IN

Editorial

N a recent town meeting in a New England town within ten miles of a city noted for its culture, a majority vote was obtained in favor of discontinuing the teaching of manual training; and a large vote, though not a decisive one, was polled in favor of cutting out of the curriculum the kindergarten, drawing, and music. The first-mentioned subject had been taught in one large school in this town for several years by the generosity of a public-spirited citizen; and in a second school, at the town's expense, for about a year. The other subjects had been taught for a long time. In the debate on the motion, the motive of which, by the way, was the reduction of the tax rate, the densest ignorance of the educational claims of manual training was manifested by nearly all the speakers against the system. The stale and utterly inconsequential story of the girl who said she did not know how to make bread but could make a bread-board was repeated with éclat by one of the orators and caught the crowd. The whole discussion, with the final vote, was a discouraging revelation of the popular inability to appreciate educational values and of the too common tendency to economize at the expense of the schools,—a suicidal policy sure to result later in increased expenses for police protection, jails, hospitals, and the cost of incompetent and inefficient service in all departments of the town's affairs. How can we have clean, orderly, healthy, honest and efficient citizens except by paying the price necessary to raise them up from the families of the town as represented by the children in our schools? One need was borne forcibly in upon us as we noted the facts of this case. It was this, the crying need which exists for some popular statement of the arguments for manual training that shall be within the comprehension of the less educated classes. There are numerous articles in the educational magazines and elsewhere that are addressed to the educators. But it is the common people, the rank and file of the ordinary voters, the laboring classes and the foreigners who carry the day at such town meetings as that to which we have above referred. It should be possible so to present the claims of manual training that the veriest child could see that it is as much in the interest of good bread as of good bread-boards, since its object is the awakening of the child's constructive faculties, the training of the judgment, the stimulation of ambition and self-activity,

in short, the development of mentality which shall manifest its beneficent influence in everything which the child undertakes.

We wait for a clear, cogent presentation of this subject from this standpoint, which we will gladly print in EDUCATION and afterward publish in pamphlet form for gratuitous circulation.

To

66

100 much stress is laid upon examinations in high schools and colleges. The best we can say of them is that they are at present a necessary evil." We believe that in time the necessity will be done away. Meanwhile the "evil" should be lessened as far as possible. There should be "tests" at stated intervals to hold the pupil up to a high standard of effort, to give him the opportunity to review his work and get a "bird's-eye" view of the subject; and also to give him practice in stating concisely and clearly what he knows. But these tests should be for the pupil's sake and not for the teacher's. Promotions should not depend on them. The teacher should determine fitness or unfitness for promotion solely on the basis of day-today class-room work. When this rule is adopted some very grave evils of the present school system will disappear.

In illustration of the suggestions of the above paragraph the following two incidents recently came to the writer's notice. A young man lost a few weeks at the beginning of the second college semester on account of sickness. When ready to return he chose not to do so, because having missed a portion of the studies of that semester he felt that he could not pass the examinations at the end of the year and would be dropped back into the next class for such failure in examinations. He therefore remained away from college until the end of the year and then rejoined his class at the opening of the next year when new courses began. His sickness was regarded as a valid excuse for the entire omission of the courses, but not for failure at examinations in a part of them. The examinations were thus held up before him as of more importance than the courses themselves,-from which it is to be supposed that he might have obtained at least some good had he returned as soon as he was able.

The other case is a common one. A young girl who had done excellent class-room work throughout the term was nervous and suffering from a temporary indisposition on examination day and made a poor showing. She was punished by conditions and the humiliation of having to pass another examination; while pupils who had been unfaithful to study and made frequent failures in the daily recitations were passed along with praise and glory as the result of a little chance "cramming" just before examination day.

We believe that the present system of making periodical examinations the chief test of promotion and the grand climax of school life is one of the greatest responsible causes of poor scholarship and physical ill health in the secondary schools. We would like to see some strong, large, private academy take the initiative in abolishing them that the world might have one practical illustration of the better way. Perhaps there is such. If so, we hope to hear of it.

N exhibition of the work of the school children of New York city was recently given in connection with which Dr. James P. Haney, Director of Manual Arts, made an address on the International Congress of Art Teachers which is to meet in London in 1908.

The American section of the Congress is in charge of an Advisory Committee of twelve of the leading art teacher in the country; and an Associate Committee of one hundred, representing the larger cities and towns throughout the Union.

This American Committee, of which Mr. James Hall, Director of the Art Department of the Ethical Culture School, is Chairman, has determined to exhibit at London a typical collection of art work from schools all over the country. This work will be selected with greatest care and will be well mounted that it may show in as satisfactory a way as possible the ideals of American art education. It will be in no sense a local exhibition or one showing the work of a few teachers, but will be so organized that more than one hundred different cities will be represented.

The American section has also determined to publish a book which shall present as a conspectus the ideas and ideals of the foremost teachers of art in this country. This conspectus will be edited by Dr. Haney. Among those who have already signified their intention to contribute are Dr. Thomas M. Balliet, Dean, School of Pedagogy of the New York University; Prof. Colin A. Scott of the Boston Normal School; Dr. Earl Barnes and Mr. Henry T. Bailey, Editor of The School Arts Book.

To carry forward the plans of the American section it is necessary that a substantial working fund be raised. Steps have been taken to collect some $5,000, which will be necessary to gather and install the exhibition and to publish the book referred to. Mr. Cheshire L. Boone, Director of Art in the schools of Montclair, N. J., is treasurer of the organization and is undertaking an active propaganda to raise the necessary fund.

E

VERY teacher of English, whether in the grammar or secondary schools, should carefully read the Report on the Examinations in English for Admission to Harvard College, June, 1906. This document is prepared by Instructors C. N. Greenough, F. W. C. Hersey and C. R. Nutter and published (at 15 cents) by the University. It is put forth in the interests of good teaching in this subject. Every paragraph in it will prove both interesting and helpful to English teachers. It reveals in a convincing way, because it reports actual facts, the chief danger-points in the teaching of English. It sets up the sign "Beware" beside the various pitfalls into which the pupil is most liable to fall, and gives many excellent suggestions that will aid the teacher in so directing the work of the class that these may be successfully avoided. To peruse these pages is as helpful as it is to an instructor in mechanics to visit a machine shop and handle the tools and actually make things. This is the laboratory method and not mere theory. The authors have done a service to the secondary schools and to the cause of education that will not fail of wide-spread and heartfelt appreciation.

S

PECIAL attention is called to the helpful article on "The Ideal Teacher" by Prof. George H. Palmer in the April Atlantic Monthly. The author is one of the most gifted teachers of recent times at Harvard and is well qualified to discuss this theme. Some of the sources of his power are indirectly revealed or suggested in his article. He admits that the ideal cannot be fully realized in this any more than in any other department of human effort. But to aspire toward it is the duty and the great need of the teaching force of to-day. Besides being a great teacher, Professor Palmer is a master of English style.

A

UNIQUE course in Geography is to be given in the Yale Summer School this year. Professor Gregory, who is one of the directors of the Connecticut Geological Survey, has arranged to take a class of teachers to the various parts of the State where the most typical formations are to be found and will lecture in the field to the class. Almost every type of geographical formation will thus be examined and studied in a very practical way.

Foreign Notes

THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTE IN THE LIGHT OF FOREIGN EXPERIENCE

The opening of the Carnegie Institute emphasizes in a striking manner the development of educational ideals in this country during the last twenty-five years. The founding of Cooper Institute in New York (1856) may be taken as the first step in a long series that has brought us to a full recognition of the importance of art as a factor in national education. The Puritan reaction against the perversions of art combined with the crude condition of industry to exclude art from the earlier schemes of education adopted in this country. Our course in this respect has been in striking contrast to that of the French Republic. In the ferment of ideas that marked the dawn of the modern era in France, art and science stood forth as the promise and hope of a new social order. Even in the midst of the convulsions of the Revolution practical measures were carried which anticipated the industrial demand for these indispensable agencies of modern progress. The National Institute of Sciences and Arts and the National Conservatory of Arts and Trades attest to this day the economic foresight of the early leaders of the French Revolution. The movement in this direction once started acquired irresistible force, and the esthetic spirit and the scientific spirit together pervaded the entire realm of French industry. It was this example which roused England to a consciousness of fatal deficiency in respect to the essentials of industrial success, and led in 1837 to the creation of a school of design, expanded subsequently into the magnificent establishment at South Kensington, and to liberal appropriations from the public treasury for science and art education.

The lesson of European countries is significant for us in this respect. They illustrate the natural course of the artistic impulse. It moves from the heights downward, from Parnassus to the vales beneath. The artistic superiority of a people cannot be achieved through its common schools alone. There must be great centers where wealth and genius combine to give the highest possible illustrations of the ideal, and to afford constant stimulus for talent. The Carnegie Institute represents the highest type of such a center in this country, and is perhaps more comprehensive in scope than any one of its European prototypes.