n langua gemer ng teach 7. He a Solid To: perez wildern ed pape CORSH 1928] A Rousing Record of Reading 73 the first three volumes of a splendid series The offerings for higher grades I hope you may permit me to describe at a later meeting. Hillegas and associates have done a superb service for American teaching. The Classroom Teacher company have issued it in a form of distinguished beauty and dignity. My two months' enjoyment of the volumes has not turned my head; it is too hard to be twisted. I am therefore telling you calmly that you have lived to see a marvelous piece of work devoted to your art published in your own day." "Three hundred and eight delightful pages on art and music by our own Chicago folks! It fills me with the Christmas happiness I used to have when, as a boy, I looked at the gift-books for children in Frank Smith's Main Street Emporium. Look at these sketches. Don't they make your fingers long for a pencil and paper? Look at these radiant color reproductions of art works for schools; haven't we come a long way in the past few years? I estimate that there are more than 1500 designs, prints, drawings and diagrams in the complete work, illustrating reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography and the various arts. Here's a whole volume on primary reading and spelling to which should be added the four hundred more entertaining pages on primary language and literature. Anybody want to ask me anything about this feature?" "Yes, thank you," ventured Doctor Batwell, ❝is there anything on stuttering?" "There is," replied the General. "In the consideration of language in the primary school, every aspect of speech, articulation, stammering, tone, pitch, charm, audibility, conversation, recitation and story-telling are treated in a way, which to me is engaging indeed. My time is consumed. I must stop. I have but partially covered The Bibliologoi examined the volumes of The Classroom Teacher and expressed various spoken agreements with the General's praise of the paper, type, reading lists, pictures and binding. Our lady Anna, the Abjornson, had brought some little slabs which looked like weather-beaten shingles. With melted cheese poured over them, served with coffee, they disappeared with rapidity, being much more readily assimilated than their Scandinavian name. America was not first here. Last, though, it was: home-made white ice cream and plain country cookies-it found no slackers and no feeble praise. So ended get-together number twenty-seven. "But whatever you read remember that it is your own personality that you are trying to unlock. The poem or story or book, if it is the right one, should seem a sort of extension of yourself. You must carry, therefore, a large share of self-confidence and selfrespect into your reading. You are looking for an outlet of your own soul rather than the inflow of another's. As a general thing you will find such an outlet in works written near your own time. But when the process of finding yourself has begun, you will be carried through many centuries and into many lands."-C. ALPHONSO SMITH. SOCIAL FORCES AFFECTING THE CURRICULUM HARVEY C. LEHMAN AND PAUL A. WITTY [These two collaborators, the first of Ohio University, the other of the University of Kansas, present here a digest of influences working on the things taught and suggested for teaching in the public schools. When collected and analyzed the array is more than impressive. It has reached a point at which the need of agreement on guiding principles is evident.] N UMEROUS educational research workers have assailed the problem of curriculum construction or reconstruction and many valuable and pertinent data have been assembled. The result of the work has been the formulation of more effective curricula and courses of study. Notwithstanding the variety and scope of the numerous approaches, there are several relatively unrecognized agencies that are molding and changing the curriculum. Some of the forces are desirable and should be fostered; others are deleterious to the maximum growth of the child and should be restricted or stamped out. Some of these forces operate subtly and so inconspicuously that few are aware of their existence. Nevertheless, their strength is great and their actual effect upon the curriculum is pronounced. The present writers will Ideal with several of the most forceful of the relatively unrecognized of these agencies. Since many books have been written upon curriculum construction; since many committees have deliberated in an attempt to reach solutions of the multitudinous problems, and since the literature has been widely disseminated, the present writers will not discuss the numerous theories and principles that underlie curriculum construction. This paper will attempt therefore merely to outline a few unrecognized influences which have been and are now actually modifying the curriculum. Most of the individuals responsible for these forces are not curriculum makers by profession. Some of them perhaps have not realized that they are projecting themselves into the arena as curriculum makers. Nevertheless, their influence upon pupil experience is very great. The following curricular agencies which are potent determiners of curricular content, the present writers will discuss. 1. Standardized Tests and Scales. 2. Commercial Propaganda. 3. Local Politics. 4. State Legislation. 5. Moral and Religious Instruction in the Public Schools. 6. Powerful Organized Minorities. 7. Textbook Mutilation. I. STANDARDIZED TESTS AND SCALES The phenomenal growth of the testing movement is well known to the student of education. Scarcely a town exists that does not use to some degree one kind or another of tests. Thousands of mental and educational tests are sold each year and many administrators have attempted to estimate the efficiency of instruction by the results displayed by the pupils upon the tests. The result has been that many uninformed or deliberately scheming teachers have coached their pupils upon the material embodied in the tests. The elements of the test thus become a part of the curriculum. Upton has pointed out that some classroom teachers have come to look upon the standardized test in arithmetic as an authoritative guide to follow in teaching. The following quotation is illustrative: "Recently I asked a teacher of the fifth grade what denominate numbers she was teaching and she replied, 'Only those which are found in the Test which our pupils are given twice a year.' Thus this test became the authoritative curriculum so far as denominate numbers are concerned, limiting her work to the adding of feet and inches, and years and months. I then asked her what she was doing in mensuration, such as finding areas, and she replied, "Very little, because the tests don't include such work."""1 Upton deplores the tendency revealed in the above conversation because of the limitations of the tests themselves. Many of the standardized tests in arithmetic were prepared by those who have little familiarity with the larger problems in the teaching of arithmetic, individuals incompetent to evaluate the subject matter comprising the course of study in arithmetic. Many standardized tests therefore contain considerable material which is not representative of the best practice in the teaching of arithmetic. Unessential and undesirable elements sometimes are embodied in the tests and receive emphasis in teaching. Efforts to reorganize the curriculum along modern lines are thus restricted. Upton summarizes his observations in the following paragraph: "In conclusion let me say that the illustrations which have been given in this article are selected from the best-known and most widely used tests and scales on the market to-day (1925), the total circulation of which reaches many million copies per year. When I say that these measuring devices are a great influence upon our curriculum in arithmetic I am not speaking lightly. Whether the unusual topics found in many of these tests actually appear in the printed courses of study of our many towns and cities is of relatively little moment because these topics are taught whether they appear in the curricula or not and the reason they are taught is because teachers know that they and their schools are judged in no small measure by the rating their pupils 1Upton, Clifford, B. “The Influence of Standardized Tests on the Curriculum in Arithmetic." Teachers' College Record, April, 1925. What obtain on examinations of this sort. a pity this is when we really have no test in arithmetic to-day which is a sane and adequate measure of good teaching in this subject.' "2 The preceding quotation requires little comment. The desire on the part of pupils and teachers to make commendable records. naturally causes them to expend time and energy in attempting to master the subject matter embodied in the tests. If the content of a future examination can be anticipated, the problem of preparation is much simplified. The maker of curricula therefore must take care to provide tests which cover the material proposed in the curricula and must prevent the use of standardized tests as guides to teaching practice. Not only are standardized tests curricular determiners but informal examinations also are potent agents in shaping teaching practice. At the present writing the so-called scholarship contest is being featured in Kansas and in other states. Pupils assemble from all parts of the state to compete upon academic examinations. Since teachers are to some extent the recipients of glory in proportion to the ability manifested by their pupils, there exists a tendency for the teachers to coach their pupils, employing old lists of the examination questions, in their regular classroom instruction. It is a simple matter to tabulate the frequency with which a given question has been asked in the past and to predict the probability of its being asked in the future. Thus the frequently asked questions are stressed and other material neglected. Certain public school teachers in Kansas have informed the writers that they are teaching the material frequently used in the state scholarship examinations as part of classroom routine. This practice would be desirable if the test were a legitimate and complete representation of desirable teaching practice. But the tests often contain trivial, unimportant, or irrelevant elements and neglect entirely certain issues which should receive major emphasis in a given subject. 2Ibid. If the curriculum be considered as made up of the sum total of pupil experience, it is evident that standardized tests and informal examinations are curricular forces of no small magnitude. If the data in the tests had been assembled with this fact in mind it would be possible to improve the curriculum through the use of the tests. Unfortunately, the questions frequently have been made out merely with the view to testing rather than teaching, and have been concocted quickly, carelessly and by incompetent persons. The following quotation illustrates the manner in which the intelligence test is influencing pupil experience. "Intelligence tests are given to entering students at many of our liberal arts colleges, teachers colleges and normal schools. Sometimes they are called general examinations instead of intelligence tests. Perhaps in some instances they have more of a 'general' flavor than they have of an 'intelligence' flavor, but since the 'set-up' of the tests is so very much like the set-up of intelligence tests, students believe them to be the latter. What happens? Prospective students secure every intelligence test they can buy or borrow to practice on." C. R. Mann states that the statistics upon elimination from engineering schools show that both entrance examinations and certificates from the secondary schools yield similar results. In commenting upon this rather surprising situation Mr. Mann states as follows: "Reasons for the similarity of results by the two methods of admission are not hard to find. For every high-school teacher who has in his class one boy preparing to take a college examination is fairly sure to drill the entire class on old college examination questions, large collections of which have been reprinted by publishers of textbooks and individuals interested in maintaining the examination system."4 Macdonald, Marion, E. "The I. Q. and Democracy." School and Society, May 28th, 1927. Mann, C. R. Bulletin No. II of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 1918. One of the present writers was solicited by a director of a private school to "give several mental tests to the pupils in order to identify weak ones that they might be assisted in passing the intelligence tests which were to be given by the College Entrance Examination Board." The writer attempted to indicate to the director something of the nature of the intelligence test. It is entirely likely however that the director prepared his children to make a "fine showing" upon all tests. An interesting fact is of special moment in this regard. In the American Magazine for Oct. 1926, there is an interview with Professor Terman reported by Wiggam. In this article many of the salient questions embodied in the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Test of Intelligence are reported and commented upon. Teachers and parents now have available for coaching the very material upon which certain careful workers in psychology and education have attempted individual diagnosis and direction. Such a condition is certainly not conducive to actual scientific diagnosis. The writers mention the above fact merely to show how the intelligence tests are influencing pupil experience in a very direct manner. 2. COMMERCIAL PROPAGANDA It is common knowledge that business competition has become increasingly pronounced in recent years and that advertising is now general, touching nearly every phase of life. Commercial advertising has become so highly developed that frequently the commercial motive is not apparent to the casual observer. In The School Review for February, 1926, an announcement of the "Citizenship Training Association" of Columbus, Ohio, was printed. Space was given also to extracts from a letter written by the director of that association. vestigation showed the "association" to be nothing more than a group of publishers who had adopted this name as a device for obtaining contact with teachers. The publishers were issuing school papers called Current Events and World News. In con In sequence of its later findings The School Review carried the following announcement in the issue of March, 1926: "The School Review is very glad to publish announcements for anyone who will help in the movement for citizenship training and inserted the notice in the February issue in this spirit. "It is the belief of the present writer that the group which announced itself as an association had no right to offer the educational world the impression conveyed by the word 'Association.' It is also the belief of the present writer that anyone who by obscurantism of any kind takes advantage of the widespread interest in citizenship training to promote personal interests is an unsafe guide for teachers and the general public."5 The desire of publishers to communicate actively with teachers is paralleled by the desire of other business groups to reach effectively the pupils in the classroom. In order to minimize local rivalries among business firms, boards of education sometimes find it necessary to pass regulations prohibiting for school use any material that contains local advertising matter. However, the problem is only partially solved by such measures for the commercial motive often is subtle and unobtrusive. Moreover, some of the attempts to advertise possess real merit of which the following is illustrative. "Dr. Willis A. Sutton, superintendent of the schools of Atlanta, Ga., has recently made a statement in regard to the introduction of radio as a definite part of the school curriculum. Sometime ago an Atlanta radio dealer offered to install up-to-date receiving sets in 70 schools of the city, provided the board of education would agree to arrange with Station WSB of the Atlanta Journal for the broadcasting of educational talks and brief lectures on subjects of interest to all children, and the offer was accepted by the Board of Education."6 In a recent address Judd states that the "The School Review. March, 1926. "News notes in School and Society. July 16th, 1927. bankers of this country have decided that the best way to induce people to open savings accounts is to teach school children the importance and value of thrift. A number of publications have appeared recently stressing the importance of saving and suggesting devices for teaching thrift. It is clear that business recognizes the school as an influential agency for propaganda and is ready to spend time and energy in turning the curriculum to account for the cultivation of what it deems to be a public good. Other examples of business influence in curriculum construction are not lacking. "Not long ago one of the largest and oldest trade journals of the United States, the American Lumberman, published a leading article in which it urges its readers to interest the schools in the study of lumber. The article (July 8, 1922, p. 1) argues that intelligence about lumber will lead to wider use and that it is the best possible advertising for lumbermen to cooperate with the schools."8 The tea and coffee trade also is spreading commercial propaganda through the school. "The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal last August (1922) had an article in which dealers were told that the study of tea and coffee by pupils will help the trade. It was pointed out that such study will, among other achievements, remove prejudices against coffee. Here is a brief quotation which shows how one trade journal esteems the opportunity of reaching pupils in the schools: 'If the Walter Smiths that you know make a fairly thorough study of the coffee industry and view it and the men who make it with a respectful eye, can they ever be convinced that it deals in a product that can be compared with hard liquor or deadly drugs? Hardly!"'" Most persons would agree that pupils should be taught thrift and that they should know something of the use of lumber. There would be marked opposition if the Judd, Charles, H. "How Modern Business May Aid in Reconstructing the Curriculum." School and Society, March 17th, 1923. 8 & Judd, C. H. op. cit. p. 281. |