Mexico weekly ledger., 1916-04-13
SUPT. PRIOR EXPLAINS
TREND OF EDUCATION
To The Ledger.

W
To The Ledger.
When writing my last letter, I
fully expected to send you a second
almost Immediately, but work is
heavy here and the time passes
rapidly.
There are some facts in regard to
the changing ideals in education that
l wish to present to the people of
Mexico in order that they may be
thinking about them in connection
with changes that should be made in
our system during the next few years.
The criticism that the schools do not
meet the needs of the children is a
familiar one and has an element of
truth in it. Strenuous efforts have
been put forth during the last few
years to remove the cause for this
criticism by adapting the curse of
study and the methods Of teaching to
the needs of child life. In the place
of teaching grammar, history and
arithmetic, the schools now try to
teach the children. This change in
point of view on the part of the schools
has brought results such as you see
in the crowded high schools all over
the country. When we taught only
Mathematics, History, Latin and
English, in high schools, the boys and
girls went elsewhere. Now that the
effort is to teach boys and girls, as
shown by the large number Of option
al courses from which the student
may take his or her choice and the
changed attitude of the teaching
force towards their work, we find
our high schools in all parts of the
country crowded beyond their capa-
city.
The same noticeable change has
taken place in the lower grades of the
elementary school. We now teach
children instead of subjects in the
primary school with the most graft
flying and even surprising results.
While living in school as real chill
dren and following the activities that
are means of life and growth for
children, they also make more rapid
progress in their studies than was
thought possible in the days when
their fathers and mothers attended
school. This change has come as a
result of the school trying to adapt
its subject matter and methods of
teaching to the needs of child life.
We have learned that we can not edu-
cate a child by examining facts into
his head. We now know that the
child grows and develops, that is, edu-
Gates himself, through his own active
life and that teachers, parents, books,
and environment can do nothing more
than guide and direct this activity.
This means that the school must adj
apt its courses and its methods to
meet the needs of the individual child
as he passes through the various
stages of growth from early child
hood to maturity.
The school has accepted this idea
that the child should be the center Of
the course rather slowly and some
grades have responded to the call for
change more slowly than others. The
grades, that at the present time, are,
perhaps, further than any others
from meeting the life needs of the
children enrolled in them are the
seventh, eighth and ninth. These
grades include children ranging in age
from about twelve to about ifteeE-
the most important age in many re-
spects in the entire life of the indivi-
dual. During this period momentous
physical and mental changes are be-
ginning to take place, which makes
it more necessary than ever TO adapt
the subject matter and environment
of the school to the life needs Of the
child. We are failing to do this as
well here as we are doing it in the
lower elementary grades or the up
per high school grades. AS a result
of this failure of the school organiza-
ton and courses to meet the needs of
the children, more of them are lost
to the school during this period
than any other time. There is a
heavy loss at the end of the sixth
grade, another at the end of the eighth
and a very heavy one during the
Freshman year of the high school.
Other causes are at work which ex-
plain part of these heavy losses but
the main burden must be borne by
the school until it recognizes these
grades to meet the needs of the chill
dren attending them just as 1t has
r~earranged its schedule to meet the
needs of the children in the other
grades of the school.
It is at this age from about twelve