Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-05-03
PRINCIPAL copeland TAKES
Up CUDGELS FOR SCHOOL Changes


+ /; NAV te that in large schools we'll
I supervised and well orr anised, .
( s eleton course OF study, padded luf
under the principals directions, rs
/ ing but few books and relying chicf-
i Ii uTcn oral instruction. is prac zeal
and up-todate hut in the rura3
+ schools for which we made our con.
( tcntlon. the most OF the te1cherS
! :cannct be called expert. Twenty
/ ,.srCe. per cent ST Maui teachers last
/ year were unceriEicated Many 9th
I ers held Only temporary certificates,
/ Competent, intelligent. faithful, eff
/ cient teachers are very. properly
transferred, If they 50 desire, TO
schools and more agreeable
/ work in the towns, while the coun-
/ try schools must often put up with
anybody who is willing TO accept
/ such POSITIONS at the salary offered.
/ Apparently then. an extensive use
! OF textbooks is not merely desir-
i able, but absolutely essential TO the
betteTment Of the rural schools Nor
does it appear that the supervising
principals who made such a recon-
incubation ought to be characterized
/ as retrogressive.
Judging from the newspaper at
taeks l;ron rs ii might Ca supposed
| that the only qualifications Mr..
/ Wells and myself brought TO the task
| Of revising the Course of Study con-
sisted of a typewriter and large
stock of resumption. Under the cir
| cumstanees hone we shall not be ac-
! cused OF boasfing when | mention
! that We both hold collegiate degrees
from reputable colleges-more than
some of our most virulent critics can
! lay claim to- Also. we have had quite
as much experience in teaching as
| ally of those who bark at us the loud
est Moreover, We procured and con-
suited courses Of study from all the
large cities of the United States;
| from many OF the smaller cities and
towns, and from many rural districts;
from Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philip
pines and from Canada. We sent for
and studied catalogues of all sorts
and conditions of normal schools,
both public and private, from every
section of the Union. We made our
selves familiar, in so far as was pos
sible by means of such literature,
with the trend of educational thought
and practice in every part of the
| United States. We found that the
textbook courses of study, as OPP
posed to the courses which employed
! oral instruction mainly, were over
| whelmingly in the majority. We made
especially careful studies OF the eur
riculums of cities which have large
foreign elements in their population,
such as New York, Chicago, San Fran
cisco and New Bedford. We procured
cart-loads of textbooks from all the
principal publishers, and examined
them carefully, with an eye not only
to their merits as texts for general
use with English-speaking children,
hut. also to their suitability for use
here under our local conditions. Hav-
ing devoted most of our spare time
for the better part of the school year
to this sort of work, we endeayored
to emlody the results of our investi-
cations in course of study which We
hoped might be received by our co.,
leagues in a spirit of friendliness and
cooperation. ] do no. insist that our
work ought to have been adopted by
the supervising principals as their
recommendation to the Commission
ers: hut 90 feel certain that had the
other supervising principals given as
much time and thought to the matter
as we did, there would be much less
complaint today about the course OF
study which was finally patched to-
gether after it was made clear that
something had to be done.
II may be that in the matter of ed
ucationaI progress, New York. San
Francisco and Chicago are hopelessly
outclassed by Hawaii 1t may be that
by some occult influence all educa-
tional skill, wisdom and Judgment
have been concentrated in Honolulu.
1t may be that owing to the super
human abilities of one much-lauded
educational expert" a community
which hardly ranks with an American
city of the third class sets the peda-
gogical pace for all the rest OF the
world-a notable example indeed of
the tail wagging the cog 1t may be
that here only, Of all The territory
over which floats the Stars and
Stripes, neither the board of educa-
ton, the legislature nor the people
generally nave right to any voice
in the matter of public education.
These things, I repeat, may all be
true; but, if the course of study
which Mr. Wells and | offered can
Justly be characterized as reactionary
and revolutionary, radical and obso-
lete. so also should be characterized
the best and mos general practice of
American schools upon which our
work was based.
C. E. COPELAND,
Supervising Principal.
Wailuku, MAY 2. 1913.