New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-01-16

New York.
"HAT the nation has awakened to
sense of the need of unfit
cation Of its educational forces
is apparent in the many books
Of 1920 that were devoted wholly to
the matter. A natural way Of approach
to a discussion Of school requirements
can be found through the chapters of
The Nation and the Schools, written
by John A. H. Keith and William c.
Bagley. Nearly a half of this book
is given over to history of the be-
ginnings and the growth of the pub
tic school system Of the United States.
The wise foresightedness of our fore
fathers in raising funds for educa-
tional purposes through taxation and
the appropriation Of amounts from the
revenues gained from interest on and
the sale of vast tracts Of land gave
US an early basis for democratic
school system. But the congestion of
populations in cities and the tagging
advance Of rural sections have created
disparities. We are confronted with
the serious problems of fighting litter
acy, both in city and in town, secur-
ing better teachers by giving higher
salaries, uplifting the generally low
standard of schools in thinly settled
communities. This book is rich in sug-
gestions that. point to practical effort.
1t contains great amount of valuable
information in compact form. And it
is tinted with the colors Of lofty and
unselfish patriotism.
The authors of that rightly polemic
little book, Present-Day Tendencies in
Education, give the nucleal thought of
their argument in sentence in their
preface, "The school man wants to put
the new wine into old bottles, when it
is no more possible to put the new wine
of progress into the old bottles of edu-
cational Journalism than it was possible
to put the living spirit of Christianity
nto the dead formation Of Judaism"
The cleavage between the disciples of
past century methods in teaching and
those who believe that the present time
is but forerunner Of day when meth
DDS will be metamorphosed is wide
one; yet there are little bridges across
the gap, and deserters from the old are
going over to the new. The future in
the schools, it is implied, will be one of
practical, intelligent effort to make
the classroom q little cosmos of the
world. Where there have been hours
surrendered to the study of literatures
and history that are soon forgotten
there will be hours that will be as open
windows between scholars and the busy.
important world life of the day. The
stressing Of pragmatism and its bear
ing on American education is patent all
through Present-Day Tendencies in Ed
ucation. The two concluding sentences
Of the chapter on Education and Prag-
matism" absorb like sponge the essence
Of the authors argument: "In the
economy of social effort for all the fu-
ture, educational organizations, educa-
tlonal questions, educational methods,
as we'll as the content of courses Of
study in all the grades and classes Of
schools, must seek justification on the
basis of the validity of the consequences
that they produce. The time has come
for Us to recognize the influence of
pragmatic philosophy on all the means,
influences and agencies in education
The last Of the three books consid-
cred in this review, Eugene C. Brooks's
Education for Democracy, divides natu-
rally into four parts. The first con-
trasts democracy with autocracy in
education, and shows how the Unitei
States, by obeying the inspirations of
the former ideal, tends to lead its
youth to larger freedom. The second
part is in effect an elaboration of the
modern community system into def
! mite unit OF national service through
the making of the schoolroom a center
of uplift and healthful propaganda.