Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-19
CHANGES URGED
IN HIGH SCHOOLS
The Day of Many Short Periods
Said to Be Destroying
Genuine Academic
Training
BY PEDAGOGUE

THE high school day OF many shor
l. periods Is destroying genuine academia
training in Philadelphia, disgusting expe
rienced teachers and laying the foundation
for nervous troubles to be developed In tn
students years after the present trying eX
perience. Parents who know something o
the silent injury inflicted on the adolescen
pupil by school machinery which inspire
and compels apprehensive haste during difii
cult work are now stirred to inquire why
such conditions should exist
The high school day Of six periods o.
forty.fve minutes eacn has obtruded itsel
into our city schools IN the last few years
although this plan, instead Of the long anC
successfully tried one Of five periods o.
about 1fty.lve minutes each, was not de
manded by any proper pedagogic consid
Grafton. It is In fact, one Of those inven
tions Of the American school superintcn
dents which have given that class Of schoo
officers an unenvable reputation fol
mechanical thinking Emerging for thu
most part from the elementary schools ant
hence inexperienced iu the intricacies o
IlEU SCHOOL WORK. II WIS Il'l W Nv -
pectcd that a little problem like that o
dividing the high school day into periods
should present itself to them in any Other
form than that Of one of an easy rostcrnf
Of heterogeneous studies and not as one
Of the just treatment OF each kind Of study
A large factor In promoting this ex
cessive subdivision Of the high school day
has been the considerable accession Of so
called practical studies neccssitating the use
of the shop and the laboratory This labo
ratory work can best tc done in long periods
each covering two short ones. and to allow
this to be arranged for--all Of the labora
tory work simultaneously with the academic
activties-an even number Of periods Is
mechanically instituted. 1t IS however
well known that a decided distinction ex
lists between the easy laboratory work
which requires no home preparation and
the intricate academic work which not only
requires special preparation but a liberal
allotment Of school time. And it is alsC
well known that in the process Of adapta,
tlon TO the needs Of the laboratory there is
no sufficient reason for rendering efficient
academic training impossible and its daily
conditions intolerable.
It is not intended now fully to point out
the grossly absurd pretensions Of the "prac
tical" teachers who are heading, without
even a dead reckoning, straight upon the
shoals that would lastinEly diScredit any
culture involved in the practical
a4n hos
suggest that the mere fact that the labora
tory teachers Of the high schools now out
number the academic teachers does not
give the former the right to insist on n mode
Of FOSTERING which annuls the efficiency of
the academic work Beyond all doubt, the
mental and the indispensable training of tho
high school,
"Study Hours"
with thirty periods per week at disposal
system of so-caIed study hours" ha'
been incorporated. The pupil is compelled
to study" amid a crowd of hundreds OF
comrades one period each day and then tC
emerge, as n iudicious teacher has ex
pressed it. so "doped" for the next period
as to be proof against all instruction. o
course, reflective parents, as well as ex
pdrienced teachers, recognize the genuine
study hour" with the six-period day.
Still another element demanding the day
Of six periods is that Of promotion by sub
ject," as adopted by several Of the hgf
schools Here strangely enough, il Is founC
that a workable roster can be produce,
only by according each subject, no matte
what its character or claims, exactly tn,
same number Of periods. say four per week
as one high school actually insists It ma!
take years to free such school from tn
destructive results Of promotion by sub
ject," but this constitutes no convincn
reason why its plan of perverting the edu
cation Of youth should be used as an ar
gument for promoting school day of man
brief periods
The real pedagogic vice inherent in eac
of these reasons for the use of the six
period day can only partially be suggeste
here the further we should go the NOR
clearly we should have to expose motive
like that for early dismissal and, above al
that for the machine functionng of III
school which is so dearly priced by III
pth1bobNN VIM Ndll olblluly lbnOTe III
vital interests OF the pupils. II Is to /
sincerely hoped that in the public deman
for return Of five-period division of III
academic work Of all the public high schoo
il shall not become necessary to detail IN
positive wreckage Of effective teaching a
ready accomplished nor become vital I
disclose the final sources Of the present III
satisfactory conditions.
The most successful private academies {
the country find IL necessary to condut
their work on a four-period day, and ther,
fore II certainly is a moderate demand ths
in the public high schools there shall be
1Ve-periOd division. And when we r,
member that the high school, establishe
in this city before it was undertaken
any other American city, had a few yeal
ago acquired an enviable reputation throup
use of its own experience, there can be I
question Of the wisdom of at once return
ing TO that experience. Again and again
has been demonstrated that efficient woI
can be safely accomplished only in a scho
period long enough for the lesurely ar
well-rounded treatment 10 a subject
some difficulty TO the student
Top-Speed Education
The serious injury alike to teachers al
students Of a schedule that compels ner
Gus Intensity and haste cannot be ad
auately depicted. The Imagination may a
tempt to follow a crowd Of high school bo
or girls driven each schoolday Of the yea
tbg. For ,,aarg through 81 parfods