The Daily Missoulian., 1914-06-11
DUTIES OF SCHOOL
ARE DEMONSTRATED
Dr. Lotus D. Cofman Discusses Three Prime Response
biltes of Educational Observation-Disclosures
Which Hears Him Small

The world is just beginning to realize
the value of health; science with the
test tube and the retort is vanquishing
disease, Is progressing beyond the
process of curing to that of preven-
ton. These influences have had their
effect upon the schools. Medical in
spection is common and the open air
school is coming into vogue. The inn
portanee of these protective measures
can hardly be over-stated in light of
the fact that 100000 children in the
public schools today are doomed to
die of consumption before they are Is
Years of age. Figuring that each of
these will receive the six years of
education demanded by law. the
United States is wasting $1,o00,00O a
year because consumption is allowed
to exist in the schools.
The playground. school lunches
courses in sex hygiene, school baths,
are other evidences of this physical
protection, but the duty does not stop
there. Against moral and spiritual
enemies the child is guarded, too, for
thereby society protects itself. The
compulsory education law was passed
for exactly the same reasons that lay
behind the eight-hour law; society
wished to protect itself by providing
men with more leisure and by teach
ing them how to enjoy 1t. Every time
children are driven out of the factory
by restrictive laws the doors of the
school open farther
Elasticity and Education.
Elasticity is the preuominent trait
of the child and education, therefore,
is the prime duty Of the school, The
school is the agent of conscious evo-
luton. Here the trivilalities which ac-
company the binder evolution of so
ciety are eliminated. For this reason
the reformers who recognize in every
defect of the social organization a
| failure of the school are wrong. There
are those who would destroy the
school system because of evils in So
ciety. One of the most pernicious of
| these reformers, the Ladies' Home
Journal, is now advocating the re-
moval of all home work and the
| abandonment of examinations, but
| the evil is rather in the failure of the
school to insist sufficiently upon mas
terry of it's materials and skills than
in over emphasis upon work. The doc
| trine of interest" has so saturated
our school system that the art of les
| SON getting has almost been lost.
/ Mental starvation is more likely than
| the intellectual dyspepsia which these
critics fear. They would make the
school a playground association, a
good thing in it's way, but alone hard
ly worth such great expenditure of
the public funds.
Studentship simply means the get
ting of lessons.
"Natural" Growth.
The reformer would have us return
to the days of Rousseau and let chill
dren develop naturally" Natural
| learning is a fiction. With such a
process the American boy would not
speak good English if he spoke at all,
and he would not be likely to bathe
Education consists in overlaying with
restraints their primitive tendencies
in order that we may adjust ourselves
to the conditions of neighborhood and
family life.
The only natural rights of the indi-
Nihut1l dIC lllooC lioC0 LOI liiC CollGCLlbS I
welfare.
The organization of knowledge can
not be accomplished without rigor, and
the organization of knowledge with
which to supplement life is the end of
education. The price the selfmade
man pays is in poorly organized learn
ing. Dependence upon spontaneity
comes to a similar end; intellectual
tramps are the output.
Every school is judged by the eff
cheney of it's instruction.
Selection.
Finally, no two children are alike
and the selection of the fittest and
the development of individual capahili-
ties combine to form the third duty
of the school. Really, his mere pres
ence in school is perhaps the greatest
chance the student has to advertise
himself. Consider that but one in 20l
ever receives college degree, and il
is evident that a diploma is evidence
of a great DEAL 1t means that the
holder has survived where 199 have
fallen. Concern over the students who
fail and are lost should not be allowed
to overshadoW the joy in those who
pass, for the wedding out is an inevi-
table and necessary process. All chill
dren enter school on an equal level
and for several years progress to-
| gether. That is as it should be, but
the higher stages are and must be
earned This process of selection es-
tablishes a type, an intellectual caste
Not all are fitted, and there should be
no delay on their account.
1t is often said that certain sue
cessful men, truly successful not
shreWd only. owe their advance to theil
early training. So they do but moi
| wholly; they succeeded because they
were of the caliber to survive the Sc
lective process.
Another fallacy commonly accepted
is that progress is limited largely by
| opportunity. How many Montana
boys taken out with kites would be
Frankins? What one knows is due
not only to opportunity, but also te
innate ability. Accomplishment after
all is but the test of ability.
If jS tC