The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-03-19
ETHICAL CULTURE SCHOOL.
ESQ HAPPY CHILDREN VINO ARE
TAUGHT BY NEW METHODS.

ing interviewer The Workshop.
II anybody wants to see 25O children having
q beautiful time let him 20 to 100 West Fifty
fourth street. Let him beguile somebody into
taking him to everyone OF the twenty rooms
in The building. and especially into the one
which Is labelled Third Grade" Robinson
Crusoe. alas! may be gone by that time, but
there's sure to be somo interesting parsonage
on hand. However. II won't do to plunge into
the third grade so recklcssly. In order to work
UP to it properly IL might be well'to begin. as
the reporter did. outside the door Of the school.
The building at 100 10 a large ono of red
brick. known originally rs the Workineman's
School. but now known rs the Ethical Culture
School. Its real start was made on Jan. l.
1878. when the Society for Ethical Culture
opened n free kindergarten. the first in the city
OF New York. Two years later. when many of
the children were ready to leave the kinder
garten. those at the head OF the work we're
confronted with q problem. Either the chill
dren must:Ro to the. schools. where en-
tirely different methods prevailed. or some
means must be found of continuing their edu-
cation on the same principles on which it had
been begun. The latter course was chosen
and the WorkinRman's School was started.
Sine 1900 the pupils have been Of two
classes. About three-fourths of-the number
either enter on free scholarships or are free
pupils In the Kindergarten. ard go from there
into the elementary school. A fourth OF the
pupils pa for their tuition. the fees varying.
according to grade. from S75 to 5000 a year.
Probably the change in the name OF the school
resulted from this action. While the institu-
ton Is not literally carried on by the Ethical
Culture Society. it is practically so. Felix
Adler is Chairman of the School Committee
and most of the individuals interested in the
work belong to the society,
That the Ethical Culture School 10 q pioneer
in improved methods and that it is one OF the
most Interesting object lessons in the best
ways Of teaching few educators will deny. The
ordinary outsider does not know this. He
has a vague i'm oppression that 1t is a trade school
for the education of artisans or merely a man
ual training school. He knows nothing Of the
broader methods and aims of the managers.
One of them put the whole thing into a nut
shell when he said:
The school aims to be a model public school
and to serve as an experimental field In which
new methods Of education may be tried for
the benefit Of the entire public school system.
1t hopes to remain in constant touch with tho
public schools and to try ne educational ideas.
which can be tested under more favorable CON
ditions by an institution outside OF the system
than by one which forms part of 1t. 1t aims
not merely to teach the three RS. nor to en-
able pupils to earn a living. nor to endow them
with ACCOMPLISHMENTS. but. to build up man
hood and womanhood. 1t Is believed that IL
the highest aim be achieved. the lesser also
will be attained incidentally"
People have demanded a reason" said an
other interested person. for the existence of
the school. People have a way OF demanding
reasons. but their demands are not always as
generously answered as they can be in this
case. In the first place. the Ethical Culture
School Is one Of the pioneers in the progress of
education all over the country 1t doesn't do
any good to say. IL there is 4 need for expert
mental stations in education. so to speak. let
the public.school system inaugurate them.
The public school system is n great and an un-
weildy body. OF necessity it moves slowly.
and there would be q great hue and crv of pro-
| test II it did otherwise. So. you see. one OF the
! most. valuable results OF the schools existence
is shared by thousands OF children. not merely
by the few hundred pupils In actual attendance.
In the second place. there Is the direct gal n
% these boys and girls themselves. The bene-
fits Of the methods we use ought to and do fol-
low them through. life To begin with. the
classes here are only half as larGersometlmes
There fifty or sixty pupils are unds r the care
Of one teacher. You can't expect that teacher
our instructors can with only twenty-five chill
dren, Then there is another thing. A public
sfnS1 along Slass as e an iDseparable Whole. E0 10 mat
ter whether there are bright and dull pupils
side by side. one straininE a. the leash, the
other hanging back like SO mucn dead weight.
the class is approximately indivisible. Our
classes are SO much smaller that the individual
ability-,or lack OF ability-of each child shows
more clearly. And our system is so much less
rigid and pnwialdy:th1t we can gradually sep;
ar ,st the brig eriSh nn SneS IT ZEN tRe ins s1 dpl Enif ones and
Tho methods applied, have been variously
called the creative method and learning by
! lnfnn' naat1Aa EnnnlytnD tina aIannnnfa nI n
broad and general culture. 1t is the particular
aim OF the school to discover the individual
Of his natural aptitude. and thus. 70 prepare
him mentally and morally for his future voca.
d dSes n As often eae sG infue eime' a ' boy IN at the choice at
a vocation. Just because n boy shows an APP
1itSas tor Mit dr1 1Ss jS.a ne sha Is 6 not Is i an arSist born 1m-
He merely, gets an opportunity to develop In
The Sun reporter spent an hour or two go
ing from classroom to classroom. Superintend-
emit Hsigart showing the wav. First came the
h iron, roum. the sia o,sei IN Gns the in s s sF symna sum-
the needs Of the school. and classes must be
four vears.old arc admitted to thelkindergarten.
in connection with which is a training class
for Kindergarten teachers. w
folks 90 from their, low tables to the desks Of
the ms,b nsss S5saf; a srs s s,fs, here ioan Srf IL p Sfs'sIR
grades. When manual training, was intro
duced into come OF the public schools OF the
country. only the high schools were favored,
the idea being that the new feature would
gradually work down through the lower grades.
At the ethical culture school manual trimming
begins in the klnde rgartep and continues with
out interruption, through the entire course.
When tho reporter went into the flrSt-grade
classroom the other day the children we're not
gliding the lily, but painting a picture OF a
turnip which had a lovely hectic flush on one
side and a vigorous tail twisting off on the
other. They mixed their own colors. and some
| OF them'came pretty nearreproducing the flush.
while not one of them forgot the tail.
Then they had a reading lesson, Right there
the advantage OF giving the brighter pupils y
freer rein was at once apparent. The more
backward worked at one slle OF. the room.
while the others had q little lesson OF their
own. Studies are not pursued, here In the
old fashioned arbitrary way. For instance.
there is an INTERPOLATION between the differ
mt lines which makes each a help 10 the other.
This begins to be more apparent in the sec
ond grade, where the children are now read;
Ing "Hiawatha." Instead OF arbitrary and
senseless reading l~essons. they take some
thing which has a real value, literary or his
torieal.. With this they Intervene their man
ual training work.
For instance. in one corner Of tho second
classroom was an inclosed space on. the floor.
Here was q miniature representationinf u scene
from 'Hiawatha." Sand was banked In hills
and valleys leading down to a river which ran
IL IL