The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-02-02
as Proved an Immense Stimulus to All Education

been the accompaniment of the multi.
plication Of schools Of every sort OF an
increasingly complex and GROWN;
population and OF more sharply defined
and diverse economic needs and ambi-
lions.
THE schools, being highly organized
and wellnigh universal, have been
seized hold Of by reformers and prop
agandists OF all kinds, some wise, some
unwise, and so not infrequently they
have been diverted from their funda-
mental task Of offering education to
the young.
"The business of the elementary
school is simple. 1t is to train the
young child to good habits OF exercise
and conduct; 10 teach the elementary
facts of the nature which surrounds
him and to give him ability to read
understandingly, to write legibly and
to perform quickly and accurately tho
fundamental operations with numbers.
| THE elementary school Is no place
for any form of vocational or techni-
cal instruction. That should belong
to the secondary school period and
he periods beyond, and Of course to
| the continuation school.
These growing pains manifested
themselves in various ways In Amer
| lean secondary schools and colleges.
| but 1t is unnecessary to describe
them here. Like alT>other growing
pains, they will pass eventually and
perhaps with little i'll results.
More important has been the clash
of rival educational PHILOSOPHERS. This
has perplexed American parents and
teachers, and thus for a time has di-
minished the effectiveness of the school
system. The first of these philoSo-
| phies, and that which hold to be tho
sound one, is that which ruled the
American educational system. more or
less haltingly as to its execution, from
our Colonial days down to the close
of the nineteenth century. This phi
| losophy taught that education is a
| process of body building. spirit build
| Ing and institution building. in which
process skilful and well interpreted
use is made of the recorded experience
| OF the human race. of the capacity,
tastes and ambitions of the individual
and of the problems and circumstance.
Of the world in which that individual
at the moment lives.
sound Doctrine Challenged.
This sound and we'll tested doctrine
has been for some time vigorously
challenged by a philosophy which
would turn education into a largely
mechanical process with purely gar-
full end and which would have in view
teaching children merely how to max,
| h1fr I,-;, l..
to live or how to get the highest salts
faction out Of life. Such treatment
of education has found support among
those who use the terms mind and
spirit only as symbols for something
which they do not understand, but
which they believe to be purely ma
teria' in origin and essence.
Recently the pendulum has begun
to swing away from this narrow and
barren doctrine, and there are signs
that sooner or later those teachers
and schools that have come under its
control will be again set free to edu-
cate men and women and not kent to
the task of merely training male and
female human animals to make a live
l!hood.
The American school system has
reflected the national types and ma.
tional political conditions in its lack
of extreme Capitalization and In ~
freedom OF initiative and experiment
It's successes have been those OF free
and high minded undertaking and mo-
those of a closely ordered system.
'An important question at the pres
} Continued on Follomtnb PdocJ