Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-01-28

a
America has never guaranteed PER-
manence or superiority. OF oualifica-
lions. Even now they DO not COM.
pare at the present high points with
the compensation that was paid In
many other fields prior to the war.
There is, however, the country over
/ b greatly improved condition with
reference to the employment OF
teachers. If salaries can be stabil-
lied on the present high basis, there
| is every prospect that radical i'm
be made. Throughout the country.
! there is to be observed a healthy
development in special fields of edu-
cation such as rural education. part
time education, extension education
for adults, physical education, and
the practical education implied in
Vocational and industrial schools.
Standards Of school buildings have
radically improved. the question
| standing needs of education at a
period when readjustment Is every
where imminent.
Schools Shouldn't Bear All Burdens
In the first place, it is Of the ut
most importance that the RESPONSE
bility of the schools in the education
Of children should be carefully de-
fined and adequately fulfilled. In
every department Of life indeed, 1t
would appear that 1t would be a
very useful thing IL everyone would
understand that the beginning of CO.
operation is the ability OH the part
of the institution or the individual
to face and carry his own RESPONSE
bility. Education is in part falling
to do what it should because the bur-
den of educational responsibility is
unevenly distributed. The schools
are clearly limited in The things
which they can do in the education
of children. There are responsible
I ties to be borne by other agencies
and institutions that can be under
taken by the schools only at q risk
of their efficiency. The greatest OBJ
/ legation that any generation owes is
the one it owes to the next succeed
!, ing generation. That obligation is
|
ment and education of youth. The
home, the church. the community
and its activities. and the school are
the factors which determine the way
and the extent that educational OBJ
Legations are to be discharged.
Take the matter of the social ac-
tivities of young people. These are
nixrit, G,fn
attention. Often the school is
charged with a defect in this matter.
Undoubtedly, however, any weakness
in this direction must primarily be
corrected through home influence.
There is the greatest need that the
homes of this day should under
stand that even home cannot
ton. The social life of young people
in many a community runs riot be-
cause parents do not understand
that they must mutually organize
along right lines and in proper ways
the social activities of boys and girls
to the end that their legitimate &C.
sires in this direction may be met.
With reference to the school itself.
/ would undertake to say that these
are important and pressing prob
lens. 1t must be understood that
1.-THE elementary school must have
4 clearly defined for it those tasks
(which 1t is within it's province and
power to perform. I apprehend that
\ these are in general. first, the Civ
4 ing to the child what might be
called the mastery of the tools"
of an education. The elementary
schools, meaning the first six grades,
should at the end give to the child
a fairly complete mastery of the
means by which, in the higher
schools or elsewhere, he can procs ed
to get his own education. 1t is prcb-
able that in the refinement of edu-
cational method, we have overlooked
the important fact that the only ed
ucation that sticks is self-educat.on.
External education can be supplied.
Unless these. however result in Gre
ating a desire for education on the
part of the individual child. they
will hardly result in an educational
contribution of permanent value.
The Elementary Schools
! In saying, however. that the e'e-
mentary schools should give to
child a mastery Of the tools of an
education, am not necessarily ar
guing for a return to the so-called
three RS" I, Of course, include the
three RS" believing that they do
now. as they always have. provide
fundamentally some of the most i'm
portant educational tools" The
point of my argument is that the
course of study in the elementary
schools should be reduced to it's
elements, should deal with fun3a-
mentals, and should be studied with
such intensity that, at the end OF
the elementary school period. we
should have much greater than We
now have the result of tho-oughness.
I would not argue against but rather
would argue most emphaticaliy for
some of those things which are
sometimes nominated as fads. Mu-
sic and art. for example, should rlay
the very largest part in education.
Both are forms of expression and are
even more universal in tteir appeal
: than language itself. These subjects
however, like others, should be treat
ed in their elemental relationships.
Provide for the Individual
I believe that with the seventh
years American education must In
creasingly make provision for. indi-
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