Volume 10 , Issue 18

1929 - Public Schools of Today

[Essay written around 1929. Not sure if it was a paper that my Grandma, Constance Warwick McGill, wrote for a college class at NWSTC ... or what? Who wrote it? I am not sure! These questions have not been answered completely.]

Public schools of today have diverged a great deal from the "little red school house" of yesterday. children in our present day public schools have more activity, larger freedom, and greater responsibility. The class room made for passive listening is fast giving way to the school room made for active doing.

One of the most noticeable changes in the modern school is in the appearance of the class room. In many of the schools fixed desks have been discarded. Instead there are movable desks, so that everything in the room may be moved aside, leaving an open space, if the instructor so desires. it is not unusual in the school of today, to see children in one room, informally gathered about in groups with desks moved aside, perhaps feeding or caring for a cat, dog, or other pet. Children bring their pets to school and care for them, leaning much about their nature and habits.

The changed conditions in the modern world demand a change in the school. The narrow curriculum of earlier days is fast giving was to a program of work and play wherein the tools of learning are mastered in their relation to every day life. In some schools, for example, the children learn the science of botany from first hand experience in the school green house. They learn about cooking and planning meals in the school cafeterias -- about decoration and arrangement of furniture in the school room by actually helping decorate and arrange, and so on. Even in the upper grades the schools have become modernized and there is a flexible environment suitable for active work, whatever it may be.

There is an interesting school of the modern type in San Francisco. It is the pioneer Burk School, in a connection with the San Francisco State Teachers college, and is a school of individual instruction. The child in this school studies at his own rate of speed. In the fourth grade, for instance, a pupil may be doing third grade arithmetic, fourth grade reading, fifth grade spelling, and so on. If a child can advance faster in one study, and more slowly in another, he does so. This seems a better plan than holding an entire class of different individuals together in spite of everything.

In the Burk school the tool subjects are individualized, and by the tool subjects is meant reading, selling, phonics, arithmetic, and formal grammar. Some parts of other subjects are also individualized, such as history, geography, etc. The time saved in this type of school is said to be enormous. Most children finish their tool studies a year or two ahead of time, and no child has taken more than 8 years for his studies. Moreover, no child has failed.

In some modern schools the children organize themselves into clubs, joining those in which they are most interested, and in these clubs they are taught various things. For example, one group of students might become interested in the study of astronomy, organize a club, and pursue their studies in this way. Another group may belong to a sewing club, cooking, manual training, book lover's, and so on. Children in the lower grades are usually only allowed to belong to two or three of the clubs, but in the upper grades there may be no limit.

One can readily see the advantage of this club idea. In this way a pupil may choose the things he likes best and thus his individuality is better developed.

There is a plan of education known as the Scarsdale plan, which originated in Scarsdale residential community, 18 miles from New York City. This plan began to develop in 1923 in this residential community of 8000. Students in this school, or type of school receive individual instruction. Much of the responsibility for learning is placed upon the pupils themselves, although the instructors are responsible for careful guidance.

One step toward change in the secondary schools is that of dividing the course into 2 units of 4 years each, preceded by a six year elementary course. This includes, besides the usual four years of high school, two years in college, or the junior college. This plan promises to meet the changing needs of today, and is proving successful. It is an economy in money, as well as in time.

Everywhere in the world schools are different. In every country there are experiments in education being carried on in order to find better forms through which the spirit of the new age may express itself.

Bibliography: School Life - June 1929, National Education Association Journal, January 1929; March 1929.
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