The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1913-01-02
Some Observations of
Germs and Schools
PROF. BELL GIVES PERSONAL IN.
PRESSloNS ON MUCH TALKED
OF SUBJECT.

said Prof. Willis j. Bell, critic in the
Model school, when interviewed yes
terday relative to the German elemen
tary school system, which he had oc
casion to investigate while pursuiung
his studies at the University of Berlin
I'm every instance where visited
a school some boy came forward at
once, unsolicited, to take my coat
and hat.
''When a book accidentally fell from
the teachers desk, a big boy was in
stantly on the spot, and had it picked
up and restored before the teacher
could do so. This spirit seemed to be
more the result of home training than
of school discipline. ...
"Commenting on the difference be-
tween the German boy and the Amer.
lean in regard to difference to elders,
a German professor who has travelled
widely in this country writes in, an
article in stDie Woche" that the sum
total of obedience in the relation OF
the child to his elders in America is
about the same as that in Germany.
But he says, in Germany the child
is taught to be deferential and oben.
lent to parents and teachers; whereas
in America usually it is the child who
must be obeyed. ...
However, things do not always run
smoothly, even in a German school
ROOM I noticed a few instances in
which some of the aged instructors
were being badly imposed upon. Such
tricks as scattering smiles and sun.
shine about the room with the aid of
a pocket-mirror are as popular among
the boys there as in our country.
Close Comparisons Difficult.
1T is not easy for anyone to make
close comparisons of German schools
with our own, as to efficiency. The
extra preparation required of German
teachers, before licensing them t
teach, ought to make them better
teachers than ours in America, and
doubtless they are better. But the
German problem is to make the child
subordinate to the state, while ours is
the double one Of race-amalgamation
and social efficiency.
''The German system seems to be
realizing its ideals effectively; but we
in this country would never be salts
fed to follow those ideals. Even in
Germany there is beginning to be a
little apprehension in educational cir
Giles lest there may be something
wrong with the rigid state-prescribed
"Auferziehung" of the boys. An in
creasing annual list of school-boy sui
cides tends to stir that apprehension
There is no parallel tendency among
the schoolgirls, perhaps because or
the average the girls are allowed tt
carry ony about IS per cent as heavy
work as the boys.
FaIIacy in Comparison.
Regarding comparative results O.
German schools and our own there j:
at least one fallacy quite prevalent il
our country; ever since my boyhoot
l have been hearing it said that owing
to greater efficiency of German teach
ers and school organization, abou
two years of time is saved in the Ger
man school.boy's career. The German
course up through the secondar!
stage is twelve years long, as is ais,
the American; and at the same tim
| it is said that the German who finishe
such course is about as far along a.
half through our four year colleg
course.
Surprising this to be true, it is IN
fair to the American teachers, pupil
AMI school organizations to make N
mention of the fact that the averag
age of the graduates of the German
secondary school is two years create
than that of the American high schoo
graduate Most of the former are a
least nineteen, none ever under. sew
enteen, and many run we'll into tn
twenties in age. What figures OF
tanned tend to indicate that more Ge1
man than American pupils repeat
one or more years of the twelve, thu
actually spending thirteen years o
more in completing the course.
German Pupils Older.
At any rate, if the German schoo
boy who arrives at . stage two year
beyond our high school where he fiji
ishes his Gymnasium" but at tn
same time is two years older than tn
American. then it is perfectly clea
that the timesaving in the Germa
course is not at the upper, but at tn
lower end. Of the course; it lies
1.-THE fact that the Germans do not Ell
ter school until seven or eight, instea