Evening star., 1934-07-15
BY THOMAS r.. HENRY.

What is character education?"
The eyes Of the emotional world
are directed toward plans for a
pioneering experiment 10 be started in
the District public schools next Sep
tember.
The program still is being formu-
lated Actually. according to those In
charge nothing very radical is TO be
attempted. No mystical formuIae for
the regeneration OF the wicked are
being presented for the guidance of
the selected teachers by the three ex-
perts employed TO lay the ground
work Of the project.
Out OF the Laboratory.
The program calls for the applica-
ton within the public school system
of principles well established expert
mentally. They are to be taken out
Of the laboratory and put into prac-
tical use-the acid test Of such prin-
ciples. Character education. of course,
is as old as mankind; but its scientific
formulation is comparatively recent
and. since 1t deals with intangibles in
an emotional set-up, is extraordinarily
difficult and sIow-moving.
The twin sciences of pedagogy and
educational psychology are themselves
comparatively recent Developments
They have been practiced as arts"
from time immemorial. Now they are
In the transition stage. The formula
ton Of a science out of an art nat
uraly starts with the most tangible
and simplest aspects Of a subject. In
the field Of education the start was
made with the so-called cognitive fac
alties Of the human being-a field
IN which specific standards and meas
urements could be established and
considerable objectivity maintained.
Intellect Training.
The experimental procedure upon
which any science must rest has been
concerned very largely with the train
ing Of the intellect. Take, for ex-
ample, learning to read. Generally
speaking, 1t is possible TO measure
rather exactly by objective examina-
tions, whether one boy can read bet
ter than another of the same age. of
the same basic intelligence and with
the same amount Of teaching.
This indicates off hand that the
method used in teaching the first boy
is better than the method used in
teaching the second. The two meth
DDS are tested with a thousand boys
and the first shows consistently bet
ter results. Thus a principle of cog
nitive education is esta ablished. Scien-
tific pedaansy henceforth discards the
inferior method in favor Of the su-
perior.
But in discovering this law the edu-
cational psychologist has had two rea-
sonably accurate yardsticks-an OBJ
jective test of reading ability and a
measuring of basic intelligence. Both
measures, especially the second, are
fallible and have been severely criti-
cized. but at least they represent a
long advance over no measures at all.
Specialized Science.
BY first establishing measures and
then guaging experimental results by
means of them it has been possible to
eliminate a good many waste motions
in the process of teaching the stand
ard subject matter deemed necessary
for success at various levels of pres
ent-day society-from the number
work" of the first grade to the higher
mathematics of the university. The
science has become quite specialized.
even though only fair beginning has
been made In its more advanced
aspects it ventures into mathematical
mysticisms hardly comprehensive to
the layman.
Here was a field in which it was
possible to make specific. effectively
measurable progress. MilepoStS could
be set up to mark the route travelled
from the known to the unknown.
Naturally the major part of the en-