Evening star., 1934-07-15
Educators Erery,chere Eyeing
ID. e. Schools Character Course
Program Starting in September Marks
Acid Test of Principles Tried Out
E1perimentaIIy by Scientists.

ergy Of educational psychology has
been given TO this province. The eff
cheney Of a school has been deter
mined by the intellectual progress OF
its pupils The efficiency OF two
teachers may be judged by whether
the pupils of one could read better,
for example, than the pupils OF the
other after the same amount OF
training.
But there is another aspect 70 every
human being which is equally I'M
portant as the intellect in deternin-
ing the individuals way OF life-and
the primary object OF the puohc
school is 10 start the ways OF lie Oh
all men along paths acceptable 10
societv-although with a minimum OF
Standardization Society wants all It's
members 10 be able to write-out
when it teaches the individual to
write il also places in his hands the
means of forging checks. if he is so
inclined. The public school system
assuredly is not set up to teach men
to forge checks.
Cornition and Conation.
A bov may be brilliant intellectual
ly. but sadly lacking in the courage
necessary for facing disagreeaole
task. Or he may be incapable OF re-
sisting the temptations placed IN his
way by the corner gang. The in
dividual's way of life depends upon
the interactions of the two qualities
of copnition and conation-hls m
tellectual mastery and his emotional
state
OBVIOUSLY this is a field for educa-
ton. but a far more difficult one than
the intellectual. 1t never has been
exactly a neglected field. School,
home and church have co-operated. d.
But there has been little standardiza-
ton of procedure, for an obvious rea-
son. The character faculty lies deeper
and is obscurer than intelligence, No
body has been able to work out an OBJ
iective and widely acceptable measure
Of it.
OF the intellect, a teacher may re-
cord that Johnnie Jones has an in
telligence quotient of .1l2 and ranks
in arithmetic below so per cent OF
other boys Of the same age with intel
ligence quotients of .ll2. But nobody
can record that Johnnie Jones has a
character quotient of SO and ranks In
moral behavior above go per cent OF
boys in the same class. There is no
character quotient-no very objective
technique for finding out what
strength of character with which a
boy has to start.
Moral Progress Intangible.
Progress in arithmetic can be meas
ured. It is tangible. But progress in
moral behavior is intangible-for the
moral behavior of the individual is
something which goes on "a hours a
day, in sight and out of sight. A test
with pencil and paper means very lit
tie. The worst criminal probably could
pass with high mark.
The problem of the character edu-
Gator Is to take the innate, or original,
amount of character and discipline its
overt manifestations into socially ac-
ceptable lines of behavior. He must do
this without the almost indispensable
tools of science-measuring sticks.
Naturally the progress has been
slow, difficult and subject to good
deal of cynical criticism-much of it
admittedly pretty well justified. Each
teacher, each parent, each clergyman
has had his or her own system of
character training-sometimes purely
impulSive. sometimes the result of
Conscientious and largely super SEN
sual observation. sometimes success
ful, sometimes ruinous. The condi-
ton has been chaotic.
But within recent years consider
able advance has been made in for
mulating the methods of character
education, discarding the obviously
ineffective and trying to analy2e the
obviously effective. The establish
ment of the character education
project in the District schools marks
a start of the same sort of progress
that has gone on in the field of
cognitive education and has led to
far-reaching results-standardiZ
of technique and of obJectives.