Squaring the Circle Final Pronouncements On the Purpose of Schools

Last week was open season for or lack potshots of at the educational system, or lack of system -- in the United States. College presidents made speches; The New York Times got up a symposium; a federation of women's clubs in Chicago issued local programs; nearly every serious-minded monthly magazine carried signed articles on the general topic; and, by a coincidence, there appeared a letter from President Harding in which he makes some timely remarks on the teaching of history.

Most of it had something to do with Dr. Pritchett's report. The wide interest evoked by that report indicated not only that the man-in-the-street is humbly attentive to discussions of educational problems, but also that every good American is speedily coming to recognize that he is both ready and competent to join the discussion at a moment's notice.

It will be recalled that the storm-center of Dr. Pritchett's report for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was the simple statement that Education was beginning to cost a vast amount of money, and that the reason for the increased cost was the increased desire for what might be called "fancy courses." The schools, instead of serving a well-cooked table d'hote, were vying with each other in the elaborate diversity of their a la carte service.

Excerpts from the week's output of the philosophy of education:

Dr. Livingston Farrand, President of Cornell: "The primary purpose of education is not to train men technically, but to turn out men of sound judgment who can reason on sound premises."

President Harding: "It is everlastingly true that on the whole the best guide to the future is found in a proper understanding of the lessons of the past. In our country it seems to me there is altogether too little knowledge of our national story, too little interest in and serious study of it."

Harvard Alumni Bulletin: "The professors work too hard."

National Education Association report of the Research Division:

1) There is a general feeling of unrest which is putting men into office whose chief qualification is their dislike of the present system.

2) There is no basis in fact to justify alarm over the cost of public schools, which is only 2 per cent of the national income.

3) The press-agents of the public educational system have not been properly on the job.

The Provost of the University of Pennsylvania: We need a million and a half from the State in the next two years, or our books will show a deficit.

James Harvey Robinson, author of The Mind in the Making: "What do we do in school to help a child to understand himself and his fellowmen in the light of modern psychological discoveries? Of religion and family life nothing critcal must be said. Nor can any fair discussion of the profit system be encouraged for fear of a suspicion of socialistic leanings."

Alfred E. Stearns, Principal, Phillips Andover Academy: "The fads and frills that now cumber our school curriculum make little appeal to a teacher of character, culture and vision. Our country needs--not better artisans, mechanics, bookkeepers and business men -- but better and more intelligent citizens. . . . The great problems of today, common not only to this country but to the world, are chiefly human, not economic."

John J. Tigert, U. S. Commissioner of Education: "This country needs to spend a great deal more money on education. . . . When the American people are spending 22 billions on luxuries, certainly they can afford to spend more than one billion on schools."

Dr. Mary E. Woolley, President of Mount Holyoke College: "We cannot educate effectively en masse."

President Emeritus Eliot of Harvard:

"Enlist the interest of every pupil in every school in his daily task.

"Cultivate every hour in every child the power to see and describe accurately.

"Make the training of the senses a prime object every day.

"Teach every child to draw, model, sing, or play a musical instrument, and read music.

"Make every pupil active, not passive,--always learning the value of co-operative discipline.

"Teach groups of subjects together in their natural relations.

"Universal physical training from 6 to 18 for boys and girls.

"Keep the atmosphere of every school and family charged with the master sentiments of love, hope, and duty. Keep out both fear and selfishness."

One Year's Task

The State Superintendent of Schools of Mississippi has set himself the following year's task: to enumerate the educable children in the state; to codify the school law so that school trustees "can understand it by reading it"; to establish a course of study such that the " principal of a one-teacher school" will know how to teach all eight grades; to establish an average rural term of seven months; to form at least one hundred additional consolidated schools.

In North Carolina

North Carolina has made marked improvement in rural education in the last ten years. The one-room schools are being replaced by consolidated schools. The number of teachers has doubled and the pay of white teachers has risen from an average of $300 to an average of $1,000. The county unit of administration is in large part responsible for the advance.

Home Rule or Efficiency?

A proposal is pending before the New York Charter Commission to transfer the control of the schools of New York City to the State in order to free them from politics. A similar bill affecting all the cities in the State is now before the Legislature. The proposal has aroused heated newspaper discussion pro and con, the issue being "Home-Rule" versus " Efficiency."