Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

For the ordinary high school perhaps the next criticism that might be made on this report is that the programme and the work laid out there is too much on the factory plan of piecework-the effort to reduce the whole system of secondary school education to a scientific basis, where we could know beforehand just how much work was to be turned out provided the contract were fulfilled that the student did the work assigned. While that is a comparatively simple matter in an academy or school organized specially for fitting students for college, it is not so easily applied to the ordinary high school.

On this subject I had quite an extended correspondence with the chairman of the committee, and part of this has been printed in the June number of the School Review. Such exercises as music, drawing, elocution, orthography, and a great many subjects, some of which necessarily go into all high schools, seemed to be in danger of being left out entirely. The only thing we could get was a resolution in committee, that while no place was made for these in the programme, it was left to local authorities to deal with the matter as they saw fit. In the correspondence just referred to I said of the tentative report sent to the different members of the committee for examination before the final meeting: "I can not agree with the report in recommending that nearly all the subjects taught in any year should be taught during the same number of periods per week. Table III provides no place for music, drawing, elocution, spelling, penmanship, etc. Such studies as stenography and manual training are coming into high schools and are coming to stay, and we might as well recognize the fact. Another and a very different class of subjects, such as political economy, psychology, and ethics has long been taught in secondary schools, and I am not prepared to recommend their abolition from the curriculum. Remembering that more than 90 per cent of high school pupils may not go to college, I consider such studies far more valuable than astronomy, meteorology, or physiography." In reply to that the chairman said: "I see there is another objection in your mind which the committee can not meet, because the conference gives opposite advice. You think there must be in the high school course place for music, drawing, elocution, spelling, penmanship, stenography, manual training, political economy, etc. Now I believe it to be absolutely impossible to make a course valuable for training to which these various and numerous subjects are admitted." In answer I said: "Of the subjects mentioned in your letter of the 24th which are not named in the tables of the provisional report, such as music, drawing, etc., I am firmly convinced that some should have a place in every high school course, while others I think should be admissible in certain courses." Of course there was no conference provided to consider the question of any of these added subjects. Very naturally, therefore, they find no mention in any of the reports of the conference, with the single exception of political economy, and that I believe the conference reports adversely as a secondary school study. I hold that the typical high school, in order to do its best work, must have some of these subjects, and if the school is large enough and its equipment is sufficient it should have them all. We can not leave out elocution nor music and have the work complete. In a high school of this kind our students fortunately come from all classes and families. Some come from the most refined families in the community, and we must have an atmosphere in which they will feel that their manners will not be corrupted in the high school. Others get their highest ideas of culture and refinement from their connection with the high school, and for them it is necessary to introduce as many ethic and æsthetic exercises as we can without impairing the more solid courses of study.

I do not know that it is best to include the other class-political economy, psychology, and ethics—in the secondary school course. College men generally pronounce against them, but they have never told us what we should do for the 90 per cent of the graduates of the high school who do not go to college, and therefore can not study these subjects under the most favorable conditions. I believe that a properly equipped school will find not perhaps that these subjects are best, but that they are

good and that the results are satisfactory, especially when a large proportion of these students go out as teachers. Without training in the subjects known as the intellectual studies they will be intelligent in a way, but they can hardly appreciate the ordinary writing of Dr. Harris or Dr. Taylor or any of our theologians or great writers who contribute so freely to magazines and educational periodicals. Certainly ethics and psychology should be taught to the senior class in the high school, and political economy also, for in all these some things are settled, and these as first principles may be taught. In spite of the blundering way in which they are often learned and taught, they are valuable.

But the committee says: "Then teach these things, but do not do it when anybody is looking. Teach them as something else. Let your ethics come in as part of your algebra, and your psychology as part of your geography, and your political economy as part of your history." Cicero long ago said that all the studies which pertain to culture have between themselves a certain relationship, but it does not follow from that that you can teach psychology from history very well or ethics from geography. It reminds one of the modern furnishing of our houses, where everything is, as it were, something else. Your ottoman is a coal-hod and your divan may be an ice-chest. A piano tuner said the other day he was afraid to sit down to tune a piano for fear a folding bed would fly out on him. So they would have these subjects taught under a different name when scholars are not aware that they are learning them. If you are to teach these studies, teach them by their true name; and though we can not do university work, yet I believe it is better to teach something of these than to send our scholars out with an idea that there is nothing in this universe except that which can be weighed and measured. The committee says let them go to the college and university and they will make a better beginning. There they will begin with the discussion as to whether there is a soul. I do not object, but I stand on the proposition that I have a soul and a body. Following that, I believe we can teach in the high school a great deal that is valuable in these subjects.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

ADAMS, CHARLES KENDALL. Impressions of the report. University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 313. Albany, 1894. 12°. BAKER, JAMES H. Report of the committee of ten. University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 307. Albany, 1894. 120. Review of the work of the committee of ten. Journal of Education (New Eng. and Nat.), July 19, 1894, vol. 40, p. 76.

BANCROFT, CECIL F. P. Report of the committee of ten from the point of view of the college preparatory school. Educational Review, March, 1894, vol. 7, p. 280.

BRADLEY, JOHN E. Report of the committee of ten from the point of view of the smaller colleges. Educational Review, April, 1894, vol. 7, p. 330. BRISTOL, GEORGE P. Can sufficient Greek to satisfy reasonable requirements for entrance to college be taught in two years in the secondary schools? University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 342. (Paper discussed by N. L. Andrews, D. C. Farr, and Marcellus Oakey, pp. 344, 346, 347.) Albany, 1894. 129.

College entrance examinations on the plan laid down by the several conferences. University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 324. Albany, 1894. 12.

BUCHANAN, JOHN N. Teaching of Latin and Greek. School Journal (New York and Chicago), August 11, 1894, vol. 49, p. 81.

BUTLER, NICHOLAS MURRAY. An important educational conference. Harper's Weekly, November 18, 1893, vol. 37, p. 1109.

BUTLER, NICHOLAS MURRAY.

The reform of high school education. Harper's
Weekly, January 13, 1894, vol. 38, p. 42. (Also contained in Indiana School
Journal, March, 1894, vol. 39, p. 131.)

The reform of secondary education in the United States. Atlantic Monthly,
March, 1894, vol. 73, p. 372.

BUTTS, WILLIAM H. An experiment in schedule making. School Review, September, 1894, vol. 2, p. 412. (Also contained in Regents' Bulletin, University of the State of New York, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 336.)

CLARK, JOHN S. Art in secondary education: An omission by the committee of ten. Educational Review, April, 1894, vol. 7, p. 374. (Also in Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, University of the State of New York, p. 295. Albany, 1894. 120.)

COHN, ADOLPH. Which modern language should have proference in the secondary school, when only one can be taught and when educational considerations alone govern the choice? University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 329. Albany, 1894. 12°.

Committee of ten, Report of. (Editorials.) Education, vol. 14, pp. 431–433, 497–498; The Dial, Jan. 16, 1894, vol. 14, p. 35; Intelligence, Feb. 5, 1894, vol. 14, p. 49; Ohio Educational Mo., March, 1894, vol. 43, p. 133, and April, 1894, vol. 43, p. 170; The Outlook, Jan. 13, 1894, vol. 49, pp. 58, 129.

DE GARMO, CHARLES. Report of the committee of teu from the point of view of educational theory. Educational Review, March, 1894, vol. 7, p. 275.

Report of the committee of ten. Pennsylvania School Journal, September, 1894, vol. 43, p. 128. Journal of Education (New Eng. and Nat.), March 8, 1894, vol. 39, p. 150.

Discussion of report of the committee of ten, by Harvard Teachers' Association. Journal of Education (New Eng. and Nat.), March 15, 1894, vol. 39, p. 164. DOANE, WILLIAM C. Religious teaching in public schools. University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 311. Albany, 1894. 120. DYER, F. B. et al. Committee of ten. (Discussion.) Ohio Educational Monthly, vol. 43, 1894, pp. 170, 245, 370.

ELIOT, CHARLES W. Report of the committee of ten. Educational Review, February, 1894, vol. 7, p. 105. Journal of Education (New Eng. and Nat.), July 26, 1894, vol. 40, p. 91.

Unity of educational reform. Educational Review, October, 1894, vol. 8, p. 209.

EMERSON, HENRY P. Bearing of the report on elementary education. University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 283. Albany, 1894. 120.

GIVEN, E. W. Mathematical section of the report of the committee of ten. Schoolmasters' Association of New York and vicinity, 1893-94, p. 98. GREENWOOD, J. M. Committee of ten. Journal of Education (New Eng. and Nat.), March 8, 1894, vol. 39, p. 150.

Conference report on mathematics. Education, October, 1894, vol. 15, p. 65. Criticism of report of committee of ten. Intelligence, May 15, 1894, vol. 14, p. 145.

GUINN, R. J. Committee of ten. Southern Educational Journal (Ga.), Feb., 1894, p. 9.

HALL, G. STANLEY. Report of committee of ten. University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 303. Albany, 1894. 120 HARRIS, WILLIAM T. Report of the committee of ten. Educational Review, January, 1894, vol. 7, p. 1.

The committee of ten. Journal of Education (New Eng. and Nat.), March 8, 1894, vol. 39, p. 150.

HARRISON, CASKIE. Secondary school studies. Journal of Education (New Eng. and Nat.), March 22, 1894, vol. 39, p. 179.

HILL, FRANK A. The report of the committee of ten. Journal of Education (New

Eng. and Nat.), July 26, 1894, vol. 40, p. 92.

HINSDALE, B. A. Report of the committee of ten. University of Michigan Record, February, 1894.

Remarks as general introduction to discussion of the report of the committee of ten. University of Michigan Record, April, 1894.

HULING, RAY GREENE. The report on secondary school studies. School Review, May, 1894, vol. 2, p. 268.

JEFFERS, E. T. Report of the committee of ten. Pennsylvania School Journal,
September, 1894, vol. 43, p. 126.

Journal of Education (New Eng. and Nat.). The committee of ten. January 18,
1894, vol. 39, p. 36. (Reprint from The Boston Journal.)
The reception of the report. March 22, 1894, vol. 39, p. 185.
KENNEDY, JOHN. Report of the committee of ten. University of the State of New
York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 273. Albany, 1894. 120.
MACKENZIE, JAMES C. Report of the committee of ten. School Review, March,

1894, vol. 2, p. 146.
Report of the committee of ten. School Journal (N. Y. and Chicago), August
11, 1894, vol. 49, p. 81.

The feasibility of modifying the programmes of the elementary and secondary
schools to meet the suggestions in the report. Journal of Education (New
Eng. and Nat.), August 16, 1894, vol. 40, p. 109.
MAXWELL, W. H. The committee of ten.

Nat.), March 8, 1894, vol. 39, p. 150.

Journal of Education (New Eng. and

NIGHTINGALE, A. F. The committee of ten. Journal of Education, March 8, 1894, vol. 39, p. 150.

The teaching of English. School Journal (N. Y. and Chi.), August 11, 1894, vol. 49, p. 81.

PALMER, CHARLES S. Some observations on the report of the committee of ten. Colorado School Journal, May, 1894, p. 8.

PARKER, FRANCIS W. The use of the report of the committee of ten for the improvement of teachers now at work in the schools. Educational Review, May, 1894, vol. 7, p. 479.

Recommendations of the committee of ten. (Editorial.) Intelligence, February 5, 1894, vol. 14, p. 49.

Regulation of secondary education. (Editorial.) The Nation, January 18, 1894, vol. 58, p. 44.

ROBINSON, O. D. Report of the committee of ten. School Review, June, 1894, vol. 2, p. 366.

The report from the point of view of the large mixed high schools. University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 287. Albany, 1894. 120.

ROGERS, ROVILLUS R. Should not the colleges be adjusted to the existing high schools, rather than the high schools adjusted to the existing colleges? University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 326. Albany, 1894. 120.

SACHS, JULIUS. Report of the committee of ten from the point of view of the college preparatory school. Educational Review, June, 1894, vol. 8, p. 75. SARVER, JOHN M. Report of the committee of ten. Ohio Educational Monthly, June, 1894, vol. 43, p. 245.

SCHURMAN, J. G. Report on secondary school studies. School Review, February, 1894, vol. 2, p. 83.

SCOTT, CHARLES B. Nature study in elementary schools. University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 291. Albany, 1894. 12.° SEAVER, EDWIN P. Secondary school studies, in fourteenth annual report of the superintendent of public schools of the city of Boston, March, 1894. (School Doc. No. 4, 1894.)

TAYLOR, JAMES M. Report of the committee of ten. School Review, April, 1894, vol. 2, p. 193.

TYLER, HENRY M. The crowding of preparatory courses. University of the State of New York-Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 321. Albany, 1894. 120. Uniform entrance examinations in English language and literature. School Review, Nov. 1894, vol. 2, p. 562.

WARNER, CHARLES DUDLEY. Secondary education. Harper's Magazine, May, 1894, vol. 88, p. 963.

WELLS, WILLIAM. Modern language work. University of the State of New York-
Regents' Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 332. Albany, 1894. 12°.
WHEELER, BENJ. I. Bearings of the committee's report on the future significance of
the baccalaureate degree. University of the State of New York-Regents'
Bulletin, No. 28, July, 1894, p. 319. Albany, 1894. 120.
WILCOX, M. A. The programmes of the committee of ten.

1895, vol. 15, p. 257.

Education, January,

WINSHIP, A. E. The report of the committee of ten. Journal of Education (New

Eng. and Nat.), July 26, 1894, vol: 40, p. 93.

« AnteriorContinuar »