Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-12-09
EDUCATIONAL NOTES
Items OF Interest to Friends and
Patrons OF our Schools.
THE OBJECT OF OUR SCHOOLS

TIE OISJECT OF OUR SCHOOLS
The best modern education aims,
above all things, to help the child put
himself into harmony with eternal
law and it does this by training him
in the care Of his body, in develop
ment and use of his senses in the con-
troll of his intellectual and moral will
In the light of the new education
we teach him, not as a pupil, but as
human being; we use as the spur of
education, not compulsion but interest
and sympathy; we strive not to mold
the child from without, but To develop
him from within; we spend less time
in laying out courses of study; we
spend more time in creating an edu-
cative atmosphere.
I'VE are perceiving, in short, that
education is a process of evolution
different for each individual pupil, and
that the business of the school is to
direct and to bring to the highest pos
sible point for every child this in
dividual process of development.
We are beginning to agree. think,
upon the following main truths in
education: Cd That we must educate
individuals, not masses; (2) that
we must educate by sympathy. not by
compulsion; 90 that we must
reckon with and must enlist all the
social forces-of which the school is
but one-that are molding the child's
life; (4) that we must strive for
balance that is, for simultaneous,
harmonious development of body,
mind and soul 60 that we must
ever keep in view as the supreme goal
of education the child's social and
moral life.
1.-The corollaries of these main pro-
positions are, of course, obvious. If
we are TO educate individuals, not
masses, we must have teachers train
ed to understand and TO practice this
higher way Of teaching; if we are to
take into account all the social forces
that surround the child we must edu-
cate these forces-the family, the
community, the church-to under
stand and to perform their share in
education; if we are to aim for
balance in education we must reform
our curricula, must enlarge the uses
of the school houses, must spend three
and four and ten times as much upon
our schools as we today provide. If
we are to make morality the supreme
end Of education we must ourselves
cities and our towns more decent
places in which to rear a child.
Broadly speaking, then, the condi-
tions essential to a real education are:
Stimulating. healthful moral sur
roundings for the child everywhere
and everyday; less of politics and
meddling: more of the true science
and art Of education in the average
school; small classes, in which each
child may be really educated as an
individual human being; well-educat-
ed teachers in every grade, and
strong professional spirit in the whole
teaching staff; genuine and unflagging
cooperation on the part Of the faith
ers and the mothers, and much more
generous support from the rjublic, to
whom the public schools belong.
ITO secure these things and to build
from then the new American educa-
ton is TO be the absorbing work Of
the twentieth century.
1T is a stupendous task to perform;
but whether il be done or whether it
be not done means life or death to
these United States
and hopeless as il may now APP
pear, the task will have been accom-
plished if the end Of the twentieth
century sees education as far ahead
of today as todays best standards are
in advance Of the first quarter Of the
nineteenth century flames Phinney
Munroe, in New Demands in Educa-
ton"