1847-Ordered that plain sewing shall be introduced into any of the Primary Schools where the special local Committee on said School shall deem it expedient. March, 1838-Age raised from seven to eight for admission to grammar schools. 1851-Phonetic system of teaching reading introduced. 1852 Number of pupils in Primary Schools, 11,970; number sent to Grammar Schools, 1497; number of foreign parentage, 6788. In forming a judgment relative to the attitude of the able and conscientious men of Boston who opposed additions to the course of study and improvements in the administration of the schools, one must be charitable and take into consideration the many conditions under which they lived. Notwithstanding that there were no primary schools supported by taxation in Boston prior to 1818, there were a number of such schools in other towns in the Commonwealth. In Boston, too, the very great majority of children were reasonably well taught to read in the numerous private schools and by the excellent mothers. For instance, in November, 1817, there were 2265 pupils in public schools and 4132 pupils in the private schools. Again, the poverty of the people was much more pronounced than at any subsequent period. In 1802 the expenditures of the town of Boston for all purposes amounted to $54,000, of which $9,900 went for schools and $13,000 for support of the poor. Identical conditions existed at the same time in Cambridge, Worcester, Springfield and other Massachusetts towns. Can one imagine a condition in our age when the appropriations for the relief of the poor would require 40 per cent more money each year than is spent for the support of the schools? As late as 1826, according to a leading economist writing on the question of distribution of wealth, three men in Boston could buy one-fourth of 'the city. In 1900 the conditions had so changed that it would require the wealth of over 2500 of the wealthiest men in Boston to purchase one-fourth of the city. The care of the poor who were even then pouring into the city the small earning power of mechanics and laborers, and later the great influx of an alien population created a problem for our forefathers much more serious than the conditions which confront the present generation. Reformers were numerous and active so far as the schools were concerned from 1740 to 1850. The records show evidences of the wild schemes and notions which it was necessary to combat at this time. The development of the elementary school, moreover, followed the same lines noticeable in the growth of the elementary schools in England, Germany and France. Nevertheless, the city of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, backward as they may seem at this time, were in advance and very much in advance of any other group of people in this country. It is evident, however, that every addition to the course of study, every extension of the elementary school, was forced on the authorities and the resisting school master by the layman representing the unconscious aspirations of the common people. In order to complete this record, the following facts are submitted showing the dates at which our present studies in the course of study came into the schools of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Under the compulsory school law of the state, certain studies are prescribed to be taught in all public schools; certain others are optional. The list has been gradually extending for a hundred years. 1647-In elementary schools, reading and writing required. The grammar schools to fit for the university. 1789-In elementary schools, the English language, arithmetic, orthography, and decent behavior added. The grammar schools to teach Latin, Greek and English languages. Some English grammar was taught in the Latin School and the early spelling book had contained some grammar work. 1826-In elementary schools, geography added. In high schools, history, algebra, geometry, bookkeeping, surveying, rhetoric and logic, besides Latin and Greek. It was not until 1827 that support of schools by taxation was made compulsory, thus doing away with all forms of tuition fees. 1850-In elementary schools, physiology and hygiene made optional. 1857-In elementary schools, United States history added, algebra made optional. In high schools, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, astronomy, geology, civil polity, political economy, intellectual and moral science, and French added. 1860-In elementary schools, vocal music and drawing made optional. 1862-In elementary schools, agriculture made optional. 1870-In elementary schools, drawing required. 1876-In elementary schools, sewing made optional. 1881-Calisthenics, gymnastics, and military drill op tional. 1884-Elementary use of hand tools optional. 1885 In all schools, physiology and hygiene required. The later requirements by the Commonwealth are too near to indicate specifically. The writer acknowledges his great indebtedness to Dr. George H. Martin, the Reports of Edwin P. Seaver, the Annals of the Primary School Committee by Wightman, and valuable information gleaned from Augustine L. Rafter, Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Boston. BOSTON, MASS. FRANK A. FITZPATRICK II ECONOMY OF TIME IN SECONDARY EDUCATION1 Economy of time in education means the transfer to the pupil in the fewest possible years and in the most thoro manner of a certainly relatively complete fund of knowledge and training, which is likely to prove useful in the life he is to lead. If our education requires an undue number of years it is uneconomical. If it is scattered and superficial no matter how long studied, it is uneconomical. If it does not give the pupil, whenever he may leave school a relatively complete training, the time for that pupil is wasted; and if there are many such pupils the system is not meeting its needs and therefore is uneconomical. Further, if our education fails to leave a boy or girl with a fund of useful knowledge or if it fails to equip with habits valuable in life, that time might better have been used in some other way. It is charged that the American secondary school is wasteful, that we are prodigal of the time of the youth of our land. These charges, in general, are based upon the results of the study of foreign school systems. The secondary schools of Germany and France, it is charged, complete a boy's cultural education at the age of eighteen, granting him immediate admittance to the University, to the schools of law, medicine, and theology. At this age, the equivalent of two years of college work has been completed, it is argued; and it is almost the universal opinion of observers that this work has been done in a far more thoro fashion than in this country. Further and more vital still, the German and French schools, thru their "Cycle System," make some provision for the boys who drop out, encouraging them to remain until certain breaking points, where for the time 1 An address delivered before the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States at Charlottesville, Va., on Oct. 23, 1914. being the work comes to a logical end. In this country, it is charged, we aim our whole system of education at the graduate, forgetting completely the great majority who fall by the way. Further it is claimed that our curriculum is not vital; that mathematics, sciences, languages, history, and even English are taught with no bearing upon practical consequences. In brief, therefore, we are charged, in comparison with other systems, with using more time in which to teach less; that much of the little which we teach is not given in any thoro manner, or worse still, has no connection with the world at large; and that of the small results of our education, only the graduates of our schools are in a position to benefit thereby. This is a severe indictment. In order to arrive at the truth of the matter, it is well to examine in a fair and impartial way our own system and that of foreign countries, keeping our attention fixt upon the actual economy secured and the causes thereof, that we may see if some modifications of them are worthy of adoption. In the first place, how much earlier do foreign boys actually finish their course? The usual arguments speak of the German boy graduating from the secondary school at the age of eighteen, the American boy, finishing his work, approximately two years inferior in grade at the same age. We know, however, that eighteen is not a fair estimate of our situation; that bright boys often finish at this age or earlier, but that the average is nearer nineteen. The same variation is true in the German and French schools, altho no complete study is available. One boy in three, according to VanDenburg in the New York Schools, had skipt classes before his entrance to high school.2 In Germany, only the brightest boys are able to advance each year without repeating a class. Mr. Thomas Alexander, whose study of the German Schools is soon to appear, found upon inquiry in the senior class of the gymnasia and realgymnasia in Stettin, Koenigsberg, Posen, Danzig, Hildesheim, Hanover, 2 VanDenburg, J. K., The Elimination of Pupils from the Public Secondary Schools, New York, 1911. |