The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1911-10-05

We 49, W. lE@~
alton, continue a system. cling to an
IDEAL, long after it has served its pur-
pose. our school system for exam
pie. is surrounded with convention
aIities, the very meaning Of which has
been forgotten. Why do we invaria-
bly, have vacations i'm summer? Be
cause two generations ago, when the
public schools We're established, the
childreu's labor was needed on tn,
farm in summer. Why do we dismiss
children from school in the middle Of
the afternoon They used to need
that time before supper 10 do the
chores
In this day and generation, esp
cially in cities, it is not only futile, il
is criminal 70 allow Children to run
idle during three months Of the year.
It is. TO put it mildly, dangerous 10
turn them into the streets rom three
o'clock until dark. This is Mr.. Writ
firm conviction, and thal is why in
Gary. the children are kept in school
from half past eight until four and
five.
Please do not picture these young
sters at their desks during eight
hours Of The day. IN the first place.
no child in Gary has a desh. He has
a locker where he keeps his outer
clothing and his books. The desks be
long to the children who happen at
the time to be using them. Neither
are the children kept at work during
eight hours Of the day. Most OF the
time they are usefully, happily, ideally
just living, doing a number Of things
all children love to do, and ought to
do, in order to acquire character.
They live in a yertable Child
World, a world in which there is plen-
ty of work to do, but the work is SO
pieasinRly mingled with play and ex-
ercise that no one is ever bored or
wearied. About three hours each day
are devoted to formal work in read
ing. writing, arithmetic and history.
About three and a half hours each day
are given to manual training, natural
science, music, literature and formal
gymnasium work The rest of the
time is given to free activities in the
gymnasium, swimming pools and in
the five acre playground. The manual
training shops and the school labora-
tories are open during these free
periods and many Of the older pupils
choose TO work in them alone pur-
suing some problem or working out
some ideal of their own.
children or all ages, from the kin
d~crgarten to the high school, live to
gether in the Child World. The lit
tie first reader children have their
simple manual training building doll
houses, modelling in clay and the like,
in close proximity TO the seventh and
eighth grade manual training shops.
The little fifth grade children wor't
at their botany and elementary science
in the high school physic laboratory.
The elementary and advanced chemis-
try students work in the same room
and use the same apparatus.
This is what Mr.. Writ calls edu-
cation from environment, sub-con-
sciOus education. The child sees other
children dong a thing and apparently
enjoying it, and sooner or later he
wants to do the same thing himself.
Moreover, by watching he learns.
When a child enters the Gary schools
from another town, they do not send
an instructor into the swimming pool
to teach him to swim. They let him
stand around the pool and watch the
others until he cannot stand and
watch another minute. When he gets
into the water he Just naturally as
sumes the correct position of the body
the movements come as if by instinct,
and. very little formal instruction III
necessary.