The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-09-01
STRONG PAPER BY
MR. COPENHAVER
Smytli County Superintendent
Discusses School Curricu-
Tim in Able Manner.
QUESTION OF MODIFICATION
Matter is One of Great Interest
to School People Of Vir-
gniia.

One Of the strongest papers read be-
fore the Educational Conference here
last year was by Superintendent b. u.
Copenhaver, of Smyth county, on an
What Respects Should the School Cur
ricul,im be Modified to Meet twentieth
Century Dcmands?" 1t follows.
Every child begins life like an ex-
plorer entering an unknown country.
His teachers are no more than guides,
and his school curriculum is by no
means a perfect map, but only q chart.
giving at best bare outline of tho
,lncxplored regions. The selection OF
wcll-qualifed, guide is the matter OF
supreme Importance to the young
traveller, but in order that progress
may be accomplished without waste OF
time. a good chart liz also essential.
Now what is the ideal chart or cur
riculum? Certainly, as DIR. LANCE says
not "a chaos of isolated subjects added
from tino to time because of some
popular or professional demand, or the
esoteric interest of the schoolmasier."
If our school curriculum In a few
short years. is to transform indiffer-
ence and ignorance into interest and
knowledge, It must be arranged nc
cording to natural order OF sequence
of subjects. wisely co-ordinatcd in a
unity which VIII secure certain definite
aims.
just n Beginning.
Then what are the certain definite
aims for the accomplishment of which
the school curriculum must be ar
ranged?
THE problem OF the school," says
one OF our greatest educational lead
crs. lis not to be sought in making the
pupil ready for life, so that he shall
have nothing further to learn. much
rather can and Will education prepare
the student to find his way. with the
help OF what he has learned, In the
domains OF knowledge, feeling and
volition.-
The studies OF the curriculum are
not an end, but means to an end.
and that end is the child; the child
from the mansion and the cabin; the
child from the cultured home, and the
child from the streets. the factory
and the mine. II the child has learned
self-mastery, self-activity and the
highest form OF self-expressIon by the
time he leaves the public school, the
end has been attained for which his
curriculum was designed. Not wha.
.he has studied. but how he has studied
II. says Herbart SIS the all-import-
ant thing"
Let us bear this In mind in consfd-
ering what would seem TO be second
aspect OF the question. viz:
Should the twentieth century de-
mands affect the school curriculum 80
that 1t should be modified TO attain
any other end than the one just de-
fined?
The German word zeitgest Expresses
better than any English equivalent the
spirit of the age. q
What is the spirit OF the twentieth
century, What are its demands!
Ideas Summed Up.
II we gather our ideas OF the spirit
of the century from current words
and phrases applied to 1t by our own
speakers and writer's, we conclude that
st is "materialistic" Ca vague poIysyl-
liable, by the way which no one at
tempts to define, and which might be
applied to the age of Scion or Nero. or
almost any other mani.
Strenuous ian adjective which has
suffered recently from excessive pop
tilarity), commercial Ia term which
means this thing or that, and Is APP
piled with equal force to the ancient
Phoenicians and the modern CONNER
cial traveler).
Summing up the ideas expressed by
these various and vaguely used words,
we arrive at the conclusion voiced by
Mr.. Shepard at a recent educational
meeting-that the characteristics OF
our American civilization in the TWEEN
tieth century are to be Crowded life
and great wealth, which carry with
them great dangers and the possibility
Of public and private rottenness."k
In addition to this, we know that