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 ATIO 
 OF OUR. SCHOOL I 
 
 1 1 lUlllii lilill ill 1 
 
 FREDERIC W.SANDERS 
 
 !l|l!)l 
 
 ;i;i!i.;i!' r
 
 Sanders - 
 
 Southern Branch 
 of the 
 
 University of California 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 Form L I
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 5 192ft 
 
 JUL 1 S ib2i 
 
 APR 1 8 1929 
 '^'A^ 17 J929 
 
 JUL : 
 DEC U ^9^^ 
 NOV 6 1958 
 
 -15»n-8,'24
 
 THE 
 
 REORGANIZATION OF OUR 
 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 SOME EDUCATIONAL POSTULATES 
 
 AND 
 
 PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS AS TO THE 
 ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOLS 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERIC W. SANDERS, A. M. (Harvard), Ph. D. (Chicago) 
 
 Sometime Member of the Territorial Board of Education of New Mexico, President of 
 the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Principal of the Lincoln 
 (Neb.) High School, Assistant Professor of Pedagogy in West Virginia University, 
 Lecturer on Social Economics and Education for the University of Chicago, Honorary 
 Fellow at Clark University, University Fellow in Sociology at Columbia University, 
 etc. 
 
 THE PALMER COMPANY 
 BOSTON 
 
 66060
 
 Copyright 1915 
 
 BY 
 
 The Palmer Company 
 
 Newcomb & Gauss, Printers, 
 Salem, Mass.
 
 30.\ \ 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S FELLOW WORKERS IN EDUCATION 
 
 but especially to 
 
 JOHN DEWEY 
 
 a social philosopher 
 
 with the scientist's (leterniination to test his theories; in 
 
 whose Chicago Elementary School the author first 
 
 saw what interest could do for cultural 
 
 development and practical efficiency^ 
 
 G. STANLEY HALL 
 genetic psychologist 
 tvhose great idea, richly stored ynind, and fecund imagina- 
 tion have made him the most inspiring and sug- 
 gestive of teachers 
 and 
 
 JOHN H. FRANCIS 
 
 practical idealist 
 
 with the vision of the school as a microcosm in which the 
 
 child shall find the man he should be, and with 
 
 the determination to realize that vision 
 
 ^t)t0 Boofc 10 SDedtcateti
 
 PREFACE 
 
 If the author has read aright the signs of the 
 times, as they appear in educational conferences and 
 in popular discussions, there is now a really urgent 
 demand for practical and reasonably definite sug- 
 gestions as to the reorganization of our schools. 
 There is especial need for a definite plan that shall 
 show how to retain that luhich is essential to the 
 general education of every future man and woman, 
 at the same time that a place is found for the. vari- 
 ous forms of special, technical or other vocational 
 training that may he necessary for the individual 
 hoy or girl. 
 
 A year spent in studying not merely the schools, 
 but the economic, political and social conditions 
 underlying and overlying the school system of Ger- 
 many has convinced the author that Europe at its 
 best has not found a solution for the most pressing of 
 our educational problems. The first problem for 
 our educators to solve is that suggested at the close 
 of the preceding paragraph; a problem that is all 
 the more serious because the ardent advocates of 
 general culture, on the one hand, and of practical 
 efficiency, on the other, alike refuse to face it, while 
 the practical schoolmen of our own country, fol- 
 lowing the lead of Europe, seem generally to think 
 that they have disposed of the difficulty when they
 
 VI PEEFACE 
 
 can say that their schools are prepared to give either 
 general culture or technical training, or, in some 
 cases, will give a mixture of both in such proportions 
 as the pupil or his parents may elect, — thus reliev- 
 ing the educator of his special duty to society and to 
 youth, by unloading his most weighty responsibility 
 on to the shoulders of the ignorant boy or girl or of a 
 parent that may be no less ignorant. 
 
 Deeply impressed by this social problem of the 
 educator, and hardly less so by the psychological 
 problem of how to plan the ivorh of the school to 
 meet and make the most of the several stages of the 
 young being's physical and mental development as he 
 passes from early childhood to late adolescence, the 
 author, on his return from Europe, sought to with- 
 draw wholly from the field of "higher" and "normal" 
 education, and to obtain a position in which he 
 could work directly at the problems of elementary 
 and secondary education. During four years as 
 principal of the high school of l^ebraska's capital 
 and educational center he was enabled to put to the 
 test much of that which is suggested in the following 
 pages for the "secondary transition" (or intermedi- 
 ate) department and for the "adolescent" depart- 
 ment (or high school proper). He has not yet been 
 able to make the same rigorous test, under his own 
 direction, of the whole of that which relates to the 
 play school, primary transition department, and the 
 elementary department (or "grammar school", as it 
 is called in many of our cities), although much of
 
 PKEFACE Vll 
 
 this he has observed in successful operation in one 
 school or another in America or Europe. A great 
 part of what is here suggested has been presented to 
 bodies of teachers and school administrators in dif- 
 ferent parts of the United States, and practically all 
 of it has been presented in the form of lectures to 
 the summer school of the University of N^ebraska 
 and to the pedagogical department of Clark Univer- 
 sity. The reception accorded it in the limited fields 
 indicated and the comments of able, practical educa- 
 tors has encouraged the writer to believe that the 
 time is ripe for the publication of this essay in educa- 
 tional organization. 
 
 While the purpose of the author's work is prima- 
 rily practical, yet he is unwilling to put it forth 
 without a brief presentation of the educational phi- 
 losophy underlying it, and he trusts that the eight 
 postulates preceding the plan of organization will 
 not be thought to detract from the practical nature 
 of the work. While a few ultra-practical school- 
 men might be better pleased if this introduction 
 were omitted, the author is reasonably confident that 
 the greater number of school administrators and 
 teachers will feel that the preliminary theses add 
 to the value of the work, and of course they will 
 make it more available as a basis for reading-circle 
 work and normal-school discussion. 
 
 F. W. S. 
 Los Angeles, California.
 
 SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS 
 
 Postulates 
 
 I. Purpose of education to enable members of society to 
 attain highest possible development page 1 
 
 Corollaries la page 1 
 
 & page 1 
 
 2 page 1 
 
 Remarks in elucidation of postulate page 2 
 
 II. The human being a psycho-physical unit page 6 
 Eemarks page 6 
 
 III. Three stages of individual development and two 
 transitional periods, of great significance for the organ- 
 ization of education page 7 
 Remarks page 9 
 
 IV. Correspondence between development of race and of 
 individual significant for education page 10 
 Remarks page 10 
 
 V. Education should be influenced, but not dominated, 
 by the inherent tendencies of developing youth, page 11 
 Eemarks page 13 
 
 VI. In education the policy of the open door should be 
 maintained page 16 
 Eemarks page 16 
 
 VII. The best education is the most economical, page 17 
 Remarks page 17 
 
 VIII. Now is the time for practical reforms in the 
 school page 18 
 Remarks page 18 
 
 Practical Suggestions 
 
 I. General Plan of Organizing Schools, with the psycho- 
 physical development as the basis of classification, with 
 constant opportunity for readjustment, with a mini- 
 mum of work for the less gifted, with much individual 
 work within the classes, and with the possibility for 
 outside w^ork in cultivation of a special interest through- 
 out the school course page 19
 
 X SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS 
 
 §1. In general V^ge 19 
 
 §2. Economy of this Plan Compared with the Plan 
 Usually Followed page 22 
 
 §3. Enfranchisement and Stimulation of the Elemen- 
 tary School Teacher, not bound to an iron schedule 
 for an arbitrary period, with uniform results for all 
 pupils, but entrusted with the guidance of the devel- 
 opment of a group of children throughout a natural 
 period of their psycho-physical development, page 25 
 §4. Benefits to Different Classes of Pupils page 30 
 
 §5. No Exceptional Demands upon Teacher, expert 
 supervision being assumed page 37 
 
 §6. Plan to be considered with reference to the con- 
 tent of the curriculum, etc., of the several depart- 
 ments of the school page 43 
 
 IT. Scope of the Several Departments of the School 
 
 §1. The Play School page 43 
 
 §2. The Primary Transition Department page 52 
 
 §3. The Elementary Department 
 
 A. General view page 53 
 
 B. Curriculum 
 
 1. Beckoning and Mathematics page 54 
 
 2. Language page 56 
 
 3. Economic and cultural development of man- 
 kind, or History page 58 
 
 4. Geography (connecting 3 and 5) page 59 
 
 5. Nature Study, or Elementary Science, page 60 
 
 6. (a) Art and (6) Manual Training page 60 
 
 7. Physical Culture page 61 
 
 C. Usual Daily Program : Discussion page 61 
 Table page 68 
 
 §4. Secondary Transition Department 
 
 A. General View page 69 
 
 B. Curriculum 
 
 1. Required Courses 
 a. Science pa-ge 75 
 
 6. History (and Government) pa^ge 81
 
 SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS XI 
 
 e. Literature and Esthetics page 84 
 
 d. Physical Culture page 90 
 
 e. Art page 90 
 
 2. Elective Courses (either practical or cultural) 
 
 page 91 
 
 3. Optional Course page 91 
 C. Daily Program page 91 
 
 S5. Secondary Department, or Adolescent Depart- 
 ment 
 
 A. General View page 93 
 
 B. First Year's Work 
 
 1. English page 94 
 
 2. History page 94 
 
 3. Laboratory Course in Science page 95 
 4 and 5. Physical Culture and Art page 96 
 6. Elective Work (vocational or cultural) page 96 
 
 page 96 
 
 C. After the First Year page 99 
 
 ITI. Adaptation of Plan to Several Classes of Young Peo- 
 ple 
 
 §1, Girls page 104 
 
 §2. The Normal Child 
 
 In the Play School page 107 
 
 In the Primary Transition Department page 107 
 
 In the Elementary Department page 110 
 
 In the Secondary Transition Department page 110 
 
 In the Adolescent Department page 110 
 
 §3. The Child of Slow Development page 113 
 
 §4. The Precocious Child page 115 
 
 §5. The Young Person Who Enters School Very Late 
 
 page 116 
 §6. The Industrial Worker and the Evening School 
 
 page 119
 
 The Reorganization of Our Schools 
 
 POSTULATES 
 
 I. The purpose of education is to assist the indi- 
 vidual to make the most of himself, and thus do 
 most for others; to enable him to grow into the 
 largest life possible for one having so rich an en- 
 dowment as that with which he is provided at 
 birth. 
 
 C orollaries of this truth are : 
 
 la. The child himself must be studied in order 
 that education may fit his needs and adapt it- 
 self to his several stages of development, 
 b. Since, at any given stage of its development, 
 the being that is, is the outcome of the develop- 
 ment of an earlier stage of life, and as long as 
 its development is incomplete its present condi- 
 tion must be considered with reference to the 
 later stages through which it is to pass, it fol- 
 lows that, to interpret aright the life of the in- 
 dividual child of today, we must study his past 
 and that of the ancestral forms of life out of 
 which his has developed, and we must consider 
 also all that is known of the later stages of de- 
 velopment of similar beings. 
 2. Information, carefully prepared, must be 
 given to the child, in addition to whatever else
 
 2 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 may be done for him in the effort to provide 
 him with a suitable environment for such a de- 
 velopment of all the nascent powers of mind 
 and body as will most enlarge his life. Because 
 as far as possible every individual of each suc- 
 ceeding generation should be given the vantage 
 ground afforded by a general knowledge of what 
 has so far been achieved by any of the human 
 race, a very important part of the business of the 
 educator is to summarize what men have so far 
 learned in art and science and philosophy, and 
 to impart a knowledge of the principal results 
 of these achievemejits of mankind to the indi- 
 viduals of the rising generation, even though it 
 may be impossible to explain to the greater 
 number of the latter how these facts and truths 
 were first brought to light. 
 Remarks in elucidation of the postulate: — To 
 speak somewhat more in detail, although it may be 
 difficult to make the necessary distinctions as clearly 
 as they ought to be made, we should, I think, recog- 
 nize that the purpose of education is neither, on the 
 one hand, to make the individual life an ideal one, 
 in the sense of bringing it into conformity with an 
 a priori ideal having a definite content, nor, on the 
 other hand, to fit the individual to play a prescribed 
 part in that particular organization of society into 
 which he happens to be born. Such educational 
 ideals are too static. The one assumes that we al- 
 ready know the content of perfection of life; the
 
 THE EEORGAXIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 6 
 
 other, that the present organization of society is a 
 final form to which not alone the present life of the 
 individual, but that of all future individuals, must 
 be conformed. 
 
 It does not seem to me safe to assume that fitness 
 for one's immediately present environment is the 
 norm by which to judge of human progress or of 
 height and completeness of development in general. 
 The degenerate, sightless and limbless parasite prob- 
 ably has such fitness in the highest degTee ; but with 
 this perfect adaptation to its narrow special environ- 
 ment the power of adaptation to a larger and more 
 varied environment is gone. The educator's work 
 should no more be determined by a narrow interpre- 
 tation of the theory of evolution by natural selection 
 than it should be prescribed by a traditional or a 
 purely metaphysical ideal of a perfect life. "What 
 seems to be desirable is whf.t might be called a 
 rational opportmiis n, the application of enlightened 
 common sense to the preservation of a sort of mov- 
 ing equilibrium. Xot less truly a part of man's 
 nature than his inherited instincts is the highly de- 
 veloped reason by which he is enabled not alone to 
 adapt his conduct to quite new experiences, but also 
 to learn things not immediately necessary for his 
 next step in life ; and, as a result of this, to modify 
 his immediate environment or to pass from it into 
 one that his cultivated insight leads him to believe 
 will make possible for him a larger life, i. e., one 
 that may be less in harmony with that immediate
 
 4 THE REOKGANIZATIOX OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 environment in wliich lie was born, but that will be 
 in more perfect harmony with the universal and ap- 
 parently unalterable habits of the Universe at large, 
 so far as he has learned them, and that will thus, by 
 reason of a more perfect unity between his individual 
 life and the universal existence, give him the largest, 
 the most divine life possible for man. 
 
 Studying the phenomena of life in the full light of 
 instinctive and rational experience, we cannot but 
 learn much as to the conditions of a satisfactory 
 life ; and each one of us, whether as private individ- 
 ual or as teacher, is answerable to society as well as 
 to his own conscience for the application of what he 
 thus learns. To me personally, it seems that such a 
 study of life, of nature, human and non-human, 
 makes it evident that human happiness is the ideal 
 for human effort, and that the greatest happiness, 
 quantitatively considered (if that conception be legit- 
 imate), not alone for the race at large, but also tor 
 the individual, is also the highest happiness, ethical- 
 ly considered ; that, in other words, our happiness is 
 measured by the largeness of our love, and this means 
 the breadth of our sympathies, which in turn is de- 
 pendent upon the widest possible extent of knowl- 
 edge, requiring the fullest possible symmetrical 
 development of the potentialities of our natiirc, 
 psychical and physical. The largest possible devel- 
 opment of our nature does not mean the fullest pos- 
 sible development of each individual tendency that 
 exists in a human being, each trait being considerevi
 
 THE KEORGAXIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 5 
 
 by itself; for the greatest possible development of 
 any one trait, either physical or mental, would 
 doubtless mean a corresponding suppression of many 
 others: but the largest possible development of the 
 whole nature requires the maintenance of a certain 
 symmetry and proportion in the cultivation of our 
 special instincts and abilities. Only so great a de- 
 velopment of each of these is normally desirable, as 
 is consistent with the largest possible development of 
 the iL'hoIe nature. It seems to me that this principle, 
 administered in the light of experience and reason, 
 is quite satisfactory. It is true that the recognition 
 of this principle makes restraint as well as encour- 
 agement a part of the work of education, and leaves 
 it to the educator's discretion, in the light of his 
 whole experience, emotional, instinctive and rational, 
 to determine when and where to apply the brake 
 and when and where to encotirage the child's im- 
 pulses. But, that science or philosophy should be 
 expected to give us an unerring rule providing 
 specifically for every detail, and informing us in 
 advance just exactly to what extent we should en- 
 courage and to what extent restrain the several nat- 
 ural tendencies of each individual, seems to me as 
 childish as to demand the moon for a plaything. He 
 who expects from the study of nature, of evolution, 
 of the spontaneotis activity of the universe, to derive 
 such a formula, has profited very little from the hard 
 won knowledge man has so far gained of the consti- 
 tution of the universe: for that knowledge points to
 
 G THE REORGANIZATIOX OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 the truth that "eternal vigilance is the price of lib- 
 erty," or, in other words, that in the evolution of 
 humanity man's reason as well as his instincts have 
 been developed, and that he must use the former 
 continually, as well as the latter, to adjust his own 
 adult life and the life of his offspring to, and to keep 
 them in adjustment with, the environment formed 
 by the complex universal existence of which these 
 individual human lives are a part. 
 II. The human being is a psycho-physical unit in 
 which the association of mind with body is so 
 intimate, the connection so close, that neither can 
 be acted upon independently of the other : physical 
 changes involve mental changes ; physical culture 
 involves the cultivation of certain mental states ; 
 and mental, moral and spiritual development or?, 
 possible only through the exercise of physical 
 powers. 
 
 Remarks: — ^^Vhile it is true that one may culti- 
 vate certain physical powers to an extent prejudicial 
 to certain of the higher psychical powers, or' certain 
 psychical powers in such a way as to neglect and in- 
 jure many physical powers, — just as one may culti- 
 vate one physical power to the prejudice of another 
 physical power, or one kind of psychical activity 
 to the prejudices of other kinds of psychical activity, 
 — yet in general the highest human development is 
 dependent upon the symmetrical development of 
 mind and body, a high degree of perfection in the 
 former being dependent upon the most perfect and
 
 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 7 
 
 symmetrical development of the latter ; so that even 
 if the development of our bodily powers, if physical 
 culture were not in and for itself a highly desirable 
 end of education (which, however, it is), it would 
 still be the necessary concern of the educator as a 
 sine qua non for the best mental deA'elopment. 
 
 In this connection it is pertinent to quote two 
 statements that have been forcefully put by Mr. 
 Cephas Guillet in his article on "Recapitulation and 
 Education" in volume VII of the Pedagogical Sem- 
 inary. The first is certainly suggestive even if its 
 truth has not yet been perfectly established ; and the 
 second seems to me, at least, to be as certain as any 
 truth can be that is neither given us by intuition (as 
 is the fact of self-existence) nor capable of a mathe- 
 matical demonstration. On page 429 jMr. Guillet 
 says that "Biology teaches us that it is the over- 
 specialized species that have always succumbed in the 
 struggle. ]\[an owes his preeminence to the fact that 
 he is born an immature and generalized form and 
 long retains this condition of plasticity." The other 
 statement (on page 433) is that "Every part of the 
 living body is also in effect part of the soul, and the 
 atrophy of any part of the body involves the partial 
 paralysis of the soul." 
 
 III. It is of great significance in education that the 
 study of human beings at different stages of de- 
 velopment has made evident not only that (a) 
 individuals differ greatly in various psychic 
 and physical particulars and capacities, but that
 
 8 THE KEOECJANIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 (h) the same individual differs greatly at dif- 
 ferent stages of natural development, and that 
 (c) notwithstanding the individual peculiarities 
 there is a general likeness in the mental and 
 bodily powers of all normal members of the 
 same race at corresponding stages of develop- 
 ment, and that, finally, tJie?'e are at least 
 three fairly ivell marked stages of ysyclio- 
 physical development falling ivitJiin the com- 
 monly recognized periods of systematic school 
 education, separated hy two transition periods, 
 which stages of development are so distinct as 
 to suggest that they should he made the bases 
 of the organization and grading of our school 
 system. 
 These stages of psycho-phvsical development are : — 
 
 A. The period of quite rapid growth prior to the 
 "second dentition" and the approximate com- 
 pletion of the growth of the brain in bulk — 
 which might be designated as the period of 
 childhood proper, 
 
 a. The transition period of retarded growth and 
 comparative delicacy, at the time of the 
 "second dentition", most marked generally 
 in American children about the eighth year. 
 
 B. The period of slow but steady growth, follow- 
 ing the establishment of a new equilibrium 
 after the completion of the transition period 
 just mentioned, and lasting until puberty. 
 Thia appears to be a period especially favor-
 
 THE EEORGAlSriZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 9 
 
 able to the establishment of useful automa- 
 tisms, and might be designated as the period 
 of boyhood and girlhood proper. 
 h. The critical transition period of pubescence, 
 said to come generally in the United States 
 in the case of girls about the fourteenth year, 
 and in the case of boys about a year later. 
 C. The period of adolescence proper. 
 Remarks: It would perhaps be well for the edu- 
 cator to regard the year in which puberty is actually 
 attained and the year or two immediately following 
 as constituting a special stage of development, differ- 
 ing considerably from that of later adolescence, as 
 well as differing radically from that of boyhood or 
 girlhood preceding it. This stage is unquestionably 
 the most critical stage of human development with 
 which the teacher has to deal. 
 
 It seems hardly necessary to add that no one 
 maintains that these periods are marked off by per- 
 fectly sharp lines ; it is not maintained, for example, 
 that the general state of mind and body of a girl 
 during the few months immediately preceding her 
 first menstrual discharge is less like the mental and 
 physical state of the same girl three months after the 
 first catamenia than it is like her psycho-physical 
 condition on her tenth birthday. Nevertheless, al- 
 though the boundaries are not sharp, the stages are 
 fairly distinct and of great significance ; and it is 
 well to notice that under our present system of pub- 
 lic school organization in the United States the three
 
 10 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 stages of development above referred to as (1) 
 cliildhood proper, (2) boyhood and girlhood proper, 
 and (3) adolescence, correspond roughly to the pri- 
 mary school, the ''grammar", or intermediate school, 
 and the high school. But unfortunately the corre- 
 spondence is only roughly approximated, and to say 
 nothing of the lack of any clear line of distinction in 
 method between the instruction in the kindergarten 
 and primary school, on the one hand, and that in the 
 upper, or "grammar school'' grades, on the other (the 
 division in fact coming rather between the kinder- 
 garten, where there is one, on the one hand, and the 
 primary and gi'ammar grades together, on the other), 
 it is a patent (and I think a very unfortunate) fact 
 that the higher grammar-school grades deal chiefly 
 with adolescents, 
 
 IV. The comparative study of the mental and phys- 
 ical development of men and of sub-human 
 animals, of races and of individuals, in the 
 light of the doctrine of evolution, has sug- 
 gested certain interesting truths as to the 
 meanings of mental and physical phenomena, 
 which it is foolish to ignore, even though it be 
 granted that these suggested probabilities have 
 not yet been demonstrated to be true. 
 RemarJcs: It is not only unwise to ignore the 
 possibility that there may be great significance in 
 some of the correspondences hetvjeen the develop- 
 ment of the race and that of the individual, but it is 
 silly to assume (as has been assumed by one or more
 
 THE KEORGANIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 11 
 
 writers) that if these correspondences be significant 
 it is incumbent upon us to read them in only one 
 way, and to interpret the development of the race 
 in the light of that of the individual, but not the de- 
 velopment of the individual in the light of that of 
 the race. If the correspondences are significant, we 
 can not only learn something as to the development 
 of the race from that of the individual, but also 
 something as to the development of the individual 
 from our (admittedly imperfect) knowledge of the 
 development of the race. Even though an enthusias- 
 tic student of genetic psychology may sometimes ask 
 us to go W'itli him a little too fast and too far, tee 
 must, nevertheless, if we are open-minded seekers 
 for light, reckon with genetic psycliology in looking 
 for solutions of educational problems. Although the 
 "recapitulation" theory* may be unproven and the 
 "culture epoch" theoryf may have been assumed 
 with too much definiteness by some enthusiasts, and 
 although the existence of "nascent stages" t may be 
 less satisfactorily established than the law of gravity, 
 yet the educator that ignores these theories is turn- 
 ing his back upon a possible (to speak very conserv- 
 atively) source of light, and in doing so is unfaith- 
 ful to the duty his vocation lays upon him. 
 V. The acceptance of postulates III and IV docs 
 not at all require the educator to follow slavis^hlv 
 
 * See Cephas Giiillet on "Recapitulation and Education" in 
 the Pedag-oarical Seminary, vol. VII. 
 
 tSee the writiners of the American Herhartians penerallv, sucb 
 as De Garmo's "Herbart and the Herba.rtlans" (Scribners) 
 
 t See the WTltlngs of Dr. G. Stanley Hall.
 
 12 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 
 
 the tastes, inclinations and impulses showing 
 themselves in the child at a given stage of de- 
 velopment, but it does require that the educa- 
 tor should carefully study these tendencies, in 
 order to avail himself of the light thus gained 
 to take the line of least resistence in assisting 
 the child to such a development of the potential- 
 ities of his nature as shall make possible for him 
 a large, rich, beautiful, serviceable and happy 
 life ; that is to say, in order to give the child 
 such an education as shall enable him to so 
 far harmonize his life with things as they are, 
 physical and social, as to be capable of advan- 
 cing freely, along the line of development sug- 
 gested by his individual genius, into the largest 
 life possible for a being having the endowments 
 of humanity. 
 RemarJis: This means that the possibly cruel and 
 savage impulses of a child at a given stage of devel- 
 opment, while they should not be encouraged,* are 
 yet to be considered by those whose duty it is to 
 giiide the child's development; these and all other 
 instincts and natural inclinations of the child being 
 itsed in his education, sometimes as suggesting 
 methods of approach to valuable knowledge and 
 
 * Calling to mind President G. Stanley Hall's well known tad- 
 pole illustration, it may be suggested that biology has taught 
 us in the case of certain batrachians that where the condi- 
 tions are too favorable to the exercise of the organs adapted 
 to the creature's early, water-inhabiting stage of development, 
 it may never fully mature into the land-living stage of develop- 
 ment characteristic of the genus to which it belongs, but may- 
 carry gills to the day of its death.
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATIO>"^ OF OUR SCHOOLS 13 
 
 achievement, at other times as affording points of 
 departure for training in self-control, balance and 
 poise of life. 
 
 The work of the teacher is perhaps best indicated 
 by the term guidance. While the teacher's fnnction, 
 most assnredly, is not to drive the pupils along a 
 beaten educational highway, and probably it would 
 be a mistake to conceive of the function of the teach- 
 er even as that of one who should lead the young to 
 follow in his own footsteps, yet the teacher's business 
 is to GUIDE, to accompany the young in their voyages 
 of discovery into the by them as yet unexplored uni- 
 verse which lies all about them, to give them the 
 benefit of his previous partial exploration of that 
 which is to them wholly ten^a incognita, and to point 
 out to them the shortest path to those points of van- 
 tage giving broad vistas from which the young ex- 
 ])lorer can most intelligently plan his ova\ future 
 excursions. 
 
 It might naturally be supposed that the scion of 
 the most highly evolved genus of living beings of 
 which we have any knowledge, the marvelous com- 
 plexity of whose organism surpasses the most won- 
 derful miracle of which the poetic imagination of 
 man has ever conceived, would be provided at birth 
 with a nervous system so moulded by the experiences 
 of the stock from which his life buds forth, that the 
 successive instincts that find expression as his life 
 develops to maturity would of themselves go far to 
 make his life a satisfactorv one, even in the absence
 
 14 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 
 
 of any consciously directed education on the part of 
 his elders. But we should remember that in the 
 economy of nature it is quite possible that the j)aren- 
 ial instincts of the adult may be substituted for in- 
 stincts of self-direction in a being whose infancy is 
 to be long continued ; so that, freed from the care 
 and strain of self-preservation and self -protection, 
 the immature being may long retain that high de- 
 gree of plasticity and educability through which 
 alone it can gain the benefit of the many and impor- 
 tant new experiences of different individual mem- 
 bers of the highly evolved and very delicately and 
 complexly organized race to which it belongs — ex- 
 periences that may have been too recently gained 
 and too rapidly accumulated to have made a defi- 
 nitely heritable impress upon the nervous system. 
 In the light of this reflection it would seem that to 
 leave the child to be wholly guided by his own indi- 
 vidual instincts would be to force what from the stand- 
 point of civilization must be regarded as a precocious 
 maturity upon him, and thus to deprive him of the 
 present enjoyment and future benefit of the pro- 
 longed youth for which nature has made such ample 
 provision, the result of which deprivation must be a 
 stunted human product, whose psychic growth 
 would be greatly diminished, if not wholly arrested 
 on a low plane of development. In such a mistaken 
 application of the idea of loyalty to nature, in thus 
 trusting the child's development wholly to his own 
 instincts at every stage of development, we should
 
 Till-: iJKOilGANIZATIOX OF OUK SCHOOLS 15 
 
 really be ac'tin<>; in disre£2:ard of and in opposition to 
 the method of nature, which has made large pro- 
 vision for the development of humanity through the 
 ■parental instinct of (juidance and by means of the 
 power of mental abstraction that mankind has ac- 
 quired, which makes it possible to conmiunicate a 
 great part of the results of recent individual human 
 experiences to those who have not themselves had 
 these particular ex]:)eriences, who may never have 
 them, but who may nevertheless be benefitted by the 
 knowledge that has been gained through them. We 
 too often forget that civilization is itself a natural 
 product of human development, although one com- 
 municable rather by tradition, by education, than by 
 inheritance. 
 
 An admirable illustration of the pedagogical value 
 of the instincts and inclinations in the child that 
 appear to repeat those of an earlier stage of adult 
 human development, is offered by the use that may 
 be made of this similarity between the development 
 of the race and of the individual, to teach the child, 
 (almost unconsciously to himself, but in the most 
 real and vital and convincing manner) the history 
 of the development of the human race to its present 
 stage of culture, by presenting to the child, by de- 
 scription and illustration, the successive stages of 
 the development of the human race towards its pres- 
 ent grade of civilization, at those stages of his ovnx 
 individual development from infancy to maturity, 
 at which he is best fitted to sympathize with, imitate.
 
 16 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 and enter into the spirit of the several grades of 
 social development portrayed. Much can be done 
 in this way; and the youth who has thus learned 
 history, who has thus learned step by step, at the 
 right time, in such a way as to feel the naturalness 
 of it, the genesis of our present culture — of our in- 
 stitutions and ideas, our material and mental devel- 
 opment — has a vital knowledge of history which many 
 a professor might envy, a knowledge that has the 
 great practical value of protecting him from the 
 extravagance and inconsiderate impatience of the 
 Utopian idealist and the revolutionary reformer, and 
 of leading him to be at the same time and in the 
 best sense conservative and progressive, saving him 
 at once from the despair and cynicism of the pessi- 
 mist, and from the blind fatuity of the optimist, 
 and giving him instead the poise and sanity of the 
 hopeful, thoughtful and energetic meliorist. 
 VI. In education the policy of the open door should 
 be maintained as far as possible. 
 Remarks: This requires not alone that we should 
 (\o all that we can to have the young person's life 
 rich and beautiful at any given stage of develop- 
 ment, but that we should so do this as to keep the 
 possibility open for him to proceed to the highest 
 round of the educational ladder with the least loss 
 of time and effort, in case he should later be able to 
 carry his systematic education farther than may at 
 an early stage seem probable; that his education 
 shall be so carefully and broadly planned that what
 
 THE REOKGAXIZATIOX OF OUK SCHOOLS 17 
 
 he learns at any early stage of his development, 
 whether in adolescence, boyhood, or childhood, shall 
 not shut him np to just one line of development in 
 the future. 
 
 VII. The hest education that can possibly be af- 
 forded, is the most economical, both for the 
 community at large that provides it for its 
 rising generation and for the individual 
 families that offer it to their children. 
 Beinarls: All the investigations of economists, 
 publicists and statesmen point to the fact that the 
 richest and most productive communities are those 
 in which the people, the workers, are most intelli- 
 gent and efficient, — that is, best educated (although 
 not necessarily most schooled, or book learned). So 
 that, even from the standpoint of tlie community or 
 of the family that desires nothing higher than that 
 its memhcrs shall he most largely possessed of the 
 material goods of life, the development and improve- 
 ment of education should he the chief interest. 
 
 This would be true even if the life were not more 
 than meat, and the body than raiment, even if the 
 best education (in the true sense) were not of su- 
 preme value from the standpoint of ability to live 
 a large, rich, beautiful human life,- — to enable our 
 young people to enter into their inheritance as the 
 heirs of the ages and to enjoy the richness and 
 beauty of this wonderful universe that is so largely 
 a closed book to the narrow minds and undeveloped 
 physical natures of the uneducated.
 
 18 THE KEOEGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 VIII. Now is (always) the time for practical re- 
 form in the school (as everywhere else). 
 Remarks: There is no more insidious fallacy — ■ 
 nothing so perfectly calculated to paralyze practical 
 w^ork for the amelioration of human institutions — 
 than the notion that our present business is simply 
 to gather facts and submit hypotheses to laboratory 
 tests, until we shall have a fairly complete body of 
 scientifically established knowledge upon which to 
 base practical action. Our knowledge will never be 
 complete — at least until the need for the amelio- 
 ration of human conditions shall have passed away ! 
 — and it is always our duty to apply with the one 
 hand the little insight that we have already gained, 
 while with the other hand we are reaching out 
 toward larger knowledge. Experience would seem 
 to suggest that the greater our achievements in sci- 
 ence, the more we shall be impressed by our igiio- 
 rance, the vaster our conception of the unknown ly- 
 ing before us, and hence the less ready we shall be to 
 regard our knowledge as fairly complete. If we 
 were to wait for that consummation, we should never 
 take the first step toward improving the practical 
 conditions of life.
 
 PRACTICAL SUGGESTIOiJ^S. 
 I. 
 
 As to the General Plan of Organizing the Schools. 
 
 Section 1. The practical recognition of the pos- 
 tulates hereinbefore set forth and the realization of 
 the truth contained in them may best be attained, I 
 believe, by such a flexible organization of the school 
 system as is indicated below, in which the psycho- 
 physical stages of development above referred to 
 shall be taken as the bases of classification and grad- 
 ing, in which there shall be ample opportunity for 
 readjustment, and in which there shall be much in- 
 dividual instruction without foregoing the benefiis 
 of class work. 
 
 Each school period corresponding to the stages of 
 psycho-physical development mentioned above should 
 be treated as one continuous class (whether lasting 
 one year or four), in which class the core of the 
 work should consist of a minimum curriculum for 
 all, such as can be followed by the slowest and dull- 
 est pupil that is not so far below the normal plane 
 as to require education in a special school for de- 
 fectives. Furthermore, in planning the school work, 
 provision should be made for the pursuit by every 
 child of some special, individual interest not em- 
 braced in the prescribed curriculum — such as learn- 
 ing to play upon a musical instrument, cultivating a 
 special talent for drawing or painting, learning a 
 foreign language not provided for in the curricu-
 
 20 THE KEOKGANIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 lum, etc.* In addition to this the plan of daily 
 work must be so flexible that the children having 
 special aptitudes in any one, in several, or in all 
 directions can be given extra work therein. More 
 diflficult problems or a greater number of problems 
 illustrating the principles of which the whole class 
 is endeavoring to gain a working knowledge, may 
 be given to those showing mathematical talent ; more 
 elaborate or a greater number of observations and 
 reports in nature study may be called for from those 
 whose ability lies in this direction ; while in the case 
 of others the surplus ability and energy may find 
 its natural outlet in more reading along certain lines, 
 in more elegant or in a greater number of manual 
 achievements, etc. Further than this, the ability 
 and energy of the more fortunately endowed chil- 
 dren, wherever practicable (and that it is generally 
 ])racticable many teachers have testified), should be 
 employed to some extent in helping their less ad- 
 vanced classmates. This is desirable not alone for 
 the moral culture incidental to this kind of co-opera- 
 tion, nor merely because a child can sometimes learn 
 l)etter from his fellows a little in advance of him 
 than from adults, but also because we learn so much 
 by teaching, that, aside from the moral benefit com- 
 ing to the child teacher from this cultivation of the 
 spirit of helpfulness, his measure of mastery of the 
 
 * One of the most serious defects in the present organization 
 of education is that it condemns the especially talented either 
 to forego the proper early cultivation of their talent or else to 
 rive up such a general education as all men and women need 
 in order to enable them to live large, useful, happy, human lives.
 
 THE EEOKGAIflZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 21 
 
 special kind of work in which he excels his fellows 
 will usually be much increased by this kind of exer- 
 cise of his powers. But however else provision 
 should be made for meeting the needs of the brighter 
 members of the class, a part of their surplus energy 
 and quickness to learn should be taken advantage of 
 to give them more leisure for healthful, out-of-door 
 exercise and recreation, lest they suffer from some 
 of the forms of ill health, especially nervous dis- 
 orders, to which the child of precocious mental de- 
 velopment so often falls victim. 
 
 It is evident that the kind of procedure here pro- 
 posed, in the conduct of the school, involves a large 
 amount of individual work, but the mistake must 
 not be made of supposing that it would favor the 
 abolition of class work. Far from it. A large part 
 of the work of the school would be class work; not 
 only would much of the original exposition and later 
 explanation by the teacher be given to the class as a 
 whole, but much of the "recitation", or response of 
 the pupils, would be given to the class as a whole or 
 to a large group thereof. Indeed, the experience of 
 those who have worked along the lines indicated 
 seems to confirm what might naturally be expected — 
 that the attention of the other members of the class, 
 and the liveliness and excellence of the contribution 
 of the individual pupil will be all the gTeater if, for 
 example, the latter has been observing or doing some- 
 thing in nature study with which his classmates are 
 not equally familiar, or if he is readinc; somethine:
 
 22 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUB SCHOOLS 
 
 which the whole class has not been engaged in read- 
 ing for a length of time determined by the size of the 
 class and the slowness of the poorest reader it may 
 contain ! 
 
 Section 2. As large classes could be successfully 
 conducted by a single teacher under the plan pro- 
 posed as could be successfully conducted by a single 
 teacher under any existing system. Under this sys- 
 tem there would naturally be considerable group 
 work within the class ; but these groups would be 
 flexible and constantly changing, and the child would 
 not be working with group A in reading, although 
 unskillful in that kind of activity, just because he 
 might happen to be quick at figures and expert in 
 manual work ; the group would not be fixed for the 
 term or for just so many weeks upon the b'asis of the 
 child's apparent brightness or backwardness in gen- 
 eral, but groups would form themselves, as it were, 
 in every hind of scJiool occupation, in accordance 
 with what the different children might be doing in 
 the several lines of school activity. One of the great- 
 est benefits of this would be that the children would 
 not be prejudiced, and their self-confidence unduly 
 discouraged or encouraged, as the case might be, by 
 an artificial estimate of their rank among their fel- 
 lows; but greater mutual respect, a healthier self- 
 confidence, and therefore more pleasure in life and 
 greater zest and success for eveiy individual, would 
 arise out of the recognition of the fact that in school 
 children do not necessarily belong in one of the two
 
 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 23 
 
 opposite classes, the "bright" and the "dull", but that 
 child A may be able to do this thing better than C 
 and D, while D may be able to do the next thing 
 better than A and not so well as B, and so on.* 
 
 Although it would doubtless be well, under any 
 system, to have small classes, containing not more 
 than two dozen children, I would emphasize the fact 
 that this system would lend itself quite as well as 
 any other to economy in the number of teachers, for 
 with the help of one or more assistant teachers or 
 normal training school cadets in each school, who 
 might divide their time between several different 
 classes, — one of them assisting teacher A in one 
 room the first part of the forenoon, and working in 
 teacher B's class in another room later in the day, — 
 class teachers could work successfully with large 
 classes, and thus the expense for teachers' salaries 
 need not be great. The especial function of the 
 cadets or assistant teachers should generally be to 
 help the children individually or in small groups ; 
 and the class teacher might well assign the conduct 
 of the extra work of the brighter or more advanced 
 pupils to the assistant, giving her own especial atten- 
 tion more largely to the less able children, because 
 
 * For an especially interesting account of successful indi- 
 vidual work in classes of average size, see Mrs. Adelia R. 
 Hornbrook's "Laboratory Method of Teaching Mathematics in 
 Secondary Schools", American Educational Bulletin No. VI, 
 American Book Co., 1895. See also the lecture and bibliography 
 on "Individual Instruction" in the valuable syllabus of Cornell 
 Univer.sity Course of Fi-iday Lectures on High School M'ork and 
 Administration, and the elaborate presentation of the results 
 of this method in the case of a foreign language class given 
 in Preston W. Search's "Ideal School" (Appleton, New York).
 
 2-1 THE REOKGANIZATIOX OF OUE SCirOOLS 
 
 to help bright children skill in teaching is relatively 
 less important than knowledge of the subject (in 
 which the cadet, fresh from her studies, is generally 
 not much, if at all, inferior to the experienced teach- 
 er), whereas the duller children need all the peda- 
 gogical skill that the experienced teacher can bring 
 to their assistance.* 
 
 It should be borne in mind that under the system 
 herein proposed, in which the same class-teacher 
 would have charge of a class throughout the whole 
 of a given school period corresponding to one of the 
 stages of psycho-physical development referred to in 
 Postulate III, the number of classes in a given 
 school could most readily, and in a manner so flex- 
 ible as to be almost automatic, be adapted to the siz3 
 and wealth of the community. While a comparative- 
 ly small community might not have more than three 
 or four classes in its elementary department (or 
 school of boyhood and girlhood proper), starting one 
 each year, a larger community with its correspond- 
 ingly larger school fund, might start classes not only 
 semi-annually but quarterly, bi-monthly, or even of- 
 tener, so that any child in this stage of psycho- 
 physical development could, at any time throughout 
 the school year, find some class that ivould he almost 
 
 * For a discussion of the economy of making: use of assistant 
 teacliers to work in the same room with tlie teachers of large 
 classes, see especially the syllabus (with bibliogi-aphy) of a lec- 
 ture by Superintendent Kennedy of Batav-ia. N. Y., given on 
 page 53 of the Cornell University Course of Friday Lectures on 
 High School "Work and Administration; and see also Mr. 
 Kennedy's presentation of the subject on page 295 of the 
 National Educational Association's Preceedings for 1901.
 
 THE EEOKGAXIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 25 
 
 perfecihj adapted to his exact stage of advancement ; 
 and in snch large schools, while it wonld doubtless 
 generally be advisable for a child to continue in the 
 same class, under the same teacher, throughout the 
 whole school period in question (a period roughly 
 estimated at from three to four years in length in 
 the case of the elementary department), it would be 
 possible at any time to transfer from one class to an- 
 other a child whose mental and physical growth was 
 especially rapid or especially slow, or who by reason 
 of the peculiarity of his own or his teacher's dispo- 
 sition, should not be getting on well in the class in 
 which he happened at the time to be. In such a large 
 school, having a number of classes started at nearly 
 the same time some of the classes might be proceed- 
 ing quite rapidly while others were progi-essing very 
 slowly, the teacher of class A might be able to get 
 most of her class very rapidly over the ground in its 
 study of elementary mathematics but might have to 
 go very slow with them in English, while class B 
 might be making especially rapid progi'ess in Eng- 
 lish but be slower than other classes in mathematics 
 or in the acquisition of manual dexterity. It would 
 be easy under such conditions to transfer pupils 
 from one class to another so as to gi'oup the children 
 in such a manner that they could work together most 
 successfully and harmoniously. 
 
 Section 3. While the matters already referred to 
 are important, the greatest benefit, perhaps, that 
 would come from the adoption of the proposed sys-
 
 26 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 tern of reorganizing our schools, is to be found in the 
 change it would make in the relation of the teacher 
 to her work, — the inspiring freedom it would give 
 her when she should be released from the treadmill 
 grind of a machine operative engaged upon a part of 
 a part of something with the ultimate form of which 
 she has nothing to do, and thus deprived of the stim- 
 ulus and reward of the artist-worker, who has, and 
 must have if he or she is to continue to be an artist, 
 the satisfaction of carrying a piece of work to its nat- 
 ural completion. No longer tryannized over by the ne- 
 cessity of bringing every class and the whole class — 
 the bright and the dull, the sanguine and the phleg- 
 matic, those favored by a cultured and prosperous 
 home and those handicapped by a home environment 
 of poverty, ignorance and indifference, those well 
 and those ill prepared — no longer kept in a constant 
 state of nervous strain by the necessity of bringing 
 each rapidly succeeding class, as a whole, to a pre- 
 ordained point in the curriculum within a certain 
 number of weeks so as to make connection with an- 
 other equally short-lived class at a fixed date twelve, 
 six or three months from the time she first looks her 
 little company of individuals in the face, the teacher, 
 transformed from a factory-hand into one whose 
 work is dig-nified and rendered interesting by the 
 fact that it covers the whole of a natural period of 
 child life, instead of an arhitrary section of such a 
 unit, may well feel the inspiration of the artist, find- 
 ing continual delight in a noble work freely pursued.
 
 THE REOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 3t 
 
 She conld then proceed serenely without undue haste, 
 to do her best to help the children in her charge to 
 the most perfect development individually possible 
 for each one of them within the psycho-physical 
 period of development constituting her field of work. 
 Her duty would no longer be to impart to all of 
 her pupils, regardless of their various idiosyncrasies, 
 exactly the same amount of information in just so 
 many subjects, and to train them all to exactly the 
 same degree of proficiency in certain prescribed ac- 
 tivities. But whenever any individual of her class 
 should appear to have completed the period of psycho- 
 physical development to which her department of the 
 school was designed to minister, it would be her 
 duty (after consultation with her principal and with 
 the parents of the young person) to transfer the lat- 
 ter to the next department of the school, even though 
 the estimated time for the completion of the stage of 
 development represented by her o^vn department had 
 not elapsed and she should not be ready to pass her 
 class as a whole over to the teacher in charge of the 
 next higher department, and even though the young 
 person in question, although more mature, should 
 not be more, but should even be less proficient in the 
 work of this department of tlie school than most of 
 the classmates he would leave behind him. If, on 
 the other hand, it should happen that the develop- 
 ment of one or more of the children under the care 
 of an elementary department teacher, for instance, 
 should be so much more backward than that of the
 
 28 THE KEORGAXIZATIOX OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 average, that such child or children should not he 
 mature enough to go on with the rest of the class, 
 it would he the duty of the teacher of this' class, A, 
 let us say, to transfer such children to the teacher of 
 class B of the same department, — not necessarily to 
 remain in class B until the B teacher should pro- 
 mote her class as a whole to the secondary transition 
 department and start again with a class of young- 
 sters coming from the primary transition depart- 
 ment, but each one of these children should remain 
 until the teacher and the supervising authority 
 should feel satisfied that he was mentally and phys- 
 ically mature enough to enter upon the next stage of 
 school life. When her pupils should have about 
 reached the completion of the stage of boyhood and 
 girlhood proper, as contradistinguished from the 
 stage of pubescence, the elementary department 
 teacher's work with her class would be done, and she 
 would pass the young people on to the teachers of the 
 secondary transition department, regardless of 
 whether each and all of them could tell the year and 
 day of the battle of Antietam, could work so many 
 problems in percentage in so many minutes, could 
 extract the cube root of a number, or even whether 
 one or more of them were deficient in some pretty 
 simple matter that the normal child might well be 
 expected to master in the elementary department. 
 
 The teacher's duty would be discharged when she 
 had done her best for each child under her care ; uni- 
 formity of result would not be required, she would
 
 THE EEOKGAXIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 29 
 
 be judged in a large "way, not by minute tests. The 
 supervising officer would visit her class from time to 
 time (not at fixed periods), would observe her work, 
 and would find out how the children were getting 
 on under her care; the supervisor would also know 
 what was being done in the other classes, and how 
 well, on the average, the children trained by the 
 teacher under consideration were conducting them- 
 selves and doing their work in the next stage of 
 school life. Further than this, records of the char- 
 acteristics, the physical and mental peculiarities of 
 each child would be kept throughout its school life. 
 With such means at hand for estimating the value of 
 a teacher's work, she could under the proposed plan 
 be given a very large freedom to reach results in her 
 own way. She could vary the usual daily program 
 by taking the children into the fields or woods in 
 order to study nature, or to visit some industrial 
 establishment in order to become acquainted with 
 manual and mechanical processes and some business 
 methods, whenever it might seem wise for her to do 
 so. Supervising officers, courses of study, text books, 
 school programs — all these would still be at hand to 
 help the teacher in her work, but she would no 
 longer be in bondage to them. 
 
 Last, but by no means least, in this connection let 
 it be emphasized that under the organization of the 
 schools proposed it would not only be possible for the 
 teacher to learn to know her children well, to know 
 each member of her class throughout n fairlv Ions:
 
 30 THE EEORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 period,* one of the most natural results of which 
 would be to develop a strong sympathy between teach- 
 ers and pupils (for, as Henry Ware has very beauti- 
 fully said in his novel "Zenobia", to love each other 
 we chiefly need to know each other, it is ignorance 
 that begets suspicion and dislike), but, as a result 
 of this full knowledge of a large number of young 
 persons during the wliole of a natural period of 
 psycho-physical development, the teacher would come 
 to understand this stage of human development as no 
 teacher can be expected to understand any stage of 
 development under our present system of grading. 
 
 In a word, the teacher would be enabled to do a 
 large work in a large way. The educational factory 
 operative of today, always under a nervous strain to 
 complete a stint (and an impossible one!) within a 
 fixed time, could then (and I believe that in most 
 cases she would then) become a joyous artist, en- 
 gaged in one of the most begjitiful and fascinating, 
 as well as one of the noblest occupations that life af- 
 fords. 
 
 Section 4. Turning now from the teacher to the 
 
 * Many schools have come to appreciate the importance ol 
 this, and in tlie German gymnasium it is customary for the 
 ordinarius (the teacher who gives instruction to the class in at 
 least one of its principal studies and who is especially in charge 
 of it as a class teacher, although under the departmental system 
 even the lowest class has several teachers) of the lowest class 
 (sexta), composed of boys of nine or ten, to continue as ordi- 
 narius and principal instructor of this group of taoys while they 
 are passing through the next two annual classes (quinta and 
 quarta). That is to say. there will be in the gymnasium three 
 teachers, every one of whom in turn will take charge of the 
 lowest class and carry the group of boys through the first three 
 years of the gymnasium.
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 31 
 
 pupil, it is to be said that one of the chief reasons 
 for proposing the plan under consideration is, that 
 in the case of a dull child, whose interest his teacher 
 has been unable to awaken sufficiently to lead him to 
 a mastery of the subject of instruction, it is an in- 
 jury, rather than a benefit, to keep him droning over 
 the same subject-matter twice the normal length of 
 time. If the child's failure to make the minimum of 
 normal progress is due to some temporary cause, as 
 illness, a protracted absence, or the like, it will ordi- 
 narily no doubt be advisable to transfer him (not at 
 the expiration of some arbitrarily fixed period for the 
 continuation of a class, but at once) to a class which 
 is not so far advanced as that with which he had pre- 
 viously been working ; but if the failure to make nor- 
 mal progress is due to a more permanent condition, 
 — to general mental incapacity (not sufficient to in- 
 dicate that he should be in a special school for the 
 feeble-minded, and not the result of some particular 
 sense defect or other cause that can be determined 
 and given special treatment), to mental lethargy, to 
 a lack of interest in school matters, even to continu- 
 ous irregularity of attendance or chronic ill health, 
 — the child (if not removed from the common school, 
 for the benefit of his physical, mental and moral 
 health) should be kept moving forward, at a slow 
 pace, it may be, but at a pace no slower than the 
 general rate of his psycho-physical development, and 
 in association with children whose stage of psycho- 
 physical development corresponds in a general way
 
 32 THE ee6kc4axization of oue schools 
 
 with his own. I do not mean that it will never be 
 found wholesome to try the plan of having him go 
 over, with a different teacher and a younger set of 
 children, a part of the work he has previously been 
 over. These changed conditions may occasionally af- 
 ford the needed stimulus and help the child to better 
 results — the change of teacher may be especially help- 
 ful. But to repeat this process again and again, and 
 insist that he shall make a certain, fixed, minimal 
 response to definite tests of attainment before being 
 allowed to advance, and thus make it impossible for 
 him to get out of the primary department before he is 
 twelve years old, or to leave the elementary depart- 
 ment until he is an adolescent of sixteen or more — 
 this is a futile waste of the child's time, is almost 
 certain to have a pernicious effect upon his moral 
 and mental, and even upon his physical development, 
 and is likely to make him a failure in life from every 
 point of view. When it has become apparent that he 
 will not keep pace with any group of pupils, what 
 benefit is to come from demoting him from that 
 group with which his general development most 
 nearly corresponds, putting him into a strange envi- 
 ronment, and disheartening him by associating him 
 with younger pupils into whose company he comes 
 under the disadvantage, not alone of being a stranger 
 and in a different stage of development, but of being 
 one who is known to have failed to hold his ovsm with 
 his previous associates ! Let us have common sense 
 enouo-h to reco2:nize that there is a considerable num-
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 33 
 
 ber of children who are not likely to get a great 
 amount of benefit from any kind of systematic, in- 
 tellectual training. In such cases, so long as they 
 are in the stages of childhood and boyhood and girl- 
 hood proper (as distinguished from adolescence), let 
 the school do what it can for them ; let them advance 
 through the school with their fellows and get what 
 they can absorb from the school atmosphere and the 
 class work as they go along. They may then, and 
 very probably will, find something in some part of the 
 curriculum to which they will respond with some 
 zest and success. But whether they do so or not, 
 let them leave the elementary school as soon as they 
 have passed beyond the stage of boyhood and girl- 
 hood proper, the prepubescent stage ; and if nothing 
 can be done to make good in the secondary transi- 
 tion department their previous deficiencies, and if 
 nothing in the school for adolescents seems to call 
 forth any response in them, let them leave school and 
 go to work after a year or so in the special transition 
 class for those who are passing from boyhood or girl- 
 hood into adolescence. Let them at least, at each 
 stage in their development, have the chance for edu- 
 cation (in the large sense of that term) that is given 
 by a suitable environment for the given stage of de- 
 velopment, instead of holding them prisoners in an 
 outgro^^^l environment designed for those at a lower 
 stage of maturity. Some day, it is to be hoped, 
 school authorities will understand that it is the busi- 
 ness of the school as a social institution to afford the
 
 34 THE EEOKGANIZATIOiSr OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 most favorable opportunities for the development of 
 the young person, hut that it is not its business to 
 insist upon making him master of a certain definite 
 quantum of fact and facility. 
 
 The failure to recognize the importance of adapt- 
 ing the school work to the stage of the pupil's general 
 development, which has made the school a place of 
 torment, often a place of hopeless discouragement 
 to so many pupils in the past, has another side than 
 that referred to in the last paragraph, I refer to 
 the grave injury that come^.from allowing mentally 
 precocious children to go as fast as their mental 
 power, and especially their mental acquisitiveness, 
 may render possible, regardless of their physical de- 
 velopment. The only safe method is to plan the cur- 
 riculum with reference to the general development 
 of the being to be educated; and in case the mental 
 development, on the one hand, and the general phys- 
 ical development on the other, seem to correspond 
 ill,* let the general physical development be given 
 first consideration. This method of procedure, un- 
 fortunately, has not yet gained the approval it de- 
 serves, although it is long since it was first suggested. 
 In answer to the suggestion made by Superintendent 
 Harrington, of JSTew Bedford, in 18T4, that instead 
 of keeping dull children a great length of time on an 
 
 * A case that is always exceptional, although every teacher of 
 large experience has probably known some young person or per- 
 sons in whom the divergence was sufficient to be troublesome, 
 although not sufficient to constitute the person In question 
 monstrous and so make ordinary methods of education entirely 
 inapplicable.
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATIOX OF OUK SCHOOLS 35 
 
 inelastic curriculum, a minimum core of work should 
 be provided for these, which could be indefinitely ex- 
 panded for the brighter children, Superintendent 
 Hervey,* of Auburn, X. Y., after commending cer- 
 tain aspects of the plan, said: ''It has the disadvan- 
 tage ... of not providing for the more rapid 
 advancement through the gTades of those who, with- 
 out detriment to themselves, could cover the ground 
 in a shorter time." At the bottom of this criticism 
 there seems to me to lie a very serious misconception. 
 There are doubtless exceptional human beings whom 
 no general plan of education would fit ; but it cannot 
 be too emphatically insisted that, speaking generally, 
 the rapid advancement through the grades of a phys- 
 ically immature person having an unusually quick 
 and vigorous intellect, is not a desideratum, but a 
 grave evil. The contrary notion has arisen from the 
 fact that the school has so long been considered — 
 and has, alas ! so largely been — merely an institution 
 for imparting information, or at best as a place for 
 mental training; it has not yet come to be generally 
 recognized as that which modern pedagogy is mak- 
 ing it, an organized instrumentality to assist the im- 
 mature being to the highest development possible for 
 his luliole nature, physical and moral, no less than 
 intellectual. The human being, let it be repeated, 
 is a psycho-physical unit ; and least of all in the case 
 of the child, the immature being, can one part of his 
 
 *At the time he wrote the criticism. Superintendent of Schools 
 for Pawtucket, R. I. See Rhode Island School Report for 1899, 
 page 116.
 
 36 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 nature be properly cultivated in disregard of the rest. 
 The plan which I advocate provides for the promo- 
 tion of the pupil from one department into another 
 as soon as he shall have completed the psycho-physical 
 period of development to which the former depart- 
 ment is adapted, whether he has gained much Or 
 little information, much or little physical, psychical 
 or moral training, in the class covering the previous 
 period; and this, I confidently maintain (and cite 
 the whole literature of child study in support of my 
 contention), is the only advancement through the 
 grades that can he had "without detriment to the 
 pupil." The prepubescent child of twelve should 
 not be put in harness with the adolescent of sixteen, 
 notwithstanding that the former's mental brightness 
 and familiarity with literature, science and history 
 may be even superior to the latter's. Let the child 
 pursue his subjects of study according to the general 
 method adapted to his stage of development (al- 
 though he may do more extensive or more elaborate 
 work within the given fields than most of his class- 
 mates), and let him put his surplus energy into the 
 physical exercise that may protect him from the del- 
 icacy and ill health to which precocious children are 
 so often subject. 
 
 My contention does not mean that a child is to be 
 in a given class just because his tale of years is of a 
 given length, nor that he is to be kept in it just so 
 many years, months, or days. If, as sometimes hap- 
 pens, the child of twelve is physically as well as
 
 THE REORGANIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 37 
 
 mentally mature as the average child of fourteen or 
 fifteen by all means put him with the latter, and do 
 this whether or not he has acquired as much informa- 
 tion and discipline as the average child at the com- 
 pletion of the elementary school period. If he has 
 not, it is imfortunate ; but we shall not mend matters 
 by treating him as a hoy after he has become a youth. 
 If the elementary or boyhood department of school 
 has done little for him, we must look to the adoles- 
 cent school in the hope that it may do more for him. 
 Section 5. To carry out the plan of organization 
 of school work herein proposed, especially in the 
 matter of determining when children have completed 
 a certain stage of psycho-physical development, it is 
 desirable, of course, that in every city school system 
 there should be an expert physician, who has made 
 a special study of childhood in all its phases, to act 
 as physical examiner and sanitary expert. Such an 
 expert is, however, very much needed under existing 
 systems of school administration, to look after the 
 health of the children and save those defective in 
 some one or more particulars from the burden of 
 unsuitable requirements. Nevertheless, in the absence 
 of such a thoroughly qualified physician toi examine 
 the children from time to time and consult with the 
 class teacher and principals as to the advisability of 
 transferring pupils from one department of the 
 school to another, a competent superintendent in the 
 smaller school communities and the superintendent 
 and principal or other supervising officers in large 
 
 C 
 
 S S
 
 38 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 school systems could do quite well all that the class 
 teacher with a fair normal school training might not 
 reasonably be expected to do. When in accordance 
 with educational and physiological expert advice, 
 based upon careful observation and experiment, the 
 normal average number of years for the duration of 
 the play school and the elementary school classes had 
 once been determined, there would as a rule be no 
 special call for watchfulness on the part of any but 
 the transition-class teachers ; and indeed, inasmuch 
 as the relation of the secondary transition class to 
 the work of the high school proper or adolescent 
 school that follows it, is such that any youth could 
 with advantage enter upon the work of the latter as 
 soon as he had received the required instruction in 
 the former, whether that should take one or two 
 years, the only position that would regularly call for 
 any special competence in judging when to advance 
 a pupil from one class to another, would be that of the 
 primary-transition class teacher. By observing a 
 wise conservatism and not promoting the children to 
 the elementary department until it should seem quite 
 beyond a reasonable doubt that they were physically 
 fit to undertake the work of the elementary depart- 
 ment, the primary-transition teacher could discharge 
 her task without great difficulty; her experience 
 would soon make her expert, and meanwhile (and 
 always) she could refer any doubtful case to the 
 supervising authority, the principal or superintend- 
 ent, and she and they could always consult with the
 
 THE KEOEGANIZATIO:^ OF OUR SCHOOLS 39 
 
 parents and family physician in case of exceptional 
 difficulty. 
 
 As regards these transfers, the proper plan might 
 be to make the normal period for the com- 
 pletion of the work of the play school and the ele- 
 mentary school somewhat shorter than the time which 
 the average child takes to pass through the corre- 
 sponding stages of psycho-physical development, so 
 that the children would be regularly passed into the 
 transition classes at a date that would be so early in 
 the case of the normal child as to ensure that he was 
 not being kept under educational influences that he 
 had outgTown. As regards the primary transition 
 class, its spirit and in large measure its method 
 would be so similar to that of the play school — differ- 
 ing onlv in allowing a little more freedom to individ- 
 ual idiosyncrasy and a little more relaxation — 
 that neither the exceptionally forward nor the ex- 
 ceptionally backward child would be harmed by being 
 transferred to it at the same time with the average 
 child. The latter would remain there a longer, the 
 former, a shorter time; that would be all. As re- 
 gards transfers from the elementary department to 
 the secondary transition class, restiveness and un- 
 satisfactory response to the method of the elementary 
 department would be a sufficient indication for an 
 early transfer in the case of a physically precocious 
 child ; a slightly backward child would not be harmed 
 by being transferred when the rest of his classmates 
 are, and the case of an exceptionally backward child,
 
 40 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 who should be kept longer in the elementary depart- 
 ment, would be sufficiently patent to give no intelli- 
 gent teacher or supervising officer any difficulty. 
 
 A little consideration, I think, will make evident 
 that, instead of increasing the burden of responsibility 
 upon teachers, the proposed system would (except in 
 the case of the primary transition class teachers) 
 relieve them of a great part of the responsibility 
 that now rests upon them. The play school teacher 
 would work with her class for, say, two years, do all 
 that she could for the healthy development of every 
 one of her pupils within that time, and then send 
 them all to the primary transition class, without hav- 
 ing to bother her head to determine whether every 
 individual in the class had attained a "promotion 
 grade." Similarly the elementary department teach- 
 er would teach her class for four year (if that should 
 be the period determined upon by the school authori- 
 ties) and then transfer to the secondary transition 
 class all but the very exceptionally immature (who 
 would ordinarily be transferred to the elementary 
 class next below hers, leaving her free to take a new 
 class from the primary transition department). And 
 normally the secondary-transition teachers also 
 would simply give their instruction for a year and 
 then let the young people pass on to the adolescent de- 
 partment or high school. The primary transition class 
 teacher alone would always have to use judgment in 
 determining when to advance her children to the 
 next class; and in case of marked backwardness in
 
 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 41 
 
 development or special delicacy the chief secondary 
 transition teacher would have to determine whether 
 to keep the young person longer than a year in her 
 department. 
 
 It is true, as indicated above, that the elementary 
 department teacher may have to deal with excep- 
 tional cases. She may find it well to advance a rapid- 
 ly maturing child into the secondary transition class 
 before the completion of the term of years established 
 for the continuance of her class, or to transfer him 
 to another class of the elementary department, in ad- 
 vance of her own ; and in the case of an especially 
 slowly developing child, she may find it well to ad- 
 vise that he be put into the next elementary class 
 below hers, instead of proceeding with the rest of 
 her class. But it must be remembered that these ex- 
 ceptional cases exist and need special treatment just 
 as much (more, in my opinion) under any other sys- 
 tem of school organization as they would under that 
 proposed ; and if teachers (making a special exception 
 of the primary transition teacher) are not compe- 
 tent to deal with the system proposed, they must (in 
 view of their inferior opportunities) be even less 
 competent to meet satisfactorily the difficulties of 
 the prevailing system of organization. And finally 
 it may be well to call attention again to the fact that 
 it would be the especial business of the principals 
 and other supervising officers to be on the lookout for 
 these exceptional cases and to advise the class teach- 
 ers regarding them, and that it would be the duty of
 
 42 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 the principal or superintendent to take the chief bur- 
 den of determining transfers from the primary tran- 
 sition class in case such a class should have to be 
 entrusted to an inexperienced teacher (which should 
 not ordinarily be the case). 
 
 As to the details of the organization of supervision, 
 whether there should be a principal for each of the 
 school departments (play school, primary transition 
 department, elementary department, secondary 
 transition department, and adolescent department, 
 or high school) or whether two or more of these should 
 be under the same principal, this would have to be 
 determined by local conditions, the size of the schools 
 and of the school system, etc., and in some measure 
 by the personal equation. The superintendent should 
 have as many assistants, principals or head teachers 
 to help him in the supervision of the schools as he 
 may find necessary. But it may be said in general 
 that it would be advisable to associate the play school 
 and the primary transition department especially 
 closely, and that the most competent and experienced 
 teacher working in any one department of the school 
 might be recognized as a sort of head teacher for that 
 department, to whom the other teachers could look 
 for counsel and who Avould be entitled to give such 
 counsel on her own initiative. As regards the sec- 
 ondary transition department, the instruction in the 
 several regular courses should be given by specialists, 
 who might also be instructors in the high school prop- 
 er ; but there should be one principal teacher for the
 
 THE REOEGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 43 
 
 secondary transition department, who should have 
 general charge of the class, and who might well be 
 the teacher who would be immediately charged with 
 the especial work of the more backward members of 
 the class. 
 
 Section 6. A number of the special questions that 
 may be suggested by the foregoing discussion can 
 only be answered intelligently after a somewhat par- 
 ticular consideration of the scope of the several de- 
 partments, or periods of school life corresponding to 
 the several normal stages of psycho-physical develop- 
 ment referred to in Postulate III. To such a partic- 
 ular consideration the reader's attention is now 
 invited. 
 
 11. 
 
 As to the Scope of the Several Departments of the 
 School. 
 
 Section 1. The Play School. 
 
 First of all comes the play school, in Avhich the 
 child should normally begin his school career and in 
 which he should remain during the first stage of 
 psycho-physical development with which the school 
 is concerned, which we have designated as the stage of 
 childhood proper, as distinguished from the preceed- 
 ing stage of infancy and the later stage of boyhood
 
 44 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 or girlhood proper. It is hardly necessary to state 
 that the stage or stages of infancy prior to the third 
 year of life, need not be taken into account by us in 
 considering the organization of school education, for 
 the consensus of opinion is practically unanimous 
 that, under the social conditions that prevail in the 
 civilized world today, the home is the most suitable 
 place for the education of the little being that has not 
 yet passed out of the stage of infancy. 
 
 With regard to the fairly well marked stage of 
 childhood, for which the play school is designed, I 
 shall not repeat here what competent observers and 
 students have set forth in regard to it, but will con- 
 tent myself with a reference to the article in the 
 Pedagogical Seminary for 1900 (volume 7) entitled 
 "Nascent Stages and their Pedagogical Significance," 
 by Mr. E. B. Bryan, at one time Superintendent of 
 Education in the Philippines, an article that from 
 the standpoint of pedagogy gives the best summary of 
 the several stages of human development with which 
 I am familiar. I shall, however, recall to my readers' 
 minds that this is a stage of fairly steady growth 
 in height and weight and a period of great mental 
 activity, but one in which, "owing to a lack of devel- 
 opment of the peripheral muscles and the nerves that 
 . control them," the movements of the child "are un- 
 coordinated, so that he is not effective as a producer, 
 and activity is its own excuse for being" ; and I would 
 also recall that this stage of development, beginning 
 normally about the completion of the second year of
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 45 
 
 post-natal life, seems to end about the eightli year 
 in the case of most American children, when "the 
 brain has approximated its full weight and is chang- 
 ing in its development from increase in size to in- 
 crease of function" ; and I would finally remind my 
 readers that in addition to this brain change there is 
 also, at the time of completion of this stage of devel- 
 opment, "a change in the rate of bodily grpwth, so 
 that the annual increase will be greater at the begin- 
 ning of this [new or transition'] stage than it has 
 been through the stage of childhood. The child is 
 losing his first teeth and the permanent ones are com- 
 ing. This more objective and superficial change seen 
 in the case of the teeth has many physical and mental 
 counterparts," so that ''the child is not quite at its 
 best either physically or mentally." 
 
 The play school should be primarily devoted to 
 healthy development and the cultivation — or let us 
 rather say, the encouragemeni: — of wide interests, not 
 to instilling into the child's mind a definite quantum 
 of exact information, nor to constant drill in the use 
 of the ''three R's," the elementary tools of scholarly 
 acquisition and expression. As everyone knows, the 
 child at this period is an animated interrogation 
 point (that is, until his great natural "curiosity" — 
 perhaps his divinest gift — has been dulled by the un- 
 responsiveness and continued snubbing of those 
 about him), and desires to know about everything, 
 to imitate every activity, and in general to do every- 
 thing that is suggested to him bv his environment
 
 46 THE KEOEGAXIZATIOX OF OUK SCHOOLS 
 
 and by the development of his physical and mental 
 powers; and it is of the utmost importance for his 
 future development, even more than for his present 
 richness of life, that this catholicity of interest 
 and high-hearted readiness to try his powers upon 
 everything should be cultivated. 
 
 Incidental to the cultivation of this inclination to 
 find interest in all that is, in every department of 
 human knowledge and human activity, it should be 
 as easy as it is desirable to lead the child before the 
 expiration of this period of his, development, to the 
 perception that the ability to measure and to count 
 and the ability to understand and to use written as 
 well as oral language will contribute much to his 
 happiness, by enabling him to do things that he al- 
 ready wishes to do, and to find out things for him- 
 self. If this much be accomplished at this time, it 
 will be found that when he reaches the age for 
 systematic training in the three R's he will take up 
 his work in arithmetic and in reading and writing 
 with the zest that comes from understanding the pur- 
 pose, and having a present appreciation of the value 
 of these studies, instead of regarding them as a more 
 or less mysterious drudgery to which children are 
 subjected by grown-ups on the assumption that when 
 the children themselves become grown-ups they will 
 have a use for it all. 
 
 As regards the other studies to be systematically 
 pursued as special subjects in later school life, such 
 as history, geography, and physical, chemical and
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 47 
 
 biological science, a proper interest in them will be 
 aroused by the nature study, by the observation and 
 imitation of living things and of the simpler and 
 more readily comprehensible and imitable forms of 
 adult human occupation, and by the plays and the 
 stories that should take up the time and constitute 
 the play-work of this period of school life. 
 
 It is through the play-impulse and the delight in 
 discovery that the child's mind and body should be 
 developed at this period ; but with reference to play, 
 it is well to remember that elaborately organized 
 "plays" are not suited to the child at this time and 
 are really hard work for him. The children should 
 be given large opportunity for free play, play that 
 will not only be spontaneous, but that must in large 
 measure be individual. Very simple joint plays, 
 either ring plays, in which all or a moiety of the 
 children do the same thing at the same time, or plays 
 of the follow-my-leader type, in which the children 
 successively do the same thing (provided plays of the 
 latter type be of short duration) or, on the other 
 hand, very loosely organized plays in which the par- 
 ticipants are at liberty to carry on their several parts 
 very much in their o^vn way, will doubtless be good ; 
 but much "team work," as that term is now generally 
 understood in the field of sport — that is to say, 
 elaborate cooperative plays in which the individual 
 members perform different functions in the perform- 
 ance of which the player must subordinate his play 
 to the interest of a fijial end to be attained by the
 
 48 THE REORGANIZATION OP OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 group as a group, — would be serious work for a child, 
 and would constitute a strain upon his physical 
 powers of cooperation that would probably be as 
 injurious to his healthy development as physical 
 exercises that should demand accurate coordi- 
 nation of the finer muscles. There should not 
 be expected or even permitted at this time any 
 functioning of mind or body so elaborate as to draw 
 largely upon the vital energy, which in childhood 
 must be primarily devoted to increase in bulk and 
 organization of the brain and nervous system and of 
 the muscular system and the rest of the body. 
 
 In so far as the child's occupation is free play, 
 carried on for the delight of doing it and given up 
 by each child the moment he wearies of it, he may be 
 allowed great range; but, bearing in mind that the 
 object of WORK "is a definite product, physical or 
 mental", the worlc of the play school should be lim- 
 ited to those kinds of activity for which the child has 
 a fair degree of capacity, those in which he can work 
 with facility; and in occupations of this sort he 
 should of course be encouraged to do as well as he 
 can. While the occupations of the play school should, 
 I think, be mainly play, some work should be de- 
 manded of the child for the sake of his moral develop- 
 ment, lest his nascent power of self-control should 
 become somewhat atrophied from disuse and his 
 spiritual nature be arrested in that pre-moral stage 
 of egoism perfectly natural to the young child. 
 
 As regards the content of the instruction given to
 
 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 49 
 
 the child at this time, let me speak first of the tradi- 
 tional three K's. It seems to me that arithmetic, 
 reading and writing, should only be taught to the ex- 
 tent that is found thoroughly enjoyable by the child 
 at this age, and only for periods in any given day so 
 brief that the children's attention may be readily 
 held throughout them. Board work in reading and 
 writing should precede the use of books or paper. 
 At the end of this period the child may have learned 
 to read from the board and from large-print books 
 very short and simple compositions, — stories, descrip- 
 tions and songs, — and he may also be able to work 
 very simple "mental" arithmetical problems in count- 
 ing, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, 
 and be able to read and write the digits and to under- 
 stand the place of units, tens and hundreds. But with 
 little regard to the extent of the acquirements gained 
 here, I think that arithmetic should be taken up sys- 
 tematically in the elementary department in such a 
 way that the child who had failed to get any idea of 
 number work in the play school or the primary 
 transition department might make a fresh start in 
 this later school period. 
 
 Nature study and the imitation of simple forms of 
 adult occupation ; descriptions of early stages of 
 human society, and stories from early periods of his- 
 tory illustrated by pictures and simple reconstruct- 
 tions, cave and wigwam making, weaving, sand and 
 clay modeling, simple gardening and cooking ; myths ; 
 healthy free play and exercises that do not strain the
 
 50 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 
 
 undeveloped psychic powers of cooperation or the un- 
 developed physical powers of accurate coordination ; 
 such loving little services for relatives and friends 
 as are quite within the child's powers, — these should 
 constitute the bulk of the curriculum of the play 
 school. 
 
 As regards myths, generally associated as they are 
 with the phenomena of nature or with phenomena of 
 moral consciousness, it should be said in passing that 
 they should never be given as pure stories quite with- 
 out explanation or introduction, nor should they be 
 elaborately analyzed and the allegory set forth with 
 great circumstantiality. They should rather be pre- 
 sented as stories coming down from early times, 
 either representing a belief of that time as to some- 
 thing of interest to human life, or else being a man- 
 ner of representing that something which gave pleas- 
 ure to those from whom we got the myth, and which 
 may give pleasure to the children. Whether they 
 should be accompanied or followed by a more scien- 
 tific representation of the matter in question would 
 depend entirely upon the special circumstances of the 
 case and upon the imaginative development, the ma- 
 turity and the curiosity of the child or children to 
 whom the myth is told. But care should always be 
 taken to present the myth (whether heathen or Bib- 
 lical) in such a way that, when the child should later 
 acquire a more scientific notion of the thing in ques- 
 tion, he should not feel that an untruthful represen- 
 tation had been made to him by his early teacher.
 
 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 51 
 
 As regards moral education in the play school, the 
 whole conduct of the school should give it ; and right 
 conduct upon the part of the child should be taught 
 by example and suggestion, by timely, concrete pre- 
 cept, by warm approval of serviceableness and sympa- 
 thy and~"consideration for others and of cleanliness 
 and orderliness, and also by telling interesting stories 
 that the children will love for their ovm sake, for 
 their action and imagery, and that w^ll at the same 
 time nTiake.virtue appear beautiful, — stories in which 
 truthfulness and simplicity, generosity and courtesy 
 and respect for the counsel and instructions of those 
 who are older and wiser than the hero or heroine or 
 upon whom he or she is dependent, shall characterize 
 the said hero or heroine. We should avoid trying 
 to teach by terrible example. The less suggestion of 
 evil, by the presentation of the misadventures of the 
 lazy, the filthy, the discourteous, the disobedient, the 
 unkind, and the cruel, the better. In special cases, or 
 where lightly and incidentally suggested, this may do 
 no harm and may occasionally do good ; but the less 
 of it the better. Avoid especially giving the bad 
 character the center of the field' or using a bad per- 
 son as a foil to bring out the excellences of another. 
 Stories of this kind tend to give a false idea of life 
 (for* in real life we do not find sheep and goats, per- 
 fect heroes and perfectly wricked villains, but only 
 more or less lovable human beings with varying kinds 
 and degrees of faultiness) and are quite certain to 
 cultivate priggishness even if they do not encourage
 
 52 THE BEOEGANIZATION OF OTJE SCHOOLS 
 
 the despicable and soul-destroying tendency to be ever 
 on the lookout for inferiority and unrighteousness 
 with which to compare one's self or one's heroes, in- 
 stead of seeking to make one's life beautiful by doing 
 beautiful things without thought of unbeautiful con- 
 duct or persons. "We should guard also against the 
 common disposition to make a myth or Bible story 
 or popular anecdote serve a definite moral purpose, 
 when if undoctored it might have a quite different ef- 
 fect. Above all, in dealing with heroes of history 
 or legend, we should never whitewash their conduct 
 in a questionable matter ; this is the most dangerous 
 form of teaching immorality hy suggestion. 
 
 In conclusion I would say that morality is to be 
 encouraged in the play school (as everywhere else) 
 chiefly by accustoming the child to moral habits. But 
 obedience must, in case of need, be insisted upon, 
 even though the child does not understand why he is 
 compelled to do the particular thing in question; 
 for the child must learn that his general well-being 
 is dependent upon submission to his guardians and to 
 the various instrumentalities of control established 
 by society, and he should learn early the important 
 lesson of life, that one cannot, and should not expect 
 to, have one's own way in all things. 
 
 Section 2. The Primary Transition Class. 
 
 What needs to be said about this stage of school 
 life, in addition to what has already been said under 
 the heading of The Play School, will for the sake of
 
 THE KEOEGANIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 53 
 
 brevity and convenience, be stated in connection with 
 the discussion of the Adaptability of the Curriculum 
 to Various Classes of Young Persons, in III infra. 
 
 Section 3. The Elementary Depart:ment, or 
 School of Boyhood and Girlhood Proper. 
 
 A. General View. In this department of school 
 life all the required work should be done during 
 school hours, except a limited amount of gathering 
 material and of individual observation in nature 
 study and perhaps also in the study of human occu- 
 pations and institutions. There may, however, be a 
 considerable amount of optional reading and compo- 
 sition work, and once or twice a year in the later 
 years of the course the teacher might require the 
 preparation of a composition out of school. 
 
 Speaking of this period — the period of boyhood 
 and girlhood proper, as distinguished from the pre- 
 ceding stage of childhood — Bryan in the work pre- 
 viously cited says : "The child is not simply his form- 
 er self gro-wn larger, but is in many ways an alto- 
 gether different being." "This is the period of en- 
 durance and of coordination mental and physical, 
 and mental with physical, the time for the storing up 
 of reserve power and the esiablishment of automa- 
 tisms' [Italics mine]. The students of this period of 
 development generally agree that it is a period of 
 fair strength and coordination and exceptional plas-
 
 54 THE BEOEGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 
 
 ticity of tissue, muscular and neural. Hence it is 
 the time for mental drill and practise, and for physi- 
 cal drill and practise so far as the resultant physical 
 development and training will not be lost by reason 
 of the very considerable muscular and neural changes 
 taking place at and after pubescence. 
 
 Bryan does well to remind us that attention brings 
 interest as truly as interest brings attention, and 
 therefore he advises that the attention of boys and 
 girls at this stage of development be directed to 
 "those things which serve as the alphabets of formal 
 school work" [I should prefer to say, the alphabets 
 of the universal (i. e., universally needed) arts of 
 civilization], even though at times their interest in 
 some lines must be induced by attention to them. As 
 to the ease with which this attention may be gained 
 and held, he wisely says that "if the time given to 
 reading before the child was seven years of age were 
 given to real things in which he has a lively interest 
 it would bring such a fund of information 
 and interest to the reading work at nine years of age 
 that the problem of method in teaching reading would 
 practically solve itself." 
 
 B. Curriculum. In this stage of school life 
 there should be a fairly systematic study of : — 
 
 1. Reckoning, or "Mathematics". — The bulk of 
 the work in mathematics should doubtless be what 
 is designated as arithmetic proper, but in connection 
 with this and with the manual training, drawing 
 and geography, the elements of concrete geometry
 
 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 55 
 
 would be learned, and I incline to the belief that be- 
 fore the expiration of this period of school life there 
 should be at least so much algebra introduced as to 
 give the boy or girl the idea of dealing with general- 
 ized qiiantities, or, in other words, with literal sym- 
 bols.* It is not necessary that this should be taught 
 under the name of "algebra" ; it may well be pre- 
 sented simply as one aspect of elementary mathe- 
 matics. 
 
 To maintain such an elasticity throughout the 
 whole school system as to make it adaptable to the 
 needs of all classes of school children, however irreg- 
 ular special circumstances may compel them to be in 
 their attendance ; to make it possible for any boy at 
 any given stage in his boyhood to find his proper place 
 in the school without primary reference to certain 
 definite attainments in school lore, and to enable him 
 to leave the school at any time that he may be com- 
 pelled to do so, with an education relatively complete 
 in reference to his then stage of development, and 
 fitting him to make the most of life with the equip- 
 ment thus far attained, — it seems to me very desir- 
 able that the arithmetic should be taught in what 
 is sometimes called the "concentric circle" man- 
 ner,f the fundamental principles being early learned 
 in and through their simplest applications and re- 
 
 * This is done in Germany; and in a number of the best 
 schools, where mathematics, rather than "arithmetic", is the 
 subject of study, the elements of arithmetic, geometry and al- 
 gebra are all acquired simply and naturally in the lower grades. 
 
 t Frank Hall's School Arithmetic is one in which the subject 
 is presented in this way.
 
 56 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 peated again and again with increasingly difficult ap- 
 plications. It has been shown in the better primary 
 schools that the principles of fractions may be used 
 in their application to simple concrete cases long be- 
 fore the pupil has learned the symbols for fractions 
 or knows that he knows anything about fractions. 
 Does not all work in division, indeed, when intelli- 
 gently done and not worked merely in accordance 
 with a rule learned by rote, constitute work in frac- 
 tions ? 
 
 Finally, let it be said that just so much of mathe- 
 matics should be learned by each individual pupil, 
 within this period of school life, as he can learn 
 without undue effort. There should he no fixed re- 
 quirement of hnowledge for graduation from this de- 
 partment of the school, and no driving or overwork 
 for slow or dull 'pupils. 
 
 2. Language (Oral speech and its written and 
 printed symbols). — Writing should of course be sys- 
 tematically practised, and the use of the vernacular 
 — oral and written composition, reading and spelling 
 — should be a constant part of the work in this 
 school. In spelling a select list of a few hundred 
 difficult or especially irregular words belonging to the 
 everyday^' vocabulary of life should be learned, in 
 addition to the incidental learning of spelling in con- 
 nection with reading and writing. In the latter part 
 
 * Why should the child spend his time learning to spell such 
 words as phthysic? In forty years of a somewhat wide expe- 
 rience of life, as teacher, lawyer, journalist, etc., I have never 
 had any occasion to use the word except as I am using it now.
 
 THE EEORGANIZATIOX OF OUE SCHOOLS 57 
 
 of the course the elements* of grammar should be 
 brought to the consciousness of the boy and girl (in 
 which work the study of another modern language 
 than the vernacular would assist) ; and I am inclined 
 to think that some notion of comparative philology 
 might be given either by the foreign-language teacher 
 or by the class-teacher in connection with the work 
 in history and English, but this is doubtful. There 
 should of course be systematic development in the 
 language work, and the cultivation of a knowledge of 
 and love for literature should be a conscious aim on 
 the part of the teacher. Yet, throughout, the lan- 
 guage work should be coordinated with, and by the 
 teacher consciously made a part of, the history, geog- 
 raphy and nature study, as indeed of every study in 
 the school. 
 
 This is the golden age for the practical acquire- 
 ment of a foreign language, and wherever possible at 
 least one modern language should be pursued by the 
 conversational method throughout this department 
 of the school. In the case of pupils who are later to 
 study several foreign languages, I should prefer 
 French,-}- both because the difficulties in its pronun- 
 ciation are best mastered at this age and because th(> 
 simplicity of its grammar would make its mastery 
 easier than that of a more elaborately inflected lan- 
 
 ♦ It seems to me highly unwise to trouble the child with 
 minutiae, to set him, for instance, to distinguish nicely between 
 adverbial and adjective modifiers in cases as to which it is often 
 difficult for specialists in grammar to agree. 
 
 t Today, in a gi-eat number of American communities, Span- 
 ish would be the most advisable foreig-n language for the public 
 schools.
 
 58 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 guage, and would thus bring to the boy or girl the 
 stimuhis of success and give him greater confidence 
 in himself generally and especially in his ability to 
 learn a foreign language. 
 
 3. The Economic and Cultural Development of 
 ManMnd, or '"History" — The history of the elemen- 
 tary department should not treat merely of the life 
 and institutions of the aborigines of America and 
 of so much of the recent development of Anglo-Saxon 
 civilization as happened to be transferred a few gen- 
 erations ago to the American continent, but should 
 treat of the general development of human society 
 and culture, and especially of economic development, 
 which would make the most natural center of interest 
 from which to gain some intelligent information as 
 to the development of art and science and the accom- 
 panying changes in social, political and religious in- 
 stitutions that have taken place as men have risen 
 from savagery and barbarism to civilization. In 
 other words, the conventional study of history should 
 in the elementary department be replaced by such a 
 study of the social life of man — economic, political, 
 religious and esthetic — as shall tend to make the com- 
 plex machinery of modern civilization comprehensible 
 to the boy and girl by reference to the simpler life of 
 a lower stage of human development out of which all 
 modern civilization (of which whole our American 
 civilization is but one of the parts) has developed. 
 The natural sympathy of the pre-adolescent child of 
 civilization for the manner of life of less highly de-
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATIOX OF OUE SCHOOLS 59 
 
 veloped human societies, suggests the best and most 
 effective way of giving the child an insight into the 
 real significance of history, inasmuch as it affords a 
 way of approaching the subject that is full of inter- 
 est for him, and even of delight, in proportion as he 
 is encouraged to act out and live again in some meas- 
 ure the history of the race.* 
 
 In connection with the study of geography the 
 story of the formation of the principal modern na- 
 tional states might be given to the boys and girls in 
 a very few words, and of course the story of the 
 United States and of the boys and girls' home com- 
 munity would be treated more fully than other parts 
 of history. The work in history would naturally 
 bring about an interest in civics. 
 
 Throughout the elementary study of history, biog- 
 raphy might well play a large part, but it certainly 
 should not be the exclusive method of approaching 
 the subject. Geography and the various arts of ex- 
 pression — modeling in sand and clay, basket work 
 and weaving, wood and perhaps a little metal work, 
 brush and pencil work, and of course literature — 
 should all make their contribution to the study of 
 human development (which I take to be the meaning 
 of history) as should also individual and class excur- 
 sions. 
 
 4. Geography (physical, political and commer- 
 
 • The elementary school forming a part of the Universitv of 
 Chicago's School of Education has given the most successful 
 Illustration of this method of teaching history that is known to 
 nie.
 
 60 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 cial), — never losing sight of the close connection of 
 this subject with nature study in general, on the one 
 hand, and with human economics, or history, on the 
 other. 
 
 5. Nature Study, or Elementary Science, — in 
 which it would be well to keep in mind the associa- 
 tions of the subject with geography, as well as to do 
 what can be done to lead the child to the gradual 
 realization that all human civilization so far attained 
 rests upon the partial understanding of nature and 
 the application of natural forces. After saying this, 
 I need hardly say that, notwithstanding the advocacy 
 of the opposite view by such a competent guide to 
 nature study as Professor Hodges of Clark Univer- 
 sity, I have the strongest conviction that the elemen- 
 tary facts of physics and chemistry, and not merely 
 the study of plants and animals, should constitute a 
 part of the nature study of the elementary depart- 
 ment. 
 
 6. Art and Manual Training. — Modeling in sand 
 and clay, brush work (with and without color) and 
 pencil work, wood work, weaving or basket work, and 
 vocal music should be pursued by all; and to these 
 other manual arts might be added if convenient, 
 while in the latter part of the course elementary 
 metal work for boys might, and training in the do- 
 mestic arts (housekeeping, cooking and sewing) for 
 the girls, should be provided. 
 
 It is to be remembered that the arts of writing; and 
 reading have already been mentioned under the head-
 
 THE KEOEGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 01 
 
 ing Language, and that the boys and girls would gain 
 an introduction to a number of the practical arts of 
 life through their study of social economics, or "his- 
 tory," and their nature study (I have in mind such 
 arts as gardening and simple cookery). But I have 
 made a special heading of art and manual training 
 because there should be a special time set apart for 
 systematic training of the hand and eye in coopera- 
 tion, and for similar training in singing and the ele- 
 ments of music. 
 
 Last, but by no means least, — 
 
 7. Physical Culture should constitute a regular 
 part of the work of the school; and in connection 
 with this branch especially, which should if possible 
 be under the supervision of a skilled physician 
 trained for the work of a physical director and health 
 officer, every effort should be made to study the in- 
 dividual needs of the boys and girls and to train them 
 in healthful and cleanly habits. 
 
 C. Usual Daily Pkogeam. I shall finish this 
 section by suggesting a daily program for the elemen- 
 tary department. Those who advocate for the ele- 
 mentary school manual training, physical culture, 
 nature study and the study of the fundamental arts 
 and institutions of human society, — what the Ger- 
 mans call the Realien, or subjects of actual human 
 interest, and what the conservatives call the fads, — 
 are continually being asked how these things can be 
 taught without crowding out the all-important three 
 R's; and while a partial answer to this is that the
 
 62 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 modern educator is constantly giving the child train- 
 ins; in lanariaffe and number work incidental to his 
 study of the things that are of interest to him in na- 
 ture and human society, it is desirable to show, in ad- 
 dition to this, that ample time can be set aside for 
 specific drill in the three K's, the alphabet of scholar- 
 ship, without excluding the subjects of actual human 
 interest and the training of the mind and body for a 
 ready response to the demands of a large, free, beauti- 
 ful life. Another reason for suggesting a daily pro- 
 gram is to show how conveniently the work of the gen- 
 eral class teacher and that of special teachers for mu- 
 sic and other forms of art, manual training, physical 
 culture and foreign language can be arranged, so that, 
 in the case of a fairly large and well-to-do school com- 
 munity that can afford to have these special branches 
 taught by special teachers, all the work of the gen- 
 eral class teacher could be done in the morning, leav- 
 ing the children the afternoon for work with the 
 special teachers. If, however, the school authorities 
 should feel that they could not afford to pay teachers 
 for but half a day's work, the program I have sug- 
 gested is so far reversible that class-teacher X might 
 carry out with class A the progi'am as proposed herein 
 for the morning session, and then in the afternoon re- 
 peat with Class B the program set forth for the morn- 
 ing, of course with the omission of the opening exer- 
 cises ; class B having taken in the forenoon with the 
 special teachers the work which class A will do, ac- 
 cording to the program set forth, in the afternoon. Of
 
 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 63 
 
 course the order of the subjects in the session taught 
 by special teachers would naturally be changed for the 
 different classes — class A, for instance, taking the pro- 
 gram as set forth, while the next class might give the 
 first period to French, take the second period for phys- 
 ical culture, etc. — so as to enable the same teacher to 
 take three or four classes in turn. But on the other 
 hand the order of exercises for the session taught by 
 the general class teacher (the "morning session," as 
 it appears below) should preferably be followed by 
 all classes throughout the whole school, so that, in 
 case any pupil should in some particular subject be 
 very much behind or ahead of his classmates, he could 
 take that subject with a class below or above that in 
 which the rest of his work were done. The conven- 
 ience of a uniform program throughout the school 
 system for such a case as I have mentioned and for 
 others which may occur to the reader, is obvious, but 
 this program should not become a straight-jacket for 
 the teacher, to be followed to the letter at any cost ; it 
 should merely be the usual thing. Freedom on the 
 part of the teacher in the execution of the general 
 purpose of the school should be encouraged, and she 
 might not infrequently find it advantageous to give 
 all or the greater part of the session to an excursion 
 into the woods or fields, or to a visit to some indus- 
 trial establishment, or to work in the school garden, 
 or indeed she might find that with a certain class more 
 time should be given to reading and less to arithme- 
 tic than the program provided for. In all such cases
 
 64 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 she should be free to use her own judgment, of course 
 consulting her principal or other supervisor with re- 
 gard to any considerable variation from the standard 
 program and of course being responsible for the re- 
 sults of such changes as she might introduce. In 
 general it may be said that the program, as well as 
 the curriculum itself, should not be an iron-bound 
 groove, or track, within which the teacher must travel 
 without a hair's breadth turn to right or left, but it 
 should rather be a cleared path along which she 
 would generally be helped by moving. It should 
 exist, not to cabin, crib, confine teachers and chil- 
 dren, but to help them. 
 
 It will be observed that all the work of the school 
 except the art work, manual training, physical cul- 
 ture, foreign language, and elective work, can be given 
 in the morning session ; but I think that an afternoon 
 session having a maximum length of two hours and 
 a half is not at all too much, especially when it is 
 borne in mind that the plan contemplates no required 
 home work. For boys and girls between eight or 
 nine and thirteen, five hours and a half a day of in- 
 teresting school work is not too much ; and I am in- 
 clined to think that much less would be a serious loss 
 to them. It must be remembered that of this five 
 hours and a half, only two hours and twenty minutes 
 in the morning session and thirty-five minutes in the 
 afternoon are given to mental, as distinct from physi- 
 cal and manual training ; the rest of the time is taken 
 up by recess and intermissions, physical culture, man-
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 65 
 
 ual training and art work. As to the nearly three 
 hours a day given to mental training and instruction, 
 the class teacher might not give much more than half 
 the time to class or group recitation from the same 
 group of children ; the rest of the time being devoted 
 to study, either by the class as a whole or by that 
 part of it which spent the other moiety of the time 
 in recitation. Of course I do not mean by thus dis- 
 tinguishing study and recitation that the class exer- 
 cise or recitation should be a mere examination by 
 the teacher of the boys and girls' acquisition ; it 
 should be primarily, I am inclined to think, the op- 
 portunity for the teacher to help the children to a 
 proper appreciation of the matter in hand. If in a 
 given subject the teacher had not divided the children 
 into groups for recitation, she could spend that part 
 of the time not used for a class exercise in individual 
 work with different pupils, the others meanwhile 
 studying. If the class were large she would probably 
 have with her, part of the time at least, an assistant 
 teacher, or training-school cadet, who would be doing 
 individual work with members of those groups not 
 at the time engaged in a class or group recitation. I 
 have suggested a noon recess of two hours, and I think 
 that this would normally be best for both pupils and 
 teachers; especially when it is remembered that the 
 school is not to be (as in the past it has too largely 
 been) a place in which the child is to receive drill 
 in the three R's and acquire a limited amount of in- 
 formation as to geography and a few other facts;
 
 66 THE KEOEGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 but that it is the child's opportunity, his most favor- 
 able opportunity, for preparing himself to play an 
 intelligent, a useful and happy part in the natural 
 and social environment in which his life exists. He 
 should do this in a somewhat leisurely way, without 
 undue haste, and should "live by the way," "Keep- 
 ing in" should be strictly prohibited at noon, and 
 should only be allowed in the afternoon, if it should 
 play any part at all in school life, in such exceptional 
 cases as deliberate refusal on the part of the pupil 
 to make any attempt to do his work at the proper 
 time, or as a punishment for malicious interference 
 with the work of the school. In such cases, the teach- 
 ers of the different classes could take turns in stay- 
 ing after school with pupils, so that no teacher would 
 have to remain often. Of course the length of the 
 noon recess would have to be determined by local 
 conditions, but the initial prejudice of teachers and 
 pupils in favor of a short recess, so as to make the 
 free part of the afternoon longer, should not be 
 given too much weight. A long, quiet noon recess, 
 making a real break in the day, would be of more 
 value than forty-five minutes gained in the afternoon 
 by rushing through the day. 
 
 Attention should perhaps be called to the fact that, 
 although the system proposed has so far assumed that 
 there would be special teachers for all of the subjects 
 assigned to the afternoon session, yet all of the work 
 but the foreign language could be given by the class 
 teacher if properly trained in a good, modern nor-
 
 THE EEOKGANIZATIOX OF OUE SCHOOLS 67 
 
 mal school. In case there were no special teachers 
 (as would probably be the case in most of our smaller 
 communities) the modern language would doubtless 
 be omitted from the school curriculum and the time 
 set apart for it might be devoted to study by the class 
 and individual assistance by the teacher. 
 
 In practice it would probably be well to dismiss 
 most of the children at the end of the third afternoon 
 period ; for any additional work that might be elected 
 — whether in music, a second foreign language, danc- 
 ing, drawing or painting, manual training or what- 
 ever else it might be — would be more likely in most 
 communities to be taken privately than in school. 
 Provision for such outside work seems to me to be a 
 matter of great importance ; one of the most serious 
 defects of our school system today being that it so 
 fills up the time of the child as to leave no opportunity 
 for the cultivation of a special talent. As a result of 
 this the musically or otherwise artistically gifted 
 child is too often driven to forfeit a general education 
 for the sake of properly cultivating his talent. To 
 return to the use to be made in school of the fourth 
 afternoon period, I would suggest that it would be 
 well to divide the class into several groups, each one 
 of which would remain in school the fourth afternoon 
 period at least once a week, to receive individual help 
 from the teacher or to study under her supervision. 
 
 Turning now to the program itself, I would explain 
 that where the subject is not repeated five times a 
 week the figure in parenthesis after the name of the
 
 68 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 subject indicates the number of times a week it ap- 
 pears in the daily order of exercises. Where two or 
 more subjects are grouped together, a -]- sign indi- 
 cates the desirability of devoting to the subject at 
 least the number of hours stated and perhaps more, 
 while a — sign indicates that the number of hours 
 stated is a maximum, which might be lessened. 
 
 Daily Pkogkam foe Elemeisttaey Depaetment 
 Morning Session, 9 — 12 A. M. 
 
 A. M. Minutes 
 
 9.00 Opening Exercises and Singing, 15 
 
 9.15 Reckoning and Mathematics, 35* 
 
 9.50 Intermission (brief), 5* 
 
 9.55 Writing (3) and Spelling (2), 35 
 
 10.30 Intermission (longer) 15 
 
 10.45 Development of Civilization, or History 
 (3 — ) and Geography and !N^a- 
 ture Study (2 + ) 35 
 
 11.20 Intermission (brief), 5 
 
 11.25 Reading (4 at first, 2 later), Composi- 
 tion (1 + ) and Grammar (last 
 two years, 2), 35 
 
 Afternoon Session, 2 — 4.30 P. M. 
 
 2.00 Manual Training (2), Drawing (2), and 
 
 Music (1), 35 
 
 2.35 Intermission (brief), 5 
 
 • Or 30-mlnute class periods and correspondingly longer in- 
 termissions.
 
 THE EEOKGANIZATION^ OF OUE SCHOOLS 69 
 
 2.40 Manual Training, cont'd (2), A Modern 
 language or period for study and 
 individual help from teacher 
 (3), _ 35 
 
 3.15 Intermission (brief), 5 
 
 3.20 Physical Culture, 35 
 
 3.55 Intermission (brief), 5 
 
 4.00 Optional Elective (4 — ) and Period for 
 individual help from teacher 
 (1+) 30 
 
 Note. — It may seem unnecessary, if not absurd, to 
 have the usual five-minute intermission before and 
 after the period for physical culture but, aside from 
 every other consideration, it is to be remembered that 
 where there are special teachers the program as above 
 set forth can only be that of one of the classes ; the 
 second class must take the afternoon subjects in a 
 different order ; the third in a still different order ; 
 hence the necessity for arranging the program so that 
 a brief intermission shall follow every class period. 
 Of course in case the subjects scheduled for the morn- 
 ing session are given in the afternoon, the necessity 
 for the five-minute intermission at the end of every 
 period but the last becomes still more evident. 
 
 Section 4. The Secoxdaey Tkaxsitiox Depaet- 
 MEXT^ OE the School fob Pubescents. 
 
 A. Ix Geneeal : — Between the stage of develop- 
 ment characterized as boyhood and girlhood proper,
 
 70 THE EEORGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 
 
 the stage for which our elementary department (cor- 
 responding roughly to what in American schools is 
 sometimes designated as the intermediate department 
 or the grammar school) is provided, and the stage of 
 adolescence proper, for which the secondary depart- 
 ment, or school for adolescents, or high school is de- 
 signed, comes the transition stage of pubescence ; and 
 important practical economic reasons combine with 
 theoretical pedagogical principles drawn from the 
 study of genetic psychology, to make? it advisable to 
 plan a special curriculum for that critical year in 
 the life of the young person in which he or she passes 
 from boyhood or girlhood proper into adolescence. 
 Such a curriculum for the secondary transition de- 
 partment of the school will now be proposed. I fore- 
 see that no part of this little work is likely to be 
 more severely criticised than this curriculum for a 
 secondary transition year; and yet I am inclined to 
 think it doubtful whether any suggestion contained 
 in this essay is of greater practical value than what 
 is here proposed for that year of school life whicli 
 may be regarded either as the finishing year of the 
 elementary school or as the introductory year of 
 the high school or secondary course of study, but 
 which, however regarded, is the most critical year in 
 the life of the young person and the one to which it 
 is of the utmost importance that his education should 
 be properly adapted. 
 
 The work of this transition department is planned 
 for a single year, not from any such theoretical con- 
 sideration as the supposition that a twelvemonth (or
 
 THE KEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 71 
 
 more accurately, nine months), best measures the 
 time during which the young person may properly be 
 regarded as pubescent rather than adolescent, but be- 
 cause of practical considerations. It is probably true 
 that the intensity of the desire to get a birdseye view 
 of things, to comprehend, to understand things, to see 
 things in their larger general relations, rather than 
 to manipulate things, is even stronger as adolescence 
 advances than at the moment of its ocjaception; yet 
 it is especially to answer this need, which the mind 
 of the young person passing from boyhood into youth 
 feels, that the curriculum of the secondary transi- 
 tion department is adapted. The important practical 
 considerations that point to a year as the normal 
 length for the secondary transition curriculum, are 
 that the law, in accordance with the wishes of a great 
 part of our population, generally permits parents to 
 take their children out of school and set them at work 
 at fourteen years of age, and that, as regards a very 
 large part of our population, both children and pa- 
 rents are eager to avail themselves of the privilege of 
 finishing the child's school life at this time. The 
 completion of the Secondary Transition Department 
 course, if only a year long, might be made the con- 
 dition of granting a license to work.* 
 
 * At the time this study was planned few American school 
 authorities would make room at all for what I have called a 
 Secondary Transition department and what some cities (as Los 
 Angeles) call an Intermediate school and others (as Worcester) 
 call a. Preparatory school. At the time this essay on the Organi- 
 zation of Education took its final form I had succeeded with 
 difficulty in getting a modification of my Secondary Transition 
 department substituted for the usual first year of high school 
 In a western city, and later pushed down into the "grammar
 
 72 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 As regards the young person himself, it is probably 
 true that the restiveness under the school life that so 
 generally shows itself at this age, the impatience of 
 the school routine and school discipline and the eager- 
 ness to get out of school and go to work or even re- 
 main at home and help in the work of the household, 
 is largely the result of a badly constructed course of 
 study and faulty methods, which fail to recognize the 
 important difference between boyhood and girlhood 
 proper, on the one hand, and pubescence on the other, 
 and fatuously endeavor to feed the expanding mind 
 of the pubescent with a mental pabulum that has 
 been primarily designed for younger children and 
 that is generally too one-sided and scholastic even to 
 be quite palatable for the more pliant and less self- 
 assertive and independent age of boyhood and girl- 
 hood proper. Were the school curriculum more wisely 
 planned, it is unquestionable that many more chil- 
 dren would be desirous of continuing their education 
 beyond the elementary school; yet we should not 
 shut our eyes to the fact that the evolution of a great 
 part of our composite population has not carried them 
 far enough along to make the higher education de- 
 sirable or even possible for them. A condition, not 
 a theory, confronts us in America, as elsewhere, to- 
 day ; and that condition is that for thousands of our 
 
 school" period of school life. I was influenced by such practical 
 considerations as these to treat this transition department as a 
 short course to be substituted for the usual eighth grade. At 
 the present time I rejoice to know that the conservative pres- 
 entation I have given to the subject is no longer necessary, 
 and that a number of progressive cities (including my present 
 home, Los Angeles) have adopted a three-year transition de- 
 partment beginning as low as the seventh grade.
 
 THE KEOKGANIZATIOX OF OUK SCHOOLS 73 
 
 Toung people the advent of adolescence marks the 
 period at which (exclusive) school life and theoretical 
 education should end, simply because they are intel- 
 lectually unfit for farther systematic advance along 
 any but the most practical lines. 
 
 The year's curriculum for the secondary transition 
 department is designed to meet the needs of that large 
 number whose school life, by reason either of material 
 or of intellectual poverty must end at the beginning 
 of adolescence; and at the same time to be no less 
 serviceable to those more fortunate young persons who 
 are to continue their systematic education through- 
 out a large part of the adolescent period. This two- 
 fold purpose is to be accomplished by giving to all 
 young people at the advent of adolescence a sum- 
 mary and conspectus of the fundamental facts of 
 science, history, and economics, — that is to say, what 
 man has learned about the world of which he is a 
 part and what mankind has accomplished for social 
 welfare, — and by giving them at the same time a 
 taste of literature, a little training in some practical 
 or fine art, an opportunity for a year's consecutive 
 work in a self-chosen line of study or practice, and 
 throughout the year the most careful physical train- 
 ing. This will help those whose school life is to end 
 at this point, to go to work w^ith such an intelligent 
 outlook upon their physical and social environment 
 as must be of advantage to them, both materially and 
 spiritually, in the struggle of life ; while those who 
 are to continue their education in the school for ado- 
 lescents will thus be provided with a rough chart of
 
 74 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 the scope and extent of human art and science, which 
 will enable them to elect their future studies with the 
 greater intelligence; and even should they specialize 
 quite narrowly in their future studies they will be 
 protected by this birdseye view of the breadth and 
 extent of human interests and this brief summary of 
 human achievements, from that narrow ignorance of 
 and indiiference to whatever lies outside one's own 
 field of study and effort which today so often charac- 
 terizes the highly trained specialist in science, art 
 and literature. 
 
 What I have suggested and now purpose to outline 
 with somewhat more of detail, may seem at first 
 glance to constitute a pretty heavy program for a 
 single year ; but in reality the course is light, rather 
 than heavy, for only the elective course and the course 
 in literature require any outside preparation. As 
 to these two courses it may be added that, should the 
 elective course be one in some line of manual training, 
 there would be little or no work in it outside of school 
 hours, and in the literature course, while outside 
 reading is to be encouraged, only a minimum of such 
 reading and little or no outside writing is to be re- 
 quired from any one who does not enjoy the work 
 enough to be personally desirous of doing the read- 
 ing and reporting thereon for his own pleasure and 
 entertainment. Physical culture is really to be cen- 
 tral this year, and all the work should be subject to 
 a competent physician's judgment as to the pupil's 
 fitness for it. While it might sometimes happen
 
 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS Y5 
 
 that an exceptionally delicate and nervous young 
 person could not take the whole curriculum in a 
 single year, yet the curriculum is deliberately 
 planned so that, in case the great physical changes 
 and the rapid and unsymmetrical growth that char- 
 acterize pubescence should unfit for much systematic 
 intellectual or physical work, a minimum of ejfort 
 and yet a maximum of inspiring and entertaining 
 occupation will be at hand.* 
 
 B. The Cureigulum for the Secondary Transi- 
 tion Department should consist of: — 
 1. Required Courses: 
 
 a. Science. A course designed to give a general 
 notion of the fundamental truths of nature thus far 
 established or regarded as highly probable by the 
 students of natural science. 
 
 This should be, in the main, a lecture and demon- 
 stration course; there should be no required home 
 work, no formal recitations; and, from the nature of 
 the course and its wide scope, there could be little 
 opportunity for individual laboratory experimenta- 
 tion on the part of the pupils ; but the instructor 
 might with advantage spend the first part of each 
 period enlisting the pupils' assistance in reviewing 
 the progress so far made in the course, thus testing 
 
 * With the omission of the physical culture (for which the 
 crowded buildings and insufficient appropriations made (alas!) 
 no provision) the course herein outlined for the Secondary 
 Transition Department, was given substantially in the ninth 
 grade or introductory year of the high school at I^incoln (Neb.), 
 during the four years that the author was in charge of that 
 institution.
 
 76 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 their understanding of what he had endeavored to 
 make clear to them, and taking this opportunity to 
 ehicidate the matter still further where that should 
 appear to be necessary. 
 
 The subjects following should be embraced in this 
 summary of contemporary science: physics, say the 
 first month, carried far enough to make it possible 
 to take up chemistry intelligently the second month. 
 After physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, phys- 
 ical geography and meteorology ; then biology (first 
 botany, then zoology), which should be completed 
 by the presentation of the elements of human phyi- 
 ology and hygiene. The course in biology should 
 acquaint the pupils with the general structure, life 
 history and habits of typical living beings, vegetable 
 and animal, from the lowest to the highest, and 
 should point out the correspondences found in the 
 embryonic development of different species and the 
 resemblance to lower adult forms seen in the early 
 stages of embryonic and extra-uterine development 
 of higher species. This introduction to biology, and 
 especially the attention given to the structure and 
 functions of human brings, should make evident 
 that thought, as well as emotion and sensation, is a 
 part of the life activity of the higher animals, and 
 should thus lay a foundation for the presentation 
 (in the last month of the school year) of the simplest 
 elements of psychology. This should consist in 
 showing, first, that there is a correspondence between 
 the emotion and thought of man and animals, on the
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATIO]!^ OF OUR SCHOOLS Y7 
 
 one hand, and the activity of their nerves and brains 
 on the other ; that bodily actions and habits of action 
 affect our thought and feeling, and that our thought 
 and feeling also affect our body; and hence, inci- 
 dentally, that the formation of good, wholesome 
 habits is of the utmost importance for us: secondly, 
 that it is easy to err by misinterpreting our sensa- 
 tions of sight, hearing, touch, etc., any one of which 
 may mislead us if not compared with our other sen- 
 sations — ^thus making evident that sanity and wis- 
 dom are dependent upon the correlation and com- 
 parison of all our sources of knowledge and the ac- 
 ceptance as true of that alone which is consistent 
 with all our means of judging of reality, Finally, 
 the pupils' attention should be brought to the fact 
 that all that we know (whether our knowledge relates 
 to "science" or to "history," as some philosophers 
 contrast those concepts), the whole of each man's 
 or boy's knowledge of the universe, is only what he 
 himself feels and thinks, — either what he is directly 
 conscious of in his sensations, emotions, and thoughts, 
 or what he is indirectly conscious of by hearing and 
 reading what others say as to what other people have 
 seen, heard, tasted, smelt, felt, thought, or, in a word, 
 been conscious of. In this way the young people 
 may be led to appreciate the fundamental distinction 
 between the objective consideration of the things 
 with which man concerns himself — the considera- 
 tion of them as parts of a great universe of reality 
 of which he himself is but a small part (this being
 
 78 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 the way in whicli the boy or girl has previously been 
 in the habit of considering everything) — and the 
 suhjedive consideration of everything as a part of 
 the consciousness of him, who is feeling these things 
 or thinking about them. I feel confident that a 
 competent instructor, by properly leading up to the 
 subject, can present even this crucial distinction of 
 psycholog}^ to normally intelligent young people 
 standing at the threshold of adolescence; but, 
 whether or not the pubescent can thus be led to pierce 
 to the heart of psychology, all the rest that I have 
 treated under this heading can and should be pre- 
 sented to the pubescent in a few simple talks illus- 
 trated by interesting but simple experiments. 
 
 As introductory to each division of natural sci- 
 ence treated of in this year's work, or at the conclu- 
 sion of the presentation of the special science in 
 question, or else, less desirably, at the end of the 
 whole year's work, during the last fortnight of the 
 school year, a few hours should be devoted to a brief 
 sketch of the progress of the science, calling atten- 
 tion to the biographies of some of those whose names 
 have been most closely associated with these con- 
 quests of nature. 
 
 These courses should be somewhat similar to the 
 better and more systematic popular science courses 
 offered to unlearned adults. Throughout, the hy- 
 pothetical character of scientific theories should not 
 be blinked, but the test of legitimacy in theory 
 should be insisted upon, — to wit, consistency with all
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS < !J 
 
 observed facts, and "workability", or effectiveness in 
 rendering the universe comprehensible. Text or guide 
 books of the several subjects, physics, chemistry, phys- 
 iology, etc., might be put into the hands of the pupils 
 as the several subjects are taken up (provided suit- 
 able books can be found), to help the student to a 
 fuller insight into the subject, if inclined to further 
 study; the pupils should be encouraged to keep note 
 books, and should be referred to the best books avail- 
 able to give them a larger knowledge of the subject; 
 a syllabus of the instructor's course might be put 
 into the pupils' hands, if nothing else were; but in 
 all cases the use of these aids should be left optional 
 with the pupil, his attendance at the lectures, or 
 tail's, and participation in the class discussion being 
 all that should be required of him. 
 
 While every effort should be made to interest the 
 young people, while the subject should be so pre- 
 sented as to give to reasonably attentive pupils a fair 
 knowledge of the most far-reaching results of the 
 science in question, and while the information-con- 
 tent of the instruction should be as large as the 
 limited time and, on the part of the pupil, the limited 
 experience, the immaturity and the ignorance of 
 auxiliary subjects would make possible, yet care 
 should be taken throughout to whet, rather than to 
 sate, the interest and intellectual appetite of the 
 young people ; interesting vistas not followed out 
 should be opened from time to time, and every ef- 
 fort made to show to these young people at this im-
 
 80 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 pressionable age how vast and interesting are the 
 fields of science, of which they are given a birdseye 
 view. When possible, occasional popular lectures by 
 distinguished specialists may be made a part of the 
 year's program. 
 
 The means by which the knowledge presented has 
 been reached, should be indicated, and the satisfac- 
 tion of being able to discover such things for one's 
 self strongly suggested. The necessity for a consid- 
 erable knowledge of mathematics for any extended, 
 first-hand knowledge of physics, astronomy, etc. 
 should be made very clear ; and the like necessity for 
 this mathematical knowledge in order to apply the 
 laws of physics to the practical problems of life, as 
 met by the mechanician and the engineer, should be 
 driven home. In short, while a sincere effort should 
 be made throughout the work of this year to give to 
 the young person a fairly systematic and comprehen- 
 sive idea of the true nature of the ivorld lie lives in, 
 of the operation of the forces that affect his life and 
 welfare, and of his own nature, he should through- 
 out be impressed by the vastness of it all and should 
 be made wise by becoming conscious of the extent of 
 his ignorance, so that the desire for larger, deeper, 
 first-hand knowledge may be aroused. In summing 
 up the history of the development of each of the 
 several sciences, advantage should be taken of the 
 opportunity to call attention to the most pressing 
 problems still awaiting solution, and to indicate the 
 points at which the students of the science in ques-
 
 THE KEOKGANIZATIOX OF OUR SCHOOLS 81 
 
 tion feel their ignorance most keenly. In a word, 
 the young people should be made to understand clear- 
 ly that at the end of this year they have but reached 
 the threshold of the world of science. 
 
 b. A course in the History of human develop- 
 ment, preceded by such a picture of primitive man 
 as anthropology suggests to us, and picturing savage 
 and barbarous life before passing to the historic na- 
 tions; giving the probable reasons for the early 
 development of a fairly high civilization in the great 
 sub-tropic river valleys of Africa and Asia minor; 
 and then proceeding to show how the present eco- 
 nomic, political and religious institutions of the 
 United States are indebted to those early civiliza- 
 tions ; showing how the torch of civilization has been 
 passed on from one people to another, variously mod- 
 ified in the transition, imtil today the descendants 
 of the barbarous hordes that inhabited central Europe 
 in the first century of the Christian era have achieved 
 in Europe, America and Australasia, the highest 
 civilization the world has yet attained ; showing that 
 the aH of each people and each period reflects, as it 
 is the expression of, the feeling of (the dominant 
 element of) the people of that time, and that progress 
 in science is progress in the (intellectual) interpreta- 
 tion of the habits of the universe, or, as we usually 
 say, of the laws of nature ; showing then how art and 
 science have reacted on the moral ideas of people and 
 changed their political and religious usages as well as 
 their industrial system. At the conclusion of the
 
 82 THE EEOKGANIZATIOI^ OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 course there should be an attempt to sum up the re- 
 sults of the moral insight gained by us at the end of 
 these centuries of progressive civilization, so that a 
 high and yet a sane and serviceable ideal of the true, 
 the good and the beautiful may uplift the hearts of 
 the young people. The meaning and importance of 
 the social sciences — of economics, political sciences, 
 ethics, esthetics and philosophy — should be indicated 
 at least. 
 
 This course should be given by lectures and auxil- 
 iary conversations; or rather, throughout by talks. 
 Good books of reference, as well as charts and maps, 
 should be at hand and should be referred to by the 
 teacher, and pupils should be encouraged to make 
 use of them. As regards books to be read in connec- 
 tion with the course, such works as West's Ancient 
 World and Davis's or Webster's Readings in Ancient 
 History would probably be more attractive and use- 
 ful than such a brief compendium as Myers's Gen- 
 eral History, on the one hand, or very elaborate 
 Special studies, on the other. Mrs. Sheldon-Barnes's 
 General History is full of valuable suggestions for 
 one conducting such a course as is here proposed. 
 Historical novels should be recommended to make the 
 course vivid ; and if it should be necessary, as a means 
 of interesting the pupils in them, a few hours in the 
 year might be devoted to readings by the instructor 
 from the best passages of some of these novels. At- 
 tention should be directed to the literary monuments, 
 and good translations of these should be at hand.
 
 THE EEOKGAXIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 83 
 
 There should be occasioual readings from such writ- 
 ers as Homer, Thucydides, Livy, Commines, Frois- 
 sart, from Feuelou's Telemache, from Chaucer, 
 Swift, Bunyan, aud the balhid literature, as well as 
 from the less literary remains of an earlier day, 
 such as the monkish chronicles (and the early writ- 
 ings of Egypt and Babylonia-Assyria should be sim- 
 ilarly used) . The poems and romances of early times 
 should be given some attention. Marco Polo and Sir 
 John Mandeville might be compared with Munchau- 
 sen on the one hand, and with Livingston and Stan- 
 ley on the other. 
 
 The course should be so arranged that the gTound 
 could be covered in four days a week, leaving every 
 fifth day for exercises of an auxiliary character, — 
 readings and discussions, perhaps debates on histori- 
 cal questions, plays, recitations, etc. But in the dis- 
 cussions and debates care should be taken that the 
 standards of today be not unfairly aj)plied to a diff- 
 erent stage of culture, with different conditions, pos- 
 sibilities and needs. Debate should be used, not to 
 intensify prejudice against this or that people, per- 
 son or line of conduct, but rather to awaken sympa- 
 thy with different phases of life and with unaccus- 
 tomed points of view. Pupils should be encouraged 
 in a friendly rivalry to see who could bring to the 
 class from the library the most interesting illustra- 
 tive matter; they might hand in to the teacher a brief 
 statement of what they had foimd, bearing on the 
 history of the people or period then under discussion ;
 
 84 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 and the best of these (or occasionally those which 
 showed the most effort) might be presented to the 
 class. Excursions, visits to museums and monu- 
 ments, etc., would also occasionally have their place, 
 so far as these would not interfere with the work in 
 the other departments of study pursued by the pupils. 
 But all the outside reading, preparation for discus- 
 sion, etc. should be optional. 
 
 c. A course in Literature and esthetics, which in 
 most schools would necessarily be almost exclusively 
 a course in literature. 
 
 One hour a week might be given to grammar, com- 
 position and elocutionary training, and in connection 
 with this work the a-b-c of comparative philology 
 might possibly be presented to the class; and one 
 hour each week might be devoted to the most interest- 
 ing literary and artistic creations of the world in 
 chronological order, thus making a valuable contri- 
 bution to the study of history while giving the young 
 people a glimpse of the great world classics ; but the 
 greater part of the time — say, three hours a week — 
 should be devoted to a flexible course in the literature 
 that would be most attractive and most beneficial to 
 early youth and most likely to give the young people 
 a love for reading. At the beginning of the course 
 the pupils should be asked to tell (either orally or 
 in writing) what they have read that they have most 
 enjoyed. At the end of the first week let them write 
 out a statement of all the works they have read that 
 they can remember, tell why they like this that they
 
 THE REOKGANIZATION OF OTJK SCHOOLS 85 
 
 have read and do not care for that, and state what 
 kind of reading they generally prefer. This should 
 be done in class unless the pupil prefers to do it 
 more elaborately outside of school hours. These 
 statements should be carefully studied by the instruc- 
 tor, who should work from them in preparing future 
 work for the class and in guiding the individual 
 reading of the pupils. , The pupils should under- 
 stand that these written statements are prepared by 
 them so that the instructor may remember what they 
 tell him or her as to their previous reading and pres- 
 ent preferences ; here, as every^vhere, the pupil should 
 think of his work, not as a formal composition, but as 
 something having an immediate purpose. The oral 
 and written statements of the pupil, the first month or 
 so, should hardly ever be criticised from the stand- 
 point of form (unless an individual pupil is especially 
 desirous of getting such criticism), if they can be un- 
 derstood ; barring such cases as those in which a kind- 
 ly explanatory correction by the instructor would 
 check a laugh on the part of the blunderer's fellow 
 pupils. Everything possible should be done to make 
 this course a thoroughly enjoyable one for the young 
 people. "Working in the light of the data obtained 
 from the pupils' statements the first week of the 
 school year, reading lists should be carefully pre- 
 pared, and some notion of the contents of these lists 
 at once given to the pupils, partly by the explana- 
 tory commentary of the instructor and partly by 
 turning the young people into the library to thumb
 
 86 THE KEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 the book themselves. Each pupil should be required 
 to read a few of these books and poems, but the se- 
 lection should be largely his own. !N'ot intense, 
 analytic study, but enjoyment of literature should be 
 cultivated. At this stage of growth there is strong 
 reason to believe that a love for reading will be better 
 cultivated by a wide, than by a thorough, knowledge 
 of books. The library should be large and have 
 nnich variety, and there should be many copies of the 
 books most likely to make a general appeal to early 
 adolescence. The pupils should be read to, and en- 
 couraged to bring to the class the best that they have 
 severally read — that is, the things that appeal most to 
 them. The more different the reading of the individ- 
 ual pupils, the more interesting this exercise might 
 be made and the better the opportunity to cultivate 
 expressive reading aloud on the part of the pupils. 
 Of course if A is especially interested in B's account 
 of what he has read or in his extract therefrom, A 
 will be likely to get a copy of the book for his o^vn 
 home reading. A part of the reading should be in 
 common, selected with prayer and trembling by the 
 instructor to appeal to the largest number and yet 
 enlarge and uplift their minds. Such of the ac- 
 knowledged classics as can be used with satisfaction 
 to the pupils should be made use of; but a classic 
 should not be forced upon them merely because the 
 judgment of adults has declared it to be a classic. In 
 the last third of the year I think it will be found that 
 the work read in common can safely be chosen for its
 
 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 87 
 
 beauty and strength (as cultivated adults judge such 
 matters), and that almost all of the pupils will enjoy 
 it. Biography will have its place in the literature 
 read by the youth of this department of the school. 
 The Bible should afford a part of the field for selec- 
 tion. I would suggest that beautiful selections there- 
 from be presented to the pupils without expressly 
 stating to them the source of the selections. When 
 the pupils show a sincere appreciation of the excel- 
 lence of these selections, the book and chapter from 
 which the selection was taken may be stated to the 
 pupils. It should never he forgotten that the great 
 function of literature is, not to improve the style or 
 the taste of those who peruse it, but to enlarge the 
 self by a knowledge of and sympathy with the life 
 and thought and feeling of those differently circum- 
 stanced from ourselves yet sharing with us the funda- 
 mental traits of human nature. As regards the 
 choice of literature for this stage of school life, it 
 may be added that the instructor need not fear to 
 introduce a little of that which makes the greatest 
 appeal to himself, of that which he himself enjoys 
 most, inasmmuch as his own enthusiasm may general- 
 ly be depended upon to awaken some response on the 
 part of the pupils ; but in the main what is to be read 
 must be determined by the preference of the pupil, 
 and the point of departure should be the best of what 
 the pupil already enjoys, or, at farthest, something 
 really good that yet has kinship with or likeness to 
 the pernicious reading matter for which the pupil
 
 88 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 may unfortunately have acquired a taste. Those of 
 the pupils who take to reading should be encouraged 
 to read much, reporting title and author, and making 
 oral — and occasional written — reports of the plot and 
 of the charm, as it appeals to them, of the works they 
 read. Should two readers of the same Avork express 
 opposite opinions, let them sometimes try in oral 
 debate to convince the class of the validity of their 
 Respective judgments.* This sort of thing may lead 
 to written persuasive discourse later. 
 
 As the year passes the instructor may be more and 
 more critical of the oral and written language of the 
 pupils, bringing them to feel its defects in compari- 
 son with the beauty and perfection of what they read, 
 and thus awakening their esthetic feeling in regard 
 to their own utterances, yet always making clearness 
 the chief consideration and leaving elegance and forc- 
 ibleness in the secondary position, being assured that 
 the growing esthetic judgment of youth will in time 
 care for these things. 
 
 If a pupil is markedly disinclined toward reading, 
 a minimum of outside reading should be assigned to 
 him — say, from one to three books or selections in 
 the course of the year — but redoubled effort should 
 be made to learn his tastes and to get something for 
 him that will appeal to him. With some young 
 people one may have to begin with what is not prop- 
 erly literature at all, but perhaps descriptions of 
 
 * This seems to me to be much more wholesome than the usual 
 school debating upon questions as to which an artificial enthu- 
 siasm for one side or the other is worked up.
 
 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 89 
 
 physical and mechanical constructions, in which a 
 certain class of practical minds seem j^reatly inter- 
 ested. Perhaps the minds of some can be cultivated 
 and enlarged by architecture, where literature seems 
 to fail ; but in such cases such literature as Ruskin's 
 may later be enjoyed, and thus the door opened into 
 the realm of true literature. 
 
 While throughout the year as much as one hour 
 a week might well be devoted to the work common 
 to the whole class, the greater part of the work 
 should be adapted to the individual needs and tastes 
 of the pupil. 
 
 So far as possible pictorial and plastic art should 
 be used to reinforce the esthetic impression produced 
 by literature, and it would be well indeed if there 
 could also be, as part of the year's work in literature 
 and esthetics, a series of music recitals with simple 
 explanatory introductions. 
 
 The work in literature and esthetics must be main- 
 ly literature, not merely because it constitutes a 
 broader avenue of culture, and because those who 
 leave school at the end of this year can most readily 
 follow up this line of culture, but also because it is 
 easier and less expensive to get literature properly 
 taught in the average community than it is to have 
 other departments of esthetic culture properly pre- 
 sented; but music, painting, sculpture and architec- 
 ture may all play their part in the gi'eat city high 
 schools, and the secondary transition departments 
 should have the same facilities as the high school 
 proper, or school for adolescents.
 
 90 THE REOKGANIZATION OF OTJK SCHOOLS 
 
 It goes without saying that while it may be possi- 
 ble for large classes in science and history to be met 
 by single instructors in the secondary transition de- 
 partment, the class in literature, if large, should be 
 divided into small sections; yet if the divisions are 
 not formed until the first fortnight has elapsed, the 
 tastes, acquirements and dispositions of the pupils 
 may be so far taken account of as to group together 
 fairly large sections in which there will be consider- 
 able homogeneity. Too great likeness among the 
 pupils of a given section is of course undesirable. 
 
 d. A Course in Physical Culture. 
 
 This should be alloted a period a day, or three 
 ]:)eriods a week at least, should be directed by a 
 thoroughly competent physical director, and should 
 be individually adapted to the several needs of the 
 different pupils, although as far as possible there 
 should be work in which all the boys could take 
 part together (and similarly for the girls). Part of 
 this training might be by means of games ; but the 
 great purpose of physical development for all should 
 not be subordinated to grouping the boys for those 
 games for which at the outset they might be respec- 
 tively best fitted. The great endeavor should be to 
 get the young people started in good physical habits 
 of life and to build up for them strong and healthy 
 bodies, trained to a ready and effective response to 
 the will. 
 
 e. A Course in Free-Hand Drawing, Music or 
 some other kind of Art-Work to be pursued at least
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 91 
 
 twice a week, if an art course is not tahen as the 
 elective. 
 
 2. Elective Course. 
 
 One exercise a day or at least four a week should 
 be devoted to a subject chosen by the pupil himself 
 in consultation with his parents. To this subject he 
 should devote himself earnestly, giving as much time 
 to it, in school or out, as the nature of the subject 
 might demand. This subject might be a foreign lan- 
 guage, or mathematics, or some such branch of fine 
 art as music or painting, or some practical art or 
 gTOup of arts such as commercial arithmetic, book- 
 keeping, typewriting, shorthand, or two or more of 
 these, cooking, sewing, turning, carpentry, iron work, 
 etc. 
 
 3. Optional Course. 
 
 An optional elective might be added to the required 
 one, to be pursued in school or out, by such students 
 as might have exceptional strength and robust health. 
 C. A Program for this year's work might be ar- 
 ranged as follows: — 
 8.30 — 9.00 Morning Exercises. 
 9.00 — 9.45 Science Course. 
 9.50—11.10 Elective Course. 
 11.15—12.00 History Course. 
 2.00 — 2.45 Literature & Esthetics Course. 
 2.50 — 4.00 Systematic Physical Culture, 3 times a 
 week. 
 
 Art (Drawing, Painting or Music), 
 etc. 2 times a week.
 
 92 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 This program allows two hours intermission in the 
 middle of the day, and then makes the school day 
 (including the last hour for physical culture) last 
 until about four o'clock. It will be noticed, how- 
 ever, that nearly an hour and a half is provided for 
 the elective subject so that there w^ould be little need 
 for much home work in the subject, and no need for 
 it in any of the other subjects, except the outside 
 reading in the literature course (most of which would 
 be optional). In winter, when the days are short, 
 the middle of the day, thus left free, is the most de- 
 sirable time for freedom to be out of doors, and in the 
 early fall there would be plenty of daylight after 
 four. The plan provides that practically all the work 
 be done in school, except an indefinite amount of 
 reading for the evening, which would provide an in- 
 teresting and enjoyable way of spending the evening 
 leisure. When the absence of home preparation is 
 considered, it will be seen that the school day should 
 not be regarded as a long one ; especially when the 
 long noon recess, the long period for physical culture 
 (only a part of which would be given to prescribed 
 physical drill), and the intermission periods are 
 considered. One reason for concentrating the work 
 at the school is that the high grade of qualification 
 required of those giving the instruction, in the synop- 
 tic courses in science and history especially, would 
 make it improbable that small villages could provide 
 the instruction. This would tend toward the estab- 
 lishment of these secondary transition schools only in
 
 THE eeoeganizatio:n' of oue schools 93 
 
 the larger towns, to which the youth might come 
 from outlying districts miles away. In such cases 
 they should be kept occupied while in school, their 
 school work should take five or six hours a day, but 
 they should not have it to attend to when at home, 
 except for an hour or so in the evening, after the 
 chores, the home duties, were disposed of. 
 
 In industrial cities and wherever the demand for 
 them exists, the courses offered in the secondary tran- 
 sition department should also be given in the evening. 
 
 SECTioiir 5. The High School, Secondaet De- 
 partment^ OR School for Adolescents. 
 
 A. General View. "When the high school, or 
 school for adolescents, has been reached, the work 
 should be arranged according to the annual, semi- 
 annual or quarterly classes or terms, that are now 
 usual throughout the whole school period. The ad- 
 vancement of the student in each subject should be 
 independent of his success or failure in other studies, 
 and the one test of promotion should be ability to 
 get greater benefit in the advanced class than he 
 could get from remaining in the lower class. In 
 order that the youth may get the greatest advantage 
 from so much schooling as he may be able to get, 
 wherever he may stop, and may have the widest pos- 
 sible field of study and activity before him at all 
 times, there must be both system and elasticity; and 
 after the first year of the high school it should be
 
 94 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 
 
 possible for him either to devote himself primarily to 
 the acquisition of the necessary means for the broad- 
 est and most thorough culture — in which case his 
 curriculum might correspond in large measure to the 
 college preparatory courses in a few of the best acad- 
 emies, high schools and fitting schools of today — or to 
 devote himself primarily to some one of the practical 
 arts of life — in which case his curriculum might be 
 similar to some one of the courses of study given in 
 technological, commercial, manual training, or even 
 in one of the best trade schools. The extent to which 
 elective courses should be offered by any given high 
 school would of course depend upon the wealth and 
 size of the community to which it might minister 
 and by which it might be supported and upon local 
 conditions generally, such as the predominant indus- 
 tries and the habits of life and the nativity of the 
 principal elements in the population. 
 
 The completion of the work of the secondary 
 transition department or its approximate equivalent 
 in scope of work should be a prerequisite for admis- 
 sion to the high school proper. 
 
 B. The FIRST YEAii^s work in the school for ado- 
 lescents should consist of — 
 
 1. English for three periods a week. At least 
 one period a week should be devoted to composition. 
 In addition to this there should be some study of 
 literary masterpieces. 
 
 2. History for two or three periods a week. The
 
 THE KEOEGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 95 
 
 work iu history should consist of a careful study of 
 some one period or institution, according to scientific 
 method, so that the students might not only learn 
 much of some one topic in history, but might also 
 gain a general acquaintance with the sources of his- 
 torical knowledge and the methods of historical re- 
 search, and thus be liberated, on the one hand, from 
 the credulity that accepts anything that is recorded 
 in print or handed down by tradition and, on the 
 other, from the injudicious, unenlightened, "cheap*' 
 skepticism that condemns all history and tradition as 
 wholly unreliable and characterizes it as a lying 
 farrago of imagination and superstition. For this 
 purpose and with a special view to the benefit of those 
 who would never have any further formal study of 
 history, a selection from the field of English or 
 Grecian history might be found most advisable, but 
 the selection should depend chiefly, I am inclined to 
 think, upon that in which the teacher is best 
 equipped, whether it be the reconstruction period of 
 American history or the age of Assurbanipal. In a 
 large school where considerable work in history can 
 be offered, the student might choose his subject in 
 history, but his choice should be enlightened by the 
 advice of the school officers. Whenever a single period 
 or institution is taken up for study, the teacher should 
 not fail to devote one or more lectures to setting forth 
 the relation of the special topic to the general course 
 of human development, 
 
 3. A laboratory study in some one science pur-
 
 96 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 
 
 sued for four or five periods a week. This laboratory 
 work should be supplemented by the presentation of 
 a general outline of the science of which it should be 
 a part. What laboratory science should be thus stud- 
 ied would depend, first, upon the resources of the 
 school, and, secondly, upon the practical or scholastic 
 career which the student expected to pursue. 
 
 4 and 5. Physical Culture (three times a week) 
 and Ai't (twice a week). The physical culture 
 should be adapted to the special needs of the individ- 
 ual, ascertained by a careful examination made by a 
 competent physical director. The art might take the 
 form of drawing, painting, modeling, carving, music, 
 or any other art which the taste and aptitude and 
 life purpose of the youth and the resources of the 
 school might render possible; or the student might 
 comply with this requirement by the private pursuit 
 of some artistic line of endeavor not provided by 
 the school. 
 
 6. Elective work to an amount not less than four 
 nor more than ten hours a week, in the case of a 
 normal youth, should complete the work of the first 
 year of the adolescent department. In the case of a 
 student looking forward to a technological, profes- 
 sional or university career, and generally in the case 
 of all not compelled by economic necessity to devote 
 these elective hours to special preparation for an im- 
 mediate calling, by the study of bookkeeping, type- 
 writing, carpentry or some other commercial or tech- 
 nical subject, the first elective studv should be math-
 
 THE KEOEGAJflZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 97 
 
 ematics (four periods a week) and the next should 
 normally be a foreign language.* 
 
 Inasmuch as the student would presumably have 
 studied one modern language throughout the four 
 years or so of the intermediate or elementary depart- 
 ment (the "school for boyhood and girlhood proper"), 
 and would thus have acquired a considerable degree 
 of proficiency in it, I think that the student desiring 
 a broad culture should be advised to make Latin the 
 language choice of this year (devoting four periods a 
 week to it and perhaps one to the continuation of the 
 modern language he has studied in the elementary 
 school). I recommend Latin, not because of its lit- 
 erary value, which seems to me markedly inferior to 
 Greek and to the modern languages of the leading 
 culture nations of our own day, nor because it is nec- 
 cessary for the acquirement of a notion of classical 
 culture (which can be acquired in other ways, and in 
 respect to which I would observe that the earnest 
 student of history, literature and art whose studies 
 are carried on through the medium of his vernacular, 
 may be greatly the superior of the man who has 
 studied Latin and Greek six or more years), nor yet 
 because of Latin's supposed peculiar fitness to impart 
 mental discipline (in which respect I fail to see any 
 marked superiority over German), but because this 
 
 • It would be dlfBcult to overestimate the cultural value of the 
 study of the language and literature of one or more foreign 
 peoples, In enabling one to look at life from a somewhat differ- 
 ent emotional and Intellectual standpoint from that of our own 
 (Anglo-Saxon) civilization — its value, that Is, in giving one a 
 method of triangulatlon that will enable him to estimate more 
 truly the magnitude and the meaning of life.
 
 98 THE EEORGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 
 
 language is at present a necessary tool for original 
 research into the history of almost every institution 
 of civilization and of every art and science that is not 
 of very recent birth, and because as the source of a 
 great percentage of English words and as a language 
 from which words and phrases are much quoted in the 
 literature of our own and of all other modem lan- 
 guages, and as the basis of many important modem 
 languages, including French, Italian and Spanish, 
 and finally as a highly inflected language the gram- 
 mar of which has been very carefully worked out and 
 the structure of which is continually used for the 
 illustration of philological and linguistic studies — it 
 has a great many practical claims upon the present- 
 day scholar, and its total neglect would seriously 
 limit his efficiency as a student and investigator and 
 the fulness of his enjoyment as a man of culture. 
 Once taken up, I think the study of Latin should 
 preferably be pursued for three or four years (at 
 least four periods a week), taking up Virgil the last 
 half of the third year. I do not think a longer period 
 than three years necessary for one who does not in- 
 tend to devote himself especially to classical literature 
 or to philology, and I believe that shorter period of 
 study — two years, or even one year, would not be 
 without value. 
 
 Whenever a second language is taken up, it would 
 be well to give not more than four periods a week to 
 it, so as to leave one period a week for the continu- 
 ance of the foreign language previously studied, if
 
 THE REOKGANIZATION OF OUK SCHOOLS 99 
 
 the latter would otherwise be discontinued. We need 
 in America to get away from the mechanical notion 
 that all school studies should be taken five times 
 a week. 
 
 During the first year of the school for adolescents^ 
 at least, provision should be made for study under 
 the direct supervision of the teacher, either by means 
 of "double periods" (the students spending part of 
 the period in a class exercise and the other part in 
 preparation for the next day's class exercise under 
 the eye of the teacher, thus giving the latter an oppor- 
 tunity to help individually those who need to learn 
 how to study or who have special difficulty with the 
 assigned task) or by means of a special hour with 
 the teacher, to be assigned for those students who do 
 not seem to prepare properly for the class exercise. 
 
 C. After This First Year of the school for ad- 
 olescents all hut from six to ten hours, for physical 
 culture, art and English, might he elective; election 
 of course, being subject to the fact that a certain 
 order of studies is prescribed by common sense and 
 ordinary convenience when it has once been deter- 
 mined that given studies are to be pursued, and sub- 
 ject to the further fact that any intelligent education 
 would naturally take the form of group electives 
 rather than miscellaneous individual elections. 
 Toward the end of the secondary course, however, all 
 students should have a term's work in psychology, in 
 political and economic science, and in the history of 
 philosophy, if not a philosophic review of the history
 
 100 THE REOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 of civilization. Although the study of English 
 should be pursued throughout the high school course, 
 the time formally devoted to it might in the later 
 years be limited to one period a week. In addition, 
 however, to the special study of English literature, 
 all the work of the high school, or school for adoles- 
 cents, should contribute to the study of English, and 
 all written work of the student, in whatever depart- 
 ment of study, should be carefully examined and per- 
 sistently (but not hypercritically) criticised from the 
 standpoint of straightforward, simple and forcible 
 English. It would be well to have English teachers 
 whose class work would be light enough to enable 
 them to devote a large part of their time to the exami- 
 nation and criticism of the oral and written work 
 of the students in classes other than English. Oral 
 discourse, narrative, descriptive, expository and ar- 
 gumentative, and oral reading, as well as written 
 composition and the appreciation of literature, should 
 be carefully cultivated. The work in history and in 
 foreign languages especially, should be made to con- 
 tribute to a mastery of English expression. 
 
 ITo electives should be chosen until after con- 
 sultation with the pupil's special adviser upon the 
 faculty, and with the principal, who would naturally 
 learn something of the student's bent and ability from 
 the teachers under whom he had previously worked, 
 and who, if fit for his important position, should have 
 a breadth of view sufficient to enable him to counsel 
 wisely in view of all the conditions confronting the
 
 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 101 
 
 youth. This advice, indeed, should be no mere tri- 
 fling incident of the principal's position, but should 
 be recognized as one of his most important functions 
 and one for which he should prepare himself by a 
 careful study of the conditions of life and the indi- 
 vidual strength and weakness of his pupils. 
 
 In a large school for adolescents, in a rich and 
 populous community, it should be perfectly feasible 
 for a student to pursue the so-called cultural and vo- 
 cational studies side by side for an indefinite num- 
 ber of years. By arranging both morning and after- 
 noon sessions so that two youths might work their way 
 through school by being employed in the same indus- 
 trial establishment, the one working in the morning 
 and the other in the afternoon, attending their school 
 classes in the reverse order, school managers could 
 in an industrial community make it possible for 
 every youth to get the full benefit of all the education- 
 al facilities given by the school, however long and 
 elaborate the courses, without cost to the parent ; for I 
 have the assurance of competent and experienced 
 employers of labor that the average youth of sixteen 
 can easily support himself by five hours labor a day 
 at work which can readily be learned in a few weeks. 
 In the larger cities the high school might well melt 
 into and coalesce with the polytechnic institute and 
 the college, and it should fit its pupils to enter at 
 once upon professional or true university studies 
 without the intervention of any college baccalaureate 
 course. Our present system of four vears of high
 
 102 THE KEOEGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 school followed by four college years as preliminary 
 to professional or advanced university courses is 
 merely an accident of history, is not logical, not nec- 
 essary, not even desirable, and is rapidly coming to 
 be recognized as an anachronism. The broad foun- 
 dation of general culture should be laid in the en- 
 larged secondary school, or school for adolescents, so 
 as to leave the student free to specialize as closely as 
 he may desire to do upon passing to the university or 
 professional school. 
 
 The "Junior College" movement is a wholesome 
 step in the right direction ; but instead of regarding 
 the junior college as constituted by a definite two 
 years' course of study superimposed upon an equally 
 definite four-year high-school course and leading to 
 the junior year of the American baccalaureate course, 
 it would be well for us to look upon the junior col- 
 lege simply as the enriched upper high school, or 
 school for adolescentsj([following upon the Secondary 
 Transition Department, "Intermediate School," 
 "Preparatory Department," or "Junior High School," 
 as the school for pubescents is variously callech, and 
 giving one, in a course of study that could be covered 
 in from three to five years, either the preparation 
 necessary to enable one to profit by university studies 
 or a basis of general culture and practical efiiciency 
 that would enable one to enter the industrial world 
 fairly well equipped to play one's part as a good citi- 
 zen, and a useful man or woman. 
 
 The logical distinction between the schools of sec-
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 103 
 
 ondary grade (with which we are now concerned) 
 and the university, together with such professional 
 schools as belong to it (wherein are studied medicine, 
 advanced engineering, advanced agricultural science, 
 advanced political science, advanced history and 
 mathematics and physics and chemistry and biology 
 and philology etc.), lies in the fact that the primary 
 function of the secondary schools is simply to impart 
 a knowledge of such of the facts and theories of inter- 
 est to human life as are generally admitted to be true 
 and useful, such of the arts and sciences, that is, aa 
 have reached the positive stage ; the function of these 
 schools is to enable the student to attain such a famil- 
 iarity with accepted truth as will enable him, not as 
 a specialist, but as a member of the present genera- 
 tion, to make use in the ordinary affairs of life of 
 what has been achieved by an earlier human effort; 
 while the function of the university '_(and of profes- 
 sional and technological schools of university rank) 
 is to give the specialist's mastery and to so use the 
 known as to advance into the realm of the undiscov- 
 ered. To this end the university carefully preserves 
 all that has been learned in the past, regardless of 
 whether any practical application for the knowledge 
 has yet been found, disseminates the most recent dis- 
 coveries and hypotheses, trains promising young men 
 in methods favorable to original research, and with 
 their assistance projects itself into what had previ- 
 ously been terra incognita.
 
 104 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 III. 
 
 As TO THE Adaptation of the Plan of Oegani- 
 
 ZATION TO THE VaRIOUS ClASSES OF YoUNG PeOPLE. 
 
 Although most of what is to follow has been implied 
 if not explicitly stated, in what precedes, it would 
 seem to be worth while, for the sake of clearness, to 
 complete this exposition of the proposed system of 
 grading, by setting forth with some particularity how 
 it would apply in the case of different classes of young 
 people. 
 
 Section 1. As to Gikls. 
 
 As to girls I have but a few words to say at this 
 time. The course I have outlined seems to me to be 
 equally applicable to boys and girls, although it was 
 planned with boys chiefly in mind. I think we may 
 take for granted that the work of the Play School and 
 the Primary Transition Department should be the 
 same for boys and girls, and that the classes in these 
 first two departments of the school should consist of 
 boys and girls together. A certain amount of train- 
 ing in the fundamental industrial arts would be a 
 part of the curriculum in the first three departments 
 for boys and girls alike, but it might also be well in 
 the latter part of the curriculum of the Elementary 
 Department to make the manual training work for 
 boys and for girls somewhat different, initiating the 
 girls more fully into the arts of homekeeping. Except 
 so far as this difference in the work should make sepa-
 
 THE EEOROANIZATION OF ODE SCHOOLS 105 
 
 ration necessary, I think it would be well to keep the 
 boys and girls in common classes throughout the El- 
 ementary School period. I confess that I have not 
 yet given suflScient consideration to female education 
 as such to speak with much positiveness about the ed- 
 ucation of girls after this period. It seems to me, 
 however, that the curriculum hereinbefore set forth 
 for the Secondary Transition Department and sug- 
 gested for the Adolescent Department is equally ap- 
 plicable for youths and maidens, except, of course, 
 that different electives would normally be advisable 
 and that a course in home economics should be pre- 
 scribed for girls in the first year or two of the Ado- 
 lescent Department, if not also in the Secondary 
 Transition Department. In view of the fact that 
 continuous individual progress from year to year 
 throughout the whole period of years during which 
 the subject is studied,* rather than certain definitely 
 prescribed attainments as the conditions of promotion 
 from one annual or semi-annual class to another, is 
 the method I would have followed in the study of 
 foreign language and mathematics in the Adolescent 
 Department of the school, I do not feel that the dif- 
 ferences in the rate of growth and in physical and 
 intellectual vigor in adolescent males and females 
 make separate classes in these subjects necessary. The 
 instruction in these subjects, in history and "the 
 humanities" generally, and in physical, as distinct 
 
 * Compare Search's "Ideal School" and Hornbrook's "Labora- 
 tory Method of Teaching Mathemathlcs in Secondary Schools" 
 for somewliat detailed expositions of the method to be employed.
 
 106 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 from biological sciences, might well be given in com- 
 mon classes ; but tbe instruction in human physiology 
 and preferably all that in biology, should be given in 
 separate classes, as well as the (prescribed) work in 
 physical training and perhaps some of the advanced 
 reading courses in the several languages. It seems to 
 me eminently desirable, for the sake of that larger 
 education for life which is of so much more impor- 
 tance than "book-learning," that youths and maidens 
 should have a part of their education in common 
 classes; but such common classes should be so con- 
 ducted that the girls should be subject to no serious 
 disadvantage and to no embarrassment by reason of 
 such irregularity in attendance as is physiologically 
 desirable for them. Further than this, whether in 
 mixed classes or in classes wholly composed of girls, 
 the latter should be subject to no penalty for not 
 taking review examinations or subjecting themselves 
 to formal tests at fixed dates* (provided, of course, 
 
 * I would not have it understood that I regard examinations 
 as useless or pernicious, as some extremists maintain, yet, as 
 they are usiially conducted, I regret to say that I believe they 
 are more harmful than helpful to girls. The nervous strain 
 is frequently very injurious, and the thought of a coming 
 examination too frequently encourages an illiberal, literal method 
 of study, to which in our present stage of culture, girls seem 
 somewhat more inclined than young men. On the other hand, 
 the mental training that the review examination gives, which 
 is so valuable for the man of affairs, the lawyer, the publicist, 
 is generally less necessary for girls than for boys, unless the 
 girls are preparing for the teaching profession. Yet it is for 
 this mental training that examinations are primarily valuable. 
 They are to be regarded more as a means of education than 
 as a test of knowledge. Properly planned and conducted they 
 are of great value in encouraging one to review, reorganize and 
 summarize — and thus make one's own — the facts and the 
 underlying principles that have constituted the subject matter 
 of one's study for a considerable period of time. And in addi- 
 tion to this, it should not be forgotten that even "cramming"
 
 TUB KEORGAXIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 107 
 
 that their daily work shows that they are fairly atten- 
 tive to their class duties*). So far as such exercises 
 may be necessary, they should be arranged for at the 
 convenience of the girls individually. If these mat- 
 ters could not be arranged satisfactorily in common 
 classes, the classes for youths and for girls should be 
 separate. But in most cases I am of the opinion 
 that they could be satisfactorily arranged. 
 
 Section 2. The I^ormally Developing Child 
 OF Average Ability. 
 
 The normal child might well enter The Play 
 School (or Primary Department) at four or five years 
 of age, and spend not less than two years there under 
 the same teacher with a class most of whom would 
 have begim their school life at the same time he did. 
 At the end of two or threef years, his teacher 
 would start with another class of beginners, and 
 at the same time he and those of his classmates who 
 had not already been transferred would pass into The 
 Primary Transition Department, where he would 
 normally spend from one to two years under his sec- 
 
 for an examination, although the knowledge thus gathered to- 
 gether and held in the mind for a few hours, or days (I. e. 
 until the examination is passed) is then almost wholly for- 
 gotten, is by no means a valueless exercise. This power of gath- 
 ering together in a short time, and holding in mind for a brief 
 period, a large body of facts, is of great value to the lawyer, 
 the statesman, the public speaker of any kind; and not onlv to 
 the lecturer, but hardly less so to the reviewer and " tlie 
 journalist. 
 
 • In which case they might be given a B grade without an 
 examination. 
 
 t W^hether two or three or three and a half years would be the 
 normal term for the Play School must be determined by experi- 
 ment.
 
 108 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 end teacher, continuing the occupations of the 
 Play School, or a part of them, under the same gen- 
 eral methods. 
 
 As far as mental training and moral development 
 are concerned, it might generally be possible for the 
 child to take up the work of the Elementary Depart- 
 ment, the school of boyhood and girlhood proper (cor- 
 responding in a general way to what in our American 
 public schools is often called the intermediate de- 
 partment or grammar school, — the Play School and 
 the Primary Transition Department together corre- 
 sponding to the kindergarten and primary depart- 
 ments of the present school system), after one year 
 in the Primary Transition Department, or even 
 immediately upon passing from the Play School. The 
 object of keeping a child in the Primary Transition 
 Department as long as two years (or longer) would 
 simply be to make sure that he had completely 
 passed through what is sometimes called the crisis of 
 second dentition, the period of lessened vitality that 
 often, if not always, marks that stage in the develop- 
 ment of a child when his brain has approximately at- 
 tained its full bulk and he is rapidly losing his first 
 and gaining his second teeth. When this period of 
 development has been safely passed through, and not 
 until then, whether it be after one, two, two and a 
 half, or three years in the Primary Transition De- 
 partment, and when the child has entered upon that 
 period, generally marked by sturdiness and steady 
 growth, described above as characteristic of boyhood
 
 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 100 
 
 or girlhood proper, as distinguished from childhood 
 on the one hand and adolescence on the other, then 
 the boy or girl should be advanced into the Elemen- 
 tary or Intermediate Department. 
 
 The subject matter and the method of instruction 
 and training in the Primary Transition Department 
 and the Play School, would be so similar that they 
 might be conducted as one continuous class were it 
 not for the necessity of meeting the various needs of 
 children maturing at different rates of development 
 and entering school at different ages, and were it not 
 that in the Primary Transition Department the health 
 of the child should be the primary consideration even 
 more than in the Play School. In consequence of 
 these considerations the treatment of the children in 
 the Primary Transition Department would be more 
 largely individual that at any other stage of the 
 child's life prior to adolescence ; and this department 
 is especially designed to give to the curriculum as a 
 whole the elasticity it should have, and with this end 
 in view it affords the opportunity for considerable 
 interruptions of the routine of school life in case 
 such interruptions should seem desirable for any 
 child. In the case of an especially delicate child the 
 time covered by this stage of development could be 
 spent in out-of-door life wholly outside the school, 
 and the child of rich parents might be out of school 
 at this time acquiring a foreign language by the nat- 
 ural, conversational method. During the two or 
 three years of the Play School the normal course of
 
 110 THE EEOEGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 development and unfolding of the child's mind should 
 be carefully ministered to according to the best 
 knowledge attainable in the light of child study and 
 comparative psychology and physiology, and here the 
 teacher's procedure would exhibit its method in a 
 fairly regular and uniform progression. In the Pri- 
 mary Transition Department, however, while the ef- 
 fort should be made to keep the child from losing what 
 it might have gained in moral training in the Play 
 School, and to keep its mind open to the beauty and 
 interest of the myriad phases of life, and to encourage 
 the gTadual perception of the orderly development of 
 all that is, yet a larger freedom of individual treat- 
 ment of the children would be possible and desirable 
 here, and a systematic line of development would be 
 less necessary. 
 
 The Elementary Department would be entered by 
 the normal child whose course we have been follow- 
 ing, in his ninth or tenth year, and here he would 
 usually spend about four years under the same 
 teacher, who would conduct him through the whole 
 elementary school curriculum, with the assistance, in 
 the larger cities, of special teachers for manual train- 
 ing, physical culture, and foreign language, and for 
 music, drawing, etc. 
 
 The Secondary Transition Department would then 
 be entered by our normal child in his thirteenth or 
 fourteenth year, and its course would ordinarily be 
 completed in a year. 
 
 The Adolescent Department, Secondary Depart-
 
 THE REOEGAXIZATIOX OF OUK SCHOOLS 111 
 
 ment, or High School would be entered by tbe young 
 person who bad spent but a year in the Secondary 
 Transition Department, in bis fourteenth or fifteenth 
 year; and here be might remain from one to five 
 years or longer, according to bis plans for life, taking 
 such a course as might suit him. 
 
 Every effort should be made by the public and 
 school authorities, as well as by the parents, to give 
 the youth or maiden, at least the first year of the Ad- 
 olescent Department, or High School course, before 
 allowing him or her to leave school. If the law should 
 provide that admission to the Secondary Transition 
 Department should be granted to every child who 
 had attained the age of thirteen at tbe beginning of 
 the school year, in case the parent should demand it 
 (regardless of the young person's definite attain- 
 ments in scholarship at that time), and should pro- 
 vide further that, after attending for a year the 
 classes provided for in the Secondary Transition De- 
 partment, the youth should be granted admission to 
 the first year classes of the Adolescent Department, it 
 would be perfectly feasible to make one year's work 
 in the high school, or Adolescent Department, the 
 minimum limit of compulsory education for all 
 young persons not excused therefrom by reason of 
 physical or mental inferiority as determined by a 
 competent physician's certificate. (In any case the 
 completion of the Secondary Transition year should 
 be required.) Let me add that I do not shrink from 
 any necessary corollary of what I have just proposed,
 
 112 THE KEORGANIZATION OF OTTB SCHOOLS 
 
 such as providing at public expense the necessary 
 food or clothing or shelter for orphans or the children 
 of parents too poor to keep their children at school 
 until the completion of their fifteenth year. The 
 poverty or illiberality of parents should not be al- 
 lov7ed to deprive the men and women of tomorrow of 
 a sufficient introduction to the rudiments of art and 
 science to make them capable workers and intelligent 
 citizens of the world. I am sure that a careful statis- 
 tical investigation of the subject will convince the 
 most skeptical that the state that allowed no person 
 of normal (physical or mental) health to enter upon 
 his or her life work with less education than I have 
 suggested as a minimum, would from the economic 
 standpoint find itself amply compensated for the re- 
 quisite outlay by reason of the increased wealth and 
 tax-paying power of the community as a whole and 
 of the individual citizens. 
 
 I would add, however, with reference to the ques- 
 tion of expense, that a little intelligent co-operation 
 between the school authorities and employers of labor 
 in a given community would make it possible to re- 
 lieve the parents (as well as the piihlic) of all ex- 
 pense for the support of their children after they had 
 completed the Secondary Transition year (at about 
 fourteen years of age) and yet enable the latter to 
 carry their seco7idary education as far as they might 
 wish to carry it. This would simply require, on the 
 one hand, both morning and afternoon sessions of 
 classes of the same grade in the Adolescent Depart-
 
 THE! EEORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 113 
 
 ineut of the scliools, and ou the other hand that em- 
 ployers of labor who eonld make use of the services 
 of adolescents should, instead of employing one per- 
 son for eight or ten hours a day, employ two persons 
 for four or five hours a day each. The employers 
 would probably get more work done for the same out- 
 lay of time and money, by thus making use of two 
 sets of workers, than they could get from one set of 
 persons Avorking all day long at the same job and 
 more or less worn out during the latter part of the 
 day. A ten-hour industrial day, would, in this way, 
 work less hardship) upon the individuals doing the 
 labor than now results from an eight-hour day. It 
 goes without saying, of course, that the pupil thus 
 working his way through high school should not go 
 so fast, take so many studies a day, as the youth who 
 has nothing but his school and a few light home 
 duties; but the former could probably complete the 
 same course in a period one-third longer than would 
 be taken by the rich man's son, although it is doubtful 
 if the latter would have as valuable a preparation for 
 life as the schoolmate who had meanwhile been learn- 
 ing to take care of himself. 
 
 Section 3. The Child of Slow Developmeivt. 
 
 He might begin school a year or two later than the 
 normal child. If he should begin before six he 
 would still be able to spend two years in the Play 
 School before entering the Primary Transition class, 
 where he might remain until he were nine or even
 
 114 THE REORGAlSriZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 ten if his physical development were very slow. He 
 would then normally spend four years in the Elemen- 
 tary Department, at the expiration of which time he 
 would have attained his fourteenth year at least. At 
 this time, although he might have achieved much less 
 in this department of the school than most of his 
 classmates (notwithstanding that they would general- 
 ly be a year or two younger than he), it would nor- 
 mally he desirable for him to pass into the Secondary 
 Transition class. If his health were good and he 
 were now in the pubescent stage he might complete 
 the work of this department of the school in a year, 
 and might if necessary spend the five periods a week 
 set apart for an elective study, in working up, with 
 the assistance of a teacher who should give him indi- 
 vidual instruction, those of the Elementary Depart- 
 ment studies, such as English and arithmetic, in 
 which he might be especially backward. The English 
 work forming a regular part of the curriculum of the 
 Secondary Transition Department would also be such 
 as could be especially adapted to the mental imma- 
 turity of one who should need that it should be so 
 adapted. Upon completing the work of the Second- 
 ary Transition Department the youth in question 
 would take the prescribed work of the first year of the 
 Adolescent Department or High School, and as much 
 more as might be good for him ; and after that he 
 could go as far in his studies and at as rapid or as 
 slow a pace as might suit him. 
 
 If, however, after four years spent in the Elemen-
 
 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 115 
 
 tary Department he should still be more immature 
 physically than his classmates, he might pass into the 
 next Elementary class below his own, to remain an- 
 other year or so in the Elementary Department; or 
 he might give two years to the Secondary Transition 
 Department, devoting, during the first year at least, 
 the period a day set apart for elective work to any 
 elementary work in which he were especially back- 
 ward, if any such there were, and, while taking the 
 physical training and art work both years, following 
 only the science course and the English course the 
 first year, leaving the course in history together with 
 such elective work as might be desired and further 
 work in English for the second year. He would then 
 complete the prescribed work of the first year of the 
 high school and take as much more work as might be 
 good for him. 
 
 Section 4. The Child of Exceptionally Kapid 
 Growth and Early Maturity of Mind or Body. 
 
 Such a child, who might enter school at three or 
 four years of age, would also spend at least two years 
 in the Play School, and, even though he should have 
 passed the crisis of second dentition before complet- 
 ing his seventh year, he would still spend about a year 
 in the Primary Transition Department; then in his 
 eighth year he might enter the Elementary Depart- 
 ment. Four years later (no earlier, however preco- 
 cious he might be, unless his physical development 
 should be as rapid as his mental) he would enter the 
 Secondary Transition Department ; and if at the com-
 
 116 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 
 
 pletion of a year in the Secondary Transition De- 
 partment, in liis thirteenth year, he had arrived at 
 puberty, he might enter upon his high school course 
 at once. Even though he were not as mature physi- 
 cally as mentally, however, he might nevertheless take 
 up some of the studies of the Adolescent Department, 
 if physically robust; but it might be preferable, es- 
 pecially if he were delicate, for him to spend more 
 than a year in the Secondary Transition Department, 
 devoting himself primarily to physical culture and 
 art and going on with the English work of the depart- 
 ment, but also doing some special work both in contin- 
 uance of his Elementary Department studies and in 
 new lines. It might be best of all for a precocious 
 but delicate child to spend a year or so out of school 
 until he were physically mature enough to enter the 
 Adolescent Department. 
 
 Section 5. The Yottng Person Who Has Been 
 Kept Out of School by Illness, Lack of Op- 
 portunity, OR Other Special Cause. 
 
 If a mentally normal child should not begin his 
 school life until seven years of age, he might be put 
 at once into the Primary Transition Department, to 
 remain for two years or less according to his degree 
 of maturity ; after which he might enter the Elemen- 
 tary Department and proceed according to the regular 
 course. 
 
 If he were already unquestionably past the stage 
 of "childhood proper," the stage for the Play School,
 
 THE REORGANIZATION OF OUR SCHOOLS 117 
 
 or Primary Department, — say nine or ten years of 
 age, — when first sent to school, the boy (or girl) 
 might still be put into the Primary Transition De- 
 partment for a few months for special instruction, if 
 it were not the beginning of the school year, and be 
 there given the rudiments of reading and of number 
 work (if he had not already absorbed them at home), 
 or he might enter the Elementary Department at 
 once if he should begin school at the beginning of 
 the school year. Although his mind would probably 
 be less well developed than the minds of his class- 
 mates, who would generally have spent about four 
 years in the Play School and Primary Transition 
 Department together, yet the work of the Elementary 
 Department would be so largely independent of what 
 precedes and follows it that any normal child at the 
 stage of growth corresponding to this department of 
 the school would be able to pursue the curriculum of 
 the department satisfactorily even though this were 
 the beginning of school life for him, and would be 
 able to leave this department for the Secondary Tran- 
 sition Department when he should reach the stage of 
 puberty, even though the lack of early opportunity 
 would probably prevent the education of one who 
 had thus begiui school in the Elementary Department 
 from being as thoroughly good as that of his more 
 fortunate classmates. 
 
 Let us now consider the case of a boy (or girl) 
 who for some special reason, as ill health in childhood 
 or a life spent in the backwoods, were eleven or more
 
 118 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 
 
 years old when first brought to school, at which time 
 we may suppose him to be wholly ignorant of "the 
 three R's." In this case, if it were not the time at 
 which a class of the Elementary Department were 
 beginning, the boy might spend the intervening 
 months in the Primary Transition Department, but 
 as soon as an Elementary Department class should 
 begin I would put him into it. Further than this, if 
 he should mature early, should enter upon adolescence 
 at thirteen, say, and should be restless and dissatis- 
 fied to be working with younger or less mature chil- 
 dren, I would then put him into the Secondary Tran- 
 sition Department, even though he had spent less 
 than three years in all in school, and though he were 
 manifestly inferior in his knowledge of arithmetic, 
 English, etc. to the classmates who remained in the 
 Elementary Department when he was taken out of it. 
 ^ Finally, if a youth should have had no opportunity 
 for schooling before adolescence, and at fifteen (or, 
 for that matter at twenty), should come to school un- 
 able to read and write, I would not only not have him 
 begin in the Primary Department, I would not have 
 begin in the Elementary Department, but would put 
 him at once into the Secondary Transition Depart- 
 ment, having him devote to special coaching in read- 
 ing, writing and arithmetic, the time spent by his 
 classmates in elective work, and in the English read- 
 ing course. In two years at most, I am confident, — 
 judging not alone, by the light of psychology, but 
 also by that of history and biography, — the normally
 
 THE EEOKGANIZATION OF OUE SCHOOLS 119 
 
 endowed youth, thongli ignorant as a savage at the 
 start, would be able to enter upon the curriculum of 
 the adolescent, or Secondary Department with profit. 
 Of course he would not be as thoroughly educated as 
 his fellows, who had had the advantage of school in 
 each of the lower stages of their development ; 
 he would be at an unquestionable disadvantage ; his 
 work would as a matter of course be harder for him 
 and would seem more uncouth to his fellows; but 
 nevertheless he would be able to enter upon and pur- 
 sue a secondary education, — and should be set at that, 
 not at primary or at elementary school work, — be- 
 cause he would be in the stage of development for 
 secondary education. 
 
 Section 6. As to Industrial Workers axd 
 Evening Schools. 
 
 To the young person whose parents are unable to 
 support him while getting an education, the proposed 
 school organization is exceptionally advantageous, 
 lending itself readily to cooperation with such an or- 
 ganization of industry as would permit the employ- 
 ment of two persons at the same job. one working in 
 the morning and the other in the afternoon ; by spend- 
 ing only the forenoon or the afternoon, as the case 
 might be, in school, a youth might support himself 
 while pursuing an education, and might carry that 
 education on as many years as he should care to give 
 to it. If, furthermore, he should come to a city having 
 such an organization of schools at the age of sixteen,
 
 120 THE KEOKGANIZATION OF OUIi SCHOOLS 
 
 or at a greater age, still ignorant of the rudiments of 
 education, he could be put in a special class in the 
 Secondary Transition Department, until he should 
 gain a tolerable command of the three R's, and could 
 then proceed with the regular and elective work of the 
 Secondary Transition Department and of the school 
 for adolescents at his own gait. 
 
 As already suggested, so far as the size and re- 
 sources of the community render it possible, all 
 courses in the Secondary Transition Department and 
 in the School for Adolescents should have morning, 
 afternoon and evening classes. The evening school 
 will long be a necessity for adolescents and will prob- 
 ably always be desirable for adults; and the ideal 
 evening school would include all the courses of the 
 Secondary Transition Department and of the high 
 school proper, in addition to courses for which there 
 might be no demand during the day. But much of 
 its work as a continuation school could be done in the 
 day time if employers could be brought to employ 
 two young persons for four (or five) hours each, in- 
 stead of one for eight (or ten) hours. There would 
 probably be some inconveniences experienced from hav- 
 ing two persons fill the same job, especially at first ; 
 but these would doubtless be completely offset — so far 
 as the employer is concerned, at least — by the greater 
 efficiency of the labor of one whose freshness, vigor, 
 and good spirits had not been worn out by eight or 
 ten hours of the same kind of labor. 
 
 THE END.
 
 UCLA-Young Research Library 
 
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