Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-10
REVAMP|NG SCHOOL
SYSTEM AS WHOLE
OBJECT OF SURVEY
Kindergartens to Universities
Is Scope of Study Seeking
Coordination.
HUMAN VALUES PLACED
FIRST IN NEW CONCEPT
National Educa ton Association Is
Sponsoring Move to Improve
Opportunities.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

make Inc American Scno0l system CO.
ordinated whole from the kindergarten
to the university is being conducted by
the department of superintendent of
the National Education Association.
The object is to provide for con-
tinuous progress of the pupil through
kindergarten, elementary school, junior
high school, high school and college in
order to eliminate waste of time and
gtfort. At present the different levels
often work at cross purposes with one
euother, the higher grades duplicating
cork of the lower grades and the lower
grades failing to consider the prepara-
tory requirements of the higher grades
The educational system, it is pointed
out. in report on articulation of the
units of American education" just is
sued has evolved rather haphazardly in
the past and will continue to do so I'M
less specific standards are fixed upon
which the majority of schools can
agree.
Many Problems Studied.
This study involved several hundred
separate problems which are being
worked out in different school systems.
Some of the studies are in the hands
of college graduate departments, while
others are being conducted by city and
gestion of the department. The prob
lem of coordination, the report says
is rendered more difficult by the fact
that each unit has its separate prob
lens, due to the changing nature of the
pupils with age and the duty to give
those who are to drop out well rounded
educationS up to certain points.
IF one studies the conditions which
prevailed In the United States up to ap-
proXimately the beginning of this CEN
fury" the report says, lone realizes that
little or no energy could be devoted to
the coordination of educational inSti-
tutions. Every educational institution
was using all its resources in giving its
pupils very meager education. In 1910
the average schooling of American citi-
zens amounted to only 208 days. These
few days were scattered over the years
of childhood and were devoted to the
most rudimentary studies. Anything
that could be accomplished in the way
of instruction was regarded as a gain.
A pupil might learn little reading,
writing and arithmetic, but beyond
these fundamentals experience could be
extended only for the very few.
THE eight-grade elementary school
has in recent years gradually been
transferred into a six-grade school, but
the change has been accomplished only
in the face of violent opposition. There
are even today people who think of
the eignt-grade school as the only pos
sible Kind of elementary school.
To-day we have the spectacle OF
chaos in the field of teacher train
ing. Normal schools are insisting that
they be recognized as colleges, and are
organizing curriculums leading to de-
PrG
sional courses are administered with
unit of the American educational system
which is in need of readjustment it
Is the teacher training unit.
when little children come to the
first grade they have command of the
vernacular completely enough to under
stand what is said to them about their
relatively simple environments. They
have control of the physical movements
far enough to be independent of parent
al care. They are greatly interested in
people and are initiative in the ex-
treme. The appropriateness of instruc-
ton in the fundamental social arts is
so evident that reading, writing and
counting have persisted in the first
grade in spite of repeated vigorous at
tacks by educational reformers. It is
an impressive fact in the history
of schools that almost every theoretical
reformer has attempted to exclude read
ing, writing and numbers from the
first grade"
Early teaching of these subjects
doubtless will persist. the report con-
tinues, because of the social require
ments of the child. The contents Of
instruction must be drawn from the
material supplied by society. Above
the primary grades, the report says,
comes "a period in the life of pupils
which Is not characterized by docile
imitativeneSs. The pupils have come
to a realization of their own personal
independence, and they are no longer
uncritically initiative. The purpose of
the middle grades Is to complete the
mastery of reading for the acquisition
of the facts of geography and history
and the satisfaction of the pupils de-
sires to read about the strange facts of
the large world which lies beyond the
immediate environment.
Latitude in Courses.
'There must be recognition of the
individualiStic attitudes of boys and
girls of this period and the largest
concessions should be made to their
developing personalities. Social forms
of conduct are difficult to cultivate In
the middle grades because Of these In
dividualiStic attitudes. Persuasion rath-
err than uncritical imitation Is the
method of dealing with pupils.
THE junior high school period is
period of renewed social interest. The
pupils begin to look forward to adult
life. There is need for social studies on
a scale never yet attempted in Ameri-
can schools. European schools provide
a treatment of early adolescence, which
is fundamentally different from the
treatment of other periods. American
schools have only lately discovered the
necessity Of special form of organiza-
ton for the adolescent."
The function of the high school, the
report says, should be the complete gen.
eral education and open the way for
specialization. If this view is generally
accepted, it is pointed out, radical
changes will be necessary in college
curiculums with less general culture ma
terial and more emphasis in pre-pro-
fessional courses such as have been in
troduced only in the past few years.
Scientific Basis Sought.
"As soon as educators come to realize
that articulation Of institutions must be
based on a study of the facts of human
development, not on arbitrary decisions
or traditions, q scientific basis will have
been established for the organization OF
the school system. A new problem OF
articulation is beginning to present itself
because Of the enormous expansion OF
certain units OF the educational system.
The public high school has grown more
rapidly than the institutions above II.
There Is no adequate provision at the
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