Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-09-26
BOOKLESS SCHOOLS
By H. Addington Bruce

Every once in while an appeal is voiced
for the banishing Of textbooks from primary
and elementary schools. Boys and girls it
even is asserted, would be better off II they
were not taught to read or writs before
the age of ten.
In any event, the assertion is made, they
should not be required to use textbooks un-
til they have passed that age. To recall a
passage from the writings of one anti-text-
book agitator:
Children suffer lasting injury by being
left with book and directed to study at
an age when the power of voluntary atten-
ton has not developed They then acquire
habits of listlessness and mind-wandering
afterward difficult to overcome.
'They read over many times that which
does not hold the attention and is not re-
membered. Lax habits of stuuy are thus ac-
CURED, with the serious incidental result of
weakening the retentive power which de-
pends so much upon interest and concentra-
tration."
More than twenty years have passed since
these words were penned, and the textbooks
remain in the schools. Children generally
are taught to rea& and write at the early
age their parents were taught to read and
write
But now there are signa that the protests
Of the innovators are beginning to gain a
more favorable hearing. Educational expert
ments are underway, with increased empha-
sis on oral instruction as their starting point.
Soon we may in very fact have many book
less schools for the young. Would this repre-
sent real educational advance?
In my opinion it would not.
No one could deplore more strongly than
! the character of the textbooks commonly
used for the enlightenment of children. They
do indeed make for "listlessness and mind
Wandering."
But it is one thing to improve textbooks
and quite another to be rid of them entirely.
Moreover, the dullness of the textbooks is
by no means the only reason (they do not
hold the attention. Even dull book would
be read attentively if there were present a
keen desire to master its contents.
That is something which usually is not
present because as rule, the education of
children, both by reading and by oral in
struct1on,. Is begun. not too soon. but too
late.
1t is because it Is begun too late that chill
dren's "power of voluntary attention" when
they reach school is lamentably weak so far
as study is concerned. It is not weak as
regards mastering baseballs, football, or other
games involving mental as well as physical
activity. The difficulty is that mental
growth has been overstimulated in the game
direction and neglected in the study direc-
ton.
Did parents in general make It a point to
surround their little ones from infancy with
books, did they take proper care to utilize
their curiosity instinct as a means Of kin
ding in them love Of worthwhile knowl-
edge, it is safe to say the teaching of read
ing at even an earlier age than usual could
be advantageously undertaken. Nay, it
would have to be undertaken. The children
would demand its
Which suggests, indeed, that If books
were kept entirely out of children's hands
until after the age of ten we should have
far fewer book-lovers than we have today.
And we have none too many as it is.
Mental habits, including the habit Of turn
ing to books for edification and delight, are
commonly acquired early or not acquired at
all. Rash, and believe mischieNous, is the
experimenter who would keep children away
from books till they reached an age when
mental trends in other diree tions might be
so strongly developed that they never could
find Joy in reading
4- Copyright, 1929