The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1921-03-24

terms of safety. Safety, the saw
ing of lives and limbs, is part of the
conservation movement and conser-
walton is a part of efficiency. En-
gineers are thinking in terms of
efficiency; they are beginning to
think in terms of conservation and
this must inevitably bring with it
the conservation OF humanity as
we'll as of materials and energy.
Already number of universities
have Incorporated Safety work in
their engineering curriculum not
only in connection with actual shop
practice but as part of such
courses as industrial management
and machines design.
The Federal Bureau for Vocational
Educ; ton has made the teaching of
safety and hygiene an integral part
of the work in all vocational schools
The National Safety Council through
| its local councils and, the American
Institute of Safety are both carry
ing on a most important educational
work among plant inspectors and
| foreman.
So much briefly from what has been
already done in the educational Field
outside of the public schools. 1t
| is the public school however that is
the most fertile ground of ALL If
men and women are to have regard
for safety that will control their lives
in an important way they must get
it while they are children. The prob
lem is therefore to introduce safety
education into the schools in such a
way that it shall permanently affect
the child's way of thinking.
While the National Safety Council
was considering how it might best
attack this problem it was fortunate
enough to have the problem actually
solved before its eyes. What re-
mains to be done is for the most part
only to spread the news of what
has been accomplished in the ST.
Louis schools under the leadership of
DR.. E. G. Payne of Harris Teachers
College.
The problem of introducing one
more subject into an already over
crowded curriculum is something to
be undertaken with respect and fear.
DIR. Payne had so much respect for
the feelings of teachers that he did
not even attempt this. He did some
thing different and much better; in
stead of introducing a new subject,
safety, he introduced safety into all
subjects.
May I attempt in an unprofes-
sional way to describe the pedagog-
ical problem Education consists in
the acquisition of certain processes,
80 L, %
have practical application. to the
business of living; it is the building
up within the child of a mechanism
for grasping the world. These
principales cannot be taught, this
mechanism cannot be built, out of
distractions. The links of the me-
chanism must be made out of mater
ials that are nthe child's life Prin-
ciples must be pressed out of some
body of experience. The more close
ly this body of experience approx
mates to the real life of the child and
is in fact the real experience of the
child the more effective the result will
be. Not only are principles and pro
cesses thereby impressed with q
vital power and meaning that they
would not otherwise have but at
the same time a large body of facts
and conclusions become available for
application In the real business of
life. In other words the only way to
learn is from life itself and the
schools must be approximately q
working model of life. The prin-
ciples of life an dthe facts of life can
and must be got at the same time.
In primary and secondary educa-
ton this principal has respectable
standing; in university education it
is far from admitted lat least in gen
eral practice. There is still thought
to be some virtue in pure culture,
either taught in the abstract or as
little contaminated as possible with
practical affairs. The sooner that
life is thought of as one whole and
not cut up by compartments into bust
ness, culture, religion and art, the
sooner we shall have satisfactory
world.
What has been done in st. Louis
is to use the child's knowledge and
intuition of danger and safety as
part of that BODY of experience out
of which the educational mechanism
is to be made. In this process safety
takes its place only one of a con-
siderable number of equally i'm
pOrtant interests. Other bodies of
experience which are made use of
in a similar way are those arising
out of the child's interest in nature.
in health, in school discipline, in
civic and national life.
The interest in Safety on the part
OF children has probably large
dramatic and emotional element than
IN the case of grown-up people. We
older people have many interests,
such as politics, religion, art, the ex-
lgencies of making a living, that
scarcely affect the child's conscious
ness. In our own experience life
becomes so complicated by other more
subtle dangers that physical danger
has lost much of its poignancy. In
the case of the child, however, the
presence of physical danger is the
cause of vivid reactions arising both
out of his intutional background and
out of his reasoning.
The conclusion is amply borne out
by the experience with the children
themselves. I was fortunate
enough to be able to witness a dem
onstration of the safety work in the
st. Louis schools; I can testify to
the absorbing interest which it
awakened in the children. With
your PERMISSION / will attempt to
describe the way in which the work
is carried on.
During the first four grades the
effort is particularly directed toward