East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-08-19
cnANGE IN HIGH SCHOOLS.

a majority Of the 1928 high
schools Of the country with their
$4,000 pupils are in states where
there is no organic relation OF the
secondary schools to the college and
universities, says an Eastern paper.
Until a comparatively recent date this
not only has been the fact in opposi-
tion TO conditions as they exist in COM
monwealths like Wisconsin and Mich
igan: but there also has been a form
.of vassalage Of the secondary school
educators to ancient and honorable
but privately endowed and supported
collegiate Institutions. What the lat
ter have decreed as to courses of
study suitable for high schools has
been accepted without a murmur. The
high schools have been administered
as if they existed for the minority of
their graduates who would go to COL
lese and must pass tests imposed by
Dr. Power has resided above; and the
high schools have danced to the tune
set by the scholastic pipers.
But a new era has dawned. Public
high schools are venturing to adapt
tteir courses of study to the fact that
for most Of their pupils educational
careers viii cease with their high
school graduation. and also to the
fact that were the courses more prac-
ncal more children in the grammar
GRADES would enter the high schools.
Hereafter the ground to be covered
III be less iL area, but the process Of
cultivation more thorough. Major
studies Uill be planned with a view
more to the serviceability of the in
formation acquired and its applicable
iyy to mature experience, and less to
the use Of such learning in later acad-
cruic study Colleges and universities
hereafter must concede more freely
the evidential value Of school records
as to work done by an applicant, and
place less stress upon formal written
g- oral examinations States with an
uncoordinated and only partially
d5mocratized system of education
must awake to the competition Of
states that are organized in a mod
ern and consistent way, and must get
closer to the people with their culture
and specialized knowledge.
Many signs point to understanding
of this trend by university educators,
else recent concessions by Harvard
Yale and the University of Chicago
would rot have been made Another
straw showing how the current is
running is the report just made to the
National Education association by a
special committee appointed last year
t. consider Articulation of High
School and College" Reports by
similar committees to this largest Of
gatherings OF educators have materi-
ally aifected the course or national
educational history Briefly summar-
lied, what is recommended? A cir
ciculium better suited to equip pupils
who will not go to college, and simp-
les and less formal tests for those who
do go The secondary school will be
more assertive of its right to deter.
mine its own curriculum. and less
subservient to the college and the uni
versity.
/ In short, revolt IS on, and the vic
/ tory seems to lie ultimately with the
revolutionists, for the simple reason
that the high schools can flourish
without the colleges and universities,
but the latter are increasingly de-
pendent upon the former, both for a
larger percentage of their pupils and
their high-rank scholars.