ill's U. C. L A. EDUC. DEPT, TEACHING BY PROJECTS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY HEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMTOD LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO TEACHING BY PROJECTS A BASIS FOR PURPOSEFUL STUDY BY CHARLES A. McMURRY Nrfn |f0rfc THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1920 All right* reserved U. C. L. A. EDLC. DEPT. COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1900. NorfaooB J. S. Gushing Co. Berwick A Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. U. C. LA. M 7 EDU. UNIVERSITY OF r < T T FO KNlA &ANTA BARBARA STATEMENT OF NEEDS WE need to organize knowledge into complete wholes or projects, looking toward well-conceived, purposive ends. We need to discriminate in teaching between bare facts and constructive projects, around which facts are gathered and centered. We need to economize time and avoid waste by organiz- ing instruction. We need to avoid what is vague and merely abstract. We need a better basis, in large instructional units, for planning lessons and for executing class-teaching. We need to consider knowledge not as formal and static but as progressive and dynamic, i.e., as contributing to the growth of ideas. We need to start out in every new subject with full, keen, relishable knowledge and, on this basis, to provide for steady growth and organization into large units. We need to practice the use of knowledge at every turn, first by directing attention to what is serviceable and, secondly, by using it in the realization of projects. We need to put a far richer meaning into common, famil- iar topics which are types for later growth and expansion. We need to simplify, organize, and enrich every impor- tant topic or project until it reaches the stage of a complete achievement. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. PROJECTS IN THE SCHOOL 1-17 II. EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS . . . 18-43 III. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECTS AS LARGE UNITS OF STUDY 44~59 IV. THE ENLARGED OBJECT LESSON OR PROJECT AND ITS RELATION TO THE LEARNING PROCESS . 60-83 V. THREE IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES PUT TO WORK UNDER RIGHT CONDITIONS .... 84-97 VI. A GROWING TENDENCY TO ADOPT LARGE PROJECTS AS STUDY UNITS 98-120 VII. SIMPLIFYING STUDIES ON THE BASIS or LARGE PROJECTS 121-134 VIII. THE ENRICHMENT OF INSTRUCTION BY THE INTEN- SIVE TREATMENT OF LARGE UNITS . . . 135-151 IX. LARGE LESSON PLANNING BASED ON PROJECTS . 152-167 X. LARGE TEACHING UNITS OR PROJECTS A BROAD BASIS FOR INSTRUCTION 168-188 XI. THE SALT RIVER PROJECT AND IRRIGATION . 189-215 XII. METHOD ILLUSTRATED BY THE SALT RIVER PROJECT 216-236 XIII. CLASSROOM METHOD BASED ON PROJECTS . . 237-254 TEACHING BY PROJECTS CHAPTER I PROJECTS IN THE SCHOOL PROJECTS are of two kinds : First, the child's project undertaken at his own behest when he is pressed by a felt desire or need, e.g. TWO classes the bird house, the rabbit trap, a homemade of P r i ects telephone. Secondly, the projects of others which the child appro- priates, into which he is easily drawn, and to which he gives his undivided attention, as the invention of the cotton gin, the planning of a canal lock, or improving the harbor of San Francisco; or he is absorbed in Crusoe's projects of cave-making, boat-building, and taming of animals. There is a wide range to the first kind of self-chosen proj- ects that a child falls upon, from doll dresses, sleds, tree- houses, or camping trips, to the dramatizing of a tale and even the writing of a story or poem. There is a still wider scope and bigness to the projects of the second class that he appropriates from without, and both sorts happily open the way into important school studies. Even a child's games show how easily he passes beyond his own small projects to those of his elders, as in hunting, gardening, and house building. He participates freely in the projects of men exploring new regions, as Boone and Fremont ; or Fulton building and exhibiting the first steamboat ; or Captain 2 TEACHING BY PROJECTS Eads constructing the jetties to open a deep passage at the mouth of the Mississippi. These projects which men and women, active in the world, are pushing to completion, are appropriate and engaging subjects for young people who are just opening their eyes to the big things in life, as, Livingstone opening up Central Africa, the Red Cross busy in relief work, Cornell founding a university for the people, New York City constructing its huge aqueduct from the Catskills for supplying its vast population with water. Industrial and scientific projects in mining, in agriculture, and in sanitation are the choice enterprises for children. Even big government projects in irrigation and canal construction engage the mind in genuine thought problems. In the impulse to adjust themselves to the larger world, children find themselves involved in these important projects whether developed in the past or now opening up in life about them. Educationally considered, we believe a child is at his best when planning and executing his own projects, or at Value of least those which engage his full powers. Adult projects men an( j women also i n active undertakings are at their best when working out effectively important busi- ness and other projects. Even society, in its larger organi- zations, is at its best when engaged energetically in develop- ing and executing social projects. In all these cases the project has the merit of a self-directed organization of mental and physical resources to achieve a well-considered result. The larger projects of adult life and of social and industrial progress have the additional merit that they tax the serious thought powers of children. They are real problems resting upon a practical basis of life experience. PROJECTS IN THE SCHOOL 3 They also stimulate and require a sustained effort in thinking. Whether the child is engaged in his self-chosen project or makes his own some bold and difficult undertaking of another, the motive and energy of thought are much the same. The project itself is a natural summons to ambition and effort, an impulsive forward movement hi purposeful thinking, and yet objective, and oftentimes even dramatic and spectacular. These project-problems, expressing the strain of thought and effort to master the forces of environ- ment, lead more directly into life conditions as they are than any other studies. There is a close and necessary connection between the self-chosen projects of the child's small world and the large projects of the life beyond. The smaller problems are a prelude to the major ones soon to follow, to which they are so closely akin in motive and in spirit. Children should be induced to work out as many of these self-chosen projects as may be feasible in order that they may take on the problem-solving attitude with respect to the larger, more complex problems whose solution may be thought out. It is a truism of our educational creed that sensory impressions based on object lessons and motor response form the primary basis of thought in dealing with the later materials of knowledge. The project conceived and exe- cuted by the child on the ground of his own experience is a still better basis for our educational efforts because it sets up in children self-determination and purposeful activity in a complete, natural, and well-rounded unit of effort. This kind and quality of constructive thought can be carried forward into later studies and into life as a funda- mental methodof exploring, organizing, and using knowledge. 4 TEACHING BY PROJECTS The object of a good course of study is to allow the chil- dren to grow into and identify themselves with the enter- prising projects which men, past and present, have found most essential to their welfare and progress. The child's own little projects are very essential beginnings in this fundamental process of appropriating and using knowledge and experience directed by himself toward useful ends. The best devices of instruction may be turned into this channel where children are led to the self -appropriation of those larger projects in which wiser heads, active in the world, set their chief store. While the larger projects of the world just outside of the school have a powerful attraction for children, it is of equal Growth importance to repeat and emphasize the approach fromindi- to these projects out of the child's experience so social that the projects of his own making grow into the projects i ar ger schemes of life. Contact with life at both ends is essential, first in a rich child environment, and secondly in a richer, better-organized social environment beyond the school walls. The world's experience and wisdom are gathered up and organized into these successful projects. They express the growing stages, the actual evolution of the main life processes in a practical world. In plying his trade among school children the teacher must be a full master of both kinds of experience, the in- dividual and the social, constantly playing back and forth between the two, establishing thus that steady continuity of growth into a larger experience which makes education all of one piece. On this basis it is necessary for the teacher to study the big world and its dominating projects quite as closely as the child, his tendencies, and activities. This cannot be PROJECTS IN THE SCHOOL 5 called an easy program for the teacher. But it is at least an opportunity to sound the depths of our real problem of education and to turn our effort into the main current of progress in the teaching art. The term project belongs in one sense to the language of business, or of plans and schemes in active life. It is an echo rom a noisy world, an intrusion upon the . quiet of the school, like a sharp train whistle or a fleet real noisy street wagon. But our drowsy school work may need this influx of noise and disturbance from without. At any rate the school is being brought into sharp contact with real life. In the school program itself, the children are learning to understand and adjust themselves to life surroundings and to take in the full meaning of the schemes and forces that are shaping society outside of the school. In taking over these life projects and adopting them into a plan of instruction as units of thought and effort, we find in them two striking qualities that fit the needs of teaching. First, they are objective and practical, not theoretical and vague. Big projects like the power plant at Muscle Shoals, the Panama Canal, or the jetty improvements at the mouth of the Mississippi stand out as commanding objects of attention. They are worth an examination. Secondly, such a real undertaking establishes a center of purposeful effort which develops rapidly into a fruitful, progressive subject of study. Around this definite, tangible center the ma- terials of knowledge begin to collect and organize and thought has plenty of stuff to work upon. The term project as we are using it has a wide scope and is applicable to a variety of undertakings in several im- portant studies. It may be worth while to particularize 6 TEACHING BY PROJECTS in some detail the wide range of capital projects which the school may now find profitable as standard units of mental effort. First : There are simple, objective projects of the hand-work type. We are familiar with them in the larger and smaller Shop and constructions of the shops, for example, in home proj- textile fabrics, in wood work, in book binding and printing, in pottery, and in many related home undertakings such as repairs, reconstructions, and sanitary appliances. To the same group belong plans for school and home gardening, agriculture and fruit growing, chicken raising, dairying, and other specialties. The household arts supply another group of definite projects in laundering, sewing ; cooking, and millinery, in house decoration and furnishing. In some schools there is a tendency to extend school credits to these home enterprises and accomplish- ments. These shop-and-farm and household projects have both a marked educational value, and a clear, practical utility. They require a distinct forethought in planning and designing, resourcefulness in meeting new and, untried situations, persistent purpose and industry in executing plans, and, finally, a proper use of the results or products. Not many school exercises of the old stripe combine in one strong series of efforts all these merits and advantages. Secondly : The study of geography supplies a profusion of big, tangible projects of conspicuous importance in human industrial affairs, as projects in bridge construction, in rail- mertiai"" roac * engineering and mountain tunneling, in projects expensive mining operations, in the survey and building of canals, in dealing with extensive forest reserves, in planning city waterworks and reservoirs, in irrigation schemes on a large scale, in installing great water powers PROJECTS IN THE SCHOOL 7 at dams and falls in rivers, in laying ocean cables, in build- ing subways, in improving harbors, in regulating rivers bylevees and jetties, in the drainage of swamp areas, in great corporations for the conduct of business on a vast scale, as steamship companies and railroad systems. We are now discovering that these large municipal, governmental, and industrial projects are in themselves complete and well-organized units of study, the best sort of standard topics for schoolroom instruction. The school can well turn its attention to these enterprises because they are so largely shaping life about us ; they are dominant in their influence upon the occupations, the homes and surroundings of thousands and millions of our people. They are the things that children desire to know and understand. Ex- periments in the full school-treatment of these topics have also demonstrated that they have a peculiar suitability to the thinking power and interest of children. In another and quite different way nature herself works out on a large scale projects which we study in geography, as the sculpturing of a river valley, the work of a mountain glacier, the course and influence of an ocean current, the regular circulation of winds and moisture upon the earth, the course and movements of a cyclonic storm. These may be called natural units of study, displaying nature's big patterns or designs, by which she works out her projects in making the earth a fit dwelling place for man. Thirdly : A third group of projects has a more distinctly scientific origin. Inventions and discoveries based upon scientific principles are embodied in steam , Projects in engines, wireless stations, power plants, great applied telescopes, electric motors, mining and smelting processes, lightning rods, hydrostatic presses, steam dredges, 8 TEACHING BY PROJECTS and water filters. Scientific processes also are applied to the ventilation of buildings, to hospital and surgery prac- tice, to the propagation of plants, the extraction and preservation of foods, to the fertilizing of soils, to the bac- terial treatment of diseases, to quarantine and sanitation. Applied science is full of big, comprehensive projects for turning scientific knowledge into use in commerce, in war, in aviation, in agriculture, in animal husbandry, in naviga- tion, in the extraction and use of metals, in electrical ap- pliances, and in medicine. It is in these very projects, objective and directly practical in their bearings, that children are best able to see the mean- ing and value of modern science in its influence upon life. What children in elementary schools need is not abstract scientific principles, not the systematic study of any or all the sciences (an impossible thing), but simple, objective, convincing demonstrations of the main ideas and uses of science in the home and neighborhood and in the larger world beyond. What could be better for children than to allow them to see these tangible projects developing and working out their proper, practical influence upon the con- ditions of life that surround them ? These are preeminently needful and instructive topics that should be given the right of way in the elementary curriculum. Fourthly : Many of the stories and undertakings described in biography and history are large personal or national Pr t . projects in the full meaning of the term. For biography example, Columbus' first voyage, the Panama Canal, Alexander's first campaign into Asia, St. Paul's missionary journeys, Grant's movement against Vicksburg, the Lewis and Clark expedition up the Missouri and across the mountains, the voyage of the Mayflower, PROJECTS IN THE SCHOOL g Livingstone's explorations in Africa. In a large interpreta- tion, history consists of an account of men's important projects in the building of cities, in the founding of states, in legislative programs, in reform movements, in founding institutions and societies, in warlike conquest, in territorial expansions, in the development of traffic routes and com- mercial policies. Especially in the story of leading his- torical characters do we find the personal impulse strong to execute some scheme or propagandist idea, some notion of progress, as illustrated in Hamilton's plan for funding the national debt, Field's project for laying the first Atlantic cable, Stanley's search for Livingstone, Howard's scheme of prison reform, Franklin's proposed Albany plan for the union of the colonies, Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana. The enthusiastic personal element that plays through these individual yet social projects lends an unusual strength to such topics. The man's life and energy are absorbed into and identified with the undertaking. He becomes a power- ful and living exponent of a national or world idea. For instructional purposes such projects, thus reenforced by personal, objective demonstration, are of surprising value. We can afford to work out such projects descriptively and more or less exhaustively till we find a full background for the main idea, the completed purpose. Fifthly : The masterpieces of literature are the outcome of thought projects conceived and elaborated in the minds of authors, for example, Plato's Republic, St. Master- John's Gospel, De Foe's Robinson Crusoe, Shake- pieces in literature speare s Macbeth, Longfellow s Building of the considered Ship, Fiske's Critical Period of American History, as projects Plutarch's Lives. A drama or novel or poem is the energy of the author's thought working itself out and IO TEACHING BY PROJECTS projecting itself into a great thought-movement. It is active and stimulating, and yet is caught and held somehow in a permanent artistic form. A masterpiece is a tangible literary project, a rational undertaking looking toward a well-planned achievement. Literary products are the greatest projects of the human mind and as such they are the best examples of great thought units, of knowledge rightly organized and artistically grouped. As perfected, energized thought-movements, complete units of effort, they demand thoughtful, elaborate, progressive study. The outcome of such study is a full appreciation of their constructive, dynamic quality and their final unity. By a survey and comparison of these various interpreta- tions of the term project as seen in the several studies, we may conclude that it is a practical, untechnical word with which to designate a variety of big, vital topics. It lays stress upon the actual and objective in present and past experiences. It deals with an energetic, growing idea, concretely embodied, that expands into a strong, even, national influence. Projects force attention upon the main objects of study, the chief enterprises that make up the warp and woof of real life in our times. At the present moment we need to be jolted out of our conventional, formal school phrases and to find terms better adapted to the educational needs and forces of A return to life and the hour. The term project is a newcomer among educational phrases. It seems to suggest not the school but the shop, not the textbook but the busy mart, the industrial life, the unhallowed things of the schemer and the promoter. Perhaps this is its merit, that it forces attention upon things that have come to importance in life, things which need to break over the threshold into the PROJECTS IN THE SCHOOL II school. The project idea suits our present needs because it tosses aside our conventional abstractions and sets up a larger practical unit of knowledge as the basis of study. We have been dealing with things of minor import till we have lost sight of the centers of thought, the big object lessons. We have devoted ourselves to facts, mere facts, isolated facts, yes, detached and meaningless facts. The children have been surfeited with facts. But it is time to stop making collections of blank cartridges and begin to gather only those things that have explosive ma- terial in them. Again, we have played with school phrases and generalities and summaries till they cease to express thought. It is time to cast out this mummery and to deal with live thoughts embodied in real projects. The term project suggests a return to life, to business, to applied science, to daily duties and common human needs, to forces operative in the concrete world. The school is absorbing into itself as fast as it can the big things of life, the schemes that men and women are chiefly concerned about, and these are becoming our school topics. The project accentuates this demand for the practical and demonstrable. By a proper extension of the term it in- cludes several groups of big, constructive units of study in history and geography and science, and culminates in the masterpieces of literature and works of art, as poems, buildings, sculptures, and paintings, because these at their best are great designs worked out by artists to express the mind's boldest flights into the world of experience, the supreme purposes and projects that men have conceived. The project, as such, is an apt device for teaching, be- cause it touches off any important enterprise at its most interesting crisis, namely, at that juncture where it is in 12 TEACHING BY PROJECTS the initial process of being brought into shape in the mind. Pedagogically , we might call this " the nick of time " in thinking out any enterprise. At this point it The project, . J a scheme in shows itself m its freshness and newness, its ex- pectation, its purpose. Its growth from this initial stage should be natural and progressive. Let the project develop in its own way, revealing its ugly form or its pleasant aspect as it will. The succession of problems will follow in due order. The important project is always a problem and a mother of problems. The demand of the hour is to have a chance to think, to knit the brow in thought prob- lems, to struggle with a difficult and critical situation till a solution of the problem is discovered. Live projects, wisely selected, not only set up serious problems, but they draw in their wake the knowledge materials required for the understanding and solution of the problems involved. Big projects are deeply rooted in the strong knowledge elements of the important studies. A deeper and richer scholarship inevitably clusters and organizes itself around the main projects. This is so because our modern social and industrial problems have sprung directly out of a full field of scientific, historical, and economic knowledge. These deep, abundant sources of knowledge are our neces- sary tools in working out our projects. Extensive and up-to-date knowledge is requisite to work out and under- stand these practical projects. One proof of this need for depth and richness of knowledge in discussing these projects is the fact that even trained experts in the various special lines are required in all these big, practical enterprises. We have been discussing the word project as denoting something objective and concrete. But back of this, its real meaning lies in an idea, in something thought out and PROJECTS IN THE SCHOOL 13 clearly conceived, first as a mental product, later to be worked over and transformed into a concrete reality. The synonyms of the word project are scheme, plan, de- sign. In this sense the project is first of all a clear, a mental" clean-cut, intellectual grasp of a whole complex concept to r be realized situation. It corresponds to the well-worked-out design of the architect which expresses the plan of a great building. The project is a strongly, wisely organized body of thought focused upon an important center of practical knowledge with a definite purpose. It is the intellectual formulation and mastery of a problematic situation as a preparation for its practical execution. It leads on through a series of wisely controlled actions. In the idea of the project lies also the impulse to realize it, to carry out the purpose clearly conceived, for example, the sinking of a shaft for the purpose of exploiting a coal bed. This demand for clear thinking as a basis for later action, leading on naturally to a complete accomplishment, makes the project an ideal basis for teaching and for lesson planning. The project sets up something clear and complete in thought but lacking in fulfillment. It sets up the demand for full realization, and this is a dynamic quality which energizes effort in the right direction. Standing out prominently, almost objectively, as a clearly thought plan to be converted into reality, the project con- tains the most important elements of a standard , r Standard unit of mental effort. First, it is an important elements in whole. Secondly, it is dynamic in its essential a pro forward movement. Thirdly, it organizes and uses knowledge on the basis of a definite purpose. Fourthly, it sets up a series of problems requiring continuous, rational effort. Fifthly, it works out a practical result which is embodied 14 TEACHING BY PROJECTS in a concrete object or situation in real life. Sixthly, as an end result of the whole movement, from original conception to final objective realization, it leaves in the mind a knowl- edge product which serves to introduce and explain other kindred projects. It has a future as well as a past and connects up between the two. Thus it contributes to the continuous organization of knowledge. Important projects, therefore, carefully selected in the various studies, are the practical units of thought, the organ- izing centers, where knowledge is collected and SC t h ex Pr J " mcor P ora ted into those powerful agencies which press and carry on the world's business. Thinking out m^erpre an( j understanding these projects puts the student into the stream of action, into the current of life. We demand that education be a preparation for life, but it can be this only by identifying itself with the main enter- prises going on in life, that is, with enterprises which have developed under life conditions. Many of these enterprises are now active agencies, organizing and directing the social and industrial forces of the world. Others have grown up in the past and have created institutions which are still powerful as life centers. Still others are mainly historical, but carry important lessons to us from past experience. The building and equipment of a monastery in medieval times was in those days a vital, living project. Hannibal's march across the Alps to attack Rome was a well-matured project. Hercules' scheme for cleansing the Augean stables was a true project in the modern sense. Joseph's far- sighted scheme for dealing with the wheat crop of Egypt during the seven full years was a great project. But it is the projects of modern life and society that most concern us. In the short period of school life children PROJECTS IN THE SCHOOL 1 5 should be led on till they gain insight, one after another, into the masterful projects that concern the progress and welfare of the people in their struggles to master the bountiful resources of nature. Such schemes concretely worked out form naturally the big centers of study. They designate the main channels along which human life has organized its experiences and converted them into institu- tions through which men have been able to accomplish their purposes. These very projects, already organized by experience into complete schemes and processes for accom- plishing the chief purposes of life, are the best units of study for the schools. Nor are these projects new or foreign to our present school course. A keener and closer inspection of these project-topics will discover that they deal with the self-same concepts which are now treated in Proj' 66 * 8 a stronger the textbooks. But only the more significant handling of subjects dealt with in the books are selected, and by intensive treatment brought into marked prominence. They are given an emphasis and a fullness of descriptive exposition which are surprising. They are not new, and yet one thing in them is strangely new. They are dressed up in their proper clothing. We do not recog- nize them at first because we never before saw them in full equipment and with an adequate setting. For example, the increase of corn production in the United States, the project of developing San Francisco harbor, the building up and life history of Mount Shasta, the purpose of Ernest in the story of the Great Stone Face, how the blood circulates and performs its functions, the laying out of the school and home garden, a class at work dramatizing the story of William Tell, the designing and construction of a bird house. 1 6 TEACHING BY PROJECTS These and many more like them are not new topics. They are simply familiar topics enlarged into proper units of purposeful effort. They are fully embodied and demon- strated life problems. They are suggested and put before children in this more complete form to stimulate thought, to put the minds of children into natural, spontaneous action toward worthy ends. Conclusion. Projects reorganize the best knowledge materials of the elementary school around practical life centers. The smaller projects of children grow into the greater projects of the community and of society. These projects develop everywhere through series of problems undertaken with set purpose to realize important ends. The teaching possi- bilities that open up through the steady schoolroom pur- suit of these developing projects are both interesting and remarkable. A FORECAST If the project is once accepted as the true type of knowl- edge organized for teaching uses, it sets up the large unit of study as a basis for selecting and treating school subjects. The big unit of study is a superior substitute for the present somewhat miscellaneous collections. It is the clear demon- stration of a reconstructive principle which is now at work rebuilding our courses of study and reorganizing our class- room instruction. We have already gone to the limit of filling up our curriculum with all kinds of information and with many forms of activity. We have been so busy collecting these varied materials that we have not yet had time and strength PROJECTS IN THE SCHOOL 17 to simplify and organize. The big, central unit of growing knowledge, the project, is the sure corrective to our present fragmentary accumulations of knowledge. The adoption of such large standard units of organized knowledge points directly toward a simplified course of study and to a sound basis for lesson planning. A second point of almost equal importance is the out- standing objective character of the project. It is never abstract and general. It is incurably objective. Teachers and textbooks drift almost invariably into abstract forms. But the acceptance of the project strikes the death blow at this prevailing tendency toward abstract method in teach- ing. The following chapters will elaborate the above-men- tioned points. CHAPTER II EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS A BETTER understanding of the meaning and scope of these school projects may be gained from complete illustrations. This chapter is given over to such illustrations. Several projects are here worked out tentatively as suitable for school use. In the later chapters other projects are in- troduced to illustrate special points and are developed on a still larger scale. Many other school projects have been more or less elaborately worked out as monographs and are published in pamphlet or book form. In the following chapters frequent use is made (by reference) of these at- tempts to put projects into the form of complete units of study. The project type of organization, as exhibited in these illustrations, helps to clear up the principles of method as directly applied to subject matter in teaching. GARDEN PROJECTS The planning of a school or home garden is a project which has come into vogue in many schools and in all parts of the country. The garden work, planned for a season, is not only a practical project, but it develops into a whole series of minor projects which spring out of individual or family needs. The following table of contents gives the series of topics treated in a pamphlet entitled "The School 18 EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 19 and Home Garden." l Without premeditated effort to emphasize the project idea, it evidently consists of a series of projects carried out in the natural order of development. The initial project, the measuring and staking out of the garden plot, is clearly shown by the chart on the following page. One of the minor projects is shown hi the sketch of the hotbed. PROGRESS HILL SCHOOL GARDEN TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction. 2. Making a Garden Survey. 3. Planning the Garden. 4. Laying Off the Garden. 5. Preparation of the Soil for Planting. 6. Laying Off the Individual Plots. 7. Making the Garden Paths. 8. Selecting the Garden Vegetables. 9. Study of Succession Crop Chart. 10. Frost Data for Georgia. 1 1 . Testing Seeds for Weeds and Vitality. 12. Planting the Garden. 13. Keeping the Garden Calendar. 14. Germination. 15. Making the Cold Frame. 16. Making the Hotbed. 17. Cultivating the Garden. 1 8. Thinning and Transplanting. 19. A Study of Soils. 20. Studying Legumes as Fertilizers. 21. The Home Garden. 22. Plan for a Home Garden. 23. Plan for Home Project Work in Gardening. 1 "The School and Home Garden," by Miss Sue C. Cleaton, in Type Studies and Lesson Plans, Pcabody College, Nashville, Tenn. 20 TEACHING BY PROJECTS 34. Experimental Plots and Tests. 25. Studying Weeds. 26. Studying Diseases and Insects. 27. Birds. 28. Methods of Control of Insects and Diseases. 29. Resistant Varieties. 30. Sprays and Directions for Using Them. 31. Spray Calendar for Garden Diseases and Insects. 32. Cooperative Marketing. 33. Saving the Surplus. 34. Preparation of the Garden for the Summer Vacation. 35. Beautifying the School Grounds. 36. A Comparison of Garden Reports. 37. Report of Home Gardens. SHOWING CONSTRUCTION OF A HOTBED LIST OF A FEW HOME AND FARM PROJECTS Concreting a basement floor ; papering and decorating a family living room ; building a tree house ; making a tool chest; supplying the kitchen with running water; build- ing and hanging a gate ; constructing a corn crib ; planning and laying a tile for drainage; planning and building a chicken house; putting in an asparagus bed; the con- struction of a fireplace and chimney ; building a silo. EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 21 PLAN FOR SCHOOL GARDEN 60 X 50 FEET 16' 12' 12' 16' Experimental Plot Cold Frame Hotbed Experimental Plot M CM M M Walkway 3' o M M O M * o H M oo E*J < 00 M u /I M 55 '2 J C S c c 'S o V Ed _9 ~ u cd -3 C u J cd O tJ in :c Mustard >3 "2 cd in c _o O U tc 2 "Tj U cd -r u 3 ~- i- cd U 13 C cd U .f e Collards 1 cd pej T3 C cd u u V IM cd U cd m 1j M M Jj Rutabagas Cauliflower cd o u 3 u- M * -c (/) M MM MM M M O M M C4 M M 22 TEACHING BY PROJECTS THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, A PROJECT The founding and building up of Washington as a capital city may be used as an example of a project which has been developing for more than a hundred years and is still in progress. After Congress had decided that the new capital should be located at some point on the Potomac, George Washing- ton was authorized to select a site and lay out the pre- liminary plans. Washington cherished the idea that the new city should be conceived as a grand project destined to grow into a magnificent capital. He had a large con- ception of the future of our country, and the new capital city was to correspond to this idea in its development. Washington chose for his adviser in planning the city an eminent French engineer, L'Enfant, who had served in the Revolution, and explained to him his great conception of the coming city. Jefferson had collected in Europe a number of carefully drawn plans of European cities and these were sent to L'Enfant for his study. After a careful survey of the present site of Washington, then an open farming country, L'Enfant projected a grand city plan for the street system, including the chief locations for public buildings and squares. The streets were very broad, from 80 to 160 feet, meeting at right angles north and south, east and west. To give variety to this plan, at two central points in the city, circles or squares were established from which broad avenues radiated in all direc- tions, intersecting the other streets. The Capitol square and that on which the White House stands form such centers for street radiation, and these centers themselves are connected by broad avenues. EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 23 An examination of the street system of Paris will reveal similar centers of organization for the street system. Washington thus may be said to be built in part upon a French plan. The constitution of the United States, which fixes the framework of our government, may be said, also, to de- termine the two chief centers for the capital city. At least Washington has two focal points in its organization as a federal capital, namely the Capitol Building and the White House, which are about a mile and a quarter apart and are connected by the broad Pennsylvania Avenue. The third department of government, namely, the ju- diciary, does not figure prominently in the architecture and street system of the city. The reason for this may be worth looking into. For many years after its first beginnings the city of Washington failed to live up to these grand expectations. It was a big city only in name and on paper. Its streets were muddy and its few public buildings were far apart. Its straggling houses sprawled out over a vast area and it was long known, in a joking way, as the city of magnificent distances. It was not unlike the United States itself during that early period, consisting in large part of vast unexplored and undeveloped regions. As a capital city Washington was as yet an unrealized project. And yet the nation was growing rapidly and Washington soon began to show signs of a corresponding growth. The best way to understand Washington, therefore, is first to examine the large-minded, prophetic plan under which it started out, the early halting steps at progress, and the occasional relapses. In the early part of the nine- teenth century and again after the Civil War, the early, 24 TEACHING BY PROJECTS comprehensive plan of the city seems to have been over- looked or disregarded, and a few great federal buildings were wrongly designed and placed, as the Treasury Building, and the great State, War, and Navy Building. In later years came stronger and more successful efforts to work out the great original design. In fact the development of the governmental departments in Washington reflects in a striking way the main stages in the rapid progress of our country in the first century and a quarter of its growth. The main building in Washington, and we may say the chief structure of its kind for the entire nation, is the great Capitol, with its massive dome dominating the scenery of Washington. It stands upon an eminence nearly a hun- dred feet above the Potomac. The cornerstone of this great building was laid by George Washington in 1793. It was then in an open country, now in the midst of a great city. The central structure, now only a part of the whole, was large enough to serve for both houses of Congress till the Civil War period. The old Senate Chamber is now the Supreme Court Room, the original House of Representa- tives is now the Hall of Statuary. The two vast wings of the Capitol, later built, contain at present the Senate Chamber and the House of Representatives. As the nation expanded westward and new states were added, the legislative department of the government had to expand to meet the larger needs. Not only so, but this large Capitol is now flanked on the north and south by two noble architectural structures, the Senate Office Build- ing and the House Office Building, for the special service of Congress. They contain six hundred rooms for the use of members of Congress as offices for the transaction of EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 2$ legislative business and are completely equipped for these purposes. Across the park that fronts the Capitol is the magnificent Library of Congress, a constant reminder to members of Congress that if they lack knowledge and wisdom with which to serve their country, here is the place to find it. In this beautiful and stately building are extensive col- lections of the most valuable books and reports, well ar- ranged and easily accessible. Here members of Congress and other officials may inform themselves on all important subjects so that they may legislate more wisely for a great nation. Copies of all books published in this country are sent to the Library of Congress, and other books from all nations and in all languages are gathered here and made available. This national library has a capacity for 4,500,000 volumes. The marble halls and interior decorations of this building are beautiful beyond description and are deserving of prolonged visit and study. Around this park fronting the main Capitol are thus grouped four great buildings devoted mainly to the business of lawmaking and for the convenience of the lawmakers. Then: total cost was $25,000,000. At this center and in these buildings are gathered, when Congress is in session, the representatives from every state and district in the nation to make laws for the government of all the people in the states. A mile and a quarter away, at the other end of Pennsyl- vania Avenue, the White House stands at the center of an- other group of national buildings, representing the adminis- trative department of the government. The White House is first of all the home of the President, where he lives with his family. It is also his official residence as President. 26 TEACHING BY PROJECTS Clustered about it, some nearer and some farther, is a group of department buildings where tens of thousands of clerks and officials are engaged in public affairs. Just east of the White House is the Treasury Building, and on the west the great State, War, and Navy Building. The cabinet ministers have their headquarters in these and other administrative buildings. With the growth of the business of the nation the cabinet has been enlarged from time to time by adding new departments and by extending the government service into new fields. The Post Office, for example, has extended and enlarged its service until it reaches every nook and corner of the land, and is now identified with the business interests and home life of all the people. The Patent Office, with its vast collection of scientific and practical inventions, expresses the progress of the nation in ten thousand ingenious ways. By the ex- pansion of its various departments of government service, Washington has become a busy hive of workers in the state employ. In the recent emergency of a great war, demanding thousands of additional helpers, Washington could scarcely house and entertain the great influx of clerks, stenographers, and specialists urgently required. Visitors and leaders from all parts of the country also flocked to Washington on public and private business. Before the outbreak of the war, the city had grown to a population of 350,000, and now it is much greater. Instead of being scattered out over empty spaces, as once, the city is now well built with beautiful homes and avenues and is crowded to the limit. Baltimore and other neighboring cities must help take care of the overflow population. George Washington, before a house was built, had a noble conception of a spacious and beautiful capital city which EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 2^ would suit the character and needs of a great and ever ex- panding nation. The plan he adopted looked far into the future and contemplated a capital city worthy of America. The plan projected by L 'Enfant and Washington has been in large measure adhered to, but in recent years a still greater conception of a capital city in harmony with modern ideas of art and architecture, of sanitation and municipal improvements, has come into view. In order to project a plan on this more expanded scale, with due regard to the best architectural and artistic ideas, there was appointed in 1901 a commission of notable archi- tects and artists who developed and reported to Congress a complete scheme of future improvement, using the old plan of L 'Enfant and Washington as the basis. In the improve- ments more recently planned and now in process of exe- cution the enlarged design of the commission has been followed. In an article in the National Geographic Magazine for March, 1915, Ex-President Taft has set forth the advantages of this elaborate and complete plan for the development and beautification of the capital city. A full series of drawings and panoramic views of the projected improve- ments is worked out with colored charts. These plans are likely to be carried forward and will make Washington one of the most interesting and beautiful capital cities of the world. Noble, sanitary, artistic city planning is to-day one of the chief concerns of the people in all parts of our country. Washington should be a shining example of great city-building. It will be one of the great achieve- ments of our time to make the capital city, Washington, a first-class illustration of architectural and sanitary street planning, of the artistic designing and grouping of public 28 TEACHING BY PROJECTS buildings and parks, of beautiful and imposing historic monuments, of first-class management of public utilities such as lighting, water supply, and car service, of libraries and education, and of beautiful, homelike, residential streets. This modernized, elaborate plan for the city-beautiful in Washington has for its central landmark the lofty Washington Monument. Along the axis of the Mall, stretching westward from the Capitol Building past the monument to the Lincoln Memorial on the bank of the Potomac, will be a great series of parks and public buildings. At right angles to this a similar series of parks and great structures will stretch from the White House and grounds past the Monument to the Potomac near the harbor. A great memorial bridge will reach across the Potomac from the Lincoln center to Arlington. This scheme contemplates an extensive series of parks, boulevards, and bridges stretch- ing into the environs of Washington and reaching even to the Great Falls of the Potomac, twelve miles above the city. It is a magnificent dream of city improvement and decoration. The history of the original planning of the city and the more than one hundred years of progress along the lines laid out by Washington form a great page in our national story, but the outlook to-day is for a far greater achieve- ment, one perhaps that would astonish and delight even the prophetic eye of Washington. It will always be pre- eminently the city of George Washington, and yet Lincoln in the natural order has come to share on equal terms the honors of the national capital. As the plans already outlined are carried into execution, Washington will become more and more a place of profound EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 2Q interest and pride to all Americans. Every boy and girl should have a chance sooner or later to visit this city and should read and study our national history in its streets and monuments and public buildings, and should recall the great historic occasions that form the landmarks in its history. The foregoing is little more than an outline for a study of Washington in its plan and growth and future. It should be reenforced by a careful examination of maps and photographs and may lead into special features connected with famous men and events in Washington. Washington differs from all other cities in this country because of the complete dominance of the governmental idea. This also leads naturally to the study of public buildings and architecture, and likewise into biography and history. Washington exhibits in a concrete form the chief phases of active government. When the city plan is thought of as a great project, growing and expanding with the increas- ing demands of government, it becomes an illuminating study of our national life. References for further study may be named as follows : Washington Standard Guide. National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 27, 1915. A BOYS' PROJECT THE OVERLAND TRIP TO CALIFORNIA IN '49 In the winter of 1848 John Turner and his brother, living near Chicago, decided to start for the gold fields of Cali- fornia in the following spring. They were under twenty years of age, but they were enthusiastic in studying maps 30 TEACHING BY PROJECTS of the western country and in making preparations for the journey. At that time there were no railroads west of Chicago, and very few towns west of the Mississippi. A strongly built, covered wagon was secured, and, before starting, was well filled with the tools, clothing, provisions, camp equipment, guns and ammunition, saddles, harness, medicines, and trinkets that would be needed in the long trip across plains and mountains. The Turner boys hired another young man to go with them, and, supplied with six horses, they started in March for the distant gold fields. In the journey across northern Illinois they toiled along muddy spring roads, and forded the streams, camping out at night. At Rock Island they were carried across the Mississippi on a steam ferryboat and started over the wild prairie and grasslands of Iowa. Other gold seekers were traveling in the same direction, and they did not lack company. At Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, the boys halted for two weeks, and there joined a caravan of fifteen wagons and forty-two men for the trip across the plains of Nebraska. Having crossed the Missouri River, the long train of wagons and horses slowly followed the valley of the Platte River westward. Keeping close to the river they found plenty of water, wood for their camp fires, and grassy meadows where their horses could be picketed to graze of evenings and mornings. There was good hunting in the woods bordering the river. Crossing the river, occasionally on log rafts, they pushed on westward till they came to the buffalo country. Here the extra horses and rifles came into use. The boys left their man on the road to drive the heavy wagon, while they mounted horses and rode out upon the plains to chase and kill the buffalo. EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 31 At that time vast herds of buffalo wandered over these grassy plains, coming to the river to drink. At night the men all came together at the camp, and around the blazing camp fires cooked the choice parts of the buffalo and cracked open the thigh bones for the precious marrow. After a week or two of this kind of sport, when the horses were tired out with chasing the buffalo and with hauling the heavy wagons, they halted at a grassy meadow, pitched their tents, and went into camp for two weeks. Bringing out their tools and a forge they repaired then- wagons, reshod their horses, mended their harness and clothing, brought in the buffalo meat from the chase and cut it into long strips to be hung up and dried. The Sioux Indians from the north at one time threat- ened then- camp, but the pioneers quickly formed a barri- cade of their wagons, and the Indians, though strong in numbers, were afraid to attack the camp defended by more than forty good riflemen. The Indians rode off and were not seen again. After two weeks of rest and refitting they broke camp and started for the mountains, still following the Platte along the North Fork into the foothills. Crossing the main ridge at South Pass, near where the Union Pacific Railroad was later built, they descended the dry, desert- like slopes of the mountains to the west, almost starving for water before they reached a branch of the Green River. From a high ridge four miles away they saw the sparkling waters of this stream and rushed down the slope and plunged, man and horse, into the stream, where they slaked their thirst. Pushing on through the mountains, they at last reached the small village of Salt Lake, founded a few years before by the Mormons. Here they rested 32- TEACHING BY PROJECTS for two weeks from their hard journey across the moun- tains and prepared to cross the salt deserts beyond Salt Lake. This broad lake in the midst of the western moun- tains was a refreshing sight to the well-worn travelers. Fremont and his men had been the first to explore this lake about six years before in his famous pioneer trip across the mountains. At Salt Lake the Turner boys joined themselves to another caravan of emigrants and all started across the deserts. It was a tedious march for men and animals, and when they reached the grasslands about the head- waters of the Humboldt River, all were tired out. Three men were selected to guard the camp and the rest at once fell asleep. But the guards, too, were weary, and were soon overcome with sleep. While the whole camp slum- bered, the prowling, thieving Snake Indians from the north crept into camp, cut the ropes that held the mules and horses, and drove them all off. Some four hours later, when the men awoke, they found not a single animal, and the whole company was thus left in the wilderness, hundreds of miles from California, with their heavily loaded wagons but no animals. In this distress they selected six of their strongest men, who were sent in rapid pursuit of the Indians. Traveling day and night for three days they were unable to overtake the retreating Indians with the horses. But they chased them so fast that the Indians left behind a few of the less speedy mules, and the men returned with these to the camp. The mules not being strong enough to haul the heavy wagons, pack saddles were made, and the most needful things were loaded upon the backs of the mules, and the whole party, leaving their wagons and goods in the wilder- EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 33 ness, journeyed on foot the rest of the way to California. They reached the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Moun- tains before the winter snows set in. A wagon road led up one of the valleys by a roundabout way across the mountains, but the men chose rather a foot path which led by a zigzag way directly over the mountains. Reach- ing the highest ridges they looked down into the Sacramento Valley in California, and then followed the American Fork down the mountain side till they came to the gold diggings. The next year, in making a trip from the gold mines to San Francisco, Mr. Turner narrates that he noticed a man ahead of him in the road driving a wagon that looked familiar. On coming up with it he discovered that it was his own wagon, which he had left the year before on the other side of the mountains when the horses were stolen. THE GREAT MIGRATION The story of the Turner boys illustrates the experi- ences which many other gold seekers had this same year. During the summer of 1849 about forty thousand emi- grants, men, women, and children, crossed the plains and mountains to California. Many of them suffered dis- tressing hardships on the way from sickness and death, from lack of food, and from Indian attacks. A few of them came too late to cross the high mountain range before winter set in and were compelled to spend the winter on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, because the snow piles up on these mountain ridges twenty and even forty feet deep during the winter storms. From New York and other Eastern States thousands 34 TEACHING BY PROJECTS of people took ship for Panama and reached California after crossing the Isthmus and taking ship on the Pacific side for San Francisco. Many were taken sick with fever at Panama and died before the journey was finished. Still others went the long route by ship around Cape Horn and northward along the entire coast of South America to California. Other gold seekers came from foreign lands, for the gold excitement had reached all countries. As a result of these various migrations nearly a hundred thousand people reached California during this first year of the gold excitement. The little adobe village of San Francisco grew in one year to a population of twenty thousand. At first there were many lawless men, who committed crimes and outrages, but the better class of sober people soon organized government and subdued the criminals and law-breakers. These things happened just after the close of the Mexi- can War, before which California had belonged to Mexico. But before the end of 1849, the year of the great migration, the people of California had become so numerous that they came together, formed a constitution, and sent word to Washington that they would like to be admitted to the Union as a new state. This brought on an important crisis in the political affairs of the United States. California had no slaves and would naturally be admitted as a free state. Bat this did not please the people of the Southern States because they feared an increase in the number of free states. A fierce conflict was threatened between the North and the South. Henry Clay returned to Washing- ton in his old age and succeeded in his last great compro- mise in quieting the storm, and California was admitted to the Union. EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 3$ The rapid increase of population and wealth in Cali- fornia led the people to wish for a closer connection be- tween the Eastern States and the Pacific Coast. In conse- quence the project of building a Pacific railroad was proposed in 1850, and every year from that time on the matter was taken up in Congress. But the North and South, between 1850 and 1860, could not agree where the railroad should be built. Finally a bill of Congress was signed by Lincoln as President, and the Union Pacific was begun, and after several years was completed in 1869. The gold discoveries in California led not only to the settlement of California, but to the opening up of Oregon and Washington, so that a group of Pacific States was soon growing up which developed the resources of the whole Pacific Coast. In 1859, ten years after the gold find in California, important gold discoveries were made in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado, and people flocked to this region as they had done before to the far West. Denver sprang up and became a flourishing city. Silver and gold mines were developed on a large scale, and the discoveries ex- tended further north and south along the Rocky Moun- tains. The gold and silver production soon began to rival the wealth of California. Before long a group of Rocky Mountain States was developing toward statehood. These two important gold discoveries had a powerful influence upon the early and rapid settlement of the Great West, in the founding of cities and in the growth of two impor- tant groups of states which are now an influential part of our Union of States. In later years rich copper ores were found at Butte, Montana, and gold in the Black Hills of Dakota. These 36 TEACHING BY PROJECTS discoveries had results similar to those already described in the founding of cities and development of states. The discovery of gold in Alaska at a still more recent date led to a rush of gold seekers to the frozen North. The hardships of the Klondike gold hunters were even greater than those of the forty-niners. As a result the remark- able resources of Alaska, not in gold alone, but in forests, coal lands, and fisheries, have been made known to the world. Lines of ships with extensive commerce have been established from Seattle and other western cities to Sitka, Nome, and other ports in Alaska. A little reflection will convince us that these rapid move- ments of population westward at the time of the gold discoveries are only a striking part of the great westward movement of the American people which has now been in progress for three hundred years since the beginnings of Jamestown and Plymouth. Looking still further back, the movements of people which led to the settlement of the thirteen original colonies were from Europe west- ward ho ! The above unit of study, which begins with the trip to California in '49, is a good illustration of these large, central projects. It exhibits a progressive thought development through two main stages. First, the full narrative of per- sonal experience, which gives a rich descriptive background for all the later discussion ; secondly, the steady growth and expansion of the topic to include the entire migration to California and the Pacific Coast, then to the Rocky Mountain States, to Alaska, and at the close a brief survey of the whole westward movement. Around the central idea of westward advance is grouped and organized in a natural order a large and important aggregate of historical EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 37 and geographical knowledge. Such a study begins in definite, interesting, personal experiences, develops into large state interests, and then expands into national im- portance. It finally gives a broad and significant survey of our whole history, even points back to great European migrations and becomes a world topic. Such a unit of study naturally grows into large proportions. It cannot be squeezed into the narrow limits of a twenty minutes class period. Our big topics demand time and space and rich materials with which to work their full influence. Teachers in order to handle these big topics must study them thoroughly and master them completely. THE MUSCLE SHOALS PROJECT At the Muscle Shoals on the Middle Tennessee River, the Government of the United States is now at work upon a national project which was held to be of vital importance to our country in time of war. At the Muscle Shoals is a long series of rapids where the whole volume of this broad river drops down 140 feet. Here is a natural water power which the Government has decided to make use of by building dams and an electric power station to produce nitrates for the manufacture of explosives. The Congress of the United States passed a bill authoriz- ing the president to select the site for this national plant and appropriated twenty million dollars for the work, later increased to sixty millions. This at once brought the Muscle Shoals district into much prominence. Up to this time the Muscle Shoals have been chiefly known to the world as an obstruction to steamboating and commerce on the Tennessee River. Several millions of dollars had 38 TEACHING BY PROJECTS been spent in canals and locks to overcome these difficulties in navigation, but without much success. Among all the important water powers found along Ameri- can rivers, why should the Muscle Shoals be chosen at a tune of pressing national danger as the one spot for estab- lishing the government's largest hydro-electric power plant for the production of nitrates ? To find an answer to this question the President and his advisers had to deal with a series of important and interest- ing problems. i. Is the power that can be generated at the Muscle Shoals great enough and can it be kept up steadily through- out the whole year so as to meet the full demands for such a plant? There are periods of flood in spring and of low water in summer, and the amount of power is quite variable during the four seasons. Here was a problem for expert engineers, who must study the record of the river and its tributaries for many previous years, to ascertain the facts. The government would require for the success of such a plant at least 120,000 horse power continuous through- out the year. As the result of their studies and figuring the engineers came to the conclusion that the river at the Muscle Shoals can furnish 250,000 steady horse power, and for the greater part of the year up to possibly 600,000 horse power. This makes it, next to Niagara, the largest single water power in the United States. The Muscle Shoals have the advantage also of being far enough to the South not to be obstructed with ice in the winter time. In order to secure the largest steady supply of water for the Muscle Shoals, it will be necessary also to build reser- voirs in the upper tributaries and sources of the Tennessee River in the mountains. The extension and development EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 39 of forest reserves for holding back the storm waters will also help to regulate the flow of waters in the flood season. 2. But why is it necessary to have such a plant at all? What are the sources from which we have heretofore ob- tained our nitrates? Inquiry into this point brings out the fact that we have at present in the United States no source of supply for nitrates at all adequate for meeting the urgent demands of war. Nitrates have been shipped into the United States in large quantities from Chile, a far distant country. A hostile nation strong enough on the sea to cut off that supply could make us helpless in the midst of a great war. In order to be safe our country must have a supply at home large enough to meet all demands. 3. How can the water power at the Muscle Shoals pro- duce these nitrates in sufficient quantity to satisfy our needs ? A study of this question brings out the fact that we have plenty of nitrogen all about us in the atmosphere. The main question is how to get hold of it and put it to use. Scientific experts have discovered a method of doing this. By means of the electric current it is possible to draw nitrogen from the air and combine it with other substances to produce nitric acid. The nitrates thus formed can be used in making explosives. Such is the purpose of this hydro-electric power plant at the Muscle Shoals. 4. Another question to be answered is, What are the raw materials that combine with the nitrogen of the air to form usable nitrates? Are these substances found in the neighborhood of the Muscle Shoals? Limestone is known to be the chief of these raw materials and limestone is found at the Muscle Shoals in unlimited quantities. 40 TEACHING BY PROJECTS Coking coal is also needed and that is obtained from the Tennessee Valley and at Birmingham not far distant. 5. One of the important considerations was to find a location for this plant where it would be safe from attack from all foreign enemies. It must be within what is known as " the safety zone " far from the seashore or from boundary lines of foreign countries, even beyond the reach of hostile airplanes. The government entered upon a survey of our various water powers from this point of view. Of all our large water powers on American rivers the Muscle Shoals were found to be best located with respect to foreign enemies. 6. What use could be made of such an expensive plant in time of peace? A study of this problem brings out the surprising fact that a nitrate-producing plant is quite as valuable in peace time as in war, because these nitrates, when combined with phosphates, form the best of all fer- tilizers for the enrichment of agricultural lands. The mak- ing of the fertilizers for restoring the productivity of worn-out lands is one of the most important problems in the United States to-day. In the cotton states of the South and along the Tennessee River there are millions of acres which need these fertilizers in order to maintain the productive power of the soil. Again, just north of the Muscle Shoals in Tennessee is an extensive deposit of phos- phate beds which will supply this essential material. It is to be noted also that a large hydro-electric plant like this at the Muscle Shoals supplies in time of peace a source of power for commercial and manufacturing purposes. This power can be carried on transmission lines to Memphis, Birmingham, Nashville, and other cities and towns within a radius of two hundred miles, and put to use for running EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 41 factories and street car lines, for lighting cities, and even for household uses. The agricultural and industrial wealth of a large as yet undeveloped region along the Tennessee River will be greatly increased by establishing this impor- tant plant. 7. What will be the effect of this power plant upon the navigation of the Tennessee River? The building of three dams at the Muscle Shoals, each of which is supplied with large modern locks for passing boats and barges up and down stream, will have the effect of completely remov- ing all obstruction to navigation. The pools formed above the dams cover the shoals and make deep, safe water for the passage of boats. The Muscle Shoals Project, when completed, will open up the whole Tennessee River from the Ohio to above Knoxville to free navigation for large steamers and barges. With all obstructions removed, an extensive river commerce is likely to grow up and cities like Florence, Decatur, Chattanooga, and Knoxville will have the advantage of a cheap transport for heavy products like coal, lumber, iron, marble, grain, and other raw ma- terials. 8. A natural water power put to service is a substitute for coal. It has been estimated that the full use of the water power at the Muscle Shoals will save one and one half million tons of coal in a single year. This coal, at #3 per ton, would be worth $4, 500,000. The development and use of a great water power is thus a means of saving this amount of fuel. In other words, this is a plan for conserving the coal supply of our country for future uses. Engineers have estimated that we have about 60,000,000 of unused horse power along the rivers of the United States. When all these natural forces are put into use, supposing that 42 TEACHING BY PROJECTS each horse power is the equivalent of three tons of coal a year, it would bring about an annual saving of 180,- 000,000 tons of coal. The labor, machinery, and expense of running the coal mines could then be largely spared and turned into other channels of production. 9. Why should the government rather than some rich private company undertake this project as was the case at Keokuk and at Niagara? Congress has decided that the safety of the nation is dependent upon a full supply of nitrates to be used in the manufacture of explosives. The production of this supply of nitrates should be wholly under the control of govern- ment so that the full power of the nation can be used promptly in time of war. For this reason the Muscle Shoals plant will be built and managed entirely by the national government. A proper study of the Muscle Shoals Project, and of the many problems connected with it, is merely a lively and instructive introduction to a much larger topic, namely, - the value to our nation of our unused water powers. In this connection there should be examined and studied a physical map of the United States upon which are located all these rivers with their valuable water powers. Among these are the rivers of the Southern Alleghenies, the Atlan- tic seaboard rivers, including those of New England, and the Mississippi River with its numerous tributaries. The Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast streams will be found to furnish our largest resources for hydro-electric plants. The future wealth and power of the United States, the growth of its cities and population centers, the increase of its commerce and manufactures, and even its agriculture are largely dependent upon this one idea, the utilizing of the natural EXAMPLES OF COMPLETE PROJECTS 43 but as yet unused water powers of our rivers. The Muscle Shoals Project with its interesting problems, fully presented and discussed, opens to a clear understand,ing one of the chief agencies for developing the resources of the United States. This power plant in a large way will contribute to the direct improvement of agriculture, of mining, of commerce, and of manufacturing. If we keep the Muscle Shoals Project clearly in mind it will throw light upon the more general discussion of projects which is to follow. CHAPTER III THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECTS AS LARGE UNITS OF STUDY THE emphasis given to projects in Chapter I is justified because these projects are big, commanding topics which . deserve to hold an influential place in our school The need of large study- studies. In the necessary reorganization of our curriculum, the big projects, or what we may now call large units of study, are bound to hold the chief place. They are becoming more and more the centers of organization for knowledge materials. The thoughts and labors of both teachers and children are to be focalized strongly upon these main centers of knowledge. We need, therefore, to get a clear conception of these large units of study which are coming into such a commanding influence. A big unit of study brings together and ties up in one bundle a large number of related facts forming a well-con- structed whole. Otherwise these facts might remain disconnected and meaningless. In giving prominence to central units in instruction, we emphasize the larger group- ing of related facts or organization around natural centers of thought. Again, this organization of facts or of knowl- edge materials into a unit is designed to give a setting to a single important idea which in turn is the principle of organization. The big-unit conception applied to the curriculum as- 44 SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECTS AS UNITS OF STUDY 45 sumes that each main study such as history, science, litera- ture, or geography is built up out of these large wholes or units of knowledge rather than out of individ- ual facts. The separate facts are too small and Jjjjj^j be fragmentary to serve as units of construction in about im- knowledge building. Facts indeed we must ^^l have, and in spelling, primary reading, writing, arithmetic, that is, in what are known as formal studies, the mastery of individual facts counts for much. But we have been totally misled in supposing that the separate fact counts for much in history, science, literature, geog- raphy, or in any rich content subject. The enlargement and enrichment of our recent course of study compels us to abandon this itemized, bookkeeping style of knowledge and to focus our attention upon big projects as thought- centers around which the numerous facts are organized. The big-unit conception of knowledge assumes that each study is framed up out of large timbers or structural units. Knowledge is like a big plantation which is made up of large fields, but not of individual acre lots, or like our Federal Government which is combined out of large politi- cal units called states and not out of an endless multitude of small townships. Such units of instruction are easily pointed out in all the important thought studies. The Declaration of Independence, for example, with the facts and Examples of consequences that properly group themselves Iar 8 eunits around it, is such a focal basis for historical survey. The history and development of the steam engine is such a series of important stages or problems. In this progress it gathers into its own sphere of influence a large assemblage of historical events and of scientific data. It is still going 46 TEACHING OF PROJECTS on and will continue to be an organizing center of influence in human affairs. The building of the first Pacific railway, the discovery and exploitation of gold in California, Colum- bus' first voyage, stand out as natural, conspicuous begin- nings and centers in historical progress. In applied science equally valuable centers appear, as the heart and circula- tion of the blood, the invention of the telegraph, the life history of a butterfly, soil fertility and its preservation in agriculture, Mt. Shasta as a volcano, yellow fever and the mosquito. In the nature of the case, we are compelled to pay atten- tion to individual facts, but only as they are sensibly grouped around these important thought-centers which are properly called teaching units. The recent expansion of our curriculum so as to encompass an ever increasing multitude of facts has forced us to enlarge our vision, to take in larger wholes, to group and organize facts into a few centers so as to bring them under the mind's control, in other words, to simplify and unify knowledge. As knowledge becomes more extensive we must search for fewer and stronger centers of organization. If we are to reorganize our method of classroom instruc- tion on the basis of these big projects or knowledge units, omitting many minor topics and detached facts. Large units negatively it becomes necessary to determine, as clearly as possible, the character of these big units. What are the earmarks by which we can detect such a standard unit of study? Let us define a unit first negatively by telling what it is not. First : Such a unit is not a fact. A single fact standing alone is meaningless ; a host of such facts may be equally meaningless. A group of facts properly organized and controlled by an idea may be SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECTS AS UNITS OF STUDY 47 of the utmost value. Facts are important and necessary but only when properly combined and related. A lesson made up of isolated facts or of bare enumerations or lists of disconnected facts is too fragmentary. A single fact interpreted by its bearing on other facts and in its wider relations may grow into an important center of thought. But mere single facts or dates in history, the bare names of places on the map, are not important enough to be studied and learned. Facts that do not demonstrate the influence of organizing ideas fail to function. Examinations based on disconnected fact material are trivial in value, like picking over rubbish heaps. This desultory treatment of scattered facts is a waste of time and a training in the for- mation of bad habits. Secondly : A unit of study is not a miscellaneous collec- tion of even important facts. The mere naming or list- ing of facts on the assumption that they are important carries no meaning to a child. Some of our textbooks are padded with puddingstone collections of presumably important facts. Rational reflection rejects all such mis- cellaneous data as a clog upon right thinking. Every important subject of study should stand out as a well- ordered whole, not a shapeless, accidental heap of facts. Thorough and repeated drill on such lists of facts is an inferior if not wasted form of mental effort. Thirdly : A unit of study is not identical with a lesson lasting twenty minutes or forty minutes. A recitation period of twenty minutes is seldom just the amount of time required for the treatment of a real project, and yet not uncommonly teachers drop into a habit of considering recitation periods as equivalent to lesson units. Impor- tant units of subject matter usually require from four to a 48 TEACHING BY PROJECTS dozen lesson periods for their proper treatment, often still more. A fixed time limit, such as the daily recitation period, appears to be a wrong standard of measure for the large unit of study. The entire process of thought in a complete unit of subject matter is the determining factor, and this is subject to wide variation, contingent on the ability of the class and the nature of the subject. Fourthly : A proper unit of study is not a brief survey or outline of points for discussion. Such outlines may hardly serve as substitutes for knowledge. Unless the outline is accompanied with a parallel, full enlargement of each par- ticular, it is disappointing. Teachers and children alike suffer in school studies from a lack of nourishment, that is, of abundant actual knowledge arranged with reference to leading points. Presenting these mere outlines before teachers and chil- dren is like offering empty dishes to guests at a feast. It is cheap, easy work to supply outlines, but to furnish a well-arranged, fruitful collection of choice knowledge on a valuable subject is a noble gift. It is the result of pains- taking, thoughtful effort and rich experience. In provid- ing these fruitful, well-organized topics an opportunity is presented for performing a great service to teachers and children. It is astounding how few of our leading educa- tors have thought it worth while to furnish teachers and children a varied and full diet of knowledge. Theories of teaching are likewise no substitute for full knowledge, for rich scholarship. It is easy also to offer excuses for not doing this: "Let the teacher learn to help himself," "Do not tell children what they can find out for them- selves." What a makeshift argument! In traveling through a desert country it is refreshing to come upon wells SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECTS AS UNITS OF STUDY 49 of water and fruitful gardens provided by those who have gone before. To supply poor, meager outlines for other people to fill out is a lazy man's job. It is a common way of shirking a hard task. Let the leaders in education go forward and show by example how to work out rich and fruitful topics. A few such big teaching units or projects completely organized out of interesting, instructive thought material suitable for children would do much to give us a sound basis for classroom work. Fifthly: A unit of study is not a rule, or principle, or abstraction. At least this is not a suitable form in which to present it to children. In any case the abstract form should come later, when it is needed, as a natural outgrowth of the full treatment of the subject. It is deceptive and dangerous even to name by abstract titles big topics such as government, taxation, industry, or physiography, because teachers are so prone to fall back on a mere ab- stract phrase or definition as an adequate form of knowl- edge and wholly to neglect the sound basis of concrete teaching, i.e. full descriptive illustration and expansion of the unit. Unless the enlarged descriptive content of a unit of study is worked out into a definitely presented, enriching body of knowledge, a lean outline and shallow teaching are inevi- table. The teacher imposes upon the children the same hopeless burden of dull abstractions which has already been imposed upon the teachers. But the teacher has the same excuse, "Every child should think this out for him- self." What a pity that the child has no one upon whom he may roll the burden of making bricks without straw, of trying to think clearly without a realistic knowledge basis for thought ! 50 TEACHING BY PROJECTS Turning to the positive side, what are the distinctive The positive marks of a standard teaching project or unit of side knowledge? First : It is knowledge stuff in which there is a central organizing idea. This generative idea is not only the The basal local center but it is the principle of organization idea m jj ie development of the topic. Like the em- bryo in the seed it predetermines the nature and process of growth and the final result. The purposive idea is the living energy that shapes the big unit in its process of growth toward fullness and maturity. The architect's idea shapes the house. The idea of irrigation determines the process by which any big project of irrigation is worked out. The development of a distinct, unique character in fiction with its complete setting is a unit of study. Such a controlling idea, as a center around which a big topic organizes itself, is illustrated in history, Washington's campaign against Yorktown, a real project; the first voyage of Columbus; in geography, the Erie Canal all projects. A proper unit of subject matter contains within itself a complete, energetic thought movement because the or- ganizing principle of the topic is such a progressive, self-pro- pelling, purposive idea and demands its own full cycle of growth. Give this idea free scope to demonstrate its organizing power, and a strong, complete, well-rounded unit of thought is the necessary result. Burke's speech on Conciliation has just such a simple organizing principle of thought. The building of the Panama Canal rests back upon such a constructive idea or purpose. A rail- road system is projected and constructed upon the specific notion of the continuous transport of goods as a means of interchange between given regions. Ruskin's King of the SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECTS AS UNITS OF STUDY 5 1 Golden River has a developing thread of thought which ties all its parts together into a complete story. The energetic, dynamic quality of the idea, combined with its constructive force in grouping and uniting thought elements, is what makes study a real achievement. Purposeful ideas are such dynamic forces at work in the world building up industries, shaping institutions, organizing and directing the business of life. Education consists in propagating these world-building ideas in the minds of children. Once planted in the fertile soil of receptive minds these ideas show their full growing energy, their organizing quality and strength. Genuine ideas are never static. Mere facts may become almost static memory products, but ideas keep on growing and gathering new materials around these old centers of thought. This growing, dynamic element in knowledge is its life-giving quality. The strength of these large projects as vital ideas lies in the fact that they are present, growing, life organiza- tions. Large mining, agricultural, and manufacturing processes, as big organized agencies for carrying on these operations, are the center and essence of these large teaching units. They are objective demonstrations on a large scale of local, national, and world processes in the industries. A big topic springs directly out of life, is rooted in life, and, when once understood, interprets life. One of these big subjects fully cleared up and demonstrated explains a long developing process in the past up to the present, and then clearly forecasts and interprets the future, e.g. a study of the lumber industry. Secondly : A developing unit of study gathers to itself and embodies the full content of a rich, well-organized collection of knowledge. It is not a skeleton outline, but 52 TEACHING BY PROJECTS is clothed with the flesh and tissues, as it were, of a living organism. It is rounded out with the full complement of concrete, illustrative information. In this A center for growth and particular of adequacy in treatment our textbook 1 topics are very scant; they are not complete units of study and are not so regarded. They are so lean and unstable that they collapse like an empty sack for lack of content. The main thought lacks a background against which it can reveal itself in its full meaning. A good story or poem gives this embodied thought, this elaborate setting to the chief idea. In Horatius at the Bridge the spirited hero stands forth in the presence of both armies, the bridge and crowded walls of Rome on one side, and on the other the ranks of the Tuscan army with glittering war gear marching down from the northern hills. The whole setting is complete and cumulative. The Christmas Carol of Dickens gives a highly wrought description to exhibit the background and full biography of the growing Christmas spirit. The schoolmaster is beginning to learn the one great lesson taught in the works of first-class writers, to which there are no exceptions (from Homer to Kipling), that any idea worth presenting should have a complete, adequate, and even artistic setting, else it loses its force and degenerates into a poor, weak thing. It seems a thousand pities that the schoolmaster is sometimes slow to learn this lesson. He holds with a death grip to his logical outlines and condensations and abstractions. Every big unit of study as a developing project requires ample scholarship, a real life setting, a complete environ- ment for the idea. For teaching purposes we may give special emphasis to the objective or concrete character SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECTS AS UNITS OF STUDY 53 of such units. The idea may be embodied in some person, as the idea of the Erie Canal in the person of De Witt Clinton, or in a striking object like the Brooklyn Bridge, or in some great natural landmark, such as Mt. Shasta, or in a natural agent, like a Rhone glacier ; or it may center in an important practical project, as the power plant at Niagara or the building of the first Pacific railway, or the laying of the first Atlantic cable. Such topics are not bookish and school-made, but practical and life-made. It is through these pragmatic topics that the school is able to strip of! its artificialities and become absorbed into the ongoing activities and interests of a real world. A big [strong unit, like a well-loaded cannon, is one that is charged with a full measure of knowledge material. Thirdly : This developing unit of subject matter, or- ganized into a strong thought movement, an expanding project, is just one clear, complete, and convinc- ing illustration of a hundred or a thousand simi- lar movements. By means of a brief comparison with similar projects or processes this one illustration becomes the easily recognizable type of a whole class of kindred phenomena scattered up and down the earth. Explain fully the process by which the Rhone glacier is formed by accumulating snows upon the mountain slopes, and then, by pressure, consolidating and pushing its slow course down the winding valley, scouring the mountain sides and carrying the waste materials to lower levels where the ice melts away in the warmer sun, giving rise to the rivers, and you have described almost the exact process by which all mountain glaciers in all high regions of the world have been doing their gigantic work for centuries. To under- stand thoroughly the work of one glacier is to understand 54 TEACHING BY PROJECTS and interpret all glaciers. Describe one big steel mill at Pittsburgh as a business undertaking, with its blast furnace, converters, and rolling mill, giving the sources of its raw materials, and the use to which its finished prod- ucts are put, and one will easily master the problem of steel production wherever carried on in this or in foreign lands. Study out the machines and processes of one cotton mill and you will understand cotton manufacture, though it be carried on in ten thousand factories the world over. Likewise woolen manufacture and other textile production will be easily understood on the same basis. Wise people tell us that if we read and ponder well one great book, we shall understand the gist of many books. Fortunately for us the world is built on this basis of a few simple types. Master thoroughly a few of these essential and far-reaching types and the world of knowledge becomes tributary to our thought. So far reaching is this interpretative significance of the type that teachers have been misled into substituting for it the definition, which is the purely abstract form of the typical idea. The definition or general statement does contain a truth that might explain clearly a thousand or a million objects or phenomena. But this brief definition or abstract form of truth, though it be firmly memorized, fails to furnish the child with insight into the basal mean- ing, and it fails still worse in giving power to use such a truth so that it can work over into habit. Teachers are constantly falling into this trap, both teachers and chil- dren being caught and held in these abstract formulae. Out of such abstract definitions neither sound knowledge nor good habits can spring. The soil is too thin and poor to produce a good crop. In any subject the truth which SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECTS AS UNITS OF STUDY 55 lies at the bottom must be concretely enriched and nourished and strongly organized in order to produce a fruitful crop of genuine knowledge. The type or project study, properly developed and en- riched, furnishes a sound, concrete basis upon which to build the structure of knowledge. In the effort to secure economy and efficiency hi our methods of instruction we must keep in mind, first, the basal simplicity in knowledge, resting upon a few central ideas or types, and, secondly, the deep fertilizing elements of concrete experience that must be gathered around the roots and beginnings of every im- portant topic of study. The basal principle in each case is plain. It stands out in large, bold relief commanding wide influence. It has the strength of a giant for bringing together and organizing scientific, historical, or geographical material, and some- times all of these combined, and this whole, big unit becomes a larger measuring unit with which to test and judge other similar values on a broad and expanding scale. For knowl- edge in a big unit grows richer in power and scope as it develops. It is this outstretching power of an idea to lay hold of extensive data, and to organize them into a simple perspective, interpreting the world down long avenues, which gives such a study-unit its final complete value. A big teaching unit fully mastered in its facts, meaning, and relations becomes a clear and well-defined standard for measuring future units of similar character. , . A standard This typical, interpretative quality is quickly measuring discovered and set to work in big projects like the Erie Canal, the City of Washington, the historic Rhine River, or the influence of the Alps Mountains. Thought- ful measurements as to qualitative and quantitative rela- 56 TEACHING BY PROJECTS tions, as to similarities and contrasts, as to causes and effects, result in a still larger grouping and organization of knowledge. Such big units keep on growing, expanding, and organizing thought materials through the whole course of study. Thus are steadily and strongly built up the fundamental norms with which to measure and esti- mate values not only in school, but throughout later life. Let such an idea spring up from a rich, productive soil of concrete knowledge and it will surely develop out of its small, local, concrete beginnings and through later compari- sons into a full world-meaning. It is only those big ideas which grow into this larger importance that we care to deal with. This is a world-building process and expands steadily to the interpretation of larger and yet larger wholes. It does not stop with the end of the school. Such school effort is rooted in experience and develops through life processes, and so it goes right on. Such ideas are the life of nations through which they maintain and develop themselves. It is not too much to say that the elementary school is dealing in a live way with the funda- mentals of social and industrial life. The study of a wheat farm in North Dakota grows easily into the great wheat belt of the Northwest with Minneapolis as its center, but before long it is measuring the wheat fields of Australia, of Argen- tina, of India, and of the Nile Valley and the ocean routes. Fourthly : As this central idea takes root and develops naturally hi a child's mind, it organizes his knowledge into a growing habit of thought. His mind takes on A growing habit of an expanding knowledge-structure which be- comes his own method of thinking. It not only organizes a child's knowledge into habits, but it reenforces these habits with powerful interests in the further develop- SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECTS AS UNITS OF STUDY $7 ment of knowledge. In this manner a strong, genetic instruction may have a molding influence upon character as it develops. The succeeding chapters of this book will bring into view, one after another, the various important aspects of the Large Unit of Study as a growing project. It is the one fundamental concept in this book which we wish to bring to a clear and complete and explicit demon- stration. In closing this chapter we may note that we have been discussing only one of the three important aspects of these large developing projects or units of study. To show the far-reaching importance of the large standard unit we desig- nate these three points as follows : 1. The large unit of study or project is the basis of our plans in this book for enriching classroom study. This is especially true in all the important thought studies and to a less degree in formal studies. 2. A proper choice and serial arrangement of these im- portant study units is the basis for the organization of the course of study. The treatment of this point will require a separate volume. 3. In the training of teachers we fall back upon the large standard unit of study as the center of operations. If teachers can learn to organize knowledge into such units, if they can master such topics before going into their classes, and can later carry out such well-planned instruction in the classroom, they will rapidly develop into efficient teachers. To deal properly with this phase of the large unit as related to teacher- training will also require a sepa- rate volume. 58 TEACHING BY PROJECTS SUMMARY OF THE MAIN FEATURES IN A CENTRAL UNIT OF STUDY 1. It has in it a basal idea, a center for the grouping of facts. Like a magnet it draws all things to one point. The story of Peter Cooper with his one great idea illustrates this. 2. The unit of study has in it a developing process of thought which is its principle of growth. In this is a dynamic energy that keeps it active and constructive, like the design of a building in the mind of an architect. The process of smelting iron ore and of making steel prod- ucts at Pittsburgh is an example. 3. Such a topic is concrete. Its idea is embodied in some object, or person, or process, like a machine or manu- facturing plant ; like some great power plant, at Niagara Falls ; or the projecting and building of the first steamboat. 4. The purposive idea as it develops gathers to itself an instructive and valuable body of knowledge which it organizes into its own structure. Like a growing tree, it assimilates into its own tissues the materials it needs. Example, the Panama Canal. 5. Such a large unit of study centers in some practical project like the building of a railroad or the laying of an ocean cable. It is not bookish and school-made, but practical and life-made. 6. This life project, when worked out, is found to be the key and interpretation to a large number of similar undertakings. It is a clear type and demonstration of an entire class of important projects, scattered up and down the whole earth. It is a vitalized rule or principle. Example, the steam engine, a canal lock. SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECTS AS UNITS OF STUDY 59 7. Let this idea grow and it will develop out of its small, local, concrete beginnings into a national importance. It is a world-building process and expands steadily to the interpretation of larger and yet larger wholes. Example, A Wheat Farm in North Dakota, The Trip to California in '49, The Harbor of New York. 8. As this central idea takes root and develops naturally in a child's mind, it organizes his knowledge into a growing habit of thought. His mind takes on an expanding knowl- edge-structure which becomes his own method of think- ing and of interpreting the world. CHAPTER IV THE ENLARGED OBJECT LESSON OR PROJECT AND ITS RELATION TO THE LEARNING PROCESS THE project well worked out is simply a big object lesson in the process of learning a demonstration of the right method of collecting, organizing, and mastering the natural knowledge. It might be called an explanation process in o f ^ e natural learning process. In executing a real project, a child almost loses sight of the fact that he is gaining knowledge. He is mainly absorbed in reaching results. As an active voluntary agent he has his eye fixed on the end to be reached. Struggling to achieve this purpose, he finds himself in the midst of a world of knowledge waiting to be put to use. The best way to acquire knowledge is to get after some important aim which compels us to learn what is necessary as a means of reaching this aim. Teachers have been groping about for a long time trying to discover this natural process in learning. On this plan, enterprising young men with little schooling have educated themselves very success- fully, youths like Edison, Horace Greeley, Peter Cooper, and Benjamin Franklin. But it requires an unusual degree of originality and force of character to travel this road alone and unguided. The teacher can do much for aver- age boys and girls by the suggestion 'of right aims and by occasional wise guidance in selecting and pursuing their projects. 60 LARGER LESSON PLAN BASED ON PROJECTS 6l Young people have an instinct reaching after the impor- tant things in life, but they often choose unwisely. They require guidance toward the better kinds of ex- perience and wisdom. At the basis of our hu- man experiences are certain fundamental truths chad * perience to which must be understood and put to use. It has world- been the business of philosophers and advanced scholars to find out these truths, and to organize them into a system of knowledge which we call science. At first glance there seems to be a wide separation between this wisdom of philosophers and thinkers and the child's needs, at least as he sees them. It is the business of teach- ers to make this connection, to direct boys and girls in their own efforts to discover and master these world-truths and to identify their own interests and projects with them. To bring about this live connection between the child's interests and the world activities has been the great diffi- culty and even stumbling block in education. The proj- ects which we have been discussing seem to furnish the middle ground where the child, absorbed in his narrow per- sonal and social interests, can still begin to take on the larger purposes of society and thus appropriate the accumu- lated wisdom of this larger world. The basal truths of human life are often best revealed to children concretely in the working out of projects. For the project, developed through its important stages in a true life setting, is a first-class demonstration of the growth of an important idea or truth. In our educational theory this is known as the inductive-deductive process of reaching important concepts or general notions. The growth of ideas, by which percepts develop into concepts, reveals the basis of the learning process. Think- 62 TEACHING BY PROJECTS ers and teachers have long been interested in the question as to how general notions are formed, whether they develop f step by step from the observation and compari- The basis of the learning son of examples, or whether there is a shorter cut in thinking by which concepts may be reached. This matter touches the relation of induction to deduc- tion in the thinking process and involves both in a close partnership. For practical purposes we may describe two theories regarding the learning process. First : Among teachers T W o and school texts a long prevailing practice gives theories emphasis to general statements or concepts as a starting point in the treatment of important topics. For example, a recent primary geography describes climate thus: "The word climate means the usual state The first be- gins with of the air, whether hot or cold, dry or rainy, generalities wmc j v or cami /' A book in English composition begins with this sentence: "Composition, from the word con, meaning together, and ponere, to place, signifies a grouping or arrangement of materials, generally with a definite end in view." A textbook in physical geography begins a chapter on glaciers with the sentence, "A glacier is an accumulation of snow, for the most part solidified into ice, which is engaged in a slow movement from one place to another." Such definitions, at the beginning of a sub- ject, are not uncommon, but still more common are general comprehensive statements covering important topics in a condensed, summary fashion. A primary geography has this statement, "Iron, copper, gold, silver, lead, and zinc are metals. They come from rocks. The rocks having metals in them are called ores. We find iron ore, copper ore, and lead ore. Gold is often found pure in nature." LARGER LESSON PLAN BASED ON PROJECTS 63 Such brief, general statements make up a large share of the content of our elementary textbooks, especially for the beginning middle grades. Such an introductory state- ment on the first approach to any important topic is general and schematic, not definite and particular. In the introduction to history lessons, for example, topics dealing with the Puritans, with taxation, with state sovereignty, and with the constitution are mentioned briefly in general terms with little explanation, but with the expectation that these same topics will be dealt with more explicitly and fully in the later grades and in larger books. In the early study of such subjects children are not expected to comprehend fully and clearly what they learn. They memorize many statements not plainly under- stood in the hope that the future, out of its richer reserves, will make good this thought deficiency. Learning is a process of slow and gradual clearing up of concepts, begin- ning with statements vague and presumptive and gradually enlarging upon these at some later period with fuller re- sources of knowledge. It is the prevailing notion of putting off to a later time the day of clear and definite knowledge. It is the idea of a long twilight zone A twilight during the early approaches to knowledge. This zone emphasis of conceptual or abstract knowledge in the early stages of learning is a favorite notion among adults and especially among teachers and textbook writers in their attitude toward children. It has also in its favor a long tradition of method and practice in the schools. The second theory touching the process of learning is the opposite of the foregoing. Knowledge should start with the concrete, the sensuous, the vivid. The first im- 64 TEACHING BY PROJECTS pressions on any subject should be registered in a child's mind in clear and vivid pictures, in a strong and intensive grasp of particular objects or situations, in ideas nings in the keenly felt and objectively demonstrated. While a quick, general survey of a situation may be allowed at the start, the emphasis falls upon the immedi- ately following enlarged and descriptive treatment of the topic, upon a full life picture such as an artist would produce. In support of the second view, it is claimed that chil- dren at this early stage are not prepared for broad, general surveys of large domains in knowledge, that is, lines not f r a mere framework to be held in memory S h1idren f0r unt ^ a f un A Tin 102 TEACHING BY PROJECTS a city, a military campaign, the founding of a state, the growth of an institution, or some invention or far-reaching discovery in sanitation that is dealt with. In English studies a theme for composition is a basis for gathering and organiz- ing knowledge materials. In all these cases the mind seeks to grasp a whole, to organize simply great masses of knowledge framed up into big, dominant concepts. This is the child's and the student's simple method of escaping from confusion and chaos and of building up an orderly world. An examination of more recent textbooks in geography and history proves that authors have begun to grasp this idea of large units of study. Many recent texts Thetransi- exhibit a tendency to select the big topics and small to to give them an enlarged treatment. This is has begun plainly a reaction against one of the striking faults of schoolbooks, namely, a short, condensed treatment of many topics. Sometimes a mere sentence or short paragraph attempts to express the meaning of some large concept and that in language so general and abstract as to be almost meaningless. A radical change has begun and it will hardly stop before the course of study -and the textbooks have been transformed in the interest of an enlarged and enriched treatment of a few main topics. A good illustration of this change toward greater respect for big units of study may be cited in the treatment of the Erie Canal. By comparing a succession of his- Canaimus- ^- or Y textbooks published during the last thirty trates this years we find either the omission of this topic or change its very brief treatment in the earlier books, and in notable contrast to this a gradually enlarging discussion of this subject in later books. TENDENCY TOWARD LARGE PROJECTS 103 Out of a dozen history texts examined, four of the earlier books made no mention of the Erie Canal. Evidently the authors had not discovered that this was an important topic. One of the earlier books has the following state- ment : "1817 Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo begun." Another text has this statement: "In 1815 New York began the Erie Canal which was completed in 1825." A somewhat fuller statement from a third book runs as follows: "Public improvements the greatest of these works then in progress was the Erie Canal which connects the waters of Lake Erie with the Hudson River and the grain fields of the West with the markets of Europe. It was formally opened in October, 1825, when the Governor of New York and many guests sailed from Buffalo to the city of New York in a state barge attended by music and the roar of cannon." A fourth and later book contains the following account : THE ERIE CANAL "The Erie Canal connecting the waters of the Great Lakes with the Atlantic was completed in 1825. The canal passes from Lake Erie to the Hudson at a point near Al- bany. It was constructed by the state of New York, eight years being required for the work. The success of this great undertaking was mainly due to the untiring efforts of Gov. De Witt Clinton. "The canal brought N. Y. City in close touch with the West and its benefits were immediately felt. The cheapening of freight rates made a marvelous increase in the amount of products exchanged between the East and the West. The canal became also a popular route for the emigrant as it was an easier way than the overland route of reaching the West." 104 TEACHING BY PROJECTS This paragraph brings out several important results from the building of the canal and furnishes considerable food for thought. A fifth book quoted gives the following : [: THE OPENING OF THE ERIE CANAL, 1825 "John Quincy Adams was the sixth President we elected. We have seen that the people living in the eastern states had a great desire to open up ways for reaching the country west of the Allegheny Mountains. The construction of the National Road did much to help them but the state of New York resolved to dig a canal reaching from the Hud- son River to Lake Erie. 11 In some ways this would be far better than a road, because it is always easier and cheaper to carry passengers and freight by water than by land. "Gangs of laborers began to dig at Albany. After eight years of hard work the last shovelful of earth was thrown out, and the long ditch was completed, 1825. It ended at Buffalo, three hundred and sixty miles west of the Hud- son. The canal was the greatest piece of work of the kind that had ever been done in the United States. "People could now start from New York City by steam- boat, go to Albany, step on board of a canal boat, and in less than a week they would arrive at Buffalo. That was quick traveling for those days. Then, if they liked, they could take a steamboat on Lake Erie and go to Cleveland, Ohio, or to Detroit, Michigan, or even as far west as Wis- consin and that was then thought to be very far west indeed. "Thousands of emigrants went west by the canal. A part of them pushed on beyond Buffalo and settled in the states which border on the Great Lakes. But many of TENDENCY TOWARD LARGE PROJECTS 105 them stopped at different places in New York. They built up the cities of Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buf- falo, besides many smaller towns along the banks of the canal. "The canal brought wheat and farm produce from the West to the East, and it helped in many ways to make New York the ' Empire State ' that is, the greatest state in population and wealth in the Union." This treatment is fuller and more interesting and suggests a comparison with the Old National Road. It takes a much broader view of the geographical and commercial relations of the Erie Canal, of products shipped, and of emigration. It suggests a somewhat full geographical study of the whole situation. A still more recent history textbook is quoted as fol- lows : "The Erie Canal; the Pennsylvania Canal. -But an event of far greater importance than the extension of the National Road was the completing and opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. We learned (p. 208) that the effect of the steamboat navigation in the West was to build up the Gulf trade. The Ohio farmer could ship his grain by water to New Orleans, and receive a price sufficient to pay the freight and still leave a fair profit; but if he should send it by land over the mountains to the Atlantic seaboard, the cost of transportation would be more, perhaps, than the grain was worth. So it was as natural for the Western trade to find its way to the Gulf ports as it was for water to run down hill. But the business men of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore saw that they would suffer great loss if the Western trade were allowed to slip away from them. The National Road, to be sure, would save to 106 TEACHING BY PROJECTS the East a part of that trade ; but, at the best, goods could not be moved as cheaply on roads as on rivers. The people of the seaboard, therefore, began to look to artificial rivers, that is, canals, as a means of securing the Western trade. "Canal-building on a large scale began in 1817, when De Witt Clinton, governor of New York, turned the first spadeful of earth on the Erie Canal, which was to extend from Buffalo to Albany, and to connect Lake Erie with the Hudson River. Clinton had persuaded the legisla- ture of New York to undertake the building of the canal at the expense of the state. He promised that the canal would draw trade from all the Great Lakes and their tribu- taries and from a large part of the Mississippi Valley be- sides ; that this trade would find its way down the Hudson to New York and cause that city to become a great com- mercial center ; that villages, towns, and cities would line the banks of the canal and the shores of the Hudson from Erie to New York ; that ' the wilderness and the solitary place would become glad, and the desert would rejoice, and blossom as the rose.' The work of digging the 'great ditch' was carried forward in earnest, and in 1825 the canal was completed and thrown open to the public. "The opening of the canal was celebrated in a manner worthy of so great an event. On the 26th of October a fleet of gayly decorated boats left Buffalo and moved slowly eastward along the canal, ' saluted by music, musketry, and the cheers of the crowds along the bank.' On the morning of the 4th of November the procession of boats reached the city of New York. A flask of water from Lake Erie was poured into New York Bay by Governor Clinton, and the waters of the Great Lakes were declared to be united forever in marriage with the waters of the ocean. TENDENCY TOWARD LARGE PROJECTS 107 "The canal did all that Clinton promised that it would do and even more. Before it was built it cost $100 to carry a ton of goods from Buffalo to New York City ; the canal reduced the cost to #20. The cheap freight rates caused trade to flow in great volume toward the canal. Within a year after its opening the canal bore on its quiet waters many thousands of boats and rafts laden with lumber, grain, furs, and merchandise of all kinds. Villages and towns sprang up along the line of the canal from one end to the other. Western New York indeed 'blos- somed as the rose.' Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo rapidly developed into flourishing cities. But the greatest thing done by the Erie Canal was to build up the trade of New York City and make it the com- mercial center of the United States and of the Western Hemisphere. "The Erie Canal was hardly finished before the State of Pennsylvania also began to construct a system of canals from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. It was necessary to do this if Philadelphia was to hold her Western trade. In 1826 work on the Pennsylvania was begun, and nine years later one could travel by a horse-railway from Philadelphia to the town of Columbia on the Susque- hanna ; thence by a canal along the Susquehanna and Juniata to Hollidaysburg ; thence over the mountains by a portage railway to Johnstown ; and thence by canal to Pittsburgh. "Railroads. It was necessary also for Baltimore to have an easy route to the West, but the men of this city looked to the railroad rather than to the canal as a means of communication. On the Fourth of July, 1828, the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who fifty-two 108 TEACHING BY PROJECTS years before had signed the Declaration of Independence, laid the cornerstone of a railroad that was to connect Balti- more and the Ohio River." This is the fullest account we have seen in our recent histories and it amounts to a fairly elaborate discussion of transportation between the Eastern seaboard and the great Western regions beyond the Alleghenies and about the Great Lakes. This treatment gives a larger account of the causes lead- ing to the construction of the canal, a fuller detail of the actual work, and a clearer statement of the results. But it goes beyond this and shows how Pennsylvania worked out a similar plan of railroads and canals and how Balti- more built a complete railroad to the West. jj The above extracts, taken from six different histories, show a disposition on the part of historians to seize upon an important topic and to enlarge upon it more and more. The following is suggested as a more nearly adequate treatment of this topic, illustrating the organization of knowledge around such an important center. The Erie Canal has been so important in the historical growth of the United States, while its character as a main traffic route is so typical and its relations to the largest railroad lines so close, that we deem it a suitable example upon which to illustrate the organization of knowledge around a central idea on a large scale. The following treatment of the Erie Canal, first as a fuller description of a single big engineering project, and secondly, as a series of comparisons with other waterways and railways connecting the East and the West, furnishes a complete illustration of a steady, progressive thought development and of a strong central organization of a great number of important facts from TENDENCY TOWARD LARGE PROJECTS IOQ the history and geography of the United States. It is a good example of what we mean by the big project or unit of study. THE ERIE CANAL The project of building a canal to connect the Great Lakes with the Hudson and New York City was thought of before the Revolution. But so long as the warlike Iro- quois or Six Nations held control of central New York, the building of roads and canals across this country was out of the question. General Sullivan's army marched into the Iroquois country during the Revolution, in 1779, and broke up the strong union of the six nations that for two centuries had ruled central New York and had been feared by all the Indian tribes far and wide. At the close of the Revolution, then, white settlers were free to push into the valleys, lake regions, and forests of central New York as far as Lake Erie. Along the old Indian trails from Albany to Lake Erie were now to be laid out the wagon roads and later the canals which were to connect the East and the West. Even before the Revo- lution bold settlers had flocked across the southern Alle- ghenies into Tennessee and Kentucky and had taken possession of those lands under such leaders as Boone and Robertson and George Rogers Clark. A little later pioneers drifted into the Ohio country, and now after the Revolution there was a growing demand for roads to con- nect the western settlements with the older states east of the mountains. A pioneer road was laid out through the forests and swamps of central New York to Lake Erie. The early settlers of this rich region soon had supplies of wheat and 110 TEACHING BY PROJECTS peltries to send East, that is to New York and Philadelphia, and they needed cheap and easy transport. In the spring, when the rivers were flooded, they could send boatloads of goods down the Susquehanna to Philadelphia and Balti- more. The valley of the Mohawk was also used for the shipment of goods to New York, partly by boat and partly by wagon. The wagon road from Albany to Buffalo was a long and tedious haul through woods and swamps, and it cost about a hundred dollars to get a ton of freight from Buffalo to New York. The project of building a canal from Buffalo to Albany was early suggested. Gouverneur Morris argued that as Lake Erie was 570 feet higher than tidewater at Albany, it would be possible to dig a channel and convey a stream of water that would carry boats directly to the Hudson. De Witt Clinton, afterward governor, was a strong advocate of such a canal, and he, with others, had surveys made and formed plans. But the undertaking was too difficult and expensive for private individuals. Only a large state like New York could supply the money necessary for such an undertaking. Finally De Witt Clinton presented the matter to the legislature of New York in 1816. Some of his arguments were as follows: Such a canal would greatly cheapen the transport of goods from Buffalo to New York. This would make New York City the outlet for goods coming from the lakes and the Ohio country as well as from central New York, and in this way it would rapidly grow into a great city. Again, New York State was fortunate in having the only route between the East and the West where there were no moun- tains to climb, as in Pennsylvania and other states farther south. It was the only place where a canal could be built. TENDENCY TOWARD LARGE PROJECTS III The shipment of goods down Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence would only injure New York State, and besides, the St. Lawrence was blocked with ice during a long winter. The country through which the canal would pass was a rich and fruitful region, and with a good canal for ship- ment it would settle up rapidly and become very prosper- ous. The canal itself could be easily supplied with water from Lake Erie, and the boating along the canal would be much safer, being free from the winds and storms which prevail on the lakes and on the ocean. A pair of horses or mules could haul a great canal boat loaded with goods along the canal at the rate of thirty miles a day, and that would be very cheap and rapid compared with any other kind of shipping. After much discussion these arguments won the day, and the legislature voted to undertake the construction of the canal at state expense. It was decided that the canal was to be dug along the Mohawk Valley, then across New York north of the Finger Lakes, not far south of Lake Ontario, to Buffalo. The main canal was to be divided into three sections, the western part from Lake Erie to the Seneca River, the middle from the Seneca River to Rome, and the eastern section from Rome to the Hudson at Albany, in all 365 miles. It was to be 4 feet in depth, 40 feet wide at the top, and 20 feet wide at the bottom. The sloping sides were to be walled with stone to prevent washing. The first contracts for digging were let in the spring of 1817. The farmers along the route had been engaged to do the work, at first with spades and wheelbarrows, but this was too slow, so scrapers were invented to be used with teams and oxen. This made the work go much faster. Money was scarce among the farmers and they were 112 TEACHING BY PROJECTS glad to engage in the work to get ready money for their needs. A number of serious difficulties hindered the progress of the work. First were the great forests, thick and tangled, just west of Rome. Trees must be cut down and stumps pulled. The ground was deeply matted with roots. A stump puller was sent from England, and a great plow with two yoke of oxen was used to loosen up the roots. In some places the canal led through swamps, and hundreds of men were sick with fever and ague. Thus, for a while, near the Seneca River, the work almost stopped. Other stretches of the canal had to be quarried out through rock, and this was slow and laborious. Important rivers like the Genesee had to be crossed, and this was a serious problem. Massive stone arches were built across the valleys and streams, and stone troughs or aqueducts were built upon these, which formed part of the canal. The rivers then could pass under these arches and aqueducts. The canal had to be built at several levels, on account of the hilly and sloping nature of the land in places, and had to pass from one level to another, say ten feet higher or lower. At these places stone locks must be built, with double gates at each end, and constructed long enough and wide enough to let boats pass into them so as to be raised or lowered as the water was let in or out. Work was going on in all these sections at the same time. As fast as any considerable part of the canal was completed, the water was let in, canal boats were built, and goods shipped. The charges on these shipments or tolls counted up rapidly to a large sum and people began to see that the canal, when finished, would be very profitable. TENDENCY TOWARD LARGE PROJECTS 113 At last the canal in all its parts was completed in 1825, being 365 miles long, and having seventy-two locksand many stone aqueducts. It crossed the Mohawk River twice. Its entire cost was #7,600,000, a large sum for those days. Of course the completion of the canal was celebrated in Buffalo and New York and all the towns and cities between. As Governor Clinton and a party of guests entered the canal in boats to travel to New York, a cannon was fired off, and this shot was followed by a series of cannon dis- tributed along the whole route within hearing distance of one another. In this way the news was telegraphed to New York. All along the route they were received with speeches, feasts, and jollification, and at New York two kegs of water from Lake Erie were poured into the New York Bay to signify the union of the lakes with the ocean. It was really a great event in American history, as the products of the West could find easy transport to New York and to Europe by water. Settlers going West could travel easily to the states bordering the Great Lakes. Important results quickly followed the completion of the canal. On the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 the cost of freighting a ton of goods from Albany to Buffalo fell from #100 to $6 and later to #3. The whole farming country for miles back on both sides of the canal grew quickly into a rich, productive region. All along the canal cities sprang up which in time have grown into large and populous centers of manufacturing. Nearly all the large cities of New York State are located on or near this canal and the Hudson. Smaller canals were built south and north of the Erie connecting it with the lakes and greatly increasing the trade. The success of the Erie Canal was greater than even its friends had expected. The tolls from 114 TEACHING BY PROJECTS 1825 to 1834 amounted to eight and a half millions, more than the original cost. From the Ohio country and from all the Great Lakes region, products began to flow in toward Buffalo and along the canal to Albany and New York. The Eastern people, desiring to move West, found it easy to transport their families and goods by the canal and lakes to Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago, and to move out to farms in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Passenger canal boats were built and much used. From the opening of the Erie Canal, New York City began to grow and soon outdistanced all other cities in the United States in wealth and population. For some thirty years this canal was the chief highway of traffic for heavy goods between the East and the West. It was also the chief mode of travel for people and families going be- tween the East and the West. During this period the tolls on the canal brought in a large revenue to the state. Cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore, on the Eastern seaboard, were very anxious to share with New York the rich commerce of the West. Even before the building of the Erie Canal the government of the United States had constructed the Old National Road from Cumberland on the Potomac, across the mountains and through south- western Pennsylvania to Wheeling on the Ohio. This road was afterward completed across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to St. Louis, and cost the government about #7,000,- ooo, not much less than the Erie Canal. It was a well-built stone road as far as Wheeling, with massive stone bridges, and to this day it is a good, solid highway. For many years it was thronged with wagons and emigrants and their stock and goods, moving to the TENDENCY TOWARD LARGE PROJECTS 115 West into the Ohio Valley. The old hostelries or hotels along the road are yet fine old landmarks of the day when Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln traveled over this road by coach to Washington. Philadelphia sought to reach the West by still another route. Canals were built by the state along the Susque- hanna and up the Juniata to the edge of the mountain ridge between Johnstown and Altoona. It was intended to carry the canal through this mountain wall by a tunnel. Another canal on the west side connected Johnstown with the Allegheny River and Pittsburgh. But the tunneling of the mountain proved too difficult, and a portage rail- road was built over the mountain to connect the two canals, at state expense. Another railroad was built by the state of Pennsylvania from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna, and thus Philadelphia was connected, from tidewater on the Delaware, by combined railroads and canals, with the Ohio at Pittsburgh. This became a great route of traffic between the Ohio country and Philadelphia. It competed with the Erie Canal for the trade of the West. During this early period we find three great routes competing for this Western trade. All of them were very important in the development of the West and in bring- ing about an easier interchange of products between the East and the West. Make a map showing these three routes. How did they rank in importance? What cities were connected by them? Between 1840 and 1850 railroads were projected and built across the Alleghenies to assist in handling the im- mense traffic that was growing up and to bring about a much quicker and cheaper transit of goods and persons over long distances. It was only gradually and slowly Il6 TEACHING BY PROJECTS that engineers and capitalists learned how to build and manage railroads. At first they were very crude and clumsy. Instead of engines they used horses and mules to draw cars, and there were no cross ties connecting the two rails. There were no stations or freight houses, no regular times for trains to start, no headlights, no sleeping cars, no telegraph. The New York Central Railroad, at first built in sec- tions and afterwards combined into one road, ran parallel to the Erie Canal between Albany and Buffalo, and on down the Hudson to New York. When this railroad connection was completed, goods and persons could be transported much more rapidly, and a large share of the trade was transferred to the railroad. But so great was the volume of trade that both canal and railroad were kept busy. Freight rates on the canal were so much cheaper for heavy produce that for grain and farm products it was much better to use the canal. The cheap rates on the canal kept down the railroad freight rates. In the early years the canal was so successful that peo- ple began talking of enlarging it. By making it deeper and wider, larger canal boats could be used and transport would be cheaper still. In 1835 it was decided to enlarge the canal, making it seventy feet wide at the top and seven feet deep, and at the same time larger double locks were to be constructed. This was a costly undertaking and its working out was not completed until 1862. This great improvement cost fifteen millions of dollars, nearly twice the original cost of the canal. The competition between the canal owned by the state and the railroads owned by private companies continued. The New York Central built double tracks across the TENDENCY TOWARD LARGE PROJECTS Iiy state and later increased them to four tracks, so vast was the volume of business with the West. Other railroads across New York to Buffalo, as the Lehigh & Lackawanna, were also built, and there was plenty of freight for all. Finally, to enable the Erie Canal to compete with the railroads for the Western trade, a second and much greater rebuilding and enlargement of the canal was talked about. The great railroad systems must not be allowed to gain a monopoly of trade and fix freight rates. There was a hot political campaign in New York State while Roosevelt was governor, and at the end it was decided by a large majority of the voters of the state to spend one hundred million dollars enlarging the Erie Canal. This really meant the building of a new and much larger canal. The course of the canal was considerably changed, the Mohawk River was to be deepened and canalized and pools formed by means of locks. The canal is 125 feet wide at the top, 12 feet in depth, and is able to float barges carrying 1,000 tons of freight. Great locks are built, large enough to pass two of these barges at once. This improvement makes the Erie Canal one of the greatest canals in the world and not only furnishes a cheap transport of Western products by water to the seaboard, but will compel the railroads to keep their rates low. A comparison of canal building and railroad construction across the state of New York, from New York City via Albany, Syracuse, and Rochester to Buffalo, with the canals and railways from Philadelphia via Harrisburg and Altoona to Pittsburgh will bring out the fact that the people of New York and Pennsylvania have spent vast sums of money in first constructing and in later developing these important traffic routes between the Ohio and the Great Il8 TEACHING BY PROJECTS Lakes on one side and the Atlantic seaboard "cities on the other. During this early period, also, the people of Maryland undertook one of the first great railroad projects in build- ing the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from Baltimore to Wheeling, and later to Cincinnati. A canal was also constructed along the Potomac from Washington to the mountain ridge. At a later time the people of Virginia secured a railroad from Norfolk through Richmond across the mountains to Charleston, West Virginia, and Cincinnati. The people of Massachusetts were as anxious as those of other states to secure a full share in the rich traffic of the West. They early surveyed the route from Boston to Albany for a canal and at state expense undertook the digging of the Hoosac Tunnel, five miles in length, through the high mountain ridge which stretches across western Massachusetts. The canal was afterward given up in favor of the Fitchburg Railway which passes through the Hoosac Tunnel to Albany. The Hoosac Tunnel cost the state seven million dollars, nearly as much as the Erie Canal. The people of Canada were sorry to see the traffic of the Great Lakes region turned down the Hudson by the Erie Canal. In order to secure their share of the lake traffic the Canadians built the Welland Canal from Lake Erie across the peninsula to Lake Ontario, at a cost of fifteen million dollars. This canal enabled vessels to pass from the lower St. Lawrence to the upper lakes around Niagara Falls. It was also necessary to build a canal and locks just above Montreal to allow vessels to pass around the long rapids in the St. Lawrence. All the way from Canada to Virginia the people of TENDENCY TOWARD LARGE PROJECTS 1 19 America were alike interested in one problem. All these big, expensive schemes of canal and road building were efforts to solve the problem of cheap transport between the East and the West, to connect the waters of the Ohio and of the Great Lakes with tidewater and with Europe. The rich products of the western plains must be gotten to market and the manufactures of the Eastern cities and of Europe must be carried to the rich country beyond the Alleghenies. The great success of the Erie Canal suggested similar undertakings connecting the rivers and lakes of the West. In 1848 the Illinois-Michigan Canal was completed, con- necting Lake Michigan with the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, and serving as a means of carrying on a large traffic. Several canals were built across Ohio and Indiana connecting the Ohio River with Lake Erie. In recent years a project for a deep water route by way of the Chicago Drainage Canal and the Illinois River to St. Louis and the Gulf has been seriously proposed. The deepening of the Upper Mississippi from St. Paul, of the Ohio from Pittsburgh, and of the Missouri from Omaha has been proposed as a part of this great system of deep water navigation. The completion of the Panama Canal has opened up a prospect for turning the commerce of the West down the Mississippi to New Orleans and thence by way of the Panama Canal to distribute it to the countries surrounding the Pacific Ocean. The Panama Canal seems, in a sense, a means of compet- ing with the Erie Canal for the traffic and products of the Mississippi Valley. The products of the Mississippi Valley would naturally flow southward to find their outlet to the world. In the early pioneer days before roads 120 TEACHING BY PROJECTS were constructed across the Alleghenies, these products were sent down the Mississippi to New Orleans. The Illinois Central Railroad is now again carrying on a large traffic between the North and the South, and other impor- tant roads have developed a similar trade. The future is likely to see a great increase in the North and South traffic in staple products. The fruits, vegetables, rice, cotton, and sugar of the South will move northward and the grains, meats, and machinery of the North will move southward. CONCLUSIONS The following conclusions may be drawn reasonably from the foregoing illustrations and discussions : 1. There is a strong and growing tendency to select and develop large teaching units, as illustrated by big projects or type studies. 2. The more important the unit of study the stronger is the impulse to expand it to a full and adequate treat- ment. 3. These large, well-organized knowledge-units become first-class teaching projects and give a sound basis for complete class instruction. CHAPTER VII SIMPLIFYING STUDIES ON THE BASIS OF LARGE PROJECTS How to get at the simple basis of knowledge, how to master its main elements without waste and confusion, is surely a vital question. We wish to discover a sound basis for simplification of studies. The simplicity of knowledge seems to come into view in its big, central ideas and projects. The key to the situation may be had if we can find the strate- gic centers in school studies. The projects discussed in Chapter I are large, important units of study. As such they are a good substitute for our present miscellaneous collections of knowledge and are the chief basis for reor- ganizing our plans of instruction in the interest of sim- plicity. The increasing number and complexity of studies in the curriculum have had a more or less confusing effect. We have been adding new studies and changing ' The present old courses at such a rate as to throw the ma- confusion in chinery of instruction into disorder. There is s too much crowding and congestion in the knowledge pro- gram. Learning as displayed in the various studies is also dribbled out too much in small bits and fragments. Facts and ideas that ought to fit together and combine into larger units fall into broken and disconnected parts. Such scattered items and fragments of information are disappointing because of their failure to give the larger 122 TEACHING BY PROJECTS surveys of knowledge and the deeper insight into important subjects, the real simplicity of knowledge. The school program should require a small number of big units well organized rather than a large number of small topics scattered and disconnected. A assembling clear setting forth of the strong, developing fea- and organiz- tures o f one fag c j t y ^ e N GW York, in its local ing facts and world relations, followed by detailed com- parisons with other leading cities, is more instructive than the mere names and location of hundreds of towns and cities scattered through forty-eight different states. It is needful thus to focus attention upon the conspicuous centers where facts and forces group and organize them- selves and display their influence in a simple, almost spec- tacular way. Mere facts in any study, not grouped and related to any strong, replete center of thought, are well- nigh meaningless and worthless. They should be left in the junk heap and not imposed upon children as knowl- edge. The ragpicker and garbage collector have a true function, not so the student who is collecting odds and ends which, as unrelated fragments, lead to no important conclusions. Our schools have been forced into this small business of dealing with numerous fragments and disconnected facts by a somewhat rapid and disorderly accumula- The simple ^ j on o f studies and by compressing a great variety knowledge of knowledge into a small space. Our recent cur- sighTof riculum has been deluged by a varied mixture of unordered materials. Both teachers and chil- dren have been thrown into such a mess of knowledges that we have almost lost the notion that there is any simple principle of organization. A BASIS FOR SIMPLIFYING STUDIES 123 The child is out on a voyage of discovery and explora- tion in a universe of new things. He has some eight years (from six to fourteen) to circumnavigate this earth and to return home laden with world ex- knowledge perience. The seemingly detached and scat- ah P eless tered facts surrounding a child are infinite in number and variety. If education consists in memorizing as many as possible of these mere bits and parcels the child has a tedious and hopeless task. He is going into a laby- rinth from which he will never emerge into daylight. The fundamental, the simple, is above all things necessary. The field of knowledge, taken as a whole, is vast and limit- less. Quantitatively measured the amount of information gathered by any child must be extremely small, a mere fragment of the whole. It is therefore of the utmost im- portance that we be highly selective in the few important things we require of children. Only the best, the most necessary and typical, should be thought of. We take it for granted that it is the purpose of education to let the child into the secret of the world system, to give him a prompt and far-reaching interpretation of the orderly world, to make big discoveries and children to make them rapidly. He has no time to waste mto the secret in learning naked, lonesome, meaningless facts. He should travel a road that leads to important places, to real knowledge of the few essentials. The child has a right to know this world and to understand it. It is a new, complex, bewildering world and if he gets muddled and discouraged in his approaches to it, confusion becomes worse confounded. We are guiding the children in the search for these simple approaches to world knowledge, hoping to reach and travel with them the main highways of thought. 124 TEACHING BY PROJECTS The child, too, has in his brain a machinery of thought with which to make these discoveries. But his own ma- chinery for thinking is as strange and new to him as are the objects of the outside world. He is new to himself and needs a guide to show him how to use his powers. The world at bottom is simple and the child, if rightly guided, has the mental power to grasp this simple world structure. It is the business of teachers to find in the important studies the few main centers or avenues of thought and to set them forth in simple, objective illus- tration which a child can understand. To make a proper acquaintance with the world, then, the child should not be required to wander through an infinite network of roadways and bypaths, but A few simple ideas rule should be guided wisely along a few main high- ways so as to get the general topography and the striking, important features of the landscape. Neither a jumbled collection of small topics nor a disjointed multi- tude of important facts will satisfy a child's necessities in the way of knowledge. He should be led to find the few strategic centers of knowledge by the full and prompt mas- tery of which he will soon be able to discern, to organize, and to control his world. The child should be allowed to discover that a few big, simple ideas rule the world. As the rising sun illumines the earth, so a great idea sheds light and meaning far and wide. The life history of an oak tree from the acorn to maturity can be readily grasped in its essential features by a child, and with this as a basis he can soon interpret the life of many kinds of trees and of great forests. A locomotive engine is an elaborate combination of mechanical elements and shrewd invention, but the expansive power of steam applied in the case of a A BASIS FOR SIMPLIFYING STUDIES 12$ simple boiler and steam chest can be easily demonstrated. Yet upon this one idea is based largely the growth of our vast railroad system and steam navigation. Even the complexities of social and institutional life yield to simple interpretations. The story of the Good Samaritan sets forth clearly a principle of conduct which, once applied, as it ought to be, would improve conditions of human life throughout the world. As a whole, human society is a complex organization, but the ideas that should control and organize it are simple and easily intelligible to a frank, unprejudiced mind. From these and other illustrations we might conclude that a few ideas concretely and amply demonstrated to a child would go a long way toward explaining the world, would at least put him on the track of discovering and inter- preting the larger forces that govern and organize his own life and the life about him. Such studies should give a child first, broad surveys of extensive knowledge areas and, secondly, a deepening and enriching insight into the mean- ings which lie back of the endless objects and activities observed. Just as a few large rivers drain the continents, so a few channels of thought drain out the meaning of whole studies. If we could rind a few trunk lines of developing thought in each school study and then organize and master knowledge on this basis, we might greatly simplify and enrich the processes of learning. As instructors we should direct our attention very sharply to this peculiar quality and tendency in knowledge, namely, to get itself strongly and intensely organized at a few centers and to run deep and strong in a few main channels. These large teaching units, objectively demonstrated in each study, are the true high- 126 TEACHING BY PROJECTS ways of knowledge for children. This is a simple, demo- cratic view of education which strips it of its complexity and puts it within reach of every child. Knowledge, like wise military tactics, has The nature ofknowl- strategic centers where it is strongly organized e ested Ug ~ anc ^ Decomes powerful for offense or defense. If through we desire to understand complex military opera- analogies . n tions we study out the influence of one or more of these strategic centers. Knowledge, like the trunk line of a railway system, draws all goods and travel into this central traffic movement. If we seek to master the extensive commerce of a great country, we study one of its central traffic routes and compare it with others. Knowledge, like a tree, organizes its life forces and builds up its structure around a central axis of growth. If we wish to understand tree life and the meaning of forestry, we study carefully the life history and growth of one great forest tree in its relation to other trees, to soil and surround- ings, and to man. Knowledge is like a machine in operation. It works out a process looking toward a definite, desired result. A loom is a machine built and adapted in all its parts to carry on the process of weaving cloth. Study out the parts of this one machine and see how they cooperate to produce cloth by the act of weaving and we shall understand the basal principle of weaving and of all textile industries the world over. Knowledge, like a power plant at Niagara, produces and brings under control a thought energy which can be turned to account in many fields of experience. Study out and completely understand the Niagara power plant and on that basis we can judge the value of water powers along the A BASIS FOR SIMPLIFYING STUDIES 127 mountain streams and big rivers throughout our whole country, and later in other countries. This is one of the big conceptions that is organizing modern industry, working along the line of scientific knowledge. Knowledge, like any well-thought-out human project in industry or government, has in it a controlling, organizing idea, working out a rational whole, for example, a transat- lantic cable, the Brooklyn Bridge, a city waterworks, the Suez Canal, the flour mills at Minneapolis. On this basis our modern industries and human occupations are now organized and rationalized as big knowledge units, as complex thought wholes. It requires comprehensive brains nowadays to organize and manage big business, because such a business enterprise is a large, organized, objective unit of thought. If the schoolmaster wishes to find out and train himself in great, simple thought processes, let him study the important, well-organized industrial projects. Nowhere else will he find such close practical adjustment of great thought processes, to neces- sary life conditions, as in the human occupations. No- where else will he find better compacted and organized thought units. They are big, objective demonstrations of man's power to think and to organize the materials of thought in relation to human needs. They are important projects which serve as good object lessons for children's full and careful study. In other words, whenever we study properly any impor- tant new subject, the elements of knowledge, the facts, are in the process of grouping themselves into a , How facts larger unit, often into an objective whole, as, a grow into factory, a railroad, a military campaign, a mas- * terpiece of literature. The facts, until they get themselves 128 TEACHING BY PROJECTS organized into these large groups or central units, have little or no meaning, are not knowledge properly speaking. Facts in order to become knowledge must get into some organization, into some rational whole, and this in turn may be a vantage ground for interpreting other similar wholes in still larger groups and in whole series. Thus facts and so-called materials of knowledge do not seem to find any good stopping place until they develop into a consistent whole, and find themselves learning is brought together by some principle of unity. growth and 'pjjg purposive process by which the facts have organization come together develops them into an organic unit. As learners, until we reach this point where organi- zation sets in, we are in helpless confusion. We cannot see the woods for the trees. The teacher, of course, ought to see the end from the beginning. This big, organizing unit of thought has already worked out its full course in his mind in its essential order. Otherwise he is but a blind leader. Learning is the process of thinking out these large units or projects in their natural growth and organization. The teacher should keep this central unit of thought, this purpose, like a pole star, clearly in view or else he, too, may become a wanderer among dead facts, surrounded with graveyard knowledge. He may be merely reading tombstone inscriptions. The children require wise guides to keep them headed toward the main centers, these beck- oning and summoning peaks of knowledge. Like Bunyan, they should keep the Delectable Mountains plainly in sight. At the end of every important series of lessons the chil- dren should come out into a broad place with an open view. A BASIS FOR SIMPLIFYING STUDIES 1 29 This brings a regrouping of abundant facts and experiences into a new and important conception, a fresh and valu- able interpretation of the world from a better standpoint. Until they reach this point where rounded knowledge has organized itself into a well- knowledge rounded unit of study fully mastered by the children, they stop short of any true accomplishment. No amount of memory drills on stark facts is a substitute for knowledge. In such case our house is still only half built, our bread is only half baked. On the basis of the previous discussion we may get rid of a false notion as to what knowledge is. A collection of miscellaneous facts about a subject is of such , A false con- inferior grade from the standpoint of true knowl- ception of edge that we are willing to discard it. Passing an examination on these facts with a high grade is not a proof of scholarship. It is quite conceivable that a person may have an extensive memory of facts in geography, science, or history with little perception of meanings, relations, and values, combined with small power of inter- pretation or use. In the schools to-day there is more or less predominance of this superficial what might per- haps be better called false knowledge. Our whole course of study is much cumbered with miscellaneous, ill-assorted facts and formula? which have not yet emerged into knowledge. There is too much straggling informa- tion or misinformation. A whole army of stragglers isn't worth much. Teachers are still much under the dominance of the fact-cramming, storage theory of knowledge. They are not yet convinced of the organizing quality and strength of important, controlling, purposive ideas. Among teach- ers generally there is a lack of perspective with regard to 130 TEACHING BY PROJECTS big things versus little things. They are not yet clear as to what the real, purposeful centers of thought are, around which the facts may best be organized. The vital element of knowledge in a big unit lies in its principle of growth and organization, not in the facts as such. The incorporation of facts into a growing project like the building of a railway, or the lay-out and construc- tion of a city water system in New York, for example, brings these facts together into their proper relations, and absorbs them into an energetic, forward, practical thought-movement. This leads on to the solution of an important problem vitally related to city and state. The energizing principle of growth and organization toward some desired and much-needed end should carry forward the thinking processes of children in every topic to a well- matured result. This formative, creative idea is also the working principle that constructs a good story like the King of the Golden River, or Dickens 's Christmas Carol, or a poem like Horatius at the Bridge. The thought energy is pushing forward and must have a chance to real- ize its purpose. The dynamic quality that organizes and develops a big teaching unit must be in evidence or else the distinctive quality that characterizes true knowledge is absent. The salt has lost its savor. When a topic has been thus denatured, it should be banished from the school. Each project or unit of study as it grows and organizes the materials essential to it, when it has once developed into an energetic thought movement and has pieteuntt" brought a new and valuable interpretation to only a be- ^ ear U p On the world, has just barely begun its ginning useful career. It has become in the child's mind a life center around which other kindred subjects in the A BASIS FOR SIMPLIFYING STUDIES 131 future will group and organize themselves in a still larger expansion of knowledge, because it is based upon a con- structive idea which produces similar effects under a variety of conditions. We sometimes call one of these completed units of study or strategic centers in knowledge a type, because it has a marked and characteristic quality which seems , . The type permanent and reappears on many occasions combines and in many other big topics. Moreover we are st . abmt y . . with growth pleased to find a few things in the world that are typical, that are more stable and permanent, not subject to the prevailing law of change. The type fixes a perma- nent quality in a whole series of shifting, changing topics. We are tempted even to give fixity to ideas as types, as if they had set like a chunk of cement into a rigid form and had become a fixed pattern. But knowledge, in the quality of ideas, resents this sort of stiffness and cramping limita- tion. If ideas can be called types, they are variable. They are types of growth and progress. An idea is a growing, organizing principle. When it ceases to grow it ceases to be. Variation under the type is the law of growth. And yet the notion of types in knowledge will properly assert itself and claim serious consideration. Indeed the type serves an important purpose. Nature has at least a few great patterns on which she con- simplifies structs her life forms and develops the life pro- cesses, e.g. the vertebrate structure in animals, the endogens and exogens among trees. The study of type forms among vertebrates lays the basis for a quick understanding of innumerable kindred forms in later studies. We are com- pelled to admit that a standard ear of corn is a nearly per- fect type of millions of ears ; that an average white pine, 132 TEACHING BY PROJECTS in life history, structure, and function, is a good type of white pines in general, and in varying degrees, of all pine trees, and in a less degree of all trees and vegetable growths. In the same way the cecropia moth in its metamorphosis is a type of moths and of insects. New York harbor is a type of large harbors ; Mt. Shasta of volcanoes ; Webster of statesmen. If a child is to get an appreciation of world order and system, so as to adjust himself to his surround- ings, the elaborate study of a few fundamental, growing types is the shortest and best road to this end. It results in a marvelous simplification of a seemingly complex world. It is true that the predominance of types everywhere in evidence in the world lends something of monotony to the forest of pines, to the wheatfield, to the dress dominates an d customs of people. Nature repeats her the past and f orms w jth slight variations in countless millions the future . . c of individuals, and the mastery of a few of these leading types in their origin, growth, and relations is far- reaching in its power of interpretation. When an impor- tant unit of study has been fully demonstrated as a good type of thousands or millions of similar objects or phenom- ena in the world, it not only explains many similar things in the present, but it becomes the basis for a continuous expansion and enrichment of the fundamental idea in the type for future uses. This same idea is at work in the world on a grand scale, under changing conditions, produc- ing kindred results. To go on following and interpreting this idea in its new surroundings and in conjunction with other forces in the world will develop an alert and versatile mind. Education should see to it that a child first thoroughly gets these basal ideas, and secondly, that he is kept busy turning them to account in new situations. A BASIS FOR SIMPLIFYING STUDIES 133 The child's experience should grow on and on in richness along each typical highway of thought. The school can afford the time and effort required to teach a few great, simple lessons thoroughly, richly, copi- ously. It may well exhaust its amplest resources in concreting, expanding, and applying a very A sj ftin s few primary types of human behavior, of social tm we find and industrial activity, and of natural phenom- Lp es as ena. Among teachers the wisest should set themselves to the task of selecting among big things the most important, among superior types the more highly significant and far-reaching. Then from those superior topics, by a sifting process, they should reselect and choose again the better half. We are then prepared to gather together and concentrate upon these focal units those rich knowledge resources which will intensify the organizing ideas in these topics. The best is good enough for chil- dren. But the best is never at its best until it is framed up in its full natural environment and life relation, until it is given an objective, artistic setting. Here is the problem of the teacher. This is another way of saying that knowledge is simple, continuous, and consistent throughout; that the ideas we start with in the early education of children J The sim- are the selfsame ideas, naturally developed, piitity of which we shall come out with at the end of our * school course. They are so simple and far-reaching that they continue to grow to the end of life and dominate its results. Education itself is a life process, a continuous growth and expansion along a few basal lines of thought throughout the whole life period. It is dynamic in its forward, constructive, organizing movement. 134 TEACHING BY PROJECTS This process of simplifying knowledge through organi- zation along a few main channels of thought provides also for that ample enrichment of every big topic which gives it the complete, wholesome effect of real knowledge. The intensive enrichment of main topics is the subject of our next chapter. Our conclusion is that we should get rid of the static conception of knowledge, that we should throw overboard ill-assorted, miscellaneous collections of facts, and that we should focus attention upon those ideas and projects which are strongly purposive and far-reaching in their scope and influence. Then we shall be surprised at the marvelous simplicity that comes from a clear insight into a few basal things, that is, from the proper organization of knowledge around growing life centers. CHAPTER VIII THE ENRICHMENT OF INSTRUCTION BY THE INTEN- SIVE TREATMENT OF LARGE UNITS ONE of the main problems of modern education is how to make profitable use of the large increase of knowledge that has deluged our curriculum with the influx of new studies. To what extent do these proj- Ho ^ to make use ects as large teaching units give adequate ex- of the richer pression to this greatly increased content of ele- studies mentary studies? For several years there has been in progress a vigorous campaign for putting a deeper content into common-school instruction. The new sub- jects, including biography, literary classics, nature study, industrial and household arts, hygiene and sanitation, have greatly enlarged the knowledge resources of the elementary school. Drawing, music, and the decorative arts are also winning a large place in the course, while the practical aspects of agriculture, school gardening, commercial geog- raphy, and physical training are growing and expanding. In fact the last thirty years have witnessed not only a steadily increasing number of studies but, more important, a surprising improvement in the quality of thought. We have dropped into a habit of boasting of this remarkable progress of the schools and of this improved quality of both cultural and practical knowledge. All the better kinds of knowledge, all the nobler varieties of human experience, past and present, are represented in the school course. 135 136 TEACHING BY PROJECTS We hardly know where to look for more worlds to conquer, unless we include in the course the wide range of strictly vocational studies. Now a closer examination of this greatly enlarged pro- gram of the schools may surprise us with the discovery that our important school studies have not been povensh- enriched, but have been seriously impoverished, mentof ^y ^ nese changes. The outcome of all this ap- studies . parent progress is the exact opposite of what was intended and confidently expected. We have doubled the number of studies and reduced by half the time devoted to important topics. Many of the new studies are badly organized and meagerly and poorly taught. We have eight or ten separate subjects of study each day where we once had four or five, and little time can be had for prepa- ration, i.e. for real study. The lesson periods are neces- sarily short and the treatment of even important topics is brief and scrappy. We run over a multitude of rich sub- jects superficially and have little time to study important topics thoroughly. To get all these things even meagerly done, teachers and children are cramped and nervously overstimulated. While the situation in many schools may not be so discouraging as described above, still these are clearly marked tendencies of our times. Our boasted enrichment of instruction turns out after all in some re- spects to be a delusion. By this overcrowding of studies we are in danger of losing a real grip on studies, i.e. our hold upon those superior elements of useful knowledge and refinement and even of character-building which are of chief value. Our curriculum has waxed great, but many boys and girls are kept on the verge of mental confusion and discouragement. ENRICHMENT OF INSTRUCTION 137 With an undoubted honest zeal for progress and with the best intentions for the enrichment of elementary edu- cation, we have pushed rapidly forward in our How to g^g generous schemes for enlarging the school pro- the ^ gram and the result is naturally an overaccumulation of knowledge. Now with this embarrassment of riches we find ourselves in the plight of the swimmer whose precious bag of gold is pulling him down, or we are like a heavily laden vessel in a storm. We may have to throw overboard a good share of the cargo to save the ship. Our first answer to the question, Is the elementary course of study rich in content? is Yes. Its richness is so great that it has become a burden and a danger. The surprising bounty and fruitfulness of our elementary studies have now for the first time dawned upon us in full measure, and just as we reach out to seize this richness and appropriate it for children, it slips through our fingers and vanishes. We wake up as from a dream and wonder what has hap- pened. The course of study has been vastly enlarged; but the minds of the children have not been enriched. The results we now witness have happened in the natural order and need not surprise us. We have not yet solved our problem How to enrich the course of study as a means of enriching the lives of children. We cannot afford to surrender the large knowledge values that have come to us so copiously from literature and stories, from biog- raphy and history, from nature study arid travel, nor the sound, practical utilities derived from the industrial arts, applied science, and modern English. Nor can we deal profitably with this present multiplicity of subjects, this overaccumulation of studies. It has been easier to collect these various treasures of 138 TEACHING BY PROJECTS knowledge and to pile them up in the curriculum, than to know what to do with them when they are once collected. It is an easy thing to introduce a new study, It is easy to introduce yes, even a half dozen new studies, into the 1 course, but it is difficult beyond all computation to select and organize these new materials with reference to other studies and to children. Thus far we have done little more than collect the raw materials for a course of study and like children making collections, we have gathered much material that we have little or no use for. In trying to select and group properly the richest thought materials for the elementary curriculum, we are working at one of the most complex and many-sided prob- and arrange lerns that the human mind can venture upon. the best is jj. j s ne j- as k o f gifting out and arranging the difficult e superior elements of knowledge in all the sub- jects, with special reference to the growing and assimilat- ing powers of children. To lay out a good plan for any one of a dozen large school studies would be a great achieve- ment, though it be a familiar study like arithmetic or read- ing. To do this for all studies, old and new, each with a strong individuality, with proper mutual adjustment, is a huge task. This rapid accumulation of excessive quantities of knowl- edge in the school program, and the failure to achieve the results aimed at and expected have brought us, for the moment, to a standstill, and we must size up our whole problem from a new standpoint with a more comprehen- sive grasp of all the elements involved. How are we to simplify this overcrowded course of study and yet retain its richness, its best content? ENRICHMENT OF INSTRUCTION 139 In facing this new problem, teachers everywhere by a natural instinct have asked, "What shall we eliminate?" The word eliminate has come into vogue in recent A positive years as expressing the means of escape from this basis for educational dilemma. We have indeed made orgamzation some progress in eliminating nonessentials. More re- cently another kindred expression, "minimum essentials" attempts to express the need of the hour. We venture to suggest that still another phrase expresses the need better yet, What are the "centers of organization" ? What is the basis for the constructive organization of the curriculum? Elimination is a negative term; organization is positive and calls for a center and basis upon which to build. What are the basal projects or constructive ideas in the main studies upon which to collect and organize the knowledge stuff? However, the ideas expressed by elimination and organization are merely different aspects of the same large problem. The question is no longer whether or not our elementary studies are rich in content, but rather how to get at and utilize in schools the best part of this superior richness. We cannot consent to the loss or abandonment of the substantial enrichment of human knowledge and experi- ence that has come into our school course in recent years. Educationally this enlargement of the field of elementary studies is the greatest achievement of our times and has given the school its central position of influence in the world. We have finally uncovered the deep, abounding sources of knowledge in elementary studies. Let this fact be established once for all as of main importance and that this superior quality of enriching knowledge is present and available for the instruction of children. How to preserve 140 TEACHING BY PROJECTS and make use of this surprising wealth of cultural and practical knowledge, how to reduce the whole to a simple basis by a central organization on a few lines of thought, is our serious problem. We have not yet learned how to give up for the time being a large number of less important things in order to save the best. We could trade off a multitude of minor scrappy topics in order to gain time for handling a few big, rich projects adequately. It is a question of somewhat radical reorganization, for we have not yet seriously attacked the problem of organization. We have been discussing and Going trying out elimination without determining be- deeper to the tap roots forehand the basis of organization, the few vital centers of purposive thought. We shall not reorganize our complex course of study on the basis of small expedients, by trimming out a little here and a little there. We require something more than a pruning knife. We must undertake a genuine reorganiza- tion on the basis of strong, comprehensive, constructive ideas. After completing a survey of children by estimat- ing their abilities and needs we should turn our atten- tion to the deep knowledge subjects, to the main ideas that lie embedded in the school studies themselves. We should make a closer acquaintance with the original sources of knowledge in school studies as related to life, and on this basis alone we shall strengthen and enlarge our capacity for organization. It is not by skimming the surface of things nor by dealing with mere outlines and minimum essentials and by occasional eliminations that we shall settle the course, but by going down deep into the main roots of important subjects of study. We shall find there the natural centers of organization. This is ENRICHMENT OF INSTRUCTION 141 said with all due respect for children and their needs and for the principles of teaching and their value. The present demand for this enrichment of the curriculum based on a proper reorganization of studies has behind it the heavy pressure of necessity. For more than a generation this movement to incorporate a full measure of these superior thought ma- cies *? b combined terials into the common-school course has been gaining power till it has become irresistible. In spite of this the needed reorganization of studies has not gone far and meets with powerful resistance. It is in fact a colossal undertaking. We still have in the main our old course of study. The conservative tendency to hold fast to old ideas and practice is quite as strong as the urgent demand of the progressives for new studies. In fact we have been adding new studies more rapidly by far than we have been discarding old ones. Most teachers and book- makers in planning courses are conservative. Subjects that once get established in textbooks and in the habits of teachers are slow to disappear. The public school system is a massive structure, embodied in textbooks and curricula and in long prevailing habits of hundreds of thousands of teachers. We may build additions here and there but any serious change in the main structure of the course is a slow process. But free discussion may bring about a cooperative effort between conservatives and progressives. Much ground must be given up on both sides before we can have a simple and reasonable course of study. Teachers should look this important problem squarely in the face. With unprejudiced minds they should estimate openly and fairly the relative values and mutual relation of these two powerful tendencies. 142 TEACHING BY PROJECTS The old course of study in the common schools which prevailed for many years was chiefly formal and instru- mental, devoted to a mastery of the symbols course was which express thought, to formal reading, writ- ing, and spelling, arithmetic, and composition. The right drill upon these formal exercises was believed, also, to have a superior disciplinary value. This fact that elementary studies were mechanical, dealing mainly with arbitrary symbols, established early and deeply the convic- tion that primary studies were by nature weak in content and to be mastered by sheer memory effort. It is not strange that the school became a dry, dull place devoted to drill, and that the theories of education in vogue supported this disciplinary training. of enriching But a remarkable change took place with the introduction of this surprising group of enrich- ing, thought-stimulating studies, story-telling, biog- raphy, nature study and excursions, geography and travel, dramatizing of literature, games, construction work, draw- ing and industrial arts, and physical training. Later still came applied science, health and sanitation, school garden- ing and agriculture. All these studies fill up and expand the mind with activities, with information, with engrossing ideas, with cultural, emotional, and esthetic experiences. They give equal emphasis to the useful or practical on one side, and to the cultural or ideal on the other side. Naturally there was a powerful effort by the school- masters to impose the formal drill method of Skeletoniz- A , . , . , . ing the the old school upon the incoming, enriching thought thought studies, because those old methods were studies in vogue and familiar to the teachers. When modern science, history, literature, and geography, and even ENRICHMENT OF INSTRUCTION 143 the shop activities were first taken up by the schools, they, too, were formalized and stereotyped into a dull recital of facts and were stripped of thought content almost as naked as the three "R's." The school and the teachers were still in the formal stage and all studies were reduced to the same level. It is not strange, therefore, that people at first failed to see in even these new studies any rich and scholarly thought material or deep, inspiring, cultural influences. And yet these new studies had opened up fountains of inexhaustible richness. It was impossible that these copious and enriching streams of thought should fail in the end to break through these formal barriers and display to the world their boundless resources. This event has now happened and we are fully conscious of the unmeasured wealth of knowledge and culture at our free disposal in history, in literature, in the fine arts, in music, in science, and in geography. In fact now that the flood gates have been opened and these refreshing streams of knowledge have poured into the schools through these various channels, we find ourselves swamped with an over- supply of the riches of knowledge. Enthusiastic teachers of these instructive and enlivening modern subjects have been tempted to turn the tables upon the old formal schoolmasters and demand that we give up these routine methods of teach- The swing of the pen- ing, these formal drills and reviews, the lock- duiumto step and the memory grind. They have gone so far as to impose the new thought methods upon the old formal studies. We no longer need these mechanical drills and painful, meaningless memorizings, they say. Give the children good inspiring projects and problems and stories and they will pick up the formal 144 TEACHING BY PROJECTS elements of reading and language and spelling. Incidental appropriation of those symbols and technical formalities will take place. It is not our purpose at this point to attempt to show the exact relation between the content and formal studies. It would be tolerant and fair-minded to say that the two classes of studies by nature are so widely different that they require different methods, and it would be a mistake to impose arbitrarily and wholly the plan and method of one group upon the other. In the development of our curriculum in recent years the deeper and stronger thought studies have thus risen to great prominence. But it is easy to spoil these drift fruitful studies in the handling. The crowding toward m o f manv studies has forced us back into for- formausm > * malism. The mere formal memorizing of lone- some facts in geography and history is just as tedious and irksome to children as the memorizing of symbols and alphabets. In reading, writing, spelling, and numbers, the forms and symbols must be mastered as individual facts. But in geography and history it is a mistake to suppose that isolated facts have any significance. Thought studies, like literature and history, differ essentially from the form studies. They center in ideas and not in indi- vidual facts, at least not in mere forms. Ideas alone give content to the great thought studies. There has been a mistaken notion among teachers and even among scholars that children should store up a large quantity of these iso- lated facts in history or geography before they could make a proper beginning in these studies. A few years ago it was supposed even in high schools and colleges that the way to study literature was to learn the name and date of an author and a list of the titles of his works, and so one ENRICHMENT OF INSTRUCTION 145 after another in tedious succession the dry bones of litera- ture were memorized. We have since learned that the better way is to plunge at once into the original works of writers. Read the best stories and poems. Get directly at the main ideas of the author in the fullness and strength of the author's own presentation. This curious opinion that we must first learn a lot of bare facts about a subject and store them away for a period of years and later allow them to develop into meaning is a mother of blunders in teaching. The case is perfectly clear in literature. It may become equally clear in geography, history, and science. When this one great fact has become clear, we shall see ..... The inten- that the elementary school is the favored place for S we treat- the full exploitation of the strong content studies. n f * Heretofore we have been dealing too much with teaching individual facts, isolated fragments of these rich subjects. We have been mainly engaged in learning the tables of contents, and not in examining the contents themselves. The time has now come when these deep, inspiring subjects should be opened up in their full rich- ness to children's minds. At this point we strike the hub and center of the whole problem of enriching elementary studies. Can we by any means break loose from the inherited routine of fact-cramming and memorizing which has been clamped even upon the big-thought studies and gain for ourselves the freedom to deal directly and liberally with a few of these large units of study in a realistic and thought-inspiring way ? If this conception of study should prevail, we shall be forced to a rigid selection of a few focal units of study in each of the main thought subjects. Each of these large units, once selected, will become the basis 146 TEACHING BY PROJECTS for an intensive, what we might justly call, masterly, study, unearthing the choicest and richest elements in it. Like a marrow bone each subject must be cracked open so as to reveal the inner fatness. In the three grades of the primary school, children have approximately mastered the symbols and forms and are ready to plunge into the deeper knowledge sub- Big, fruitful j ec t s . At the beginning of the fourth grade we lessons in are prepared to encounter with the children the iT