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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY New York San Francisco Dallas Atlanta Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature VOL. XXXVI. of Education DECEMBER, 1915 Elimination of Waste in Elementary 。 "Here is nothing new nor aught unproven.” BY CHARLOTTE J. CIPRIANI, CHICAGO, ILL. No. 4 NLY comparatively recently has the time factor in the problem of American 'education begun to receive due attention, both on account of its bearing on the premature elimination of pupils, chiefly boys, from the public schools, and on account of its bearing on the retardation of the professional training of those boys who go through college. In any .................................discussion of this important question a comparison with the more economical and more efficient German educational system seems almost inevitable. In this regard it may be profitable to point out that if Germany has undoubtedly reached a better working solution than America has for the problem of efficient and economical education, this is due not only to the fact that Germany has worked at this solution for many more generations than America, but also undoubtedly to the fact that the German problem is in itself a far simpler one. What Germany has done and is still doing (admirably, it is true) is to provide efficient specific education for specific, distinctly recognized social classes; what the United States are attempting to do is to try to evolve a general system of education for the masses, irrespective of any class distinctions. The very indefiniteness of the aim, prompted though it be by an ideal most worthy of respect, precludes the possibility of working out the American problem with anything like German precision and efficiency, except by a thorough revolution in educational methods. For fear of being misunderstood, I shall merely recall the well-known fact that Germany no less than other European countries prides itself that the humblest birth constitutes no barrier to the attainment of the highest academic honors, and that an organized effort exists to place the highest possible education within the reach of any specially gifted child, irrespective of its birth. But on the whole, the statement holds good that in Germany the children of the artisans and mechanics are provided in school with the kind of education that will fit them to become excellent artisans and mechanics rather than to entice them to become mediocre professional men; while the education of the children of professional men has from the third year up the university (or some school of advanced special training) in view. That this condition of things is not considered entirely unobjectionable, in spite of the fact that it certainly makes both for efficiency and economy in the process of education, is proved by the persistent and strenuous efforts that are being made in Germany as well as in other European countries to "democratize" instruction and culture of all kinds, without jeopardizing the efficiency of the schools. To the thoughtful observer of current events it is becoming more and more apparent that absolute democracy as an ideal régime is still on trial, and that notably in the United States it is in many instances not standing this trial very well. Nevertheless, today no one has the right to enter upon the profession of education, or is worthy to do so, who is not genuinely convinced that the very best and highest that human experience and intelligence have yet been able to attain in the educational world, is not in the least too good for the humblest child born. And who will deny that this is sane and sound democracy? Two processes of "democratization" are conceivable in the educational system of a nation: one consists in lowering educational standards and aims to the level that makes them readily acceptable and accessible to the masses; the other consists in gradually raising the intellectual level of the masses to the level of high and efficient educational standards. The admission of too early specialized "vocational training" in a public school system, has a dangerous leaning towards the first process of democratization, which is apt ultimately to defeat its own end. That the second is of necessity a far slower and more laborious one, does not invalidate its superiority. In times to come, it may perhaps remain Dr. Montessori's greatest title to fame to have proved beyond the possibility of a doubt that educational conditions which a few short years ago were considered available only for the privileged child in an expensive, well-regulated private nursery can be brought within reach of the disinherited child of the slums, with great benefit to the child itself and a favorable reaction on its environment. Much that Dr. Montessori advocates as fundamental in her educational system has been practised "empirically" in well regulated nurseries for generations, with results not dissimilar, as far as the attainment of self-control, the development of individuality and independence are concerned, from those obtained in her Children's Houses. Just as the well regulated nursery of the privileged child offered the best conceivable opportunities for normal individual development, just so the well regulated private school rooms of privileged children in cultured families, are apt to offer opportunities for the attainment of results in elementary education that are not yet obtained in the classes of any schools, not even in Germany. But this does not mean at all that they are not obtainable; in fact it is easily conceivable that they would be obtained in an elementary school that took the position to a well regulated private school room that the Children's Houses are actually taking to the well regulated private nursery, and provided for the child an environment equally conducive to individual and independent development. Although it is as desirable there as anywhere else, such an environment may not be immediately attainable in the public elementary schools of this country, and the problem how to create it may better be worked out in schools in which the great majority of pupils have good prospects of going at least through college. Eventually, what was first placed within reach of the privileged few, may become the general heritage of the masses. Let us for one moment consider a well regulated private school room, taking a well known example. In the school room of the Quirinal the little Prince of Piedmont is ten years old and probably not at all in advance in physical and mental development of scores among the more privileged of his little future subjects, who are being educated very much as he is himself. None of these ten-year-olds have in all probability been "kept at their books" anything like the number of hours that the little American ten-year-old is kept in his seat in school, and yet Prince Humbert like many another child of his age, already reads several languages with ease and pleasure, and speaks them. Very few American college graduates are able to do this, even after devoting years of hard and conscientious work to the study of languages. Is there not something obviously unfair to the American college student in this condition of things? For, indeed, it might still be open to discussion whether languages should be studied at all in an American college course, but since studied they are, and the question of economy and efficiency in college education has reached an acute stage, it certainly has become too obvious to be seriously discussed that when a six-year-old can learn a language efficiently in a few months, it is an educational blunder if not an educational crime to delay the study of languages to an age when they can be acquired efficiently only by the gifted few, and even by these only at the expense of much time and effort, which at their stage of development would be spent more profitably on more advanced work. Incidentally it may be remarked here that the distaste of many growing boys for their school work, and their great desire to leave school is often caused by the fact that their work remains of an elementary nature far too long for the increasing maturity of their minds; they are fed on the bottle long after they would be capable of digesting solid food. What wonder that an intelligent, alert American boy whose mind is quite mature enough to grapple with problems of real life and a man's work (as he often proves in vacation) revolts at being dragged in high school (and alas; he often does not fare much better when he enters college) through the "elements" of French, as he has been dragged through the "elements" of German, and of Latin, without ever advancing beyond the mere drudgery of the study of languages. And the same thing is true also for other subjects. It might prove instructive to compare the state of mind of such a "bottle-fed" American adolescent, with his daily diet of "elements", and that of his European cousin, who if he is studying a foreign language is probably |