,,the ,,school ,,and ,,society ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,the ,,university ,,of ,,chicago ,,press ,,chicago1 ,,illinois ,agents ,,the ,,cambridge ,,university ,,press ,,london ,,and ,,edinburgh ,,the ,,maruzen-,,kabushiki-,,kaisha ,,tokyo1 ,,osaka1 ,,kyoto ,,karl ,w4 ,,hiersemann ,,leipzig ,,the ,,baker ,,taylor ,,company ,,new ,,york ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,the ,,school and ,,society ,,being ,,three ,,lectures by ,,john ,,dewey ,,supplemented ,,by ,a ,,statement ,,of ,,the ,,university ,,elementary ,,school ,,the ,,university ,,of ,,chicago ,,press ,,chicago1 ,,illinois ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,copyright #aijj ,,by ,,john ,,dewey ,all ,rights ,reserved ,,first ,,edition --#a1jjj copies4 ,printed ,november1 #ahii4 ,,second ,,impression --#a1ejj copies4 ,printed ,february1 #aijj4 ,,third ,,impression --#e1jjj copies4 ,printed ,july1 #aijj4 ,,fourth ,,impression --#a1jjj copies4 ,printed ,june1 #aijd4 ,,fifth ,,impression --#b1ejj copies4 ,printed ,february1 #aije4 ,,sixth ,,impression --#b1ejj copies4 ,printed ,august1 #aijg4 ,,seventh ,,impression --#a1jjj copies4 ,printed ,september1 #aiji4 ,,eighth ,,impression --#a1jjj copies4 ,printed ,august1 #aiaj4 ,,ninth ,,impression --#a1jjj copies4 ,printed ,august1 #aiaa4 ,,tenth ,,impression --#a1jjj copies4 ,printed ,march1 #aiab4 ,,eleventh ,,impression --#b1jjj copies4 ,printed ,august1 #aiac4 ,composed and ,printed ,by ,the ,university of ,chicago ,press ,chicago1 ,illinois1 ,u4,s4,a4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,to ,,mrs4 ,,emmons ,,blaine ,,to ,,whose ,,interest ,,in ,,educational ,,reform ,,the ,,appearance ,,of ,,this ,,book ,,is ,,due ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,contents ,,page ,i4 ,,the ,,school ,,and ,,social ,,progress #ai ,,ii4 ,,the ,,school ,,and ,,the ,,life ,,of ,,the ,,child #dg ,,iii4 ,,waste ,,in ,,education #gg ,,iv4 ,,three ,,years ,,of ,,the ,,university ,,elementary ,,school #aac ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,,facing ,,page ,,drawing ,,of ,a ,,cave ,,and ,,trees #ef ,,drawing ,,of ,a ,,forest #eh ,,drawing ,,of ,,hands ,,spinning #fj ,,drawing ,,of ,a ,,girl ,,spinning #fb ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,publisher',s ,,note ,the three lectures presented in the following pages were delivered before an audience of parents and others interested in the ,university ,elementary ,school1 in the month of ,april of the year #ahii4 ,mr4 ,dewey revised them in part from a stenographic report1 and unimportant changes and the slight adaptations necessary for the press have been made in his absence4 ,the lectures retain therefore the unstudied character as well as the power of the spoken word4 ,as they imply more or less familiarity with the work of the ,elementary ,school1 ,mr4 ,dewey's supplementary statement of this has been added4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,author',s ,,note ,a second edition affords a grateful opportunity for recalling that this little book is a sign of the coperating thoughts and sympathies of many persons4 ,its indebtedness to ,mrs4 ,emmons ,blaine is partly indicated in the dedication4 ,from my friends1 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,george ,herbert ,mead1 came that interest1 unflagging attention to detail1 and artistic taste which1 in my absence1 remade colloquial remarks until they were fit to print1 and then saw the results through the press with the present attractive result--a mode of authorship made easy1 which ,i recommend to others fortunate enough to possess such friends4 ,it would be an extended paragraph which should list all the friends whose timely and persisting generosity has made possible the school which inspired and defined the ideas of these pages4 ,these friends1 ,i am sure1 would be the first to recognize the peculiar appropriateness of especial mention of the names of ,mrs4 ,charles ,r4 ,crane and ,mrs4 ,william ,r4 ,linn4 ,and the school itself in its educational work is a joint undertaking4 ,many have engaged in shaping it4 ,the clear and experienced intelligence of my wife is wrought everywhere into its texture4 ,the wisdom1 tact and devotion of its instructors have brought about a transformation of its original amorphous plans into articulate form and substance with life and movement of their own4 ,whatever the issue of the ideas presented in this book1 the satisfaction coming from the coperation of the diverse thoughts and deeds of many persons in undertaking to enlarge the life of the child will abide4 ,january #e1 #aijj ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,i ,,the ,,school ,,and ,,social ,,progress ,we are apt to look at the school from an individualistic standpoint1 as something between teacher and pupil1 or between teacher and parent4 ,that which interests us most is naturally the progress made by the individual child of our acquaintance1 his normal physical development1 his advance in ability to read1 write1 and figure1 his growth in the knowledge of geography and history1 improvement in manners1 habits of promptness1 order1 and industry--it is from such standards as these that we judge the work of the school4 ,and rightly so4 ,yet the range of the outlook needs to be enlarged4 ,what the best and wisest parent wants for his own child1 that must the community want for all of its children4 ,any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely2 acted upon1 it destroys our democracy4 ,all that society has accomplished for itself is put1 through the agency of the school1 at the disposal of its future members4 ,all its better thoughts of itself it hopes to realize through the new possibilities thus opened to its future self4 ,here individualism and socialism are at one4 ,only by being true to the full growth of all the individuals who make it up1 can society by any chance be true to itself4 ,and in the self-direction thus given1 nothing counts as much as the school1 for1 as ,horace ,mann said1 8,where anything is growing1 one former is worth a thousand re-formers10 ,whenever we have in mind the discussion of a new movement in education1 it is especially necessary to take the broader1 or social view4 ,otherwise1 changes in the school institution and tradition will be looked at as the arbitrary inventions of particular teachers2 at the worst transitory fads1 and at the best merely improvements in certain details--and this is the plane upon which it is too customary to consider school changes4 ,it is as rational to conceive of the locomotive or the telegraph as personal devices4 ,the modification going on in the method and curriculum of education is as much a product of the changed social situation1 and as much an effort to meet the needs of the new society that is forming1 as are changes in modes of industry and commerce4 ,it is to this1 then1 that ,i especially ask your attention3 the effort to conceive what roughly may be termed the 8,new ,education0 in the light of larger changes in society4 ,can we connect this 8,new ,education0 with the general march of events8 ,if we can1 it will lose its isolated character1 and will cease to be an affair which proceeds only from the over-ingenious minds of pedagogues dealing with particular pupils4 ,it will appear as part and parcel of the whole social evolution1 and1 in its more general features at least1 as inevitable4 ,let us then ask after the main aspects of the social movement2 and afterwards turn to the school to find what witness it gives of effort to put itself in line4 ,and since it is quite impossible to cover the whole ground1 ,i shall for the most part confine myself to one typical thing in the modern school movement--that which passes under the name of manual training1 hoping if the relation of that to changed social conditions appears1 we shall be ready to concede the point as well regarding other educational innovations4 ,i make no apology for not dwelling at length upon the social changes in question4 ,those ,i shall mention are writ so large that he who runs may read4 ,the change that comes first to mind1 the one that overshadows and even controls all others1 is the industrial one--the application of science resulting in the great inventions that have utilized the forces of nature on a vast and inexpensive scale3 the growth of a world-wide market as the object of production1 of vast manufacturing centers to supply this market1 of cheap and rapid means of communication and distribution between all its parts4 ,even as to its feebler beginnings1 this change is not much more than a century old2 in many of its most important aspects it falls within the short span of those now living4 ,one can hardly believe there has been a revolution in all history so rapid1 so extensive1 so complete4 ,through it the face of the earth is making over1 even as to its physical forms2 political boundaries are wiped out and moved about1 as if they were indeed only lines on a paper map2 population is hurriedly gathered into cities from the ends of the earth2 habits of living are altered with startling abruptness and thoroughness2 the search for the truths of nature is infinitely stimulated and facilitated and their application to life made not only practicable1 but commercially necessary4 ,even our moral and religious ideas and interests1 the most conservative because the deepest-lying things in our nature1 are profoundly affected4 ,that this revolution should not affect education in other than formal and superficial fashion is inconceivable4 ,back of the factory system lies the household and neighborhood system4 ,those of us who are here today need go back only one1 two1 or at most three generations1 to find a time when the household was practically the center in which were carried on1 or about which were clustered1 all the typical forms of industrial occupation4 ,the clothing worn was for the most part not only made in the house1 but the members of the household were usually familiar with the shearing of the sheep1 the carding and spinning of the wool1 and the plying of the loom4 ,instead of pressing a button and flooding the house with electric light1 the whole process of getting illumination was followed in its toilsome length1 from the killing of the animal and the trying of fat1 to the making of wicks and dipping of candles4 ,the supply of flour1 of lumber1 of foods1 of building materials1 of household furniture1 even of metal ware1 of nails1 hinges1 hammers1 etc41 was in the immediate neighborhood1 in shops which were constantly open to inspection and often centers of neighborhood congregation4 ,the entire industrial process stood revealed1 from the production on the farm of the raw materials1 till the finished article was actually put to use4 ,not only this1 but practically every member of the household had his own share in the work4 ,the children1 as they gained in strength and capacity1 were gradually initiated into the mysteries of the several processes4 ,it was a matter of immediate and personal concern1 even to the point of actual participation4 ,we cannot overlook the factors of discipline and of character-building involved in this3 training in habits of order and of industry1 and in the idea of responsibility1 of obligation to do something1 to produce something1 in the world4 ,there was always something which really needed to be done1 and a real necessity that each member of the household should do his own part faithfully and in coperation with others4 ,personalities which became effective in action were bred and tested in the medium of action4 ,again1 we cannot overlook the importance for educational purposes of the close and intimate acquaintance got with nature at first hand1 with real things and materials1 with the actual processes of their manipulation1 and the knowledge of their social necessities and uses4 ,in all this there was continual training of observation1 of ingenuity1 constructive imagination1 of logical thought1 and of the sense of reality acquired through first-hand contact with actualities4 ,the educative forces of the domestic spinning and weaving1 of the saw-mill1 the gristmill1 the cooper shop1 and the blacksmith forge1 were continuously operative4 ,no number of object-lessons1 got up as object-lessons for the sake of giving information1 can afford even the shadow of a substitute for acquaintance with the plants and animals of the farm and garden1 acquired through actual living among them and caring for them4 ,no training of sense-organs in school1 introduced for the sake of training1 can begin to compete with the alertness and fullness of sense-life that comes through daily intimacy and interest in familiar occupations4 ,verbal memory can be trained in committing tasks1 a certain discipline of the reasoning powers can be acquired through lessons in science and mathematics2 but1 after all1 this is somewhat remote and shadowy compared with the training of attention and of judgment that is acquired in having to do things with a real motive behind and a real outcome ahead4 ,at present1 concentration of industry and division of labor have practically eliminated household and neighborhood occupations--at least for educational purposes4 ,but it is useless to bemoan the departure of the good old days of children's modesty1 reverence1 and implicit obedience1 if we expect merely by bemoaning and by exhortation to bring them back4 ,it is radical conditions which have changed1 and only an equally radical change in education suffices4 ,we must recognize our compensations--the increase in toleration1 in breadth of social judgment1 the larger acquaintance with human nature1 the sharpened alertness in reading signs of character and interpreting social situations1 greater accuracy of adaptation to differing personalities1 contact with greater commercial activities4 ,these considerations mean much to the city-bred child of today4 ,yet there is a real problem3 how shall we retain these advantages1 and yet introduce into the school something representing the other side of life--occupations which exact personal responsibilities and which train the child with relation to the physical realities of life8 ,when we turn to the school1 we find that one of the most striking tendencies at present is toward the introduction of so-called manual training1 shop-work1 and the household arts--sewing and cooking4 ,this has not been done 8on purpose10 with a full consciousness that the school must now supply that factor of training formerly taken care of in the home1 but rather by instinct1 by experimenting and finding that such work takes a vital hold of pupils and gives them something which was not to be got in any other way4 ,consciousness of its real import is still so weak that the work is often done in a half-hearted1 confused1 and unrelated way4 ,the reasons assigned to justify it are painfully inadequate or sometimes even positively wrong4 ,if we were to cross-examine even those who are most favorably disposed to the introduction of this work into our school system1 we should1 ,i imagine1 generally find the main reasons to be that such work engages the full spontaneous interest and attention of the children4 ,it keeps them alert and active1 instead of passive and receptive2 it makes them more useful1 more capable1 and hence more inclined to be helpful at home2 it prepares them to some extent for the practical duties of later life--the girls to be more efficient house managers1 if not actually cooks and sempstresses2 the boys 7were our educational system only adequately rounded out into trade schools7 for their future vocations4 ,i do not underestimate the worth of these reasons4 ,of those indicated by the changed attitude of the children ,i shall indeed have something to say in my next talk1 when speaking directly of the relationship of the school to the child4 ,but the point of view is1 upon the whole1 unnecessarily narrow4 ,we must conceive of work in wood and metal1 of weaving1 sewing1 and cooking1 as methods of life not as distinct studies4 ,we must conceive of them in their social significance1 as types of the processes by which society keeps itself going1 as agencies for bringing home to the child some of the primal necessities of community life1 and as ways in which these needs have been met by the growing insight and ingenuity of man2 in short1 as instrumentalities through which the school itself shall be made a genuine form of active community life1 instead of a place set apart in which to learn lessons4 ,a society is a number of people held together because they are working along common lines1 in a common spirit1 and with reference to common aims4 ,the common needs and aims demand a growing interchange of thought and growing unity of sympathetic feeling4 ,the radical reason that the present school cannot organize itself as a natural social unit is because just this element of common and productive activity is absent4 ,upon the playground1 in game and sport1 social organization takes place spontaneously and inevitably4 ,there is something to do1 some activity to be carried on1 requiring natural divisions of labor1 selection of leaders and followers1 mutual coperation and emulation4 ,in the schoolroom the motive and the cement of social organization are alike wanting4 ,upon the ethical side1 the tragic weakness of the present school is that it endeavors to prepare future members of the social order in a medium in which the conditions of the social spirit are eminently wanting4 ,the difference that appears when occupations are made the articulating centers of school life is not easy to describe in words2 it is a difference in motive1 of spirit and atmosphere4 ,as one enters a busy kitchen in which a group of children are actively engaged in the preparation of food1 the psychological difference1 the change from more or less passive and inert recipiency and restraint to one of buoyant outgoing energy1 is so obvious as fairly to strike one in the face4 ,indeed1 to those whose image of the school is rigidly set the change is sure to give a shock4 ,but the change in the social attitude is equally marked4 ,the mere absorption of facts and truths is so exclusively individual an affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness4 ,there is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning1 there is no clear social gain in success thereat4 ,indeed1 almost the only measure for success is a competitive one1 in the bad sense of that term--a comparison of results in the recitation or in the examination to see which child has succeeded in getting ahead of others in storing up1 in accumulating the maximum of information4 ,so thoroughly is this the prevalent atmosphere that for one child to help another in his task has become a school crime4 ,where the school work consists in simply learning lessons1 mutual assistance1 instead of being the most natural form of coperation and association1 becomes a clandestine effort to relieve one's neighbor of his proper duties4 ,where active work is going on all this is changed4 ,helping others1 instead of being a form of charity which impoverishes the recipient1 is simply an aid in setting free the powers and furthering the impulse of the one helped4 ,a spirit of free communication1 of interchange of ideas1 suggestions1 results1 both successes and failures of previous experiences1 becomes the dominating note of the recitation4 ,so far as emulation enters in1 it is in the comparison of individuals1 not with regard to the quantity of information personally absorbed1 but with reference to the quality of work done--the genuine community standard of value4 ,in an informal but all the more pervasive way1 the school life organizes itself on a social basis4 ,within this organization is found the principle of school discipline or order4 ,of course1 order is simply a thing which is relative to an end4 ,if you have the end in view of forty or fifty children learning certain set lessons1 to be recited to a teacher1 your discipline must be devoted to securing that result4 ,but if the end in view is the development of a spirit of social coperation and community life1 discipline must grow out of and be relative to this4 ,there is little order of one sort where things are in process of construction2 there is a certain disorder in any busy workshop2 there is not silence2 persons are not engaged in maintaining certain fixed physical postures2 their arms are not folded2 they are not holding their books thus and so4 ,they are doing a variety of things1 and there is the confusion1 the bustle1 that results from activity4 ,but out of occupation1 out of doing things that are to produce results1 and out of doing these in a social and coperative way1 there is born a discipline of its own kind and type4 ,our whole conception of school discipline changes when we get this point of view4 ,in critical moments we all realize that the only discipline that stands by us1 the only training that becomes intuition1 is that got through life itself4 ,that we learn from experience1 and from books or the sayings of others only as they are related to experience1 are not mere phrases4 ,but the school has been so set apart1 so isolated from the ordinary conditions and motives of life1 that the place where children are sent for discipline is the one place in the world where it is most difficult to get experience--the mother of all discipline worth the name4 ,it is only where a narrow and fixed image of traditional school discipline dominates1 that one is in any danger of overlooking that deeper and infinitely wider discipline that comes from having a part to do in constructive work1 in contributing to a result which1 social in spirit1 is none the less obvious and tangible in form--and hence in a form with reference to which responsibility may be exacted and accurate judgment passed4 ,the great thing to keep in mind1 then1 regarding the introduction into the school of various forms of active occupation1 is that through them the entire spirit of the school is renewed4 ,it has a chance to affiliate itself with life1 to become the child's habitat1 where he learns through directed living2 instead of being only a place to learn lessons having an abstract and remote reference to some possible living to be done in the future4 ,it gets a chance to be a miniature community1 an embryonic society4 ,this is the fundamental fact1 and from this arise continuous and orderly sources of instruction4 ,under the industrial rgime described1 the child1 after all1 shared in the work1 not for the sake of the sharing1 but for the sake of the product4 ,the educational results secured were real1 yet incidental and dependent4 ,but in the school the typical occupations followed are freed from all economic stress4 ,the aim is not the economic value of the products1 but the development of social power and insight4 ,it is this liberation from narrow utilities1 this openness to the possibilities of the human spirit that makes these practical activities in the school allies of art and centers of science and history4 ,the unity of all the sciences is found in geography4 ,the significance of geography is that it presents the earth as the enduring home of the occupations of man4 ,the world without its relationship to human activity is less than a world4 ,human industry and achievement1 apart from their roots in the earth1 are not even a sentiment1 hardly a name4 ,the earth is the final source of all man's food4 ,it is his continual shelter and protection1 the raw material of all his activities1 and the home to whose humanizing and idealizing all his achievement returns4 ,it is the great field1 the great mine1 the great source of the energies of heat1 light1 and electricity2 the great scene of ocean1 stream1 mountain1 and plain1 of which all our agriculture and mining and lumbering1 all our manufacturing and distributing agencies1 are but the partial elements and factors4 ,it is through occupations determined by this environment that mankind has made its historical and political progress4 ,it is through these occupations that the intellectual and emotional interpretation of nature has been developed4 ,it is through what we do in and with the world that we read its meaning and measure its value4 ,in educational terms1 this means that these occupations in the school shall not be mere practical devices or modes of routine employment1 the gaining of better technical skill as cooks1 sempstresses1 or carpenters1 but active centers of scientific insight into natural materials and processes1 points of departure whence children shall be led out into a realization of the historic development of man4 ,the actual significance of this can be told better through one illustration taken from actual school work than by general discourse4 ,there is nothing which strikes more oddly upon the average intelligent visitor than to see boys as well as girls of ten1 twelve1 and thirteen years of age engaged in sewing and weaving4 ,if we look at this from the standpoint of preparation of the boys for sewing on buttons and making patches1 we get a narrow and utilitarian conception--a basis that hardly justifies giving prominence to this sort of work in the school4 ,but if we look at it from another side1 we find that this work gives the point of departure from which the child can trace and follow the progress of mankind in history1 getting an insight also into the materials used and the mechanical principles involved4 ,in connection with these occupations1 the historic development of man is recapitulated4 ,for example1 the children are first given the raw material--the flax1 the cotton plant1 the wool as it comes from the back of the sheep 7if we could take them to the place where the sheep are sheared1 so much the better74 ,then a study is made of these materials from the standpoint of their adaptation to the uses to which they may be put4 ,for instance1 a comparison of the cotton fiber with wool fiber is made4 ,i did not know until the children told me1 that the reason for the late development of the cotton industry as compared with the woolen is1 that the cotton fiber is so very difficult to free by hand from the seeds4 ,the children in one group worked thirty minutes freeing cotton fibers from the boll and seeds1 and succeeded in getting out less than one ounce4 ,they could easily believe that one person could only gin one pound a day by hand1 and could understand why their ancestors wore woolen instead of cotton clothing4 ,among other things discovered as affecting their relative utilities1 was the shortness of the cotton fiber as compared with that of wool1 the former being one-tenth of an inch in length1 while that of the latter is an inch in length2 also that the fibers of cotton are smooth and do not cling together1 while the wool has a certain roughness which makes the fibers stick1 thus assisting the spinning4 ,the children worked this out for themselves with the actual material1 aided by questions and suggestions from the teacher4 ,they then followed the processes necessary for working the fibers up into cloth4 ,they re-invented the first frame for carding the wool--a couple of boards with sharp pins in them for scratching it out4 ,they re-devised the simplest process for spinning the wool--a pierced stone or some other weight through which the wool is passed1 and which as it is twirled draws out the fiber2 next the top1 which was spun on the floor1 while the children kept the wool in their hands until it was gradually drawn out and wound upon it4 ,then the children are introduced to the invention next in historic order1 working it out experimentally1 thus seeing its necessity1 and tracing its effects1 not only upon that particular industry1 but upon modes of social life--in this way passing in review the entire process up to the present complete loom1 and all that goes with the application of science in the use of our present available powers4 ,i need not speak of the science involved in this--the study of the fibers1 of geographical features1 the conditions under which raw materials are grown1 the great centers of manufacture and distribution1 the physics involved in the machinery of production2 nor1 again1 of the historical side--the influence which these inventions have had upon humanity4 ,you can concentrate the history of all mankind into the evolution of the flax1 cotton1 and wool fibers into clothing4 ,i do not mean that this is the only1 or the best1 center4 ,but it is true that certain very real and important avenues to the consideration of the history of the race are thus opened--that the mind is introduced to much more fundamental and controlling influences than usually appear in the political and chronological records that pass for history4 ,now1 what is true of this one instance of fibers used in fabrics 7and1 of course1 ,i have only spoken of one or two elementary phases of that7 is true in its measure of every material used in every occupation1 and of the processes employed4 ,the occupation supplies the child with a genuine motive2 it gives him experience at first hand2 it brings him into contact with realities4 ,it does all this1 but in addition it is liberalized throughout by translation into its historic values and scientific equivalencies4 ,with the growth of the child's mind in power and knowledge it ceases to be a pleasant occupation merely1 and becomes more and more a medium1 an instrument1 an organ--and is thereby transformed4 ,this1 in turn1 has its bearing upon the teaching of science4 ,under present conditions1 all activity1 to be successful1 has to be directed somewhere and somehow by the scientific expert--it is a case of applied science4 ,this connection should determine its place in education4 ,it is not only that the occupations1 the so-called manual or industrial work in the school1 give the opportunity for the introduction of science which illuminates them1 which makes them material1 freighted with meaning1 instead of being mere devices of hand and eye2 but that the scientific insight thus gained becomes an indispensable instrument of free and active participation in modern social life4 ,plato somewhere speaks of the slave as one who in his actions does not express his own ideas1 but those of some other man4 ,it is our social problem now1 even more urgent than in the time of ,plato1 that method1 purpose1 understanding1 shall exist in the consciousness of the one who does the work1 that his activity shall have meaning to himself4 ,when occupations in the school are conceived in this broad and generous way1 ,i can only stand lost in wonder at the objections so often heard1 that such occupations are out of place in the school because they are materialistic1 utilitarian1 or even menial in their tendency4 ,it sometimes seems to me that those who make these objections must live in quite another world4 ,the world in which most of us live is a world in which everyone has a calling and occupation1 something to do4 ,some are managers and others are subordinates4 ,but the great thing for one as for the other is that each shall have had the education which enables him to see within his daily work all there is in it of large and human significance4 ,how many of the employed are today mere appendages to the machines which they operate6 ,this may be due in part to the machine itself1 or to the rgime which lays so much stress upon the products of the machine2 but it is certainly due in large part to the fact that the worker has had no opportunity to develop his imagination and his sympathetic insight as to the social and scientific values found in his work4 ,at present1 the impulses which lie at the basis of the industrial system are either practically neglected or positively distorted during the school period4 ,until the instincts of construction and production are systematically laid hold of in the years of childhood and youth1 until they are trained in social directions1 enriched by historical interpretation1 controlled and illuminated by scientific methods1 we certainly are in no position even to locate the source of our economic evils1 much less to deal with them effectively4 ,if we go back a few centuries1 we find a practical monopoly of learning4 ,the term possession of learning was1 indeed1 a happy one4 ,learning was a class matter4 ,this was a necessary result of social conditions4 ,there were not in existence any means by which the multitude could possibly have access to intellectual resources4 ,these were stored up and hidden away in manuscripts4 ,of these there were at best only a few1 and it required long and toilsome preparation to be able to do anything with them4 ,a high-priesthood of learning1 which guarded the treasury of truth and which doled it out to the masses under severe restrictions1 was the inevitable expression of these conditions4 ,but1 as a direct result of the industrial revolution of which we have been speaking1 this has been changed4 ,printing was invented2 it was made commercial4 ,books1 magazines1 papers were multiplied and cheapened4 ,as a result of the locomotive and telegraph1 frequent1 rapid1 and cheap intercommunication by mails and electricity was called into being4 ,travel has been rendered easy2 freedom of movement1 with its accompanying exchange of ideas1 indefinitely facilitated4 ,the result has been an intellectual revolution4 ,learning has been put into circulation4 ,while there still is1 and probably always will be1 a particular class having the special business of inquiry in hand1 a distinctively learned class is henceforth out of the question4 ,it is an anachronism4 ,knowledge is no longer an immobile solid2 it has been liquefied4 ,it is actively moving in all the currents of society itself4 ,it is easy to see that this revolution1 as regards the materials of knowledge1 carries with it a marked change in the attitude of the individual4 ,stimuli of an intellectual sort pour in upon us in all kinds of ways4 ,the merely intellectual life1 the life of scholarship and of learning1 thus gets a very altered value4 ,academic and scholastic1 instead of being titles of honor1 are becoming terms of reproach4 ,but all this means a necessary change in the attitude of the school1 one of which we are as yet far from realizing the full force4 ,our school methods1 and to a very considerable extent our curriculum1 are inherited from the period when learning and command of certain symbols1 affording as they did the only access to learning1 were all-important4 ,the ideals of this period are still largely in control1 even where the outward methods and studies have been changed4 ,we sometimes hear the introduction of manual training1 art and science into the elementary1 and even the secondary schools1 deprecated on the ground that they tend toward the production of specialists--that they detract from our present scheme of generous1 liberal culture4 ,the point of this objection would be ludicrous if it were not often so effective as to make it tragic4 ,it is our present education which is highly specialized1 one-sided and narrow4 ,it is an education dominated almost entirely by the medival conception of learning4 ,it is something which appeals for the most part simply to the intellectual aspect of our natures1 our desire to learn1 to accumulate information1 and to get control of the symbols of learning2 not to our impulses and tendencies to make1 to do1 to create1 to produce1 whether in the form of utility or of art4 ,the very fact that manual training1 art and science are objected to as technical1 as tending toward mere specialism1 is of itself as good testimony as could be offered to the specialized aim which controls current education4 ,unless education had been virtually identified with the exclusively intellectual pursuits1 with learning as such1 all these materials and methods would be welcome1 would be greeted with the utmost hospitality4 ,while training for the profession of learning is regarded as the type of culture1 as a liberal education1 that of a mechanic1 a musician1 a lawyer1 a doctor1 a farmer1 a merchant1 or a railroad manager is regarded as purely technical and professional4 ,the result is that which we see about us everywhere--the division into 8cultured0 people and 8workers10 the separation of theory and practice4 ,hardly one per cent4 of the entire school population ever attains to what we call higher education2 only five per cent4 to the grade of our high school2 while much more than half leave on or before the completion of the fifth year of the elementary grade4 ,the simple facts of the case are that in the great majority of human beings the distinctively intellectual interest is not dominant4 ,they have the so-called practical impulse and disposition4 ,in many of those in whom by nature intellectual interest is strong1 social conditions prevent its adequate realization4 ,consequently by far the larger number of pupils leave school as soon as they have acquired the rudiments of learning1 as soon as they have enough of the symbols of reading1 writing1 and calculating to be of practical use to them in getting a living4 ,while our educational leaders are talking of culture1 the development of personality1 etc41 as the end and aim of education1 the great majority of those who pass under the tuition of the school regard it only as a narrowly practical tool with which to get bread and butter enough to eke out a restricted life4 ,if we were to conceive our educational end and aim in a less exclusive way1 if we were to introduce into educational processes the activities which appeal to those whose dominant interest is to do and to make1 we should find the hold of the school upon its members to be more vital1 more prolonged1 containing more of culture4 ,but why should ,i make this labored presentation8 ,the obvious fact is that our social life has undergone a thorough and radical change4 ,if our education is to have any meaning for life1 it must pass through an equally complete transformation4 ,this transformation is not something to appear suddenly1 to be executed in a day by conscious purpose4 ,it is already in progress4 ,those modifications of our school system which often appear 7even to those most actively concerned with them1 to say nothing of their spectators7 to be mere changes of detail1 mere improvement within the school mechanism1 are in reality signs and evidences of evolution4 ,the introduction of active occupations1 of nature study1 of elementary science1 of art1 of history2 the relegation of the merely symbolic and formal to a secondary position2 the change in the moral school atmosphere1 in the relation of pupils and teachers--of discipline2 the introduction of more active1 expressive1 and self-directing factors--all these are not mere accidents1 they are necessities of the larger social evolution4 ,it remains but to organize all these factors1 to appreciate them in their fullness of meaning1 and to put the ideas and ideals involved into complete1 uncompromising possession of our school system4 ,to do this means to make each one of our schools an embryonic community life1 active with types of occupations that reflect the life of the larger society1 and permeated throughout with the spirit of art1 history1 and science4 ,when the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community1 saturating him with the spirit of service1 and providing him with the instruments of effective self-direction1 we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy1 lovely1 and harmonious4 ,,ii ,,the ,,school ,,and ,,the ,,life ,,of ,,the ,,child ,last week ,i tried to put before you the relationship between the school and the larger life of the community1 and the necessity for certain changes in the methods and materials of school work1 that it might be better adapted to present social needs4 ,today ,i wish to look at the matter from the other side1 and consider the relationship of the school to the life and development of the children in the school4 ,as it is difficult to connect general principles with such thoroughly concrete things as little children1 ,i have taken the liberty of introducing a good deal of illustrative matter from the work of the ,university ,elementary ,school1 that in some measure you may appreciate the way in which the ideas presented work themselves out in actual practice4 ,some few years ago ,i was looking about the school supply stores in the city1 trying to find desks and chairs which seemed thoroughly suitable from all points of view--artistic1 hygienic1 and educational--to the needs of the children4 ,we had a good deal of difficulty in finding what we needed1 and finally one dealer1 more intelligent than the rest1 made this remark3 8,i am afraid we have not what you want4 ,you want something at which the children may work2 these are all for listening40 ,that tells the story of the traditional education4 ,just as the biologist can take a bone or two and reconstruct the whole animal1 so1 if we put before the mind's eye the ordinary schoolroom1 with its rows of ugly desks placed in geometrical order1 crowded together so that there shall be as little moving room as possible1 desks almost all of the same size1 with just space enough to hold books1 pencils and paper1 and add a table1 some chairs1 the bare walls1 and possibly a few pictures1 we can reconstruct the only educational activity that can possibly go on in such a place4 ,it is all made 8for listening0--for simply studying lessons out of a book is only another kind of listening2 it marks the dependency of one mind upon another4 ,the attitude of listening means1 comparatively speaking1 passivity1 absorption2 that there are certain ready-made materials which are there1 which have been prepared by the school superintendent1 the board1 the teacher1 and of which the child is to take in as much as possible in the least possible time4 ,there is very little place in the traditional schoolroom for the child to work4 ,the workshop1 the laboratory1 the materials1 the tools with which the child may construct1 create1 and actively inquire1 and even the requisite space1 have been for the most part lacking4 ,the things that have to do with these processes have not even a definitely recognized place in education4 ,they are what the educational authorities who write editorials in the daily papers generally term 8fads0 and 8frills40 ,a lady told me yesterday that she had been visiting different schools trying to find one where activity on the part of the children preceded the giving of information on the part of the teacher1 or where the children had some motive for demanding the information4 ,she visited1 she said1 twenty-four different schools before she found her first instance4 ,i may add that that was not in this city4 ,another thing that is suggested by these schoolrooms1 with their set desks1 is that everything is arranged for handling as large numbers of children as possible2 for dealing with children en masse1 as an aggregate of units2 involving1 again1 that they be treated passively4 ,the moment children act they individualize themselves2 they cease to be a mass1 and become the intensely distinctive beings that we are acquainted with out of school1 in the home1 the family1 on the playground1 and in the neighborhood4 ,on the same basis is explicable the uniformity of method and curriculum4 ,if everything is on a 8listening0 basis1 you can have uniformity of material and method4 ,the ear1 and the book which reflects the ear1 constitute the medium which is alike for all4 ,there is next to no opportunity for adjustment to varying capacities and demands4 ,there is a certain amount--a fixed quantity--of ready-made results and accomplishments to be acquired by all children alike in a given time4 ,it is in response to this demand that the curriculum has been developed from the elementary school up through the college4 ,there is just so much desirable knowledge1 and there are just so many needed technical accomplishments in the world4 ,then comes the mathematical problem of dividing this by the six1 twelve1 or sixteen years of school life4 ,now give the children every year just the proportionate fraction of the total1 and by the time they have finished they will have mastered the whole4 ,by covering so much ground during this hour or day or week or year1 everything comes out with perfect evenness at the end--provided the children have not forgotten what they have previously learned4 ,the outcome of all this is ,matthew ,arnold's report of the statement1 proudly made to him by an educational authority in ,france1 that so many thousands of children were studying at a given hour1 say eleven o'clock1 just such a lesson in geography2 and in one of our own western cities this proud boast used to be repeated to successive visitors by its superintendent4 ,i may have exaggerated somewhat in order to make plain the typical points of the old education3 its passivity of attitude1 its mechanical massing of children1 its uniformity of curriculum and method4 ,it may be summed up by stating that the center of gravity is outside the child4 ,it is in the teacher1 the text-book1 anywhere and everywhere you please except in the immediate instincts and activities of the child himself4 ,on that basis there is not much to be said about the life of the child4 ,a good deal might be said about the studying of the child1 but the school is not the place where the child lives4 ,now the change which is coming into our education is the shifting of the center of gravity4 ,it is a change1 a revolution1 not unlike that introduced by ,copernicus when the astronomical center shifted from the earth to the sun4 ,in this case the child becomes the sun about which the appliances of education revolve2 he is the center about which they are organized4 ,if we take an example from an ideal home1 where the parent is intelligent enough to recognize what is best for the child1 and is able to supply what is needed1 we find the child learning through the social converse and constitution of the family4 ,there are certain points of interest and value to him in the conversation carried on3 statements are made1 inquiries arise1 topics are discussed1 and the child continually learns4 ,he states his experiences1 his misconceptions are corrected4 ,again the child participates in the household occupations1 and thereby gets habits of industry1 order1 and regard for the rights and ideas of others1 and the fundamental habit of subordinating his activities to the general interest of the household4 ,participation in these household tasks becomes an opportunity for gaining knowledge4 ,the ideal home would naturally have a workshop where the child could work out his constructive instincts4 ,it would have a miniature laboratory in which his inquiries could be directed4 ,the life of the child would extend out of doors to the garden1 surrounding fields1 and forests4 ,he would have his excursions1 his walks and talks1 in which the larger world out of doors would open to him4 ,now1 if we organize and generalize all of this1 we have the ideal school4 ,there is no mystery about it1 no wonderful discovery of pedagogy or educational theory4 ,it is simply a question of doing systematically and in a large1 intelligent1 and competent way what for various reasons can be done in most households only in a comparatively meager and haphazard manner4 ,in the first place1 the ideal home has to be enlarged4 ,the child must be brought into contact with more grown people and with more children in order that there may be the freest and richest social life4 ,moreover1 the occupations and relationships of the home environment are not specially selected for the growth of the child2 the main object is something else1 and what the child can get out of them is incidental4 ,hence the need of a school4 ,in this school the life of the child becomes the all-controlling aim4 ,all the media necessary to further the growth of the child center there4 ,learning8--certainly1 but living primarily1 and learning through and in relation to this living4 ,when we take the life of the child centered and organized in this way1 we do not find that he is first of all a listening being2 quite the contrary4 ,the statement so frequently made that education means 8drawing out0 is excellent1 if we mean simply to contrast it with the process of pouring in4 ,but1 after all1 it is difficult to connect the idea of drawing out with the ordinary doings of the child of three1 four1 seven1 or eight years of age4 ,he is already running over1 spilling over1 with activities of all kinds4 ,he is not a purely latent being whom the adult has to approach with great caution and skill in order gradually to draw out some hidden germ of activity4 ,the child is already intensely active1 and the question of education is the question of taking hold of his activities1 of giving them direction4 ,through direction1 through organized use1 they tend toward valuable results1 instead of scattering or being left to merely impulsive expression4 ,if we keep this before us1 the difficulty ,i find uppermost in the minds of many people regarding what is termed the new education is not so much solved as dissolved2 it disappears4 ,a question often asked is3 if you begin with the child's ideas1 impulses and interests1 all so crude1 so random and scattering1 so little refined or spiritualized1 how is he going to get the necessary discipline1 culture and information8 ,if there were no way open to us except to excite and indulge these impulses of the child1 the question might well be asked4 ,we should either have to ignore and repress the activities1 or else to humor them4 ,but if we have organization of equipment and of materials1 there is another path open to us4 ,we can direct the child's activities1 giving them exercise along certain lines1 and can thus lead up to the goal which logically stands at the end of the paths followed4 8,if wishes were horses1 beggars would ride40 ,since they are not1 since really to satisfy an impulse or interest means to work it out1 and working it out involves running up against obstacles1 becoming acquainted with materials1 exercising ingenuity1 patience1 persistence1 alertness1 it of necessity involves discipline--ordering of power--and supplies knowledge4 ,take the example of the little child who wants to make a box4 ,if he stops short with the imagination or wish1 he certainly will not get discipline4 ,but when he attempts to realize his impulse1 it is a question of making his idea definite1 making it into a plan1 of taking the right kind of wood1 measuring the parts needed1 giving them the necessary proportions1 etc4 ,there is involved the preparation of materials1 the sawing1 planing1 the sand-papering1 making all the edges and corners to fit4 ,knowledge of tools and processes is inevitable4 ,if the child realizes his instinct and makes the box1 there is plenty of opportunity to gain discipline and perseverance1 to exercise effort in overcoming obstacles1 and to attain as well a great deal of information4 ,so undoubtedly the little child who thinks he would like to cook has little idea of what it means or costs1 or what it requires4 ,it is simply a desire to 8mess around10 perhaps to imitate the activities of older people4 ,and it is doubtless possible to let ourselves down to that level and simply humor that interest4 ,but here1 too1 if the impulse is exercised1 utilized1 it runs up against the actual world of hard conditions1 to which it must accommodate itself2 and there again come in the factors of discipline and knowledge4 ,one of the children became impatient recently1 at having to work things out by a long method of experimentation1 and said3 8,why do we bother with this8 ,let's follow a recipe in a cook-book40 ,the teacher asked the children where the recipe came from1 and the conversation showed that if they simply followed this they would not understand the reasons for what they were doing4 ,they were then quite willing to go on with the experimental work4 ,to follow that work will1 indeed1 give an illustration of just the point in question4 ,their occupation happened that day to be the cooking of eggs1 as making a transition from the cooking of vegetables to that of meats4 ,in order to get a basis of comparison they first summarized the constituent food elements in the vegetables and made a preliminary comparison with those found in meat4 ,thus they found that the woody fiber or cellulose in vegetables corresponded to the connective tissue in meat1 giving the element of form and structure4 ,they found that starch and starchy products were characteristic of the vegetables1 that mineral salts were found in both alike1 and that there was fat in both--a small quantity in vegetable food and a large amount in animal4 ,they were prepared then to take up the study of albumen as the characteristic feature of animal food1 corresponding to starch in the vegetables1 and were ready to consider the conditions requisite for the proper treatment of albumen--the eggs serving as the material of experiment4 ,illustration3 ,,child',s ,,drawing ,,of ,a ,,cave ,,and ,,trees ,they experimented first by taking water at various temperatures1 finding out when it was scalding1 simmering1 and boiling hot1 and ascertained the effect of the various degrees of temperature on the white of the egg4 ,that worked out1 they were prepared1 not simply to cook eggs1 but to understand the principle involved in the cooking of eggs4 ,i do not wish to lose sight of the universal in the particular incident4 ,for the child simply to desire to cook an egg1 and accordingly drop it in water for three minutes1 and take it out when he is told1 is not educative4 ,but for the child to realize his own impulse by recognizing the facts1 materials and conditions involved1 and then to regulate his impulse through that recognition1 is educative4 ,this is the difference1 upon which ,i wish to insist1 between exciting or indulging an interest and realizing it through its direction4 ,another instinct of the child is the use of pencil and paper4 ,all children like to express themselves through the medium of form and color4 ,if you simply indulge this interest by letting the child go on indefinitely1 there is no growth that is more than accidental4 ,but let the child first express his impulse1 and then through criticism1 question1 and suggestion bring him to consciousness of what he has done1 and what he needs to do1 and the result is quite different4 ,here1 for example1 is the work of a seven-year-old child4 ,it is not average work1 it is the best work done among the little children1 but it illustrates the particular principle of which ,i have been speaking4 ,they had been talking about the primitive conditions of social life when people lived in caves4 ,the child's idea of that found expression in this way3 the cave is neatly set up on the hill side in an impossible way4 ,you see the conventional tree of childhood2 a vertical line with horizontal branches on each side4 ,if the child had been allowed to go on repeating this sort of thing day by day1 he would be indulging his instinct rather than exercising it4 ,but the child was now asked to look closely at trees1 to compare those seen with the one drawn1 to examine more closely and consciously into the conditions of his work4 ,then he drew trees from observation4 ,finally he drew again from combined observation1 memory1 and imagination4 ,he made again a free illustration1 expressing his own imaginative thought1 but controlled by detailed study of actual trees4 ,the result was a scene representing a bit of forest2 so far as it goes1 it seems to me to have as much poetic feeling as the work of an adult1 while at the same time its trees are1 in their proportions possible ones1 not mere symbols4 ,illustration3 ,,child',s ,,drawing ,,of ,a ,,forest ,if we roughly classify the impulses which are available in the school1 we may group them under four heads4 ,there is the social instinct of the children as shown in conversation1 personal intercourse1 and communication4 ,we all know how self-centered the little child is at the age of four or five4 ,if any new subject is brought up1 if he says anything at all1 it is3 8,i have seen that20 or1 8,my papa or mamma told me about that40 ,his horizon is not large2 an experience must come immediately home to him1 if he is to be sufficiently interested to relate it to others and seek theirs in return4 ,and yet the egoistic and limited interest of little children is in this manner capable of infinite expansion4 ,the language instinct is the simplest form of the social expression of the child4 ,hence it is a great1 perhaps the greatest of all educational resources4 ,then there is the instinct of making--the constructive impulse4 ,the child's impulse to do finds expression first in play1 in movement1 gesture1 and make-believe1 becomes more definite1 and seeks outlet in shaping materials into tangible forms and permanent embodiment4 ,the child has not much instinct for abstract inquiry4 ,the instinct of investigation seems to grow out of the combination of the constructive impulse with the conversational4 ,there is no distinction between experimental science for little children and the work done in the carpenter shop4 ,such work as they can do in physics or chemistry is not for the purpose of making technical generalizations or even arriving at abstract truths4 ,children simply like to do things1 and watch to see what will happen4 ,but this can be taken advantage of1 can be directed into ways where it gives results of value1 as well as be allowed to go on at random4 ,and so the expressive impulse of the children1 the art instinct1 grows also out of the communicating and constructive instincts4 ,it is their refinement and full manifestation4 ,make the construction adequate1 make it full1 free1 and flexible1 give it a social motive1 something to tell1 and you have a work of art4 ,take one illustration of this in connection with the textile work--sewing and weaving4 ,the children made a primitive loom in the shop2 here the constructive instinct was appealed to4 ,then they wished to do something with this loom1 to make something4 ,it was the type of the ,indian loom1 and they were shown blankets woven by the ,indians4 ,each child made a design kindred in idea to those of the ,navajo blankets1 and the one which seemed best adapted to the work in hand was selected4 ,the technical resources were limited1 but the coloring and form were worked out by the children4 ,the example shown was made by the twelve-year-old children4 ,examination shows that it took patience1 thoroughness1 and perseverance to do the work4 ,it involved not merely discipline and information of both a historical sort and the elements of technical design1 but also something of the spirit of art in adequately conveying an idea4 ,illustration3 ,,child',s ,,drawing ,,of ,,hands ,,spinning ,one more instance of the connection of the art side with the constructive side4 ,the children had been studying primitive spinning and carding1 when one of them1 twelve years of age1 made a picture of one of the older children spinning4 ,here is another piece of work which is not quite average2 it is better than the average4 ,it is an illustration of two hands and the drawing out of the wool to get it ready for spinning4 ,this was done by a child eleven years of age4 ,but1 upon the whole1 with the younger children especially1 the art impulse is connected mainly with the social instinct--the desire to tell1 to represent4 ,illustration3 ,,child',s ,,drawing ,,of ,a ,,girl ,,spinning ,now1 keeping in mind these fourfold interests--the interest in conversation or communication2 in inquiry1 or finding out things2 in making things1 or construction2 and in artistic expression--we may say they are the natural resources1 the uninvested capital1 upon the exercise of which depends the active growth of the child4 ,i wish to give one or two illustrations1 the first from the work of children seven years of age4 ,it illustrates in a way the dominant desire of the children to talk1 particularly about folks and of things in relation to folks4 ,if you observe little children1 you will find they are interested in the world of things mainly in its connection with people1 as a background and medium of human concerns4 ,many anthropologists have told us there are certain identities in the child interests with those of primitive life4 ,there is a sort or natural recurrence of the child mind to the typical activities of primitive peoples2 witness the hut which the boy likes to build in the yard1 playing hunt1 with bows1 arrows1 spears1 and so on4 ,again the question comes3 ,what are we to do with this interest--are we to ignore it1 or just excite and draw it out8 ,or shall we get hold of it and direct it to something ahead1 something better8 ,some of the work that has been planned for our seven-year-old children has the latter end in view--to utilize this interest so that it shall become a means of seeing the progress of the human race4 ,the children begin by imagining present conditions taken away until they are in contact with nature at first hand4 ,that takes them back to a hunting people1 to a people living in caves or trees and getting a precarious subsistence by hunting and fishing4 ,they imagine as far as possible the various natural physical conditions adapted to that sort of life2 say1 a hilly1 woody slope1 near mountains and a river where fish would be abundant4 ,then they go on in imagination through the hunting to the semi-agricultural stage1 and through the nomadic to the settled agricultural stage4 ,the point ,i wish to make is that there is abundant opportunity thus given for actual study1 for inquiry which results in gaining information4 ,so1 while the instinct primarily appeals to the social side1 the interest of the child in people and their doings is carried on into the larger world of reality4 ,for example1 the children had some idea of primitive weapons1 of the stone arrowhead1 etc4 ,that provided occasion for the testing of materials as regards their friability1 their shape1 texture1 etc41 resulting in a lesson in mineralogy1 as they examined the different stones to find which was best suited to the purpose4 ,the discussion of the iron age supplied a demand for the construction of a smelting oven made out of clay1 and of considerable size4 ,as the children did not get their drafts right at first1 the mouth of the furnace not being in proper relation to the vent1 as to size and position1 instruction in the principles of combustion1 the nature of drafts and of fuel1 was required4 ,yet the instruction was not given ready-made2 it was first needed1 and then arrived at experimentally4 ,then the children took some material1 such as copper1 and went through a series of experiments1 fusing it1 working it into objects2 and the same experiments were made with lead and other metals4 ,this work has been also a continuous course in geography1 since the children have had to imagine and work out the various physical conditions necessary to the different forms of social life implied4 ,what would be the physical conditions appropriate to pastoral life8 to the beginning of agriculture8 to fishing8 ,what would be the natural method of exchange between these peoples8 ,having worked out such points in conversation1 they have afterward represented them in maps and sand-molding4 ,thus they have gained ideas of the various forms of the configuration of the earth1 and at the same time have seen them in their relation to human activity1 so that they are not simply external facts1 but are fused and welded with social conceptions regarding the life and progress of humanity4 ,the result1 to my mind1 justifies completely the conviction that children1 in a year of such work 7of five hours a week altogether71 get indefinitely more acquaintance with facts of science1 geography1 and anthropology than they get where information is the professed end and object1 where they are simply set to learning facts in fixed lessons4 ,as to discipline1 they get more training of attention1 more power of interpretation1 of drawing inferences1 of acute observation and continuous reflection1 than if they were put to working out arbitrary problems simply for the sake of discipline4 ,i should like at this point to refer to the recitation4 ,we all know what it has been--a placer where the child shows off to the teacher and the other children the amount of information he has succeeded in assimilating from the text-book4 ,from this other standpoint1 the recitation becomes preminently a social meeting place2 it is to the school what the spontaneous conversation is at home1 excepting that it is more organized1 following definite lines4 ,the recitation becomes the social clearing-house1 where experiences and ideas are exchanged and subjected to criticism1 where misconceptions are corrected1 and new lines of thought and inquiry are set up4 ,this change of the recitation from an examination of knowledge already acquired to the free play of the children's communicative instinct1 affects and modifies all the language work of the school4 ,under the old rgime it was unquestionably a most serious problem to give the children a full and free use of language4 ,the reason was obvious4 ,the natural motive for language was seldom offered4 ,in the pedagogical text-books language is defined as the medium of expressing thought4 ,it becomes that1 more or less1 to adults with trained minds1 but it hardly needs to be said that language is primarily a social thing1 a means by which we give our experiences to others and get theirs again in return4 ,when it is taken from its natural basis1 it is no wonder that it becomes a complex and difficult problem to teach language4 ,think of the absurdity of having to teach language as a thing by itself4 ,if there is anything the child will do before he goes to school1 it is to talk of the things that interest him4 ,but when there are no vital interests appealed to in the school1 when language is used simply for the repetition of lessons1 it is not surprising that one of the chief difficulties of school work has come to be instruction in the mother-tongue4 ,since the language taught is unnatural1 not growing out of the real desire to communicate vital impressions and convictions1 the freedom of children in its use gradually disappears1 until finally the high-school teacher has to invent all kinds of devices to assist in getting any spontaneous and full use of speech4 ,moreover1 when the language instinct is appealed to in a social way1 there is a continual contact with reality4 ,the result is that the child always has something in his mind to talk about1 he has something to say2 he has a thought to express1 and a thought is not a thought unless it is one's own4 ,on the traditional method1 the child must say something that he has merely learned4 ,there is all the difference in the world between having something to say and having to say something4 ,the child who has a variety of materials and facts wants to talk about them1 and his language becomes more refined and full1 because it is controlled and informed by realities4 ,reading and writing1 as well as the oral use of language1 may be taught on this basis4 ,it can be done in a related way1 as the outgrowth of the child's social desire to recount his experiences and get in return the experiences of others1 directed always through contact with the facts and forces which determine the truth communicated4 ,i shall not have time to speak of the work of the older children1 where the original crude instincts of construction and communication have been developed into something like scientifically directed inquiry1 but ,i will give an illustration of the use of language following upon this experimental work4 ,the work was on the basis of a simple experiment of the commonest sort1 gradually leading the children out into geological and geographical study4 ,the sentences that ,i am going to read seem to me poetic as well as 8scientific40 8,a long time ago when the earth was new1 when it was lava1 there was no water on the earth1 and there was steam all round the earth up in the air1 as there were many gases in the air4 ,one of them was carbon dioxide4 ,the steam became clouds1 because the earth began to cool off1 and after a while it began to rain1 and the water came down and dissolved the carbon dioxide from the air40 ,there is a good deal more science in that than probably would be apparent at the outset4 ,it represents some three months of work on the part of the child4 ,the children kept daily and weekly records1 but this is part of the summing up of the quarter's work4 ,i call this language poetic1 because the child has a clear image and has a personal feeling for the realities imaged4 ,i extract sentences from two other records to illustrate further the vivid use of language when there is a vivid experience back of it4 8,when the earth was cold enough to condense1 the water1 with the help of carbon dioxide1 pulls the calcium out of the rocks into a large body of water where the little animals could get it40 ,the other reads as follows3 8,when the earth cooled1 calcium was in the rocks4 ,then the carbon dioxide and water united and formed a solution1 and1 as it ran1 it tore out the calcium and carried it on to the sea1 where there were little animals who took it out of solution40 ,the use of such words as 8pulled0 and 8tore0 in connection with the process of chemical combination evidences a personal realization which compels its own appropriate expression4 ,if ,i had not taken so much time in my other illustrations1 ,i should like to show how1 beginning with very simple material things1 the children were led on to larger fields of investigation1 and to the intellectual discipline that is the accompaniment of such research4 ,i will simply mention the experiment in which the work began4 ,it consisted in making precipitated chalk1 used for polishing metals4 ,the children1 with simple apparatus--a tumbler1 lime water1 and a glass tube--precipitated the calcium carbonate out of the water2 and from this beginning went on to a study of the processes by which rocks of various sorts1 igneous1 sedimentary1 etc41 had been formed on the surface of the earth and the places they occupy2 then to points in the geography of the ,united ,states1 ,hawaii1 and ,puerto ,rico2 to the effects of these various bodies of rock1 in their various configurations1 upon the human occupations2 so that this geological record finally rounded itself out into the life of man at the present time4 ,the children saw and felt the connection between these geologic processes taking place ages and ages ago1 and the physical conditions determining the industrial occupations of today4 ,of all the possibilities involved in the subject1 8,the ,school and the ,life of the ,child10 ,i have selected but one1 because ,i have found that that one gives people more difficulty1 is more of a stumbling-block1 than any other4 ,one may be ready to admit that it would be most desirable for the school to be a place in which the child should really live1 and get a life-experience in which he should delight and find meaning for its own sake4 ,but then we hear this inquiry3 how1 upon this basis1 shall the child get the needed information2 how shall he undergo the required discipline8 ,yes1 it has come to this1 that with many1 if not most1 people the normal processes of life appear to be incompatible with getting information and discipline4 ,so ,i have tried to indicate1 in a highly general and inadequate way 7for only the school itself1 in its daily operation1 could give a detailed and worthy representation71 how the problem works itself out--how it is possible to lay hold upon the rudimentary instincts of human nature1 and1 by supplying a proper medium1 so control their expression as not only to facilitate and enrich the growth of the individual child1 but also to supply the results1 and far more1 of technical information and discipline that have been the ideals of education in the past4 ,but although ,i have selected this especial way of approach 7as a concession to the question almost universally raised71 ,i am not willing to leave the matter in this more or less negative and explanatory condition4 ,life is the great thing after all2 the life of the child at its time and in its measure1 no less than the life of the adult4 ,strange would it be1 indeed1 if intelligent and serious attention to what the child now needs and is capable of in the way of a rich1 valuable1 and expanded life should somehow conflict with the needs and possibilities of later1 adult life4 8,let us live with our children10 certainly means1 first of all1 that our children shall live--not that they shall be hampered and stunted by being forced into all kinds of conditions1 the most remote consideration of which is relevancy to the present life of the child4 ,if we seek the kingdom of heaven1 educationally1 all other things shall be added unto us--which1 being interpreted1 is that if we identify ourselves with the real instincts and needs of childhood1 and ask only after its fullest assertion and growth1 the discipline and information and culture of adult life shall all come in their due season4 ,speaking of culture reminds me that in a way ,i have been speaking only of the outside of the child's activity--only of the outward expression of his impulses toward saying1 making1 finding out1 and creating4 ,the real child1 it hardly need be said1 lives in the world of imaginative values1 and ideas which find only imperfect outward embodiment4 ,we hear much nowadays about the cultivation of the child's 8imagination40 ,then we undo much of our own talk and work by a belief that the imagination is some special part of the child1 that finds its satisfaction in some one particular direction--generally speaking1 that of the unreal and make-believe1 of the myth and made-up story4 ,why are we so hard of heart and so slow to believe8 ,the imagination is the medium in which the child lives4 ,to him there is everywhere and in everything that occupies his mind and activity at all1 a surplusage of value and significance4 ,the question of the relation of the school to the child's life is at bottom simply this3 shall we ignore this native setting and tendency1 dealing not with the living child at all1 but with the dead image we have erected1 or shall we give it play and satisfaction8 ,if we once believe in life and in the life of the child1 then will all the occupations and uses spoken of1 then will all history and science1 become instruments of appeal and materials of culture to his imagination1 and through that to the richness and the orderliness of his life4 ,where we now see only the outward doing and the outward product1 there1 behind all visible results1 is the re-adjustment of mental attitude1 the enlarged and sympathetic vision1 the sense of growing power1 and the willing ability to identify both insight and capacity with the interests of the world and man4 ,unless culture be a superficial polish1 a veneering of mahogany over common wood1 it surely is this--the growth of the imagination in flexibility1 in scope1 and in sympathy1 till the life which the individual lives is informed with the life of nature and of society4 ,when nature and society can live in the schoolroom1 when the forms and tools of learning are subordinated to the substance of experience1 then shall there be an opportunity for this identification1 and culture shall be the democratic password4 ,,iii ,,waste ,,in ,,education ,the subject announced for today was 8,waste in ,education40 ,i should like first to state briefly its relation to the two preceding lectures4 ,the first dealt with the school in its social aspects1 and the necessary re-adjustments that have to be made to render it effective in present social conditions4 ,the second dealt with the school in relation to the growth of individual children4 ,now the third deals with the school as itself an institution1 both in relation to society and to its own members--the children4 ,it deals with the question of organization1 because all waste is the result of the lack of it1 the motive lying behind organization being promotion of economy and efficiency4 ,this question is not one of the waste of money or the waste of things4 ,these matters count2 but the primary waste is that of human life1 the life of the children while they are at school1 and afterward because of inadequate and perverted preparation4 ,so1 when we speak of organization1 we are not to think simply of the externals2 of that which goes by the name 8school system0--the school board1 the superintendent1 and the building1 the engaging and promotion of teachers1 etc4 ,these things enter in1 but the fundamental organization is that of the school itself as a community of individuals1 in its relations to other forms of social life4 ,all waste is due to isolation4 ,organization is nothing but getting things into connection with one another1 so that they work easily1 flexibly1 and fully4 ,therefore in speaking of this question of waste in education1 ,i desire to call your attention to the isolation of the various parts of the school system1 to the lack of unity in the aims of education1 to the lack of coherence in its studies and methods4 ,i have made a chart 7,i7 which1 while ,i speak of the isolations of the school system itself1 may perhaps appeal to the eye and save a little time in verbal explanations4 ,a paradoxical friend of mine says there is nothing so obscure as an illustration1 and it is quite possible that my attempt to illustrate my point will simply prove the truth of his statement4 ,the blocks represent the various elements in the school system1 and are intended to indicate roughly the length of time given to each division1 and also the overlapping1 both in time and subjects studied1 of the individual parts of the system4 ,with each block is given the historical conditions in which it arose and its ruling ideal4 ,illustration3 ,chart ,i ,professional ,schools ------------------ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ ------------------ ,medival ,the #aith ,century ,culture ,utility ,high ,school ,kindergarten ,primary- or ,academy ------- ------------- ------------ _/_/ _/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/ _/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ ------- ------------- ------------ #ahth ,century #afth ,century ,renaissance ,moral ,utility ,culture ,discipline ,university- ,college ,graduate-------,schools ------------------ _/_/_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/_/_/ ------------------ ,medival ,culture ,discipline ,connecting ,grammar or ,class ,intermediate ,school ,normal ---- -------------- ------------ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/_/_/_/ ---- -------------- ------------ #aith ,century ,renaissance #aith ,century ,culture ,utility ,discipline ,culture ,technical ,schools --------------- --------------- #aith ,century ,utility ,the school system1 upon the whole1 has grown from the top down4 ,during the middle ages it was essentially a cluster of professional schools--especially law and theology4 ,our present university comes down to us from the middle ages4 ,i will not say that at present it is a medival institution1 but it had its roots in the middle ages1 and it has not outlived all medival traditions regarding learning4 ,the kindergarten1 rising with the present century1 was a union of the nursery and of the philosophy of ,schelling2 a wedding of the plays and games which the mother carried on with her children1 to ,schelling's highly romantic and symbolic philosophy4 ,the elements that came from the actual study of child life--the continuation of the nursery--have remained a life-bringing force in all education2 the ,schellingesque factors made an obstruction between it and the rest of the school system1 brought about isolations4 ,the line drawn over the top indicates that there is a certain interaction between the kindergarten and the primary school2 for1 so far as the primary school remained in spirit foreign to the natural interests of child life1 it was isolated from the kindergarten1 so that it is a problem1 at present1 to introduce kindergarten methods into the primary school2 the problem of the so-called connecting class4 ,the difficulty is that the two are not one from the start4 ,to get a connection the teacher has had to climb over the wall instead of entering in at the gate4 ,on the side of aims1 the ideal of the kindergarten was the moral development of the children1 rather than instruction or discipline2 an ideal sometimes emphasized to the point of sentimentality4 ,the primary school grew practically out of the popular movement of the sixteenth century1 when along with the invention of printing and the growth of commerce1 it became a business necessity to know how to read1 write1 and figure4 ,the aim was distinctly a practical one2 it was utility2 getting command of these tools1 the symbols of learning1 not for the sake of learning1 but because they gave access to careers in life otherwise closed4 ,the division next to the primary school is the grammar school4 ,the term is not much used in the ,west1 but is common in the eastern states4 ,it goes back to the time of the revival of learning--a little earlier perhaps than the conditions out of which the primary school originated1 and1 even when contemporaneous1 having a different ideal4 ,it had to do with the study of language in the higher sense2 because1 at the time of the ,renaissance1 ,latin and ,greek connected people with the culture of the past1 with the ,roman and ,greek world4 ,the classic languages were the only means of escape from the limitations of the middle ages4 ,thus there sprang up the prototype of the grammar school1 more liberal than the university 7so largely professional in character71 for the purpose of putting into the hands of the people the key to the old learning1 that men might see a world with a larger horizon4 ,the object was primarily culture1 secondarily discipline4 ,it represented much more than the present grammar school4 ,it was the liberal element in the college1 which1 extending downward1 grew into the academy and the high school4 ,thus the secondary school is still in part just a lower college 7having an even higher curriculum than the college of a few centuries ago7 or a preparatory department to a college1 and in part a rounding up of the utilities of the elementary school4 ,there appear then two products of the nineteenth century1 the technical and normal schools4 ,the schools of technology1 engineering1 etc41 are1 of course1 mainly the development of nineteenth-century business conditions1 as the primary school was the development of business conditions of the sixteenth century4 ,the normal school arose because of the necessity for training teachers1 with the idea partly of professional drill1 and partly that of culture4 ,without going into more detail1 we have some eight different parts of the school system as represented on the chart1 all of which arose historically at different times1 having different ideals in view1 and consequently different methods4 ,i do not wish to suggest that all of the isolation1 all of the separation1 that has existed in the past between the different parts of the school system still persists4 ,one must1 however1 recognize that they have never yet been welded into one complete whole4 ,the great problem in education on the administrative side is how to unite these different parts4 ,consider the training schools for teachers--the normal schools4 ,these occupy at present a somewhat anomalous position1 intermediate between the high school and the college1 requiring the high-school preparation1 and covering a certain amount of college work4 ,they are isolated from the higher subject-matter of scholarship1 since1 upon the whole1 their object has been to train persons how to teach1 rather than what to teach2 while1 if we go to the college1 we find the other half of this isolation--learning what to teach1 with almost a contempt for methods of teaching4 ,the college is shut off from contact with children and youth4 ,its members1 to a great extent1 away from home and forgetting their own childhood1 become eventually teachers with a large amount of subject-matter at command1 and little knowledge of how this is related to the minds of those to whom it is to be taught4 ,in this division between what to teach and how to teach1 each side suffers from the separation4 ,it is interesting to follow out the inter-relation between primary1 grammar1 and high schools4 ,the elementary school has crowded up and taken many subjects previously studied in the old ,new ,england grammar school4 ,the high school has pushed its subjects down4 ,latin and algebra have been put in the upper grades1 so that the seventh and eighth grades are1 after all1 about all that is left of the old grammar school4 ,they are a sort of amorphous composite1 being partly a place where children go on learning what they already have learned 7to read1 write1 and figure71 and partly a place of preparation for the high school4 ,the name in some parts of ,new ,england for these upper grades was 8,intermediate ,school40 ,the term was a happy one2 the work was simply intermediate between something that had been and something that was going to be1 having no special meaning on its own account4 ,just as the parts are separated1 so do the ideals differ--moral development1 practical utility1 general culture1 discipline1 and professional training4 ,these aims are each especially represented in some distinct part of the system of education2 and with the growing interaction of the parts1 each is supposed to afford a certain amount of culture1 discipline1 and utility4 ,but the lack of fundamental unity is witnessed in the fact that one study is still considered good for discipline1 and another for culture2 some parts of arithmetic1 for example1 for discipline and others for use1 literature for culture1 grammar for discipline1 geography partly for utility1 partly for culture2 and so on4 ,the unity of education is dissipated1 and the studies become centrifugal2 so much of this study to secure this end1 so much of that to secure another1 until the whole becomes a sheer compromise and patchwork between contending aims and disparate studies4 ,the great problem in education on the administrative side is to secure the unity of the whole1 in the place of a sequence of more or less unrelated and overlapping parts and thus to reduce the waste arising from friction1 reduplication and transitions that are not properly bridged4 ,illustration3 ,chart ,,ii ,business #c4 v ------------------ ,technical ,research --- --- #d4 ,university ,school #a4 ,home ,a --- ,professional --- ,schools ,teachers ------------------ v ,garden #b4 ,park ,country ,in this second symbolic diagram 7,,ii7 ,i wish to suggest that really the only way to unite the parts of the system is to unite each to life4 ,we can get only an artificial unity so long as we confine our gaze to the school system itself4 ,we must look at it as part of the larger whole of social life4 ,this block 7,a7 in the center represents the school system as a whole4 7#a7 ,at one side we have the home1 and the two arrows represent the free interplay of influences1 materials1 and ideas between the home life and that of the school4 7#b7 ,below we have the relation to the natural environment1 the great field of geography in the widest sense4 ,the school building has about it a natural environment4 ,it ought to be in a garden1 and the children from the garden would be led on to surrounding fields1 and then into the wider country1 with all its facts and forces4 7#c7 ,above is represented business life1 and the necessity for free play between the school and the needs and forces of industry4 7#d7 ,on the other side is the university proper1 with its various phases1 its laboratories1 its resources in the way of libraries1 museums1 and professional schools4 ,from the standpoint of the child1 the great waste in the school comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school in any complete and free way within the school itself2 while1 on the other hand1 he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning at school4 ,that is the isolation of the school--its isolation from life4 ,when the child gets into the schoolroom he has to put out of his mind a large part of the ideas1 interests1 and activities that predominate in his home and neighborhood4 ,so the school1 being unable to utilize this everyday experience1 sets painfully to work1 on another tack and by a variety of means1 to arouse in the child an interest in school studies4 ,while ,i was visiting in the city of ,moline a few years ago1 the superintendent told me that they found many children every year1 who were surprised to learn that the ,mississippi river in the text-book had anything to do with the stream of water flowing past their homes4 ,the geography being simply a matter of the schoolroom1 it is more or less of an awakening to many children to find that the whole thing is nothing but a more formal and definite statement of the facts which they see1 feel1 and touch every day4 ,when we think that we all live on the earth1 that we live in an atmosphere1 that our lives are touched at every point by the influences of the soil1 flora1 and fauna1 by considerations of light and heat1 and then think of what the school study of geography has been1 we have a typical idea of the gap existing between the everyday experiences of the child1 and the isolated material supplied in such large measure in the school4 ,this is but an instance1 and one upon which most of us may reflect long before we take the present artificiality of the school as other than a matter of course or necessity4 ,though there should be organic connection between the school and business life1 it is not meant that the school is to prepare the child for any particular business1 but that there should be a natural connection of the everyday life of the child with the business environment about him1 and that it is the affair of the school to clarify and liberalize this connection1 to bring it to consciousness1 not by introducing special studies1 like commercial geography and arithmetic1 but by keeping alive the ordinary bonds of relation4 ,the subject of compound-business-partnership is probably not in many of the arithmetics nowadays1 though it was there not a generation ago1 for the makers of text-books said that if they left out anything they could not sell their books4 ,this compound-business-partnership originated as far back as the sixteenth century4 ,the joint-stock company had not been invented1 and as large commerce with the ,indies and ,americas grew up1 it was necessary to have an accumulation of capital with which to handle it4 ,one man said1 8,i will put in this amount of money for six months10 and another1 8,so much for two years10 and so on4 ,thus by joining together they got money enough to float their commercial enterprises4 ,naturally1 then1 8compound partnership0 was taught in the schools4 ,the joint-stock company was invented2 compound partnership disappeared1 but the problems relating to it stayed in the arithmetics for two hundred years4 ,they were kept after they had ceased to have practical utility1 for the sake of mental discipline--they were 8such hard problems1 you know40 ,a great deal of what is now in the arithmetics under the head of percentage is of the same nature4 ,children of twelve and thirteen years of age go through gain and loss calculations1 and various forms of bank discount so complicated that the bankers long ago dispensed with them4 ,and when it is pointed out that business is not done this way1 we hear again of 8mental discipline40 ,and yet there are plenty of real connections between the experience of children and business conditions which need to be utilized and illuminated4 ,the child should study his commercial arithmetic and geography1 not as isolated things by themselves1 but in their reference to his social environment4 ,the youth needs to become acquainted with the bank as a factor in modern life1 with what it does1 and how it does it2 and then relevant arithmetical processes would have some meaning--quite in contradistinction to the time-absorbing and mind-killing examples in percentage1 partial payments1 etc41 found in all our arithmetics4 ,the connection with the university1 as indicated in this chart1 ,i need not dwell upon4 ,i simply wish to indicate that there ought to be a free interaction between all the parts of the school system4 ,there is much of utter triviality of subject-matter in elementary and secondary education4 ,when we investigate it1 we find that it is full of facts taught that are not facts1 which have to be unlearned later on4 ,now1 this happens because the 8lower0 parts of our system are not in vital connection with the 8higher40 ,the university or college1 in its idea1 is a place of research1 where investigation is going on1 a place of libraries and museums1 where the best resources of the past are gathered1 maintained and organized4 ,it is1 however1 as true in the school as in the university that the spirit of inquiry can be got only through and with the attitude of inquiry4 ,the pupil must learn what has meaning1 what enlarges his horizon1 instead of mere trivialities4 ,he must become acquainted with truths1 instead of things that were regarded as such fifty years ago1 or that are taken as interesting by the misunderstanding of a partially educated teacher4 ,it is difficult to see how these ends can be reached except as the most advanced part of the educational system is in complete interaction with the most rudimentary4 ,the next chart 7,,iii7 is an enlargement of the second4 ,the school building has swelled out1 so to speak1 the surrounding environment remaining the same1 the home1 the garden and country1 the relation to business life and the university4 ,the object is to show what the school must become to get out of its isolation and secure the organic connection with social life of which we have been speaking4 ,it is not our architect's plan for the school building that we hope to have2 but it is a diagrammatic representation of the idea which we want embodied in the school building4 ,on the lower side you see the dining-room and the kitchen1 at the top the wood and metal shops1 and the textile room for sewing and weaving4 ,the center represents the manner in which all come together in the library2 that is to say1 in a collection of the intellectual resources of all kinds that throw light upon the practical work1 that give it meaning and liberal value4 ,if the four corners represent practice1 the interior represents the theory of the practical activities4 ,in other words1 the object of these forms of practice in the school is not found chiefly in themselves1 or in the technical skill of cooks1 seamstresses1 carpenters and masons1 but in their connection1 on the social side1 with the life without2 while on the individual side they respond to the child's need of action1 of expression1 of desire to do something1 to be constructive and creative1 instead of simply passive and conforming4 ,their great significance is that they keep the balance between the social and individual sides--the chart symbolizing particularly the connection with the social4 ,here on one side is the home4 ,how naturally the lines of connection play back and forth between the home and the kitchen and the textile room of the school6 ,the child can carry over what he learns in the home and utilize it in the school2 and the things learned in the school he applies at home4 ,these are the two great things in breaking down isolation1 in getting connection--to have the child come to school with all the experience he has got outside the school1 and to leave it with something to be immediately used in his everyday life4 ,the child comes to the traditional school with a healthy body and a more or less unwilling mind1 though1 in fact1 he does not bring both his body and mind with him2 he has to leave his mind behind1 because there is no way to use it in the school4 ,if he had a purely abstract mind1 he could bring it to school with him1 but his is a concrete one1 interested in concrete things1 and unless these things get over into school life1 he cannot take his mind with him4 ,what we want is to have the child come to school with a whole mind and a whole body1 and leave school with a fuller mind and an even healthier body4 ,and speaking of the body suggests that1 while there is no gymnasium in these diagrams1 the active life carried on in its four corners brings with it constant physical exercise1 while our gymnasium proper will deal with the particular weaknesses of children and their correction1 and will attempt more consciously to build up the thoroughly sound body as the abode of the sound mind4 ,illustration3 ,chart ,,iii ,business ------------ ------------ ,technical ,schools ,textile ,laboratory ,shop ,industries ,research ------ ----- ------- ------- ,library ,home ,b ------- ------- ,university ,library ------ ----- ,museum ,dining ,room ,kitchen ------------ ------------ ,garden ,park ,country ,that the dining-room and kitchen connect with the country and its processes and products it is hardly necessary to say4 ,cooking may be so taught that it has no connection with country life1 and with the sciences that find their unity in geography4 ,perhaps it generally has been taught without these connections being really made4 ,but all the materials that come into the kitchen have their origin in the country2 they come from the soil1 are nurtured through the influences of light and water1 and represent a great variety of local environments4 ,through this connection1 extending from the garden into the larger world1 the child has his most natural introduction to the study of the sciences4 ,where did these things grow8 ,what was necessary to their growth8 ,what their relation to the soil8 ,what the effect of different climatic conditions8 and so on4 ,we all know what the old-fashioned botany was3 partly collecting flowers that were pretty1 pressing and mounting them2 partly pulling these flowers to pieces and giving technical names to the different parts1 finding all the different leaves1 naming all their different shapes and forms4 ,it was a study of plants without any reference to the soil1 to the country1 or to growth4 ,in contrast1 a real study of plants takes them in their natural environment and in their uses as well1 not simply as food1 but in all their adaptations to the social life of man4 ,cooking becomes as well a most natural introduction to the study of chemistry1 giving the child here also something which he can at once bring to bear upon his daily experience4 ,i once heard a very intelligent woman say that she could not understand how science could be taught to little children1 because she did not see how they could understand atoms and molecules4 ,in other words1 since she did not see how highly abstract facts could be presented to the child independently of daily experience1 she could not understand how science could be taught at all4 ,before we smile at this remark1 we need to ask ourselves if she is alone in her assumption1 or whether it simply formulates almost all of our school practice4 ,the same relations with the outside world are found in the carpentry and the textile shops4 ,they connect with the country1 as the source of their materials1 with physics1 as the science of applying energy1 with commerce and distribution1 with art in the development of architecture and decoration4 ,they have also an intimate connection with the university on the side of its technological and engineering schools2 with the laboratory1 and its scientific methods and results4 ,to go back to the square which is marked the library 7,chart ,,iii1 ,a73 if you imagine rooms half in the four corners and half in the library1 you will get the idea of the recitation room4 ,that is the place where the children bring the experiences1 the problems1 the questions1 the particular facts which they have found1 and discuss them so that new light may be thrown upon them1 particularly new light from the experience of others1 the accumulated wisdom of the world--symbolized in the library4 ,here is the organic relation of theory and practice2 the child not simply doing things1 but getting also the idea of what he does2 getting from the start some intellectual conception that enters into his practice and enriches it2 while every idea finds1 directly or indirectly1 some application in experience1 and has some effect upon life4 ,this1 ,i need hardly say1 fixes the position of the 8book0 or reading in education4 ,harmful as a substitute for experience1 it is all-important in interpreting and expanding experience4 ,the other chart 7,,iv7 illustrates precisely the same idea4 ,it gives the symbolic upper story of this ideal school4 ,in the upper corners are the laboratories2 in the lower corners are the studios for art work1 both the graphic and auditory arts4 ,the questions1 the chemical and physical problems1 arising in the kitchen and shop1 are taken to the laboratories to be worked out4 ,for instance1 this past week one of the older groups ,illustration3 ,chart ,,iv ------------ ------------ ,physical ,biological ,laboratories and ,chemical ,laboratory ,research ,laboratories ------ ------- ------- ,university ,museum ,library ------- ------- ,museum ------ ,art ,music ------------ ------------ of children doing practical work in weaving which involved the use of the spinning wheel1 worked out the diagrams of the direction of forces concerned in treadle and wheel1 and the ratio of velocities between wheel and spindle4 ,in the same manner1 the plants with which the child has to do in cooking1 afford the basis for a concrete interest in botany1 and may be taken and studied by themselves4 ,in a certain school in ,boston science work for months was centered in the growth of the cotton plant1 and yet something new was brought in every day4 ,we hope to do similar work with all the types of plants that furnish materials for sewing and weaving4 ,these examples will suggest1 ,i hope1 the relation which the laboratories bear to the rest of the school4 ,the drawing and music1 or the graphic and auditory arts1 represent the culmination1 the idealization1 the highest point of refinement of all the work carried on4 ,i think everybody who has not a purely literary view of the subject recognizes that genuine art grows out of the work of the artisan4 ,the art of the ,renaissance was great1 because it grew out of the manual arts of life4 ,it did not spring up in a separate atmosphere1 however ideal1 but carried on to their spiritual meaning processes found in homely and everyday forms of life4 ,the school should observe this relationship4 ,the merely artisan side is narrow1 but the mere art1 taken by itself1 and grafted on from without1 tends to become forced1 empty1 sentimental4 ,i do not mean1 of course1 that all art work must be correlated in detail to the other work of the school1 but simply that a spirit of union gives vitality to the art1 and depth and richness to the other work4 ,all art involves physical organs1 the eye and hand1 the ear and voice2 and yet it is something more than the mere technical skill required by the organs of expression4 ,it involves an idea1 a thought1 a spiritual rendering of things2 and yet it is other than any number of ideas by themselves4 ,it is a living union of thought and the instrument of expression4 ,this union is symbolized by saying that in the ideal school the art work might be considered to be that of the shops1 passed through the alembic of library and museum into action again4 ,take the textile room as an illustration of such a synthesis4 ,i am talking about a future school1 the one we hope1 some time1 to have4 ,the basal fact in that room is that it is a workshop1 doing actual things in sewing1 spinning1 and weaving4 ,the children come into immediate connection with the materials1 with various fabrics of silk1 cotton1 linen and wool4 ,information at once appears in connection with these materials2 their origin1 history1 their adaptation to particular uses1 and the machines of various kinds by which the raw materials are utilized4 ,discipline arises in dealing with the problems involved1 both theoretical and practical4 ,whence does the culture arise8 ,partly from seeing all these things reflected through the medium of their scientific and historic conditions and associations1 whereby the child learns to appreciate them as technical achievements1 as thoughts precipitated in action2 and partly because of the introduction of the art idea into the room itself4 ,in the ideal school there would be something of this sort3 first1 a complete industrial museum1 giving samples of materials in various stages of manufacture1 and the implements1 from the simplest to the most complex1 used in dealing with them2 then a collection of photographs and pictures illustrating the landscapes and the scenes from which the materials come1 their native homes1 and their places of manufacture4 ,such a collection would be a vivid and continual lesson in the synthesis of art1 science1 and industry4 ,there would be1 also1 samples of the more perfect forms of textile work1 as ,italian1 ,french1 ,japanese1 and ,oriental4 ,there would be objects illustrating motives of design and decoration which have entered into production4 ,literature would contribute its part in its idealized representation of the world-industries1 as the ,penelope in the ,odyssey--a classic in literature only because the character is an adequate embodiment of a certain industrial phase of social life4 ,so1 from ,homer down to the present time1 there is a continuous procession of related facts which have been translated into terms of art4 ,music lends its share1 from the ,scotch song at the wheel to the spinning song of ,marguerite1 or of ,wagner's ,senta4 ,the shop becomes a pictured museum1 appealing to the eye4 ,it would have not only materials1 beautiful woods and designs1 but would give a synopsis of the historical evolution of architecture in its drawings and pictures4 ,thus ,i have attempted to indicate how the school may be connected with life so that the experience gained by the child in a familiar1 commonplace way is carried over and made use of there1 and what the child learns in the school is carried back and applied in everyday life1 making the school an organic whole1 instead of a composite of isolated parts4 ,the isolation of studies as well as of parts of the school system disappears4 ,experience has its geographical aspect1 its artistic and its literary1 its scientific and its historical sides4 ,all studies arise from aspects of the one earth and the one life lived upon it4 ,we do not have a series of stratified earths1 one of which is mathematical1 another physical1 another historical1 and so on4 ,we should not live very long in any one taken by itself4 ,we live in a world where all sides are bound together4 ,all studies grow out of relations in the one great common world4 ,when the child lives in varied but concrete and active relationship to this common world1 his studies are naturally unified4 ,it will no longer be a problem to correlate studies4 ,the teacher will not have to resort to all sorts of devices to weave a little arithmetic into the history lesson1 and the like4 ,relate the school to life1 and all studies are of necessity correlated4 ,moreover1 if the school is related as a whole to life as a whole1 its various aims and ideals--culture1 discipline1 information1 utility--cease to be variants1 for one of which we must select one study and for another another4 ,the growth of the child in the direction of social capacity and service1 his larger and more vital union with life1 becomes the unifying aim2 and discipline1 culture and information fall into place as phases of this growth4 ,i wish to say one word more about the relationship of our particular school to the ,university4 ,the problem is to unify1 to organize education1 to bring all its various factors together1 through putting it as a whole into organic union with everyday life4 ,that which lies back of the pedagogical school of the ,university is the necessity of working out something to serve as a model for such unification1 extending from work beginning with the four-year-old child up through the graduate work of the ,university4 ,already we have much help from the ,university in scientific work planned1 sometimes even in detail1 by heads of the departments4 ,the graduate student comes to us with his researches and methods1 suggesting ideas and problems4 ,the library and museum are at hand4 ,we want to bring all things educational together2 to break down the barriers that divide the education of the little child from the instruction of the maturing youth2 to identify the lower and the higher education1 so that it shall be demonstrated to the eye that there is no lower and higher1 but simply education4 ,speaking more especially with reference to the pedagogical side of the work3 ,i suppose the oldest university chair of pedagogy in our country is about twenty years old--that of the ,university of ,michigan1 founded in the latter seventies4 ,but there are only one or two that have tried to make a connection between theory and practice4 ,they teach for the most part by theory1 by lectures1 by reference to books1 rather than through the actual work of teaching itself4 ,at ,columbia1 through the ,teachers' ,college1 there is an extensive and close connection between the ,university and the training of teachers4 ,something has been done in one or two other places along the same line4 ,we want an even more intimate union here1 so that the ,university shall put all its resources at the disposition of the elementary school1 contributing to the evolution of valuable subject-matter and right method1 while the school in turn will be a laboratory in which the student of education sees theories and ideas demonstrated1 tested1 criticised1 enforced1 and the evolution of new truths4 ,we want the school in its relation to the ,university to be a working model of a unified education4 ,a word as to the relation of the school to educational interests generally4 ,i heard once that the adoption of a certain method in use in our school was objected to by a teacher on this ground3 8,you know that it is an experimental school4 ,they do not work under the same conditions that we are subject to40 ,now1 the purpose of performing an experiment is that other people need not experiment2 at least need not experiment so much1 may have something definite and positive to go by4 ,an experiment demands particularly favorable conditions in order that results may be reached both freely and securely4 ,it has to work unhampered1 with all the needed resources at command4 ,laboratories lie back of all the great business enterprises of today1 back of every great factory1 every railway and steamship system4 ,yet the laboratory is not a business enterprise2 it does not aim to secure for itself the conditions of business life1 nor does the commercial undertaking repeat the laboratory4 ,there is a difference between working out and testing a new truth1 or a new method1 and applying it on a wide scale1 making it available for the mass of men1 making it commercial4 ,but the first thing is to discover the truth1 to afford all necessary facilities1 for this is the most practical thing in the world in the long run4 ,we do not expect to have other schools literally imitate what we do4 ,a working model is not something to be copied2 it is to afford a demonstration of the feasibility of the principle1 and of the methods which make it feasible4 ,so 7to come back to our own point7 we want here to work out the problem of the unity1 the organization of the school system in itself1 and to do this by relating it so intimately to life as to demonstrate the possibility and necessity of such organization for all education4 ,,iv ,,three ,,years ,,of ,,the ,,university ,,elementary ,,school#a ,the school was started the first week in ,january1 three years ago4 ,i shall try this afternoon to give a brief statement of the ideas and problems that were in mind when the experiment was started1 and a sketch of the development of the work since that time4 ,we began in a small house in ,fifty-seventh street1 with fifteen children4 ,we found ourselves the next year with twenty-five children in ,kimbark avenue1 and then moved in ,january to ,rosalie court1 the larger quarters enabling us to take forty children4 ,the next year the numbers increased to sixty1 the school remaining at ,rosalie court4 ,this year we have had ninety-five on the roll at one time1 and are located at #edab ,ellis avenue1 where we hope to stay till we have a building and grounds of our own4 ,footnote #a3 ,stenographic report of a talk by ,john ,dewey at a meeting of the ,parents' ,association of the ,university ,elementary ,school1 ,february1 #ahii2 somewhat revised4 ,the children during the first year of the school were between the ages of six and nine4 ,now their ages range between four and thirteen--the members of the oldest group being in their thirteenth year4 ,this is the first year that we have children under six1 and this has been made possible through the liberality of friends in ,honolulu1 ,h4 ,i41 who are building up there a memorial kindergarten along the same lines4 ,the expenses of the school during the first year1 of two terms only1 were between #a1cjj and #a1djj4 ,the expenses this year will be about #ab1jjj4 ,of this amount #e1ejj will come from tuitions2 #e1jjj has been given by friends interested in the school1 and there remains about #a1ejj yet to be raised for the conduct of the school4 ,this is an indication of the increase of expenses4 ,the average expense per pupil is about the same since the start1 i4 e41 #abj per child per school year4 ,relatively speaking1 this year the expenses of the school took something of a jump1 through the expense of moving to a new building1 and the repairs and changes there necessary4 ,an increase in the staff of teachers has also enlarged the work as well as the debits of the school4 ,next year 7#ahii-aijj7 we hope to have about #abj children1 and apparently the expenses will be about #b1ejj more than this4 ,of this amount #b1jjj will be met by the increase in tuition from the pupils4 ,the cost of a child to the school1 #abj a year1 is precisely the tuition charged by the ,university for students and is double the average tuition charged by the school4 ,but it is not expected that the ,university tuition will come anywhere near meeting the expense involved there4 ,one reason for not increasing the tuition here1 even if it were advisable for other reasons1 is that it is well to emphasize1 from an educational point of view1 that elementary as well as advanced education requires endowment4 ,there is every reason why money should be spent freely for the organization and maintenance of foundation work in education as well as for the later stages4 ,the elementary school has had from the outset two sides3 one1 the obvious one of instruction of the children who have been intrusted to it2 the other1 relationship to the ,university1 since the school is under the charge1 and forms a part of the pedagogical work of the ,university4 ,when the school was started1 there were certain ideas in mind--perhaps it would be better to say questions and problems2 certain points which it seemed worth while to test4 ,if you will permit one personal word1 ,i should like to say that it is sometimes thought that the school started out with a number of ready-made principles and ideas which were to be put into practice at once4 ,it has been popularly assumed that ,i am the author of these ready-made ideas and principles which were to go into execution4 ,i take this opportunity to say that the educational conduct of the school1 as well as its administration1 the selection of subject-matter1 and the working out of the course of study1 as well as actual instruction of children1 have been almost entirely in the hands of the teachers of the school2 and that there has been a gradual development of the educational principles and methods involved1 not a fixed equipment4 ,the teachers started with question marks1 rather than with fixed rules1 and if any answers have been reached1 it is the teachers in the school who have supplied them4 ,we started upon the whole with four such questions1 or problems3 #a4 ,what can be done1 and how can it be done1 to bring the school into closer relation with the home and neighborhood life--instead of having the school a place where the child comes solely to learn certain lessons8 ,what can be done to break down the barriers which have unfortunately come to separate the school life from the rest of the everyday life of the child8 ,this does not mean1 as it is sometimes1 perhaps1 interpreted to mean1 that the child should simply take up in the school things already experienced at home and study them1 but that1 so far as possible1 the child shall have the same attitude and point of view in the school as in the home2 that he shall find the same interest in going to school1 and in there doing things worth doing for their own sake1 that he finds in the plays and occupations which busy him in his home and neighborhood life4 ,it means1 again1 that the motives which keep the child at work and growing at home shall be used in the school1 so that he shall not have to acquire another set of principles of actions belonging only to the school--separate from those of the home4 ,it is a question of the unity of the child's experience1 of its actuating motives and aims1 not of amusing or even interesting the child4 #b4 ,what can be done in the way of introducing subject-matter in history and science and art1 that shall have a positive value and real significance in the child's own life2 that shall represent1 even to the youngest children1 something worthy of attainment in skill or knowledge2 as much so to the little pupil as are the studies of the high-school or college student to him8 ,you know what the traditional curriculum of the first few years is1 even though many modifications have been made4 ,some statistics have been collected showing that #ge or #hj per cent4 of the first three years of a child in school are spent upon the form--not the substance--of learning1 the mastering of the symbols of reading1 writing1 and arithmetic4 ,there is not much positive nutriment in this4 ,its purpose is important--is necessary--but it does not represent the same kind of increase in a child's intellectual and moral experience that is represented by positive truth of history and nature1 or by added insight into reality and beauty4 ,one thing1 then1 we wanted to find out is how much can be given a child that is really worth his while to get1 in knowledge of the world about him1 of the forces in the world1 of historical and social growth1 and in capacity to express himself in a variety of artistic forms4 ,from the strictly educational side this has been the chief problem of the school4 ,it is along this line that we hope to make our chief contribution to education in general2 we hope1 that is1 to work out and publish a positive body of subject-matter which may be generally available4 #c4 ,how can instruction in these formal1 symbolic branches--the mastering of the ability to read1 write1 and use figures intelligently--be carried on with everyday experience and occupation as their background and in definite relations to other studies of more inherent content1 and be carried on in such a way that the child shall feel their necessity through their connection with subjects which appeal to him on their own account8 ,if this can be accomplished1 he will have a vital motive for getting the technical capacity4 ,it is not meant1 as has been sometimes jocosely stated1 that the child learn to bake and sew at school1 and to read1 write1 and figure at home4 ,it is intended that these formal subjects shall not be presented in such large doses at first as to be the exclusive objects of attention1 and that the child shall be led by that which he is doing to feel the need for acquiring skill in the use of symbols and the immediate power they give4 ,in any school1 if the child realizes the motive for the use and application of number and language he has taken the longest step toward securing the power2 and he can realize the motive only as he has some particular--not some general and remote--use for the symbols4 #d4 ,individual attention4 ,this is secured by small groupings--eight or ten in a class--and a large number of teachers supervising systematically the intellectual needs and attainments and physical well-being and growth of the child4 ,to secure this we have now #ace hours of instructors' time per week1 that is1 the time of nine teachers for three hours per day1 or one teacher per group4 ,it requires but a few words to make this statement about attention to individual powers and needs1 and yet the whole of the school's aims and methods1 moral1 physical1 intellectual1 are bound up in it4 ,i think these four points present a fair statement of what we have set out to discover4 ,the school is often called an experimental school1 and in one sense that is the proper name4 ,i do not like to use it too much1 for fear parents will think we are experimenting upon the children1 and that they naturally object to4 ,but it is an experimental school--at least ,i hope so--with reference to education and educational problems4 ,we have attempted to find out by trying1 by doing--not alone by discussion and theorizing--whether these problems may be worked out1 and how they may be worked out4 ,next a few words about the means that have been used in the school in order to test these four questions1 and to supply their answers1 and first as to the place given to hand-work of different kinds in the school4 ,there are three main lines regularly pursued3 7a7 the shop-work with wood and tools1 7b7 cooking work1 and 7c7 work with textiles--sewing and weaving4 ,of course1 there is other hand-work in connection with science1 as science is largely of an experimental nature4 ,it is a fact that may not have come to your attention that a large part of the best and most advanced scientific work involves a great deal of manual skill1 the training of the hand and eye4 ,it is impossible for one to be a first-class worker in science without this training in manipulation1 and in handling apparatus and materials4 ,in connection with the history work1 especially with the younger children1 hand-work is brought in in the way of making implements1 weapons1 tools1 etc4 ,of course1 the art work is another side--drawing1 painting1 and modeling4 ,logically1 perhaps1 the gymnasium work does not come in here1 but as a means of developing moral and intellectual control through the medium of the body it certainly does4 ,the children have one-half hour per day of this form of physical exercise4 ,along this line we have found that hand-work1 in large variety and amount1 is the most easy and natural method of keeping up the same attitude of the child in and out of the school4 ,the child gets the largest part of his acquisitions through his bodily activities1 until he learns to work systematically with the intellect4 ,that is the purpose of this work in the school1 to direct these activities1 to systematize and organize them1 so that they shall not be as haphazard and as wandering as they are outside of school4 ,the problem of making these forms of practical activity work continuously and definitely together1 leading from one factor of skill to another1 from one intellectual difficulty to another1 has been one of the most difficult1 and at the same time one in which we have been most successful4 ,the various kinds of work1 carpentry1 cooking1 sewing1 and weaving1 are selected as involving different kinds of skill1 and demanding different types of intellectual attitude on the part of the child1 and because they represent some of the most important activities of the everyday outside world3 the question of living under shelter1 of daily food and clothing1 of the home1 of personal movement and exchange of goods4 ,he gets also the training of sense organs1 of touch1 of sight1 and the ability to cordinate eye and hand4 ,he gets healthy exercise2 for the child demands a much larger amount of physical activity than the formal program of the ordinary school permits4 ,there is also a continual appeal to memory1 to judgment1 in adapting ends to means1 a training in habits of order1 industry1 and neatness in the care of the tools and utensils1 and in doing things in a systematic1 instead of a haphazard1 way4 ,then1 again1 these practical occupations make a background1 especially in the earlier groups1 for the later studies4 ,the children get a good deal of chemistry in connection with cooking1 of number work and geometrical principles in carpentry1 and a good deal of geography in connection with their theoretical work in weaving and sewing4 ,history also comes in with the origin and growth of various inventions1 and their effects upon social life and political organization4 ,perhaps more attention1 upon the whole1 has been given to our second point1 that of positive subject-matter1 than to any one other thing4 ,on the history side the curriculum is now fairly well worked out4 ,the younger children begin with the home and occupations of the home4 ,in the sixth year the intention is that the children should study occupations outside the home1 the larger social industries--farming1 mining1 lumber1 etc4--that they may see the complex and various social industries on which life depends1 while incidentally they investigate the use of the various materials--woods1 metals1 and the processes applied--thus getting a beginning of scientific study4 ,the next year is given to the historical development of industry and invention--starting with man as a savage and carrying him through the typical phases of his progress upward1 until the iron age is reached and man begins to enter upon a civilized career4 ,the object of the study of primitive life is not to keep the child interested in lower and relatively savage stages1 but to show him the steps of progress and development1 especially along the line of invention1 by which man was led into civilization4 ,there is a certain nearness1 after all1 in the child to primitive forms of life4 ,they are much more simple than existing institutions4 ,by throwing the emphasis upon the progress of man1 and upon the way advance has been made1 we hope to avoid the objections that hold against paying too much attention to the crudities and distracting excitements of savage life4 ,the next two or three years1 i4 e41 the fourth and fifth grades1 and perhaps the sixth1 will be devoted to ,american history4 ,it is then that history1 properly speaking1 begins1 as the study of primitive life can hardly be so called4 ,then comes ,greek history and ,roman1 in the regular chronological order1 each year having its own work planned with reference to what has come before and after4 ,the science work was more difficult to arrange and systematize1 because there was so little to follow--so little that has been already done in an organized way4 ,we are now at work upon a program1#b and ,i shall not speak in detail about it4 ,the first two or three years cultivate the children's powers of observation1 lead them to sympathetic interest in the habits of plants and animals1 and to look at things with reference to their uses4 ,then the center of the work becomes geographical--the study of the earth1 as the most central thing4 ,from this almost all the work grows out1 and to it the work goes back4 ,another standpoint in the science work is that of the application of natural forces to the service of man through machines4 ,last year a good deal of work was done in electricity 7and will be repeated this year71 based on the telegraph and telephone--taking up the things that can easily be grasped4 ,footnote #b3 ,this year's program is published in the ,elementary ,school ,record4 ,address ,the ,university of ,chicago ,press for particulars4 ,in mechanics they have studied locks and clocks with reference to the adaptation of the various parts of the machinery4 ,all this work makes a most excellent basis for more formal physics later on4 ,cooking gives opportunity for getting a great many ideas of heat and water1 and of their effects4 ,the scientific work taken up in the school differs mainly from that of other schools in having the experimental part--physics and chemistry--emphasized1 and is not confined simply to nature study--the study of plants and animals4 ,not that the latter is less valuable1 but that we find it possible to introduce the physical aspects from the first4 ,if ,i do not spend a large amount of time in speaking of the music and art work1 it is not because they are not considered valuable and important--certainly as much so as any other work done in the school1 not only in the development of the child's moral and sthetic nature1 but also from a strictly intellectual point of view4 ,i know of no work in the school that better develops the power of attention1 the habit of observation and of consecutiveness1 of seeing parts in relation to a whole4 ,i shall now say a few words about the administrative side of the school4 ,at the outset we mixed up the children of different ages and attainments as much as possible1 believing there were mental advantages in the give-and-take thus secured1 as well as the moral advantages in having the older assume certain responsibilities in the care of the younger4 ,as the school grew1 it became necessary to abandon the method1 and to group the children with reference to their common capacities4 ,these groupings1 however1 are based1 not on ability to read and write1 but upon similarity of mental attitude and interest1 and upon general intellectual capacity and mental alertness4 ,there are ways in which we are still trying to carry out the idea of mixing up the children1 that we may not build the rigid stepladder system of the 8graded0 school4 ,one step in this direction is having the children move about and come in contact with different teachers4 ,while there are difficulties and evils connected with this1 ,i think one of the most useful things in the school is that children come into intimate relation with a number of different personalities4 ,the children also meet in general assemblies--for singing1 and for the report of the whole school work as read by members of the different groups4 ,the older children are also given a half hour a week in which to join some of the younger groups1 and1 if possible1 as in hand-work1 enter into the work of the younger children4 ,in various ways we are attempting to keep a family spirit throughout the school1 and not the feeling of isolated classes and grades4 ,the organization of the teaching force has gradually become departmental1 as the needs of the work have indicated its chief branches4 ,so we now have recognized divisions of ,science1 ,history1 ,domestic or ,household ,arts1 ,manual ,training in the limited sense 7wood and metals71 ,music1 ,art 7that is1 drawing1 water colors1 clay modeling1 etc471 and ,gymnasium4 ,as the work goes on into the secondary period1 the languages and mathematics will also of necessity assume a more differentiated and distinct position4 ,as it is sometimes said that correlated or thoroughly harmonized work cannot be secured upon this basis1 ,i am happy to say that our experience shows positively that there are no intrinsic difficulties4 ,through common devotion to the best development of the child1 through common loyalty to the main aims and methods of the school1 our teachers have demonstrated that in education1 as in business1 the best organization is secured through proper regard for natural divisions of labor1 interest1 and training4 ,the child secures the advantage in discipline and knowledge of contact with experts in each line1 while the individual teachers serve the common thought in diverse ways1 thus multiplying and reinforcing it4 ,upon the moral side1 that of so-called discipline and order1 where the work of the ,university ,elementary ,school has perhaps suffered most from misunderstanding and misrepresentation1 ,i shall say only that our ideal has been1 and continues to be1 that of the best form of family life1 rather than that of a rigid graded school4 ,in the latter1 the large number of children under the care of a single teacher1 and the very limited number of modes of activity open to the pupils1 have made necessary certain fixed and somewhat external forms of 8keeping order40 ,it would be very stupid to copy these1 under the changed conditions of our school1 its small groups permitting and requiring the most intimate personal acquaintance of child and teacher1 and its great variety of forms of work1 with their differing adaptations to the needs of different children4 ,if we have permitted to our children more than the usual amount of freedom1 it has not been in order to relax or decrease real discipline1 but because under our particular conditions larger and less artificial responsibilities could thus be required of the children1 and their entire development of body and spirit be more harmonious and complete4 ,and ,i am confident that the parents who have intrusted their children to us for any length of time will agree in saying that1 while the children like1 or love1 to come to school1 yet work1 and not amusement1 has been the spirit and teaching of the school2 and that this freedom has been granted under such conditions of intelligent and sympathetic oversight as to be a means of upbuilding and strengthening character4 ,at the end of three years1 then1 we are not afraid to say that some of our original questions have secured affirmative answers4 ,the increase of our children from fifteen to almost one hundred1 along with a practical doubling of fees1 has shown that parents are ready for a form of education that makes individual growth its sole controlling aim4 ,the presence of an organized corps of instructors demonstrates that thoroughly educated teachers are ready to bring to elementary education the same resources of training1 knowledge1 and skill that have long been at the command of higher education4 ,the everyday work of the school shows that children can live in school as out of it1 and yet grow daily in wisdom1 kindness1 and the spirit of obedience--that learning may1 even with little children1 lay hold upon the substance of truth that nourishes the spirit1 and yet the forms of knowledge be observed and cultivated2 and that growth may be genuine and thorough1 and yet a delight4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,transcriber',s ,,notes #a4 ,silently corrected typographical errors4 #b4 ,retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed4 #c4 ,enclosed italics font in underscores4