The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1914-03-18
WEDNESDAY, MARCH Is, 1914
SOME EDUCATIONAL RECOMMEND
ATOMS.

ATOMS.
The seventh bulletin published by
the Carnegie Foundation for the Adj
vancement of Teaching has just lately
been distributed 1t is entitled "A
Study of Education in Vermont. AL
most everywhere these days there are
persistent and general doubts as to the
efficiency of the common school sys-
TEN. In Vermont the dissatisfaction
and suspicion crystalized in the latter
part of 1912 into the creation of an
educational commission by the state
legislature with instructions to report
at the earliest possible moment upon
the educational responsibilities of the
state. This commission, composed of
unsalaried and able men, decided to
negie Foundation, a request which
was Immediately granted The Car
negie Foundation undertook, with the
assistance of several colleges, a study
of the school system including the
higher institutions of learning; and it
is an exposition of their methods, re-
suits, discussions, and statistics which
forms the content of the seventh bull
letin.
That their pamphlet will revolution
ize conditions in Vermont can not be
Cd NV WI n de- ar
fully the simple and straightforward
account of the faults of the present
system and the remedies to be applied
In form and style the subject matter is
so clear and direct that to the whole
people will be secured an understand
ing of the school system, the avowed
aim of the investigators. For in the
last analysis the worth and progress
of the public schools depend upon a
well informed public opinion"
Although the economic conditions of
Vermont are vastly different from
ours, many of the conclusions and
recommendations of the commission
are yet remarkably applicable to the
schools in Idaho; and, if adopted, |
would cure many present defects and |
supply many present needs. We shall |
reserve for some future time its valued |
and Illuminating discussion of the pre-
paration of teachers for their profess
sional work, and give merely the out
line of the things that must be done in
order to bring the elementary and
secondary schools to the point where,
as an agency of civilization, they will
meet the requirements of the people
of the state
They recommend, first, the adoption
of course of study in which the
strong intellectual motive will not be
abandoned but in which the child is
taught to discipline himself and to
think and in which his relations to the
social and industrial interests of his
community are strengthened The re-
port says that throughout our states
children are put through the grades
under regime which gives them lit
tie self-discipline, dulls their minds
with artificial repetitions and routine
tasks, and, so far as it educates them
at all, educates them away from the
life in which they have grown up.
The second recommendation of the
report will show that in attempting
to solve it's school problems, the young :
state of Idaho has already taken step :
now urged upon communities much
older and more sophisticated. The
Carnegie Foundation believes that the
whole state school system should be
by one board that people
should hold fast to the conception of ]
,ducation as a single thing, that the :
of the schools as a whole =
hould bring to every high school and
o every elementary school genuine,
educational advice. AIDE
uate administrative organization at
he top, it says, is absolutely necessary
n order that isolated teachers as well
S town schools may be skilfully, in
and alphabetically help
d.
A third recommendation, which also
oncerns us, is to the effect that the
EDUCATIONAL administration (which is
, scrutinize, to assist, and to inspire
lall be free from political entangle-
ent. A form of administration must
) devised under which the inspection
Id scrutiny and development of the
hools shall be independent of poll
IS, and this is no less in the interest
those who hold office than in the -