The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-29
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A NEEDED REFORM IN OUR
PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

PUBLIC SCHOOL SIEM
After long experience in Grammar
School work, I feel justified in saying
that any given grade, or group Of
children, as now organized, contains
three distinct classes of pupils, and
that the training above the first two
or three grammar grades ought TO
differ widely in each case. The first
class consists of those who can do the
work as now planned. with but little
effort; the second can do it, but must
make considerable exertion to accom-
plish it; the third cannot do it, they
must be allowed to go on, without hay
ing done it with any degree of success,
In any grade. Forty-five pupils TO a
teacher is about the average. Is 1t pos
sible that the same teaching will in
spire these three widely differing class
es with love for learning? or that
one method will develop the best each
is capable of? Let US note the charae-
teristics Of each class.
The boy who says. and says truly,
II don't have to study TO get my les
sons: l always know them, but l
don't know how l know them. or L
can learn my lessons in the class by
hearing the others recite, l don't get
called on first" is being deprived Of
that training which would enable him
to make the best of himself: along
with the information such children
thus pick up goes a training in idle
ness and self-conceit. In my judgment
some of the nervousness resulting
from school work is caused by the
strain of having to sit idle, inpatient
ly waiting for the inattentive, the slow
to be brought into line. Pupils of this
alaSC Il = a orsS rF+0vly hv .
tending school only one half of each
day, or they could do two years work
in one. thus. as far as they are con-
eerned, doing away with half the num-
Der of teachers now employed for their
training. What a saving in expense!
There is at the Worcester State Nor
NAL School a primary class, the pupils
of which advance rapidly by attending
school but half Of each day. One rea-
son for this rapid progress is that no
idieness is permitted; work while you
work" seems to be the spirit Of the
school. Huxley said. the public school
is. a capacity catcher" By the end of
the sixth year all teachers who give
the individual any careful thought,
have discovered those pupils who have
any aptitude for intellectual pursuits
These children should be given such
work and as much Of ii as they can
successfully accomplish. There ought
to be no boasting Of progress without
work
The second is the larger class and
the one most benefited by the school.
1t is also this class who love most the
school life. Some appear to love learn
ing for its own sake; but among them
are those who like the work of the
school only because they love the
teacher" These are they who are apt
10 drop out of the High School They
have not learned to love wisdom for
her own sake; heretofore, the teacher
herself has been too prominent an OBJ
ject before their eyes; she has not
been, as Prof Palmer said, trans
parent" has not been zone through
whom and beyond whom the pupil
saw knowledge" Some one has said it
is only what we get by hard work that
IS of lasting benefit to US. Pupils Of
this class are industrious. The teacher
could do more for them had she not
the other classes at the same time TO
deal with. Here. too. expense and tine
might also be saved.
After ;he fifth year, the third class
gets absolutely no benefit from the re-
naming three or four years they are
obliged to spend in school. Where no
advance is made there must be retro
s aI5s7aCAA COltlE a z dAtA iii LIS IlG1DALS "a
idleness some, those who want the
good opinion of teachers or parents,
copy their work from the papers Of
other pupils or are prompted by their
neighbors: what lessons in dishonesty
and dependence upon others are they
learning. Some try faithfully to do the
work, only, day after day, to meet
with blank failure. How these last
can so persistently make the effort to
do something in the face of certain
failure. has always been TO me a mar
vel. I have always pitied them from
the bottom of my heart, but could do
nothing for them. Others of the class
make scarcely any attempt to do any
thing; they. too. make their boast, Il
don't work, but I go on all the same"
In their own eyes theirs is the reward
without the work, a most pernicious
state Of things, but, under the public
school system as it now exists, a con-
dition more or less unavoidable.
Mrs. Goodwin. in a paper read re-
Gently before the Woman's Club, said
we must accept the boy as he is" At
the same meeting Mrs. Forbes said in
substance. every child has the right
to demand of the state an education,
a training that viii bring out the best
he is capable Of No one would think
Of denying the truth of these two
statements. But does the state accept
the boy as he is when she gives to all
the same training, a training, even at
the present day, after all that has
been done in child study. almost
wholly scholastic? The third class of
pupils have. in the, words of Prof
Dewey, the sO-called practical i'm
pulse and disposition; in them in
tellectual interest is not strong they
have no fitness for intellectual pur-
suits" Yet the state forces such to re-
main in school for a given term Of
years, learning only lessons of idle
ness or struggling to accomplish that
which can never be successfully done
I believe all teachers in the middle
grammar grades recognize. such pupils
The so-called scholar" is, at present,
held in such high esteem. that parents
will object strongly to the separation,
not realizing that each child is en-
dowed with certain capacities, and
that any attempt to force him beyond
what he is capable of, or into line
Of work for which he has no taste
means certain failure