit. 
 When the pupil has once acquired the concepts of the 
 symbols 9 and 8, and their product 72, his further ef- 
 fort is to be concentrated upon fastening these sym- 
 bols in this relationship, so that to the presence of 
 8x9, his mind may instantly react with the thought 
 72. The teaching of the fact that 8 times 9 is 72 will 
 require an appeal to the pupil's judging faculty; but, 
 this once accomplished, it will be a decided detriment 
 to the pupil if, on future occasions calling for the mul- 
 tiplication of 8 by 9, he is obliged to retravel the 
 
 132 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 judging process. The intrusion of the judging atti- 
 tude while he is multiplying is a distinct embarrass- 
 ment, and the more completely habit controls the 
 process the better equipped is he for doing such work. 
 The appeal to the reasoning power of the child con- 
 stitutes a very large duty in our work in arithmetic, 
 but we are not justified in pursuing this phase at the 
 expense of the development of effective, habitual re- 
 actions in performing the fundamental operations. 
 We need then to employ every device available which 
 will help to reduce these reactions to the state of au- 
 tomatism. 
 
 We are all familiar with the use of the drill cards 
 in number work. I have found, however, that fol- 
 lowing the emphasis placed upon the multiplication 
 table in the early school years, there is a marked weak- 
 ness in the ability of the pupils to add and subtract 
 when they reach the higher grades. 1 How to reach this 
 difficulty has been a problem, and a partial solution 
 has been found in the scheme which I here describe. 
 We have already had occasion to refer (see page 49) 
 to Dr. Bagley's statement of the law of habit build- 
 ing: " Focalization of consciousness upon the proc- 
 ess to be automatized, plus attentive repetition of 
 
 1 This was clearly brought out in a test conducted in thirty- 
 four classes of grades 4B-8B, before the work outlined here 
 was undertaken. The following one hundred combinations 
 
 133 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 this process . . . " The two key words of this law 
 are attentive and repetition. We are familiar with 
 
 were used, to which pupils gave oral answers, speed being em- 
 
 8X8 
 5X5 
 6X7 
 3X9 
 8X7 
 4X6 
 
 12X0 
 9X3 
 7X6 
 8X9 
 9X7 
 6X5 
 6X9 
 4X5 
 2X3 
 9X9 
 7X9 
 5X8 
 9X5 
 8X0 
 7X7 
 5X7 
 
 12X4 
 7X11 
 8X1 
 
 64-8 
 255 
 42-6 
 273 
 56-8 
 244 
 
 0-12 
 27-9 
 42-7 
 728 
 63-9 
 306 
 54-6 
 204 
 
 6-2 
 81-9 
 63-7 
 405 
 45-9 
 488 
 49-7 
 355 
 48-12 
 77-7 
 
 8-7-8 
 
 67+8 
 54+7 
 39+5 
 45+8 
 49+3 
 56+5 
 38+7 
 67+8 
 97+6 
 75+7 
 89+8 
 86+9 
 78+3 
 97+5 
 67+8 
 35+6 
 59+2 
 46+8 
 48+8 
 57+7 
 37+4 
 65+6 
 99+5 
 76+7 
 88+3 
 
 62-8 
 33-7 
 92-6 
 44-5 
 88-9 
 57-8 
 75-7 
 66-8 
 65-6 
 76-7 
 54-8 
 83-9 
 47-8 
 92-5 
 38-9 
 48-9 
 87-8 
 94-5 
 56-8 
 71-4 
 35-8 
 53-6 
 84-7 
 42-8 
 63-5 
 
 The results showed average percentages of correct answers as 
 follows: 
 
 Multiplication 94.0 
 
 Division 91.4 
 
 Addition 78.0 
 
 Subtraction 57 . 2 
 
 134 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 the old law that attention and drill are reciprocal, 
 that the greater the attention the less the amount 
 of drill required to secure a given result, and con- 
 versely. Moreover, the law is equally old and reliable 
 which tells us that attention is largely dependent 
 upon interest; so that the pedagogic prescription is: 
 interest the pupil and he will attend; if he attends, 
 he will acquire. 
 
 Our problem then is not only to devise a drill in the 
 fundamental operations which shall be a proper one, 
 but so to conduct it, by the creation of a moving in- 
 terest, that no loss shall accrue from lagging atten- 
 tion. For this drill we use sight cards of the usual 
 type; for the interest we use a stop watch or, if a stop 
 watch is not available, any ordinary watch with a sec- 
 ond hand. 
 
 Both in addition and subtraction, those combina- 
 tions which involve " carrying " of the units place 
 are most troublesome. There are comparatively 
 few errors made in such combinations as 52 + 3, 
 65 + 4, 48 3, etc. In addition, the carrying combi- 
 
 This was at an average speed of 7 minutes, 22 seconds, for all 
 100 combinations. It will be noted that all the combinations in 
 addition and subtraction involve carrying. As the experienced 
 teacher might have prophesied, the greatest number of failures 
 in multiplication and division were on 12 X Oand -r- 12, point- 
 ing to the need for special drill on these particular combinations. 
 
 135 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 nations, those which the pupil meets in adding a col- 
 umn of figures are : 
 
 82 + 9 724-9 62+9 and so on to . . 12 + 9 
 
 83 + 9 73+9 63+9 to 13+9 
 
 83 + 8 73 + 8 63 + 8 to 13 + 8 
 
 84+9 74 + 9 to 14 + 9 
 
 84 + 8 to 14 + 8 
 
 84 + 7 to 14 + 7 
 
 85+9 to . 15 + 9 
 
 85 + 6 15 + 6 
 
 86+9 
 
 86 + 5 
 
 89+2 19+2 
 
 There are 288 of these combinations. The cor- 
 responding set for subtraction is: 
 
 136 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 98-9 88-9 78-9 18-9 
 
 97-9 87-9 17-9 
 
 97-8 87-8 17-8 
 
 96-9 16-9 
 
 96-8 16-8 
 
 96-7 16-7 
 
 95-9 , 
 
 91-2 11-2 
 
 There are 324 of these, making a total of 610 for 
 both. These are broken into six series of one hundred 
 cards each, of practically equal difficulty. Series I 
 consists of: 
 
 82+9 
 
 73 + 9 
 
 63 + 8 
 
 54 + 9 
 
 85 + 9 
 
 15 + 8 
 
 16 + 6 
 10 137 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 and so on, made up of one hundred combinations, plus 
 and minus, selected diagonally from among the total. 
 Series II consists of the next diagonal selection, and 
 so on. 
 
 These cards, used all of one series each day, are 
 divided into two fifties, one fifty to be shown, one by 
 one, to the class, and the other fifty to be dictated. 
 Pupils state the result of the combinations in order, 
 each pupil one, around the class as many times as 
 required. In case of failure, the card is put aside for 
 special drill, and the next pupil given the next com- 
 bination. The number of errors made is noted, and 
 also the elapsed time for the entire exercise of one 
 hundred cards. 
 
 To give the necessary stimulating interest, the 
 elapsed time is regarded as a score and the class is 
 urged to reduce its own record or to defeat the score 
 of another class of the same grade. In a small school 
 where there is but a single class in a grade, the class 
 may be divided into two competing groups. 
 
 It is clear that as a means of comparison between 
 two classes or groups, neither the time alone nor the 
 percentage of correct answers can be regarded as a 
 just basis. One class might go through the exercise 
 in five minutes, and another in three minutes; but 
 the speed of the second might be due to carelessness 
 in answering. On the other hand, one class scoring 95 
 
 138 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 per cent of correct answers as against the 80 per 
 cent of another class, might owe its success to the 
 extra amount of time consumed. It is necessary then 
 to combine these two factors of speed and accuracy 
 into a single " score." To do this, we divide the 
 speed, expressed as a whole number of seconds, by the 
 degree of accuracy expressed as a decimal. For exam- 
 ple, if the class takes 6 minutes 14 seconds for the 
 exercise and has .91 of correct answers, 374-^.91 = 
 41 1, and 41 1 is the " score " for the class. An increase 
 both of speed and accuracy will of course reduce this 
 score; for instance, 94 correct cards in 5 minutes 49 
 seconds, 349-^.94 = 371. A bettering of either fac- 
 tor, the other remaining constant, will decrease the 
 score; for instance, 91 cards in 5 minutes 49 seconds, 
 349-^.91 =383; and 94 cards in 6 minutes 14 seconds 
 = 398. A bettering of one factor alone, may or may 
 not reduce the score; for instance, 90 cards in 4 min- 
 utes 30 seconds, and 80 cards in 4 minutes, each give 
 a score of 300 (270 -*- .90 = 300 = 240 * 80) . The score 
 is always kept in whole numbers, a fraction being dis- 
 carded or carried to the next unit, according to 
 whether it is less than one half, or equals or exceeds it. 
 Pupils answer while sitting, thus saving the time 
 otherwise consumed by rising. Pupils are given one 
 chance only on each card; that is, no credit is allowed 
 a pupil giving a wrong answer and then correcting 
 
 139 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 himself. In dictating questions the teacher varies 
 the form, thus: 17 subtract 9, 23 less 8, 83 take away 
 7, had 73 lost 9; 65 and 9, 26 add 8, 45 plus 7, etc. 
 In our playrooms we keep bulletin boards showing 
 the best score to date, by grades, crediting the class 
 in the grade which holds the record. 
 
 Teachers are directed to have this exercise daity, 
 and they record the score on the blackboard, making 
 a special note each time a record is broken. This 
 score, however, is not accepted as official as a com- 
 parative guide between classes. For the official score 
 the principal visits the room and, while the teacher 
 conducts the exercise, keeps the record of accuracy, 
 notes the time, and calculates the score. His atti- 
 tude toward the work of the class, one of encourage- 
 ment or criticism, according to the quality of their 
 performance, makes for improvement. The first 
 scores which we made after instituting this system 
 were, for classes of the grades indicated: 
 
 8B 
 
 378 
 
 273 
 
 365 
 
 
 8A 
 
 442 
 
 480 
 
 437 
 
 
 7B 
 
 460 
 
 429 
 
 
 
 7A 
 
 450 
 
 424 
 
 431 
 
 565 
 
 6B 
 
 448 
 
 505 
 
 559 
 
 424 
 
 6A 
 
 603 
 
 575 
 
 553 
 
 842 
 
 5B 
 
 471 
 
 597 
 
 421 
 
 568 
 
 5A 
 
 683 
 
 570 
 
 664 
 
 
 4B 
 
 825. 
 
 683 
 
 
 
 
 
 140 
 
 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 After one year, the best scores, for each grade, were : 
 
 Best score Year previous 
 
 8B 229 273 
 
 8A 297 437 
 
 7B 374 429 
 
 7A 391 424 
 
 6B 246 424 
 
 6A 331 553 
 
 5B 338 421 
 
 5A 422 570 
 
 4B 425 683 
 
 This shows a present average best score of 339 as 
 against 424 the year previous, or a general gain of 
 twenty per cent. It is of incidental interest to 
 note that the score for the cards by sight is almost 
 invariably less than that for those by hearing. In 
 many cases I have timed each fifty cards separately 
 and thus obtained independent scores. These average 
 to the effect that the sight cards take but forty-one 
 per cent of the gross time, and the hearing cards 
 the other fifty-nine per cent. 
 
 That pupils could be trained to improvement in 
 this work was to be expected, and the fact that they 
 did so improve is perhaps not a sufficient justification 
 for the device, which, after all, is but a device and 
 is not to be mistaken for an end in and of itself. To 
 express general improvement in mathematical terms 
 
 141 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 is not always possible, nor is it always the most tell- 
 ing expression. However, I questioned all teachers 
 who had been using this method for a year, as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 1. Is there an appreciable improvement in pupils' 
 accuracy in their computations in oral and written 
 mathematics? If so, roughly speaking, what per cent 
 of gain has been made? 
 
 2. Have these drills had any effect upon the aver- 
 age ability of pupils to reason in mathematics, 
 whether to improve or to impair that ability? 
 
 3. Do you note any other advantages which have 
 accrued from these drills? 
 
 4. When you introduced Series II, what was the 
 effect upon the results in Series I? If possible, give 
 answer in mathematical terms, e. g., the class could do 
 Series I in about 300; by the time they were able to 
 do Series II in 300, they had fallen back to 320 for 
 Series I. 
 
 5. What modifications of the method do you sug- 
 gest? 
 
 The answers to the first question ranged from zero 
 to sixty per cent. One teacher reported " no appreci- 
 able improvement"; another, " slight "; another, "not 
 much." All others reported gains of five per cent 
 or more, and the average was 14.6 per cent. That 
 is, roughly speaking, the drills have bettered the 
 
 142 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 accuracy of pupils' work by fifteen per cent, which 
 we consider worth while. 
 
 The general answer to the second question was 
 "no effect." There were a few exceptions, how- 
 ever. One says, "Pupils' ability to reason is im- 
 proved through raising the ideal of speed and ac- 
 curacy." 
 
 Among the "other advantages" accruing from the 
 drills, several speak of the increase in the power of 
 sustained attention; others, of the contribution to a 
 good class spirit; and others, of the value of the 
 emphasis placed upon addition and subtraction as 
 compared with the other processes. 
 
 Only six out of thirty-four were able to reply in 
 mathematical terms to the fourth question. Their es- 
 timates would average to this statement: "The class 
 could do Series I in about 292; by the time they were 
 able to do Series II in 292, they had fallen back to 
 324 for Series I. 
 
 Various replies were received to the fifth question, 
 but none seemed important. 
 
 Another measure of the improvement effected was 
 found in the repetition of the test referred to on 
 page 133. One year after that test was made, the 
 identical combinations were given to the classes of 
 the same grade. Although the number of classes in 
 each grade had changed some, it so happened that 
 
 143 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 the total number of classes was the same, 34. The 
 comparative results were: 
 
 Former test Latter test 
 
 Multiplication 94.6 91.7 
 
 Division 91.4 91.3 
 
 Addition 78.0 81.4 
 
 Subtraction.. 57.2 75.6 
 
 Average 80.2 84.9 
 
 This shows a very substantial gain in the subtraction 
 work, which had been extremely weak before. The 
 multiplication shows a slight falling off and the divi- 
 sion is at a standstill, due, perhaps, to the emphasis 
 which had been placed upon the other two opera- 
 tions. 
 
 The net gain of 4.7 per cent does not fairly ex- 
 press the improvement, in that it does not take 
 account of the time factor. The 80.2 per cent was 
 obtained at an average speed of 442 seconds, while 
 the 84 . 9 per cent was at an average of 323 seconds. 
 Equating these two factors, the comparative figures 
 for the two tests are 551 and 380, showing a reduc- 
 tion in the time-accuracy score of 31 per cent. 
 
 144 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 A SPECIAL EXERCISE IN FUNDAMENTAL 
 OPERATIONS 
 
 One of the exercises frequently employed for the 
 development of the power of rapid calculation con- 
 sists in the performing of a series of operations dic- 
 tated by the teacher. For example: 8, multiply by 
 4, add 18, divide by 5, subtract 7, multiply by 15, 
 subtract 12, divide by 11; answer =? A special in- 
 terest may be injected into such an exercise if the 
 teacher occasionally permits each pupil to select his 
 own starting number, and then, miraculously to the 
 class, brings them all to the same correct result. 1 
 
 To do this, of course it is necessary for the teacher 
 to follow the operations in general terms, that is, by 
 algebra, while the pupils are working in terms of arith- 
 metic; and the secret of the uniform results lies in 
 eliminating the special number selected at some time 
 before the operations are completed. For instance: 
 Select a number, add 5, multiply by 4, subtract 12, 
 divide by 4, subtract the number selected; answer = ? 
 One pupil selects 4, another 5, another 8, another 15, 
 and so on, without announcing beforehand what his 
 
 1 The reader may recall how Edward Eggleston's "Hoosier 
 Schoolboy" puzzled his mates with a problem of this kind. 
 
 145 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 number is. Their work is represented respectively, 
 thus: 
 
 4 5 8 15 
 
 + 5 +5 +5 +5 
 
 9 10 13 20 
 
 X4 X4 X4 X4 
 
 36 40 52 80 
 
 -12 -12 -12 -12 
 
 4) 24 4) 28 4) 40 4) 68 
 
 6 7 10 17 
 
 -4 -5 -8 -15 
 
 The teacher's thought in the meantime is: 
 
 X =any number 
 
 X + 5 add 5 
 
 4X+20 multiply by 4 
 
 4X+8 subtract 12 
 
 X + 2 divide by 4 
 
 2 subtract the number. 
 
 A teacher must guard against making too free a 
 use of this exercise, which is a form of spice, and must 
 not be sprinkled with too free a hand. Two or three 
 such problems occasionally interpolated in a morn- 
 ing's work will serve a purpose which could not be 
 gained by twenty of them given in succession. A 
 
 H6 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 teacher who is at all apt in algebra may readily con- 
 struct these problems as he proceeds. A few, how- 
 ever, are here given, thirty for oral drill and twenty 
 for written. 
 
 ORAL 
 
 1. Any number X9 + 12 -^- 3 - 1 X + 14 -^ 2 
 
 - the number = 8 
 
 2. Number + 3x4-6-^2 + 5-^2- number 
 
 = 4 
 
 3. Number + 15-11X4-12-^2-2-5- num- 
 
 ber + 3 = 5 
 
 4. Number + 5X6- 14 -=-2 + 13 ^-3- num- 
 
 ber + 3 -5- 5 = 2 
 
 5. Number -1x8 + 10 -=-2 + 7-^4- number 
 
 X5-l-^3 = 3 
 
 6. Number X5-7X2 + 24 -^ 10 - number + 
 
 5 X 3 - 3 = 15 
 
 7. Number -^ 2 + 7 X 4 - 18 -* 2 - number X 5 
 
 - 7 = 18 
 
 8. Number + 12-^-4 + 6x4-36-^ number + 
 
 8 -5- 3 = 3 
 
 9. Number -2x8 + 32-v-4 + 18-^2- number 
 
 + 5 = 16 
 
 10. Number XlO-18-^2 + 9-^ number X 4 - 2 
 
 -5-3 = 6 
 
 11. Number -5-5 + 2X10-12*2- number X 3 
 
 -2-10 
 
 12. Number + 7x6-8^-2- 17 + number X 7 
 
 -1-20 
 
 147 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 13. Number -1x5 + 13 X2- 16 + number X 5 
 
 + 7 = 57 
 
 14. Number X6 + 3 + 3 + 15 + 4-3X2- 
 
 number = 2 
 
 15. Number + 2 + 7x4- 22 + 2-3 + number 
 
 = i 
 
 16. Number X3 + 12 + 3-2 + 8- number + 5 
 
 X2 = 30 
 
 17. Number -2X 10 + 25 + 5 + 3 + 2- number 
 
 X 8 - 1 = 15 
 
 18. Number + 6 + 2 + 5X4- 12 + 2- number 
 
 -s- 2 = 5 
 
 19. Number + 2X3 + 18 -5-3 --8-5- number 
 
 = 1 
 
 20. Number -1x8 + 12 -5-4 + 15 -5- 2 -num- 
 
 ber = 8 
 
 21. Number X 10 - 8 + 2 + 4 + number X 8 + 2 
 
 = 42 
 
 22. Number 4-4 + 6x8- 34 -=-2- number + 5 
 
 = 12 
 
 23. Number +5x4-4+8+1x2- number 
 
 + 4 = 10 
 
 24. Number -2x6 + 20 + 2-4-7- number + 5 
 
 = 8 
 
 25. Number X 12 -8 + 4 + 5 + 3- number X 8 
 
 + 2 = 10 
 
 26. Number + 3 + 4x6- 14 + 2- number X 6 
 
 + 15 = 2 
 
 27. Number + 5x10-25 + 5-5 + number + 3 
 
 = 5 
 
 148 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 28. Number -3-^-2 + 4x4- 10 -5- number + 8 
 
 = 10 
 
 29. Number x9-6-^3 + 8X|-4^ number 
 
 = 2 
 
 30. Number --3 + 4x6- 14x2- 20 -f- num- 
 
 ber + 6 -*- 2 X 5 = 25 
 
 WRITTEN 
 
 31. Number X 12 + 158 - 2 - 46 -* 3 + 145 -5- 2 
 
 number = 78 
 
 32. Number + 135 X 27 - 2,382 -*- 3 + 578 -5- 9 - 
 
 number -=- 3 + 3 = 40 
 
 33. Number - 23 X 51 + 2,873 -H 17 -- 1 -* 3 - 
 
 number + 2-35 
 
 34. Number + 275 X 24 - 3,144 - 8 + 165 - 597 
 
 H- number = 3 
 
 35. Number - 47 X 55 + 765 4- 5 + 364 * num- 
 
 ber + 9 = 20 
 
 36. Number - 4 + 316 X 12 - 1,220 X 15 - 38,580 
 
 -r- number = 45 
 
 37. Number X 75 -- 345 X & + 748 -- 564 * 
 
 number = 40 
 
 38. Number - 49 X 81 + 5,178 ^ 3 - 403 + num- 
 
 ber + 833 -5- 43 = 20 
 
 39. Number - 5 + 721 X 35 - 18,228 X 4 + 280 
 
 4- 28 - number = 1011 
 
 40. Number X 64 - 8,072 X f + 5,045 -*- num- 
 1 ber = 40 
 
 41. Number - 79 X 25 + 1,765 X 4 + 40 - 100 + 
 
 28 - number - 20 
 
 149 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 42. Number 4- 83 -5- 5 + 781f X 55 - 32,989 + 11 
 
 - number = 991 
 
 43. Number -v- 7 + 371 X 91 - 7,735 -*- 26 + 385 
 
 X 2 - number = 2,772 
 
 44. Number X 98 - 3,672 -5- 2 + 723 + 7 + 159 -s- 
 
 number X 2 = 14 
 
 45. Number X 36 + 1,728 -5- 9 + 640 X f - 357 -H 
 
 3 - number = 89 
 
 46. Number + 57 X 72 - 2,448 -s- 9 - 184 *- num- 
 
 ber = 8 
 
 47. Number - 6 + 115 X 33 - 3,740 X 4 -5- 22 - 
 
 number = 10 
 
 48. Number - 3 X 26 + 156 -5- 13 + 128 -j- 2 - 
 
 number + 3 X 4 = 280 
 
 49. Number + 701 X 12 - 3,456 X - 1,480 -5- 8 - 
 
 number + 72 = 300 
 
 50. Number -5- 6 + 372 X 42 - 15,624 -s- number 
 
 = 7 
 
 MULTIPLICATION DRILL CHART 
 
 The multiplication table, for all numbers from zero 
 to twelve, involves 169 permutations or 91 combina- 
 tions. For use in drill work these combinations may 
 be written each upon a separate card, but in place of 
 this, or to supplement this, a drill chart may be easily 
 constructed. 
 
 This device consists of two discs, in appropriate 
 frame, on each of which is written the set of numbers, 
 
 150 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 zero to twelve. By revolving these discs any combi- 
 nation may be brought into view. This will be read- 
 ily understood by a glance at this illustration, which 
 shows the combination 10x7 in view. 
 
 FIG. i 
 
 A turn of either of the discs, made by pushing the 
 cogs at the upper corners of the frame until they co- 
 incide with the edge of the frame, changes the combi- 
 nation. The other side of the chart is the same except 
 that the plus sign is used, making the chart available 
 for a certain amount of addition drill. 
 
 This chart may easily be made by using the follow- 
 ing diagrams, drawn to scale, as patterns. Three 
 pieces of cardboard, each 22" by 11", are required. 
 From these, five parts are cut out, two according to 
 pattern A, one according to pattern B, and two accord- 
 ing to pattern C. 
 
 151 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 FIG. 2 
 
 WY = 22" EF = GH=AC 
 If WJ = JU = UK = KY = KK' = JJ' = 5i" 
 TV=JK = 11" 
 
 FIQ. 3 
 
 Inasmuch as the disc (pattern C) is based on a circle 
 divided into thirteenths, a difficult arc to mark off, 
 the exact form and size of a part of the disc is here 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 given, a tracing of which may be taken and applied 
 around the circle. 
 
 FIG, 4 
 
 Between each of the two outside parts of the frame 
 (pattern A) there are laid the two discs, on their appro- 
 priate centers, surrounded by the middle part (pat- 
 tern B). A pin or paper fastener may be used as the 
 center pivot on which the discs shall rotate. The 
 three parts of the frame are either glued together or 
 bound together by paper fasteners. 
 
 The drawing of the numbers on the discs, prefer- 
 ably in crayon, not in ink, should be done after the 
 chart is put together, and care must be taken to see 
 that each cog sets in its true position before the num- 
 ber is written upon the disc. On the reverse side of the 
 disc the same number should be printed upon the par- 
 ticular cog which is in view when that number shows 
 through the frame. In the illustration given, for in- 
 stance, while one side shows 10x7, it happens that 
 the reverse side shows 3 + 6, as is indicated by the fig- 
 ures on the cogs. 
 
 11 153 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 THE MENSURATION OF THE TRAPEZOID l 
 
 A number of methods of demonstrating the formula 
 for the area of the trapezoid are available. Two are 
 given. The plain words BASE and TOP are used as 
 names for the parallel sides. 
 
 (1) Cut out the trapezoid ABCD. Fold DC over on 
 
 BASE 
 
 BASE \ dO 
 
 B 
 
 FIQ. 1. 
 
 AB and cut along the fold. Replace the upper por- 
 tion along the side of the lower, as in Fig. 1. 
 
 This gives a parallelogram, whose base is BASE 
 -I- TOP and whose altitude is \ ALTITUDE. Hence the 
 area of the parallelogram, which is that of the equiva- 
 lent trapezoid, is: 
 
 , ALTITUDE 
 
 (BASE 4- TOP) X ^ 
 
 1 This and the following section are reprinted from School 
 Work, January, 1903. 
 
 154 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 (2) Cut along the line DF and replace, forming a 
 triangle, whose area, and hence that of the equivalent 
 
 Fio. 2. 
 
 trapezoid (Fig. 2), is: 
 
 (BASE + TOP) X 
 
 ALTITUDE 
 
 Either of these two figures may be cut out of thin 
 wood in two pieces hinged at F, making a model which 
 forces clearly upon the mind of the pupil the equiva- 
 lence of the original trapezoid and the resulting rec- 
 tangle or triangle. The triangle method has the advan- 
 tage of not disturbing the notion of the ALTITUDE, 
 which remains the same in both trapezoid and tri- 
 angle. The method of passing a line through F paral- 
 lel to AD and fitting the resulting triangle on to the 
 upper half presents the difficulty of the average be- 
 tween BASE and TOP. 
 
 155 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 LONGITUDE AND TIME 
 
 This subject is perhaps one of the most difficult to 
 grasp of any of the grammar-grade topics. The fol- 
 lowing outlines an order of presentation which has 
 been found to give good results : Using the globe, re- 
 view latitude and longitude, meridians and prime 
 meridians, the revolution of the earth, the direction 
 of this revolution from west to east, the consequent 
 " rising" of the sun in the east, and the apparent mo- 
 tion of the sun from east to west. The first appear- 
 ance of the sun at any place is called "sunrise" for 
 that place. As the sun travels westward, easterly 
 places have sunrise before westerly places. Hence, 
 when it is sunrise at a westerly point, it is after sun- 
 rise at an easterly point. Similarly develop: When it 
 is sunset at a westerly point, it is after or later than sun- 
 set at an easterly point; when the sun is directly over- 
 head, or on the meridian of, a westerly point, it is past 
 the meridian of an easterly point, i. e., when it is noon 
 at a westerly point, it is after noon at an easterly point; 
 when it is 4 P.M. at any point, it is after 4 P.M. at any 
 point east of it; when it is 7 A.M. at any point, it is 
 after or later than 7 A.M. at any easterly point; when it 
 is 5 P.M. at any point, it is earlier than 5 P.M. at any 
 westerly point; and finally, at any given moment 
 easterly places have later time and westerly places have 
 
 156 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 earlier time. This fact of difference of time and of 
 earlier and later time, dependent upon longitude, 
 having been established (and this point might well 
 mark the end of the first lesson), it remains to consider 
 the exact relation between the difference of time and 
 the difference of longitude. 
 
 From noon to noon for any given place, the sun has 
 traveled 360 of longitude, but from noon to noon for 
 any given place is a cycle of twenty-four hours of time. 
 Hence the rate of the sun's traveling is 360 in twenty- 
 four hours, or 15 in one hour. 
 
 On the blackboard build up this diagram : 
 
 15 30 45 60 759<ri05120 1351SO165180 EA8T 
 iB IB 15 1 16 5 N5 15 15 16 U5 Longitude 
 
 WEST 180 165 150135 12010590 7 
 Longitude | IB IB 16 IB 15 15 
 
 Time - lira. 
 
 Use this diagram as the basis of a large number and 
 variety of oral questions. The solutions should be 
 indicated by colored chalks to separate the different 
 questions. The diagram as here shown indicates 
 that the following questions have been asked : 
 
 157 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 (1) What is the difference in longitude between 
 points 30 E. and 105 E.? 
 
 (2) What is the difference in longitude between 
 points 150 W. and 45 W.? 
 
 (3) What is the difference in longitude between 
 points 45 E. and 90 W.? 
 
 (Let the pupils suggest questions of the above na- 
 ture.) 
 
 (4) What is the difference in time between points 
 45 W. and 165 W.? 
 
 (5) What is the difference in time between points 
 15 E. and 150 E.? 
 
 (6) What is the difference in time between points 
 30 W. and 105 E.? 
 
 (Let pupils suggest questions of the above nature.) 
 
 (7) When it is noon at 75 W., what time is it at 
 15 E.? 
 
 (8) When it is 11 P.M. at 30 E., what time is at 
 120 W.? 
 
 At an early stage appeal to the geographical interest 
 by using as a table of longitudes: 
 Approximately, for oral work: 
 . London. 
 
 15 E. Berlin (13 24'), Vienna (16 23'). 
 30 E. St. Petersburg (30 19'), Constantinople 
 
 (28 59'). 
 
 45 E. Aden (44 59'). 
 
 158 
 
SOME DEVICES IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 60 E. Mauritius (57 30')- 
 
 75 E. Bombay (72 49'). 
 
 90 E. Calcutta (88 23'). 
 
 105 E. Singapore (103 51'). 
 
 120 E. Manila (120 58'). 
 
 135 E. Vladivostock (131 53'), Yokohama (139 
 
 36'). 
 
 150 E. Sydney (151 13'). 
 
 15 W. Freetown (13 10'). 
 
 30 W. Azores Islands (25 to 31). 
 
 45 W. Rio Janeiro (43 8'). 
 
 60 W. Buenos Ayres (58 22'), Martinique (61 
 10'). 
 
 75 W. New York (74 0'). 
 
 90 W. St. Louis (90 15'). 
 
 105 W. Denver (105). 
 
 120 W. Carson City (119 46'), San Francisco (122 
 
 25'). 
 
 135 W. Sitka (135 20'). 
 
 150 W. Honolulu (157 52'). 
 
 Many questions of this kind should be given as 
 "oral" arithmetic until the picture of the relation of 
 longitude to time is well fixed in the pupil's mind and 
 the process begins to be automatic. Then proceed 
 with "written" arithmetic questions involving min- 
 utes and seconds. Into the hands of any pupil who 
 
 159 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 fails to grasp the subject put a model, made of bristol- 
 board or wood, according to the following pattern: 
 
 *>v 
 
 ^r. , 
 
 L* / 
 
 *'$ 
 
 Cut out circle above and fasten pin through in ^ \ 
 
 CD nf 
 
 > center* of that circle and this. / ~* 
 
 t^\ r~s 
 
 I s 
 
 ^ 
 
 3* 
 
 160 
 
VII 
 
 THE USE OF THE BLACKBOARD 
 
 UP to a few years ago any essay concerning the 
 school blackboard could refer only to a narrow panel of 
 inferior slate or painted wood or perhaps a single easel 
 of slated surface. To-day the graded school is every- 
 where equipped with a comparatively large amount 
 of blackboard space, and every effort is made by pro- 
 gressive superintendents of school buildings to insist 
 upon a quality of surface which shall contribute most 
 satisfactorily to the work of the school. 
 
 In the meantime the blackboard has become one of 
 the recognized implements in the teacher's tool chest, 
 and the use of the blackboard has become one of the 
 most important features in the technique of teaching. 
 It is unfortunately true that many a teacher falls 
 short of realizing the full value of the blackboard as an 
 essential element in the teaching process. I recently 
 visited one teacher, for instance, who had covered her 
 blackboard for a space of eight running feet with a 
 denham background upon which were hung samples of 
 
 161 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 pupil's written work, the while certain spaces of bare 
 wall remained undecorated. It is not that such a 
 teacher would surrender the blackboard altogether or 
 that such a teacher does not make a certain profitable 
 use of the board, but rather that she fails amply to 
 comprehend its tremendous pedagogic value. 
 
 There are many teachers who give little attention 
 to the psychology of sense-impression. This is true 
 even in the appeal to the sense of hearing. " Use of 
 voice" means to the average teacher only that he shall 
 not raise his voice, shall not rant, in short, shall not 
 develop what is popularly known as the " school- 
 teacher's voice. " It does not occur to him deliberate- 
 ly to train his voice and perfect his control of it for 
 pedagogic purposes. He may recognize the necessity 
 of mastering the "five formal steps" in presentation, 
 but not that of mastering his voice, the chief instru- 
 ment through which he presents the "steps" whether 
 formal or informal. 
 
 Mere sympathy for the child who must listen to the 
 same voice for the greater part of the school day 
 should impel every teacher so to train his voice that 
 it shall be relieved as far as possible of monotony. He 
 should practice variety of modulation out of mere pity 
 for his auditors, if for nothing more. Every adult re- 
 calls some hour-long lecture to which he has been 
 subjected with nothing left of recollection but a sense 
 
 162 
 
THE USE OF THE BLACKBOARD 
 
 of pain, due to the speaker's failure to use his voice to 
 advantage. 
 
 But variation in voice, necessary as it is, is not all 
 that is demanded of the teacher. The professional 
 teacher will study the individual qualities of his own 
 voice, and so master its tone and timbre that he can 
 make it do his will. As he wills, in turn, to command, 
 to reprimand, to soothe, to stimulate, to attract, to 
 distract, his voice does his bidding and his pupils are 
 controlled at a minimum of strain. Not only this, 
 but teaching is an art and shares with other arts the 
 dictum that the best art conceals art. Just as the 
 painting must not betray the painter's struggle to 
 master the mechanics of his art, just as the poem 
 must bear no trace of the poet's efforts to acquire the 
 technique of verbal construction, just as the violinist 
 swaying his audience by the overpowering beauty of 
 his performance must inject no hint of the years of 
 toil spent in formal exercises, so in the teacher's art 
 there must intrude no indication of the strain of prep- 
 aration. 
 
 The wise teacher realizes that in that part of his 
 work which consists in " impression" of his pupils, he 
 is guilty of waste when he continues to impress them 
 through the single sense of hearing. The skillful 
 teacher instinctively teaches "chalk in hand," and 
 loses no legitimate opportunity to supplement his 
 
 163 
 
 * OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 appeal to the pupils' hearing with a contemporaneous 
 appeal to their sense of sight. We appreciate the 
 popularity of that form of entertainment known as 
 a "chalk talk" wherein a lecturer sketches a pic- 
 ture while he maintains a running monologue on the 
 subject of the picture and things in general. The 
 teacher is not, of course, to aim to become a vaude- 
 ville artist, but it is certainly not out of place for him 
 to learn from such a performer whatever he may of 
 the psychology of attention. 
 
 The children, while listening to the teacher, are 
 bound to look at something. If the ear alone is to be 
 appealed to, why not require the pupils to close their 
 eyes while listening. Concentration of attention im- 
 plies the exclusion of contrary attractions. The full 
 beauty of a symphony is best to be sensed by closing 
 the eyes and surrendering the whole field of attention 
 to the sense of hearing. Every sensation of touch, or 
 taste, or smell, unless it might happen to illustrate 
 the theme of the music, is a distinct distraction, and 
 should be avoided if possible. So in the classroom, 
 if the teacher's appeal to the pupils' attention is to 
 be made solely through the gateway of the ear, all 
 other gateways should be barred and bolted. But if 
 the attention, instead of being distracted, can, on the 
 contrary, be augmented through the play of the other 
 senses, then good pedagogy demands that those other 
 
 164 
 
THE USE OF THE BLACKBOARD 
 
 senses should be used, and used freely and intelli- 
 gently. 
 
 The sense which, in the classroom, is the most valu- 
 able as supplementing that of hearing is of course 
 that of sight. The whole personality of the teacher 
 forms a sight impression which may make or mar a 
 lesson. His attitude, his posture, his gestures, his 
 facial animation all are elements which contribute 
 toward attracting, distracting, or repelling the class. 
 That is, the teacher's personal presence may attract 
 attention directly to the subject, reinforcing it and 
 welding its materials; or it may distract attention 
 from the subject-matter to the speaker himself and 
 his idiosyncrasies; or it may repel attention, through 
 its very colorlessness, from both the subject-matter 
 and the teacher. He will therefore study to make 
 his personality a positive force contributing to his 
 pedagogic method and not subtracting from it or 
 negativing it. 
 
 With chalk in hand, the teacher is doubly armed 
 in his assault upon the citadel of attention. For 
 example, each verbal stroke of emphasis has its ac- 
 companiment in the written stroke. The strange 
 word to which the tongue can give but a partial intro- 
 duction, is simultaneously written on the blackboard, 
 not as a stilted exercise, but as a natural incident 
 causing no appreciable extra expenditure of time. 
 
 165 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 Above all, no formal recognition is to be made of this 
 extra appeal to attention. The teacher will not say, 
 "this is the way that word is spelled," "be sure you 
 learn how to spell this word," or any equivalent of 
 "watch me while I write this word." This would be 
 as inartistic as for him to say, "did you notice that 
 when I spoke the word 'flit/ I gesticulated thus?" 
 There is, too, an incidental gain that is not to be under- 
 valued. The use of the blackboard in this and similar 
 ways is one more evidence of the teacher's aliveness 
 to his subject. Interest begets interest. Enthusiasm 
 is contagious. The listless teacher cannot condemn 
 his class for inattention. The intelligently alert 
 teacher cannot help carrying his class with him, and 
 the use of the blackboard is one of the tangible evi- 
 dences of his alertness. 
 
 If all this holds good for the impression which the 
 teacher aims to make upon a class, it is equally valid 
 when it is the pupil and not the teacher who is talk- 
 ing. The teacher's use of the blackboard must be 
 patently free and unrestrained, and the pupils should 
 be trained toward a like freedom and facility. It will 
 not come except by patient effort and encouragement, 
 but it can be gained to a varying degree by every 
 pupil . We are only j ust beginning to make reasonable 
 use of the social value of the class. The recitation is 
 no longer addressed solely to the teacher, but also to 
 
 166 
 
THE USE OF THE BLACKBOARD 
 
 the class or the individual interlocutor in the class. 
 The pupil must be led to feel that the nearest panel 
 of blackboard is his whenever he needs it to illustrate 
 a point in his recitation, and he should be trained to 
 turn to it instinctively whenever he can use it to 
 advantage. 
 
 We are fast learning that all impression and no ex- 
 pression makes Jack a dull boy, and yet for many rea- 
 sons teachers find it difficult to yield the floor to the 
 pupils. For one reason, the tradition is a strong one 
 that defines a recitation as the stating of a direct ques- 
 tion by the teacher and its answer by the pupils. For 
 another, under the pressure of the time schedule, the 
 teacher feels hurried and believes that valuable time 
 is lost when the class does much of the talking. So we 
 find many teachers doing for the pupils what they 
 should be doing for themselves. 
 
 As one goes through the classrooms of a school, he 
 is rightly suspicious of a teacher's method if he inva- 
 riably finds the blackboard immaculately clean or bar- 
 ren of pupils' work. It would seem a fair test to ask 
 how many pupils of a class at the close of a day have 
 not done some work at the blackboard, and the pro- 
 portion of such pupils ought to be very small. In 
 much of the class work it is economy for some one to 
 act as secretary for the class and carry on at the board 
 the exercise which belongs to the class as a whole. It 
 
 167 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 is also true that the teacher is best qualified to act as 
 secretary, but it may often be questioned whether it 
 is wise for him to do so. The little longer which it 
 takes for the pupil to do the same work is probably 
 repaid in gain to the particular pupil and in class in- 
 terest. 
 
 The use which the teacher will make of the black- 
 board will vary somewhat with the grade of the class. 
 The lower the grade the greater the necessity for the 
 teacher's exercising great care in her board writing. 
 The teacher's work is always a model to the pupils, but 
 most so in the lowest grades. 
 
 It may be a question to be settled on its own merits 
 as to whether words should ever be printed on the 
 board, but it is certain that, if so, they should be prop- 
 erly printed. It is not uncommon to find such exam- 
 ples of lettering as: 
 
 ~N 
 
 Instead of letters indiscriminately embellished with 
 curlycues such as these, a simple font should be used, 
 one which is consistently free from extra and mean- 
 ingless marks. It is true that book print uses a font of 
 type in which there is shading and elaborate complex- 
 ity of line, but it is impossible for the teacher to copy 
 this and so he should frankly not attempt to. For 
 
 168 
 
THE USE OF THE BLACKBOARD 
 
 instance the letter h. No teacher could in less than 
 five minutes make a letter on the board which would 
 faithfully reproduce this form: h; she can how- 
 ever easily make the form h her model and sketch 
 quite rapidly such a font as : 
 
 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 
 
 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 
 
 In the lower grades a certain amount of black- 
 board decoration is permissible, provided that it is 
 really decorative and not grotesque; but it must 
 be kept in mind that decoration is the least prof- 
 itable use to which the board can be put. Allied 
 to this is the use of the board for lists of names of 
 merit with stars or flags to indicate degrees of excel- 
 lence, all of which may be more or less legitimately 
 effective in the middle grades, but which should dis- 
 appear, as less artificial incentives operate to control 
 pupils. 
 
 Few permanent entries should be made on the board. 
 Certain records, the day's register and attendance of 
 pupils, for instance, may be kept there, but the largest 
 possible space should be reserved for everyday use. 
 Tables or tabular forms may be reserved for a few 
 days at a time, such as an outline for geographical 
 study, thus: 
 
 12 169 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 TOPICAL STUDY OF A COUNTRY. 
 
 1. Location 4. Surface 8. Commerce 
 
 2. Size and shape 5. Drainage 9. Cities 
 
 3. Coast line 6. Climate 10. Government 
 
 7. Resources 
 
 The chief advantage of using the blackboard for this 
 is that as fast as the pupils become adept in its use in 
 part, that part may be erased until the outline event- 
 ually disappears. But if it is to be kept intact for any 
 length of time, it would be better to print it on paper 
 in chart form and thus release the board space for 
 other purposes. 
 
 One of the pedagogic means commonly neglected 
 is the use of colored chalk. In advocating its liberal 
 use I would not be understood as recommending its 
 display merely that there may be a touch of color on 
 the board. To write one sentence in red, the next in 
 white, and the next in blue, would be inane. But 
 just as the skillful teacher uses the blackboard with a 
 definite purpose, knowing exactly what part in his 
 art of teaching each stroke contributes, so will he 
 deliberately and purposefully substitute some color 
 for white wherever his method will gain thereby. 
 Much of the time of the teacher is spent in developing 
 in his pupils the power of voluntary attention, and 
 yet there is frequent opportunity for the legitimate 
 
 170 
 
THE USE OF THE BLACKBOARD 
 
 use of involuntary attention. In the course of a 
 presentation lesson, when it would be a distinct loss 
 to interrupt the trend of thought to secure volitional 
 attention from the wavering few who are found in 
 every class, a stroke of color may very often be made 
 the means of compelling attention. 1 By way of 
 illustration: 
 
 1. There is an appropriateness in the use of certain 
 colors for specific illustrations. For instance, the 
 month's calendar may be drawn on the board, with 
 spaces reserved for a daily entry as to the weather. 
 It is appropriate that sunshine should be expressed 
 by a yellow sun, and rain by a colored, rather than a 
 white, umbrella. 
 
 2. Emphasis that is made in speech by accent may 
 be made in board writing by colored words or under- 
 lining. For instance, 
 
 Washington was inaugurated first President 
 
 of the United States in 1789, 
 makes a more successful appeal than 
 
 Washington was inaugurated first President 
 of the United States in 1789, 
 
 and separate is better than separate. 
 
 1 Yellow, orange, pink, light green, light blue are most satis- 
 factory; dark tones of red, green, blue, etc., are less so. 
 
 171 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 3. The distinction between a law and its application 
 may profitably be made by variety of color. 
 
 may represent the formula, and the application is 
 then made directly, thus: 
 
 "a 
 
 4. Similarly as to the distinction between original 
 work and corrections, as in composition or any subject 
 where there can be a variety of opinion as to correct 
 form. John may write a sentence as he thinks it 
 should be. James makes his alterations in red. 
 Harry follows and amends in green, and so on, and 
 confusion as to authorship is avoided. 
 
 5. Similarly as to the distinction between work and 
 its illustration. This is frequently necessary in mathe- 
 matical operations. For example, when first-year 
 
 172 
 
THE USE OF THE BLACKBOARD 
 
 pupils are learning the simplest combinations, the 
 child writes, 
 
 I -f- /4 - 5" 
 
 He is having some difficulty with both the content 
 and the form. In aiding him as to content, the 
 teacher must be careful not to puzzle him as to form. 
 She may aim to help him by writing above the figures, 
 thus : 
 
 o o&oo oc?ooc> 
 
 I- 4. 4"- 
 
 Now she may call these circles oranges, and she may 
 easily think of them as oranges; yet there is danger 
 that the child will see in them something too much 
 like the zeros to which he is also being introduced. 
 The use of orange-colored chalk for the oranges elimi- 
 nates this danger. The same criticism would not 
 apply to the sketching in white of characteristic forms 
 which could not be confused with numbers, as 
 C5 G5 C5> O for apples, or /^/7/7/7 for flags, 
 or gr e7^<Zf &~ gr for cherries, or f-j fa (f fj 
 for chairs, etc., and yet even these might profitably 
 be done in appropriate color it would certainly take 
 no longer to do so, and there are then distinct im- 
 pressions made by the numerical symbols and by the 
 illustrative pictures. 
 
 173 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 Another instance: 
 
 If one bushel of potatoes costs 80 cents what will 
 3 pecks cost? 
 
 Here is the bushel bag of potatoes 
 
 and here is the thought of the problem applied to this 
 bag of potatoes. 
 
 > 
 
THE USE OF THE BLACKBOARD 
 
 6. Identities and relationships are well brought out 
 by the use of color. For example, in diagramming in 
 grammar, to locate modifiers, etc. : 
 
 and to follow the effect of the changing of the voice 
 of a verb from active to passive. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ULam, 
 
 175 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 7. Unseen lines in an illustration may best be indi- 
 cated in color. For instance, this figure 
 
 may represent a rectangular prism in either of two 
 positions, but the ambiguity is eliminated thus: 
 
 The illustrations which have been given are neces- 
 sarily but few, and are merely suggestive, but they 
 hint at the constant employment which may be made 
 of the simple expedient of color. Not alone the pen 
 is mighty; a fragment of chalk in the hand of a skillful 
 teacher may illumine the mind of the pupil as can 
 nothing else. 
 
 176 
 
VIII 
 THE SCHOOL MUSEUM 
 
 EVERY alert teacher appreciates the value of ob- 
 jective illustration as a factor in teaching method, and 
 in consequence will gradually accumulate such mate- 
 rial as experience proves appropriate to the work at 
 hand. 1 The principle of cooperation yields as marked 
 a beneficial return when applied to the establishment 
 of this sort of equipment as it does in any other de- 
 partment of school management. 
 
 1 " In France, one finds a musee scolaire, or school museum, 
 in almost every school, and this is often of great assistance in 
 the object lessons. The teacher encourages the children to bring 
 here things that have any unusual interest, and they often take 
 great pride in their botanical or natural-history collection, neces- 
 sarily small, but none the less valuable from an educational 
 point of view." 
 
 Frederic Ernest Farrington: "The Public Primary School 
 System of France," Teachers College, Columbia University, 
 1906, p. 88. 
 
 I am glad to acknowledge the source of my own inspiration 
 along this line, namely, the Sixth Burgher School, in Leipzig, 
 which Dr. Klemm, in his "European Schools" (p. 282), calls 
 "the best equipped in the world." 
 12* 177 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 When a school museum is established upon this 
 basis it is clear that its aim should be to provide such 
 material as will be of practical use to the teachers in 
 their daily work. The display idea should be elimi- 
 nated; the museum should be regarded as a depository 
 of material rather than a collection for exhibit. Other- 
 wise the museum is likely to degenerate into a mere 
 showroom, quite meaningless and of little practical 
 value. 
 
 My own experiment with the school museum has 
 convinced me that the time devoted to it has been 
 eminently worth while. I began ten years since by 
 donating a number of specimens of my own gathering. 
 The collection aggregated about six shelffuls in an 
 ordinary cabinet in the principal's office. To-day the 
 museum occupies one hundred thirty shelves in a room 
 seventeen by twenty-five feet devoted exclusively to 
 this purpose. The growth has been gradual and un- 
 forced. The teachers of the school have supported a 
 museum fund by contributing ten cents each per 
 month. This contribution represents less than the 
 amount which each teacher would probably expend 
 on illustrative material if there were no cooperative 
 scheme. This fund is drawn upon to meet all expenses 
 of the museum, which are of three kinds: cataloguing, 
 preparing specimens, and purchasing material. 
 
 Our catalogue, of which four editions, with inter- 
 178 
 
THE SCHOOL MUSEUM 
 
 mediate supplements, have been issued in ten years, 
 consists in the present edition of twenty-four pages, 
 and costs us about twenty dollars for three hundred 
 copies. We are also under expense for mailing a small 
 number of catalogues to school authorities and others 
 interested in the work and to people whose interest 
 might result in their donating specimens. These cat- 
 alogues are accompanied by an explanatory statement 
 as follows: 
 
 This little catalogue is sent in the hope that it may 
 interest you in our School Museum. We desire to em- 
 phasize the fact that the teachers make daily use of the 
 collections, reenforcing, by illustration, their work in 
 nature, reading, geography, history, etc. Many de- 
 partments are as yet unrepresented. Material of any 
 kind would be acceptable perhaps you will help us. 
 
 The preparation of specimens takes various forms. 
 We receive birds and other small animals which have 
 just been killed, and these we send to the taxidermist 
 for mounting. We receive second-hand specimens 
 which require a little repairing. Our specimens in al- 
 cohol and in camphor require a renewal of the pre- 
 servative periodically. A random selection from our 
 records shows that we have paid the following prices 
 for mounting: 25 cents for a mouse; 50 cents each for 
 a woodlark, a canary, a parrot, a humming bird; 75 
 cents each for a robin, a kingfisher, a bluebird; $1.25 
 
 179 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 each for a squirrel and a woodpecker; $1.50 for a frog; 
 $3 for an owl; $5 fora hawk. Material purchased 
 consists of mounted specimens, pictures, models, etc., 
 and raw material for the construction of models. For 
 example, a gallon box, made of zinc, three by seven 
 by eleven inches, cost 75 cents; a hen, mounted, $5; 
 a piece of kangaroo skin, 25 cents; bottles for speci- 
 mens average 20 cents per dozen; silk flags of various 
 nations, eight by twelve inches, cost $2.80 per dozen. 
 A few other items in our collection are here noted as 
 typical of what it is aimed to provide. For elemen- 
 tary school purposes, classification of nature specimens 
 must not be carried out to any extended detail. The 
 aim must be the modest one of teaching the pupil to 
 distinguish, for instance, between a sparrow and a 
 swallow, a butterfly and a moth, an elm and a pine; 
 energy must not be wasted in illustrating such dis- 
 tinctions as papilio zolicaon and papilio daunus. 
 Among our mounted specimens are : bat, flying squir- 
 rel, ducks, hen, orioles, fox. There are also birds' nests 
 and birds' eggs. Where it has been impossible to pro- 
 cure specimens of animals, pictures, many in color, are 
 provided. Among the objects preserved in alcohol we 
 have snakes, fishes, etc., and a series of "from tadpole 
 to frog." A few skins or pieces of leather snakes, 
 bear, elephant and a few skeletons horse's skull, 
 teeth, etc. are included. Sea products are well rep- 
 
 180 
 
THE SCHOOL MUSEUM 
 
 resented in shells, corals, urchins, starfish, and the 
 like; agricultural products by a particularly fine series 
 of grains in the seed about one hundred varieties; 
 and mineral products by several hundred specimens. 
 Trees are represented by pictures, by cross-sections of 
 trunk and branches, by bark, and by lumber in va- 
 rious degrees of finish. Insects are mounted each in a 
 separate box. Series illustrating the evolution of in- 
 dustrial and manufactured products are particularly 
 valuable. We have coal in its various commercial 
 sizes, silk from the cocoon to the ribbon, cotton from 
 the seed to the spool, etc. There is a small ethno- 
 graphic section of miscellaneous specimens such as 
 tools and coins. 
 
 In addition to purchase, material comes to us in 
 many ways. The public museum has given us sev- 
 eral of its duplicate specimens and material which, 
 though not quite up to their standard, is yet suffi- 
 ciently good for our purpose. Teachers, pupils, and 
 others make frequent contributions. As one illustra- 
 tion, a stranger, passing the school building one holi- 
 day, got into conversation with the janitor, by virtue 
 of which he was invited to visit our museum room. 
 He accepted the invitation, and soon after sent us our 
 mounted fox. We find it advisable to make it a rule 
 not to accept specimens as loans; they must be given 
 to us outright or not at all. This is chiefly desirable 
 
 181 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 because of the responsibility which would accrue for 
 the care of loaned articles. 
 
 The arrangement of material is on shelves which are 
 numbered on a flexible basis: 
 
 1-120 Animal 
 
 121-240 Vegetable 
 
 241-300 Mineral 
 
 301-350 Miscellaneous 
 
 Thus if expansion makes it necessary, the number of 
 a shelf may be changed, but the specimen follows the 
 number. The catalogue shows names of specimens 
 with the shelf number at the end of the line. A sec- 
 tion reads: 
 
 Azurite 255 
 
 Barley, flour, grits 127 
 
 Barnacles 61 
 
 Bartholdi statue, model of 303 
 
 Basswood (T 16) 167 161 
 
 Bat, m 91 
 
 Beans, various kinds of 129 
 
 Bear (A 15) 105, (A 47, 49) 107 
 
 Bear hide, piece of 99 
 
 Beaver, stick gnawed by 91 
 
 Beech (T 1) 167 159 
 
 Bell, City Hall, portion of 319 
 
 Bees, m 39 
 
 Beetles, m 35 
 
 Beet sugar 219 
 
 182 
 
THE SCHOOL MUSEUM 
 
 Abbreviations used are : a = preserved in alcohol ; m = 
 mounted; A = series of pictures of animals; B = of 
 birds; T = of trees; F = of flowers. 
 
 Each teacher is provided with a catalogue and is 
 expected to make constant use of the museum for 
 illustrating his work, not only in nature study, but 
 also in reading, history, geography in fact, in all 
 subjects which permit of objective illustration. 
 
 It is necessary that some one be placed in position 
 of responsible supervision of the museum. A teacher 
 sufficiently interested to undertake the work can 
 usually be found and should then be excused from 
 other assignments of work outside the classroom. 
 The duties of the curator are to act as treasurer of 
 the museum fund, to accept and prepare specimens, 
 and to care for the museum room. Pupils are always 
 available who will enjoy helping the curator. Teach- 
 ers may be directed either " When returning specimens 
 be sure to place them on the proper shelf if in doubt 
 look up the shelf number in the catalogue" or ". . . 
 place them upon the table and do not replace them 
 in their shelf positions." If the latter rule is made, 
 some one must be assigned to replace the returned 
 specimens daily. 
 
 We have found it profitable to have boxes con- 
 structed, approximately a foot in each dimension, with 
 the front and sides of glass. These are located on 
 
 183 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 the walls at convenient places in the corridors and a 
 specimen from the museum is placed in each. These 
 specimens are changed from time to time, and if they 
 are appropriate to the season, so much the better. 
 For instance, a robin may be accompanied by a plac- 
 ard: " Robins were seen in the park yesterday, March 
 18th. Have you seen any this year?" 
 
 Whether pupils should be permitted to visit the 
 museum or not is an open question. As a reward, or 
 from some other motive, a class with its teacher might 
 very occasionally be given a period devoted to in- 
 spection of specimens in their cases. On the other 
 hand, if the pupils are debarred from the room and 
 the museum is regarded as a storehouse and not as 
 an exhibit, their interest in specimens when they are 
 used in the classroom in the course of the regular work 
 is apt to be heightened. 
 
IX 
 
 THE ALUMNI 
 
 THE full value of alumni organization is universally 
 acknowledged and appreciated in respect to any edu- 
 cational institution of collegiate or university rank. 
 But it is sometimes overlooked that even to the public 
 elementary school, alumni interest is equally valuable 
 though its expression may take somewhat different 
 direction. Thus, aside from an occasional contribu- 
 tion of pictures or other supplementary equipment, 
 the financial support which is directly rendered with 
 telling effect by the alumni of many private higher 
 institutions, is not a practicable consideration in the 
 immediate relation of the public-school graduates to 
 their alma mater. 
 
 There is for the public school, however, an indirect 
 alumni influence bearing upon financial support, that 
 merits attention. Any municipal system of schools is 
 dependent upon the taxpayers for maintenance, and 
 this support in turn depends upon the degree of fa- 
 vorable estimation to which the schools are regarded 
 by the great citizen body. If the graduates from the 
 13 185 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 public schools of any city are imbued with a spirit of 
 loyalty and devotion, each to his own alma mater, 
 their collective support of the entire system when they 
 in turn become taxpayers and voters, will be whole- 
 hearted and correspondingly effective, and will react 
 favorably upon the succeeding generation of pupils. 
 Contrariwise, the boys who sustain for their individ- 
 ual schools a sentiment of indifference or distaste are 
 likely to become the men whose regard for the school 
 system is flaccid or perhaps positively inimical. Upon 
 this broad consideration it is clear that there is wis- 
 dom in developing an alumni spirit in and for a 
 school. 
 
 There is a more specific value in alumni support. 
 That school which establishes favorable traditions has 
 an asset of immeasurable worth. Any school acquires 
 a tradition of some sort it cannot hope to escape 
 and hence it behooves the responsible head of the 
 school to assure to it the best quality of traditional 
 spirit and to protect it against the baneful effects of 
 an unfavorable tradition. If the pupils of a school are 
 permitted to feel that once they are graduated they 
 are cast adrift and that the interest of the school in 
 them automatically ceases, their own interest in the 
 school is unlikely to endure. On the other hand, as- 
 suming that the school has exercised an inspiring in- 
 fluence upon its pupils, that influence and its reaction 
 
 186 
 
THE ALUMNI 
 
 for good upon the school may readily be extended into 
 the postgraduate years. 
 
 As a single concrete example, consider the princi- 
 pal's handling of discipline cases. Henry Smith, let 
 us say, is reported to him by his teacher for misbe- 
 havior. Discussing the matter with the boy, he says: 
 " George Smith is your brother, is he not? And he was 
 graduated from this school. What would they think 
 of this sort of conduct at home?" However effective 
 may be his respect for his father and mother, Henry 
 has a wholesome regard for his older brother's good 
 opinion. If George is an inspired alumnus of the school 
 even though in his time he may have had his own 
 disciplinary troubles Henry immediately recognizes 
 that he has done something which George will not 
 countenance. George, as Henry knows, is with the 
 school, and that definite and positive support may be 
 made a controlling factor in the disposition of the case. 
 By contrast, if George is a negative alumnus of the 
 school, Henry may well suspect that he is indifferent 
 to his brother's shortcomings might indeed applaud 
 his misdemeanors and the case is correspondingly 
 more difficult to settle. 
 
 In turn, how far may school interest extend to the 
 alumni? Ought graduation to close the personal ac- 
 count of the pupils with the school? I do not here dis- 
 cuss the place of the alumni association and kindred 
 
 187 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 forms for the promotion of alumni interest, but re- 
 strict myself to the consideration of the more personal 
 duty of the principal of the school. Should not the 
 interest of the school extend to the individual welfare 
 of its alumni and exert an inspiring influence in their 
 lives? In the typical city school, with its graduates 
 numbering hundreds, the problem of thus reaching the 
 individual graduate assumes serious proportions and 
 if a principal is to extend his influence in this direction 
 he must set about it deliberately and work system- 
 atically. His hit-or-miss efforts will undoubtedly 
 yield some return, but one meager in comparison with 
 that resulting from an expenditure of an equivalent 
 amount of time and energy in pursuance of a carefully 
 formulated plan. 
 
 My own effort to solve this problem, though limited 
 in its results when compared with ideal aims, has yield- 
 ed much in both sentimental return and practical use- 
 fulness. I believe that it is better that my interest in 
 a graduate's welfare should find definite expression 
 periodically though occasionally, than at such random 
 that he may or may not receive my attention according 
 to quite adventitious circumstances. Hence it is that 
 each of my alumni (over a thousand in number) re- 
 ceives from me a personal letter or greeting on each 
 of four consecutive birthdays, beginning with the 
 first after his graduation. 
 
 188 
 
THE ALUMNI 
 
 On the first occasion I write him a note more or less 
 in accordance with the following form: 
 
 DEAR JOHN: 
 
 If I am not mistaken, to-day is your birthday, and 
 I congratulate you upon the occasion. I hope you 
 still think of " Eighty-Five" and are bringing credit 
 to the school in your present career. I should be very 
 glad to receive a letter from you telling me what you 
 are doing, how you are getting on, and your plans for 
 the future. 
 
 Cordially yours, 
 (Signed). ' 
 
 John receives this by mail and recognizes it as a 
 birthday present of the kind for which we all have a 
 growing regard as we learn to value our gifts by other 
 than a dollars-and-cents measure. The expression of 
 my personal and official interest is to him unexpected 
 and pleasing. But better than this, it is frequently 
 effective as a stimulus to profitable introspection. It 
 may be that John has settled into a life of more or 
 less perfunctory service in a shop or office and his 
 interest in his work is at a standstill. The fact that 
 I have an interest in that work which I am willing to 
 turn out of my appointed way to express, is quite apt 
 to heighten his own respect not only for his work but 
 for himself. And then that word plans usually holds 
 him. Either he is dreaming dreams and is grateful 
 
 189 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 for the opportunity to interpret them to a sympa- 
 thetic listener, or perhaps he may not have realized 
 that a fifteen-year-old boy may treasure plans among 
 his heart's possessions. 
 
 The following excerpts from replies which I have 
 received serve as types of how "John" views my 
 interest in him and not neglecting the girls, for they 
 are not forgotten. 1 Many of these letters are so con- 
 fidential, and they all mean so much to me personally 
 that I should hesitate to publish them, even incog- 
 nito, were it not that I am insistent upon proving my 
 thesis that the time spent upon this correspondence is 
 very much worth while : 
 
 " Your very kind note, extending birthday greet- 
 ings, was a great pleasure to me, as well as to my 
 parents." 
 
 " Your kind letter was received yesterday and I 
 was very much pleased to hear from you. Accept my 
 sincerest thanks for your congratulations. Am also 
 pleased to know that I am still remembered in 
 'Eighty-Five' and very often think of it. ..." 
 
 " Now, you really cannot imagine how very much 
 pleased I was to find that you remembered me and 
 
 1 All the excerpts here given are verbatim quotations from 
 actual letters and, though small in number, have been selected 
 with the view of showing types by which the general tenor of the 
 responses may be estimated. 
 
 190 
 
THE ALUMNI 
 
 my birthday, and I hope I'll prove worthy of your 
 remembrance." 
 
 " I hardly think I can forget the good times I have 
 had in dear old 'Eighty-Five/ or the kind instruc- 
 tions from those in it. I went to business directly 
 after graduating .... I am at present in the em- 
 ploy of , from which I am obtaining plenty of 
 
 business experience." 
 
 " I think very often of ' Eighty-Five ' and would not 
 mind having my school days over again. ... I 
 
 work in the ribbon department of . Like many 
 
 other boys, I find that promotion does not come as I 
 would like, but by a little grit I hope to get advanced 
 and eventually become a salesman." 
 
 " I often think of the school where I received the 
 best part of my education. ... I am at present 
 employed in a good mercantile house. . . . My prog- 
 ress has been quite good for the time I have been in 
 the concern, and, picking up points now and then as 
 I have been doing, I think I shall some day become 
 a traveling salesman, which is my only plan at 
 present." 
 
 " I secured the position in ~. Next year I in- 
 tend to go to at night. My intentions are to be 
 
 a mechanical and electrical engineer. . . . Thanking 
 you for your most timely remembrance." 
 
 191 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 On the next birthday, I jot down and send a mere 
 memorandum, such as: 
 
 December 8, 1892 
 June, 1907 
 
 December 8, 1908 
 
 Congratulations! 
 (Signed) 
 
 The first date is that of John's birth; the second, of 
 his graduation; and the third, the current date. 
 This note serves as a birthday greeting and as a re- 
 minder of the first, and usually elicits a reply. Some 
 of these replies have been: 
 
 " Since your last letter I have graduated from the 
 
 High School, and am now in the Bank, 
 
 where I am starting at the bottom of the ladder to 
 learn the banking business thoroughly. I shall be 
 pleased to write you how I am progressing in my 
 work." 
 
 " After receiving your letter on my previous birth- 
 day, I hardly expected to be remembered this year, 
 and it was a very agreeable surprise, I assure you, to 
 receive your kind remembrance." 
 
 " I have received your congratulations and thank 
 you heartily for the same. School life has not ended 
 
 as yet, for I am now studying at , arid I hope to 
 
 193 
 
THE ALUMNI 
 
 be an illustrator some day. My health has not failed, 
 as I now weigh one hundred and forty-five pounds, 
 this being forty pounds more than when I graduated." 
 
 " Thank you very much for that kind reminder of 
 my debt to < Eighty-Five.' " 
 
 " I assure you I have not forgotten it by any 
 means, yet I am glad to have it recalled so vividly to 
 my mind." 
 
 On the third occasion I send a copy of the school 
 song with my autograph and the date, and receive 
 such responses as: 
 
 " I thank you very much for the little card you sent 
 me as it made me wish that I were back in school 
 again and also glad that after being out of school for 
 three years I am not forgotten. Those words ' When 
 school is o'er may we be true yet more and more/ 
 made me feel as though I could do anything for the 
 school. 
 
 ". . . So I made up my mind right there and then 
 that I was going to do something this year; that when 
 I give an account of my doings to you on my next 
 birthday there will be at least one thing among them 
 that you will approve." 
 
 On the fourth I write after this fashion: 
 
 Another birthday is here, and once again I send you 
 my sincere congratulations. This time I have to con- 
 fess that I am like "the old woman who lived in the 
 
 193 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 shoe." I find that it is impossible for me to keep up 
 writing to all my children, and so I am asking you to 
 accept with this letter my best wishes for all your 
 birthdays to come. Next year, and every other year, 
 too, when your birthday arrives, please write me a 
 letter telling of your progress during the year, remem- 
 bering that I have you on my mind and am always 
 interested in your welfare. 
 
 Cordially yours, 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 This usually receives attention even if there has been 
 a lapse in replying to the previous notes. I have had 
 such responses as: 
 
 " It is indeed kind of you to think of me on my eight- 
 eenth birthday, and I want you to accept my thanks. 
 I should say you were like the woman who lived in a 
 shoe and I don't see how you could think of us as often 
 as you did, 1 but never mind, we won't forget you nor 
 '85, at least I won't as long as I live." 
 
 " . . .it must keep you very busy remembering 
 them all. But I am afraid I don't like the idea of not 
 hearing from you any more. I have appreciated your 
 letters so much and wish you would find time to write 
 to me again." 
 
 " Your very kind and encouraging letter of the third 
 instant received and I must thank you for your wishes 
 
 1 I have never thought it necessary to explain to this graduate, 
 nor to others, my "system," which makes the result possible. 
 
 194 
 
THE ALUMNI 
 
 for my welfare. Words cannot express my gratitude 
 for this letter and for the many others of the past. I 
 will certainly accede to your wishes and advise you 
 from tine to time of my advancement." 
 
 " I thank you very much for your kind letter. I recog- 
 nized the writing immediately and even before open- 
 ing the letter, I wondered how many children you had 
 graduated. So I was not surprised to read that they 
 were getting too numerous. . . ." 
 
 " Of course I can appreciate how utterly impossible a 
 task it would be to continue the custom, since year by 
 year our ranks grow in numbers; yet, although I shall 
 have to forego this pleasure in the future, I shall deem 
 it a privilege, as you suggest, to write to you, confident 
 that my woes or joys, failures or success, shall be heard 
 by a sympathetic ear and receive such praise or counsel 
 as they merit." 
 
 " You seem to be in quite a predicament, but I hope 
 you will not find it necessary to treat your children as 
 that same ' old woman ' did .... 
 
 " I am sure that I owe a great deal to '85 and love it 
 more each year as I get older and realize a little more 
 of what it did for me. I hope always to do nothing of 
 which it might be ashamed . . . ." 
 
 "The twentieth anniversary of my birthday is before 
 me and it is a pleasure for me to write this annual let- 
 ter to you." 
 
 195 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 " Pursuant to your request of last year, that when my 
 birthday rolls around I should write you, I take great 
 pleasure in doing so. 
 
 " I missed your letter this year very much; but I 
 must also say that it surprised me that you could keep 
 up your custom for as long a time as you did. . . . " 
 
 I usually find time to send a brief acknowledgment 
 on a postal card of all letters received after I have 
 ceased to take the initiative. 
 
 The mechanics through which I carry out this plan 
 is as follows. I use an ordinary report book well bound 
 and containing some three hundred pages, in which I 
 make three records. The first fifty pages are devoted 
 to a list of the graduates by classes, a page or two to 
 each class. Next follows a chronological record, one 
 page to each two days of the year, thus: 
 
 APRIL 
 
 (05V06, 07, 08V) 
 
 27 89 John Peterson Jan. '04 80 Cooper 
 
 (07,vt,V 
 
 91 Fannie Hempstead June '05 122 Covert 
 
 (03,v / 04,v / 05,V06,V) 527 Hancock 
 
 28 87 Paul Hester Feb. '02 661 Buohwiok 
 
 (03,\/04,\/05 06ret) 
 88 Richard Smith June '04 1680 Evergreen 
 
 B. Geo. (08 
 
 91 Harriet Wilmer Jan. '07 87 Central 
 196 
 
THE ALUMNI 
 
 The explanation of these entries is: John Peterson 
 was born April 27, 1889, was graduated January, 1904, 
 and lives at 80 Cooper Street. I wrote him on April 
 27, in 1905, 1906, 1907, and 1908, and received replies 
 from him in 1905 and 1908. Similarly for the other 
 names. In the case of Paul Hester, in one of his re- 
 plies he has informed me of his change of residence to 
 527 Hancock Street. Richard Smith replied in 1903 
 and 1904, but not in 1905, and my 1906 letter was re- 
 turned to me by the post-office authorities as "Not 
 Found." Harriet Wilmer has a brother George, who 
 was graduated before she was, which I must remember 
 when I write her in order that my letter will vary 
 from that which I sent her brother. I also note 
 cases of death and marriage, with dates. 
 
 The last fifty pages are given to an alphabetical 
 
 list, thus: 
 
 A 
 
 Aa-Ag 
 
 Ah-An 
 
 Ackerman Peter Aug. 17 
 Abbey George Sep. 26 
 
 Stone Susan Mar. 18 
 
 Anderson Henry Feb. 8 
 Andrews Laura Jan. 26 
 
 The dates given are the birthdays, and so give a 
 reference directly to the previous record. Susan 
 Abbott married, and her married name is Stone; 
 she will also appear in this record under that name. 
 It may be that a card-catalogue record would be 
 197 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 even more convenient, though the book scheme in 
 use seems to meet the requirements quite satis- 
 factorily. 
 
 I keep letters written up sufficiently in advance 
 so that I am free to neglect this particular business 
 on any day when other matters would crowd it out. 
 On my desk memorandum are noted the names of 
 those to whom letters are to be sent each day, so that 
 the only attention required is to see that the letters 
 are mailed on the proper day. 
 
 Replies received are indorsed at the top with send- 
 er's name and birthday and year, and filed according 
 to date. They are thus available, chronologically, as 
 to any particular pupil, by means of reference to the 
 second record. 
 
 Perhaps the thought that is most likely to occur 
 regarding the scheme I have here described is that 
 it must take too large an expenditure of time. I am 
 safe in saying, however, that an average of ten 
 minutes a day more than covers the attention which 
 it demands, and I am convinced that there are few 
 more profitable ten-minute periods in my school day. 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 THERE are several reasons why special consideration 
 of adolescent girls at their critical periods is com- 
 monly neglected in the elementary schools. Chief 
 among them are: 1 
 
 1. It is generally regarded as a high-school problem 
 only. 
 
 2. Teachers are carelessly or ignorantly indifferent 
 to their duty in this regard. 
 
 3. The attendance record is overemphasized in 
 many schools and school systems. 
 
 4. Overconscientiousness and fidelity to school re- 
 quirements, one of the mental characteristics of ado- 
 lescence, leads many girls to neglect their physical 
 well-being. 
 
 5. There is a widespread conviction that the sub- 
 ject is a delicate one to discuss, and that consideration 
 of it would be resented by the public concerned. 
 
 1 In part restated from "The Management of a City School," 
 pp. 164, 165. 
 
 199 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 6. There is uncertainty as to how far the school 
 should go in recognition and solution of the problem. 
 
 As to each of these considerations in turn, I answer 
 as follows: 
 
 1. Any investigation of the facts shows that it is 
 not a high-school problem alone, but, to a very impor- 
 tant extent, one seriously demanding the attention 
 of the elementary school. 
 
 2. The indifference of teachers is not willful and 
 exists in consequence of ignorance and of loyalty to 
 conventional school traditions. 
 
 3. The attendance record is one of the conventional 
 school traditions, blindly worshiped as a special fea- 
 ture of the " system." 
 
 4. Girls may be brought to see that there is a truer 
 definition of Duty than the nearsighted one of 
 always doing the present work at whatever future 
 expense. 
 
 5. The delicacy referred to is essentially a false 
 one, and the public will not resent a sane recognition 
 of the problem by the school. 
 
 6. A few definite propositions as to the limitations 
 of the school may be established, and within these 
 limitations much positive good may be done. 
 
 These statements result from conservative generali- 
 zation based upon a review of five years' experience 
 in endeavoring to solve the general problem. I shall 
 
 200 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 first briefly recount that experience and then return 
 to these six statements to give them more detailed 
 and convincing support. 
 
 For a number of years my conviction had been 
 growing that the school shirks its plain duty when it 
 deliberately refuses to consider the patent fact that 
 hundreds of adolescent girls are forced through the 
 curriculum, in competition with boys, with utter dis- 
 regard of the consequences as related to their physical 
 well-being. Whatever may be said in favor of a 
 curriculum providing identical subject matter for both 
 boys and girls, no argument is needed to prove that 
 maturing girls should not be put through the work at 
 the same pace with the boys. It is probably true that 
 the preadolescent girl can pursue her school work 
 side by side with the boy without the slightest danger, 
 subject only to the ordinary variations in individuals, 
 which are unrelated to difference of sex. 
 
 But to the older girl is due special consideration; 
 first at the time when her maturity is establishing 
 itself, and then at her regular periods as they recur. 
 If this consideration is extended her and she is per- 
 mitted at these times to slacken her speed and inten- 
 sity as applied to the school work, under ordinary 
 circumstances she will more than make up the result- 
 ant loss by the renewed vigor of her normal atten- 
 tion to the work. If this consideration is withheld, 
 14 201 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 serious impairment of her physical self may follow, 
 and in a certain proportion of cases is sure to follow. 
 One may read Dr. Clarke's "Sex in Education" with 
 profit, without taking sides in the discussion of co- 
 education, which was so violently precipitated by the 
 publication of the book. Dr. Clarke's arraignment 
 of the school for its neglect of its girls may or may 
 not have been too strongly put, but that there is 
 neglect is not open to serious question. 
 
 But to determine that the school has a duty in this 
 respect is far from settling the question of what this 
 duty consists and how in actual practice it may be 
 performed. It is clear that each teacher of girls ought 
 to have an intelligent appreciation of the impor- 
 tance of modifying the effort required of a girl as 
 her physical condition may demand. We may, with- 
 out discussing the reasons therefor, confess that 
 very few teachers have such an appreciation. The 
 first duty then is to inform teachers on the subject. 
 Of course, if a girl's mother, on her part, is intelli- 
 gent and determined she will, if necessary, take the 
 law into her own hands and conserve her daughter's 
 health whatever the consequences to her school 
 record. But few mothers do this, which is due to a 
 lack of understanding, or of determination, or of 
 both. 
 
 Some mothers have a sympathetic and frank rela- 
 202 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 tionship with their daughters which 'is based on in- 
 telligence and in turn leads to further effective under- 
 standing. As to these, the school has merely the duty 
 of meeting them in a spirit of comprehension and co- 
 operation. But many mothers it is to be feared a 
 great majority of them are either diffident about thus 
 intruding into the daughter's personal life or are ig- 
 norant of the seriousness of the matter. As to these, 
 the school has the further duty of informing them and 
 of awakening them to a sense of their own obligations. 
 There is a work then to be done which shall bring the 
 mother and the teacher, who are both concerned with 
 the welfare of the same girl, into a position of mutual 
 understanding and intelligent and effective coopera- 
 tion. 
 
 To do this was the aim which I set for myself as 
 principal of a mixed school in which are enrolled over 
 one thousand girls. In furthering that aim I have been 
 fortunate in having women assistant principals of ex- 
 ceptional ability and devotion to the needs of the 
 school. Without such assistance, of course, a man 
 principal would be estopped from carrying out any 
 systematic plan of campaign along this line, but with 
 women of mature poise and tactful judgment, into 
 whose hands the details of such a plan can be placed 
 for execution, much good may be accomplished. In 
 five years three different assistants successively have 
 
 203 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 carried out my plan, with uniform tactfulness and 
 with continued success. 
 
 The first move was a campaign of education among 
 the teachers; every girls' teacher was invited to read 
 Dr. Clarke's book some other might have served just 
 as well, but that was at hand and seemed at the time 
 most valuable. The assistant next conferred with the 
 teachers, explaining our plan of action and particu- 
 larly impressing upon them the thought that the school 
 would hold them more responsible for considerate 
 treatment of their girls than for a perfect attendance 
 record. They were assured that a roll book which 
 showed periodic absence for some of the girls would be 
 given appreciative recognition and that no criticism 
 would be made of such record. They were further as- 
 sured that they were not expected by reason of this 
 new attitude toward legitimate absence, to overlook 
 or condone inexcusable neglect of school work. In 
 other words, "discipline" in its best sense, was not to 
 be impaired to the contrary, it would be strength- 
 ened, for it would be put upon an intelligent foot- 
 ing. 
 
 In order to reach the mothers, the assistant planned 
 a schedule of all but the youngest girls in the higher 
 grades and began to request the mothers of these girls, 
 a few each day to call at the school. These individual 
 conferences have continued ever since, with practi- 
 
 204 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 cally no modification of method, which consists in 
 making clear the following points: 
 
 (1) The mother is assured that the school wishes to 
 consider her daughter's health and cooperate with 
 the home in intelligently conserving it. By most par- 
 ents, as indeed by many school authorities, the school 
 is regarded as an institution concerned exclusively 
 with the training of the intellect, and it is assumed 
 that consideration of physical and moral welfare must 
 be subverted to intellectual progress. It is therefore 
 necessary in most cases to make very explicit the as- 
 surance that the school regards both the " marks" 
 which the girl gets in her studies and her record of at- 
 tendance of less consequence than the fulfillment of 
 her future happiness as a woman. There must be no 
 misunderstanding on this point. It is not that the 
 school wishes in any way to neglect the intellectual 
 training of its pupils, but that, to put it quite con- 
 cretely, it is more concerned with graduating a girl at 
 the age of fifteen with a record of " satisfactory " 
 in her lessons, knowing that her future physical and 
 mental integrity are guaranteed, than with graduat- 
 ing her at the age of fourteen with a record of " supe- 
 rior," if this is at the expense of normal health and 
 comfort in her adult life. If, as is quite possible in ex- 
 ceptional cases, she can graduate at the age of twelve 
 with a striking record, without having augmented her 
 
 205 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 chance of physical derangement, she must not be hin- 
 dered from doing so; but the fact that an occasional 
 girl can do this, does not warrant us in citing her as a 
 model for every other girl to emulate, regardless of 
 circumstances and consequences. 
 
 (2) The mother is questioned as to her daughter's 
 physical condition. This discovers the mother's own 
 attitude toward the subject. She may never have 
 given it a thought l and frankly says so. If this is the 
 case she is urged to consider its importance, to secure 
 her daughter's confidence, and to direct her daughter 
 wisely and sympathetically in all matters, physical 
 and moral, growing out of her adolescence. If she has 
 already established herself in this proper maternal re- 
 lation, she is quite ready to give the school the neces- 
 sary information which shall act as the guide to the 
 school attitude toward her daughter. If there has 
 been any functional disturbance which seems abnor- 
 mal, for which medical advice has not been had, the 
 mother is urged to consult the family physician with- 
 out delay. In addition to the direct subject of the in- 
 terview, it is possible in many cases to discuss other 
 
 1 The following reply from one of the mothers to whom the 
 usual request to call at the school had been sent, is an index to 
 the attitude of some: "Please excuse me for troubling you with 
 this writing. I received a card from school this morning for me 
 
 to come to school. I hope has not done anything wrong, if 
 
 she has I will punish her. ..." 
 
 206 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 matters bearing upon the health of the girl, such as 
 dress, late hours, dancing, etc. 
 
 (3) The mother is introduced to her daughter's 
 teacher and if there is anything unusual in the girl's 
 condition this is explained to her with instructions as 
 to what special consideration is to be shown to the 
 girl in the classroom. 
 
 (4) The mother is urged to give her daughter's 
 health prior consideration to her studies , she is urged 
 to keep the girl at home one or more days as neces- 
 sary during her catamenia, or if she is sufficiently 
 normal to send her to school, to direct her to inform 
 her teacher of her condition or to write for .her a pri- 
 vate note to the teacher to that effect. The teacher 
 is instructed that, upon receipt of this information, 
 she is to modify the strict requirements of the class 
 work in this case for the time being. 
 
 We have found the response to our efforts friendly 
 and interested and in many cases intensely apprecia- 
 tive. In not more than one- third of the cases have the 
 mothers failed to respond employment during the 
 day undoubtedly accounts for many of these. It may 
 be noted that our register of pupils is made up ra- 
 cially 1 as follows: American, 52 per cent, German, 22 
 
 1 Determined in accordance with the United States Immigra- 
 tion Commission standard, by race to which the father of the 
 pupil belongs. 
 
 207 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 per cent; Hebrew, 6 per cent; English, 3.7 per cent; 
 Irish, 3.2 per cent; balance, scattering. In general it 
 may be said that we note practically no difference in 
 attitude or degree of appreciation along racial lines. 
 
 In order to systematize the work a card-catalogue is 
 kept in which is entered for each girl, her name, class, 
 date of birth, date of interview with mother, date of 
 physical maturity, remarks as to special features of 
 the case. A study of these cards serves to indicate the 
 importance of the work, and citations by a very ran- 
 dom selection from these cards may throw such light 
 upon the problem as general statements fail to do. 
 
 CASE 1. Age, fifteen years, nine months; matured 
 at age of twelve; sometimes sick every three weeks. 
 
 CASE 2. Age, fourteen years, three months; ma- 
 tured at twelve; irregular; excessive, headaches, 
 studies hard, worries over work, does not go out 
 enough. 
 
 CASE 3. Age, fourteen years, eleven months; ma- 
 tured at twelve years, six months; delicate, weak 
 spine, under doctor's care. 
 
 CASE 4. Age, fourteen years, no months; not ma- 
 tured; ansemic, studies too hard, until six months ago 
 lived in country and rode mile to school on wheel; ar- 
 rangements made for half-day school attendance for 
 remainder of term. 
 
 CASE 5. Age, fourteen years, one month; not ma- 
 tured; perfectly well. 
 
 208 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 CASE 6. Age, thirteen years, eleven months; not 
 matured; mother's remark: "Oh, I wish every school 
 would do this!" 
 
 CASE 7. Age, fifteen years, no months; matured 
 at twelve years, six months; suffers a week. 
 
 CASE 8. Age, thirteen years, no months; not ma- 
 tured; no indications; school work not too hard. 
 
 CASE 9. Age, fifteen years, two months; matured 
 at fifteen; miserable for two years. 
 
 CASE 10. Age, fourteen years, eleven months; not 
 matured; perfectly well. 
 
 CASE 11. Age, thirteen years, eight months; ma- 
 tured at thirteen years, six months ; complains of head- 
 ache; too much home work; more outdoor exercise 
 recommended. 
 
 CASE 12. Age, fifteen years, nine months; matured 
 at fourteen; perfectly normal; does not complain of 
 school work. 
 
 CASE 13. Age, thirteen years, no months; matured 
 at twelve years, six months; perfectly normal. 
 
 CASE 14. Age, thirteen years, nine months; not 
 matured; probably coming on; headaches; dizzi- 
 ness. 
 
 CASE 15. Age, thirteen years, eight months; ma- 
 tured at twelve; pain; irregular. 
 
 CASE 16. Age, thirteen years, eleven months; ma- 
 tured at thirteen; painful; reads too much; not strong; 
 needs more exercise. 
 
 CASE 17. Age, twelve years, seven months; not ma- , 
 tured; tired feeling; headaches; nosebleed. 
 
 209 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 CASE 18. Age, twelve years, ten months; matured 
 at eleven years, six months; backache. 
 
 CASE 19. Age, fourteen years, four months; ma- 
 tured at twelve; drowsy; headaches; thinks teacher 
 does not like her. 
 
 CASE 20. Age, fourteen years, ten months; matured 
 at fourteen years, three months ; painful ; must remain 
 home at least one day; crying spells; morbid; wants to 
 leave school. 
 
 CASE 21. Age, twelve years, six months; matured 
 at twelve; miserable for two years; special arrange- 
 ment made regarding home study. 
 
 CASE 22. Age, fourteen years, two months; not ma- 
 tured; probably near; inherits nervousness and tend- 
 ency to epilepsy. 
 
 CASE 23. Age, sixteen years, three months; matured 
 at twelve years, four months ; backward in school ow- 
 ing to moving from city to city; studies all the time; 
 worries about work. 
 
 CASE 24. Age, fourteen years; not matured; studies 
 until head aches; averse to exercise; wants to read 
 all the time; sits up late; mother promises to see that 
 she has more sleep and exercise. 
 
 These cases, selected from hundreds, are sufficient 
 in number to indicate the serious responsibility which 
 the school assumes when it undertakes to administer 
 education in ignorance of the conditions disclosed by 
 this record. To continue administering thus in igno- 
 rance would seem reprehensible in the extreme. Think 
 
 210 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 of a class in which are included such extremes as CASE 
 2 and CASE 12, and consider both the great disadvan- 
 tage under which the teacher labors who is utterly ig- 
 norant of the difference existing between normality 
 and abnormality, and the great injustice which is done 
 to CASE 2 when her effort and proficiency are relent- 
 lessly measured by the same standard which is applied 
 to CASE 12. Consider the gain in efficiency of any class 
 when these injustices are eliminated and the standard 
 of management is shifted from the idea of "the girl 
 for the class " to that of " the class for theghi. " How 
 much more intelligently can the teacher treat CASE 3, 
 for instance, knowing that she is under the care of a 
 physician for spinal trouble ! How much wiser will be 
 the attitude of the teacher toward CASE 11 and CASE 
 5, when she learns that the former although only 
 thirteen years old, is already a woman, while the lat- 
 ter at fourteen is yet a girl ! How much more effective 
 will be the work of the teacher with CASE 19 when 
 she realizes that the girl thinks her "teacher does 
 not like her" and knows the physical basis for this 
 notion! 
 
 I return now to restate my .convictions in answer to 
 the six excuses originally advanced for neglecting this 
 problem. 
 
 1. When we consider that even in the twenty-four 
 cases cited, the age of maturity varied from eleven 
 
 211 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 years, six months, to fifteen years, and that the average 
 age of graduates is about fourteen years, six months, it 
 is clear that the problem is one which essentially and 
 primarily concerns the elementary school. Consider- 
 ate recognition of the problem must, of course, extend 
 into the secondary schools and the colleges, but with 
 that we are not here concerned. The responsibility of 
 the elementary school is especially acute because it is 
 while in attendance thereupon that the great majority 
 of girls establish their maturity establish it either 
 normally to. their future safety and happiness or 
 abnormally to their future misfortune and irremedi- 
 able suffering. 
 
 2. Every teacher worthy of a place in the school, 
 will respond sympathetically and intelligently, once 
 the importance of this problem is presented to her, 
 and will certainly take her part in the campaign of re- 
 form. Her enlistment cannot help but give to her 
 teaching a pedagogic value and an intelligent direction 
 which has previously been lacking. 
 
 3. A proper view of the attendance record is to be 
 obtained by thinking of school problems from the 
 child out and not from the system down. It is clearly 
 our business to consider the child first, last, and all the 
 time; when we have done that we may well show an 
 utter disregard of the statistical results. To promote 
 a certain orthodox per cent of pupils, to secure a cer- 
 
 212 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 tain perfection-approaching per cent of attendance, 
 to make the ratio of something to something else ap- 
 proach a shibbolethic norm all these ambitions are 
 the ambitions of the pedantic pedagogue, of the self- 
 seeking slave of the system, and must be eschewed by 
 the professional student of educational problems. Let 
 the roll book suffer and not the girl. 
 
 4. If the girl herself cannot comprehend that true 
 devotion to duty sometimes requires her apparent neg- 
 lect of the school tasks, then the school and the home 
 must restrain her against herself. The sex inheritance 
 of the girl is such as to make her more prone to err in 
 this way than does the boy. If a teacher of a mixed 
 class overestimates the ability of her pupils and assigns, 
 for instance, twice as much home study as any of them 
 can reasonably do, it is the girls who are the most like- 
 ly to suffer. The inheritance of the boy is a craving 
 for the open, for activity, for conflict. If the teacher 
 gives him such an amount of work as would interfere 
 with the business of his life, which he instinctively and 
 correctly infers is not grammar and algebra but growth 
 and action, he overrules the teacher and her error with- 
 out compunction, and follows the call of his instinct. 
 The adolescent girl overlays her impulse with devo- 
 tion, her whisper of rebellion with obedience to law 
 and custom, and blindly follows the teacher who per- 
 sonifies Duty. Needless to say that this summary is 
 
 213 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 stated in general terms, but the few exceptions either 
 way but serve to emphasize the rule. 
 
 5. The fear of public resentment is probably the 
 most potent factor in preventing teachers and princi- 
 pals from undertaking the serious duty which we have 
 been considering. Broach the subject in any quarter 
 and, even where recognition of the problem is un- 
 questioned, the invariable reply is: We do not dare. 
 I feel that the statement which I am about to make is 
 the most important contribution to the subject which 
 I have to offer. When starting the work I shared the 
 general feeling that we should have to face resentment 
 on the part of perhaps a large number of parents, and 
 I forewarned my assistant that, if she undertook the 
 work, she would have to be prepared to meet this re- 
 sentment with patience and resignation, pursuing her 
 way with the martyr's spirit and suffering rebuke for 
 the sake of the ultimate good which must surely come 
 of the work. My warning was absolutely unwarranted 
 by the subsequent events. Three women successively 
 have managed the work; naturally, though uniformly 
 devoted to the spirit of the undertaking the three differ 
 in personality, so that if resentment were the senti- 
 ment among the mothers of the district, it surely 
 would have evinced itself with one or the other of 
 these interviewers. They have met some mothers 
 who were ignorant and a few who were indifferent, but 
 
 214 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 in five years' time and in hundreds of cases, they have 
 had no single case of resentment shown by a mother. In 
 my judgment, this absolutely dismisses the question 
 of delicacy, and makes it inexcusable for us to neglect 
 our plain duty. 
 
 From time to time, feeling the public pulse, we have 
 written to some of the mothers in the following strain : 
 
 You will doubtless recall coming to the school on 
 ., 190_, upon our request, for a conference re- 
 
 garding your daughter 
 
 We are giving a considerable amount of time and 
 thought to this subject, and it would be of assistance 
 to us in formulating our plans for the future, if we 
 might have some expression of opinion from the 
 mothers who have cooperated with us. 
 
 May we trouble you to advise us as to your opinion 
 of the value of this work, as seen in the case of your 
 own daughter, or of others whom you may know. 
 
 To this request we have received many encouraging 
 replies, among them the following: 
 
 (1) Received your letter and in reply would say in 
 regard to the conference concerning my daughter, that 
 it is very valuable work and should be continued. 
 
 (2) I think the interest and time you have taken in 
 the health of maturing girls should be continued as I 
 do not think it is a loss of time. With my daughter 
 
 215 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 your plans have worked out with great success as her 
 health has improved greatly. 
 
 (3) In answer to yours of the sixteenth, asking for 
 an expression of my opinion concerning the course you 
 have taken in regard to the subject in question, I 
 would say that it meets with my heartiest approval, 
 and I think it both a necessary and praiseworthy 
 cause. I think every girl will be benefited by your 
 thoughtfulness. 
 
 (4) Your note of the sixth inst. was duly received 
 and I thank you for giving me the opportunity to ex- 
 press my opinion concerning your thoughtful interest 
 in connection with the health of maturing girls. 
 
 As a mother who has had three girls attend your 
 school from the beginning of their school career to 
 graduation to the high school, I can heartily indorse 
 your system which certainly should be continued. 
 
 (5) In reply to your letter I would state that the 
 stand you are taking in regard to the girls between the 
 ages of thirteen and sixteen is a very good one. I 
 found it so with my daughter. She was a very nerv- 
 ous and excitable child and I found as each month 
 came around she was more so. I kept her at home and 
 forbade all books and lessons and I think she was much 
 better for it. 
 
 (6) In reply to your letter of , I wish to say 
 
 that I think it a very wise plan. 
 
 216 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 As to my daughter, I am very sure that if her health 
 had not been considered, she would have been com- 
 pelled to give up her studies entirely and of course 
 lose her diploma which she now possesses and prizes 
 very highly. 
 
 Therefore I say again the good work should be kept 
 up if possible. Ever gratefully yours, 
 
 (7) I have so much gratitude in my heart to you 
 who have been so kind and thoughtful for my daugh- 
 ter's welfare, that I cannot let this time pass without 
 
 expressing my sincere thanks to you. is strong 
 
 and well, better than she has ever been, and it 
 is owing to your loving consideration for her health. 
 It is with regret that she leaves her teachers and I can 
 only hope that she will be as well cared for in the four 
 years to come in high school. 
 
 (8) I assure you we appreciate most thoroughly 
 your interest in the health and welfare of the growing 
 girls under your charge. Health is very important. 
 Your words aroused me to see the injury that might 
 be done by sending immature girls to school to drag 
 through weary hours. 
 
 (9) I received your letter of the and wish to 
 
 let you know that I think the cooperation of the par- 
 ents and the teachers is a very fine plan, as the best 
 results in work are thus obtained by a perfect under- 
 standing of the parents and teachers. The value of 
 this work is very great and be assured it has done 
 much for mine and many others. 
 
 15 217 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 (10) Answering your letter of , I am only too 
 
 pleased to give you my opinion on the subject of 
 which you write. 
 
 It is certainly a blessing to many girls who are at- 
 tending school that the teachers are giving so much 
 time and thought to the subject, as many mothers who 
 keep their daughters home unnecessarily at times, do 
 not think of letting them stay at home in such a case 
 where it is really for the girl's own future benefit. 
 
 This little conference with mothers I believe will in 
 the cases as above mentioned, remind them of their 
 duty, and in time we will have healthier girls than at 
 the present day. I do not think that it is because 
 mothers are neglectful in any way toward their 
 daughters, but because they do not realize that rest at 
 such a time means so much in after life. 
 
 Extending my best thanks to all the teachers en- 
 gaged in this work for their thoughtfulness, . . . 
 
 (11) I wish to say that in my opinion the method 
 you are pursuing in this relation deserves approval. 
 
 It gives to the teacher an acquaintance with the par- 
 ticular physical condition of each girl and also brings 
 to the attention of the parent the importance of study- 
 ing her daughter's bodily and mental welfare. 
 
 To my mind no general rule can be of value in a 
 matter like this, but each girl must be dealt with ac- 
 cording to the necessities of her own case and what 
 these may be can best be learned by a meeting of 
 mother and teacher. 
 
 218 
 
THE CARE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS 
 
 (12) I recall my visit to the school on of last 
 
 year. Too much time and thought I am sure cannot 
 be given to the subject you have under consideration. 
 Mothers are too prone to let the future take care of it- 
 self, with the result we know only too well, trusting to 
 Providence what they should do themselves. Several 
 cases have come under my personal observation which 
 strengthen my conclusion in this regard and in one 
 case the ending was sad indeed. 
 
 I am heartily in sympathy with your work. If the 
 mothers will not take it up at home, it is the province 
 of the state, through the schools, which have the care 
 of the girls for such a great part of their school life, to 
 do it. 
 
 6. A word or two as to the limitations of the work. 
 I understand that we have come far short of solving 
 the great problem of adolescence in the large. I realize 
 that there is an important problem presented by ado- 
 lescence of boys, but I share the sense of bafflement 
 under which educators all over the country are labor- 
 ing. I have nothing to offer toward the solution of 
 this phase of the problem. But what we have done 
 has been done through conscientious work by devoted 
 assistants and teachers, and done to some purpose and 
 with definite result. I believe that in this as in all 
 school difficulties, we should aim to solve completely 
 a limited phase of a problem rather than lightly to 
 touch upon the solution of the whole problem. Not 
 
 219 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
 
 too much has been nor should be attempted. Above 
 all, the school must at no point assume to replace the 
 physician, but it should cooperate with him and sup- 
 plement his work, and where necessary, lead to the 
 calling of his attention to cases requiring it. There 
 must be nothing melodramatic in our attitude; we 
 must not see difficulties where none exist, nor borrow 
 trouble, we must work quietly, tactfully, and dili- 
 gently and do thoroughly the work within the limits 
 set forth above. 
 
 A woman principal should have no difficulty in 
 carrying forward such systematic supervision as I 
 have indicated. A man principal should be so estab- 
 lished in a school that, working through competent 
 women assistants, he, too, may give the impetus to such 
 supervision. If he hesitates to discuss the subject, I 
 here respectfully offer the suggestion that he place 
 this chapter in the hands of his woman represent- 
 ative with the simple statement that he wishes her to 
 undertake the work outlined and that he will support 
 her in her efforts. 
 
INDEX 
 
 (Authorities cited are printed in SMALL CAPITALS) 
 
 Absence-record of girls, 204 
 Acquisition in composition, 83 
 Adolescent girls, care of, 199 
 Algebra applied to arithmetic 
 
 problems, 146 
 ALLYN AND BACON, 85 
 Altruism in society, 4 
 Alumni, the, 185 
 Analysis in grammar, 111 
 Arithmetic devices, 132 
 
 problems, use of color in, 172 
 ARNOLD, SARAH L., 93 
 Astronomy in the curriculum, 41 
 
 BAGLEY, WILLIAM C., 49, 133 
 Blackboard, use of the, 161 
 Boston, curriculum in, 37 
 BUTLER, NICHOLAS M., 33 
 
 California prize essays, 57 
 Capitalization rules, 105 
 Carelessness immoral, 67 
 CARPENTER, BAKER AND SCOTT, 
 
 87 
 
 CARPENTER, G. R., 89 
 Caste, natural, 11 
 Catalogue, museum, 178 
 Chalk, use of, 163 
 CHANCELLOR, WILLIAM E., 54 
 
 Chart, multiplication drill, 150 
 Chicago, curriculum in, 37 
 CHUBB, PERCIVAL, 81, 85 
 CLARKE, DR., 202 
 College influence on elementary 
 
 schools, 10 
 
 Colored chalk, use of, 170 
 Commercial schools, 24 
 Composition in upper grades, 81 
 Compulsory education, 6 
 Conduct, threefold basis of, 58 
 Content and form studies, 38 
 Culture and utility subjects, 48 
 Curriculum, the, 36 
 and moral training, 65 
 the same for boys and girls, 
 201 
 
 Democracy in our high school, 
 17 
 
 our peculiar concept of, 11, 15 
 DEXTER, EDWIN GRANT, 7, 36 
 DICKENS, CHARLES, 49 
 Discipline cases and alumni in- 
 terest, 187 
 
 the pedagogue's term, 34 
 DRAPER, ANDREW S., 12 
 Drill and moral virtue, 70 
 
 cards in arithmetic, 133 
 
 221 
 
INDEX 
 
 Drill, insufficient, 50 
 Duty, education as a, 4 
 the girl's devotion to, 213 
 
 Education as duty and privi- 
 lege, 4 
 
 compulsory, 5 
 
 for leadership, 5 
 
 state control of, 3 
 Educational ladder, 21 
 Egoism in society, 4 
 Einheitsschule, the, 9 
 Elementary organization in 
 America, 7 
 
 France, 8 
 
 Germany, 8 
 ELIOT, DR., 7 
 EMERSON, ALBERT W., 88 
 EMERSON-BENDER, 85 
 English history facts, 127 
 
 in upper grades, 81 
 Enriched curriculum, 40 
 Equal educational opportuni- 
 ties, 27 
 
 ESPENSHADE, A. HOWRY, 88 
 
 Essentials, the, 38, 46 
 Experiment station, the school 
 
 an, 78 
 Expression in composition, 88 
 
 Fads, 43 
 
 Fagin, the pedagogue, 49 
 
 FARRINGTON, FREDERIC ERNEST, 
 
 9, 177 
 
 Fee, tuition, 17 
 Financial basis of curriculum, 
 
 44 
 Form and content studies, 38 
 
 Formal compositions, 91 
 FOSTER, WILLIAM TRUFANT, 85 
 France, compulsory education 
 
 in, 6 
 
 school organization in, 8 
 Fundamental operations in arith- 
 metic, 132, 145 
 
 GARDINER, J. H., 84, 85 
 Germany, compulsory education 
 
 in, 6 
 
 gymnasial practice in, 29 
 pupils in the Volksschule, 16 
 school organization in, 8 
 GILBERT-HARRIS, 88 
 Girls, care of adolescent, 199 
 Grammar, analysis in, 111 
 use of color in teaching, 175 
 
 Habit building, 49, 133 
 
 HANUS, PAUL H., 56 
 
 High school, democracy in our, 
 
 17 
 
 Higher schools in Germany, 8 
 HILL, ADAMS SHERMAN, 86, 89 
 HINSDALE, B. A., 92 
 History facts, 118 
 HUGHES AND KLEMM, 33 
 HUGHES, R. E., 9 
 Huxley's educational ladder, 21 
 Hygiene Association, American 
 
 School, 32 
 
 Ideal must have value, 70 
 Idealist, the principal a practi- 
 cal, 78 
 
 Ideals and interest, 68 
 Impoverishment, danger of, 43 
 
INDEX 
 
 Informal compositions, 89 
 Interest and moral training, 68 
 
 Jack of all subjects, 43 
 JOHNSON, CHARLES F., 85, 87 
 JOHNSON, ROSSITER, 89 
 Judgment and memory, 118, 132 
 
 Kansas City, curriculum in, 37 
 KELLOGG, BRAINERD, 88 
 Kindergarten and moral train- 
 ing, 71 
 KLEMM, DR., 177 
 
 Ladder, Huxley's educational, 21 
 Leadership, education for, 5 
 Leisure, the school as, 53 
 Lettering on blackboard, 168 
 Longitude and time, 156 
 
 Machine, defective school, 63 
 Management, problems in, 177 
 " Marks" and health of girls, 205 
 Maturity, age of, 211 
 Memory and judgment, 118, 132 
 Mensuration of the trapezoid, 
 
 154 
 
 Method, problems in, 81 
 Model composition, 86 
 Moral perfection expected, 59 
 training, 57 
 and drill, 70 
 interest, 68 
 the curriculum, 65 
 kindergarten, 71 
 time schedule, 67 
 Multiplication drill chart, 150 
 Museum, school, 177 
 
 National Educational Associa- 
 tion, 27 
 New York curriculum, 37, 39 
 
 Opportunities, equal education- 
 al, 27 
 
 Organic structure, the, 3 
 Organization in composition, 85 
 
 Paragraphs, 87 
 
 Parsing, 112 
 
 PAYNE, BRUCE RYBURN, 32, 36, 
 
 38, 39, 40 
 
 Perfection, moral, in children, 59 
 PERRY, FRANCES M., 85 
 Physical education, 31 
 Principal a practical idealist, 78 
 Privilege, education as a, 4 
 Promotion of the unprepared 
 
 pupils, 50 
 Punctuation rules, 101 
 
 Reading and thinking, 82 
 Reorganization of American 
 
 schools, 18 
 Retardation, 63 
 Rhetorical unity, rules for, 86 
 
 ROBBINS-ROWE, 86 
 
 Routes and speeds on education- 
 al rails, 29 
 RUGH, C. E., 57 
 
 St. Louis, curriculum in, 37 
 San Francisco, curriculum in, 37 
 SANTAYANA, PROFESSOR, 53 
 Scheduled, the American child, 
 
 19 
 School museum, 177 
 
 223 
 
INDEX 
 
 SCOTT-DENNEY, 85 
 SCOTT-SOUTHWORTH, 85 
 Self-preservation, 3 
 Sex inheritance, 213 
 SHORTER, EDWIN DuBois, 91 
 State support of education, 3 
 Structure, the organic, 3 
 Sweden, compulsory education 
 in, 6 
 
 TAYLOR, JOSEPH S., 81 
 Thinking and reading, 82 
 Time schedule and moral train- 
 ing, 67 
 
 Trapezoid, mensuration of the, 
 
 154 
 Tuition fee, 17 
 
 United States history facts, 121 
 Utilitarian aim in education, 38 
 Utility and culture subjects, 48 
 
 Voice, use of the, 162 
 Volksschule, the, 8 
 
 Wage-earner, the moderate, 20 
 WENDELL, BARRETT, 72, 87, 89 
 
 WlNTERBURN, ROSA V., 88 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 (1) 
 
rannnwrrr OP CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 THIS BOOK is DU LAST DATE 
 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 JUL 31 1915 
 
 
 OUL 15 1927 
 
 BOw i.'ir, 
 
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