27. Present Day Tendencies in Education

Outline

• At the present time there is great progress in industrial, commercial, and agricultural training in the schools of Europe and America.
• For a quarter of a century the educational systems of Europe have been giving attention to moral training, and of late there has been some discussion of the subject in the United States.
• All the great nations now provide for the training of mental defectives, and for some time training has been afforded those defective in some sense organ.
• The attempts at improved methods of teaching are witnessed by the study of industries in the experimental school of Dewey, by the formulation of a curriculum in terms of normal activities of other elementary schools, and by the 'didactic apparatus' and the devices for learning the 'three r's' of Montessori.
• Methods of mental measurement are being devised for the elementary school subjects by Thorndike and others, and systems of measurement are being utilized in administration.
• Darwin's theory of evolution has revolutionized our attitude, imagery, and vocabulary in education.
• There is also a great variety of other educational movements in all grades of education.

Recent Educational Progress. - Because of the notable development of science and invention, which has been noted in the last chapter, the nineteenth century has often been referred to as the 'wonderful' century. Such a term affords no better description of material achievement than of the remarkable progress that has taken place in education. Previous chapters have indicated the extent to which, through various movements, education has advanced and broadened in conception, but the near future of education will probably witness a much greater development. At the present time there are constant efforts at a modification and a reconstruction of education in the interest of a better adjustment of the individual to his social environment and of greatly improved conditions in society itself. It would, of course, be impossible to describe all of these movements even in the briefest manner, but some of the present day tendencies that appear most significant should now engage our attention.

The Growth of Industrial Training. - The movement that is perhaps most widely discussed to-day is the introduction of vocational training into the systems of education. There is now an especial need for this type Social reasons of training. Since the industrial revolution and the education. development of the factory system, the master no longer works by the side of his apprentice and instructs him, and the ambition of the youth can no longer be spurred by the hope that he may himself some day become a master. His experience is generally confined to some single process, and only a few of the operatives require anything more than low-grade skill. Nor, as a rule, will the employer undertake any systematic education of his workmen, when the mobility of labor permits of no guarantee that he will reap the benefit of such efforts, and the modern industrial plant is poorly adapted to supplying the necessary theoretical training for experts. Hence an outside agency - the school - has been called upon to assist in the solution of these new problems. To meet the demand for industrial education, all the principal states of Europe have maintained training of this sort for at least half a century, and the United States has in the twentieth century been making rapid strides in the same direction.

Industrial Schools in Europe. - In Germany, where this training is most effective, the work has for fifty years been rapidly developing through the Fortbildungsschulen (see Fig. 55). The course in these schools at first consisted largely of review work, but the rapid spread of elementary schools soon enabled them to devote all the time to technical education. Training is now afforded not only for the rank and file of workmen in the different trades, but for higher grades of workers, such as foremen and superintendents. Girls are likewise trained in a wide variety of vocations. During the last twenty-five years there have also been developed continuation schools to furnish theoretical courses in physical sciences, mathematics, bookkeeping, drawing, history, and law. In North Germany there is a tendency to confine the courses to theoretical training, and leave the practical side to the care of the employers, but the South German states generally combine theoretical and practical work, and develop schools adapted to the industries of the various localities. Through the work of Kerschensteiner, Munich has even included an extra class in the elementary schools, to bridge the gap between school life and employment.

France goes still further, and, because of unsatisfactory conditions in apprenticeship, attempts to eliminate it altogether, and to furnish the entire industrial training through continuation schools articulating with the elementary system. The pupils are admitted at thirteen to the continuation schools (see p. 383) and obtain practice in the school workshops for three years. Woodwork is generally taught to the boys, but the other courses vary with local needs. Girls learn to make dresses, corsets, millinery, artificial flowers, and other industrial products. In England, grants were first made to evening industrial schools and classes in 1851, but twenty years later regular schools of science were organized, which had both day and evening sessions. In addition to these continuation schools, there have now been established higher elementary schools, which afford a four-year course in practical and theoretical science arranged according to local needs.

Industrial Training in the United States. - Industrial training first began to be offered in the United States during the latter half of the mneteenth century by means of a number of evening continuation schools. These were established through philanthropy in the larger cities, and included the Cooper Union and the Mechanics' Institute in New York; the Franklin Union and the Spring Garden Institute in Philadelphia; the Ohio Mechanics' Institute in Cincinnati; and the Virginia Mechanics' Institute in Richmond. The public schools at length followed this example, and of late years have organized evening classes in drawing, mathematics, science, and technical subjects. Day instruction was long delayed. It began in 1881 with the foundation of the New York Trade School, but at the end of twenty years there were only two others, - the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades near Philadelphia and the Baron de Hirsch Trade School in New York. Later the development was more rapid, and since 1906 several hundred day trade schools have been organized, mostly through public support, in the larger cities of the country. These schools are mostly for youths between sixteen and twenty-five, but 'preparatory trade schools' for younger boys have also been started in New York, Massachusetts, and other states. Higher training to equip leaders for the industries has also come to be furnished through endowed secondary schools and technical high schools in a number of cities. A recent variety of vocational training is the 'part-time' plan, by which students are given some theoretical and formal training in a regular high school or college, while they are obtaining their practical experience. This alternation of practical and theoretical training is sometimes carried on in a single institution, or even within a commercial establishment itself.

Conditions Commercial Education in Europe and America. - But the modern development of vocational training throughout the leading countries has not been confined to industrial lines. With the extension of the sphere of commerce and the development of its organization that have taken place in the nineteenth century, it has come to be recognized that preparation is essential for a business career. Only recently, however, has this training been felt to be a proper function of the schools, since for many years it was opposed by educators as sordid and commercializing, and by business men as unpractical and ineffective. Both classes have now been brought to realize the need of mutual support, and the rapid growth of commercial education indicates an appreciation of its usefulness.

Germany is generally admitted to lead in commercial education. The growth of this training has taken place since 1887, but there is now offered under state control a unified and thorough preparation for any line of business. Besides private continuation schools, in which a course of three years in modern languages and elementary commercial studies can be obtained, there have grown up both public secondary schools and university courses in which a thorough general education and theoretical work in commerce, as well as a practical and technical training, are provided (Fig. 55). England and France have been rather indifferent to commercial education, different. In both countries until very recently schools have been few, and the number of pupils in each has been small. But now continuation schools, free evening courses, and private classes have sprung up, and in a few large cities commercial schools of secondary and even higher grade have been established. In the United States commercial training began by the middle of the nineteenth century through private enterprise with classes in bookkeeping, and later with 'business colleges.' Despite the name of the latter, the course is narrow and is generally shaped by pecuniary aims. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century high and normal schools began to offer commercial instruction, but until the twentieth century the courses were only tolerated as a necessary evil, and largely imitated those of the business colleges. Since then many cities have opened high schools of commerce, and university schools and colleges of commerce have arisen, and even a score of years before this development the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce was started at the University of Pennsylvania.

Recent Emphasis upon Agricultural Training. - A similar development has of late been taking place in agricultural education. France and Germany offer elementary instruction in agriculture, while the former has also introduced the subject into the normal schools, and the latter has established a secondary agricultural institution open to students at the close of their sixth year in the Realschule. Through the feeling that the United States must become the great agricultural nation, and that the traditional methods of agriculture have been exceedingly wasteful, this country especially has been emphasizing that type of vocational education. The land grant colleges, first endowed by act of Congress in 1862, have greatly stimulated interest in the subject, and later Congress added other sources of revenue, and has recently furnished appropriations for instruction in the teaching of agriculture and for extension work in agriculture. Thus the way has been prepared for the introduction of the subject into the high school and grades. There are now at least one hundred agricultural high schools in the United States, and agriculture is taught as a branch of study in several thousand high and elementary school systems.

Moral Training in the Schools To-day. - But present day tendencies in education have to do with more than the material side of civilization. There is a growing sentiment in favor of moral instruction in the schools. There are many reasons why this need should be especially felt in the complex business life of to-day. When men work for impersonal corporations, sell products to people they never see, or intrust their welfare to officials whose names are scarcely known, one strong factor making for honesty and virtue, that of personal relations, is lost. Moreover, as a result of the weakening of old religious sanctions, the new conditions in large cities, and other causes, moral traditions are in need of being buttressed.

The educational systems of Europe have for a quarter of a century given more or less attention to moral training. In France this training has been purely secular and excluded all religious elements. But the education of England and Germany has always associated the teaching of morality with religion. In England, the 'board' schools have furnished religious instruction of a nonsectarian character, but the religious training of the 'voluntary' schools has occupied more time and has stressed the creed and denominational teaching of some church, usually the Church of England (see pp. 380 f.). The contest over religious teaching since the Act of 1902 (see p. 390) caused a self-constituted commission, with Michael E. Sadler as chairman, to investigate the subject of moral instruction, and in 1908-1909 it presented a large and illuminating report. In Germany the moral and religious instruction in all elementary schools is sectarian, and Catholic and Protestant schools are alike supported, wherever needed, at public expense. During the past decade there has been considerable discussion in the United States concerning moral education. In response to the demand for an investigation of the subject, a committee of the National Education Association in 1908-1909 made a report upon various phases of moral training, and recommended special instruction in ethics, not in the form of precepts, but through consideration of existing moral questions. In 1911 the Religious Education Association, whose convention in that year was devoted to moral training, gave in its Journal a broad summary of the progress of moral education in the United States. The report reveals a wide difference of opinion and practice, but an evident tendency to trust other agencies than direct moral instruction. As a rule, state legislation seems as yet to have failed to provide a general system of training, but has confined itself to specific subjects, such as instruction in citizenship, the effects of alcohol and narcotics, and the humane treatment of animals.

The Development of Training for Mental Defectives. - One of the most patent evidences of the growth of the humane spirit in modern times is found in the universal attention now given to the education of mental defectives. This movement was given its greatest impulse through Edouard Seguin, who came to the United States in 1850 and developed his methods here. His general plan was to appeal to the mind through the senses by means of a training of the hand, taste and smell, and eye and ear. He used pictures, photographs, cards, patterns, figures, wax, clay, scissors, compasses, and pencils as his chief instruments of education. The stimulus he gave to the training of defectives has been epoch-making, and his 'physiological' methods have remained the chief means of education. Although there has grown up a tendency to introduce intellectual elements into the training of the feeble-minded, the advantages of such a procedure are doubtful.

All the great nations now provide schools for the training of defectives. Germany has over one hundred institutions, with some twenty thousand pupils in them, although nine-tenths of them are not supported by the state, but are under church or private auspices. These schools generally stress manual education, but give some attention to intellectual lines, especially to speech training. There are but few schools for defectives in France, aside from the two near Paris and the juvenile department of the insane hospital at Bicetre, but these institutions largely follow the physical work formulated by Seguin. In London there is one excellent institution with two thousand pupils, where manual training consti- tutes almost the entire course. But there are five other schools so located as to serve the various parts of Eng- land, in which the training is rather bookish and emphasis is especially laid upon number work.

Thanks to the start given by Seguin, America has taken up the education of defectives more fully than any other country. Schools for the feeble-minded now exist in almost all the states, and there are some thirty-five or forty private institutions of considerable merit. Not far from twenty thousand defectives are being trained, although this is probably only about one-tenth of the total number of such cases in the country. The type of education differs greatly according to the institution, ranging from almost purely manual training to a large proportion of the intellectual rudiments, but in all the work is adapted to the various grades in such a way as to raise them a little in the scale of efficiency and to keep them as far as possible from being a burden to themselves and to society. Likewise, special clinics and investigations, like those of Lightner Witmer of the University of Pennsylvania and of H. H. Goddard of the Training School at Vineland (New Jersey), are greatly adding to our knowledge of the best methods for training defectives.

Education of the Deaf and Blind. - Persons defective in some sense organ, but otherwise up to the standard, have likewise for some time been receiving an education that will minimize the difficulty. There have been two chief methods for teaching the deaf. The manual or 'silent' method of communication was invented by the Abbe de l'Epee in Paris during the latter part of the eighteenth century, and his school was adopted by the nation in 1791. The other method, the 'oral,' by which the pupil learns to communicate through reading the movements of the lips, was started in Germany early in the eighteenth century, but was not employed to any great extent until the middle of the next century. Most countries now use the oral method exclusively, or in connection with the manual system. In the United States practically every commonwealth now has one or more schools for the deaf, and since 1864 even higher education has been furnished by Gallaudet College at Washington.

The first instruction of the blind through raised letters was given toward the end of the eighteenth century by Abbe Haiiy at Paris. While his schools, owing to his lack of judgment, were failures, the idea spread rapidly. Early in the nineteenth century there were one or more schools in each of the leading countries of Europe, and a generation later institutions of this sort were started in the United States. In schools for the blind or deaf, industrial training has in most instances been added to the intellectual (see p. 300), in order to fit every individual to be an independent workman in some line. Even pupils, both deaf and blind, like Laura Bridgeman and Helen Keller, have had their minds awakened through the sense of touch.

Recent Development of Educational Method; Dewey's Experimental School. - Nor has the past century witnessed any cessation of the attempts at improved methods of teaching. Various suggestions and systems have been put forward and many have had an important effect upon school procedure. It is impossible, however, to discuss any except a few of the more influential and prominent, and these can be considered but briefly. The occupational work of Professor Dewey and Colonel Parker's scheme of concentration have marked the Colonel growth of a body of educational theory and practice that contributions. places the methods of to-day far in advance of anything previously known. The combination and modification of Ritter, Herbart, and Froebel worked out by Parker have perhaps received sufficient attention (see pp. 293, 350, and 364), but we may at this point outline a little more fully the contributions made by John Dewey, who has probably been the leader in the reconstruction that has taken place in education almost since the twentieth century began.

The methods of Dewey were developed in an experimental elementary school connected with the University of Chicago and under his supervision from 1896 to 1903. The school did not start with ready-made principles, but sought to solve three fundamental educational problems. It undertook to find out (1) how to bring the school into Purpose closer relation with the home and neighborhood life; (2) how to introduce subject-matter in history, science, and art that has a positive value and real significance in the child's own life; and (3) how to carry on instruction in reading, writing, and figuring with everyday experience and occupation as their background "in such a way that the child shall feel their necessity through their connection with subjects which appeal to him on their own account." The plan for meeting these needs was found largely in the study of industries. Since industries are most fundamental in the thought, ideals, and social organization of a people, these activities must have the most prominent place in the course of a school. "The school cannot be a preparation for social life except as it reproduces the typical conditions of life." The means used in furnishing this industrial activity were evolved mainly along the lines of shopwork, cooking, sewing, and weaving, although many subsidiary industries were also used. These occupations were, of course, intended for a liberalizing, rather than a technical purpose, and considerable time was given to an historical study of them (Fig. 56). Dewey declares: "The industrial history of man is not a materialistic or merely utilitarian affair. It is a matter of intelligence. Its record is the record of how man learned to think, to think to some effect, to transform the conditions of life so that life itself became a different thing. It is an ethical record as well; the account of the conditions which men have patiently wrought out to serve their ends."

It can be seen how fully this plan is in accord with the real principles of social cooperation and expression of individual activities underlying the work of Froebel; and "so far as these statements correctly represented Froebel's educational philosophy," Dewey generously grants that "the school should be regarded as its exponent." But these industrial activities of the Chicago experimental school were not in the least suggested by Froebel's work, and were far more expressive of real life. They never became as stereotyped and external as the but not as gifts or even as the occupations of the kindergarten have generally been. Dewey is insistent that this training shall be carried on not for the purpose of furnishing facts or principles to be learned, but for enabling the child to engage in the industrial occupations in miniature. "The school is not preparation for life: it is life." Hence this training is superior to the occupations of Froebel in that "it maintains a balance between the intellectual and the practical phases of experience." Where Froebel has held to the construction of beautiful things in mechanical ways, Dewey emphasizes the ordinary activities and experiences of life, even though the expression of these be crude. The child should be "given, wherever possible, intellectual responsibility for selecting the materials and instruments that are most fit, and given an opportunity to think out his own model and plan of work, led to perceive his own errors, and find how to correct them." Thus the work was never "reduced to a mere routine or custom and its educational value lost." As a result, too, it was the consensus of opinion that "while the children like, or love, to come to school, yet work, and not amusement, has been the spirit and teaching of the school; and that this freedom has been granted under such conditions of intelligent and sympathetic oversight as to be a means of upbuilding and strengthening character."

Other Experiments in Method. - Hence, while the Chicago school is now at an end, the experiment in education developed there is still yielding abundant fruitage. It has stimulated similar undertakings elsewhere, and has been the largest factor in determining the theory and practice of the present day. Either as a result of Dewey's work or through independent thought, there has sprung up an important group of schools in which there is clearly an effort to bring boys and girls of elementary school age into more intimate relation to community life about Schools on them. Such are the Gary (Indiana) Public Schools, the Francis W. Parker School of Chicago, the Elementary School at the University of Missouri, the Pestalozzi-Froebel School of Berlin, the Abbotsholme School in Derbyshire (England), and a number of others.

A good illustration is afforded in the school developed University by Junius L. Meriam at Columbia, Missouri, although it has not been given much publicity. Its function is to help children do better in all those wholesome activities in which they normally engage. The school does not attend to the 'three r's' as such, but specifically to parits purpose and ticular activities of children, including (1) play, (2) observation, (3) handwork, and (4) stories, music, and art. These four 'studies,' representing real life, irrespective of the school, constitute the curriculum, and the 'three r's' are studied only as they are needed. Their content, therefore, being used, as in life, in meeting real needs, is studied most effectively.

An experiment that has attracted widespread interest is that worked out in the Gary school system by William A. Wirt. While the achievement is mostly in the way of a remarkable organization and administration that have undertaken to make available "all of the educational opportunities of the city all of the time for all of the people," the teaching has to some extent been carried on so as to reveal to the pupils "that what they are doing is worth while." The school plant includes a playground, garden, workshop, social center, library, and traditional school, and it has been shown that these agencies, when properly organized, "secure the same attitude of mind toward the reading, writing, and arithmetic that the child normally has for play." All the other schools that have been mentioned above make similar attempts to enable the children to get into closer touch with their environment. While each of them approaches the problems of elementary training from a different angle, they are all in harmony with the spirit of Dewey and present day theory.

The Montessori Method. - But probably the most spectacular development in educational procedure is that originating with Maria Montessori at Rome. Yet the Montessori method, except for some elements adapted from Seguin (see p. 426), is largely a combination of several of the concepts found in Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel, and fails to grasp the larger vision of education that appears in present-day theory, such as Dewey's. Like Rousseau and Froebel, Montessori holds fundamentally to the rightness of child nature and consequently to the liberty of the pupil, but she does not, like Dewey, realize that education is itself life and that the activities of real life should be utilized in training. Moreover, the sense training, which Montessori herself considers the most distinctive feature of her system, is neither original nor psychologically sound. Montessori began as a teacher of defectives, and her 'didactic apparatus' and methods are largely borrowed from Seguin. Exercises of this sort are of great value in training defectives, but the assumption of their usefulness in the education of normal children is more doubtful. They are intended to train the senses to general powers and discriminations, and seem to be defended simply upon the basis of faculty psychology and the outworn theory of 'formal discipline' (see p. 182 f.).

The feature of the Montessori method, however, that has attracted most attention is its apparent success with the formal elementary studies, especially the facility, enthusiasm, and speed with which it has enabled the pupils to learn to write. Montessori has carefully analyzed the process of writing and devised three exercises by which this art is unconsciously learned by three or four year old children in Italy. If this training can be applied to unphonetic languages, like the English, it may possibly be regarded as a contribution. It is evident, however, that Montessori lays too much stress upon the acquisition of the formal studies and starts them at too early an age. In this she fails to appreciate Froebel's great contribution of a school without books, and certainly does not realize, with Dewey, that the main purpose of education is to give a child some control of his social environment and that for this there are activities of more importance to child life than the school arts. Within a few years it will probably be difficult to understand the furore that has been created by the Montessori methods.

The Statistical Method and Mental Measurements in Education. - One of the most significant of the present day movements is the application, especially in the United States, of scientific, statistical methods to problems of education. Statistics have long been used, though often without clearness or accuracy, in reports of school administration, but it remained for this century to apply to the various phases of education the same general technique and approximately the same precision as that long demanded by the physical and biological sciences. Quantitative, unambiguous statements are now sought and secured not only for the phenomena of attendance, retardation, expenditures, and the like, but also for the relative and absolute amounts of knowledge. As a consequence, emphasis has been placed upon the results of education rather than upon the declaration of intentions.

Probably the first scholar to apply the scientific principles of statistics to education was Edward L. Thorndike of Columbia University. In his Educational Psychology he illustrates how a quantitative description of individual differences and of the factors that condition them is necessary to throw real light upon educational theory and practice, and in his Mental and Social Measurements he presents the details of the method. Subsequently he maintained, in the face of much opposition, that scales, as objective and as impersonal as possible, should and could be devised for measuring variations in ability and changes that take place as a result of natural growth and instruction. Such scales, beginning at an ascertained zero and progressing by regular steps to a point near perfection, are, because of the complexity of their elements, difficult to construct, but they have been set forth more or less tentatively by various investigators for the measurement of achievement in handwriting (Fig. 57), arithmetic, English composition, spelling, drawing, freehand lettering, and reading respectively. Other scales to measure ability in the several high school subjects may be expected soon.

Studies are also being made in several universities to determine the relative importance of the numerous factors in methods of teaching. This is done by conducting experiments with hundreds or thousands of children to find out by the most accurate measurement yet devised the amount of progress in learning that is wholly due to the presence of some one factor of method in the technique of class-room exercises. Educational psychology has revealed the qualitative significance of many of the single elements in the very complex procedure that we have called a 'method of teaching,' and this new type of research aims to determine the quantitative significance of each of these several elements of method as factors in the production of abilities. A. Duncan Yocum of the University of Pennsylvania has formulated a considerable number of tests, and, by preliminary experimentation, has determined the conditions under which they may with a high degree of accuracy be given to groups of students engaged in actual school work under ordinary class-room conditions. His students have made a number of tentative, but suggestive studies, which have not yet been published. Milo B. Hillegas of Columbia University and others are engaged on certain aspects of this general type of research. There is reason, therefore, to believe that we may sometime be able to measure with as much accuracy the efficiency of well-defined educational processes as we are now able to measure educational products. If this can be attained, the technique of class-room teaching and of educational supervision will begin to rest on a really scientific basis.

Moreover, by the use of the improved statistical method and of scales, studies of greatly increased value have been made of fatigue, retardation, elimination, and of other social and mental phenomena of individual children. And in 1911, with the reports of Paul H. Hanus of Harvard University and Ernest C. Moore of Yale University upon the school systems of Montclair and East Orange, New Jersey, there began to be instituted those measurements and consequent criticisms of whole school systems, known as 'educational surveys.' These scientific reports have been extended to the educational work of a large number of cities and states throughout the Union. They are intended to enable school officers and patrons to comprehend with more definiteness the absolute, as well as the relative, achievements of their children.

Education and the Theory of Evolution. - A most characteristic influence in education to-day has come through the theory of evolution of Darwin (Fig. 51). This fruitful hypothesis came to be generally accepted during the last quarter of the nineteenth century as the guiding principle of education, and has constantly increased the illumination it has shed upon the educational process. It has given an entirely new meaning to education, and has greatly modified the course of study and revolutionized the method of approaching educational problems. It has wrought very much the same changes in the treatment of intelligence that it did in the biological sciences. Consciousness is no longer regarded as a fixed set of entities, but as a developmental process. Instead of classifying and cataloging mental processes in fixed groups, efforts are made to study their growth from the standpoint both of the race and of the individual. Studies of mental development in the race, begun by Darwin's Descent of Man, which recognized 'sexual' and 'social selection,' as well as 'natural selection,' have been continued by numerous investigators, and equally extensive researches have also been latterly made in genetic psychology, child study, mental development, and adolescence. Both observation and experimentation have been introduced into the study of mental processes. Even more revolutionary than this actual increase in cha e in knowledge, however, is the change that has taken place imagery and in the conception, imagery, and terminology of education. Writers upon education constantly employ the language of evolution. Educational discussions are now filled with such terms as 'variation,' 'selection,' 'adjustment,' and 'adaptation,' and such concepts dominate all educational thinking. If educational leaders of half a century ago could be present to-day at a gathering of educational thinkers, they would find themselves listening to what would seem to them almost a foreign language.

Enlarging Conceptions of the Function of Education. - Such are a few of the chief tendencies and advances that are being made in education to-day. There is also a great variety of other educational movements, almost too numerous to be mentioned. In the organization and administration of the public schools there is a decided tendency toward centralization in educational activities, corresponding to the centralization in industrial and political affairs. The United States Bureau of Education and the various State Departments of Public Instruction have had their functions much enlarged and their activities greatly increased. There are also such matters as the new procedure in school hygiene, arising from the modern attitude toward the prevention of disease; new health regulations, as a result of having so many children housed in the same buildings; medical inspection, open-air schools, and better nourishment; and new tendencies in school architecture. Likewise we find progressive legislation on compulsory school attendance; more extensive training of teachers; a rapid recognition of education as a profession; the organization of various professionaiitypes of teachers' associations; and the development of teaching. educational journalism. Secondary education is also being greatly extended and largely reorganized. 'Junior Reorganizahigh schools,' combining the upper grades of the elemen- ary and higher tary school with the lower grades of the secondary school, and thus bridging the gap, are being widely introduced into American cities, and a variety of propositions for a six-year course are being seriously entertained. In connection with higher education there are such new tendencies as university extension, correspondence courses, summer sessions, university interest in the practical problems of the people, the correlation of the first two years of college with the secondary school, more flexible entrance requirements, an increasing number of fields of professional work, and, above all, the professional training of teachers through Departments of Education, Teachers Colleges, and Schools of Education. With this is connected the scientific study of Education, both in graduate courses and independent investigations.

Similar efforts to secure economy, guard health, improve method, and cause education to serve democratic ideals are everywhere apparent. Educational theory and practice are in a constant flux, and have entered upon a most distinctive epoch of experimentation, change, and improvement. While such a situation is not without its perils, and each proposal should be carefully scrutinized before acceptance, the present tendencies are in the main a sign of progress and life.

Supplementary Readings

Graves, In Modern Times (Macmillan, 1913), chap. XI; Monroe, Textbook (Macmillan, 1905), chaps. XIII-XIV. For the special tendencies mentioned, the following works may be consulted: Cooley, E. G., Vocational Education in Europe (Chicago Commercial Club, 1912); Hanus, P. H., Beginnings in Industrial Education (Houghton, Mifflin, 1908); Haskins, C. W., Business Education and Accounting (Harper, 1904); Adler, F., Moral Instruction of Children (Appleton, 1895); Palmer, G. H., Ethical and Moral Instruction in Schools (Houghton, Mifflin, 1909); Goddard, H. H., Education of Defectives {Monroe's Cyclopadia of Education); Bell, A. G., Deaf Mute Instruction in Relation to the Work of the Public Schools; Armitage, T., Education and Employment of the Blind (Harrison & Sons, London, 1886); Dewey, J., The School and Society (University of Chicago Press, 1899), and Elementary School Record (University of Chicago Press, 1000); Montessori, Maria, The Montessori Method (Translated by Anne E. George, Stokes Co., New York, 1912); Kilpatrick, W. H., The Montessori Method Examined (Houghton, Mifflin, 1914); Ayres, L. P., Measuring Educational Processes through Educational Results (School Review, May, 1912); Strayer, G. D., Standards and Tests for Measuring the Efficiency of Schools (Report of the Committee of the National Council of Education in the United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1913, No. 13); Thorndike, E. L., The Measurement of Educational Products (School Review, May, 1912).