The Washington bee., 1910-05-28

year courses at Armstrong. I84 pu-
pills were promoted, of whom so. or
/ IS per cent, were conditioned At M
Street 2zZ pupils were promoted to
! the first half of the second wear. of
whom ia, or 78 per cent, were CON
dltloned; at Armstrong, so pupils
were thus promoted, of whom 20, or
a per cent, were conditioned. If
! now and then pupil snould fail TO
| do the work" says Supt Stratton B.
Brooks, of Boston, sit would perhaps
be just to say that he is not qualified
to profit from high school instruction.
and that he should be excluded from
school; but where 25 per cent. of all
| the pupils IN the high schools of the
city fail to do the work required, a
course of exclusion cannot be sue
cessfully defended. These pupils are
as justified in demanding high school
/ instruction adapted to their needs as
are pupils who find it possible to do
the work now offered" All honor to
the devoted teachers who are seeking
| to maintain lnviOlate the tradition of
their school for scholarship. Let
them remember, however, that too
| great Tigor is almost as disastrous
in its effects upon the pupils life and
| effort as too great laxity There must
! De "a better understanding of the ne
| cessity of teaching the pupils what
| they need and can do rather than
driving them from school if they can
not comply with certain fixed stand
| ards; better appreciation that the
responsibility IS upon them to make
this adjustment, and that this respon-
sIb1lIty IS not TO be avoided by claim
ing poor elementary school prepara-
| ton; greater belief that the slow
| section is not an annoyance. but an
opportunity 3 The success of
a teacher should be Judged by her
| ability to provide work of such a ma
ture that all the members of her
class, not grossly indOlent, can reach
satisfactory standard of achieve
ment. To have 20 per cent of a class
fail to pass is full proof either that
the work is not adapted to the class
or that the teacher is inefficient x x x
For the principal of the high school
IS the task of administering his school
50 that the teacher will have the
greatest possible opportunity to at
| tain this ideal"
Faulty Articulation With the Elemen-
tary Schools.
The transition from the elementary
school to the secondary school is sell
dom effected with ease and economy.
Many pupils leave off their schooling
ent:-"''- at this period and those who
cont fail, in very many cases, TO
maiutdIh the promise and the actual
superiorities they displayed u the
grades. Now, the onset r .doles-
Cence occurs before the hic chOol is
reached. Indeed, a sin-year high
school course is more accordaut with
the developments of adolescence than
the present fOur-year course; the re-
adjustments now so markedly a feat
ure of entry upon the high school ca
reer would come more appropriately
in the seventh and eighth grades.
we have learned" says { distin-
guished American educator, that a
child should know how to read and
write by the end of the third school
year, j. e., at about nine years of age;
that in about FIVE years (by eleven
years of age) he can learn all the
arithmetic he needs for the ordinary
affairs of life and for further progress
of his elementary school training the
pupils progress in the school arts
should be incidental to his pursuit of
other subjects" But with some quail
ication it may be truly said that even
to-day the work distinctive of secOn-
dary education, emphasis upon the
elements of liberal culture as distin-
guished from exercises in the school
arts, is deferred to the ninth year of
school life. More specifically, sciences
and foreign languages are begun in
the high school; English and history
and algebra. although begun in the
lower schools, are taught in the high
school by very different methods.
Moreover, instruction in all subjects
by one teacher is to the pupil a very
different proposition from instruction
in each subject by different teacher;
the intimacy of the elementary school
teacher with every pupil in the class
and her profound personal influence
over the thought and feeling of each,
can hardly be equaled in the high
school. In the elementary school
the responsibility for the pupils prog
ress in knowledge and in character is
jOyfully and freely shared by the
teacher; in the high school the re-
spOnsibility is sharply and suddenly
shifted to the pupil. The high school
teacher is Enthusiastically prone to
certain aloofness and austerity for
which most pupils are i'll prepared.
My argument is that the materials
and methods and discipline apprOpri-
ate to secondary education should be
consciously entered upon two years
earlier than at present, and should
gradually emerge from the materials
and methods and discipline of the
| lower schools. The fact that this is
not the case-the transition is now
exceedingly abrupt-largely accounts
| for the violent and waSteful readjust-
ments so characteristic of the earlier
years of the high school.
Other Causes of Pupils Failure.
There are other factors not so fun
damental . The high school teacher
| thinks of his subject first and of his
pupil afterwards; he should be more
regardful of his pupil and of the
modes of presenting the subject most
effectively to that pupil He must be
| 1 Il