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Table of Contents

The facts outlined in this chapter ought to create in the mind of the reader a vivid notion of what is meant by the words “school system.” The schools of America or any other country have a kind of colossal personality. The teacher who teaches a fifth grade or a sixth grade or a high-school class does not determine the character of the education given at these points in the system. To be sure, the teacher can do his or her work effectively or inefficiently. The special methods employed may be well or ill adapted to their ends. But above and beyond the individual teacher is the system which controls the pupil’s progress in many subtle ways and determines all the main lines of his training. The teacher who would succeed must understand this larger influence. Especially is it necessary that the teacher who aims to contribute to the rational development of the system through the scientific study of detailed problems become acquainted with the present characteristics of the system and comprehend something of the conditions which have produced these characteristics.

EXERCISES AND READINGS

Among textbooks there are such striking differences that the student will be able after even a superficial analysis to see that their authors had very different ideas about the use of texts. Find a textbook which is intended to give the pupil a start in a study rather than a complete discussion of the subject. Find a text which is intended to be learned rather than merely read. What parts of a textbook are addressed to the teacher and constitute teaching devices rather than material for students?

Contrast the ways in which different teachers use textbooks. Are there teachers who neglect the book very largely? When should a teacher lecture? Find specific examples of lessons which can best be taught (1) by questions and answers, (2) by written work, and (3) by lectures.

With regard to a given high school it is important to find out when it was established. What was its first course of study?

With regard to courses for girls, it is interesting to inquire how far classes in an elective system are chosen by boys and how far by girls. Why are conditions as they are?

The foregoing questions are asked on the assumption that the contrasts presented in the chapter are of value only when they make students keenly aware of the facts in their own environment. The facts of history are valuable chiefly because of the light they throw on the present.

Brown, E. E. Making of our Middle Schools. Longmans, Green, & Co. This is the only history of American secondary schools.

Bunker, F. F. “Reorganization of the Public School System,” in Bulletin No. 8, United States Bureau of Education, 1916. This shows how our present school system was organized.

Farrington, F. E. French Secondary Schools. Longmans, Green, & Co.

Farrington, F. E. The Public Primary School System of France. Teachers College.

Judd, C. H. “The Training of Teachers in England, Scotland, and Germany,” in Bulletin No. 35, United States Bureau of Education, 1914.

Monroe, W. S. “Development of Arithmetic as a School Subject,” in Bulletin No. 10, United States Bureau of Education, 1917. This bulletin tells of the origin of the present methods of teaching arithmetic.

Parker, S. C. The History of Modern Elementary Education. Ginn and Company. This is a very good summary of the facts regarding the development of American schools.