The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-12-05

in the teaching force-all these have
encouraged superficial experiments
but have not generally made Tor thor
ough scholarship and persistent lnVes-
LEGATION.
While the difficulties in the way of
some haphaza7d trial of new ideas in
single institutions or localities are at
a minimum in the United States, this
very freedom makes the general intro
duction of any desirable Improvement
in The United States exceptionally diff
ficult. General change can be brought
about only by the Independent action
of hundreds of thousands of govern
ing bodies, and the failures of even
q few ~well-considered n local eXper1-
rnents. of which the most erratic often
gain most notoriety, tend to make
those governing bodies hesitate to au-
tllorize any experiments whatever, no
matter how well-considered and prom
Using.
Taken as a whole the country is very
conservative in the matter of change.
1t may appear to be teeming with ex-
periments. but one school striving to
pioneer a new and supposedly better
road attracts more attention than a
thousand quietly following the beaten
path. To introduce a change generally
throughout the country requires not
AMY that the same question be argue
out in a thousand independent forums.
but also that in each the spirit of con-
be overcome.
In the elementary schools expert
ments have been decidedly more nu-
merous n more varied thar in the
secondary schools. There are obvious
reasons for this. The elementary school
takes it's pupils without preparation;
the overwhelming majority of them
receive no education beyond the ele-
mentary school: n the next follow
ing tVDa of Crhnn fhn caHnn6a nv
school. exercises little influence on the
work of the elementary school. The
secondary school, on the other hand.
riust receive its pupils at the stage at
which the elementary school turns
out, Ii the next following type of in
stitution, the college, exerts a deter
mining influence on the curriculum and
work of the secondary school. Since
the equipment with which pupils are
received and that which they must
nave on leaving are fixed by conditions
practically beyond the control of any
single secondary school, very definite
limits are placed pon the possible
range of experiments and the character
of changes.
Furtter, experiment or change means
disturbance, temporarily increased diff
iculty for teachers in their work of
perhaps more or less dis
satisfaction with the innovation on the
part of the pupils and their parents,
with the attendant possibility of loss
CT pupils; and private schools at least,
which technically are the most inde-
pendent of all. would look askance at
a plan involving such a possibility.
Sun further, the great majority OF
secondary schools, acting singly, justly
feel that their work is, primarily,
teaching according to the existing
standards, and not the initiation Of
educational reforms: that their gov
efnlng bodies and their teaching staff
lack the time and ability. the train
ing n the breadth of view, necessary
TO deal adequately with the general
questions involved. Consequently. edu-
catlonal experiments in the secondary
field are by 10 means as frequent or
as effective as the complete freedom to
undertake them might lead one to ex-
pect.
Even among the states that have a
strong central administration none has,
as a matter OF fact, ventured to put
into force an educational program
varying materially from those current
IN Its sister states. So that a country
winch in is so alert and
progressive, whose men of business are
constantly replacing the good enough
by he" better" is in educational mat
tiers among the most conservative Of
the worlds leading nations, generally
moving along lines of least resistance
frequently clinging to the 'tgoo6
enough because the way to the bet
ter. is not authoritatively pointed out