The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-11-20
BEWARE OF THE
FADS IN EDUCATION
State superintendent Schaeffer
Raises Warning Voice in Re-
port.

ment or the school code, and steps
are being taken with vigor in every
part of the State to provide vocation
al schools, says DR.. Nathan c..
Schaeffer State Superintendent of
Public Instruction, in his annual re-
port to the Governor on the schools
of the State, and proof sheets of
which appeared last week. The su-
perintendent, however, takes occa-
sion in his remarks to lift a warning
voice against undertaking fads in
education on the adoption of radical
changes without careful study of
problems.
In summing up the year the super
intendent says with gentle irony:
Writers who have never taught
a school successfully, who have new
er had a child of their own to edu-
cate, and who could not make a dress
or cook a palatable meal with the
best effort, are always loudest in the
cry for reform. Fortunately, in
Pennsylvania the superintendents
and directors have never allowed the
schools to be swerved from their ori-
ginal purpose. without doubt teach
ers are in danger of being too con-
servative Life is ever changing and
progress is the watchword every
where. The schools need readjust-
ment as civilization advances and
the conditions of life change. The
theorist and the reformer are needed
among a free people. But they
should not be permitted to lay vio-
lent hands upon those features of the
school which have stood the test of
ages and which contribute to the
joy of life during the hours not de-
voted to bread winning. Ability to
NJ tot l.A hoo To-,
literature, to think the best thoughts
of the best men as these are en-
shrined in books; to enjoy the
things of the mind and the higher
life, constitutes a function of the
school which should not be overlook
ed in a mercantile age when money
and money-getting are the guage by
which all human activities are ap-
proved or condemned.
The Future Safe.
DR.. Schaeffer is optimistic about
the future of the schools, remarking
There is much ground for hope
for the continued improvement of !
our public schools. The stands
which superintendent have taken !
in favor of putting the professional
training of teachers at the end of the |
high school course, the growing num-
Der Of college graduates with peda- |
gogical training who go into teach
ing, the improvement in the sanitary
arrangements and material equip |
ment OF our school buildings, the !
palatial edifices which public opinion |
demands for high school purposes, |
the willingness of the people to pay |
for experiments in vocational educa- |
tion, the very tendency to criticise |
the schools-these and other signs |
of progress in the schools of every |
county should encourage the friends |
of popular education and spur them |
to still larger effort and increasing |
liberality.
The school system is proving more |
efficient under the new code, asserts |
the superintendent, who dovotes |
considerable space to the changes in |
departments and to the growth of |
medical inspection, saying:
The movement for medical educa-
tion was hampered in many districts |
through the efforts of the League for i
Medical Freedom. In some districts !
the school boards voted against med |
ical inspection because they were |
not fully acquainted with the new |
legislation. We cannot refrain from |
lauding the wisdom of the policy the |
State Health Department has pur-
sued in this important work
The figures show that 656,000 pu-
pills were inspected and 622 were |
what the superintendent calls de
frauded out of the help which the |
school code designed to give to the
wards of the Commonwealth"
Better Conditions.
Considerable space is devoted to /
the movement for better sanitary |
building and playground conditions, |
which the State Board of Education |
is fostering; the Importance of the |
work OF the expert assistants in the |
Department OF Public instruction in |
agriculture, drawing and industrial |
education, the development OF ag-
ricultural education being much dis |
cussed and plea made for extern |
sion of agricultural education accord
ing to the character of the com
munity. On this subject DR.. Schaef-
fer says:
The conditions differ so much in
the various parts of the State that |
course in agriculture is more or
less flexible. In sections where to-
bacco is grown emphasis should |
be placed on this crop. The same |
applies to dairying and fruit grow
ing. In the mining and other in
dustrial sections much more atten-
tion should be paid to vegetable |
gardening and to sanitation and the
improvement of the home and school |
grounds. Care must be taken to
avoid mere book work, such as is apt |
to satisfy teacher and pupil where
texts on agriculture are used for
supplementary reading. Agriculture,
without actual experiments on the |
school grounds and at the home, is
like a science taught without a lab
oratory equipment.
Agricultural Work.
DR.. Schaeffer says agricultural |
teaching, as well as industrial train
ing, REQUIRES specially qualified teach