Evening star., 1936-04-08

Education
Predicted
Tempo of Modern
Day Demands
Change.
BY ANGELO PATRI.

SOME day we are going to have
flexible the school that the children
need. This will not come tomorrow,
but it will come in the future when
the idea-now commonly accepted by
educators, but not by the people them
selves-that individual instruction, the
stimulation and the satisfaction of
each childs deepest hungers, his best
qualities, are the answer to society's
educational problems.
We have proceeded for generations
on the idea that education is the right
of all children. We have said, Equal
education for all" We have not
looked closely until this last quarter
century, INTO what We meant by equal
education for all We have been try
ing to give all children the same
education, which is not the same as
equal education by any way Of looking
at 1t.
If one child can learn to read and
another cannot master the art because
of some lack in his physical, and con-
seouently. mental endowment, and we
keep forcing the non-reader to read,
we are not giving the two children
equal education. We are trying to
give them the same education. And
we are failing. What we need to do,
and we are beginning to know it, is
to give them equal opportunity to de-
velop the powers they possess, to make
the most of themselves, not in the
same lines, but along their own, their
individual lines of power.
The theory is perfect, but the schools
and the teachers are not equipped for
this work Individual education
means schools with flexible, easily
adjusted schedules. 1t means teachers
trained to administer that sort Of pro-
gram 1t means, too, different kinds
of school buildings more varied equip
ment. more elastic rules for the ad-
ministration of the schools. All this
will come by slow stages as people
realize the needs and provide for them.
This sort of school will work out
each child's salvation by letting him
follow his lines of power, guiding him
to them. holding him to his task Of
self-growth. not by force of law. but
by force of attraction. He will go
to school because school is the place
that offers him satisfactions for hun
gers of mind and body. Each child
Will work for the JOY of working,
grow for the satisfaction of gratifying
instructive desire for growth. do his
bit toward the progress of society
because his sympathy has been caught
and by himself harnessed to social
forces for good.
This sort of school is only hope
today, but the hopes Of today are
realities of a day soon to dawn. If
every parent who wants the best that
society can afford for his children,
If every citizen who wants to see So
ciety improve in health and under
standing, will support each forward
step toward the flexible school, the
goal will be reached sooner.
When a school teacher asks for
lively, grant it. Whenever thought
full parent or teacher or school ad-
ninistrator rises to ask for a more
flexible school program. for a chance
for the individual child to differ in
taste and manner and degree of learn
ing, grant 1t with cheers. We come
into the world one by one; We live
one and one; We render our account
to society as individuals. 1t is fair,
then, to allow children to study as
individuals
(Copyright 1850