The Washington herald., 1914-04-26

time Is spent outside of their homes:
and even when they are in their own
homes their friends are there with them.
People are spending much more OF their
time together in groups than they did
formerly.
Talk Over the Phone.
The telephone is playing an important
part in making it practically impossible
for boys and girls to be alone for any
length Of time. The children are always
with some one. Either they go out with
their friends or they bring their friends
into their own homes. The amuse-
ments designed to appeal to the young.
and even to seduce them. are much more
varied and alluring than they were for
merly.
The tendency of this new life is to
make young people more responsive. more
alert, more self-reliance in the presence
of others. perhaps even more smart.
than was true in the old order. But at
the same time young people are not
trained in working independently and in
isolation.
We are in peril. The moment our
people cease to increase in their ability
to solve intricate problems by long con-
tinued application. at that moment our
development will cease. Further. il Young
p|Oplt III Nli' ppNtl VI NbAANNil-
tration. it means that we will begin to
return on our path.
There must be community Co-opera-
tion in dealing with the new problems
issuing out of the new times.
Must Inderstand Problems.
Not until the community understands
the new problems and will cooperate
actively with the school. will the dis
tracing influences cease to work harm.
both to the individuals and to our civil
ization.
"A child will willingly do what his
fellows do. II in given neighborhood
II should be understood in all homes tha-
high school pupils should apply them
selves to Intellectual tasks, say from
80 to in the evening. there would be
no desire on the part OF individual chill
dren to spend this time al the theater
or on the street or in wasteful practices
of any kind. Any one boy will do what
the crowd does. and il We are going to
solve our problems today We must work
with the crowd mainly.
"A place in the home can be provided
for children. and an inexorabIe regime
can be carried through so that at a given
time the young people must be in their
proper places applying themselves to
their tasks. of course, if a home is rest
less: II the elders are coming and going
and the whole talk is of distraction: il
everything in the home suggests super
fciality and excitement and social dissi-
patton. then. of course. the young who
grow up under such influence cannot get
the kind of training which will arrest the
influence of contemporary
city life
DR.. William D. Ruediger. dean Of the
Teachers College. George Washington
University. gave answer to the question.
is the school of today teaching the
fundamentals as thoroughly as did the
OId-time SCHOOL," In part. he said:
Better Results Produced.
An impartial investigation appears to
indicate that the hOOls of today are in
most. il not all respects. producing better
results than schools did thirty or forty
years ago. This is Indicated by at least
three lines OF evidence: first. by an act
uaI comparison Of results achieved as
measured by tests; second. by the testi-
mony of those who have taught in the
oId-time schools and are still teaching in
modern schools; and third. by a compari-
son of the old and the new courses of
study and methods of teaching in the
light Of weIl-established educational the
ory.
Teachers who have been teaching
thirty or more years are nearly unani-
nous in the belief that pupils now not
only learn considerably more, but that
in the main they learn things also more
than they did a generation
ago. Every line OF investigation ap-
pears to show that pupils in the grades
are not only learning two or three times
as much ms they used to learn. but that
they are learning the so-called funda-
mentals Of three RS more thoroughly"
c. r. Rosser. Of the Society for Pro-
motion of Industrial Education, Of this