Evening star., 1932-09-20
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
!. C. M.

IEACf1lNG PROCEDURES. BY Will
Cation % and dsan of the School So ado Of
Education, George washington Uni
Versity. Boston: Houghton, Miffin Co.
This the month when school houses
open. Take down the shutters and
swing wide the doors in announcement
States is about to set out again ON its
annual 10 months Of enterprise.
The most important Of American in
stitutions and the most costly is its
schools. An investment in individual
human futures, a bond for increasing
pubic security and for the stability Of
a Government founded upon the prin-
clple OF equality among men.
All considerable institutions and cur
rent practices are interesting in their
growth. Even lights, for instance, from
fiint spark to pressed button. How much
more arresting a thing so great as the
savance OF our educational system:
ODDLY enough, like some strange and
rebellious weed. 1t grew from the top
down, not from the roots UP. That
seeming violation of the laws OF growth
rose from the fact that, while the fore
fathers came to the New World for
freedom denied them In the English
homeland. they came also with the
creed OF rank and caste deep-flOwing in
their blood. And so, when education
came to be a matter of interest and
purpose, 1t was education for the gentry,
not for the yeoman and below, that
stepped first into the open of opportu-
nifty. 1t was the university plan, drawn
on from Cambridge or Oxford, that
gave pattern to our earliest institution
OF learning, Harvard University, almost
800 years ago.
Very slowly the idea of education for
all and at public expense, besides. made
lts way. Compulsory at that. Fought
step by step, God knows why. derided
and made little of at every turn. the
StupendouS project of education for all
the people OF whole country made the
grade. Largely, perhaps, by the mo-
mentum OF It's own splendid drive and
force. Today, teaching Is a profession,
IKE medicine, law. economics, what not,
among the utilities Of common existence
Great among the many difficulties
OF the new enterprise was the lack OF
any knowledge Of teaching. Indeed
prior to this, the lack Of any notion
that teaching had to have special
art TO support it. In the beginning it
was the occupation that opened doors
OF opportunity to women. 1t was a
genteel calling set off against servant
hire and laundry lines. So, barring a
marriage somewhere in the near day,
girls took to teaching school. A few
men, too for other reasons. But, all
alike, were unframed, were uncon-
sclous OF the need for training And
SO the little red school house and many
of its lineal descendants resounded with
lusty singing and boisterous hand
clappings. while the MULTIPLICATION
table, or some other useful contribu-
tion to knowledge. was passed over, or
SO 1t was assumed, to be a part of the
mental furnishings of the youth of the
country.
All that, In the way OF handicap, is
IN the background. For nowadays 4
prescribed amount of scholarship must
be supplemented by a professional
handling Of the art Of teaching before
school children can be invited into the
gardens of joyous and useful adven-
ture in learning.
And that professional fronting upon
the subject of education, public edu-
cation, took long time of perform
ances, maiapropos, maladroit, and
about every other conceivable NAL
before it emerged to the level of its
present simplicity and sanity. Not
wholly out of the woods of experiment.
OF trial by error yet. But, certainly. as
profession. teaching is growing out of
It's most absurd sentimentalities, is STEP
ping sure-foOted toward the relations
existing between the earth around
them and the school children them
selves. Quite a long road vet to GO.
but education Is now indubitably upon
its way.
A case In point: Teaching Pro-
cedures." the book in hand know
its title is not particularly alluring
SaVors OF other, and darker days, In
the business of teaching. But. the
er light Is not and III ss for Es f @
fully up TO such intent First, it is
comprehensive. In a brief sense, his
torieal, fer the use OF the teachers to
whom 1t is specifically addressed. No
one, in any adventure, is content with
the narrow span of road upon which
he is standing. Wants to know what
went on behind him, what promises
ahead. And here, the short, historical
view is flashed like q moving picture
truly illuminating view.
Not only covering book, but a we'll
ordered one besides, adding the advan-
tage of ready seizure to that of COM
prehensive view The aims and pur-
poses of education are set out here,
first simply, then engagingly as some
thing of deep interest as well as a
thing OF vital Importance. The author
is himself interested. He. therefore.
draws upon his most direct, most simply
artful resources to be communicable in
zeal as he is in fact. Here gone all the
roundaboutneSS of pretentious psychCl-
ogy, formerly so much in use as prime
element in pedagogy. Here. in essence
instead. on the one hand pupil, on
the other his particular part OF the
earth at the moment. for him to act
upon. to incorporate with his own mind
and body by way of certain engroSSing
activities toward just that end. Now
the teacher. or in other words. the
method, the procedure" is chiefly an
agent for clearing the road between
these two. pupil and material This
act of clearance done. with knowl-
edge. insight, art, the main two in the
business can very nearly carry on by
themselves. Where they cannot. do
not that is the teachers moment Of
Self-examination to find where her
overture toward the pair has been in
complete, untimely, uninspired.
Now, to be sure, DR.. Ruediger does
not word the matter in this haphazard
way of the layman. Certainly not
What he does do, however. is to make
of that earlier bugaboo of psychology
applied to education a simple matter
of the ways and means and order by
way of which school children at va
riOuS stages attack the facts Of the
world around them Facts, judged by
consensus of sober opinion to be basic
in the growth of the human toward an
intelligent and wise seizure of exist
ence. his own and those in social bond
around him. In very direct way he
defines the background of learning. its
aims and purposes, upon this simple
basis.
This is much too big book. big in
spirit and specific instruction for
teachers-and who is not teacher
nowadays?-to deal with in any degree
Of Particularly 1t seems to me that
the best thing to say about 1t is that
1t, for everyday purposes and all-time
purposes as we'll, covers the subject of
an expert consideration. But that is