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EDUCATION AND THE 
 GENERAL WELFARE 
 
:Thg^>^o. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALI.AS 
 ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
EDUCATION AND THE 
 GENERAL WELFARE 
 
 A TEXTBOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 SCHOOL LAW, HYGIENE, AND 
 MANAGEMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK K. SECHRIST, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of Education, University of Cincinnati 
 
 il3eto gotfe 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1920 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
/ 
 
 %' 
 
 Copyright, 1920, 
 
 By the macmillan company 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1920. 
 
 t^^ti I 7 1920 
 
 ©Ci.A566086 
 
TO 
 
 Ed. 4b and Ed. 29, U. C, '18 and '19 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book is an outgrowth of classroom work in a course 
 of school law, hygiene, and management, as offered to 
 juniors in preparation for teaching and to others who in 
 pursuit of liberal studies regard a knowledge of this subject- 
 matter as essential to intelligent citizenship. 
 
 As a text-book in management, its central theme is the 
 school as a part of community life and the individual child 
 as the dominant interest of the school. It aims to extend 
 the scope of the subject beyond its traditional limits, the 
 four walls of the schoolhouse. Since the public school can- 
 not lead a cloistered existence but must register an appre- 
 ciable effect upon the community of which it forms a part, 
 it cannot afford to ignore the forces of indifference from 
 without that may nullify its every effort. A study of the 
 causes of illiteracy, child labor, and non-attendance, and 
 opposition to them, is a part of the campaign against igno- 
 rance. 
 
 But while aiming to give a comprehensive view of the 
 whole school situation, the book considers at the same time 
 the everyday problems of the schoolroom and the details 
 of pupil management. However, the principles of dis- 
 cipline held to, it is hoped, will be found not altogether pe- 
 culiar to the school but also applicable in the home and 
 equally useful for self -management in the conduct of life 
 anywhere. For the general guiding principle is that of hy- 
 giene, and this as applied to the mental and moral as well 
 as to the physical realm. The policy of preventing ills 
 
viii Preface 
 
 is, however, regarded as complementary to that of provid- 
 ing the means and opportunities for positive character 
 growth in all the activities of school life. The concept of 
 health is regarded as applicable to every kind of function- 
 ing, and moral values are kept in mind even before the dis- 
 tinct beginning of moral responsibility in the school child. 
 In the application of psychological principles to the matter 
 of establishing favorable attitudes, school management en- 
 ters a promising field. From this point of view, it will gain 
 a clearer and larger psychological content and more and 
 more stress conditions of learning as distinguished from 
 methods of teaching. 
 
 The teacher and the class, of which the largest school 
 systems are but multiples, is, of course, the typical situa- 
 tion of management held in mind throughout the book. It 
 is not addressed to the administrator, but its subject-matter 
 is related to those general aspects of management that every 
 teacher should appreciate in order to be in a position to co- 
 operate intelligently in measures that seek the highest good 
 of the school system by way of the classroom. While the 
 elementary school, as the most numerous of all schools, is 
 frequently referred to throughout the text, the book was 
 prepared for use in classes in which all the teachers of a 
 complete system may be represented. 
 
 The book covers a wide range and does not aim at com- 
 pleteness in any direction. All its topics should, however, 
 stimulate inquiry and further discussion. The statistical 
 tables, in some cases given without textual comment, will in 
 themselves offer data for supplementary work of this char- 
 acter. Thus the work which is here mapped out to cover a 
 three-hour course for half a college year, may be expanded 
 so as to provide material for twice this scope. 
 
Preface ix 
 
 In the list of books and pamphlets given under the head 
 of Selected References, certain important titles that may 
 seem to have been ignored will in nearly all instances be 
 found included in the bibliographies of one or more of the 
 references in the list. The references in the text are cited 
 as authority for the statements made or to suggest further 
 study from the same or a different point of view. 
 
 The writer acknowledges obligations in general to his 
 colleagues, his students, and to teachers of Cincinnati and 
 vicinity, incurred both before and after the purpose to 
 write a book had been formed. More particularly, to Dean 
 William P. Burris, of the College for Teachers, University 
 of Cincinnati, is due the original suggestion that the course 
 out of which the book has grown be planned to provide 
 information necessary to the fulfillment of certain state re- 
 quirements for a teachers' life certificate. When the work 
 began to take final form, he made a critical reading of the 
 manuscript, and he gave much encouragement all along the 
 toilsome way. Others who made criticisms and suggestions 
 or assisted in other helpful ways were Miss Frances 
 Jenkins, assistant professor in the College for Teachers, 
 Whitelaw Reid Morrison, M.D., professor of physical edu- 
 cation. University of Cincinnati, Principal George H. 
 Shafer, of the Willimantic (Conn.) State Normal School, 
 and the writer's wife, Anna Eldon Sechrist. But the author 
 alone remains responsible for the content of the work and 
 its organization, and for any errors that may have escaped 
 correction. 
 
 F. S. 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, 
 November, 1919. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The General Welfare i 
 
 The resources of the mind — The content aim of education 
 
 — The formal aim of school work — Maximurn and minimum 
 aims — Illiteracy — The allegiance of the spirit — Measures 
 to reduce or wipe out illiteracy for the sake of the children — 
 Americanization of immigrant children — The future of Amer- 
 ican school children — Educational " Faddism " — Use of con- 
 crete things as a source of knowledge and skill — Ideals of 
 recreation — Ideals of achievement — " Internal improvement " 
 
 — The means of education. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 Public Opinion and Educational Control 24 
 
 A healthy local sentiment for education — A national senti- 
 ment — Federal aid to schools — Land grants in support of 
 higher education — Morrill Law — Direct appropriations from 
 the United States treasury — Agricultural Extension Law — 
 Vocational Education Law — Full Time and Part Time Indus- 
 trial Schools — Federal aid for education as proposed — Other 
 sources of support. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 Distribution of Emphasis 38 
 
 The total cost of education in the United States for the year 
 1916 — Expenses of special schools — Distribution of expenses 
 in state and city systems — Number of pupils per teacher — 
 Financial return to the teacher — Total expense per pupil — 
 Classified expenditures per child in average attendance — Sal- 
 aries of teachers per pupil in average attendance — Crowding 
 in the elementary school — Method of distribution of school 
 funds. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 50 
 
 The meaning of childhood — Neural basis of work and 
 play — Immediate and remote effects of child labor — Child 
 
 xi 
 
xiv Contents 
 
 CHAPTER XII p^CB 
 
 Why Children Are Dull 183 
 
 Chronic disease and physical defects — Levels of efficiency — 
 The unwilling and the incapable — Indifference and dullness 
 — Mental consequences of physical defects — Effect of con- 
 sciousness of weakness — Medical diagnosis and education — 
 School health, a permanent national service — Defects of the 
 respiratory system — Defects of the digestive system — Dis- 
 eased teeth and retardation — Brushing and cleansing the 
 teeth — Malnutrition — Malnutrition and dullness — Rachitic 
 effects — School feeding — Impoverished blood — Anemia — 
 Anemia and dullness — Sense defects — Hearing — Hearing 
 tests — Impaired hearing and dullness — Symptoms of defect- 
 ive hearing — Symptoms of eye strain — Standard size of 
 letters — Conservation of vision in school — Speech defects — 
 Speech defects and retardation — Cure of speech defects — 
 Mental types of stutterers — Summary. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 Original Assets of Character 209 
 
 By way of transition — Pupil management — The child's 
 initial equipment — Original tendencies — The impulse to act 
 
 — The impulse to resist — Tendency to dispel feelings of ill- 
 will — Tne impulse to render service — The impulse to take 
 the initiative and assume responsibility — The impulse of 
 children to seek companionship — Desire for the approval of 
 the group — The desire to cooperate — The natural hunger of 
 the senses — A desire to get on — The desire for completed 
 action — A desire for results — The impulse to strive — The 
 direction of development. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 Problem of the Emotions 222 
 
 Study of the emotions — Personal reactions — Continuity 
 of emotion — Affective displacement — The unwilling pupil — 
 Emotion and object — Development of likes and dislikes — Ani- 
 mals and flowers — Symbols and emotions — Good and evil 
 
 — Emotional excess — A study of cases — Excessive fears — 
 Children conceal their fears — Fear as a means of discipline 
 
 — Fears dissolved by understanding — Anger — Nervous in- 
 stability—Influence of the teacher — Excessive inhibition — 
 Summary. 
 
Contents xv 
 
 CHAPTER XV ,^<,, 
 
 Factors in Self-Control 246 
 
 Reasons for study of exceptional child — The self-con- 
 trolled — Study of means of self-control — Instinctive support 
 
 — Desire to be a man — A controlling interest — Self-control 
 and leadership — Imagination and character ^ — Imitation of 
 ideals — A critical point of the imagination — Daydreaming — 
 Falsifying — Summary. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 Mental Development Through Attitudes 258 
 
 An attitude favorable to the work of the school — The cheer- 
 ful attitude — The right use of the mind — The attitude of 
 attention — The child's attention — Bodily positions and think- 
 ing — Thinking under difficulties — Concentrated and distrib- 
 uted attention — Causes of mental inefficiency — How mental 
 power is weakened — Thinking of self — The practice of think- 
 ing in school — Substitutes for thinking — Memory for words 
 
 — Memory of words a means to higher ends — Memory of facts 
 
 — Memory for relations — Steps in development of thinking 
 
 — The spirit of inquiry is essential to thinking — Tone and 
 tempo of the teacher's questioning — Consecutive thinking — 
 Constructive type of thinking — Constructive use of knowledge 
 
 — What the mind is for — Control of attention — Attention 
 follows interest — Interest follows attention — Inner and outer 
 factors of attention — Concentration weakened by deadly still- 
 ness — Concentration weakened by impulse to be active — 
 Concentration weakened by anticipation and memories — Chief 
 sign of mental strength — Mistakes in double-track thinking — 
 Exercise to increase power of concentration — The divided 
 attention — Indecision — Importance of being certain — Inde- 
 cision as reflected in school work — Home training in inde- 
 cision — Facing and settling problems — The hygiene and dis- 
 cipline of the mind. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 The Individual and the Group 284 
 
 Limitations of freedom — The teacher in relation to the 
 school — The school an organic unit — Danger in the strong 
 personality — Teacher's duty to the group — Training for 
 group activity — From family to school — Group efficiency re- 
 quires system — Distinguishing constants and variables — The 
 appeal to reason — The individual and the group in class work 
 
 — Individual vs. Class teaching — Individual and social ele- 
 ments in the formal recitation — Value of class criticism — 
 
xvi Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Establishing class standards — Cooperative class work — 
 Weakening initiative and power of attack —- Group prepara- 
 tion — Intellectual and social value of intensive class work — 
 Loss of individual in the group — Group consistency — Pro- 
 motion and grading — Where the trouble begins — Appointed 
 time for promotion — Keeping the group consistent — Group 
 organizations. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 The Work of the School Day 302 
 
 Principles of program making — Time distribution — A rural 
 school program — Method of alternation — The formal reci- 
 tation in school programs — The teacher's time — Original 
 function of the oral recitation — Recitation as related to sub- 
 ject matter — Importance of the day's work — The essential 
 factors of school work — Too many impressions — Too few 
 impressions — Over-elaboration — Want of elaboration — 
 Empty language — Cross-purposes in the recitation — Modern 
 program requirements — Organizing a program — A suggested 
 departure from the recitation program — Organization within 
 the time periods — Organization between the period:^ — Di- 
 rected study — Departmental programs. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 The Play Instinct in School Work 328 
 
 Play jnd the development of the self — Second and third 
 stage — General agreements and differences between work and 
 play — Types of activity, play — When play becomes work — 
 Plot-interest in play — Plot-interest in a ball — Heightened 
 plot-interest — Feeling of responsibility — The quitter — Sum- 
 mary — Play as mental hygiene — The play illusion — Con- 
 structive activity, play and work — Work — Other forms of 
 play — Amusement — Dawdling — Relation of the scientific in- 
 terest to the drudgery of work — Mental parallels of physical 
 types of work — Summary, How to vitalize school work. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Food and Sleep 347 
 
 Prophylaxis — Food — Food campaigns — Theory and prac- 
 tice — How a teacher may know whether a child is well-nour- 
 ished — Nutrition depends not on food alone — Sleep — The 
 amount of sleep — Quality of sleep — Quality of sleep an effect 
 — Sleep and home conditions — John Locke on sleep — Effect 
 of too much sleep — The cause of sleep and cure of sleepless- 
 ness. 
 
Contents xvii 
 
 CHAPTER XXI p^cg 
 
 Recreation 363 
 
 Benefits of play — Value of open air recreation — Universal 
 play impulse — The modern Olympic games — Physical fitness 
 as a patriotic duty — Exercises in physical training — Play- 
 ground interests — Organization of play — Play in the coun- 
 try — Play in the city — Sports in the elementary school — A 
 scale of play values — Revelations of a play census. 
 
 CHAPTER XXn 
 Auxiliary Agencies 380 
 
 Modern needs — Cooperation of the home — How to win 
 parents — The parent-teacher association — Possible influence 
 of such organizations — Every school needs a laboratory — 
 The home as a source of projects — Little Mothers' leagues — 
 The National Children's Bureau — School gardening — School 
 savings banks — Civics clubs — The Scouts organizations — The 
 social center — The unit of democracy — The school needs 
 the social center — Child welfare a universal interest — The 
 promise of the profession. 
 
 APPENDIX 
 Standardizing Requirements 397 
 
 Statutory definitions of schools — The kindergarten as a part 
 of the public school system — Merging the kindergarten and 
 the elementary school — Definition of an elementary school 
 
 — Classification of elementary schools — Graded schools — 
 Consolidated schools — Definition and classification of high 
 schools — Time units — Types of high school courses — 
 Methods of raising standards in elementary and high schools 
 
 — Plan of standardization adopted and used by Montana 
 State Department of Education — Score card for city school 
 buildings — A suggested score card for schools in small cities, 
 villages, and consolidated districts. 
 
LIST OF CHARTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHART 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 Vila 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 X 
 
 XI 
 
 XII 
 
 XIII 
 
 XIV 
 
 XV 
 
 XVI 
 
 XVII 
 
 XVIII 
 
 XIX 
 
 XX 
 
 XXI 
 
 .XXII 
 
 XXIII 
 
 The percentage of illiterates in the states . 
 Future occupations of American children . 
 Appropriations for vocational education . 
 Total cost of education in the U. S. for 1916 . 
 Expenditure for education in the states 
 
 Classified expenditures in cities 
 
 Salaries of teachers per pupil, etc 
 
 Child labor in American cities ...... 
 
 Average length of school terms in the states . 
 
 Reasons for non-attendance 
 
 Grade distribution in Ohio 
 
 Comparison of wages of children .... 
 Mean hourly range of temperature .... 
 Comparative reduction in mortality .... 
 
 Seasonal diseases 
 
 Seasonal diseases 
 
 Physical examinations of school children in Chi 
 
 cago 
 
 Medical examination of school children in Cincin 
 
 nati 
 
 Causes of rejection for military service 
 
 Grade distribution of lispers and stutterers 
 
 Time distribution by subjects and grades . 
 
 One-teacher rural school recitation program 
 
 A flexible program for 5th and 6th grade . 
 
 A flexible program for 2nd grade . . . 
 xix 
 
 PAGE 
 II 
 
 17 
 32 
 
 40 
 
 42-3 
 
 46 
 
 47 
 57 
 68-9 
 
 74 
 
 89 
 
 93-4 
 125 
 163 
 177 
 178 
 
 185 
 
 187-8 
 189-0 
 206 
 303-4 
 
 305 
 321-2 
 
 323-4 
 
XX List of Charts and Illustrations 
 
 CHART PAGE 
 
 XXIV A flexible program for 4th and 5th grade . . . 325-6 
 
 XXV Height and weight table for boys 353 
 
 XXVI Height and weight table for girls 354-5 
 
 XXVII A play census 377-S 
 
 FIGURE 
 
 1 An approved type of city school building . facing 95 
 
 2 A modern one-room school building 97 
 
 2a Plan of 2 98 
 
 3-4 A one-story school building with floor plan .... 100 
 
 5 Basement floor plan of 3 loi 
 
 6 Plan of school grounds 104 
 
 7 Effect of location of inlets and outlets 127 
 
 8 Diagram of psychic activity 311 
 
 9 Weighing a child facing 355 
 
EDUCATION AND THE GENERAL 
 WELFARE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 The General Welfare 
 
 It is at all times the paramount purpose of good govern- 
 ment to promote the general welfare. A wide diffusion 
 of knowledge among the people has from the beginning of 
 our history been furthered by various acts of legislation 
 as a means to this end. While to develop and conserve 
 the country's resources and foster a widely distributed ma- 
 terial prosperity is a moral obligation, it has always been 
 our political philosophy that a nation's greatness is not 
 ultimately in mines and forests and prairies, but in the 
 character of the people, in their ideas and sentiments; and 
 that its power is not in armies and navies, but in the invisible 
 ideals for which men and women are willing to lay down 
 their lives. 
 
 To support a system of schools for all the people for the 
 purpose of cultivating ideals and developing character is a 
 national political strategy of the first order. It is the per- 
 manent line of the national defense. It is a nation's insur- 
 ance against death by stagnation or destruction by violence. 
 It is a vital part of the national economy. Public education 
 is our common cause, however people may differ in party 
 politics or religion. It is a means of organizing the per- 
 
2 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 manent forces of American life. In its broader mission 
 it reaches three generations : the group of children in school, 
 their parents, and, in the course of time, the generation to 
 come — all in one message that goes home. 
 
 The Resources of the Mind. The wealth of a nation 
 is human. The ultimate resources of the individual and 
 the nation for both happiness and prosperity are within. 
 That happiness does not depend on material wealth, that 
 it is the mind that makes the body rich, that who would 
 be free must free his mind from sordid passions, must love 
 virtue and justice and be an active champion of righteous- 
 ness — all these are familiar truths of the literature of 
 freedom and the moral basis of good citizenship. 
 
 But to these lessons of democracy must now be added 
 that the resources of material prosperity and national de- 
 fense are also of the mind, that when the forces of a nation 
 are summoned to meet a great crisis it is not enough to 
 be schooled in the abstract principles of freedom and duties 
 of citizenship. Now what a man has done or can do in 
 times of peace is called into service. Now it will appear 
 whether his body is strong and alert to serve the will and 
 what his training in other respects has prepared him to 
 offer.i 
 
 Our country has passed through several stages of eco- 
 
 1 " The most formidable institution we had to fight in Germany was 
 not the arsenals of Krupp or the yards in which they turned out sub- 
 marines, but the schools of Germany. They were our most formidable 
 competitors in business and our most terrible opponents in war. An 
 educated man is a better worker, a more formidable warrior, and a 
 better citizen. That was only half comprehended before the war." — 
 Lloyd-George in a speech at Manchester, as reported in the Survey. 
 November 9, 19 18. 
 
The General Welfare 3 
 
 nomic development. The first was a period of exploration 
 of the vast domain, the age of the pioneer and of individual 
 enterprise. The next was the period of exploitation and 
 waste, of individual and collective enterprise. Before the 
 World War we had already entered upon the present period 
 of cooperative enterprise, of organization and conservation 
 of our resources. We had come to the bounds of the 
 geographical frontier and had come to see our limits in 
 all directions. The beginning of the War revealed a lack 
 of industrial unity, a limited food supply, a congested trans- 
 portation system, and a national spirit diluted by many 
 diverse racial elements. We learned that there is a national 
 physiology as well as a national psychology. The War in- 
 tensified and accelerated the conservation movement. It 
 was found that, while our resources are great, they are 
 exhaustible and that there are limits to our fabulous wealth. 
 The multi-millionaire could have financed the War for only 
 a few days. The failure of one year's crop of wheat would 
 have jeopardized the fruits of civil liberty gained in cen- 
 turies of conflict. 
 
 To make more of our material resources, we must fall 
 back on the resources of the mind. These are by their na- 
 ture inexhaustible. We must keep extending the intellectual 
 frontier. " For the prevention of waste the most effective 
 means will be found in the increase and diffusion of knowl- 
 edge, from which is sure to result an aroused public senti- 
 ment demanding prevention." ^ 
 
 For the increase of production we depend also on educa- 
 tional development. The animal adapts himself to the en- 
 vironment; man adapts the environment to himself. A 
 
 1 From the Report of the National Conservation Commission, 1900. 
 
4 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 country possesses material resources only in so far as the 
 intelligence and skill of the people can make them available. 
 The soil is fertile only as it can be made to yield profitable 
 crops. Deposits of iron and coal are rich only as related 
 to useful industry. The nitrogen of the air has no com- 
 mercial value unless we have the science to extract it. The 
 natural wealth of a country affords but a scant subsistence 
 to an ignorant people. If they cannot rise to their coun- 
 try's opportunities they may become the victims of con- 
 quest or of peaceful penetration. The mind of a people 
 is the chief source of wealth as all other resources depend 
 on its productive power. 
 
 " Tilling the soil even with so perfected a tool as( a good spade, 
 it would take 560 seasons to turn over a square mile of land, 640 
 acres. A man with a team and good plow can do it in 4 seasons. 
 Twelve men with three mechanical tractors and fifty-one plows in 
 a gang can turn it over in 36 hours. 
 
 " At $2.00 a day, man power costs per horse power, $54,000 per 
 year of 7,500 hours. In a small gasoline engine it costs $300 a 
 year per horse power; for large power installations, whether 
 steam, gas, or electrical, it costs from $20 a year up to $200 per 
 horse power. Man power costs therefore from 135 to 1,350 times 
 as much as uncarnate power. 
 
 " On the average each adult man is supplemented by 22 me- 
 chanical slaves whose keep averages less than one four-hundredth 
 of his own value of $2.00 a day." ^ 
 
 To increase production and conservation and use of the 
 product is the constant problem of the world's growing 
 population. In all the universe the mind of man is the only 
 means of solving it. 
 
 1 Emerson : " Twelve Principles of Efficiency," New York, 1916, p. 
 vii-ix. 
 
The General Welfare 5 
 
 The Content Aim of Education. It is the function of 
 the school primarily to teach that knowledge which the race 
 has found necessary to its continued existence is content- 
 ment and happiness, and to discover the place in the social 
 economy of individual capabilities. All this includes the 
 conservation of life and health, the protection and care of 
 property, and the promotion of industry and thrift. To 
 aid in securing the power of self-support is the irreducible 
 minimum of what the school must do for every child. 
 And this for self-respect and moral development as well as 
 for the prosperity and security of the state. 
 
 But the aims of education cannot be justly phrased in so 
 brief a way. There are maximum and minimum aims ac- 
 cording to individual capacities. And not all desirable 
 knowledge is of equal importance. What is of first im- 
 portance is not necessarily the first to acquire. There are 
 five major interests which popular education must to a cer- 
 tain extent satisfy. They come in the following order of 
 importance : -^ I. Economic independence. II. Care of 
 offspring. III. The Social interest. IV. The Political in- 
 terest. V. The Interests of Leisure. Health is funda- 
 mental to all. 
 
 It is evident that the power to supply an economic need 
 in a community takes precedence of all other interests. To 
 be able to make a living comes first. If the ability to pro- 
 vide for himself food, clothing, and shelter without as- 
 sistance fails a young man, he should refrain from entering 
 the relation which brings responsibility for the second (II). 
 If he is an economic charge he cannot become a social bless- 
 
 1 Spencer, Herbert: "Education," New York, 1900, chap. I, D. Ap- 
 pleton and Company. 
 
6 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 ing (III). And as for the fourth (IV), only when one has 
 attained the first (I) can he properly concern himself with 
 the political rights of a freeman. Any one who can make 
 an honest living will readily comprehend the ordinary duties 
 of citizenship, even though he have meager scholastic at- 
 tainments. On the other hand, one might be well versed in 
 the theory of government and yet be a menace to the state 
 if that is his only means of support. Finally, the interests 
 of leisure (V) are only for him who by his industry and 
 thrift has accumulated a surplus over and above the cost of 
 food, clothing, and shelter, and has earned his leisure. 
 
 Accumulations of wealth represent the power of leisure 
 derived from productive labor, and the value of the wealth 
 in any case depends on how the leisure afforded is employed. 
 A certain amount of leisure is the inalienable right of the 
 humblest person. The way it is spent will in all cases meas- 
 ure the value of the energy and thrift that earned it. 
 
 In a general way, under the first head (I) comes the 
 money-making enterprise. This is related to the others in 
 so far as it supplies certain of their indispensable material 
 needs. But the others in their own province are not pri- 
 marily fields for the accumulation of wealth, although in an 
 advanced state of society service in them may be prepared 
 for by special training and used as a means of gaining a live- 
 lihood. For example, care of offspring is the parent's duty. 
 He owes it to the child, the community, and the state. A 
 part of this service has become so large that it must be dele- 
 gated to trained assistants ; and it has become so important 
 that the state now usually takes the place of the parent, as a 
 means of making its own future secure. But if the sole 
 object of any of the agencies engaged in this work is not 
 
The General Welfare 7 
 
 the supreme good of the child, the common sense of hu- 
 manity condemns the process as wicked exploitation. 
 
 And service to the community and to the state to be hon- 
 orable must be free and non-remunerative. To be a good 
 citizen one must be a good neighbor and give his time freely 
 for the good of the community. To receive money for a 
 vote or hold office to accumulate wealth is civic treason. A 
 paid representative of the people in any capacity receives a 
 supposed equivalent for loss of time and opportunities in a 
 regular occupation or profession. 
 
 Among the interests of leisure are recreative sports and 
 games, music, literature, drama, and the fine arts. Here 
 we have on the one hand creative pleasure and artistic sat- 
 isfaction as the controlling motive; on the other, the pleas- 
 ures of appreciation. To give further emphasis to the im- 
 portance of leisure, it is only necessary to add that it 
 includes the time occupied in that which for many represents 
 the highest type of human enjoyment — religious devotions 
 and public worship. This interest of leisure is the special 
 province of the church and other religious institutions. 
 However, the school can inspire reverence for all religious 
 aspirations. 
 
 It is to be especially noted that health is a fundamental 
 condition to the exercise of every activity. Physical vigor 
 has a direct relation to the service of the state. Keeping 
 fit is a social and a patriotic duty. Since no interest can be 
 pursued without health, not even the enjoyment of leisure, 
 keeping well is the prime economy, the first means to all 
 other ends. However, the school was not instituted for the 
 purpose of gaining health but rather for its conservation. 
 It is not a sanitarium. One does not go there to seek lost 
 
8 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 health but to seek knowledge. Still school conditions and 
 requirements must not interfere with normal growth in 
 height and weight. The physical vitality of the child must 
 be raised rather than lowered by its experience in school. 
 
 The Formal Aim of School Work. If we ask what 
 activity in the child the school ultimately seeks to stimulate, 
 the answer to be given is more than a hundred and fifty 
 years old in the history of education. It is : " inner self-ac- 
 tivity.'* This may be called the formal aim of school work 
 in distinction from the content aim. In the one the chief 
 goal is economic independence, in the second it is independ- 
 ence of thought. These two attainments are of greater 
 value to the individual than any amount of formal study 
 of patriotism and government without these two. The 
 largest part of good citizenship is to be able to make an hon- 
 est living and to do one's own thinking. 
 
 School Work Aims at the Individual; not at the mass 
 but at the individual in the mass. All planning, organizing, 
 thinking, is in the first place individual. The teacher must 
 keep track of the individual minds composing a class and 
 not expect any of them to be swept along by the mo- 
 mentum of the whole. 
 
 Maximum and Minimum Aims. Since all children are 
 now required to go to school, it will be found that the same 
 maximum aims that have been outlined as the major life 
 interests cannot be reached in all the children on account 
 of differences in natural endowments, and that there will 
 be some who are limited not in one but in all possible di- 
 rections of advancement. Hence it must be the aim of the 
 school to train each child to the limit of its capacity to 
 receive training. In some children this will be reached be- 
 
The General Welfare g 
 
 fore the end of the elementary period, but in most cases 
 the training can, as everybody knows, be continued much 
 beyond that period. 
 
 Illiteracy. On account of local indifference to the work 
 of the school, public education in the United States has not 
 reached in many places even minimum aims. According 
 to the Secretary of the United States Department of the 
 Interior, there were brought into the United States army in 
 the first draft of recruits ( 1917) between 30,000 and 40,000 
 illiterates and almost as many near-illiterates. In a letter 
 on the situation he said of them : 
 
 They cannot sign their names. 
 
 They cannot read their orders posted daily on bulletin boards in 
 camp. 
 
 They cannot read their manual of arms. 
 
 They cannot read their letters or write home. 
 
 They cannot understand the signals or follow the signal corps 
 in time of battle. 
 
 In one of the southern camps it was found that illiterate 
 draftees of American stock did not know the name of the 
 county from which they had come, they did not know what 
 is meant by '' county seat," they could not tell their age, 
 could not command the distinction between right and left 
 for the purposes of drill. The questionnaire was a futile 
 method of gaining information from them; they could not 
 read it nor could they understand its terms, exemption, de- 
 pendents, etc. 
 
 Masses of our unassimilated foreigners who were drafted 
 into the army had to learn to pronounce in broken English : 
 "Halt! Who goes there?" and "Advance and give the 
 countersign." 
 
lo Education and the General Welfare 
 
 It was decided by Congress in 19 17 that illiterate foreign- 
 ers must no longer be admitted into the United States. In 
 our earlier history the foreign element came mostly from 
 the north and west of Europe, from countries nearly all of 
 which have a lower percentage of illiterates among the pop- 
 ulation than our own. When the immigrants came from 
 eastern, central, and southern Europe there was a large in- 
 flux of illiterates. They came in part from Austria with 
 13.7, Hungary with 33, Roumania with 60.6, Russia with 
 69, and Serbia with 78.9 per cent of illiterates among the 
 population. We had been making fair progress in reducing 
 illiteracy in our native population both white and colored, 
 but among the foreign-born it had considerably increased 
 by 19 10. According to the Report of the Census taken that 
 year there were 5,516,163 persons classed as illiterate, or 
 y.y per cent of our total population of ten years and over. 
 It has been estimated that the total number of illiterates 
 equals the total population of 372 cities having between 
 10,000 and 25,000 inhabitants, and that it is larger than the 
 combined population of Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, 
 Cleveland, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati. 
 
 In 1900, 8.4 per cent of the total voting population were 
 unable to read and write. In 191 o the number had in- 
 creased. Although the bulk of the illiterate immigrant pop- 
 ulation settles at first in the large cities, the rural districts 
 contain nearly twice the proportion of all illiterates com- 
 pared with the cities, where amalgamation goes on more 
 rapidly because isolation is more difiicult, and where op- 
 portunities for learning to read and write in the prevailing 
 language are more eagerly seized upon by the aspiring for- 
 eigner. 
 
The General Welfare 
 
 II 
 
 The percentage of illiterates in the several states is given 
 in the following Chart, the state with the smallest number 
 being placed first and so on : 
 
 
 
 CHART I 
 
 
 
 ank 
 
 State 
 
 Per cent 
 of illit- 
 erates 
 
 Rank 
 
 State 
 
 Per cent 
 of illit- 
 erates 
 
 I. 
 
 Iowa 
 
 1.7 
 
 26. 
 
 New York 
 
 5-5 
 
 2. 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 1.9 
 
 27. 
 
 New Jersey- 
 
 5.6 
 
 3. 
 
 Oregon 
 
 1.9 
 
 28. 
 
 Oklahoma 
 
 5.6 
 
 4- 
 
 Washington 
 
 2.0 
 
 29. 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 5.9 
 
 5. 
 
 Idaho 
 
 2.2 
 
 30. 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 6.0 
 
 6. 
 
 Kansas 
 
 2.2 
 
 31- 
 
 Nevada 
 
 (>.7 
 
 7. 
 
 Utah 
 
 2.5 
 
 32. 
 
 Maryland 
 
 7.2 
 
 8. 
 
 South Dakota 
 
 2.9 
 
 33. 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 7-7 
 
 9. 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 3.0 
 
 34. 
 
 Delaware 
 
 8.1 
 
 10. 
 
 Indiana 
 
 3.1 
 
 35. 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 8.3 
 
 II. 
 
 North Dakota 
 
 3-1 
 
 36. 
 
 Texas 
 
 9.9 
 
 12. 
 
 Michigan 
 
 3-2 
 
 Z7- 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 12.1 
 
 13. 
 
 Ohio 
 
 3.2 
 
 38. 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 12.6 
 
 14. 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 3.2 
 
 39- 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 13.6 
 
 15. 
 
 Wyoming 
 
 3.Z 
 
 40. 
 
 Florida 
 
 13.8 
 
 16. 
 
 California 
 
 3-7 
 
 41. 
 
 Virginia 
 
 15.2 
 
 17. 
 
 Colorado 
 
 Z-7 
 
 42. 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 18.5 
 
 18. 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Z'7 
 
 43- 
 
 New Mexico 
 
 20.2 
 
 19. 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Z'7 
 
 44. 
 
 Georgia 
 
 20.7 
 
 20. 
 
 Maine 
 
 4.1 
 
 45. 
 
 Arizona 
 
 20.9 
 
 21. 
 
 Missouri 
 
 4-3 
 
 46. 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 22.4 
 
 22. 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 4-6 
 
 47. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 22.9 
 
 23. 
 
 Montana 
 
 4.8 
 
 48. 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 25.7 
 
 24. 
 
 District of Columbia 4.9 
 
 49. 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 29.0 
 
 25. 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 5.2 
 
 
 
 
 The Allegiance of the Spirit. In this day and age those 
 who are literate in no language are men without a country. 
 They stay for a time in a modern state but are not of it. 
 With a bodily presence in the twentieth century, their minds 
 
12 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 date back to 1600 and beyond, and not even to what is best 
 in those remote periods. Without the power to read they 
 cannot enter into communion with the spirit of the times 
 and can have no proper conception of national ideals. 
 
 The allegiance of the spirit holds usually with the coun- 
 try whose language one speaks and whose literature he 
 reads. This is ultimately a stronger tie than blood or trade 
 relationship. It is the true cohesive force of national unity. 
 In any country with a large immigrant population like ours, 
 the use of the language of the adopted country will be a 
 permanent minimum aim of educational endeavor. The im- 
 migration law of 19 1 7 permits entrance to those who are 
 literate in any language. It excludes only '' all aliens over 
 sixteen years of age, physically capable of reading, who can- 
 not read the English, or some other language or dialect, in- 
 cluding Hebrew or Yiddish." In 1910, 22.8 per cent of 
 our entire foreign population could not speak the English 
 language. When this population is massed in large col- 
 onies as in the northern and eastern section of the country 
 the number of those who cannot speak English rises as high 
 as 76 per cent. 
 
 The foreign white population 10 years of age and over 
 who are unable to speak English, grouped on the basis of 
 age, is as follows: 
 
 Age Number 
 
 10 to 14 56,405 
 
 15 to 19 227,649 
 
 20 103,345 
 
 21 to 24 394.166 
 
 25 to 34 902,949 
 
 35 to 44 538,798 
 
The General Welfare 13 
 
 Age Number 
 
 45 to 54 324,865 
 
 55 to 64 192,488 
 
 65 and over 201,709 
 
 Age unknown 10,637 
 
 Total 2,953,011 
 
 According to these figures there were 2,565,612 over 
 twenty-one years of age. Of these only 1.3 per cent were 
 in school. But since 19 10 there has been a large increase 
 in the number of non-English speaking foreigners. About 
 the year 19 14 there had come such a large influx of foreign 
 workmen into many of our large cities that they could not 
 be assimilated with our industrial, social, and political life 
 in the ordinary way. They could not read the danger signs 
 in the establishments in vv^hich they were to work and they 
 could not find their way about without help. The problem 
 presented itself as not one of social service but civic neces- 
 sity. 
 
 Measures to Reduce or Wipe Out Illiteracy. Since 
 the illiterate immigrant over sixteen years of age is no 
 longer admitted and since recent amendments to the nat- 
 uralization laws provide that " no alien shall hereafter be 
 naturalized or admitted as a citizen of the United States 
 who cannot speak the English language " ^ and write his 
 name, limits have been drawn around the problem of na- 
 tionalization so that now a hopeful beginning can be made 
 to stamp out or at least greatly reduce illiteracy in the 
 English language. 
 
 For more than thirty years Massachusetts has had a law 
 
 1 " Naturalization Laws and Regulations," February 1917, Washing- 
 ton, D. C. 
 
14 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 in force requiring illiterate minors over 14 to go to night 
 school if living in a city maintaining such a school. In 
 1898 instruction in the English language was added to the 
 curriculum of these schools. In 191 3 the requirement for 
 passing v^as that of the fifth grade of the ordinary day 
 school. In 1916 there were 21 such night schools in Boston 
 alone and out of 9500 enrolled 8000 were of foreign birth. 
 
 A number of the states extend the compulsory attendance 
 limit for the special benefit of illiterate youth. In Massa- 
 chusetts alone ^ the upper limit is 21, five years higher than 
 that of any other state. When, as in this state, attendance at 
 evening schools only is required, leaving the day free for 
 remunerative employment, there is no apparent reason why 
 the age limit for attendance at these schools should not be 
 much higher than even the requirement in Massachusetts. 
 
 In the state of Kentucky a movement was begun several 
 years ago by a county superintendent of schools to wipe out 
 illiteracy. The endeavor was first limited to one county 
 where the interest of the teachers of the regular day schools 
 was enlisted to such an extent that they opened " moonlight 
 schools " for adult illiterates which they conducted in the 
 evening. Those who took advantage of the opportunity to 
 learn to read and write ranged in age from 18 to 87. The 
 curriculum embraced, besides reading and writing, arith- 
 metic, history, geography, agriculture, civics, home eco- 
 nomics, and road building. The subject-matter of the read- 
 ing lessons was such as had something to do with the civic 
 and home interests of the learners — roads, silos, seed-test- 
 ing, crop rotation, ways of cooking, etc. The interest of 
 
 1 A New York law of 1918 requires compulsory continuation school- 
 ing for illiterates between the ages of 16 and 21. 
 
The General Welfare 15 
 
 the people of the state was aroused to such an extent by the 
 success of the experiment in a single county that an Il- 
 literacy Commission was authorized by the state legislature 
 to make the movement state-wide and drive illiteracy from 
 Kentucky by 1920. Five other states have followed the 
 lead of this state in establishing evening schools for such 
 purposes in rural districts.^ 
 
 In the cities, especially in the larger industrial centers 
 with a large immigrant population, there are schools for 
 those who wish to prepare for naturalization. They are 
 held in the evening in the school buildings and courses are 
 given in the use of the English language and in the duties 
 of citizenship. In 191 7 there were 500 cities in which 
 such courses were given. In some of the cities large em- 
 ployers of labor cooperated with the school administration 
 by making naturalization a condition of promotion and ad- 
 vancement in wages. In many cities school buildings are 
 open both summer and winter evenings for the instruction 
 of foreigners in the language and ways of American life as 
 a preparation for naturalization. Courses are completed 
 at stated intervals and the graduates appearing before the 
 court and without further examination, are invested with 
 the honors of American citizenship. 
 
 The controlling idea of the later phase of the movement 
 is that foreigners shall be nationalized before they are for- 
 mally naturalized. Thus the scope of the work has en- 
 larged so that it is now generally known as the American- 
 ization movement. Its object is not alone to teach the 
 alien to speak and write English, vote intelligently, and un- 
 derstand something of the fundamental laws of the land, 
 1 Stewart: "Moonlight Schools," the Survey, Vol. 35, P- 429-431- 
 
1 6 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 but also to make him feel at home and happy here. This 
 last seems to be the final test of nationalization. 
 
 To further these purposes a social center has been estab- 
 lished in a few cities known as '' The American House " 
 where the foreign-born may '' assemble voluntarily in nat- 
 ural and self-selected groups for the purposes of instruc- 
 tion, recreation, and amusement." ^ 
 
 For the Sake of the Children. While it is true that il- 
 literacy makes for economic and mental dependence, for iso- 
 lation from a large part of a normal social life and from 
 the great world of opinion which is more and more ex- 
 pressed in printed form, and for ignorance with its train of 
 superstitions, it should be banished from adult life in Amer- 
 ica chiefly for the sake of the children. One may readily 
 imagine the barrenness of life in an illiterate home and the 
 handicap to the immigrant child with no means at home to 
 aid in forming thought in the prevailing language of the 
 community and the adopted country. Returns from an in- 
 vestigation lately made of the school population of one of 
 our largest industrial centers show that approximately one- 
 half the children in the elementary schools and one-third in 
 the high schools are from homes in which one or another 
 of twenty-nine different foreign languages is spoken. It 
 was found too that " the children of foreign parentage do 
 not advance so rapidly through the grades as those of na- 
 tive parentage and they drop out much faster in the upper 
 grades." ^ 
 
 1 " School Life," Vol, I, November i, 1918, p. 10, and Senger : " The 
 American House," the Survey, Vol. XLI, No. 22, March i, 1919, p. 
 788-790. 
 
 2 Miller : " The School and the Immigrant" The Survey Commit- 
 tee of the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1916. 
 
The General Welfare 17 
 
 Americanization of Immigrant Children. Children of 
 approximately 60 different nationalities are to be found in 
 our school population. The United States Bureau of Im- 
 migration keeps track of every immigrant child wherever it 
 goes from the port of entry until it is enrolled in some ele- 
 mentary school. From that time on its educational des- 
 tiny is in the hands of the local school administration. We 
 must look to the elementary school provided by local au- 
 thorities with the necessary material equipment and cap- 
 able teachers; the elementary school with its work in Eng- 
 lish, its standards of health and hygiene, and its ideals of 
 social order, for the larger results of Americanization. 
 Here the work of benevolent assimilation will be the most 
 thoroughgoing and effective in that it will reach the pres- 
 ent child and the future citizen, and not only the child but 
 also the foreign home from which it comes. 
 
 The Future of American School Children. We must 
 look to the elementary school. It is the common academic 
 beginning for all the diverse trades and professions. 
 
 CHART II 
 
 Number Approximate 
 
 Field of Activity Engaged Number of 
 
 Millions Occupations 
 
 Agriculture I2>^ 30 
 
 Manufacturing and Mechanical 
 
 Industry io>^ 186 
 
 Trade and Transportation 6 84 
 
 Domestic and Personal Service. . . 3>4 29 
 
 Professional Service i^ 3^ 
 
 Clerical Occupations i>^ 12 
 
 Extraction of Minerals i (nearly) 14 
 
 Public Service >4 16 
 
1 8 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Twenty 1111111011 children come daily to this school to be pre- 
 pared to take their places among 37 or 38 million workers 
 in gainful pursuits. Chart II gives the distribution and 
 the approximate number of specified occupations. 
 
 It will be observed that in order to serve the greatest 
 number of future workers our educational institutions must 
 not be partial to public service and the professions as these 
 in some instances already oversupplied constitute only two 
 out of 37 million of gainful occupations. As will be seen, 
 the largest number of workers are in the field of agriculture, 
 manufacturing and mechanical industry, and trade and 
 transportation. 
 
 There is to be noted too a marked difference, between 
 agriculture and the other two fields of work just mentioned. 
 With its I2j4 million workers there are only 30 specified 
 occupations, including a relatively small number of indus- 
 tries not directly related to the work of the actual farmer. 
 It appears, therefore, that agriculture gives us by far the 
 largest body of workers and that it is by far the le*ast dif- 
 ferentiated as to specified occupations. Hence the future 
 vocational needs of the children in the rural districts can be 
 fairly well anticipated by those who make out courses of 
 study and consider the question of minimum essentials in 
 any of the preparatory courses. 
 
 But in the two largest industrial fields besides agriculture, 
 there is a wide differentiation of occupations and it becomes 
 relatively difficult to anticipate in school the specific needs 
 of the future workers. For those pupils who look forward 
 to entering a skilled trade, there may be offered a general 
 industrial training course after the sixth grade of the ele- 
 mentary school has been successfully completed, this to be 
 
The General Welfare 19 
 
 followed by courses in technical high schools and colleges. 
 For the semi-skilled or the unskilled the school cannot pre- 
 pare at all in any specific way. Besides, it is not worth 
 while, for this kind of industry can be learned in a few 
 days in the shop or factory where it takes place. This is 
 the kind of work children go into who leave school prema- 
 turely. It is of such meager intellectual content that almost 
 any one can do it who can patiently submit to the monotony 
 of its routine day after day. There are probably seven or 
 eight million places in our industries which children are 
 induced to accept, which afford no opportunity for growth 
 and for which the schools can make no specific preparation. 
 
 Educational " Faddism.'' What can and should the 
 schools do? Since eighteen to twenty million children are 
 enrolled in the elementary school and only one to two mil- 
 lion in the secondary school, the question is particularly ur- 
 gent in so far as it pertains to the great majority of the chil- 
 dren whose opportunities for formal education are limited. 
 It would require too much space to enumerate all the pro- 
 posals of what is deemed most vital to the future welfare of 
 the children that have been offered now and again by even 
 thoughtful reformers. To introduce them all into the 
 school curriculum would lead both to chaos and over- 
 pressure. 
 
 The solution of the problem lies in a subject matter so or- 
 ganized that what is most important will be kept uppermost 
 and the other activities will be duly subordinated, using them 
 as means to promote the central purposes of education. 
 Any activity that is made an end in itself, when it is properly 
 only a means to a higher end, is an educational fad. When 
 any activity of the school is unduly emphasized through the 
 
20 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 attitude of the teacher, the principal, or the superintendent, 
 it becomes a fad. On the other hand, no school activity is a 
 fad in and of itself. It depends on how it is used. 
 
 The old-time fundamentals still hold their place of first 
 importance in the elementary school. They are still essen- 
 tial to practical usefulness and economic independence. 
 They are needed in all the major life interests. The mini- 
 mum attainment for all normal children is ability to think 
 in, write in, and speak the English language. This is both 
 an end and a means of further education in and out of 
 school. To accomplish this in a satisfactory way requires 
 for the least capable children not less than six full school 
 years. Some of the states have established a minimum by 
 means of a law requiring a literacy test and an examination 
 in the fundamentals of arithmetic before an employment 
 certificate is issued. It often happens that this is not at- 
 tained in a six years' course. And yet in many states the 
 law allows children employment certificates before they 
 reach the sixth grade. Unless the child in question is hope- 
 lessly retarded, a satisfactory passing of the sixth grade 
 standard in English and ciphering should be the minimum 
 requirement in all the states. 
 
 Use of Concrete Things as a Source of Knowledge and 
 Skill is not a school fad. Drawing, paper-cutting, and all 
 sorts of constructive work in connection with the practical 
 arts are sometimes condemned as such by those who have 
 hopelessly practical views with respect to the old-time 
 fundamentals. Book work alone does not suflfice even for 
 book work. Everybody knows that what one gets out of a 
 book depends on what he puts in it. Reports of observa- 
 tion of concrete things and experiments with them satisfy 
 
The General Welfare 21 
 
 the motive of discovery and of telling about the results. 
 Constructive work in all the grades will provide proper 
 motives for the application of units of number and measure. 
 Even though the interesting purpose of the work should be 
 the making of desirable toys, it will not for that reason be 
 less effective as a means of applying knowledge or promot- 
 ing skill with tools. The power to read can be utilized in 
 following directions. In the upper grades interest will 
 grow in the construction of practical things and will be 
 applied to the industries of the household.^ 
 
 However, the constructive work of the first six grades at 
 least will function as recreation and as a means of disci- 
 pline in the use of academic knowledge, not for the attain- 
 ment of special skill in any line of work. According to 
 the Federal Vocational Education Law fourteen is the mini- 
 mum age set for the beginning of vocational training. It 
 is the special function of the teachers of the elementary 
 school to get the children through the six grades without 
 retardation at the age of 12 to 14, and with the full aca- 
 demic equipment afforded by those grades. This is the 
 part of the elementary school in the vocational training 
 program.^ 
 
 Ideals of Recreation. Another of the major life inter- 
 ests for the elementary school should be mentioned here 
 because it is also sometimes regarded as unpractical. For 
 the future welfare of all the pupils and especially for the 
 
 1 Eliot : " Certain Defects in American Education and the Remedies 
 for Them." U. S. Bureau of Education, Teachers Leaflet No. 5, 1918, 
 p. 8. 
 
 2 Lutz : " Wage Earning and Education," The Survey Committee of 
 the Cleveland Foundation, Ohio, 1916. 
 
22 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 large number of children whose school experience will end 
 here, it is necessary to foster ideals of recreation to be 
 found chiefly in literature, music, and art. The life pro- 
 gram of every man and woman and every child in school 
 must have a place for leisure. It is a part of the work, or 
 rather play, of a school to develop the power to use leisure 
 wisely and for recreation of what is best in man. 
 
 Ideals of Achievement. Along with all else that is 
 done, our public schools must cultivate an interest in the 
 community, the state, the nation, and the humanity of all the 
 world, and all along the line arouse a worthy ambition to 
 achieve great things for the common good. Some will be 
 workers in field or factory, others will go into the profes- 
 sions, still others will pursue science or art largely for its 
 own sake. All are important in the greatness of the whole. 
 The elementary school is the common beginning for all. 
 
 " Internal Improvement.'* An act of Congress of the 
 year 1841 provided that the funds derived from the sale of 
 certain public lands be distributed among the several states 
 for internal improvement. A part of this fund was ap- 
 plied in some of the states to the schools. This is an " in- 
 ternal " improvement that should take precedence over all 
 others. Every part of our country has an interest in the 
 educational uplift of every other part. No part of the 
 country however remote can be abandoned to the misfor- 
 tunes of ignorance and poverty without in some way af- 
 fecting adversely every other part. 
 
 In promoting in each child the power to make an honest 
 living, to be socially helpful and patriotically serviceable, 
 to think justly, and enjoy leisure wisely, we promote the 
 general welfare. The public school is a civic enterprise for 
 
The General Welfare 23 
 
 social and material betterment. This is the aim of educa- 
 tion in a democracy. In order to know the present state 
 and the promise of a nation, one must look at the condition 
 of the schools as one would look at the face of the clock 
 to tell the time. The statesmanship of the world now 
 thinks in terms of generations and centuries. To refuse to 
 provide for the cost of a proper education of American 
 children is to exploit the future for the present and open 
 the way to national bankruptcy. In these times, some of 
 the nations of the world serve as a warning of the conse- 
 quences of ignorance and of a perverted educational policy. 
 Ours should present an example of what education should 
 be in a democracy. 
 
 The Means of Education. In the following chapters 
 will be discussed the essential means and problems of edu- 
 cation. These are : a public sentiment for schools as ex- 
 pressed by a material provision for them ; a proper distribu- 
 tion of emphasis; the physical presence of the children; 
 how to keep them in school until the aims of education are 
 satisfied ; how to house them ; how to keep them well ; what 
 to do for the dullards; how to develop character through 
 manasfement ; how to make the mind efficient ; how to de- 
 velop the individual through the group ; how to organize the 
 school program ; how to vitalize school work ; how to in- 
 crease resistance to physical, mental, and moral ills; the 
 home and the community as means of education and as 
 avenues of expression for children at school. They include 
 nothing that could be omitted without detriment to the 
 school, nothing that parents, legislators, . teachers, or any 
 others who have the good of the children at heart can 
 ignore. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 Public Opinion and Educational Control 
 
 Without a favorable local sentiment back of it no edu- 
 cational program of any kind will be effective under any 
 scheme of government. Under a democratic regime public 
 opinion shapes the ends and controls the means of educa- 
 tion. In order to profit by educational opportunities, a 
 people must want them. The unwilling cannot be taught. 
 
 There was a time when a well-distributed educational 
 sentiment existed in this country. It was in the early days 
 when the rural population was relatively large, and rural 
 and village schools were as good as any. Now the strong- 
 est sentiment for schools seems to be concentrated in the 
 larger cities. The sentiment is not always intelligent. 
 Sometimes it expresses itself in a vague belief in the mere 
 power of educational machinery that amounts almost to 
 superstition. It may lead sometimes to an unquestioning 
 acceptance of every administrative offering, an uncritical 
 assent to every proposal, and an optimistic indifference to 
 what really takes place in the schools. 
 
 But the present danger lies wholly in the opposite direc- 
 tion; in the half-hearted tolerance and stolid indifference to 
 educational means of social uplift to be found in thousands 
 of localities. Inexperienced and poorly paid teachers, in- 
 attendance, dilapidated buildings, unsanitary and demoral- 
 
 24 
 
Public Opinion and Educational Control 25 
 
 izing surroundings, and poor equipment bear witness in 
 many states to a total lack of community pride in school 
 affairs. It is for this reason that control has passed and 
 is passing everywhere from the local districts to the state. 
 The method of state control is to provide a portion of the 
 school fund and, under penalty of withdrawing this sup- 
 port, require local boards to adopt certain standards and 
 conditions definitely prescribed in state law. 
 
 But state control is proving insufficient in many places. 
 There are in some of the states with central control, com- 
 munities of old American stock who are so ignorant and so 
 backward in the ways of life that no person with legal 
 qualifications as a teacher, a doctor, or a nurse would con- 
 sent to live among them. As a consequence they are aban- 
 doned to ignorance and lawlessness and intermittent rav- 
 ages of epidemic disease. Ignorance and the mischief it 
 breeds are so fraught with danger to organized society 
 that no nation or state can afford the neglect of education 
 in any part of its domain. 
 
 A Healthy Local Sentiment for Education. A healthy 
 local sentiment would be indicated if a district had adequate 
 ideals of education which it would be willing to carry into 
 effect at any cost out of its own tax fund without any other 
 aid whatever. This is the case to a large extent now in 
 the large centers of population, where the revenue derived 
 from sources outside the .district is so small in proportion 
 to the total expenditure that educational interests would 
 probably not be allowed to suffer if that revenue were cut 
 off. 
 
 A National Sentiment. A strong national sentiment 
 for public education is a part of American history. The 
 
26 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 leaders of public opinion have voiced their endorsement of 
 it as a means to promote good citizenship, public health, and 
 general prosperity. Before the period of the American 
 Revolution education was supported in some of the colonies 
 as an aid to the preservation of religious doctrine. When 
 in the following period political problems became prominent, 
 it was regarded as the very means of preserving the liberties 
 of the people. It now became a matter of public policy. 
 The fathers of the republic believed that the enemies of a 
 free government and the union of the states could be 
 guarded against only by a wide diffusion of knowledge. 
 This was to be the means of checking mob lawlessness and 
 sectional jealousies; of dangerous centralization of power 
 and the abuses of authority. Washington believed that as 
 ours was a government by public opinion, public opinion 
 should be enlightened. Jefferson believed that every local 
 school district should become the educational center of the 
 community and the ultimate unit of the national democracy. 
 Without intelligent citizens who do their own thinking a 
 free republic could not long endure. And they must look 
 to the education of the children who are in their turn to 
 become the sovereign people. 
 
 The whole matter of education was so important that it 
 was not deemed wise to leave it to the chance of local com- 
 munity control. As early as in the Massachusetts Consti- 
 tution of 1780 (Chapter V, sec. 2), education is given a 
 wide scope and as clear a definition as one may wish : 
 
 " Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally 
 among the body of the people, being necessary for the preserva- 
 tion of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spread- 
 ing the opportunities and advantages of education in the various 
 
Public Opinion and Educational Control 2y 
 
 parts of the country, and among the different orders of people, 
 it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future 
 periods of the Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of litera- 
 tures and the sciences, and all seminaries of them; especially the 
 University at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in 
 the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, 
 by rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, 
 sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history 
 of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of 
 humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, in- 
 dustry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings; 
 sincerity and good humor, and all social affections and generous 
 sentiments among the people." 
 
 Federal Aid to Schools. Although the federal consti- 
 tution does not in any way mention education, leaving the 
 matter entirely to the states or the people themselves, the 
 laws of Congress were not silent in the matter. In an 
 ordinance adopted by the Congress of the Confederation in 
 1785 for the government of the territory northwest of the 
 Ohio River, it was ordained that " the plots of the townships 
 be marked into lots of one mile square, or 640 acres, and 
 numbered i to 36; always beginning the succeeding range 
 of lots with the number next to that with which the preced- 
 ing one concluded " ; and that " there shall be reserved lot 
 number 16 of every township, for the maintenance of pub- 
 lic schools, within said township." This method of mak- 
 ing provision for the support of public schools is given here 
 because it is typical of national legislation since 1803, when 
 Ohio the first state carved out of the Territory was admitted 
 to the Union. Other lots were reserved for future disposi- 
 tion of Congress. The Ordinance of 1787 confirms and ex- 
 tends the principle involved in the former ordinance and 
 
28 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 adds, in Article 3 : '' Religion, morality, and knowledge, 
 being necessary to good government and the happiness of 
 mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever 
 be encouraged." 
 
 In Ohio lands were reserved for both schools and 
 churches, the law forbidding only sectarian control of all or 
 any part of the fund. In all the other states the use of the 
 proceeds of state funds of any kind for the support of 
 churches is prohibited. The school lands in Ohio amounted 
 in all to one thirty-sixth of all the land of the state. In 
 19 1 6 the total proceeds from this source were only $248,- 
 000. The churches received sections number 29 of two 
 grants only. In 19 16 the proceeds from this fund were 
 only a little over $9,000, which was distributed among the 
 churches of eleven counties of the state. 
 
 In Ohio, too, the precedent was established to make grants 
 of land for higher education. For this purpose 69,120 
 acres were reserved, two townships in Athens county, which 
 became the foundation of what is now Ohio University, 
 and one township in Butler county for the present Miami 
 University. 
 
 While the total amount of the proceeds from these grants 
 is small and in itself wholly inadequate for the support of 
 the schools, when the grants were made it was believed that 
 the lands then cheap would in time become valuable. Ohio 
 serves as an example of what was done in the case of all 
 the states that were thereafter to be admitted to the Union. 
 By the time of the admission of Arizona and New Mexico 
 in 191 1, the last of the territories to enter the Union, the 
 total amount of the grants for the common schools was over 
 eighty million acres. There were six other federal grants 
 
Public Opinion and Educational Control 29 
 
 to some or all of the states, derived from the proceeds of 
 the sale of public lands and from other sources, a part or 
 all of which, as the case might be, were added in certain of 
 the states to their permanent resources for school support.^ 
 The state of Ohio has received altogether 704,488 acres 
 of land for common school purposes. All but a few thou- 
 sand acres had been sold in 1916, with total receipts of 
 $4,145,367. In some of the states large permanent school 
 funds are accumulating along with the rising price of un- 
 sold lands. Minnesota school lands are rich in mineral 
 deposits, far exceeding values in other states. The follow- 
 ing are the totals of permanent funds, including the esti- 
 mated value of the unsold lands in several of the states : ^ 
 
 Illinois (round numbers) $ 34,000,000 
 
 Minnesota 204,030,000 
 
 South Dakota 33,000,000 
 
 Nebraska 29,000,000 
 
 Oklahoma 25,000,000 
 
 Wyoming 34,000,000 
 
 Colorado 49,000,000 
 
 New Mexico 41,000,000 
 
 Idaho 27,000,000 
 
 Washington 72,000,000 
 
 Land Grants in Support of Higher Education. With 
 the passage of the Morrill Law, 1862, began a new era in 
 government support of higher education. Before this in 
 all the legislation enacted there was no mention made of a 
 specific subject matter of study, only faith in the general 
 
 1 Cubberley and Elliott : " State and County School Administra- 
 tion." Vol. II, Source Book. The Macmillan Company, New York, 
 1915, p. 18-108. 
 
 2 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1917, Vol. II, p. 83. 
 
30 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 results of the work of the schools was indicated. With 
 the passage of this law there was authorized a grant of 
 over eleven million acres of public land to the several states 
 of the Union in amounts ranging from 90,000 to 990,000 
 acres, from 'the proceeds of which Colleges of Agriculture 
 and Mechanic Arts were to be founded. This has produced 
 a total permanent endowment of only $14,719,498 for all 
 the states, lands to the value of $7,778,793 remaining un- 
 sold in 1916. In some of the older states the allotted lands 
 were sold for less than a dollar an acre, Rhode Island's 
 strip of 120,000 acres, for instance, netting only $50,000. 
 The lands in the newer states were sold later when values 
 were higher. The largest portion has fallen to the lot of 
 North Dakota with an endowment from this source of over 
 a milhon and a quarter and a value of half a million more in 
 lands unsold.^ 
 
 Direct Appropriations from the United States Treas- 
 ury. As the amounts in the permanent endowments of 
 these colleges proved inadequate, additional support was 
 granted in acts supplementary to- the Morrill Law by means 
 of annual appropriations from the federal treasury. Two 
 of the acts aid these colleges directly and two supply the 
 funds for the maintenance; of an agricultural experiment 
 station in each state. 
 
 For many years after the Colleges of Agriculture and 
 Mechanic Arts were established the results, as measured by 
 the development of agriculture throughout the country, 
 were unsatisfactory. The general public sentiment was 
 
 1 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1917, Vol. II, p. 371; 
 Bulletin, 1918, No. 13, U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 
Public Opinion and Educational Control 31 
 
 not favorable to colleges for the scientific study of agri- 
 culture. It supported rather the traditional colleges of arts 
 and sciences. Free tuition under federal support and the 
 duplication of the courses maintained by the old time col- 
 leges however attracted numbers of students, but it was 
 found that a relatively small number of the graduates of 
 the new institutions engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
 
 Recent years have brought a great change in public senti- 
 ment toward agricultural and technical colleges. Their 
 administrative policy is more in harmony with the specific 
 purpose for which they were created, and they have become 
 pet objects of legislative support in the states themselves. 
 But as a consequence of the long years of misdirected effort 
 due to loosely drawn laws of federal aid to industrial edu- 
 cation, when in 19 14 the Agricultural Extension Act was 
 passed, the purpose of the appropriations was specifically 
 stated to be for cooperative work between the agricultural 
 colleges of the states and the U. S. Department of Agricul- 
 ture, this work to '' consist of the giving of instruction and 
 practical demonstrations in agriculture and home economics 
 to persons not attending or resident in said colleges in the 
 several communities, and imparting to such persons in- 
 formation on said subjects through field demonstrations, 
 publications, and otherwise." Another feature of the law 
 is the provision for annual increases in the fund appropri- 
 ated, for seven years after its going into effect until, in 
 1 92 1, the total appropriation will be $4,580,000 annually. 
 The allotment to each state is determined by the proportion 
 the rural population of the state bears to the total rural 
 population of the United States. 
 
^2 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 A more recent enactment (19 17) is equally specific in 
 regard to the object of the legislation. This is the Voca- 
 tional Education Law. It '' provides for cooperation (a) 
 of the federal government with the states in the promotion 
 of vocational education in agriculture and the trades and 
 industries and for cooperation (b) with the states in the 
 preparation of teachers of vocational subjects." 
 
 The law authorizes the appropriation of moneys from 
 the Treasury of the United States for vocational education 
 (a^) in agriculture to aid in paying the salaries of teachers, 
 supervisors, etc., of this subject and (a^) in home eco- 
 nomics and industrial subjects. For (a^) the sums shall 
 be allotted to the states in the proportion which their rural 
 population bears to the rural population of the United 
 States and for (a^) in the proportion which the urban popu- 
 lation bears to the total urban population of the United 
 States. For the purpose of preparing teachers of the sub- 
 jects under (a) the appropriations are as given under (b) 
 in Chart III. These sums are to be allotted to the states 
 
 CHART III 
 
 Year 
 1917-18 
 1918-19 
 1919-20 
 1920-21 
 1921-22 
 1922-23 
 1923-24 
 1924-25 
 1925-26 
 
 a"- 
 500,000 
 750,000 
 1,000,000 
 1,250,000 
 1,500,000 
 1,750,000 
 2,000,000 
 2,500,000 
 3,000,000 
 
 500,000 
 750,000 
 1,000,000 
 1,250,000 
 1,500,000 
 1,750,000 
 2,000,000 
 2,500,000 
 3,000,000 
 
 500,000 
 
 700,000 
 
 900,000 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 annually 
 
 maximum continued annually 
 
Public Opinion and Educational Control 33 
 
 in the proportion which the population in each bears to the 
 total population of the United States.^ 
 
 Among the conditions attaching to the appropriations are 
 the following: for each dollar of federal money expended 
 for such salaries the state or local community or both shall 
 expend a sum in equal amount; the money can be applied 
 only to schools under public supervision and control ; to the 
 purpose of a training only that shall fit for useful employ- 
 ment; the schools shall be less than college grade and meet 
 the needs of persons of over fourteen years of age; the 
 agricultural schools shall provide for directed or supervised 
 practice for at least six months per year; the other voca- 
 tional schools giving instruuction to persons who have not 
 entered upon employment shall require that at least half 
 of the time of such instruction shall be given to practical 
 work on a useful or productive basis, such instruction to 
 be for nine months of the year and not less than thirty 
 hours a week. 
 
 At least one third of the sum appropriated for salaries of 
 teachers in the trade, home economics, and industrial 
 schools, shall, if expended, be applied to part-time schools 
 or classes for workers over 14 years of age and under 18 
 years, who have entered upon employment; and the sub- 
 jects taught in such a school may mean any subject given 
 to enlarge civic and vocational intelligence. These schools 
 shall provide not less than 144 hours of classroom instruc- 
 tion per year. 
 
 Evening industrial schools shall fix the age of sixteen as 
 
 1 Bulletin No. ^5, 1917. "What is the Smith-Hughes Bill?" 
 National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, New 
 York. 
 
34 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 a minimum for entrance. Instruction shall be supplemental 
 to daily employment. 
 
 Not more than 60 per cent nor less than 20 per cent 
 appropriated for the training of teachers of vocational sub- 
 jects shall be for any one of the following purposes: 
 
 a. For the preparation of teachers, supervisors, or directors of 
 agricultural subjects, or 
 
 b. For the preparation of teachers of trade and industrial sub- 
 jects, or 
 
 c. For the preparation of teachers of home economics subjects. 
 
 Details such as the minimum requirements for equipment 
 and maintenance and for the qualification of teachers are 
 determined by the authority of the state board of voca- 
 tional education with the approval of the federal board. 
 Courses of study and methods of instruction are subject to 
 the approval of the state board. 
 
 The different kinds of schools or classes provided for in 
 the plans of the Federal Board are: (a) Full Time and (b) 
 Part Time schools or classes. Under the first come those 
 with 50 per cent of the time devoted to practical work, 30- 
 
 35 per cent to related subjects, and 15-20 per cent to Eng- 
 lish, civics, hygiene, and history ; and Cooperative schools or 
 classes, with students alternating at stated intervals between 
 school and shop, with vocational teachers in full charge of 
 the students all the time they are working in the shops. Un- 
 der the second head come Trade Extension schools or classes 
 aiming to supplement daily work and extend knowledge of 
 trade entered upon; Evening schools or classes with the 
 same purpose as the preceding; Trade Preparatory schools 
 or classes aiming to prepare for an industrial pursuit other 
 than the one engaged in; and Continuation schools or 
 
Public Opinion and Educational Control 35 
 
 classes aiming to extend and supplement general education 
 and enlarge civic and vocational intelligence. 
 
 In the brief history of public support of educational 
 work here given, it is clear that the drift of opinion at first 
 vague and general has now set strongly toward definite 
 goals of school work in fields long neglected or believed to 
 be beside the aim or beyond the reach of the school. In the 
 first enactment, of 1787, provision was made for education 
 " as necessary to good government and the happiness of 
 mankind." This holds true to-day as much as ever before. 
 But nearly a hundred years passed before the first steps 
 were taken to provide for specific training in an industry 
 which engaged the attention of the great majority of the 
 people. It required a quarter of a century more before 
 actual results, such as one can suppose the Morrill Law 
 aimed at, began to appear in improved farms and more 
 abundant crops. With the Agricultural Extension Law of 
 1 914 begins the period of definite aims and more strict con- 
 ditions imposed to secure more immediate practical results. 
 In the last enactment, the work to be supported by federal 
 aim is defined as to subject-matter, the minimum age to 
 begin it, the amount of practice that shall be combined with 
 theory, with various other conditions and safeguards. 
 Public opinion as reflected in the laws of Congress at first 
 emphasized education as of general disciplinary and politi- 
 cal value. Now, apparently with assurance born of satis- 
 factory experience, it seeks to apply educational methods to 
 the fields of industry. 
 
 Federal Aid for Education as Proposed in a new bill as yet in 
 tentative form provides for a Secretary of Education as the head 
 of an executive department and with a seat in the President's 
 
36 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 cabinet, the appropriation of money for the conduct of said de- 
 partment, and for federal aid to the states in promotion of educa- 
 tion. It was tentatively drawn by a committee of the National 
 Educational Association Commission on the National Emergency 
 in Education in cooperation with the National Child Labor Com- 
 mittee. It provides for an annual appropriation of $100,000,000, 
 to be divided among the states as follows : ^ 
 
 One twentieth for the purpose of cooperating with the states in 
 instructing illiterates in the common school branches, in citizen- 
 ship and for definite vocations. 
 
 One twentieth for Americanizing immigrants through instruc- 
 tion in the English language, training in the duties of citizenship, 
 and development of respect for law and order and an understand- 
 ing of our civic and social institutions. 
 
 Five tenths for equalizing opportunities for education by im- 
 proving public elementary and high schools through the lengthen- 
 ing of the school term where it is now too brief, through stand- 
 ardizing, grading and supervising, through developing rural 
 schools and providing thorough instruction. 
 
 Three tenths for the promotion of physical education and 
 recreation, medical examination of children of school age, em- 
 ployment of school nurses and instruction of the people in the 
 principles of health and sanitation. 
 
 One tenth for training teachers, particularly for the rural 
 schools. 
 
 Other Sources of Support. Besides the permanent 
 fund and direct appropriations from the federal treasury 
 now^ available, there are two other sources from which all 
 public schools derive support. Each state levies a tax for 
 public schools. In the state of Ohio, for instance, a fixed 
 rate of .055 of a mill is levied on the taxable property for 
 this purpose.^ Besides, there is a local tax levy which in 
 
 i"The Child Labor Bulletin," May, 1918, pp. 55-56. 
 
 2 " School Laws of the State of Ohio," 1915, pp. 150-151. 
 
Public Opinion and Educational Control 37 
 
 large centers of population brings in by far the largest sum 
 for school purposes. To illustrate, the amounts derived 
 from the three sources of income in the school district of 
 Cincinnati for 19 17 were: ^ 
 
 From permanent fund $ 5,000.00 
 
 State taxes 160,000.00 
 
 Local taxes 2,850,526.84 
 
 That is, the district of Cincinnati received only .175+ per 
 cent from the permanent fund and 5.6+ per cent from the 
 state fund, 94.225 per cent being derived from local sources. 
 The per cent of the total school income from various 
 sources for the whole United States in 191 6 was as follows: 
 
 Per cent 
 Permanent fund 2.79 
 
 State taxes i5-03 
 
 Local taxes 77.00 
 
 Other sources 5.18 
 
 In some districts the value of taxable property is so low 
 that it is not possible to secure sufficient revenue for school 
 purposes within the rate limit allowed by law. Under such 
 circumstances state aid is especially invoked as a means of 
 ^* equalizing educational opportunities." 
 
 ^ " Eighty-seventh Annual Report Cincinnati Public Schools," 1917, 
 p. 19. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 Distribution of Emphasis 
 
 The strength of local school sentiment is usually to be 
 measured by the amount the people of a district are willing 
 to tax themselves for school purposes. The genuineness 
 and intelligence of the sentiment, however, is to be gauged 
 by a wise and proper distribution of expenses. That is, 
 good schools depend not only on how much the people are 
 willing to pay for them but also on what they emphasize 
 as of essential importance in the expense account. 
 
 In regard to this, the provisions of the Vocational Educa- 
 tion Law are significant. The Congress of the United 
 States cooperates with the States in this extensive educa- 
 tional program by appropriating money from the Treasury 
 to pay the salaries of teachers of vocational subjects and 
 the salaries of those who prepare the teachers for this work. 
 No part of the fund can be diverted to any other purpose. 
 This implies the view that to insure the success of the pro- 
 gram the main features of the educational process must 
 first of all be supported. It is well known that these essen- 
 tials of education have not always been jealously guarded. 
 The administration of the public schools has aroused inter- 
 est sometimes chiefly because of extensive building programs 
 with land to acquire, contracts to let, and labor to employ, 
 or because of the equipment needed by way of books, furni- 
 ture, and apparatus. Too often it has been forgotten that 
 
 38 
 
Distribution of Emphasis 39 
 
 these material provisions, while important, cannot have edu- 
 cational value without capable teachers. 
 
 Again, it has proved an unwise economy to pay well 
 administrative and managerial heads at the disparagement 
 of the rank and file of the teachers. The year of the en- 
 trance of the United States into the Great War it was esti- 
 mated that 50,000 schools of the country were without 
 teachers. This occasioned no surprise among those who 
 know the salaries of the men and women who teach in the 
 elementary schools in country and city districts. The pay 
 of rural teachers averages less than $300 per annum. ^ 
 
 "Why is there a shortage of teachers? A stufficient answer 
 may be found in the following data regarding salaries of ele- 
 mentary teachers, compiled for 930 villages of less than 2,500 pop- 
 ulation scattered throughout the country: 
 
 " Of these teachers 64.69 per cent receive less than $600 a year 
 and 33.76 per cent lesis than $500 a year. Salaries in the purely 
 rural schools are much less, and in the city schools not very much 
 greater, though great enough to draw heavily upon the supply of 
 rural-school teachers. 
 
 " Many of the best teachers are taking up other work paying 
 twice as much. Without competent teachers the American public 
 school is doomed to failure; without an efficient public school 
 America will fail as teacher of democracy to the peoples of the 
 world." 2 
 
 The Total Cost of Education in the United States for the 
 Year ipi6 is given below. The figures are taken from the 
 latest published report of the Commissioner of Education. 
 
 iFoght: "The American Rural School," The Macmillan Company, 
 New York, 1910. See Chapter VI, Salaries and Tenure of Rural 
 Teachers, pp. 92-115. 
 
 2 " School Life," Vol. I, no. 8, p. 8. Published by U. S. Bureau of 
 Education, Washington, D. C. 
 
40 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 CHART IV 
 Classification Enrollment Per capita cost Total cost 
 
 Public schools 
 
 Elementary 18,895,626 $29.55 $558,391,364 
 
 High 1,456,061 56.54 82,325,689 
 
 All schools including private 
 
 schools, colleges, universities, 
 
 professional schools, evening 
 
 schools, etc., etc 23,209,029 39-37 914,804,171 ^ 
 
 Less than 8 per cent of the number of children who go 
 to the elementary school attend the high school, but the 
 per capita cost of high school education is nearly twice that 
 of the elementary school and much higher than the average 
 per capita cost of all schools. The high school is provided 
 with finer buildings and more and better paid teachers as a 
 rule — is this a wise distribution of the available funds? 
 
 Expenses of Special Schools. In the same report we 
 find that the cost of special schools is as follows : 
 
 Enrollment Per capita cost Total cost 
 
 Schools for the deaf i4,733 $300.80 $4,431,686 
 
 Schools for the blind 5,155 498.34 2,568,943 
 
 Schools for the feeble-minded 37,630 555-42 20,900,455 
 
 The high cost of special schools is to be regarded as a heavy 
 penalty inflicted upon the state for the carelessness and 
 neglect to which a large number of the cases of deafness 
 and blindness are due and the unwise economy that does 
 not provide schools for the segregation of the feeble- 
 minded. 
 
 1 Compare the total estimated expenditure in the United States for 
 
 Tobacco (1912) $1,100,000,000 
 
 Motoring (1915) 1,800,000,000 
 
 Alcoholic beverages (average for '11, '12, '13) 1,630,187,252 
 
Distribution of Emphasis 41 
 
 Distribution of Expenses in State and City Systems. 
 
 The per cent of expenditure in the United States as a whole 
 for the same year was as follows for : 
 
 Sites, buildings, etc 16.15 
 
 Salaries 56.93 
 
 All other purposes 26.92 ^ 
 
 The largest part of the expense of schools is and of 
 course ought to be for the salaries of teachers. Unless 
 there are too many pupils per teacher, it is one of the signs 
 of good administration when this item is relatively large, 
 other provisions made, such as housing, equipment, etc., 
 being satisfactory. An idea of the meaning of '' all other 
 purposes " may be gained by a glance at the expense ac- 
 count of a large city. The following items were compiled 
 from the financial program of the city of Cincinnati for 
 the year 1917: 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Contingencies 0.64 
 
 Compulsory Education 
 Attendance department 
 
 Child labor 0.65 
 
 Auxiliary Service 
 
 Lunch rooms, playgrounds, etc 1.44 
 
 Superintendence 
 
 Institutes, Commencement, Teachers' pensions, 
 
 etc 1.71 
 
 General Administration 
 
 School census, Rents, Fire insurance, Insurance 
 and Sinking Fund for Bonded Debt, etc ii-77 
 
 ^ Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year ending June, 
 191 7. Washington, D. C. 
 
42 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Business Management 
 
 School plant operation, maintenance, cleaning, 
 
 etc 20.35 
 
 Salaries for Teachers 63.40 ^ 
 
 States Compared. In the following table may be seen 
 how any one of the states compares with others and with 
 the United States as a whole in the matter of expense per 
 pupil and the proportion of the expense devoted to teachers' 
 salaries : 
 
 CHART V 2 
 
 1916 
 
 u. s. 
 
 State 
 Ala. . 
 Ariz. 
 Ark. 
 Cal. . 
 Colo. 
 Conn. 
 Del. . 
 Fla. . 
 Ga. . 
 Idaho 
 111. .. 
 Ind. . 
 Iowa 
 
 A 
 
 $23.87 
 
 B 
 
 $41.72 
 
 C 
 
 56.93% 
 
 D 
 
 32.7 
 
 Rank 
 
 6.77 45 
 
 42.60 4 
 
 8.28 42 
 
 56.21 2 
 
 33.46 16 
 
 33.94 14 
 
 1489 
 
 6.96 
 
 36.55 
 
 29.07 
 
 3413 
 35.60 
 
 35 
 
 44 
 
 9 
 
 24 
 
 63 
 II 
 
 15.49 
 77.85 
 1463 
 78.17 
 55.90 
 53.09 
 24.06 
 26.44 
 13.77 
 63.56 
 45.16 
 51.77 
 52.15 
 
 Rank 
 
 42 
 
 3 
 43 
 
 2 
 12 
 14 
 Z7 
 36 
 44 
 
 7 
 25 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 Rank 
 
 7479 3 
 
 47.12 47 
 80.08 I 
 
 55.14 32 
 
 61.78 16 
 
 48.81 44 
 71.99 5 
 
 54.65 36 
 72.76 4 
 
 55.01 33 
 
 5477 3S 
 
 48.57 45 
 
 57.10 28 
 
 Rank 
 
 46.5 43 
 
 33.1 25 
 
 41.9 36 
 
 31. 1 21 
 
 28.0 14 
 
 36.5 29 
 
 42.6 38 
 345 27 
 
 44.3 
 27-3 
 
 39 
 13 
 
 32.5 24 
 28.7 17 
 19.3 4 
 
 1 Budget for 1917, Eighty-seventh Annual Report, Cincinnati Public 
 Schools for the year ending August 31, 1916. 
 
 2 Compiled from data given in Report of U. S. Com. of Edu., Vol. II, 
 1917. A. Expenditure per capita of school population 5-18. B. Ex- 
 penditure per capita of average attendance. C. Proportion or per cent 
 of the whole expense for teachers' salaries. D. Average number of 
 pupils enrolled per teacher with rank in no. of teachers. The figures at 
 the top mean the average for the U. S. as a whole. 
 
Distribution of Emphasis 
 
 43 
 
 I916 
 
 u. s 
 
 State 
 
 Kan 
 
 Ky 
 
 La 
 
 Me 
 
 Md 
 
 Mass 
 
 Mich 
 
 Minn 
 
 Miss. ('13) . . 
 
 Mo 
 
 Mont 
 
 Nebr 
 
 Nev 
 
 N. H 
 
 N. J 
 
 N. Mex 
 
 N. Y 
 
 N. C 
 
 N. Dak. ('15) 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Okla 
 
 Oreg 
 
 Pa 
 
 R. I 
 
 S. C 
 
 S. Dak 
 
 Tenn 
 
 Texas 
 
 Utah 
 
 Vt 
 
 Va 
 
 Wash 
 
 W. Va 
 
 Wis 
 
 Wyo 
 
 A 
 
 $23.87 
 
 Rank 
 
 31.79 20 
 
 11.93 38 
 9.62 41 
 
 22.62 29 
 
 14.65 36 
 
 32.94 18 
 
 32.03 19 
 
 33.87 15 
 
 4-53 47 
 
 19.97 31 
 
 65.71 I 
 31.37 21 
 43.73 3 
 21.89 30 
 36.92 7 
 16.76 32 
 29.43 23 
 
 7.1 1 43 
 
 36.43 10 
 
 33-37 17 
 
 13.70 37 
 
 36.61 8 
 
 29.04 25 
 25.35 27 
 
 6.96 44 
 
 29.72 22 
 9.87 40 
 
 15.19 34 
 
 35.51 12 
 
 27.17 26 
 
 10.97 39 
 
 38.91 5 
 
 16.10 33 
 
 24.30 28 
 
 38.81 6 
 
 B 
 
 $41.72 
 
 Rank 
 
 49-40 23 
 
 23.56 38 
 
 23.36 39 
 
 34.31 30 
 
 30.93 32 
 
 53.75 13 
 47.66 24 
 57.22 II 
 
 9-30 47 
 
 33.65 31 
 86.36 I 
 
 50.06 22 
 76.26 4 
 
 39.44 28 
 
 61.89 8 
 
 38.79 29 
 52.15 17 
 
 12.31 46 
 69.62 5 
 52.88 15 
 28.47 35 
 52.59 16 
 50.88 19 
 
 50.32 21 
 
 12.80 45 
 61.26 9 
 
 15.76 41 
 30.50 33 
 
 50.84 20 
 43.91 27 
 21.53 40 
 
 68.33 6 
 
 28.85 34 
 
 44.90 26 
 57.65 10 
 
 C 
 
 56.93% 
 
 D 
 
 32.7 
 
 54.82 
 60.52 
 64.64 
 58.77 
 69.39 
 58.46 
 52.77 
 53.38 
 77.45 
 62.60 
 48.28 
 60.53 
 66.51 
 59.10 
 50.23 
 59.18 
 69.72 
 69.08 
 50.55 
 49.13 
 70.60 
 
 59.79 
 44.25 
 52.89 
 68.60 
 56.19 
 63.33 
 61.70 
 52.76 
 
 55.51 
 61.41 
 61.58 
 58.41 
 56.48 
 63.15 
 
 Rank 
 
 34 
 21 
 12 
 
 25 
 
 8 
 26 
 39 
 37 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 46 
 20 
 II 
 24 
 42 
 23 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 41 
 43 
 
 6 
 22 
 48 
 38 
 10 
 30 
 13 
 17 
 40 
 
 31 
 19 
 18 
 27 
 29 
 14 
 
 26.4 
 
 41.7 
 42.0 
 21.4 
 34.5 
 34.5 
 29.5 
 27.0 
 
 44.9 
 35.7 
 21.7 
 23.2 
 20.1 
 21.8 
 32.3 
 39-6 
 30.3 
 44.6 
 18.7 
 28.4 
 40.5 
 23.0 
 37.5 
 32.4 
 49.8 
 19.0 
 47.2 
 37.1 
 33-8 
 21.8 
 37.0 
 26.4 
 
 30.4 
 
 28.1 
 18.8 
 
44 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 According to the figures in column A of Chart V, Mon- 
 tana, for instance, had an expense of $65.71 per capita of 
 school population, which is 9.7 times $6.77, that of Ala- 
 bama, and nearly twice as much as that of Colorado, Con- 
 necticut, Minnesota, or Ohio. 
 
 According to column B, Montana paid about 5.5 times 
 as much per capita of average attendance, which indicates 
 that Montana had more of her school population in at- 
 tendance than Alabama. 
 
 Number of Pupils per Teacher. It may seem surpris- 
 ing to find states low in columns A and B yet showing a 
 larger proportion of expense devoted to the payment of sal- 
 aries of teachers in column C. Arkansas is 42nd and 43rd 
 in A and B respectively but first in C, while Arizona is 4th 
 and 3rd in A and B and 47th in C. That a large proportion 
 of the expense goes to teachers' salaries is in itself a 
 good sign. However, column D will show that Arkansas 
 ranks low in the number of teachers compared with the 
 number of pupils in the schools; it will be seen that some 
 of the states that rank high in C use comparatively few 
 teachers. Tennessee has an average of 47.2 pupils per 
 teacher. South Carolina 49.8, which is more than two and a 
 half times the number of pupils per teacher than in the 
 states of Wyoming and Iowa. As the better graded city 
 schools usually can have a larger enrollment per teacher, 
 states with a large urban population would naturally have 
 a higher average than rural states. However, some of the 
 states with a high average per teacher are also rural rather 
 than urban states. 
 
 The proportion of the whole expense for teachers' salaries 
 will be lower in some of the states for good reasons, for it 
 
Distribution of Emphasis 45 
 
 may be due to better buildings and equipment, to better 
 care, to a larger outlay for auxiliaries, such as lunch rooms, 
 playgrounds, social center work, medical inspection, etc. 
 The principal elements in any school system are the chil- 
 dren, the teachers, and the buildings. In the first place of 
 consideration are the children for whom all the other ele- 
 ments are to be exclusively devoted. It is for their sake 
 that teachers must be well paid and that buildings must 
 be inviting, comfortable, and sanitary. In this respect 
 there is frequently a great difference between the states; 
 some of them have a value of buildings and equipment 
 exceeding one hundred dollars per child, while certain other 
 states have an investment of only eight, six, and as low as 
 four dollars per child. 
 
 Financial Return to the Teacher. If we ask how the 
 states differ in the financial return to the teacher per pupil 
 in average attendance, the answer may be derived from 
 columns B and C, Chart V. For example, in Mississippi 
 where with the figures for 19 13, the only ones we have, the 
 per capita expense per pupil in average attendance is $9.30, 
 taking 77.45 per cent of this we have a total return to the 
 teacher from each pupil, of $7.20. In Pennsylvania, which 
 is 19th for the amount expended per pupil in average at- 
 tendance, the return to the teacher is 44.25 per cent of 
 $50.88, or $22.50 per pupil in average attendance. Com- 
 paring Arkansas and Montana we have 11. 71 and 41.69 as 
 returns to the teachers of the amount expended per pupil 
 in average attendance in the states respectively. Making 
 due allowance for differences in conditions, the teachers of 
 Arkansas and Mississippi are not as well paid per pupil as 
 the teachers of Pennsylvania and Montana. 
 
46 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Distribution of Expense in Cities. In the following 
 will appear the distribution of expense averaged for 18 
 cities of moderate size : 
 
 CHART VI 
 
 Classified Expenditures Per Child in Average Attendance 
 
 Averaged for 18 Cities of from 250,000 to 750,000 
 
 Inhabitants, 1914^ 
 
 1. Office of board and other business offices $ 1.15 
 
 2. Superintendent's office 75 
 
 3. Salaries and expenses of supervisors 70 
 
 4. Salaries and expenses of principals 3.35 
 
 5. Salaries of teachers 31-65 
 
 6. Stationery, supplies and other instruction expenses 1.56 
 
 7. Wages of janitors and other employees 3.14 
 
 8. Fuel 1. 15 
 
 9. Maintenance — repairs, replacement of equipment, etc. . . .64 
 
 It may be expected that there would naturally be con- 
 siderable variation in certain of the items of expense in 
 different cities. On account of climate there would be a 
 difference in the amount of fuel consumed and its cheapness 
 would depend upon nearness to the source of supply. It is 
 true, too, that item 9 would vary for different years in the 
 same city. Living expenses would also have some effect 
 on the outlay for salaries of principals and teachers. 
 
 Total Expense per Pupil. The total expense per pupil 
 in average attendance in the 18 cities is $43.09, and that for 
 the salaries of teachers is $31.65, which is 71.1 per cent of 
 the whole expense. In the following Chart VII, these same 
 
 1 From figures presented in Clark : " Financing the Public Schools," 
 Cleveland, Ohio, 1915. The Survey Committee of the Cleveland 
 Foundation, p. 42. 
 
Distribution of Emphasis 
 
 47 
 
 1 8 cities are given and compared in regard to the amount 
 paid in salaries of teachers per pupil in average attendance, 
 the proportion that this expense bears to the whole, and the 
 average number of pupils per teacher in each of the cities. 
 
 CHART VII 
 
 Salaries of Teachers Per Pupil in Average Attendance 
 (A), the Proportion of This to the Whole Expense (B), and 
 THE Number of Pupils Per Teacher (C), in i8 Cities of from 
 250,000 TO 750,000 Inhabitants.^ 
 
 
 A 
 
 Salaries 
 
 B 
 Per cent 
 
 C 
 
 Elementary 
 
 
 
 
 of 
 
 of 
 
 Schools 
 
 
 
 
 Teachers 
 
 Whole 
 
 and 
 
 
 
 
 per pupil 
 
 Expense 
 
 Kindergartens 
 
 High Schools 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rank 
 
 
 Rank 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 $45.44 
 
 72.6 
 
 26.8 
 
 I 
 
 18. 1 
 
 I 
 
 Seattle 
 
 44.96 
 
 74.8 
 
 31.7 
 
 9 
 
 19.8 
 
 10 
 
 Washington 
 
 36.97 
 
 75.6 
 
 28.6 
 
 3 
 
 18.3 
 
 2 
 
 Boston 
 
 36.54 
 
 67.9 
 
 36.4 
 
 15 
 
 26.9 
 
 17 
 
 Minneapolis 
 
 34.55 
 
 68.9 
 
 30.8 
 
 6 
 
 21.6 
 
 13 
 
 San Francisco 
 
 34.09 
 
 75.5 
 
 35.6 
 
 14 
 
 27.1 
 
 18 
 
 Newark 
 
 33.96 
 
 72.0 
 
 34.5 
 
 12 
 
 18.8 
 
 5 • 
 
 Kansas City 
 
 32.47 
 
 68.6 
 
 30.2 
 
 5 
 
 19.1 
 
 6 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 31.95 
 
 66.2 
 
 28.0 
 
 2 
 
 22.5 
 
 14 
 
 Pittsburgh 
 
 31.84 
 
 57.4 
 
 31.0 
 
 8 
 
 18.6 
 
 4 
 
 Detroit 
 
 30.09 
 
 69.1 
 
 33.6 
 
 II 
 
 19.6 
 
 9 
 
 St. Louis 
 
 30.03 
 
 60.5 
 
 38.3 
 
 17 
 
 19.2 
 
 8 
 
 Cleveland 
 
 29.44 
 
 67.3 
 
 37.4 
 
 16 
 
 20.2 
 
 II 
 
 Jersey City 
 
 28.26 
 
 70.0 
 
 38.4 
 
 18 
 
 23.3 
 
 16 
 
 Indianapolis 
 
 27.74 
 
 66.0 
 
 30.9 
 
 7 
 
 22.9 
 
 15 
 
 Milwaukee 
 
 27.38 
 
 74.4 
 
 35.1 
 
 13 
 
 18.6 
 
 3 
 
 New Orleans 
 
 24.64 
 
 75.2 
 
 29.4 
 
 4 
 
 20.2-1- 1 2 
 
 Baltimore 
 
 22.65 
 
 72.8 
 
 33.1 
 
 10 
 
 19. 1 
 
 7 
 
 1 Compiled from figures given in Clark: 
 Schools," op. cit, pp. 42-52. 
 
 Financing the Public 
 
48 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Crowding in the Elementary School. When the aver- 
 age number of pupils per teacher is high as in the elementary 
 schools of some of the cities, it is probable that many classes 
 are much too large for satisfactory results. The fact that 
 children are young and small gives no warrant for crowd- 
 ing so many more of them into a room nor for taxing a 
 teacher with so many more of them. The younger they 
 are, the more they need the care of the teacher. The edu- 
 cational psychology of the elementary school child is at 
 least as difficult as for the child of high school age. The 
 older children can usually be referred to books and printed 
 matter; the younger the child the more its work must be 
 planned for out-of-hand and subject matter adapted to indi- 
 vidual need. Besides, the lower grades represent the age 
 of the greatest frequency of the school diseases, when chil- 
 dren have not yet outgrown the communistic habits through 
 which infection takes place. This would suggest that their 
 number should be relatively small in the lower grade classes. 
 In the light of modern pedagogy, crowding the children 
 in the lower classes rests on several fallacies : that because 
 they are small more of them can be taught in the same 
 classroom, that because they are young and do not know 
 much they are easily taught and more of them can be taught 
 at the same time, and that because they are little and weak 
 more of them can be made to submit to discipline at the 
 same time. 
 
 Method of Distribution of School Funds. School 
 funds are usually distributed in proportion to the number of 
 youth of legal school age. The state of Ohio distributes 
 the school fund on this basis in accordance with the results 
 reported by local enumerators. Apart from the danger of 
 
Distribution of Emphasis 49 
 
 padded census reports of the school population, it is com- 
 monly believed that the only correct and just method of 
 distribution is on the basis of the number of teachers em- 
 ployed and the aggregate number of days of attendance of 
 the school children. The state should not pay for the 
 schooling of that part of the school populattion which in 
 one way or another evades the compulsory attendance laws. 
 It should also recognize that an adequate number of teach- 
 ers will produce better results than a smaller number teach- 
 ing under crowded conditions to save on the item of 
 salaries. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 
 
 To conserve the physical and mental energies of the chil- 
 dren for adult life is the most important national economy. 
 As this is a nation's method of self-preservation, it super- 
 sedes all other interests. The enlightened motto of twen- 
 tieth century civilization is Women and children first. A 
 nation guarantees its future when it gives the child a 
 chance for the fullness of life before and after birth. For 
 this reason it has become the policy of the state : — to limit 
 the hours of employment for adult women, shield them 
 from unnecessary hardships, and make the conditions under 
 which they work hygienic and the surroundings agreeable; 
 to keep the infant in the mother's care as long as may be 
 necessary; and to forbid the employment of child labor. 
 
 The Meaning of Childhood. There was a time when a 
 child was regarded as an adult in miniature. According to 
 its station in life it was a little aristocrat or a Httle worker. 
 That childhood has a characteristic meaning and a natural 
 development of its own is a view only about a hundred 
 and fifty years old and not yet universally accepted. The 
 young of only the lower orders of life are at once equipped 
 with the powers of the adult. A young fish, for instance, 
 is at birth about as well adapted to the environment as the 
 
 50 
 
Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 51 
 
 adult. It can eat without help and by swimming away 
 escape being eaten, and it is at once suited to the changing 
 temperature of the medium in which it lives. In the higher 
 order of animals there is a period of infancy, or helpless- 
 ness, during which the instincts for survival are supple- 
 mented by the parents' instinct of protection. 
 
 In the case of man, life is more complex; there is more to 
 learn; there are more adjustments to be made both in num- 
 ber and in variety, both to the natural and the social sur- 
 roundings of mature life. The human infant requires more 
 than a year to learn to do what the young animal can do 
 almost at once. In the case of both, the nervous mechanism 
 which receives impressions and the motor nerves of re- 
 sponse are probably all complete; but in the animal there 
 is a close connection between the two systems at birth, so 
 close that the responses have a relatively fixed relation to 
 the stimuli and the young animal is at once the creature of 
 the habits of its ancestry. In the child there are immature 
 connecting nerves between the two systems just mentioned. 
 These grow at best slowly and gradually through the activity 
 of the other two systems upon a relatively wide range of 
 experience. By its inherited tendencies the energies of the 
 young child are all absorbed in gaining sensory impressions 
 and in ceaseless motor activity. 
 
 Neural Basis of Work and Play. From this point of 
 view the difference between work and play in the case of 
 the undeveloped child is this : as work is exercise in a nar- 
 rowly limited field of sensory impressions and motor re- 
 sponses and subjected to much repetition, it gives the neural 
 basis of the mental life a limited development; as play en- 
 gages the child in a great variety of activities, passing 
 
52 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 rapidly from one to another as its meager powers of mental 
 and physical endurance dictate, it makes for a broad and 
 general development. The greater energy commanded in 
 play than in work also makes for a more complete develop- 
 ment of the fibers involved. Play in games requires alert 
 adjustment to the unpredictable and unexpected; the routine 
 of work is monotonous and dull. The varied and violent 
 activity of the limbs in play is needed for the growth and 
 proper functioning of the organs of the trunk. It is true 
 of children as of adults that if a set of ner^^es is repeatedly 
 stimulated the feeling of weariness that results will vanish 
 upon the stimulation of another set at the same ttime. Sol- 
 diers weary with the march revive on hearing the band play. 
 The child when young wearies of one kind of play activity 
 in a short time and shifts to others in rapid succession until 
 the body as a whole becomes fatigued and sleep brings 
 about a new store of energy. 
 
 Labor robs the child of its natural right to play for physi- 
 cal and mental growth. It is a national economy to devote 
 the period of childhood to school with its variety of social, 
 mental, and play interests, and the period of maturity to 
 productive work. To do otherwise is to work contrary to 
 the natural laws of development and this cannot be done 
 without incurring the severe penalty of nature. But this 
 usually falls hardest on the innocent. 
 
 Immediate and Remote Effects of Child Labor. 
 Under the stress of war, England recruited about 600,000 
 agricultural and factory workers from among the school 
 children. The results were unsatisfactory and there was a 
 quick reaction to the mistaken policy. One of the medical 
 investigators employed by the British Health of Munition 
 
Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 53 
 
 Workers' Committee ^ reported, ''Of the boys it may be said 
 for the most part that they are so spiritless, so dull, so dead 
 in look, so woe-begone and attacked with weariness to a 
 dulling of their spirits as to compel attention." He also 
 gave as evidence of fatigue, muscular pains, foot ache, rest- 
 lessness, sleepiness, a dry skin, a vacant expression, and a 
 skin rash. A social worker reported, '' The boys are draw- 
 ing on their strength; they fall asleep in the trains and 
 trams, and often travel on beyond their stations." At the 
 same time the effects reported were attributed to a large ex- 
 tent to the conditions of employment and to conditions out- 
 side the workshop. In its summary of conclusions we read : 
 " The committee regards it as extremely important that the 
 nation, at a time when war is destroying so much of its 
 manhood, should guard the rising generation not only 
 against immediate break-down, but also against the imposi- 
 tion of strains which may stunt future growth and develop- 
 ment. Conditions outside the factories contribute to the 
 fatigue of juvenile workers, and it has to be remembered 
 that boys and girls need sufficient reserve energy not only 
 for the maintenance of health, but also for growth. Even 
 under normal conditions there is some danger of juvenile 
 employment adversely affecting physique, and this danger 
 is materially increased by the present conditions of employ- 
 ment." 
 
 As a result of its war-time experience the English 
 Parliament has voted a largely increased appropriation in 
 support of the schools, and the Education Bill which has 
 just passed the House of Commons is described as the most 
 
 1 Bulletin U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, whole No. 223, 1917, Juve- 
 nile Employment, pp. 98-100. 
 
54 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 far-reaching measure for child conservation that has yet 
 been taken in any of the warring countries. 
 
 It is believed that there are effects of child labor which 
 will not at once be apparent. In so far as work leads to 
 a specialized development of the nerve fibers, as suggested 
 before, certain parts of the association structures remain 
 undeveloped. This, it is held by high authority, is likely 
 to become the seat of mental disease. It is true that this 
 may be mild in its effects ; that is, it may escape the notice of 
 the outside world, but in all its mildness, it may be suffi- 
 cient to make a man his own worst enemy throughout life. 
 It may lead to a sort of chronic fatigue. Child labor re- 
 produces itself ; the child who has grown up in it will likely 
 become the indolent adult who exacts support from his own 
 child. 
 
 As child labor makes for inefficiency in the adult, so it 
 lowers his earning capacity. This should tend to hold back 
 the manufacturer who promotes child labor. The cheap 
 child laborer of to-day makes the poor buyer of to-morrow. 
 Thus he who employs child labor adds a part to the con- 
 stituency of the impecunious who make business dull. 
 
 Child Labor Laws. All the states in the Union have 
 laws on their statute books regulating child labor. Public 
 sentiment has been strong enough to bring this to pass, but 
 it has not been strong enough locally to bring about a just 
 enforcement of these laws. Local influences have tended 
 to nullify them; at least a large proportion of the prosecu- 
 tions have resulted in acquittals. A remedy has been 
 sought in a national law. The chief difficulty in the way 
 of national legislation has been constitutional. Primarily 
 the function of regulating conditions within its borders be- 
 
Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 55 
 
 longs to the state. However, in 191 7 a child labor law 
 was passed by the Congress of the United States to go into 
 effect September of the same year. The constitutionality 
 of the law was supposed to rest in the power of Congress to 
 regulate commerce between the states. The law as passed 
 prohibits interstate commerce in goods upon which children 
 
 (a) under 14 working in mills, factories, canneries, or workshops 
 
 Or 
 
 (b) under 16 working in mines or quarries 
 
 Or 
 
 (c) between 14 and 16 working more than eight hours a day in 
 
 factories, etc. 
 
 Or 
 
 (d) between 14 and 16 working after 7 p. m. or before 6 a. m. 
 
 have been employed or permitted to work within thirty days 
 prior to the removal of such goods for shipment. Its en- 
 forcement is in the hands of the authorities of the federal 
 courts. The employer pays the penalty. The law was de- 
 clared unconstitutional in 19 18 by the Supreme Court of 
 the United States. 
 
 Although this law cannot now be enforced, it is worth 
 while to know the standards which are recognized therein 
 because they are being retained in the new bills that have 
 been introduced. The Senate of the United States has 
 approved by a vote of 50 to 12 an amendment to the 
 revenue bill of 19 18 which avoids the constitutional objec- 
 tions of the former law by making the taxing power of the 
 federal government the weapon against child labor. This, 
 it is held, is subject to no limitations except those distinctly 
 named in the constitution. The bill as already passed by 
 the Senate provides that those who employ child labor shall 
 
56 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 pay for each taxable year, in addition to all other taxes im- 
 posed by law, an excise tax equivalent to 10 per cent of the 
 entire net profits received or accrued for such year from the 
 sale or disposition of the products of child labor. It fol- 
 lows the statutory definitions of child labor as found in the 
 former law. 
 
 Children Not Protected. The provisions of the former 
 law affected only about 150,000 children. There are more 
 than a million and a half working children whose status will 
 not be changed by any federal legislation now proposed, 
 because they are not employed in occupations the law pro- 
 scribes. According to the U. S. Census of Occupations, 
 1910, there were employed in agriculture alone 1,430,996 
 children between 10 and 15 years of age. Much remains 
 for state legislation for children in the following occupa- 
 tions : 
 
 Messengers, office and bundle boys 5^,799 
 
 Newsboys and newsgirls 20,450 
 
 Clerks 20,112 
 
 Laundry workers 12,045 
 
 Milliners, dressmakers, apprentices 8,418 
 
 Servants 89,508 
 
 Twenty-eight states do not regulate street trades and twenty 
 have poor regulation. Twenty-two states need night mes- 
 senger laws. Twenty-seven states permit children under 
 16 to work in stores and local establishments more than 
 eight hours a day.^ 
 
 Childhood is the never-returning golden age for joy in 
 play, in school work and comradeship, for books and stories, 
 
 1 Taylor, Florence I.: "The Child Labor Movement of To-day," 
 School and Society, Vol. V, No. 106, pp. 10-14. 
 
CHART Vila 
 
 Child Labor in 36 American Cities ^ 
 
 Percentage of children from 10 to 15 years of age, inclusive, "gain- 
 fully employed" in industry, 1910. 
 
 1 Minneapolis 2.8 
 
 2 Portland, Ore 3-9 
 
 3 St. Paul 4.1 ^< 
 
 4 Washington, D. C 4.4 
 
 5 Omaha 4-5 
 
 6 Salt Lake City 4-6 
 
 7 Seattle 4-9 
 
 8 Los Angeles 5-6 
 
 9 Milwaukee 6.4 
 
 10 Denver 6.6 
 
 11 Buffalo 7-1 
 
 12 Springfield, 111 7-2 
 
 13 San Francisco T-Z 
 
 14 Boston 74 
 
 15 New York City 7-5 
 
 16 Kansas City, Mo 7-8 
 
 17 Chicago 9-1 HI^HIHHBIHIB 
 
 18 Pittsburg 9-3 EH^HHHHI^HBu . 
 
 19 Newark 10.2 HIHHi^lHIIHHHHr 
 
 20 Cleveland 10.5 ^■^^■■■■^■■■H 
 
 21 Louisville 10.6 ^■■■■■^^■■■■■l 
 
 New Orleans 10.6 ^■■■■^■■■■■B 
 
 23 New Haven ii.o ■■■■■■■^■■^■■■il 
 
 24 Indianapolis 11.3 ■■■■^^^■■{^■■■l 
 
 Cincinnati 11.3 ■■■■^■■I^HHHIBB 
 
 26 St. Louis 12.0 {■■■■■■■■■^■■i 
 
 27 Birmingham 13.O HIHI^IHIHHHHm 
 
 28 Providence 13.2 ■■■^■■■■■■BBHHH 
 
 29 Philadelphia 13-3 IHIHHHHHH^HBBHBH 
 
 30 Charleston, S. C 13.4 ■■■■IHHHiHHHHHIiH 
 
 31 Scranton 13.5 ■■^^■■■^^■■■■■i 
 
 32 Memphis 14.I ■^■■^■■■■■■■■■■■H 
 
 ZZ Jacksonville 14.3 ^M^— ^^^— ^^M 
 
 34 Detroit 14.S HHBHB^HHHHHHHHH 
 
 35 Baltimore 16.7 ■^■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■M 
 
 36 Atlanta 17.8 — M^MIiiilWiWIM— lO^M^ 
 
 1 i?^^c? College Record, No. 27, Dec, 1917, Social Service Series, No. 4, 
 
 57 
 
58 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 for excursions in the free, sunny fields, among the trees and 
 flowers, to gather memories that shall sweeten the long 
 years of adult life. These years of happiness are denied 
 many children, it may be, because of the extreme poverty 
 or cupidity or indolence of a parent who was perhaps him- 
 self a child worker, or because of a rigid home training 
 in which the lessons of industry and thrift are early enforced 
 as a matter of principle. Sometimes it is a child's own 
 wish to be productively employed because the pittance 
 earned will be of some help at home or because of a desire 
 of certain free ideas with the proceeds of work. 
 
 The Vicious Circle. Extreme poverty and ignorance 
 are among the chief causes of child labor at its worst ; and 
 child labor is in turn the cause of poverty and ignorance. 
 And strange as it may seem they operate in the country as 
 well as in the congested districts of the cities. We are 
 prone to think that in an agricultural land like ours, 
 where the soil is fertile and nature even unaided is bounti- 
 ful, everybody is provided with the ordinary means of a 
 contented and happy existence. Recent investigations have 
 proved that this is not the case.^ It may not be generally 
 known that tenants constitute the largest class of people 
 living in the rural districts. If we may judge by conditions 
 as reported in one of the states the life of the tenant and his 
 children is usually a dreary round of unremittent toil, year 
 in, year out, from generation to generation. Very few, we 
 
 pp. 16-17. "Gainfully employed" — according to definition of U. S. 
 Census Bureau — "parents working at home without pay and children 
 spending more than half their time at school are not classified as gain- 
 fully employed." 
 
 1 Gibbons, C. E. : " Farm Children in Oklahoma," The Child Labor 
 Bulletin, May, 1918, pp. 32-53. 
 
Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 59 
 
 are told, have vegetable gardens and they do not raise their 
 own supply of meat, milk, and butter. Their fare is 
 limited to a few staple products and many are at times on 
 the border of starvation. Their fiscal year is divided into 
 two parts : the time to borrow and the time to pay. The 
 first continues throughout the year, and the second comes 
 at the end of the harvest. They sell all their crop, not 
 even keeping seed for the next planting. They buy that 
 when they need it, going into debt for it as for everything 
 else. At the end of the year they are often still in debt — 
 in greater debt than before. 
 
 In many instances the landlord furnishes the tenant with 
 only a shack for a house, with no outbuildings for a toilet 
 or a barn to store crops and not even for a place to keep 
 seed until it is needed. The term of the lease is usually 
 for one year and as a rule tenants move annually. " They 
 are prepared to do this with little trouble for they own 
 nothing but what they can put into a wagon and drive off 
 with." 
 
 To get along as well as he does the tenant farmer re- 
 quires the labor of his children. How could he hope to 
 make both ends meet without it ?• 
 
 To this situation the city parallel is the home worker in 
 the tenement house.^ This is a more familiar story — of 
 the mother who cards buttons at 2 cents a gross, three 
 gross an hour, or " finishes " clothing at 8 or 9 cents an 
 hour, or makes pajama frogs at 5 cents a dozen, with the 
 help of children of school age or under. In an investigation 
 made in 19 12 it was found that the artificial flower industry 
 
 1 " Child Work in the Home," National Child Labor Committee, New 
 York, 1918. 
 
6o Education and the General Welfare 
 
 of New York City was carried on mostly in tenements and 
 that more than half the workers were children under i6; 
 ten per cent were under 8. As one mother said, " Making 
 flowers at home is poor work, especially if you have only a 
 few children to help you." In most states there is no way 
 to reach this evil except through the compulsory school at- 
 tendance laws. But even when children go to school they 
 do home work before and after school hours. They come 
 to school tired out, and then sitting still they can hardly keep 
 awake and pay attention. They are absent in spite of their 
 physical presence and they retard the work of the class. 
 
 Remedial Legislation. Child labor, whether on the 
 home farm, in the tenement, or the factory makes a low 
 level of efficiency a habit which the child as he grows up 
 will find it almost impossible to break. It will become the 
 social heritage of his children and their children like an 
 hereditary family plague. To break the vicious circle legis- 
 lative interference is necessary. Regulative laws against 
 child labor in the home cannot be enforced. Legislative 
 action cannot abolish poverty. But it can promote the 
 means of education and check ignorance with its attendant 
 evils of poverty, improvidence, and bad household man- 
 agement. This is where the Federal Vocational Education 
 Law has its place for ultimate social betterment. It pro- 
 vides for plans for full time schools or classes to fit children 
 not less than fourteen years old for entrance into some trade 
 or industry; for part time schools or classes in which chil- 
 dren of not less than fourteen years can learn while they 
 earn, and by learning about their chosen trade or industry 
 or one they wish to enter they can increase their earn- 
 ing capacity. Furthermore, it provides for continuation 
 
Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 6i 
 
 schools where children of the same minimum age can ex- 
 tend their general education along the lines of civic and 
 vocational intelligence. It provides also for evening in- 
 dustrial schools or classes where children of not less than 
 sixteen years who are employed during the day can increase 
 their industrial efficiency and enlarge their earning power. 
 
 Work of Children under Fourteen. The law just re- 
 ferred to does not provide for children under fourteen. It 
 does not recognize the need or the propriety of specific in- 
 dustrial training for younger children. It is generally re- 
 garded inadvisable for a child to decide definitely what 
 trade or industry to engage in before the age of fourteen. 
 It is believed, however, that as the constructive instinct 
 manifests itself in children of all ages opportunities should 
 be provided to give it means of expression. This is de- 
 sirable, not only to foster this useful interest for its ow^n 
 sake, but also on the principle that all wholesome child 
 activities should be encouraged to the exclusion through 
 lack of time and opportunity of those that are unfavorable. 
 
 This is especially true for children of about the age of 12 
 to 14 years, a period which, as there is good reason to be- 
 lieve from statistics of juvenile delinquency, is one of un- 
 stable moral equilibrium. In many school systems a time 
 is set apart for pupils to engage in constructive work be- 
 ginning with the fifth grade. From the standpoint of arti- 
 sanship the work is not to be taken seriously, but the chil- 
 dren themselves are always eager to begin work at their 
 simple projects. They do not always have the patience to 
 finish what they begin, and if they see it through to the 
 end, the product is usually very imperfect. But they get 
 some practice in the use of tools and their craving for con- 
 
62 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 struction is satisfied. More than this, where the equipment 
 of apphances is sufficient to cover a considerable range of 
 the practical arts, they can try themselves out and discover 
 something of their natural bent and inclinations.^ This is 
 important, as it will help them to determine through their 
 own experience what industry to prepare for in the indus- 
 trial school to be entered later. 
 
 At this stage of development children should not be re- 
 quired to adjust themselves to a program in constructive 
 work. It is time for expression of the spirit of the ama- 
 teur. If the school does not provide proper opportunities, 
 the home should. Whether at home or in school, super- 
 vision by teacher or parent or both is necessary for sugges- 
 tion and encouragement. 
 
 Constructive Activities of Children. We have been 
 applying the term work to constructive activity. Below the 
 age of 14 it is to be regarded as play, and more and more 
 so as we go down the grades. When free to follow their 
 inclinations children of all ages will devote a great portion 
 of their time to many of its forms, even though the ma- 
 terial offered for it may not be inviting. They will 
 " work " in clay, sand, or mud, make impossible forms 
 represent the human species, build doll houses, furnish 
 them, make doll's clothes, make wagons, tops, and other 
 things that go. They will do constructively in their own 
 way what they see their elders do and will make toys inter- 
 esting only to themselves. With kites, balloons, wagons, 
 tops, bow and arrow, and other simple playthings an inter- 
 est can begin in childhood and continue through stages of 
 
 1 Snedden : " Practical Arts in General Education," Teachers College 
 Record, Jan. and March, 1918. 
 
Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 63 
 
 development until in adult years it will involve at the other 
 end of the line the mechanical and mathematical principles 
 of gas and steam engines, projectiles, airplanes, the gyro- 
 scope, airships, etc.^ 
 
 Right and Wrong Conditions of Work. But the chief 
 thing is that interest must grow and not be commanded. 
 Below the age of twelve, if anything like work is undertaken, 
 it must come by spontaneous desire. Under the proper con- 
 ditions it will also have educational value. When a child 
 can be at home under the supervision of a sensible parent or 
 among kindly disposed relatives, work on a farm may be a 
 means of mental development even in a young child. There 
 are horses to ride, cattle to drive to pasture, errands to run 
 with a pet dog romping along, wild animals to watch and 
 observe, domestic animals to care for — life on a farm 
 may be a continuous round of educative and pleasurable 
 observation. There may be an occasional adventure in 
 fishing or a trip to the woods for hunting. To give zest to 
 free excursions into the fields and woods, the child should 
 not be unacquainted with some of the drudgery of work. 
 Even for young children, there are routine activities which 
 must be submitted to daily. When a child is old enough 
 to undertake a job he should be encouraged to stick to it 
 until it is finished, however distasteful it may become. For 
 a girl to do housework and a boy to do chores are indispen- 
 sable to cultivate patience and a feeling of responsibility. 
 But close application to a task until it is done and done 
 repeatedly should be compensated for by long periods of 
 freedom. When, on the contrary, a boy on the farm, for 
 
 iHall, G. Stanley: Educational Problems, New York, 191 1. Vol. 
 I, Chapter VIII, pp. 602-611, D. Appleton and Company. 
 
64 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 instance, before he is in his teens, is roused from sleep at 
 five or before to help brother feed the stock, help mother 
 with the wash, then hurry to the barn to help father cut 
 feed and shell corn, then chop and pile wood for the 
 kitchen stove, hurry through all meals, do the evening 
 chores after dark, and hurry to bed soon afterward at ten, 
 and continue day after day with a similar round of duties, 
 with no time for books, and no time for thinking to him- 
 self, we should not wonder if in his tender years he makes 
 daily a firm resolve to get away from the farm as soon 
 as possible and flee to the city. 
 
 Stages of Development. Normally active children want 
 to work at anything they see others do. And they will enjoy 
 it until the novelty wears off. This is simply the instinctive 
 sign in the young for a change of activity needed by the or- 
 ganism for the exercise of a rested set of muscles. But even 
 then, so long as the work is imitative of some one else's ac- 
 tivity, following the initiative and plans of some one else, the 
 factor it involves for mental growth will remain small. It is 
 for this reason that the project or enterprise is introduced, in 
 the schools and the home as a second step in which the child 
 can cooperate with others in the plans as well as in their 
 execution. In accordance with this step in this development 
 as workers, children may be organized into groups or clubs 
 to carry through gardening, farming, canning, or house- 
 hold projects. Later as interest grows they will initiate 
 individual enterprises to carry out a home project in some 
 line of work. 
 
 Desire to Earn Money. It has been found that many 
 children who engage in some kind of employment not under 
 school control during out-of-school hours and the long vaca- 
 
Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 65 
 
 tion to earn money, gradually lose interest in the work of the 
 school According to an investigation made in 19 16, of 
 1,177 of the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade in eleven typical states, 
 who expressed a desire to leave school, 38 per cent gave as 
 their reason the desire to earn money, 22 per cent the desire 
 to learn a trade, and 34 per cent declared they did not like 
 school. At bottom the reasons were all the same, probably, 
 the school was not in harmony with the impulse to do some- 
 thing for a money return.^ All of these children were 
 am^ong the number who had been engaged in work during 
 out-of -school hours. Many were employed in occupations 
 and under conditions that are undesirable for school children. 
 If the commendable impulse to engage in industry were un- 
 der the control of the school or of both the home and school, 
 the outside activities of the children could be directed along 
 lines that promote development and give promise of future 
 good without loss in money returns. 
 
 School-Controlled Enterprises vs. Child Labor. It is 
 easy to distinguish between the attitude of the school and 
 that of the employer of child labor. In the first the inter- 
 est is in the child, his health, his powers, and his character; 
 in the second it is primarily in the product of his labor, and 
 in the child only so much as economic expedience demands. 
 The one is concerned with the hygiene of work with recrea- 
 tion and periods of rest, the other estimates only the value 
 of the working hours. The one studies to accumulate 
 power and earning capacity, the other exploits and ex- 
 hausts. The remuneration for child labor in the home as a 
 part of the total family income does not usually appear to 
 
 1 Bulletin, 1917, No. 20, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. 
 Jarvis : Work of School Children During Out-of-School Hours. 
 
66 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 the child in any direct appreciable form. In the factory 
 the pay comes weekly in an envelope. In the school-con- 
 trolled enterprise, the money return comes with the last 
 transaction of the project, the last item of a simple record 
 of accounts kept by the child himself from the beginning. 
 In this way the financial element of the enterprise also pro- 
 vides a part of the child's training. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 School Attendance 
 
 Compulsory Attendance Laws in the United States. 
 
 Since it is not intended to keep children from labor that 
 they may be idle in the streets and left to their own de- 
 signs, school attendance laws are the necessary complement 
 to child labor laws. All the states except Mississippi have 
 compulsory attendance laws. In four other southern states 
 the laws are not state wide.^ When the control in the mat- 
 ter is left to local districts, there may be no attendance regu- 
 lations at all, or there ma}^ be no minimum requirement of 
 time the schools must be in session during the year, or there 
 may indeed be no funds to keep the schools open for a 
 definite time every year. 
 
 To show the effect of local control, the conditions which 
 obtained quite recently in one of these states may be cited. 
 Twenty-eight counties had no compulsory attendance laws. 
 In those that had, the requirement was that the children at- 
 tend not less than three-fourths of the time school was in 
 session. But the minimum term requirement was but three 
 months, or sixty days. Thus the law could be satisfied 
 with an attendance of forty-five days. In the same state 
 when sufficient revenue for a sixty-day term was not avail- 
 able, the local electors could by ballot dispense with school 
 for a year and have the revenue accrue to the following year. 
 
 In certain states, there are districts in which the property 
 
 1 Bulletin No. 42, 1916; Bulletin No. 47, 1915. U. S. Bureau of 
 Education. 
 
 67 
 
68 
 
 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 valuation is so low that the maximum tax rate allowed by 
 law does not provide sufficient revenue to keep the schools 
 in session as long as the state law on the other hand re- 
 quires. In Ohio, this situation is met by a special appro- 
 priation for ''weak districts"; in 1910 the appropriation 
 for this purpose was $50,000. 
 
 In the following Chart VIII, the states are arranged in 
 the order of the average length of the school term in days 
 (A). This is followed by the minimum requirement of 
 length of term (B), the average number of days attended 
 by each child (C), the rank of the states on this basis (D), 
 and the per cent of illiterates in population 10 to 14 years 
 of age (E). 
 
 CHART VIII 1 
 
 1916 
 
 State 
 
 B 
 
 D 
 
 R. I. 
 
 194.3 
 
 N. Y. 
 
 190.2 
 
 Conn. 
 
 183.2 
 
 N. J. 
 
 183.0 
 
 Mass. 
 
 181.7 
 
 Md. 
 
 178.0 
 
 Mont. 
 
 176.7 
 
 Calif. 
 
 176.0 
 
 Ohio 
 
 175.3 
 
 Vt. 
 
 175.0 
 
 Wash. 
 
 174.6 
 
 Wise. 
 
 1737 
 
 Penn. 
 
 172.7 
 
 N. D. 
 
 172.6 
 
 School year 
 
 1548 
 
 I 
 
 .6 
 
 180 days 
 
 1543 
 
 2 
 
 •3 
 
 School year 
 
 142.5 
 
 7 
 
 .3 
 
 << (( 
 
 142.9 
 
 6 
 
 .5 
 
 (( (I 
 
 153.0 
 
 3 
 
 .2 
 
 (( (< 
 
 1240 
 
 24 
 
 2.5 
 
 16 weeks 
 
 129.4 
 
 18 
 
 1-3 
 
 School year 
 
 134.0 
 
 16 
 
 .6 
 
 (( (C 
 
 148.9 
 
 4 
 
 •3 
 
 150 days 
 
 140.2 
 
 9 
 
 .3 
 
 School year 
 
 136.2 
 
 14 
 
 .4 
 
 6 months 
 
 140.9 
 
 8 
 
 •3 
 
 School year 
 
 139. 1 
 
 II 
 
 •5 
 
 C( ii 
 
 II9.5 
 
 27 
 
 1.2 
 
 1 Compiled from Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1917, 
 Vol. II and from Child Labor, Education, etc., 1917, published by 
 National Child Labor Committee, New York City. 
 
School Attendance 
 
 69 
 
 I9I6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 State 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 D 
 
 E 
 
 Mich. 
 
 172.0 
 
 School year 
 
 139.9 
 
 10 
 
 .3 
 
 N. H. 
 
 171-5 
 
 a (I 
 
 138.5 
 
 12 
 
 •3 
 
 Me. 
 
 171.2 
 
 a a 
 
 133.8 
 
 13 
 
 .8 
 
 Del. 
 
 170.7 
 
 3 months 
 
 93.5 
 
 40 
 
 1.5 
 
 S. D. 
 
 170.0 
 
 School year 
 
 1 18.9 
 
 28 
 
 .7 
 
 Iowa 
 
 170.0 
 
 24 consecutive wks. 
 
 128.8 
 
 19 
 
 .2 
 
 Minn. 
 
 167.7 
 
 School year 
 
 127.3 
 
 21 
 
 .3 
 
 Colo. 
 
 167.0 
 
 (( li 
 
 122.0 
 
 25 
 
 .9 
 
 Nev. 
 
 166.1 
 
 (( (C 
 
 124.9 
 
 23 
 
 4-3 
 
 111. 
 
 164.0 
 
 6 months 
 
 147.3 
 
 5 
 
 .3 
 
 Kan. 
 
 163.7 
 
 School year 
 
 126.5 
 
 22 
 
 .3 
 
 Nebr. 
 
 163-5 
 
 12 weeks 
 
 120.8 
 
 26 
 
 .3 
 
 Utah 
 
 163.0 
 
 20 " 
 
 132.5 
 
 17 
 
 .7 
 
 Mo. 
 
 161.8 
 
 ^4 school year 
 
 118.5 
 
 29 
 
 1.2 
 
 Ariz. 
 
 160.0 
 
 School year 
 
 132.5 
 
 17 
 
 .7 
 
 Ind. 
 
 155.0 
 
 " " 
 
 127.4 
 
 20 
 
 .3 
 
 Idaho 
 
 154.9 
 
 <( (( 
 
 105.2 
 
 32 
 
 •4 
 
 Wyo. 
 
 153.0 
 
 ii it 
 
 1 17.0 
 
 30 
 
 .5 
 
 Okla. 
 
 152.0 
 
 66% school year 
 
 95.9 
 
 37 
 
 2.4 
 
 Ore. 
 
 151.0 
 
 School year 
 
 135.4 
 
 15 
 
 .2 
 
 Ky. 
 
 144.0 
 
 (( (( 
 
 95-0 
 
 38 
 
 6.0 
 
 K M. 
 
 142.5 
 
 7 months 
 
 95.0 
 
 38 
 
 II. I 
 
 Va. 
 
 141.0 
 
 12 weeks 
 
 98.4 
 
 35 
 
 9.2 
 
 Ga. 
 
 136.7 
 
 4 months 
 
 98.9 
 
 34 
 
 13.6 
 
 W. Va. 
 
 135.0 
 
 24 weeks 
 
 96.3 
 
 36 
 
 2.7 
 
 Ala. 
 
 1350 
 
 60 days 
 
 84.8 
 
 45 
 
 16.4 
 
 Tex. 
 
 135.0 
 
 U (t 
 
 91.8 
 
 41 
 
 6.3 
 
 La. 
 
 134.9 
 
 School year 
 
 99.4 
 
 33 
 
 24.6 
 
 Ark. 
 
 134.9 
 
 % school year 
 
 91.7 
 
 42 
 
 8.2 
 
 Fla. 
 
 1 30. 1 
 
 80 days 
 
 94.7 
 
 39 
 
 10.3 
 
 N. C. 
 
 124.2 
 
 4 months 
 
 85.4 
 
 44 
 
 lO.I 
 
 Tenn. 
 
 123.8 
 
 80 consecutive days 
 
 87.3 
 
 43 
 
 7.5 
 
 Miss. 
 
 123.0 
 
 
 75-4 
 
 46 
 
 12.8 
 
 S. C. 
 
 108.5 
 
 4 months 
 
 72.9 
 
 47 
 
 17.8 
 
JO Education and the General Welfare 
 
 In four states the minimum requirements for length of 
 term Hsted in column B of Chart VIII are not state wide. 
 The states are Rhode Island, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisi- 
 ana. The first of these maintains the longest average 
 school term in the United States, as may be seen by refer- 
 ence to column A. The state being small there are few 
 districts and in each of them a high standard prevails. In 
 the larger agricultural states with widely differing condi- 
 tions in local districts and without a state-wide minimum 
 term requirement, state attendance laws will be largely 
 without effect. The laws must require attendance during 
 the time or fraction of the time the schools are in session. 
 
 According to the latest statistics the following states have 
 a minimum attendance requirement of 60 days or less: 
 Arkansas, Alabama, Delaware, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, 
 and Virginia. In Oklahoma it is 66 per cent of the school 
 year ; this would make the requirement forty days per year. 
 
 In column C we have the average number of days at- 
 tended by each child enrolled. As this is a test of the ef- 
 fectiveness of the schools, the states are ranked on this 
 basis in column D. The large number of juvenile iUiter- 
 ates in column E corresponds in a general way with the low 
 records in attendance in column C. A large difference be- 
 tween the average number of days schools are open in col- 
 umn A and the average number of days attended in column 
 C, the difference between promise and performance, may be 
 seen particularly in the states of Delaware, Maryland, North 
 Dakota, South Dakota, and Oklahoma, not to mention those 
 states that are at the bottom of the list in all respects. 
 
 Essential Features of a Compulsory Attendance Law. 
 The essential features of a school attendance law are the 
 
School Attendance 71 
 
 age limit, the minimum time of attendance required, the 
 exemptions allowed, means of enforcement, and a penalty. 
 The lower age limit is usually 8 in some states, in others 7. 
 The upper limit is as low as 12 in a few states, in most it is 
 14, in many 15 and 16. The number of years the child is 
 required to be in school ranges from 6 to 8 years. The 
 minimum time of attendance required per year varies from 
 two to nine months. 
 
 Causes for Exemption. The usual causes for exemp- 
 tion are illness when certified to by a physician, mental de- 
 fect, physical defect such as blindness or deafness, poverty, 
 and distance of home of child from school (usually if two 
 miles or more). Many states that require attendance up 
 to the age of 16 exempt children at 14 in case they have 
 completed the elementary school grades. Of course, all 
 children who take other than public school instruction 
 equivalent in character and equal in duration are not re- 
 quired to attend. 
 
 The Penalty. The penalty is paid by the responsible 
 parent or guardian of the truant child. It is usually a fine 
 and ranges from a minimum of $5 to a maximum of $25 in 
 some states, from a minimum of $10 to a maximum of $50 
 in others. In case the parent or guardian has lost control 
 over the child and cannot compel attendance, the child is 
 regarded as a truant and is sent to a special school known as 
 the parental or truant school. In California the law pro- 
 vides that a child who is absent from school three consecu- 
 tive days or tardy three days without proper cause is to be 
 regarded as a truant, and when reported a truant three 
 times or more, an habitual truant. In certain states dis- 
 tricts may go together to establish schools for truants. In 
 
y2 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 large cities a school for truants and incorrigibles is a part 
 of the school system. In Colorado, and other states, any 
 child who does not attend school as required, or is incor- 
 rigible, or an habitual truant, or who wanders about the 
 streets and public places during school hours and at night 
 is a juvenile disorderly person, who may upon complaint by 
 a truant officer be arrested and committed to an industrial 
 school or to a children's home, if eligible on account of age. 
 According to the laws of Ohio, 
 
 Whoever being a parent, guardian, or other person convicted of 
 violation of the compulsory attendance laws, fails or refuses to 
 pay the fine or costs, or furnish the bond provided therein, shall 
 be imprisoned in the county jail not less than ten days nor more 
 than thirty days. 
 
 (And) Whoever being an officer, principal, or teacher, or other 
 person, neglects to perform a duty imposed upon him by the laws 
 relating to compulsory education or employment of minors, for 
 which a specific penalty is not provided by law, shall be fined not 
 less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars for each 
 offense.^ 
 
 The School Census. One might ask how a teacher is 
 to know from the first day whether there are any school 
 absences. In well-regulated districts an official census is 
 taken annually, in which all children of legal school age are 
 enumerated. The clerk of the board is required to furnish 
 the teacher or principal with a list of the children of school 
 age. The teacher reports the children not in school and 
 not excused. Their names are given to the probation or 
 truant officer who gives notice to the parent or guardian. 
 Later, proceedings are begun against the person responsible 
 
 1 Ohio State Laws, Sec. 12980 and 12981. 
 
School Attendance 73 
 
 for the child's attendance in the proper court designated 
 in the law.^ 
 
 Poverty as a Cause for Exemption. In many states 
 the law provides that the city or county superintendent or 
 the school committee or board may, at their discretion, 
 exempt certain persons from the penalty of the law. The 
 fine cannot be incurred by an indigent child. In Colorado 
 and Michigan children over 14 years of age whose help is 
 needed for their own or their parents' support; in Okla- 
 homa, Nevada, Utah, North Dakota, North Carolina, those 
 who are needed at home for support without any restriction 
 in age, are exempted. In Michigan the board of educa- 
 tion may give relief in money; in Tennessee and Pennsyl- 
 vania such cases may be reported to the overseers of the 
 poor. In Ohio the truant officer may furnish books and 
 other relief to any child who otherwise would not be able 
 to attend school ; and '* such child shall not be declared to 
 be a pauper because of acceptance of such aid." 
 
 Mothers' Pensions. As a means to meet this situation, 
 thirty-one states have a system of mothers' pensions which 
 the juvenile court or state or local board of mothers' aid 
 administers. The support is for widowed mothers or 
 those whose husbands are unable to work. In some states 
 the amount to be paid per child is specified, in others it is 
 left to the discretion of the board. 
 
 Legal and Illegal Non-attendance. It follows that 
 there are two kinds of non-attendance, legal and illegal. 
 The following reasons were given to investigators in the 
 home by the mother or the guardian for the non-attendance 
 
 1 Steps taken according to the law of the state of Idaho — Bulletin 
 No. 47, 1915, U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 
74 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 of 1,158 boys and girls absent from the public schools of 
 Chicago.^ 
 
 CHART IX 
 
 
 
 Per cent 
 
 
 Reasons for Absence 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Both 
 
 Illness of child 
 
 46 
 
 51 
 
 48 
 
 Illness of others 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 Birth, death, wedding, etc. 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 Church attendance 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Work at home 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 Lack of shoes or clothes 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 Errands and interpreting 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 Having company or visiting 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 " Tardy and so stayed at home " 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 Working or looking for v^ork 
 
 2 
 
 * 
 
 I 
 
 Excused by teacher 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 Inclement weather 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Various trivial excuses 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 Truancy 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 * Less than one per cent. 
 
 
 
 
 Home Conditions. The cases of absence here listed 
 were found in a poor immigrant section of a large city. 
 The crowded living conditions made sickness among the 
 children a common occurrence and the hard struggle to get 
 things to eat and wear made it impossible even with the 
 best of intentions to keep the children regularly in school. 
 Quoting from the book cited above : 
 
 " In many cases the child was ill because his physical needs had 
 not been properly looked after, because the mother was over- 
 worked or ignorant or perhaps very poor, and the child had there- 
 fore not been taken to a dentist or had his tonsils looked after or 
 
 1 From Abbott and Breckinridge : " Truancy and Non-attendance 
 in Chicago Schools," University of Chicago Press, 1917, p. 129. 
 
School Attendance 75 
 
 been given some other necessary preventive treatment. Some- 
 times the child's under-nourished condition or lack of warm cloth- 
 ing and of shoes that would keep the feet dry had made him sus- 
 ceptible to colds and other illnesses. The fact that approximately 
 one-fifth of all the children enrolled should within three weeks be 
 absent because of sickness shows an urgent need for school nurses 
 and thorough medical inspection. It may be noted too that the 
 visits made by a school nurse, who is also a social worker, not 
 only protect the child from unnecessary absences due to pre- 
 ventive illnesses, but such visits often afford an excellent oppor- 
 tunity for general family service, instruction in better methods of 
 housekeeping, better care of all the children, as well as help in 
 the process of Americanizing many homes." 
 
 Sickness of other members of the family accounts for 
 seven per cent of the absences. Work at home for twelve 
 per cent more. One boy v^as kept home to watch fires 
 for a sick father, another because his mother had gone out 
 to see a doctor; Bruno, 12, was helping his mother do the 
 washing; Genevieve, 12, was tending the shop and taking 
 care of three younger children and a sick mother; Helen, 
 II, was taking care of her sick mother and the new baby, 
 and also of six other children younger than herself; a boy 
 of 1 1 ran errands while his mother sewed, another waited at 
 home for coal to be delivered so he could carry it in. In 
 immigrant families a child going to school and speaking 
 English is often kept at home to act as interpreter for a 
 member of the family; he has to wait till the plumber 
 comes, for instance, to tell him what to do, go with his 
 father to court, with his mother to hunt rooms, or with an 
 aunt while she looks for a job.^ 
 
 1 Abbott and Breckinridge : " Truancy and Non-attendance in Chicago 
 Schools," University of Chicago Press, 1917. Chapter IX : " Non- 
 attendance at the Source," p. I28ff. 
 
76 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Non-attendance in Rural Communities, Causes of. 
 
 According to the Bulletin of the Bureau of Education, 
 1913, No. 8, entitled " The Status of Rural Education in 
 the United States," the per cent of daily attendance of every 
 100 pupils enrolled in the rural schools of Maryland is only 
 51, the lowest percentage of attendance in the rural schools 
 of all the states. Delaware is next to the lowest with 51.4 
 per cent; Colorado next with 53.6. The states ranking 
 highest are Oregon with 90.6; Connecticut, 88.4; Massa- 
 chusetts, 86. 
 
 In a study of rural school attendance in the state of Ala- 
 bama ^ made in 19 18, the year after the compulsory at- 
 tendance law of 191 5 went into effect, the causes of non- 
 attendance are classified. The investigation was made in 
 twelve typical rural counties. The number of children cov- 
 ered was 4,371 ; they were absent a total number of 156,417 
 days, and for the following reasons : 
 
 Days absent on account of 
 
 
 Farm work 
 
 50,620 
 
 House work 
 
 7,175 
 
 Illness 
 
 46,323 
 
 Bad weather 
 
 12,447 
 
 Bad roads 
 
 2,721 
 
 Poverty 
 
 2,354 
 
 Indifference 
 
 21,412 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 13,365 
 
 Truancy. Actual truancy when the child absents him- 
 self from school without the knowledge of the parent is 
 comparatively rare. It is much more common among boys 
 
 ijoffe: "Rural School Attendance in Alabama," in Child Welfare 
 in Alabama. An inquiry by the National Child Labor Committee under 
 
School Attendance yj 
 
 than girls. In a study of loo typical cases there were 95 
 boys and 5 girls. Only 68 were of normal mentality. The 
 largest number, 32, were thirteen years of age; 83 ranged 
 in age from eleven to fourteen inclusive. As might be ex- 
 pected, only a small number were not retarded.^ 
 
 Years retarded Per cent 
 
 6 
 
 1 22 
 
 2 21 
 
 3 17 
 
 4 13 
 
 5 i6 
 
 6 2 
 
 7 3 
 
 In another study of 1,092 truant boys ^ twenty per cent 
 were not retarded ; the largest number, nearly twenty-two 
 per cent were retarded four years. 
 
 Causes of Truancy. A limited study of truancy in the 
 schools of New York City^ revealed the folowing as the 
 chief causes: gang influence, moving picture shows, indif- 
 ferent parents, mercenary parents, insufficient guardian- 
 ship, faulty teaching or discipline, backwardness, lack of in- 
 terest because of unjustified retardation, physical weak- 
 ness, oversize, opportunities for employment. In the study 
 of 100 cases before mentioned, described as typical, the 
 causes of truancy were classified as follows : 
 
 the auspices and with the cooperation of the University of Alabama, 
 Edward N. Clopper, director, p. 101-124. National Child Labor 
 Bulletin, New York, 1918. 
 
 1 Bulletin No. 29, 1915, U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 
 - Abbott and Breckinridge, op. cit., pp. 159, 181. 
 
 3 Report of the Superintendent New York City Schools, 1912, p. 
 245ff. 
 
78 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Fault at home 
 
 29 per cent 
 
 deceased parents 
 
 
 desertion 
 
 
 intemperance 
 
 
 employed mothers 
 
 
 unemployed fathers 
 
 
 Dislike of school 
 
 26 
 
 Bad companions 
 
 23 
 
 Fault of boy 
 
 II 
 
 Desire to work 
 
 10 
 
 Illness 
 
 4 
 
 In another study of 3,990 truant boys, about one out of 
 every three came from homes broken by death, desertion, or 
 divorce.^ 
 
 Loss on Account of Transfers. While in the large 
 cities the attendance problem is most acute among the chil- 
 dren of poor and ignorant non-English speaking foreigners, 
 there is also a large aggregate loss of schooling in the more 
 prosperous districts on account of occasional absence and 
 transfers from one school to another. To be sure, among 
 the poor and shifting population transfers are more com- 
 mon than elsewhere. An instance has been reported of a 
 child who entered the second grade of a city school in 
 November ; it was his eighteenth school enrollment. In the 
 city of New York there were between September, 1914, 
 and January, 19 15, 84,000 transfers from one school to 
 another. Of these transfers 13,060 were not completed 
 within seven days, the pupils not having been reported as 
 enrolled in the schools which were to receive them. Ab- 
 sence through transfer does not affect a school's average 
 attendance record, as this is based on the enrollment, but 
 
 ^ Abbott and Breckinridge, op. cit. 
 
School Attendance 79 
 
 it is contrary to the spirit of the law. In a number of cases 
 that have been traced, it is found that as many as two, 
 three, four, and five weeks of schoohng may be lost through 
 lack of ordinary care in the matter of transfers. The dif- 
 ficulties are usually increased when the transfer is made 
 between a country and a city school or between a public 
 and a parochial school. *' Not found " cases are often 
 such as have been reported as transfers, which are in reality 
 fraudulent attempts by parents to take children out of 
 school and put them to work.^ 
 
 Trivial Reasons for Non-attendance. Frequently re- 
 peated occasional absence of children coming from the more 
 comfortable homes, whose parents allow them to stay out 
 of school for trivial reasons, is a serious hindrance to 
 school progress. A law that designates an absence of three 
 successive days as truancy is but a mild deterrent to the 
 evil of non-attendance. It does not reach the occasional 
 absentee. In some cities the rules of the board of educa- 
 tion allow the truant officer to proceed at any time even 
 after one absence if it is known to be willful. 
 
 Cooperation of Truant Officer and Teacher. While it 
 is the duty of the truant officer to enforce the compulsory 
 attendance and the continuation school law, and to dispense 
 relief, he needs, in the first place, the intelligent and faith- 
 ful cooperation of the teacher who is in a position to know 
 the children best, who must know them individually and 
 the home environment from which they come in order to 
 teach them effectively even though there were no attend- 
 ance laws. He needs as a matter of course the assistance 
 
 1 Klapper : " The Bureau of Attendance and Child Welfare," Educa- 
 tional Review, Vol. 50, p. 369. 
 
8o Education and the General Welfare 
 
 of the principal, and he should have the cooperation of the 
 police and other civic bodies. 
 
 In some cities the policeman in the performance of his 
 new function of positive social service apprehends every 
 child of school age found on the street during school hours 
 and brings him to the nearest school. To avoid confusion, 
 each child rightfully absent is given an identification slip 
 which v^^ill show that the child may be at large. 
 
 Support of the Attendance OfBcers. When it is 
 known that the court stands back of the attendance depart- 
 ment, parents learn to respect an order from the truant 
 officer. Social agencies often have information of value in 
 regard to the home conditions of the child. Charitable so- 
 cieties may donate supplies of clothing and food to chil- 
 dren whose absence is due to poverty, and the psychological 
 clinic may discover that non-attendance is caused by mental 
 deficiency. 
 
 Importance of Regular Attendance. Regular attend- 
 ance is the teacher's foremost professional concern. The 
 school may fail to reach its aim in any child on account 
 of physical defect or poor health or lack of interest or 
 ability, but through non-attendance it must fail. Every 
 value of school activity is conditioned on the physical pres- 
 ence of the children. The pupil who is behind on account 
 of absence from any cause and who fails of promotion and 
 must repeat the work, is usually a burden to the teacher 
 and a drag upon the progress of his classmates. Through 
 the absence of each child the state, the nation, and the local 
 community suffer a certain loss of the funds provided for 
 maintenance and equipment unused. If we may assume 
 that a school in question is a good one, irregular attendance 
 
School Attendance 8i 
 
 is its prime evil. On the other hand, observance of strict 
 and regular attendance begets respect for order and for 
 punctuality in all obligations, and provides one of the moral 
 values of school life. 
 
 A Form of Corrective Procedure. There are two 
 kinds of measures taken to promote regular attendance: 
 corrective and preventive. Under the first comes the co- 
 ercive influence of the truant officer to restore attendance. 
 Under the second comes, among other influences, what the 
 teacher may be able to do to prevent absence. 
 
 The attendance regulations of the board of education of 
 one of the larger cities are as follows : 
 
 1. Whenever the principals or teachers have reason to believe 
 that the absence of a pupil from school is due to truancy they 
 shall notify the parent or guardian by mail or otherwise and if 
 after the second notification he has not returned to school or sat- 
 isfactory explanation of absence has not been made, the case shall 
 be reported to the truant officer. 
 
 2. At the close of the school every morning and afternoon, it 
 shall be the duty of each teacher to notify parent or guardian of 
 each pupil without exception who is absent or tardy in attendance. 
 Each notice sent shall be noted opposite pupil's name in the reg- 
 ister by the letter N in the proper column of the day. 
 
 3. Upon the return of the pupil after an absence the parent or 
 guardian shall give in person or in writing an excuse stating the 
 cause of absence. If the cause is due to the sickness of the pupil 
 or necessary attendance upon a sick member of the family or a 
 death in the family of the pupil, the absence shall be excused and 
 so noted by the letter E after the sign of notification made as 
 above. 
 
 4. In every case of absence of a pupil for more than three half 
 days in four consecutive weeks for any other cause than permitted 
 above without satisfactory excuse to the teacher, the absentee 
 shall without exception or favor be reported to the truant officer. 
 
82 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 In accordance with the first rule a case of truancy or 
 other illegal non-attendance may be proceeded against as 
 soon as it is discovered. The ordinary procedure when 
 there is no '' reason to believe " that the non-attendance is 
 illegal, is given in the other regulations. Much waste of 
 effort may be caused by reports to the truant officer of a 
 non-attendance that afterwards proves to have been un- 
 preventable. The machinery of the attendance department 
 is sometimes invoked before the cause of non-attendance 
 is definitely known to be illegal. In American cities there 
 is usually a small number of truant officers in proportion to 
 the number of children enrolled. Since the business of 
 teaching requires an intimate knowledge of the home condi- 
 tions of the children, even though the attendance record 
 were perfect, the teacher is in a position to know where il- 
 legal non-attendance may be expected. Where willful tru- 
 ancy may be expected may be known from the behavior of 
 the children at school. With this information and a little 
 further inquiry the teacher may often eliminate all doubt 
 as to the motive of absences and relieve the attendance 
 department of needless investigation. 
 
 Preventive Measures. An indifferent attitude to reg- 
 ular attendance on the part of the parents of a district 
 should be corrected. It may be possible to do this by 
 means of a campaign among them for an improvement of 
 the average attendance record and the good name of the 
 school. They may be ignorant of the necessity of regular 
 attendance and of the proper standard which the school 
 should try to reach through their cooperation. It is possible 
 also to appeal to the individual parent to assist the teacher 
 
School Attendance 83 
 
 in keeping his child at school when it is for the good of 
 both the school and the child. 
 
 Often the attendance is good to begin with the first week 
 or two of the term, only to grow slack as the days go by 
 through a waning interest. The teacher should try to an- 
 ticipate such possibilities not only by keeping the school 
 thoroughly alive but also by helping each individual child 
 to acquire some special school interest such as may be found 
 in games and play, music, drawing, or some other branch 
 of study or skill, which will in time carry interest in the 
 other activities of the school along with the force of its 
 momentum. 
 
 And then the school or room spirit may be appealed to 
 when the record is good in order to keep it good. Some 
 teachers appeal in an effective way to the individual chil- 
 dren of the grades by issuing to them a small printed form 
 with the name of the child filled in certifying to the fact of 
 faithful attendance and good deportment. It is a good prac- 
 tice, too, to call the attention of the whole school to perfect 
 records and post the record for all at stated periods where 
 all may see it. It is a great mistake for a teacher to as- 
 sume that the truant office takes charge of the matter to re- 
 lieve her of all responsibility in regard to attendance. Pre- 
 vention is the chief function of attendance management and 
 this lies largely within the teacher's province. 
 
 General Effect of Attendance Laws. Although there 
 is much difficulty in the enforcement of the compulsory at- 
 tendance law, school work, especially in the cities, could 
 hardly be carried on without it. Its value in general lies 
 in its bringing to the consciousness of the parent the fact 
 
84 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 that the law is available for transgressors. Through its 
 influence the child that can be reached in no other way can 
 be restrained by a fear of the parental school, and the par- 
 ent can be threatened with a fine. However, only a small 
 per cent of the cases reported by the principals to the 
 truant officer, less than two per cent in some known in- 
 stances, finally get into court. These are only the cases 
 where parents absolutely refuse to send the children to 
 school after repeated warnings from the attendance officer. 
 When a parent is stubborn in the matter, it is almost with- 
 out exception due to the economic need of the child in 
 the home. Usually after the case is taken to court the par- 
 ent gives in, and the procedure is at an end. Rarely is a 
 fine imposed, never if the parent is unable to pay it. In 
 a number of cities, many of the cases that are finally re- 
 ferred to the chief attendance officer to dispose of are set- 
 tled out of court. For if an attempt were made to send to 
 court all cases referred for prosecution, the court could not 
 handle them with its other duties. 
 
 " It often happens that parents who are defiant about conforming 
 to the law become reasonable when the purpose of the law is ex- 
 plained, and when they learn that the state is actually trying to 
 make it possible for them to give their children an equal oppor- 
 tunity with other children." ^ 
 
 1 From report of chief attendance officer, Cincinnati Public Schools, 
 for the year ending August 31, 1917. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 Guidance Function of the School 
 
 Educational Guidance. The school combines with its 
 educational aims the function of guidance of the children 
 toward a suitable life work. It is a part of the state's 
 guidance plan to prevent child labor and compel school at- 
 tendance. Another part of the plan is to prevent prema- 
 ture withdrawal from school. The larger meaning of vo- 
 cational guidance is not to find jobs for children; the school 
 is not a rival of the employment bureau. To be consistent 
 the school must exercise the guidance function with educa- 
 tional aims. It is not a money-making but an educational 
 enterprise. Its purpose is not to open a road to immediate 
 profit but to keep the child as long as may be necessary to 
 provide the means of future development in a well-chosen 
 occupation and for a greater productive gain in the long 
 run. 
 
 Keeping Children in School. If the outlay of school 
 effort and expense is justified for all the children, then it is 
 an essential economy to keep all the children in school as 
 long as may be necessary to reach the aims for which the 
 schools have been established. 
 
 In the great majority of the states children under four- 
 teen are not permitted to work in certain enumerated oc- 
 cupations and not under sixteen in others. The federal 
 
 85 
 
86 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 law makes these same limits uniform in all the states by- 
 levying a tax of lo per cent on the net profits accruing 
 from the products of child labor in certain lines of work 
 and under certain conditions.^ Although this law affects 
 only a relatively small number of child workers, it exerts 
 considerable influence in that it sets a standard to which 
 the states will in time probably conform, with respect to 
 occupations exclusively under their own jurisdiction. 
 
 As far as the schools are concerned, the child labor laws 
 imply that the child should complete the elementary course 
 by the age of fourteen. Beginning at the age of six, the 
 child should complete the eight-year elementary course in 
 eight years. This is so far from what is accomplished 
 in some of the states that in a few of them a child of four- 
 teen is legally qualified to leave school to go to work at the 
 completion of the fourth grade; in many the limit of ad- 
 vancement required is the fifth grade; in Ohio it is the 
 sixth grade for boys who may leave at 15 and the seventh 
 for girls who may leave at 16. In a few states the comple- 
 tion of the elementary course is required. In others it is 
 provided that the child shall show ability to read, and to 
 write legibly simple English sentences (a few add an ex- 
 amination in the fundamentals of arithmetic) with or with- 
 out the requirement of the completion of a certain number 
 of grades. 
 
 Employment Certificates. On leaving school at legal 
 age to go to work, it becomes necessary for the child to 
 procure an employment certificate. The essential steps in 
 the procedure are as follows : 
 
 The child accompanied by the parent goes to the ofHce 
 
 1 See page 55. 
 
Guidance Function of the School 87 
 
 from which the certificate is issued with evidence of age 
 and the school record made out by the principal of the 
 school last attended. He is also required to bring a card or 
 statement including the signature from the firm that is to 
 employ him. He must also have a physician's certificate 
 to show that he is capable of doing the work he expects 
 to undertake. All these requirements having been fulfilled, 
 a certificate is issued and given to the child. In some cities 
 a literacy test ^ as well as a physical examination is required 
 in addition to the school record. Those children who are 
 of the age at which no permit is required must furnish the 
 employer a birth certificate just the same. 
 
 Permits to work during vacations may be issued to chil- 
 dren who are of legal age although they have not completed 
 the required grade. 
 
 When a child withdraws or is dismissed from work the 
 certificate must be returned to the issuing office with the 
 reasons definitely stated; if they are not known, this fact 
 must be stated. 
 
 Illegal Withdrawal. The chief problem of both the 
 child labor and the compulsory attendance laws is their en- 
 forcement. Laws are enacted and placed on the statute 
 books to satisfy, often only to quiet, an aroused public sen- 
 timent. Then it is assumed that they will somehow and by 
 some proper person be enforced. By accident or design the 
 means of enforcement are not always clearly set forth, so 
 that there is much room for evasion. Not all violations, we 
 may be sure, are reported and when suit is brought even 
 
 1 Administration of Child Labor Laws, Part 2, Employment Cer- 
 tificate System, New York. Children's Bureau, U. S. Department of 
 Labor. 
 
88 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 in the states where the laws themselves are satisfactory 
 the number of acquittals have been suspiciously large. As 
 far as the laws themselves are concerned, the teacher should 
 form a part of the public that voices sentiments in favor of 
 a strict enforcement. The more so because it is the 
 teacher's professional as well as his ordinary human and 
 civic duty. 
 
 Premature Legal Withdrawal. Since the law fixes 
 upon an age of withdrawal, it has the effect in a measure 
 of emphasizing that period as the time to leave school and 
 go to work. Parents often say at that time, ^' He is old 
 enough, why shouldn't he go to work?" Leaving school 
 at legal age has become the rule to such an extent that the 
 children themselves and even the teachers have come to look 
 upon it as a matter of course. As a result there is an 
 annual exodus of the children from the schools even 
 before, sometimes long before, they are ready to enter high 
 school. 
 
 In American cities it is a common practice to carry only 
 half of all the children of the elementary schools to the final 
 elementary grade and only one in ten to the final year of 
 the high school.^ In the rural schools the showing is as bad 
 and worse as far as the high school is concerned. Taking 
 a state which is fairly representative, and in which the city 
 and the rural enrollment are so nearly the same as to offer 
 a basis of comparison, we find the following grade distribu- 
 tion: 
 
 lAyres: "Laggards in Our Schools," Charities Publication Com- 
 mittee, 1909; Bulletin No. 4, 1907, U. S. Bureau of Education; "Woman 
 and Child Wage Earners in the United States," U. S. Senate Docu- 
 ment, No. 645, 2nd Session, 6ist Congress, 1910. 
 
Guidance Function of the School 89 
 
 CHART X 
 
 Grade Distribution, City and Rural Districts of Ohio 
 Compared, 1916^ 
 
 Grade 
 
 City Schools 
 
 Rural Schools 
 
 I 
 
 60,091 
 
 55,359 
 
 2 
 
 52,642 
 
 40,652 
 
 3 
 
 51,108 
 
 41,399 
 
 4 
 
 49,386 
 
 40,825 
 
 5 
 
 45,371 
 
 36,764 
 
 6 
 
 39,263 
 
 31,207 
 
 7 
 
 34,187 
 
 28,155 
 
 8 
 
 29,533 
 
 28,014 
 
 High School 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 23,383 
 
 5,517 
 
 2 
 
 15,953 
 
 3,828 
 
 3 
 
 10,750 
 
 2,573 
 
 4 
 
 9,329 
 
 1,397 
 
 This does not include the villages of the state; only the 
 number of children in the grades and in the years of the 
 high school in the rural and city schools. A marked fall- 
 ing off is seen in the rural high school partly because of the 
 distance of the child's home from the school and partly 
 because the labor of the child is much in demand on the 
 farm. 
 
 Why Children Drop Out of School. Children with- 
 draw prematurely from school for about the same reasons 
 as for irregular attendance : ill health, home conditions, or 
 school experiences. Studies that have been made by trac- 
 ing the motives for leaving school to their source show that 
 two out of five children leave school of their own choice. 
 
 1 Annual Rep. Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1916, Columbus, 
 Ohio. 
 
90 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 When the supposed cause is necessity of the parent or when 
 the financial aid though not needed is desired by the parent, 
 it has been shown that whether the child remains in school 
 or not depends more upon the parent's attitude in the mat- 
 ter than upon the size of the family income.^ It is after 
 all a question with the parent whether going to school is 
 worth while for the child. 
 
 About half of those w'ho go to work are dissatisfied with 
 school. They dislike the teacher, dislike study, etc., or are 
 just tired of school. Not only dull but bright pupils are 
 among the dissatisfied who leave school to go to work. 
 The other half, who speak well of both the teacher and the 
 school, are usually those who are naturally industrious and 
 want to go to work to earn money. They do not dislike 
 school, but they like to be free to go to work, often prefer- 
 ring the restrictions of the factory along with older persons 
 to those of the school in company with smaller children. 
 Besides, the influence of their companions who have gone 
 to work and speak well of it draw them away from school. 
 Vacation employment often marks the beginning of a de- 
 sire to leave the "make-believe " life of the school for the 
 realities of industry. On inquiry of 583 children who left 
 school, it was found that 65 per cent would not, according 
 to their own testimony, have been desirous of staying if 
 training in manual or industrial art had been given in 
 school.^ 
 
 Vocational Guidance. The work in which city children 
 who leave prematurely engage is usually of the type for 
 which the schools do not, and really cannot, definitely pre- 
 pare. It nearly always consists of routine activities, short 
 1 " Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United States," op. cit. 
 
Guidance Function of the School 91 
 
 and oft-repeated processes on parts of manufactured prod- 
 ucts of the greatest diversity even in a single industry, easy 
 to learn and leading to nothing higher ; or the work may be 
 that which is common to all industries, to prepare the fin- 
 ished product for the market : marking, labeling, wrapping, 
 counting, packing, and boxing. Each of these can be done 
 by any child of ordinary intelligence without school prep- 
 aration. By way of contrast, the rural child is more for- 
 tunately situated, for the school can be connected with the 
 farm even in the earlier stages of school progress, and the 
 several occupations of agriculture afford unlimited oppor- 
 tunities for mental development. 
 
 If children must or will leave school to go to work, or 
 if it is deemed best that some of them should leave, the 
 school should share with the family in the responsibility of 
 helping them to decide what it is best for them to do. 
 If, in accordance with the law, many withdraw at the min- 
 imum legal age, then during the last year they are in school 
 they should study the conditions of the occupations open 
 to those of their preparation and capacity. 
 
 The Teacher as Counselor. No one in the school sys- 
 tem is in a better position to give wise counsel and sympathy 
 than the teacher. She deals more intensively with the pu- 
 pils as individuals than any other person in the system. 
 She alone is in a position of daily contact with the mind of 
 the pupil. But even she may not know her pupils well 
 enough to be a friendly guide. According to the usual 
 practice, she has only one year to get acquainted with them 
 as she usually does not advance with her grade. The inter- 
 est acquired in the children is largely severed when at the 
 end of one year they pass to another room. The expecta- 
 
92 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 tion of having a new set of pupils every year does not con- 
 duce to thinking definitely of their future economic adjust- 
 ment. If the teacher does not learn to know the child, no 
 one in the school will, and the child with no moral support 
 from any one submits to the fate of a premature departure 
 from school and a handicap for life largely determined per- 
 haps by a short-sighted or mercenary parent. 
 
 To meet this difficulty the school organization may assign 
 each teacher a group of from twenty to thirty pupils who 
 report daily in the same room to the teacher, who may study 
 the tastes and particular aptitudes of each and investigate 
 the home conditions. Under this plan each student has a 
 continuing adviser during the years preceding withdrawal, 
 and in the high school during four years. For several 
 years the pupils are given some experience with drawing, 
 cabinet making, turning, pattern making, foundry, forging, 
 machine work, or some other line of industry. This experi- 
 ence will reveal to the adviser and the pupil himself what 
 he likes to do and what he is best fitted for, and determines 
 the line of specialization that is to follow in continued 
 study in school or productive work outside. The vocational 
 guidance department proper only ftmctions at the end of the 
 school course and the beginning of actual work in remu- 
 nerative employment, in bringing together the pupil and the 
 position for which by ability and training he is best fitted. 
 
 Money Value of School Work. Neither the parent nor 
 the child will appreciate in many instances the argument 
 that a child should complete a full course for certain spirit- 
 ual values and mental satisfactions that will accrue in the 
 long years to come. It will seem to them more to the 
 point to learn that no one really desires to employ a person 
 
Guidance Function of the School 93 
 
 in a worth-while occupation before the age of 16 to 18, and 
 that to continue in school will be time gained in the in- 
 creased money return to those who come later in order 
 that they may come prepared to engage in industry. It has 
 been found that even in the lowest grades of factory work 
 the uneducated laborer is often unsuccessful. In one fac- 
 tory only 35 per cent of the unskilled remained even in 
 unskilled work, 5 per cent went somewhat higher, while 
 40 per cent had to be dismissed and 20 per cent left of their 
 own accord for one reason or another. What becomes of 
 these drifters from one job to another? 
 
 Numerous studies of the money value of education have 
 been published; one of these is a report^ of a committee 
 of the Brooklyn Teachers' Association published in 1909 
 comparing the earnings of New York City children who left 
 school at 14 years of age with those of children who re- 
 mained until they were 18. The average weekly earnings 
 were as follows : 
 
 CHART XI 
 Comparison of Wages of Children Who Left New York City 
 
 Schools at 14 Years of Age with Those Who Left at 18 
 Weekly Salary Left School 
 
 at 
 
 at 14 
 
 at 18 
 
 14 
 
 $ 4.00 
 
 $ 
 
 15 
 
 4-50 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 5.00 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 6.00 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 7.00 
 
 10.00 
 
 19 
 
 8.50 
 
 10-75 
 
 20 
 
 9.50 
 
 15.00 
 
 21 
 
 9.50 
 
 16.00 
 
 22 
 
 11.75 
 
 20.00 
 
 1 Bulletin No. 22, 1917, U. S. Bureau of Education, p. 29, 32. 
 
94 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Weekly Salary 
 
 
 Left 
 
 School 
 
 
 at 
 
 at 14 
 
 
 
 at 18 
 
 23 
 
 11.75 
 
 
 
 21.00 
 
 24 
 
 12.00 
 
 
 
 23.00 
 
 25 
 
 12.75 
 
 
 
 31.00 
 
 The total salary of the average child who left at 14 was 
 $5112.50 at the age of 25, while the total salary of the 
 average child who left at 18 was $7337.50. 
 
 " It is seen that already, at 25 years of age, the boy who had re- 
 mained in school till he was 18 had received about $2,000 more 
 salary than the boy who left at 14, and was then receiving $900 
 per year more. From this time on the salary of the better boy 
 will rise still more rapidly. However, reckoning the average dif- 
 ference in salary at only $900 per year, this equals an annuity 
 that would cost $19,000 if bought from a reliable insurance com- 
 pany — not a bad return from four years of youth devoted to 
 school." 
 
 It is held that the average value of school to each child 
 is over $9.00 a day. 
 
 Higher Values. But while the money value of school 
 work is not to be despised, the school must not encourage 
 false notions of success. It is not true that the longer one 
 goes to school the more money he will be able to command 
 when he comes to be an earner. Besides, social efficiency is 
 not to be measured in terms of net income. Those who pur- 
 sue extensive courses of study to realize the higher values of 
 life are usually willing to forego large money returns for a 
 broader vision of human society. School guidance will 
 largely fail if it does not also help to discover those who are 
 by nature and training fitted for the larger service of the 
 community and the state in the fields of scholarship and the 
 professions. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Buildings and Grounds 
 
 Material Attractions. School buildings are now 
 erected on broader principles of economy than formerly. 
 There was a time when it was the ruling policy to keep the 
 initial expense as low as possible, and in many instances 
 to neglect needed repairs until the building became almost 
 uninhabitable. In the early days sites were sometimes se- 
 lected that could be used for no other purpose; a ledge of 
 rock with no soil to till and hardly accessible in winter over 
 the icy slopes, or a low marshy place that could not be 
 drained. An instance is reported of a school located at the 
 present time next to the village graveyard where the children 
 play hide-and-seek among the tombstones. A total disre- 
 gard of a suitable place for school work seems to indicate 
 a belief in education as an immanent spirit. It is true 
 that learning is always taking place under any circumstances, 
 whenever there is a desire to learn. The proverbial log in 
 the woods with a teacher on one end and a student on the 
 other would do very well if we could assume a supreme 
 natural desire for educational development. But this is not 
 the case. It is not true of the grown-up, much less of the 
 child. Immature minds need inducements of the higher 
 material sort to undertake a course of training that raises 
 them above their mere instinctive level of life. 
 
 95 
 
g6 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Every one has known of school buildings and grounds 
 that invited the contempt and derision of the community. 
 They represented the lowest conception of a gathering place 
 for human beings. State centralization of control has com- 
 pelled a change. In the most favored states the new build- 
 ings are such as arrest the attention, excite the interest, and 
 command the respect of the community. The aim is to 
 make the buildings and grounds beautiful, healthful, com- 
 fortable, useful, convenient, and safe. 
 
 Location of the Schoolhouse. The location of the 
 schoolhouse follows the principle of the greatest good to 
 the greatest number. If the inhabitants of a district are 
 evenly distributed the schoolhouse would naturally be placed 
 at the geographical center, or allowance may be made for 
 the probable direction that will be taken by the expanding 
 population in the future. The site is chosen from the stand- 
 point of accessibility, health, and hygienic and agreeable sur- 
 roundings. In the large cities it should be away from the 
 noise of street traffic and the danger of passing vehicles to 
 the children in going and coming. 
 
 Types of Buildings. In the building of schoolhouses 
 the structural unit is the single room. Buildings may be of 
 one room, there may be many rooms under one roof, or 
 there may be a group of separate one-room buildings. The 
 one-room building is the simplest type and is common in the 
 rural districts. 
 
 The many-room building is well-known in towns and 
 cities, and in the consolidated school of the rural districts. 
 In the cities the growing population makes it necessary fre- 
 quently to accommodate an overflow of attendance in tem- 
 porary quarters by providing portable one-room buildings. 
 

 t 
 
 c 
 '5) 
 
 c 
 W 
 
 97 
 
WINDOW^) e'-d UP FROM FLOOR. 
 
 Figure 2A. Plan of One-Room Building (Figure 2) Suggesting Use 
 FOR Social Center Purposes 1 
 
 1 American School Board Journal, April, 1919, p. 48. Designed by 
 Div. of Rural Engineering, U. S. Bur. of Public Roads. 
 
 98 
 
Buildings and Grounds 99 
 
 which are grouped conveniently near the many-room build- 
 ing. 
 
 The plans of a building may be so drawn as to provide 
 for additions to take care of future expansion. Figure 3 ^ 
 will serve as an illustration, with initial plans (Figs. 4 & 5) .^ 
 
 The one-story school buildings have the advantage of 
 greater safety, less noise inside, and less cost. They do not 
 require stairways, which are always expensive. They are 
 easier to keep clean as there is no dust from above. They 
 are well-adapted to the lower grades. In regard to initial 
 expense for building, one-story schools have been built at 
 a cost of from two to six thousand dollars per classroom 
 while the two story type has cost from seven to thirteen 
 chousand dollars per classroom.^ 
 
 The many-room building has an advantage in the respect 
 that it is capable of the larger and more impressive effects 
 in architecture. Parents as well as their children take a 
 certain satisfaction in their relation to a large and attractive 
 building. The many-room building in the rural consoli- 
 dated district gives the physical impression of importance 
 where it is often most needed to stimulate interest in the 
 work of the school. But the single-room plan, or unit 
 group, may be adapted also to a large school. Instead of 
 having eight rooms, for instance, under one roof and in 
 one structure, the eight rooms may all be in separate units. 
 
 1 These plans are from American School Board Journal, Vol. 52, 
 Jan., 1916, pp. 22-23. Courtesy of Mr. W. C. Bruce, Editor. For 
 plans for complete development of scheme, see the same reference. 
 
 2 Todd: "One-Story and Cottage Schools," American School Board 
 Journal, Vol. 52, April 1916, p. 20. 
 
 Perkins : ** One-Story School Buildings," American School Board 
 Journal, Vol. 56, April, 1918, p. 17. 
 
h^ fe 
 
 4-i 
 2 
 
 100 
 
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 pq 
 
 
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I02 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Here the architectural effects may also be pleasing if the 
 different units are parts of a general plan. 
 
 It is claimed by the advocates of the unit group plan that, 
 except for the initial outlay of expense for larger grounds, 
 their plan is cheaper, that it is more sanitary, that it 
 meets the demands of expansion in a more satisfactory way, 
 that it does not require the construction of large halls and 
 stairways, that the work of keeping the buildings clean is 
 much reduced, that there is less chance of fire, less noise, 
 less distraction, and that it makes the supervision of rooms 
 and grounds easier. 
 
 Size of Grounds. An initial outlay for ample grounds 
 with a view to future needs is usually a wise procedure. 
 There is always a rapid depreciation in the value of build- 
 ings after a period of use, but there is a rise in the value of 
 grounds, especially in the ci'ties. With ample grounds to 
 begin with, additions can be made without larger outlay 
 for land which the location of the school has served to en- 
 hance in value. 
 
 In many states certain limits in the size of the grounds 
 are prescribed. In one of the states these may not be more 
 than half an acre, in another one acre, in another one and 
 a half, in Massachusetts not more than two, in Maryland 
 and North Dakota not more than five acres. In the state 
 of Washington there may be ten acres under certain condi- 
 tions. Ohio gives state aid to elementary schools making 
 one of the conditions that the size of the grounds shall be 
 from one to three acres, depending on the class to which 
 the elementary school belongs. Present tendencies every- 
 where are indicated by the fact that the older type of legisla- 
 tion states that there shall be " not more " than a certain 
 
Buildings and Grounds 103 
 
 number of acres; the more recent type, that there shall be 
 " not less " than the prescribed area. In Minnesota no 
 elementary school shall be built upon a plot of ground that 
 affords less than fifty square feet of playground per pupil; 
 one hundred square feet will be required when conditions 
 make it possible to secure this amount of land. With the 
 coming of the consolidated rural school and the growing 
 sentiment for playgrounds and school gardens, the tendency 
 in nearly all parts of the country has been toward securing 
 larger grounds for the schools. In many places the rural 
 high school requires an agricultural equipment along with 
 a large acreage of land. In the large cities where it is often 
 impracticable to have a large plot of land for a school build- 
 ing, large amounts of money have been appropriated for 
 separate parks and playgrounds. 
 
 Two hundred square feet of ground space per child is 
 not too much. The city of London now requires 100 
 square feet as the minimum. The grounds should be large 
 enough to provide places for the younger children and the 
 older ones to play, and there should be room for a garden, 
 a lawn, flowers, berry-bearing shrubbery and trees to at- 
 tract the birds, bird-boxes, and perhaps a place for pets, 
 making the grounds all in all a sort of living museum of 
 animal and plant life and providing for the schools real sub- 
 ject-matter for study, thus far so generally lacking in all 
 our schools whether located in the city or the country. 
 
 Environment of the School. The coming years will 
 no doubt show a great improvement in the character of the 
 school grounds. They will be ample and well laid out. 
 Figure 6 is an illustration of what may be expected in many 
 districts. 
 
I04 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Care of Grounds. It is hoped that the pupils themselves 
 will carry out the plans for beautifying the grounds. Then 
 there will be vines for fences and walls, shrubbery for or- 
 nament and for hedges, and a few maples and oaks. '' The 
 time will doubtless come when every rural school district 
 will have a janitor, employed the year round, whose duty 
 it will be to care for the school buildings and grounds during 
 
 Figure 6 
 Plan of School Grounds ^ 
 
 vacations as well as during the school year." But during 
 the months of the school year the grounds will bear witness 
 of intelligent care on the part of the pupils. The work be- 
 stowed on them will be of educational value ; it will provide 
 object lessons in the care of the lawn, shrubbery, and trees 
 for the future home-makers of the community. 
 
 In some of the states the environment of the school is 
 guarded in various ways. Some permit no industry or busi- 
 
 1 Grounds of the Harlem Consolidated School, Winnebago County, 111. 
 Courtesy State Department of Public Instruction, Trenton, N. J. 
 
Buildings and Grounds 105 
 
 ness that is in any way offensive within certain limits of the 
 grounds. Many have prohibited the sale of alcoholic bev- 
 erages within certain prescribed distances from a school, in 
 one state the dry zone having a radius of four miles. In 
 Iowa no bills, posters, or other advertising matter of liquor 
 and tobacco shall be distributed, posted, or circulated within 
 four hundred feet of premises used for school purposes. 
 Minnesota requires that no school site shall be within five 
 hundred feet of steam railroads or manufacturing plants 
 which may be a source of noise or smoke, swampy places, 
 livery stables, or other buildings that may be sources of un- 
 healthful conditions. In a few states good drainage is 
 specifically required, Minnesota directing in addition that 
 made-land or land impregnated with organic matter must 
 not be selected.^ 
 
 In regard to the general structure and proportion of parts 
 of buildings, lately enacted laws have in a few instances 
 come to a just appreciation of the needs of a school. The 
 schoolhouse building code of Ohio is believed to be '' the 
 most stringent set of regulations concerning the construction 
 of schoolhouses which has ever been enacted into law by a 
 state legislature." ^ Among its provisions are the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 All rooms or buildings appropriated to the use of primary, gram- 
 mar, or high schools, including all rooms or buildings used for 
 school purposes by pupils or students eighteen years old or less 
 require a certain class of construction; all buildings more than 
 two stories high shall be of fireproof construction; two stories or 
 less of fireproof or composite construction ; under certain condi- 
 
 1 Bulletin No. 21, 1915, U. S. Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. 
 
 2 Ayres : " Cleveland Education Survey, School Buildings and Equip- 
 ment," 1 916, Russell Sage Foundation, New York. 
 
io6 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 tions a one-story frame building is permitted provided the same 
 is erected thirty feet away from any other building structure or 
 lot line, and two hundred feet beyond the city fire limits. 
 
 No school building shall be more than three stories high. 
 
 No building shall occupy more than seventy-five per cent of a 
 corner lot nor more than seventy per cent of an interior lot or site. 
 
 The minimum floor space and air space to be allowea per person 
 in school and class rooms is as follows: 
 
 Grades 
 
 Square Feet 
 
 Cubic Feet of Air Space 
 
 Primary 
 
 i6 
 
 200 
 
 Grammar 
 
 i8 
 
 225 
 
 High School 
 
 20 
 
 300 
 
 The height of all rooms, except toilet, play and recreation 
 rooms shall be not less than half the average width of the rooms, 
 and in no case less than ten feet. Other rooms shall be not less 
 than eight feet high. 
 
 A rest or hospital room shall be provided in all schools contain- 
 ing four and not more than eight rooms. In buildings containing 
 more than eight rooms two such rooms shall be provided. 
 
 No assembly hall (which is defined as a room seating more 
 than a hundred persons) shall be located above the second story 
 in a fireproof building nor above the first story in one of com- 
 posite construction. 
 
 Width of Aisles (minimum) 
 Primary rooms Grammar rooms High school rooms 
 Center aisles — 17 inches 18 20 
 
 Wall aisles — 28 inches 30 36 
 
 Other states do not make varied requirements of space accord- 
 ing to the age of the pupils. Seventeen inches is low for the 
 width of an aisle. Two hundred feet is the requirement for air 
 space in eight states. For manual training and domestic science 
 the floor space allowance is as high as thirty-five square feet in 
 some of the states. 
 
Buildings and Grounds 107 
 
 Lighting 
 
 The proportion of glass in each building used for school pur- 
 poses shall be not less than one square foot of glass to each five 
 square feet of floor area; in toilet and other rooms the proportion 
 is as one to ten. 
 
 Windows shall be placed either at the left, or the left and rear 
 of the pupils when seated, tops of the windows to be not more 
 than eight inches below the ceiling height. 
 
 The unit of measurement for the width of a properly lighted 
 room, when lighted from one side only, shall be the height of 
 the window head above the floor. The width of all class and 
 recitation rooms when lighted from one side only, shall never ex- 
 ceed two and a half times this unit measured at right angles to 
 the source of light. 
 
 The number of gas burners shall be not less than in the follow- 
 ing proportions: 
 
 Rooms 
 
 3-foot burners 
 
 Sq. 
 
 ft. floor space 
 
 Class 
 
 I 
 
 
 12 
 
 Auditorium 
 
 I 
 
 
 15 
 
 Gymnasium 
 
 I 
 
 
 15 
 
 Halls and stairways 
 
 I 
 
 
 24 
 
 No swinging or movable gas fixture or brackets shall be used. 
 
 In electric lighting all wiring shall be done in conduit. The 
 
 candle power in relation to the floor space shall be not less than: 
 
 Rooms 
 
 Candle power 
 
 Sq. 
 
 ft. floor space 
 
 Class 
 
 I 
 
 
 2 
 
 Auditorium 
 
 I 
 
 
 2/2 
 
 Gymnasium 
 
 I 
 
 
 2/2 
 
 Halls and stairways 
 
 I 
 
 
 4 
 
 Enclosed stairways, toilet rooms, corridors, passageways, shall 
 be lighted by artificial light, and said lights shall be kept burning 
 when the building is occupied after dark. 
 
 Means of egress are proportioned in width and number to the 
 
io8 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 number of persons that can be accommodated in the building. The 
 number of stairways and their construction, self-closing doors, 
 hand-rails and guard-rails, dimensions of stairways, risers and 
 treads for primary, grammar, and other schools, waterproof floors 
 for toilet rooms, treads with rubber or lead mats to prevent slip- 
 ping, floor and roof loads, dimensions and location of exit doors — 
 for all of these there are detailed specifications.^ 
 
 Standard Dimensions of Classrooms. The structural 
 unit of the school building being the classroom, there does 
 not appear to be any good reason why the units should not 
 be of uniform size and dimensions. All classrooms should 
 obviously be of such dimensions in the first place as will 
 most easily meet the difficulties of heating, lighting, and 
 acoustics. The following shows the agreements and dif- 
 ferences in three proposed sets of dimensions : ^ 
 
 Height 12, 12, 12^ 
 
 Width 20, 22, 24 
 
 Length 28, 28, 28 
 
 A classroom should not be longer than 28 feet because of 
 the difficulty of hearing and seeing for the children who sit 
 in the rear. With sufficient window space a twelve-foot 
 ceiling is high enough; one of fourteen feet is likely to cause 
 echoes and any unnecessary addition to ceiling height en- 
 tails a useless waste of heat. A width two and a half times 
 the height of the window head above the floor, when the 
 
 1 Ohio School Laws, Columbus, Ohio, 1915. 
 
 2 Cubberley : " School Organization and Administration," World Book 
 Co., New York, 1916, p. 233 ; Dresslar : " School Hygiene," The Mac- 
 millan Co., New York, 1913, pp. 30-36; Rosenau : "Preventive Medi- 
 cine and Hygiene," D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1917, p. 1081. 
 
Buildings and Grounds 109 
 
 room is lighted from one side only, is too wide, consider- 
 ing that the top of the window should not be more than six 
 to eight inches from the ceiling. As may be seen from the 
 above, the width may be less than twice the height of the 
 ceiling. 
 
 In regard to size of classrooms, it is not clear why they 
 should be adjusted to the bodily dimensions of the children 
 using them. The smaller children need at least as much 
 room for freedom of movement and as much air space for 
 metabolism as the older ones. In regard to the air space 
 provided the third set of dimensions is the most satisfactory 
 for all the children. If there must be crowding to accom- 
 modate all the children, it should not be resorted to in the 
 lower grades, as is usually the case. In a room of standard 
 size, desks and seats or tables and chairs should be provided 
 for not more than 30 pupils. 
 
 Schoolhouses Must Be Made Safe. Parents should 
 have no fears on account of danger from fire. The chil- 
 dren should learn how to use fire-extinguishing appliances ; 
 more than that, the school should exemplify the principles 
 of fire prevention. No closet for storage should be placed 
 under any stairway. The Ohio law requires a one and a 
 half inch hose of sufficient length to reach any part of the 
 building. Where a water supply is not available standard 
 chemical fire extinguishers must be provided in the propor- 
 tion of one extinguisher to each 2,000 square feet of floor 
 area or less. 
 
 It has been estimated that there are now, and have been 
 for years past, an average of ten school fires a week. In 
 25 years we have burned 34 capitol buildings, 723 court 
 houses, and i960 city halls. In 33 years our fire loss has 
 
no Education and the General Welfare 
 
 mounted to $4,500,000,000.^ Fire caused us in 1912, for 
 instance, a per capita loss of $2.55; while in England the 
 loss the same year was only .54, in France .84, in Germany 
 .20, in Sweden .13, and in Switzerland .04 per capita.^ 
 
 Children Should Be Comfortable. Since it is neces- 
 sary to have children maintain a sitting posture for consid- 
 erable periods of time when in school, one of the most im- 
 portant measures is to furnish the school rooms with suit- 
 able desks and seats. There should be none but single seats 
 and desks. When a chair or seat is of the proper height 
 the thigh and the lower leg will form a right angle with 
 each other, the lower leg being in a vertical position with 
 the foot resting wholly upon the floor. The seat itself 
 should be concave on top so as to avoid sliding forward in 
 it. The seat should have a back rest, which should support 
 the small of the back only and no other part. 
 
 The distance between the seat and the desk should be such 
 that the child will need to lean forward very little to read 
 or write, not so much as to relieve wholly the support at 
 the small of the back. The top of the desk should be at 
 such a height that the arms can rest normally upon it. 
 The angle of the slope of the desk should not be more than 
 15 degrees. There should be a periodical adjustment of 
 desks at th'e beginning of the year and about mid-year.^ 
 
 However, there is so much possibility of discomfort and 
 harm in the use of desks for the lower grades that movable 
 chairs and tables of proper height are recommended for the 
 
 1 Fitzpatrick : "Building the School," The American School Board 
 Journal, Vol. 52, Apr., 1916, p. 16. 
 
 2 " The American City," 1913, Vol. IX, p. 50. 
 
 3 Shaw : " School Hygiene." The Macmillan Company, New York, 
 1901, pp. 147-150. 
 
Buildings and Grounds iii 
 
 children of the first three grades. The change from the 
 freedom of ont-door Hfe and the home to the restraints of 
 school discipline is at its best so great as to interfere some- 
 what with the proper functioning of the vital organs, and 
 the demands of muscular control should not be too rigid. 
 
 Blackboards and Other Equipment. Blackboards 
 should be of slate. They should never be placed between 
 windows. They should not be placed higher from the 
 floor than 26 inches in primary and 30 inches in grammar 
 rooms. 
 
 For all primary rooms there should be a sand table. 
 There should be plenty of objective material for children to 
 work and play with, not only books. To keep this material, 
 the open desk top is not satisfactory. There should be in- 
 dividual lockers built in to the height of the lower edge of 
 the blackboard. This will provide a place for each child 
 to put away material used for individual work, such as 
 colored and writing crayons, scissors, a jar of paste, pencils, 
 a box of paints, pen, ink, etc. There should also be a built- 
 in cupboard about 15 feet long and of the same height as 
 the lockers, where may be stored on shelves the material 
 used by the children in common in their group games. ^ 
 
 1 The furnishings for primary rooms approved in the returns to a 
 questionnaire sent out by a Committee > of the National Council of 
 Primary Education and favorably reported on at the fourth annual 
 meeting held in February, 1919, include : 
 
 "Low shelf space measuring 36x18x9 inches, for each child, addi- 
 tional shelf space for general materials; work tables and drop leaf 
 shelves, two sand trays, 24 x 36 x 6 inches, each on rolling base ; at 
 least 96 sq. ft. of swinging display boards, or four leaves approximately 
 3 X 4 ft each ; library bookshelves and a good collection of picture 
 books, story books, etc. ; materials and tools for construction, including 
 building blocks, rubber type, etc.; free floor space at one side of the 
 
112 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Besides, every school's equipment should include a book- 
 case, a table for the larger reference books, waste-baskets, 
 an eight-day clock, a thermometer, and a musical instrument. 
 If a piano is beyond the reach of the school's resources, a 
 mechanical player may be provided with little expense. 
 Many schools now also find it possible to add a moving pic- 
 ture machine to their equipment as an aid to instruction and 
 for entertainment. 
 
 In some of the states the board of education is required 
 by law to procure a United States flag, a flagstaff, and the 
 appliances for them for each school district. When the 
 schoolhouse is small, a flagstaff on the front of the build- 
 ing is regarded as a satisfactory substitute for a flagpole 
 placed on the grounds. 
 
 The Chief School Attractions Not Material. But the 
 chief joy of school life for normal children is not in 
 buildings and grounds and things to play with, but in their 
 association with one another. All children are interested 
 in others of their own age. When the numbers are small, 
 the school is not of compelling interest. In some of the 
 states a school with an average attendance of less than ten 
 may be suspended by the board of education. When the 
 numbers are sufficiently large to make the school interesting 
 to all, mere association in work and play will bring to the 
 children some of the most valuable lessons of life and in 
 the most impressive way. 
 
 room for constructed projects; window boxes for plants and bulbs; 
 convenient toilet and lavatory well supplied with soap and towels. 
 The vote for movable furniture was unanimous, the only variation 
 being that teachers generally voted for tables and chairs while admin- 
 istrative officers suggested chair-desks." 
 
Buildings and Grounds 113 
 
 The buildings, grounds, and equipment might be the best 
 that one could imagine; however, without a favorable per- 
 sonality in the teacher, they would all be empty nothings. 
 This is a matter of greater importance the lower we go in 
 the grades. When the child first ventures to school, the 
 kind of personality that greets him is the most important 
 first influence. As the pupil grows in knowledge and ad- 
 vances in the grades, more and more should the subject- 
 matter be the chief consideration. Finally, in the graduate 
 school it is the matter of sole importance. 
 
 If, therefore, there is any difference in school buildings 
 and their surroundings, the better and more attractive ones 
 should be assigned to the younger children upon whom their 
 formative influence will have the greatest effect. And in 
 the selection of teachers, personal qualities should be given 
 greater weight in the elementary school than in any school 
 of higher grade. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 Fresh Air 
 
 Statutory Requirements for Heating.^ A standard re- 
 quirement for the heating of school buildings is a system 
 that will heat all corridors, hallways, playrooms, toilet 
 rooms, recreation rooms, gymnasiums, assembly rooms, and 
 manual training rooms to a uniform temperature of 65° 
 in zero weather, and will heat uniformly all other parts of 
 the building to 70° in zero weather. Rooms with one or 
 more sides used for open air or outdoor treatment are ex- 
 cepted. 
 
 The heating system is to be combined with a system of 
 ventilation which will change the air in all parts of the 
 building except the corridors, halls, and storage closets not 
 less than six times per hour. Wardrobes not separated 
 from the classrooms should be considered a part of the class- 
 room with vent register placed in the wardrobe. The bot- 
 tom of warm air registers must be not less than eight feet 
 above the floor line; the vent registers not more than two 
 inches above the floor line. 
 
 The fresh air supply must be taken from the outside of 
 the building, and vitiated air must not be reheated. The 
 vitiated air is conducted through flues .or ducts and dis- 
 charged above the roof of the building. 
 
 1 Ohio School Laws, 1915. 
 
 114 
 
Fresh Air 115 
 
 A hood must be placed over every stove in the domestic 
 science room, over every compartment desk or demonstra- 
 tion table in the chemical laboratories and chemical labora- 
 tory lecture rooms, of such size as to receive and carry off 
 all offensive odors, fumes, and gases. The ducts from these 
 hoods must be connected to vertical ventilating flues placed 
 in the walls and independent of the room ventilation. To 
 create a sufficient draft to carry away these fumes and of- 
 fensive odors, electric exhaust fans are placed in the ducts 
 or flues from the stove fixtures in these rooms ; in case elec- 
 tric current is not available and a steam or hot-water system 
 is used, the vertical flues are provided with accelerating coils 
 of proper size. 
 
 In a one-room schoolhouse as found in the rural districts, the 
 standard heating and ventilating system consists of any style or 
 design of heating stove enclosed in a jacket made of galvanized 
 or black iron. The jacket extends from the stove tray to a point 
 four inches above the top of the stove. 
 
 Fresh air must be taken from the outside of the building and 
 carried to the stove below the floor line either in vitrified sewer 
 pipe, masonry ducts, or ducts made of wrought iron or steel of 
 not less than three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, riveted 
 together with tight joints. The ducts must be turned up and 
 discharged under the center of the stove, from which the air is 
 to ascend between the radiating surface of the stove and the 
 jacket, and enter the room from the top of the stove. 
 
 The stove is to be placed on a cast-iron tray raised three inches 
 above the floor line, of the same size as the enclosing jacket, 
 provided with an opening of proper size to receive the fresh air 
 duct and projecting beyond the stove door one foot in all direc- 
 tions. The stove must be provided with a metal collar extending 
 from the face of the stove to the face of the jacket. 
 
 No stove pipe connection between the stove and the smoke flue 
 can be more than 5 feet long measured horizontally. Each room 
 
ii6 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 in which a standard ventilating stove is installed must be pro- 
 vided v^ith a ventilating flue about 12 inches square, placed close 
 to the stove. The vent flue may be of the same area, preferably 
 however about sixteen inches square if that of the fresh air sup- 
 ply is 12, and this must be run through and above the roof. 
 
 Vent flues of not more than 150 square inches of area must be 
 enclosed with walls of brick or concrete not less than 4 inches 
 thick, and when of larger area with walls of brick not less than 
 8 inches thick. 
 
 Three Definite Requirements. These are among the 
 provisions of the building code of Ohio. As in other states 
 the statute on heating and ventilation makes three definite 
 requirements : uniformity of temperature in all parts of a 
 room, a uniform minimum degree of temperature, and a 
 change of air six times an hour. The first two prevent sud- 
 den changes in temperature and the third aims to prevent 
 an accumulation of poisonous gases. The purpose of uni- 
 formity of temperature is to guard against drafts, and the 
 provision for a change of air is to prevent the rebreathing 
 of expired air supposed to be vitiated by too large a per- 
 centage of carbon dioxide. 
 
 Factors of Ventilation. Recent investigations and ex- 
 periments have thrown much doubt on the correctness of 
 public opinion on what constitutes good air. There are 
 five factors involved in ventilation : 
 
 1. Temperature 
 
 2. Air movement 
 
 3. Humidity 
 
 4. Proportions of oxygen and carbon dioxide 
 
 5. Dust, bacteria, and noxious gases. 
 
 Air movement depends on temperature, the presence of 
 humidity increases the positive effect of extremes of tem- 
 
Fresh Air 117 
 
 perature, and the fourth and fifth factors relate to the 
 purity and the cleanness of the air. 
 
 Principal Constituents of Atmospheric Air : ^ 
 
 Volumes Function 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Nitrogen 78.09/ ^^ ^^^"^^ ^^^ oxygen so as to regulate the 
 
 L rate of combustion and respiration. 
 
 Oxygen 20.94 To sustain life. 
 
 Carbon dioxide 0.03 To regulate the action of the heart, give 
 
 tonus to the blood, and stimulate the 
 respiratory nerve centers. 
 
 Argon 0.94 
 
 Other gases trace 
 
 Water vapor 
 
 The Oxygen Content of the Air. The oxygen of the 
 atmosphere may drop to 17 per cent or rise to 50 per cent 
 or even higher without producing any notable effects in the 
 vital functions. When the supply is reduced to 11 or 12 
 per cent the condition becomes dangerous ; when it falls as 
 low as 7.2 per cent death results. However, in the closest 
 crowded halls the oxygen content never falls below 20 per 
 cent.^ 
 
 Moderate changes in the oxygen content of the outer 
 air or of the air in the lungs have no effect on the amount 
 of oxygen used up in the process of respiration. Normally 
 the air of the lungs has a 16 per cent oxygen content. It 
 may fall as much as 4 per cent without in the least changing 
 the amount of the oxygen that is taken up by the blood. 
 The amount absorbed depends upon the need of the cells 
 
 1 Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene," D. Appleton, New 
 York, 1917. 
 
 2 Ihid. : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene." Op. cit., p. 66^. 
 
ii8 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 rather than on the quantity available. It is carried in the 
 blood by means of the hemoglobin of the red corpuscles and 
 discharged to the cells that are '' hungry " for it. It is 
 only energy spent in physical or mental work that puts cells 
 in a condition for the reception of oxygen. However, the 
 supply of oxygen in the air of the lungs is always sufficient 
 for all purposes. 
 
 Purity of the atmosphere, therefore, is not proportional 
 to the amount of oxygen there is in it, as has been com- 
 monly supposed. In the higher altitudes where the air is 
 described as fresh and invigorating the oxygen content is 
 not so great as in the lower altitudes. 
 
 Difference in composition between inspired and expired 
 air is as follows : 
 
 O N CO2 
 
 Inspired air 20.81 79-15 -03 
 
 Expired air 16.033 79-557 4-38 
 
 This shows that the chief result of breathing is an in- 
 crease of carbon dioxide and a decrease of oxygen. But 
 the proportions of the two gases present in the expired 
 breath are not such as to be in the least harmful. If car- 
 bon dioxide were a poison at 4.38 per cent in expiration, it 
 would probably injure the. mucous membrane of the air 
 ducts on its way out. We drink it in beverages and it may 
 be inhaled without noticeable effects. Normally the alve- 
 olar air in the lungs is 5.6 per cent of CO^^ In workshops 
 and in places where people are crowded close together the 
 carbon dioxide content may rise to twenty-four times the 
 normal proportions without harmful results. 
 
 ^Haldane: "Organism and Environment — Breathing," Yale Univ. 
 Press, New Haven, Conn., 1917, p. 8. 
 
Fresh Air 119 
 
 Recent Experiments. Paul's experiments showed that 
 healthy persons could be shut up in an air-tight cabinet and 
 kept comfortable as long as four hours and until the carbon 
 dioxid rose to 50 times the normal amount in the atmos- 
 phere, so long as the temperature and the moisture were 
 kept low. When the temperature was raised to 80° with 
 moderate humidity and when as low as 70° with high 
 humidity, practically all in the cabinet at once began to 
 suffer from depression, headache, dizziness, or a tendency 
 to nausea. This condition, it was found, could be relieved 
 by lowering the temperature, or by drying the air, or by 
 putting it in rapid motion with a fan attached to the inside 
 of the cabinet. These results were confirmed by three other 
 investigations.^ 
 
 Harmful Gases. Carbon dioxide may be an index of 
 the amount of rebreathed air and thus an index of the 
 thoroughness of air circulation in any room. But air is 
 made impure not by the gases which enter into it but by 
 those foreign to it which take its place and are injurious 
 to the respiratory organs. Of all of these the most dan- 
 gerous is carbon monoxide. This may come from leaks in 
 gas pipes and fixtures, from spent gases from automobiles, 
 from premature closing of dampers of stoves and furnaces, 
 and other sources. Air containing 0.4 per cent of this gas 
 may be fatal in an hour's time. 
 
 Clean Air. The air is clean when it is free from dust 
 and bacteria. This is only relatively true, for dust and to a 
 certain extent bacteria are a normal and, at least as far as 
 dust is concerned, an indispensable condition of the atmos- 
 
 1 Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene," op. cit., p. 685. 
 Hill, L. : " Stuffy Rooms," Pop. Sci. Mo. 1912, p. 390. 
 
120 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 phere. We are told that without dust there would be no 
 rain, no clouds, no mist, and perhaps no light, because 
 there would be no means of light reflection and dispersion. 
 Dust becomes injurious when excessive amounts of it from 
 inorganic sources irritate the mucous membrane of the 
 mouth, nose, and throat, and prepare the way for infection 
 through the harmful bacteria which may be attached to the 
 dust particles of organic or other origin. 
 
 There is more dust in the air inside houses than outside 
 as a rule; there is more dust in the city air than in that of 
 the open country. In the open country, too, any noxious 
 gases or high concentration of carbon dioxide that might 
 be present would be dispersed at once in the free air. When 
 from the standpoint of purity and cleanness of air, there- 
 fore, we judge the kind of air that should be supplied to 
 any room, a matter of first importance before that of a 
 ventilating system, we should say that the air taken in 
 should, as far as possible, be as pure and free from dust 
 as that of the open country. 
 
 Humidity. Absolute humidity is the weight of water 
 vapor per unit of air. Relative humidity is the ratio of the 
 amount of water vapor in the atmosphere to the amount 
 it could hold at the temperature in question if saturated. 
 Roughly every 27° F increase of temperature doubles the 
 amount of water vapor the air can hold in proportion to 
 its weight; 32° can hold one one hundred and sixtieth of 
 its weight of water vapor, 59° one eightieth, 86° one 
 fortieth. The important thing is not how much water 
 vapor there is but how much more a unit weight of air 
 can hold. It is this that has an effect on the heat regulat- 
 ing mechanism of the body. 
 
Fresh Air 121 
 
 Food and Body Heat. The purpose of this mechanism 
 is to keep the body temperature relatively constant in all 
 the variations of external temperature. Eighty per cent 
 of the heat generated by the food we eat goes to sustain 
 this body temperature. A lowering temperature stimulates 
 the appetite for food and increases metabolism in answer 
 to the increased demand for heat. Children who are under- 
 fed and the aged with feeble powers, need to be warmly 
 clothed to compensate for the lack of heat energy produced. 
 But under ordinary circumstances more heat is produced 
 in the body than is needed, especially in seasons of increas- 
 ing external temperature. 
 
 Excess of Body Heat. The excess of body heat is 
 transferred to the surrounding air by radiation, evapora- 
 tion, and in other ways. The more the surrounding tem- 
 perature rises the less heat is transferred from the body. 
 When it rises to about 70° or above, the regulating mechan- 
 ism brings about the secretion of perspiration for an added 
 means of transfer by evaporation. This can take place 
 rapidly only when the humidity is low ; that is, when a large 
 amount of moisture can still be taken up by the surrounding 
 air. When the humidity is high, this avenue of escape of 
 the body heat is largely shut off. The next step the vaso- 
 motor mechanism takes is to send blood to the skin as shown 
 by the flushed face. This causes the temperature to rise 
 on the surface, whence it is again transferred in additional 
 measure to the surrounding air by means other than evap- 
 oration. All the means of transfer now operate together, 
 when the temperature and the humidity are both high, but 
 with increasing difficulty as they mount higher. When the 
 temperature rises to 85° with high humidity, the body tern- 
 
122 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 perature begins to go above the constant point of 98%° ; 
 that is, the vaso-motor regulating mechanism is no longer 
 equal to its task. 
 
 Air Movement. But in all this we have not considered 
 the possible intervention of air movements. In the cabinet 
 experiment, when the temperature, the humidity, and the 
 carbon dioxide content were high, and the oxygen content 
 was low, relief came at once to the inmates when an elec- 
 tric fan attached to the inside of the cabinet was set in 
 motion. It is believed that in still air, whether inside or 
 outdoors, an aerial envelope is formed close to the body. 
 This prevents heat transference beyond the envelope, and 
 when the body is also still as in a crowded assemblage in- 
 doors, the feeling of lassitude, dizziness, fainting, and other 
 manifestations of illness reveal the not unfamihar symp- 
 toms of '' crowd-poisoning." The same thing in aggra- 
 vated form accounts for the tragedy of the Black Hole of 
 Calcutta. This was a military prison, 18 feet square and 
 with only two windows on one side for ventilation, into 
 which 176 adults were put at 8 p. m. Some of the inmates 
 died within an hour and in the morning only 23 were found 
 alive. 
 
 "The air which surrounds the body has two principal functions: 
 a chemical and a physical. It oxygenates the blood and removes 
 the body heat. For the performance of its chemical function it 
 must contain a sufficient amount of oxygen to keep the hemoglobin 
 saturated and be free from poisonous gases; for the performance 
 of its physical function it must be cool enough to absorb the heat 
 of the body, dry enough to take up moisture from the skin, and 
 have motion enough to carry away the aerial envelope to which 
 this heat and moisture are transmitted. If the air of the room is 
 not renewed its oxygen is gradually consumed and it becomes 
 
Fresh Air 123 
 
 laden with heat and moisture from the bodies of the occupants. 
 In this way it may finally become unable to perform either of its 
 principal functions. A constant supply of fresh air is therefore 
 necessary. But careful experiment has demonstrated that under 
 all ordinary circumstances the fault develops on the physical side 
 so far in advance of the chemical that the latter may be practically 
 left out of consideration. Relatively small amounts of fresh air 
 will always supply the chemical needs of the body; large amounts 
 may be necessary to supply the physical demands. Granted that 
 the small amount of air necessary for the demands of respiration 
 is supplied, the control of its physical properties becomes the great 
 problem of ventilation; and of these physical properties tempera- 
 ture is vastly the most important. The success of ventilation de- 
 pends far more on supplying conditions suited to the outside of 
 the body than to the inside of the lungs." ^ 
 
 Importance of Changing Rate of Temperature Stimu- 
 lation. Air movement is artificially produced by the whirl- 
 ing motion of a fan ; naturally, it is due to changes in tem- 
 perature. In the schoolroom the heating engineer has pro- 
 duced a very perfect system of ventilation, maintaining a 
 uniform temperature and changing the air content a desired 
 number of times; but he has produced new conditions that 
 have existed nowhere under the sun. His system is arti- 
 ficially perfect and perfectly artificial, as no such thing ex- 
 ists in nature anywhere except in languid tropical latitudes. 
 Life itself is adverse to uniformity. Variety of stimulation 
 animates, monotony deadens. There is not one sense or- 
 gan, but many. And each one of them requires a changing 
 rate of stimulation to keep it responsive. The skin is an 
 organ of sense extending over a large area. The tempera- 
 
 1 Crowder, T. R. : '* The Ventilation of Sleeping Cars," Trans. Ameri- 
 can Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers. Vol. XXI, 1915, 
 p. 274. 
 
124 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 ture sense is exposed over this area and is constituted of 
 " cold spots " and " hot spots " which function separately 
 when separately stimulated by artificial means under lab- 
 oratory conditions. The mechanism which responds to 
 changes of temperature is kept alive and active by a variety 
 of cold and warm stimuli. Hot and cold plunges are 
 needed for some children to stimulate breathing immedi- 
 ately after birth. 
 
 Habituation of the body mechanism to a uniform tem- 
 perature is unfavorable to health and well-being, especially 
 if the temperature is high. For many thousand years the 
 human race has become adapted to outdoor life and a wide 
 range of temperature stimulation such as exists in the north 
 temperate zone, a latitude of optimum conditions for men- 
 tal and physical activity and the fruits of civilization.^ The 
 outdoor temperature varies, the outdoor humidity varies ; in 
 our homes and schools we would make each uniform. 
 
 Not only is there a latitude of temperature stimulation, 
 but there is evidence to show that seasonal changes during 
 the year that afford a wide range of stimulation are the 
 most favorable for work. Also, the part of the day of 
 twenty-four hours in which occurs the greatest range of 
 variation in temperature is the time when people as a rule 
 prefer to do their work. That is, the time of the most ac- 
 tive peripheral stimulation of the temperature sense is the 
 period of optimum vital functioning, of general well-being, 
 and an inclination to work. 
 
 The Outside Temperature. In the temperature records 
 of the Cincinnati station of the U. S. Weather Bureau, 
 
 1 Huntington : " Civilization and Climate," New Haven, Yale Uni- 
 versity Press, 1915, p. 119 ff. 
 
Fresh Air 
 
 125 
 
 of the year beginning July i, 1916, to June 30, 191 7, it 
 appears that the hours of the day that show most frequently 
 the greatest range of variation for the day occur in the 
 forenoon, beginning roughly at six in the summer and at 
 nine in the winter months. In this year there were single 
 
 CHART XII 
 
 Curve showing mean hourly range of temperature during the day, 
 covering a period of twenty-one years, 1890-1910. From the records of 
 the U. S. Weather Bureau, Cincinnati, O. 
 
 ' 23 
 22 
 21 
 
 16 
 
 |tl5 
 g 14 
 .i ^^ 
 
 'Z 12 
 
 2 111 
 
 OS 
 
 ^ ao 
 
 ^ 8 
 
 V 
 
 u 
 
 2 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 j 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \^ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 j 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12345678 
 
 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 
 
 P.M. 
 Hours of the day 
 
126 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 hours that showed a range of from 8° to 20"^. While in 
 our homes, offices, and schoolrooms we live in a uniform 
 tropical temperature in a still atmosphere, healthful open 
 air conditions would give us temperature variations as great 
 as from 8° to 20° in an hour. An investigation on the 
 basis of records of mean hourly temperature taken at the 
 same station and covering a period of twenty-one years, 
 1890^1910, confirms the general principle that the hours of 
 greatest range of temperature coincide with what are usu- 
 ally considered the best working hours of the day. 
 
 Explanation of the Curve. The curve gives in graphic 
 form the hourly temperature conditions for a period of 
 twenty-one years. It was derived by taking the mean 
 hourly temperature as reported by the U. S. Weather Bu- 
 reau at Cincinnati for the months of the given years (1890— 
 1 910), then comparing each hourly mean with that of the 
 succeeding hour of the twenty- four and noting the differ- 
 ence, and finally taking the mean of the difference for the 
 twelve months. Fractions of a half and below were disre- 
 garded. 
 
 The results show that there are two zvaves of instability 
 of temperature; the greater from about the seventh hour to 
 the second in the afternoon, the lesser from the sixth in 
 the afternoon to the tenth in the evening. The normal 
 conditions of the outside atmosphere provide constant va- 
 riations of temperature in temperate climates and hence a 
 constant natural movement of air. This air movement is 
 greatest at that period of the day which from time out of 
 mind the race has chosen for maximum activity. This 
 seems to fix a standard in a general way which ventilation 
 of workshops and schoolrooms should approximate. At 
 
Fresh Air 
 
 127 
 
 least an air movement at the rate of 2 feet per second should 
 be maintained in every room. Expert authority now rec- 
 ommends a greater range of temperature than formerly. 
 The limits of the temperature of schoolrooms have been 
 placed as low as 60 to 68°. It is held that the lower tem- 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^Sii^ 
 
 vVi: 
 
 --^ 
 
 1~ 
 
 ci^i;^^^^ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 J^f^^/G^tCp^:^ 
 
 Figure 7 
 Effects of Location of Inlets and Outlets in a Room ^ 
 
 peratures will usually provide the most satisfactory condi- 
 tions of humidity. 
 
 Importance of Moving Air, on which the chief stress 
 is now laid, serves to scatter the expired air which in still 
 places is largely reinhaled, to disperse the stagnant and 
 *' dead air " spaces which can be found in almost any room, 
 
 1 Shaw : " School Hygiene," op. cit., 82-83. 
 
128 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 especially when inlets and outlets are incorrectly located as 
 in five of the examples in Figure 7 (page 127). A thor- 
 ough circulation serves to eliminate odors, to disperse con- 
 centrations of gases, and to break up the envelope of air 
 that forms around the bodies in still places and negatives 
 almost every good effect of ventilation. To accustom the 
 body to currents of air with varying temperature is probably 
 a factor in producing immunity from colds. 
 
 Heating Systems. Heating systems are founded on the 
 principles involved in natural ventilation. They operate 
 regularly and uniformly while the natural atmosphere is 
 subject to constant and often great variation. The paral- 
 lel between natural and artificial ventilation is here indi- 
 cated : 
 
 Causes of Natural Ventilation ArtHicial Systems 
 
 1. Changes of temperature i. All heating methods have 
 
 cause the air to move : this effect until the tem- 
 
 warm air rises, cold air perature becomes uniform, 
 falls. 
 
 2. Air blows into a room from 2. The plenum system does this 
 
 the outside. in a mechanical way. 
 
 3. Air is sucked out by passing 3. The vacuum system does this 
 
 currents of air. in a mechanical way. 
 
 4. A combination of 2 and 3. 
 
 Methods of Heating, and Humidity. Hot-air, hot- 
 water, and steam heat, all have a ventilating as well as a 
 heating effect; the objection to all, especially the first, is 
 that they produce an atmosphere in a room that is charac- 
 terized by a lack of humidity. As the temperature rises in 
 such a room the humidity falls. To relieve this condition 
 it is recommended that large wide pans of water be ex- 
 
Fresh Air 129 
 
 posed to the atmosphere so that the dryness may be counter- 
 acted by evaporation. According to a calculation made by 
 IngersoU ^ a house containing 17,000 cu. ft. of space would 
 require, for a relative humidity of 40 per cent at 70° F. in 
 the air already containing 20 per cent humidity and changed 
 once an hour, about 15 gallons of water a day. A school- 
 room of standard dimensions, say 8400 cu. ft. (p. 108) 
 would on the same basis require about five and a half gal- 
 lons a day, if the air were changed once an hour or six 
 times while the school is in session. But the standard 
 school requirement is six changes per hour. We can see 
 that the use of water pans would be inconvenient and the 
 supply of water vapor would be inadequate, especially as 
 by such a method the water does not readily vaporize. A 
 better method to increase humidity is by means of properly 
 muffled jets of steam introduced into the plenum or fan 
 chambers from the boiler supply. That humidity in school- 
 rooms may go so low as to be a menace to health is un- 
 questioned, even though recent experiments seem to show 
 that the mental efficiency of adults is not impaired by a rel- 
 atively low humidity.^ " An out-of-door air in winter at 
 a temperature of 0° F. with a relative humidity of 50 
 per cent when heated to 70° will have a relative humidity 
 of only 3 per cent. This is drier than the air of the driest 
 climate known, which is seldom less than 30 per cent. It is 
 not unusual for the excessively dry air of a furnace-heated 
 house to cause the wood-work to shrink and fall apart, the 
 
 1 Quoted by Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene," op. cit., p. 
 
 765- 
 
 2 Stecher : " The Effect of Humidity," Archives of Psychology, No. 
 38, December, 1916. 
 
130 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 binding of books to crack, etc. Living in such an atmo- 
 sphere is not normal and must be harmful." ^ 
 
 Causes of Lowered Resistance to Colds. The unnat- 
 ural high temperature of houses and schoolrooms, it has 
 been found, imparts a predisposition to infections of the 
 nose and throat. In the course of the investigations carried 
 on by the New York Commission on Ventilation covering 
 the reaction to heat and cold of nearly 150 male subjects 
 under observation, " It was found that heat ordinarily causes 
 a swelling of the inferior turbinates of the nose, tending to 
 diminish the size of the breathing space, increased secretion, 
 and reddening of the membranes. The action of cold, as a 
 rule, is just the opposite, namely a reduction in the size of the 
 inferior turbinates, a diminution of secretion and color of 
 the membranes. In the industrial workers, whose occupa- 
 tion involved continued exposure to extremes of heat and 
 cold, these typical changes were not followed." ^ 
 
 In the same investigation, it was found too that over- 
 heating diminished the power of resistance to infection. 
 
 There is now considerable evidence to show that a low- 
 ered power of resistance to colds and other ills is due to 
 too much clothing and to a temperature too much above 
 68° F. in our apartments and schoolhouses. In uniform 
 conditions of a high temperature, the sense-organ of tem- 
 perature, the skin, along with the heat-regulating mechan- 
 ism of which it forms a part, becomes debilitated through 
 lack of varied stimulation. It gains so little experience with 
 
 1 Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene." op. cit., p. 765. 
 
 - Palmer : " An Outline of the Activities of the N. Y. Comm. on Ven- 
 tilation," Transactions American Soc. Heating and Ventilating Engi- 
 neers, 1916, Vol. XXH, p. 355. 
 
Fresh Air 131 
 
 the sensations of cold that when a chilling draft passes over 
 it, its power of vigorous and healthy response is to a large 
 extent lost. Those persons who can enjoy a draft of cold 
 air as it meets them before an open window, have usually 
 no fear of '' catching cold." 
 
 Open Window Ventilation. Under the simplest con- 
 ditions, open windows are the best and most efficient means 
 of ventilation. The windows of a schoolroom should fre- 
 quently be opened during the day from the bottom so that 
 the air can rush in with perceptible movement. The win- 
 dows may be lowered from the top or from the bottom with 
 the use of window boards, if a continuous but imperceptible 
 ingress of air is desired. However, this is not sufficient 
 for ventilation of the room. The air must occasionally be 
 let in so that its freshness is felt on the body by every pupil 
 in the room. 
 
 By this method the best air circulation that can be had is 
 brought into the room with a stimulating variation of tem- 
 perature and humidity. Stale air, like stagnant water, may 
 not be actually poisonous, but it is not satisfying unless 
 taken fresh and flowing. Systems of heating and ventila- 
 tion which are thrown out of order if a window is opened 
 " when the fan is running " have seldom proved satisfactory 
 to any one but the janitor. Large buildings must obviously 
 continue to be heated by some artificial system ; the near fu- 
 ture promises marked improvement in this field, upon the 
 details of which only expert engineers are qualified to speak 
 at present. 
 
 Standard Atmospheric Conditions in a Schoolroom. 
 By way of summary, the various factors that belong to ven- 
 tilation of schoolrooms is a certain content of air-supply per 
 
132 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 pupil, a certain limited range of temperature, not an exces- 
 sive amount of dust or bacteria, a certain humidity, and an 
 almost perceptible continuous air movement. The follow- 
 ing has been offered as an acceptable standard of atmo- 
 spheric conditions in a schoolroom : 
 
 Air supply 30 cu. ft. per minute (minimum) 
 
 CO2 content 8 parts in 10,000 parts of air (maximum) 
 
 Temperature 68° Fahr. (maximum) 
 
 Relative humidity 42 per cent, (minimum) 
 
 Dust count 100,000 particles per cubic centimeter 
 
 (maximum) 
 
 Bacteria 12 colonies on a three-minute plate (maxi- 
 
 mum) 
 
 Air movement 2 feet per second ^ 
 
 Open Air Conditions. The open air school was first 
 introduced to provide for the instruction of anaemic and 
 tuberculous children, who could not thrive under the ordi- 
 nary conditions of schoolroom ventilation. In the United- 
 States the movement began in 1908. By 19 12 the plan had 
 been adopted in forty-four cities, in which the vacant space 
 on the roofs of large school buildings was at first utilized 
 for the purpose. The children require suitable clothing cut 
 so that it can be worn over their other clothing and adjusted 
 to individual size. Hoods are provided to be fastened to 
 the collar and to be worn over the head in the coldest 
 weather. The feet are covered with boots of heavy felt. 
 
 The results of the open air school have been so satis- 
 factory not only in the gain made by the pupils in weight and 
 
 1 Hill : " Transactions American Society Heating and Ventilating 
 Engineers," 1916, Vol. XH, p. 395. For methods and devices employed 
 in making tests see Report of the Chicago Commission on Ventilation, 
 Chicago, 1915, pp. 70-99- 
 
Fresh Air 133 
 
 health but also in the advancement shown in their studies, 
 that the plans for new school buildings in the larger cities 
 are now usually made to include one or more open-air class- 
 rooms. 
 
 Effect of Different Types of Ventilation on the 
 Health of Normal School Children. There seems to be 
 no valid reason for not providing the most healthful air 
 conditions for all pupils, especially when it also results in a 
 saving of fuel and other items of expense. In order to ob- 
 tain definite data of the effects of the open-window type of 
 ventilation and the mechanical type with closed rooms, the 
 Bureau of Child Hygiene of the Department of Health of 
 New York City began in February, 19 16, an inquiry into the 
 possible relationship between the prevalence of respiratory 
 diseases among school children and classroom ventilation. 
 The study was made in cooperation with the New York 
 State Commission on Ventilation, which had full control of 
 the selection of classrooms with reference to the type of 
 ventilation to be included. 
 
 The inquiry consisted of two complete studies. The first 
 period of observation lasted from February 19, 19 16, to 
 April 8, 1 91 6. The second study began with the advent of 
 cold weather and covered the period from November 4, 
 19 16, to January 2^, 191 7. Three types of ventilation 
 formed the basis of the study : Type A — '' so-called cold, 
 open-window classrooms, ventilated by natural means," 
 with a temperature range of 50° to 60° F. " and occasion- 
 ally higher " ; Type B — with ventilation wholly by open 
 windows, with a temperature range of 60° to 70°, averag- 
 ing 68° F. ; Type C — temperature range the same as Type 
 B, averaging 68° degrees, with ventilation of classrooms 
 
134 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 by the plenum fan system installed in the buildings, the 
 windows in these classrooms being kept closed. 
 
 There were 5,543 children, enrolled in grades 2B to 6A, 
 eighty-six per cent between eight and eleven years of age, 
 and '' ranging in social status from the well-to-do who live 
 in comfortable homes, in sanitary surroundings, to the ex- 
 tremely poor, shiftless, and ignorant type, where the chil- 
 dren receive no home supervision or hygienic care." 
 
 The conclusions are as follows : 
 
 " In the closed-window mechanically ventilated type of classroom 
 kept at a temperature of about 68 degrees F., the rate of absences 
 from respiratory diseases was 32 per cent higher than in the 
 open-window, naturally ventilated type of classroom kept at the 
 same temperature (about 68 degrees F.) and about 40 per cent 
 higher than in the open-window, naturally ventilated type of 
 classroom kept at a temperature of about 50 degrees F. 
 
 " In the closed-window, mechanically ventilated typ-e of class- 
 room, kept at a temperature of about 68 degrees F. the rate of 
 respiratory disea'ses occurring among pupils in attendance was 98 
 per cent higher than in the open-window, naturally ventilated 
 type of classroom kept at the same temperature (about 68 de- 
 grees) and about 70 per cent higher than in the open-window, 
 naturally ventilated classroom, kept at a temperature of about 
 50 degrees. 
 
 '' It was found that the relative humidity of classrooms, whether 
 ventilated by natural or mechanical means, was not a causative 
 factor in the occurrence of respiratory illness among the school 
 children." ^ 
 
 1 Baker : " Classroom Ventilation and Respiratory Diseases Among 
 School Children," Department of Public Health of the City of New 
 York, Reprint Series, No. 68, February, 1918, 10 p. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 Sanitation and School Housekeeping 
 
 Housekeeping in the school should follow the usages in 
 the best regulated homes in the district, or better, it should 
 be an example of the best to be had anywhere. At least, it 
 should present to none of the children lower ideals than 
 they have at home. In the matter of order, cleanness, care 
 of property, thrift, and economy of supplies, the school 
 should teach chiefly by example. The visible evidence of 
 good housekeeping wins the immediate and certain approval 
 of all who come to form an estimate of the school. Lack 
 of it excites disrespect in the pupil for his own school and 
 creates an impression in the casual visitor that other signs of 
 excellence will not overcome. 
 
 Where Sanitation Begins. The sanitation of a school- 
 house begins on the grounds. The conditions for it must be 
 provided before the teacher's responsibility begins. The 
 grounds should be sufficiently large to allow a free circula- 
 tion about the building of the best air to be had, and they 
 should be far enough away from tall buildings to allow 
 free access to the rays of the sun. Orientation of the build- 
 ing should be north and south so that the rooms may be 
 on the east or the west for either the morning or the after- 
 noon sun. Trees should not be planted near the building 
 for they will in time keep out the sun. There should be 
 
 135 
 
136 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 no dark and unusable corners in the building. The grounds 
 should also be well-drained, for muddy yards will make 
 dusty rooms. Under certain conditions metallic door-mats 
 should be provided and shoe-scrapers for cleaning shoes 
 before entering the rooms. 
 
 Ventilation and Sanitation. Ventilation is a part of 
 sanitation in that a building that is not well ventilated can- 
 not be sanitary. Means of sanitation such as sweeping and 
 cleaning a room are also necessary to good ventilation, for 
 if the air is full of dust and filthy odors the ventilation it- 
 self, however good, cannot be satisfactory. Interior con- 
 struction and furnishings should guard against dust- 
 catchers. The wood-work should be smooth with corners 
 beveled, and there should be no portieres, curtains, decora- 
 tive festoons, or other dust receptacles. 
 
 Drinking-Water. In 1909 only one state, Kansas, pro- 
 hibited the common drinking cup in school buildings. In 
 the course of six years twenty other states had followed 
 the example. Ohio requires one drinking fountain and one 
 sink to every 6,000 square feet of floor space or fraction 
 thereof. Where a water supply and sewerage system are 
 not available, pumps must be provided and a gutter or drain 
 cf concrete or sewer pipe must be constructed to carry all 
 waste water to a distance of 20 feet before discharging it. 
 A driven or tubular well should be provided in preference 
 to a dug or shallow well. 
 
 Toilet Accommodations. The toilet accommodations 
 should be ample, sanitary, and so disposed as to insure pri- 
 vacy. Statute requirements are such as have been the 
 standard for many years among experts in sanitation. 
 They are as follows : one closet to each fifteen female pupils 
 
Sanitation and School Housekeeping 12^7 
 
 or less and one closet to each twenty-five male pupils or 
 less. The same proportion holds whether the toilet rooms 
 are inside or outside the building. Outdoor closets must 
 not be placed nearer than fifty feet from the school build- 
 ing, and there must be widely separated buildings for males 
 and females. They should be placed in the farthest op- 
 posite corners of the lot and the entrances must be screened 
 to secure privacy. 
 
 Nuisances. In most states the local districts control mat- 
 ters of this kind and in many cases control it so badly that 
 the conditions of the schoolhouse and grounds are a by- 
 word and a reproach. In many rural districts of some of 
 the states there are, according to reports, no toilet accom- 
 modations of any kind. In other instances when they do 
 exist they constitute nuisances which common decency 
 should put a stop to. In about tvv^elve states the boards 
 of health control the sanitation of all public buildings to 
 some degree, including school buildings. In Ohio : 
 
 *' The state board of health shall abate all nuisances and 
 may remove or correct all conditions detrimental to health or 
 well-being found upon school property by serving an order 
 on the board of education, school board, or other person re- 
 sponsible for such property, for the abatement of such nui- 
 sance or condition within a reasonable but fixed time. A 
 person failing to comply with such order, unless good or suf- 
 ficient reason therefor is shown, shall be fined not to exceed 
 one hundred dollars. The board may appoint such number 
 of inspectors of schools and school buildings as it deems 
 necessary to properly carry out these provisions." ^ 
 
 Keeping the Floors Clean. In one of the states all 
 
 1 School Laws of Ohio, 1915, p. 187. 
 
138 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 floors except hardwood or tile must be oiled twice a year, 
 and three times if the school is in session for nine months. 
 Another requires that floors be treated with some antiseptic 
 dressing approved by the state as often as may be needed 
 to keep down the dust, and they are to be scrubbed before 
 each treatment. Statute requirements in regard to clean- 
 ing the floors are usually low, a few states providing that 
 all schoolhouses shall be cleaned and disinfected before the 
 opening of each school year. Certain states require that 
 chalk dust shall be removed daily, floors shall be swept 
 daily after dismissal, and windows thrown open to air the 
 room. Dusting is recommended after the dust is settled, 
 perhaps not until morning, all desks, wainscoting, window 
 sills, and blackboards to be wiped with an oiled cloth ; some 
 states require a disinfectant solution. Dry sweeping is ex- 
 pressly forbidden in some of the states, the best practice 
 requiring preparation of the floor with sawdust saturated 
 with a disinfectant solution. Since 1913 one of the states 
 requires a vacuum cleaner for each school.^ 
 
 Cleaning Standards. A questionnaire investigation 
 made by the Russell Sage Foundation in 191 1 brought out 
 the cleaning standards of American cities. Of 758 cities 
 reporting, in one the Uoors were washed daily, in 36 weekly, 
 in 135 monthly, in 57 once a year, in 44 never; in 574 of 
 the cities the floors zvere swept daily, in 6 weekly, in 2 
 monthly, in 10 as needed; in i city the zvindozvs were 
 washed daily, in 22 weekly, in 117 monthly, in 31 once a 
 year, in 139 as needed, in 5 never. 
 
 In one of the states the board of health has set the fol- 
 lowing standard for sweeping and washing floors : 
 1 Bulletin No. 21, 1915, U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 
Sanitation and School Housekeeping 139 
 
 " All floors must be thoroughly swept, or cleaned, each day, 
 either after the close of the school in the afternoon, or one hour 
 before the opening of the school in the morning. Before sweep- 
 ing is started the floors must be sprinkled with moist sawdust or 
 other substance so as to prevent the raising of dust. (The floors 
 in all schoolrooms and halls should be thoroughly scrubbed with 
 soap and water at least once each month.)" 
 
 Disinfection. It is a good rule of sanitation that build- 
 ings should be so cleansed that disinfectants and deodorants 
 are not needed. Inside toilet rooms should be built of 
 impervious and smooth materials so that the hose can be 
 turned daily with good effect on the walls and floors. It 
 is not a good sign when plumbing fixtures need deodorizing ; 
 ventilation and flushing should accomplish all that is neces- 
 sary in this direction. Outdoor closets, however, must al- 
 ways be regularly disinfected and deodorized. Besides the 
 periodical cleaning already recommended, the building 
 should receive a thorough going over during vacation time 
 or before school reopens. Walls and floors should then 
 be washed with hot water and soap, and there should be 
 disinfection of the classrooms, the warm air flues, and the 
 fresh air receiving chambers. A widely used agent of dis- 
 infection is formalin — a forty per cent solution of for- 
 maldehyde. 
 
 Practice of Personal Hygiene. Ideals of cleanliness 
 should of course find their final expression in personal hy- 
 giene in the school. Pupils with good home training should 
 not be exposed to the influence of a school that is without 
 the proper standards. Only the best standards should pre- 
 vail for the sake of all the children no matter where they 
 live. There must always be provided a place where the 
 
140 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 children can wash and keep their faces and hands clean. 
 It should be the rule that always on returning from the 
 toilet the hands should be washed and always before taking 
 food. Towels, pencils, etc., — all things that are carried 
 to the mouth should be unexchangeable individual posses- 
 sions. All personal belongings should be kept clean. In- 
 struction in the grades on the importance of clean teeth, 
 nails, hair, ears, clothing, on the use of the handkerchief, 
 on bathing, to be found in the excellent books now to be had 
 on the subject, is clearly valueless unless its results are 
 practical. 
 
 Health Monitors. A large part of the work in sanita- 
 tion including ventilation may be made applied science by 
 appointing health monitors or officers from among the 
 students in the higher grades, each to serve a month or 
 two weeks either in his own room or in a room where the 
 children are too young to engage in such work, and this 
 to be a part of the required course in physiology and hy- 
 giene. The thermometer may be read at stated intervals 
 and from the record a graphic chart or curve may be con- 
 structed on a reserved space on the board, and other condi- 
 tions of ventilation may be noted and a record kept. The 
 monitor may adjust the windows for a periodic flushing of 
 the room with fresh air from the outside, a practice that 
 is recommended by the best authorities even with the most 
 complete mechanical ventilating system in use. 
 
 Credit for the Good Appearance of School and 
 Grounds. While the teacher must take the initiative, and 
 then the monitors, the good order and appearance of the 
 school and grounds requires the cooperation of all the chil- 
 dren and the credit for whatever is achieved belongs to 
 
Sanitation and School Housekeeping 141 
 
 the whole school. All the children must feel that they share 
 in the responsibility for keeping the school property and 
 premises free from litter, dirt, and refuse, for keeping things 
 in order and everything in its place, for care of property, 
 and general appearances of cleanliness. Any one who lit- 
 ters the floor, the yard, or the walks with paper should be 
 required to pick up what he has thrown down. Civic pride 
 in the good appearance of " our town " may well begin 
 with the pupils in their relation to the schoolhouse and 
 grounds. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 Are All Children Alike? 
 
 Summary of Preceding Chapters. We have considered 
 the values and aims of education, the various sources of 
 support, the school expense, getting the children into school 
 and keeping them there for a reasonable time. Since we 
 compel attendance we are obliged to have a regard for 
 health and comfort in buildings and grounds, and their 
 ventilation and sanitation. We now come to study the 
 immediate object of all this preparation and expense — the 
 children themselves. 
 
 Classification of Children. In order to approach the 
 various problems of the school in an intelligent way, it is 
 helpful to consider the various classes of children that may 
 be found in school, groups. In the olden time a child who 
 did not learn was thought to be willful and stubborn and 
 recourse was often had to the rod to break its rebelhous 
 spirit. Teachers are now more thoughtful and they ap- 
 proach the problems of management and discipline in a 
 tolerant and more scientific spirit. If a child does not suc- 
 ceed in school, granting that the teaching is all that it 
 should be, it may be by reason of native incapacity, illness, 
 or home environment. In this chapter will be considered 
 the different grades of mentality, the influences of the 
 home, and conditions of the environment that account for 
 
 142 
 
Are All Children Alike? 143 
 
 different types of children. Differences due to illness and 
 physical defects will be reserved for separate chapters. 
 
 Number of Feeble-minded. According to estimates of 
 investigators the number of feeble-minded children of school 
 age in the United States averages between i and 2 per cent. 
 This would indicate that there are not less than a total of 
 200,000. The report of the U. S. Commissioner of Edu- 
 cation for the year 191 6 gives the total number in institu- 
 tions and special day schools as 37,630. The term " feeble- 
 minded " is one of general description. For the purpose of 
 classification three grades are distinguished : 
 
 Grades of Feeble-minded: 
 
 Idiots — those so deeply defective that their mental develop- 
 ment does not exceed that of a normal child of about 2 years. 
 
 Imbeciles — those whose development is higher than that of an 
 idiot, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about 7 years. 
 
 Morons — those v^hose mental development is above that of an 
 imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about 12 
 years. ^ 
 
 Each of these is further subdivided into three grades: 
 low, middle, and high. A low grade idiot, for example, 
 would be known at once, from mere observation, to be too 
 feeble to attend school. Nor would a scientific equipment 
 be necessary to determine the incapacity of a high grade 
 of the same class. Under certain circumstances the other 
 types would not be readily distinguished, and it would cer- 
 tainly require special tests to ascertain the place in the scale 
 of mentality that any of them would occupy. But the 
 teacher who is in daily contact with her pupils would in 
 
 1 Classification adopted, 1910, Amer. Assoc, for Study of the Feeble- 
 minded. 
 
144 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 time surely discover those who are incapable of advance- 
 ment. In districts where no provision is made for the ex- 
 amination of such children and for their segregation in 
 schools especially organized for them, they may come to 
 be a serious problem and the cause of much misdirected and 
 wasted effort. 
 
 The Backward Type. In the public schools those who 
 are exceptionally retarded are grouped together in the same 
 class, if there are enough to make it worth while, and among 
 these are found the high grade feeble-minded. They are 
 all described as the " backward " type. But there is this 
 distinction to be made : while all feeble-minded are retarded, 
 not all retarded children are feeble-minded. Children may 
 be exceptionally retarded through late entrance to school, 
 through prolonged illness, and for other reasons. But 
 when children are left far behind for no apparent cause they 
 represent border line cases, if they are not actually feeble- 
 minded. The backward type are those who are three or 
 more years behind their normal grade. Some authorities 
 prefer to make the distinguishing mark four or more years 
 behind the normal grade. A test by Goddard of 1547 
 children of the first six grades of a small city showed 15 
 per cent two or three years below grade and 3.3 per cent 
 four or more years below grade. The number of the back- 
 ward type it has been estimated to be about 3 per cent of 
 the school population, or a total in the United States of 
 600,000. 
 
 Difference in Proportion of Feeble-minded in Differ- 
 ent Localities. There is evidence to show that while the 
 average of feeble-minded and backward children is not more 
 than 2 and 3 per cent respectively, there seems to be con- 
 
Are All Children Alike? 145 
 
 siderable difference as to the number in different localities. 
 In one city there were found about i per cent of each of 
 these types in the number examined.^ In another large 
 city the number of feeble-minded went as high as 3 per 
 cent; and in another city of 5,000 population 6 per cent of 
 the children were retarded three or more years. In the 
 rural schools of a county in California the number of feeble- 
 minded was 4 per cent ; in the same county in a single school 
 wath 44 pupils there were 15 feeble-minded, ten of whom 
 came from two related families.^ In one of the states a 
 study has been made of both rural and urban school dis- 
 tricts, with the following results : ^ 
 
 Rural Urban 
 
 Number Number Number Number 
 
 examined feeble-minded examined feeble-minded 
 
 Boys — 2,668 24 4,189 28 
 
 Girls — 2,832 17 4,036 24 
 
 The survey covered a small number of counties. The va- 
 riation in per cent of feeble-minded found in the rural 
 districts was from none to 3.5 per cent for boys and from 
 none to 1.2 per cent for girls. In the urban districts the 
 range was: boys from 0.46 to i.i per cent; girls from 0.26 
 to I per cent. It seems, therefore, if these reports repre- 
 sent the conditions, that there are concentrations or " nests " 
 of feeble-minded persons in certain sections of the popula- 
 tion. 
 
 1 Haines : " The Feeble-minded Situation in Ohio." Ohio Bull. Char, 
 and Cor,, Feb., 1917. 
 
 - Terman : " Feeble-minded Children in the Public Schools of Cali- 
 fornia," School and Society, Vol. V., Feb. 10, 1917. 
 
 3 Treadway : " The Feeble-minded, their Prevalence and Needs in 
 School Population of Arkansas." U. S. Health Service, 1916. 
 
146 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Training of Feeble-minded. The training of which 
 feeble-minded children are capable is extremely limited. 
 They are incapable of development; there is no cure for a 
 deficiency of this kind. In the special schools to which they 
 are sent the training given them is chiefly hand work. 
 Within the limits of their psychological age they may be 
 trained as helpers in certain activities where they may be 
 under constant supervision and guidance. A moron may, 
 by proper training, be made capable of self-support in cer- 
 tain lines of work. But in certain ways a person of this 
 type when at large may be a positive menace to society ; be- 
 cause the deficiency of mind is not apparent, and such a 
 person may have the physical appearance and vigor, the de- 
 sires and instincts of those who are normal, and may con- 
 tinue the type. 
 
 The Moral Imbecile. Imbecility may take a moral as 
 well as a mental direction. When a child is utterly incor- 
 rigible, it becomes a question whether it is not also mentally 
 defective. The moral delinquency may take one form or 
 another; a child may manifest a mania for stealing, for 
 immodest behavior, for falsehood, or it may seem to be ob- 
 sessed with uncontrollable desires of any other kind incom- 
 patible with social decency. Here again we come to a bor- 
 der line, that between moral imbecility and actual lunacy. 
 As adults such children would be regarded as responsible 
 criminals or they would be adjudged insane. Manifesta- 
 tions ^ of extreme cruelty to domestic animals and to other 
 children, extreme obstinacy, outbreaks of ungovernable tem- 
 
 ^ Winslow : " The Insanity of Passion and Crime." See Chapter on 
 "Tragedy of Early Mental Collapse," p. 247 ff. Ouseley and Son, 
 London, 1912. 
 
Are All Children Alike? 147 
 
 per and violent language, obscenity, arson, and inability to 
 do any work, are among the marks of the mentally unbal- 
 anced. In the feeble-minded, development of the nervous 
 structures is arrested in all directions ; in the insane, certain 
 of the structures are broken down and do not function. In 
 the one the will is impotent, in the other it is strong but be- 
 yond control. But insanity is so rarely found in children 
 that it is of professional interest to the alienist rather than 
 the teacher. In 21,333 cases of this malady, Winslow found 
 only 8 under ten years of age ; there were 11, 161 between the 
 ages of 10 and 20. 
 
 Retardants and Accelerants. Besides the classes of 
 children already enumerated — the feeble-minded of various 
 grades, the backward or exceptionally retarded, and the 
 moral imbecile — there remain to be considered the mod- 
 erately retarded, two years or less; the largest group of 
 those who are just at age and not at all retarded; and finally 
 the relatively few who are under age for the grade to 
 which they belong, sometimes called the accelerants or es- 
 pecially gifted. 
 
 In a recent study of retardation and acceleration in 22y 
 towns and cities of the state of Michigan with an enroll- 
 ment of 223,000 pupils, including towns of less than 2,000 
 inhabitants as well as the large cities, it was found that 
 the proportion of those " under-age," " at age," and " over 
 age " in the school grades was as follows : ^ 
 
 Under age At age Over age 
 
 2 yrs. I yr. Total i yr. 2 yrs. 3 yrs. Total 
 
 .2 6.3 6.5 per cent. 69.5 per cent. 14.5 6.0 3.5 24.0 
 
 1 Berry : " A Study of Retardation, Acceleration, Elimination, and 
 
148 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 It is to be understood that " over age " is not necessarily 
 equivalent to dullness, nor does *' under age " always mean 
 exceptional ability; for the first may be due to late en- 
 trance and the second to early entrance upon school work 
 and keeping to grade in both cases. Under these conditions 
 the children make normal advancement like those '' at age " 
 and present no problem to the teacher, unless in the case of 
 those " over age " the difference between them and their 
 classmates is so great as to make them conscious of it and 
 cause them embarrassment. 
 
 It is, however, also to be remembered that the significance 
 of retardation depends on the part of the school career in 
 which it occurs. In general, when it occurs below the 
 fourth grade and is not due to continued absence, it is to be 
 interpreted as closely related to mental deficiency; but when 
 a child keeps up to grade for four years of school life and 
 then falls behind, we should expect to find the cause in way- 
 wardness of character, unfavorable home conditions, or 
 faulty teaching. 
 
 For teachers the matter of chief importance is not so 
 much, therefore, whether a child is over age. This may be 
 due to circumstances over which the teacher has no control. 
 And she is not responsible for the status of the pupils when 
 they come to her for the first time. It must be her chief 
 concern that while they are with her they do not fall be- 
 hind but are prepared to go on at the end of the term to 
 the next grade without a handicap. Skill in teaching and 
 management shows in reduced retardation and increased ac- 
 celeration, in rousing the slow out of their mental lethargy 
 
 Repetition " in the Public Elementary Schools of Michigan, Ann 
 Arbor, 1916. 
 
Are All Children Alike? 149 
 
 and stimulating the self-satisfied so as to increase their pace 
 through the school years, while at the same time the best 
 standards of scholarship are constantly maintained. 
 
 Except in the case of the feeble-minded, the proportions 
 of retarded and accelerated children in the schools as pub- 
 lished are not fateful and unchangeable. There should be 
 a large number of those who skip grades and a smaller 
 number of those who fall behind. There is not much doubt 
 among schoolmen that the pupils who could advance more 
 rapidly than they now do are much neglected. Too little 
 effort is made to discover them and give full employment 
 to their somewhat exceptional powers. They may be pro- 
 vided for in various ways.. They may be promoted to a 
 higher grade whenever they show they are capable of the 
 more advanced work or they may be promoted in those sub- 
 jects in which they manifest superior abiHty. Some of the 
 cities have special classes for them as well as for those who 
 are much retarded. If promotion is not possible at the 
 time, they may be given more advanced work in the grade to 
 which they belong. 
 
 Retardation may be reduced by superior teaching. It 
 might also be reduced somewhat by increasing the number 
 of opportunities in which excellence is recognized. Under 
 the present organization superiority is measured largely by 
 what the pupils can do with books. Retarded pupils show 
 in many cases that they learn more rapidly through experi- 
 ence with things. And teachers are prone to forget that 
 the objective world is a proper educational field, that cur- 
 ricula existed outside in the experience of man before they 
 were systematized in books. While the newer type of 
 schools does not belittle the use of books and magnify the 
 
150 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 work of the hand, it gives more weight to the use of things 
 for educational purposes than the traditional school. 
 
 Every teacher should bear in mind, therefore, that a class 
 may divide itself into three groups of children: the slow, 
 the bright, and a relatively large number who are of average 
 capacity. A wise management will require plans for lessons 
 and activities that take some account of the differences be- 
 tween these groups. This is an unavoidable permanent 
 problem, when the conditions are such as to prevent close 
 classification, and it will always test the skill of the best 
 teachers. 
 
 Differences Between the Country and the City En- 
 vironment. Another cause of differences between school 
 children is economic and social conditions. If we include 
 under this head the difference between the country and the 
 city environment, there is revealed at once a number of char- 
 acteristics that distinguish the two largest bodies of school 
 children. The country child has a more limited social en- 
 vironment. He is brought in closer contact with natural 
 processes. Long distances and the state of the weather 
 often delay the gratification of passing desires. In the 
 country one learns patience to wait for the realization of 
 things long hoped for. On the farm pay days do not come 
 so often as in the city and the purchase of supplies waits for 
 the gathering of the harvests. The country child also sees 
 the slow process of growth and soon gains an idea of the 
 chain of cause and effect in its relation to a final product. 
 He knows the meaning of milk, beef, and grain in all their 
 antecedent relations. 
 
 This kind of life has its inevitable psychic effect. The 
 country child is often alone and is not the victim of all 
 
Are All Children Alike? 151 
 
 sorts of distractions. Habits of attention are acquired that 
 distinguish him from the child of the crowded city. He 
 becomes capable of greater concentration and is relatively 
 slow in shifting his thought from one attraction to another. 
 Unlike the city child he is not in danger of overstimulation. 
 There is likely to be too limited an amount of educative 
 material in the way of books and pictures for a proper ex- 
 tension of his mental horizon. 
 
 On the other hand, the child living in the crowded sections 
 of a large city has acquired the habit of shifting interests 
 and attention. In his environment, appeals to the different 
 senses come in a constant stream. He lives in the midst of 
 alarms. When he awakes, when he goes to school, when 
 he tries to recite, when he goes to sleep, the clamor of the 
 street pours into his ears. The country child in compari- 
 son lives in silence and solitude. The city child knows lit- 
 tle of the patience of waiting. The supply of all his wants 
 is in all the markets and stores, ready to wear or use or 
 consume. Unless the experience comes to him in the con- 
 structive work of the school he seldom learns to know things 
 as unitary wholes. Of the milk and grain industry he 
 comes to know only the final part and of its economics the 
 last transaction. What he knows of industry develops be- 
 fore his eyes in the moving picture ; the industrial process of 
 a week he takes in during an hour. Amid all his distractions 
 he seeks new novelties and new thrills; his jaded nerves de- 
 mand fresh stimuli to preserve in him the consciousness ol 
 reality. 
 
 In addition to all this, for the city child danger lurks 
 everywhere. When he goes out of the house, safety for life 
 and limb develops the habit of caution. When he crosses 
 
152 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 the street he must look out for the cars and autos and at the 
 same time see where he is going. He must beware of ele- 
 vator shafts, manholes, and hve wires. He is ever on the 
 lookout for amusement and to escape the meshes of his com- 
 plex surroundings. 
 
 But the city experience has its peculiar values. The im- 
 portant point is to appreciate the difference in habits of 
 mind between these two types of children. In the one for 
 the limited range of the field of attention, the compensation 
 is concentration and steadiness. In the other, for the tend- 
 ency to be superficial, the compensation is a wide distribu- 
 tion of attention and an alert response to the environment. 
 The country's limited social atmosphere begets a subjective 
 tendency and a strong sense of individuality, while life in a 
 large community tends to develop the social nature and 
 bring the child in touch with world-wide interests. 
 
 Difference in Economic and Social Conditions. It is 
 indispensable to the wise management of a school that chil- 
 dren should be further classified. It has been found, as has 
 been stated in another chapter, that most of the troubles of 
 non-attendance and juvenile delinquency are traceable to the 
 economic and moral conditions of the home. It is neces- 
 sary to know something of the home life of the children 
 in order to appreciate their social situation even if a needed 
 change cannot be made. In the city particularly, we have, 
 classifying roughly, the children of the desperately poor, 
 those of the middle class, and those of very well-to-do 
 parents. 
 
 While there are exceptions to the rule, teachers of ex- 
 perience tell us that the children of the middle class are 
 usually the ambitious and aspiring kind whose parents give 
 
Are All Children Alike?- 153 
 
 intelligent support to the school. In the homes where every- 
 thing is provided in great abundance and the economic situa- 
 tion is perfectly secure, the children are sometimes, by no 
 means always, the victims of too much attention with too 
 great a variety of passive interests. In school the teacher 
 may find that they expect to be amused and entertained, 
 have a wandering attention, and lack initiative for study 
 and have no power of attack. They have had the advan- 
 tage of travel with their parents and their experience in the 
 real world has been so wide and varied that matters of in- 
 terest and wonder to the ordinary child do not appeal to 
 them. This class presents a difficult problem of manage- 
 ment, but it usually falls to the private rather than the 
 public school. When ordinary appeals fail it is often found 
 that constructive work forms a center of interest for them, 
 and this may be correlated with certain of the fundamental 
 studies of the curriculum. 
 
 The Problem of the Bad Environment. It is the chil- 
 dren of the hopelessly poor that present the most acute 
 problems. These children live in the congested districts of 
 our large cities. They are poorly housed, poorly fed, scant- 
 ily and poorly clothed. At home they live in an atmosphere 
 of despair. The parents have given up the fight for com- 
 fort and respectability and are resigned to their fate. They 
 long since gave up cherished ideals. They snatch at the 
 pleasure of the moment as it may happen to come their way. 
 They exploit, it may be, the labor and innocence of their 
 children. They move frequently from one place to another. 
 And even though they have a local habitation, their children 
 are ever on the move; the street is more comfortable and 
 certainlv more cheerful than the home as they know it. 
 
154 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 They subsist on a diet irregular and unbalanced, of low 
 nutritive value ; they get an insufficient amount of sleep ; they 
 live in close, unsanitary quarters. While the schoolroom is 
 the best place they ever know, they come there in a condition 
 of low vitality, for less than six hours a day, so that on the 
 mental side they represent the extreme type of fitful inat- 
 tention and often a dullness so impenetrable that it is hardly 
 to be distinguished from absolute feeble-mindedness. 
 
 Types of Moral Delinquents. On the moral side of 
 their nature, children of this class may be, it has been said, 
 of two general types. The passive type are easily impressed 
 with their vicious surroundings. They contract the habits 
 of their parents when very young and sooner or later be- 
 come acquainted with crimes against property and the 
 grosser social delinquencies. They readily succumb to the 
 temptations of the street. The other is the aggressive type 
 whose delight in adventure makes them at times vagrants 
 and on occasion bold criminals. 
 
 Moral Influence of the School. But these children have 
 to go to school. The teacher is the only good angel that has 
 ever come into their lives. With intelligence and sympathy 
 she may exert an influence upon them which may mean new 
 ideals of character that will always remain with them. 
 Much may be done to improve economic conditions through 
 cooperation with social agencies. However, the teacher, if 
 she looks upon her work as a mere routine of class man- 
 agement without the broader vision of the whole school 
 situation, which includes a study of the home relations, will 
 make little or no change for the better. 
 
 The first eight or nine years of a child's life is a formative 
 period of tremendous importance. Tendencies of a social 
 
Are All Children Alike? 155 
 
 and moral kind strike deep roots at that time. The kinder- 
 garten and lower grades of the school need to employ social 
 and moral motivations as much at least as any other kind, 
 particularly where the home cannot be depended upon for 
 training of this kind. In the years that follow up to 12 
 or 13 the delinquencies are usually of the individualistic 
 type. As this is the time of habit formation, a repeti- 
 tion of offenses tends to make them habitual, perhaps for 
 life. In the period that follows up to about 17 come the 
 emotional disturbances that are connected with the storm 
 and stress of adolescence. Sometimes the sharp conflict of 
 instincts brings about pathological conditions or some in- 
 stinct through strong pressure becomes dominant and leads 
 for a time to excesses of one kind or another. Here the 
 desire for social pleasures and comradeship may lead to 
 immorality. To promote a counter tendency to these influ- 
 ences the school can do the following: it can absorb the 
 attention of the child in athletic games, in interesting hand- 
 work, or in dramatics — any or all of these to keep the mind 
 fully occupied; it can induce ideals of cleanliness beginning 
 with bathing and a clean body and clean clothes; it can 
 arouse admiration for the great and good and detestation 
 for the mean and base through reading and the drama ; it can 
 awaken the sense of self-respect by making the child feel 
 that he shares responsibilities with others and that his teacher 
 and his associates have confidence in him. 
 
 The State's Guardianship. In the majority of the states 
 the age of full moral responsibility is sixteen years. In 
 some the limit is seventeen and in a few it has been made 
 eighteen. There are three forms of legal definition for the 
 wayward and neglected. They are essentially as follows : 
 
156 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Dependent child means any child under eighteen years of age 
 who is dependent on the public for support; or who is destitute, 
 homeless, or abandoned; or who has not proper parental care or 
 guardianship; or who begs or receives alms; or who is given away 
 or disposed of in any employment, service, exhibition, occupation, 
 or vocation contrary to the law of the state; who is found living 
 with vicious or disreputable persons or whose homes by reason of 
 neglect, cruelty, or depravity on the part of the parent or person 
 in whose care it may be, is an unfit place for such a child; or who 
 is prevented from receiving proper education because of the con- 
 duct or neglect of its parents or other person; or whose environ- 
 ment is such as to warrant the state, in the interest of the child in 
 assuming its guardianship. 
 
 A child without proper parental care is one whose parents or 
 guardian permit it to use or become addicted to tobacco, intoxi- 
 cating liquors, or any injurious drug, or whose parents permit it 
 in or about a saloon, gambling house, or a house of ill repute. 
 
 Failure to support, or neglect of child is punishable by a fine of 
 not less than ten dollars nor more than five hundred, or imprison- 
 ment not less than ten days nor more than a year, or both fine and 
 imprisonment. 
 
 A delinquent child is one under eighteen years of age (i) who 
 violates a law of the state, of a city or village ordinance; (2) 
 who is incorrigible (that is, whose parents have no control over 
 him and cannot prevent what in the preceding descriptions a 
 parent or guardian is not permitted by law to allow a child to 
 do) ; (3) who knowingly visits a gambling house or place where 
 intoxicating liquors are sold or a public pool or billiard room; (4) 
 who wanders about the street in the night time; (5) who wanders 
 about railroad yards or tracks or jumps or catches on to a moving 
 train, traction, or street car, or enters a car or engine without 
 lawful authority; (6) who uses obscene or profane language; 
 (7) who is guilty of immoral conduct; (8) who uses cigarets, or 
 cigars, or tobacco, or injurious drugs; (9) who visits any theater 
 or moving picture show where lewd exhibitions or performances 
 are displayed; (10) who is an habitual truant. 
 
 A juvenile disorderly person is a child of the age in which 
 
Are All Children Alike? 157 
 
 school attendance is compulsory, whose parents prove inability to 
 cause and compel school attendance. This is a form of delin- 
 quency. If under ten years, the child is committed to a children's 
 home ; if older, to a house of refuge. 
 
 Any person having knowledge of a minor under the age 
 of eighteen who appears to be either a delinquent, neg- 
 lected, or dependent child, may file a complaint '' upon in- 
 formation and belief " with a juvenile court or any other 
 court having the necessary powers and jurisdiction. 
 
 It is also important to know that delinquency laws have 
 been supplemented in many states by providing for the pun- 
 ishment by fine or imprisonment or both of any person who 
 aids, abets, induces, causes, encourages, or contributes to- 
 ward the delinquency, neglect or dependency of a minor, or 
 acts in any way tending to cause delinquency in such minor. 
 
 Summary. The children that come to school differ in 
 mentality, in moral sense, in the habits of mind acquired 
 by their environment, they differ in the rate of progress they 
 are capable of making in their school work, they differ in 
 the effect home conditions have upon their mental and moral 
 character. It may be said that every one knows that these 
 conditions exist. But it is a common fault of teachers, es- 
 pecially beginners in the work, to have rigid views of disci- 
 pline which are suited only to the average child and which 
 assume that children are as uniform in character as justice 
 is universal. The average child has only a theoretical ex- 
 istence. The actual child of the schoolroom is the real 
 problem of discipline. Fortunately, however, the larger 
 number of children in a schoolroom as a rule cause little 
 trouble and make teaching easy and pleasant. The prob- 
 lems come in the case of the relatively small per cent who 
 
158 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 loiter along the path of knowledge and those who are likely 
 to become demoralized by slow progress. The greater prob- 
 lems come when the teacher must struggle alone against the 
 willful ignorance of the child supported by the powers of 
 evil in the home, where conditions may become so bad that 
 the state itself steps in to save the child from himself or 
 from those who would neglect or exploit him. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 The Public School and the Public Health 
 
 The State's Responsibility. Since compulsory attend- 
 ance laws have been placed on the statute books in the vari- 
 ous states, all the children of all the people are now required 
 to go to school. It is the state's responsibility to provide 
 suitable buildings and grounds and to make the living condi- 
 tions at the school satisfy the best standards of sanitation. 
 It must go further and guard the children against infection 
 from communicable disease. The school must have its own 
 means of knowing whether a child is ill or not. The par- 
 ent's word is not final as to whether a child is too ill to 
 attend or has recovered sufficiently to return to school. For 
 certain proof of this the teacher will depend on a physician's 
 certificate or on the diagnosis by the medical inspector. 
 However, as regards the illness of individual children, the 
 teacher who is with them all day may be the first to dis- 
 cover the symptoms, whether the school has a system of 
 medical inspection or not. 
 
 The State's Opportunity. But the school is also the 
 state's opportunity. It is a means of instructing the public 
 in the prevention of disease. This is, of course, an interest 
 of the state that transcends all others, as all others depend 
 on it. And the example of sanitation and the practice of 
 
 159 
 
i6o Education and the General Welfare 
 
 hygiene in the school will afford instruction all the more ef- 
 fective because in school where the many are housed the 
 standards must necessarily be higher than in the home. 
 
 Health Service. But as the teacher cannot be depended 
 upon for a final decision in regard to cases of illness, and 
 because the problem becomes a large one where children con- 
 gregate in large numbers, the large cities and many states 
 have organized a health service for the schools. In seven 
 states the law on medical inspection is mandatory, in ten 
 it is permissive. In some of the states the board of health 
 instead of the board of education exercises the final author- 
 ity. The statutes of Ohio are permissive, allowing every 
 board of education to appoint at least one school physician ; 
 two or more districts may unite and appoint one such physi- 
 cian. Such boards may also employ trained nurses to as- 
 sist the school physicians in making examinations of all chil- 
 dren referred to them, at the beginning of every school year 
 and at other times if deemed desirable. Besides, they may 
 make examinations of teachers, janitors, and school build- 
 ings as in their opinion the protection of the health of the 
 pupils and teachers may require. If any teacher or janitor 
 is found to have positive open pulmonary tuberculosis or 
 any other communicable disease, his or her employment shall 
 be discontinued upon the expiration of the contract therefor, 
 or, at the option of the board, suspended upon such terms 
 as to salary as the board may deem just until the school 
 physician shall have certified to a recovery from the disease. 
 
 In school hygiene the interests of several professions meet 
 on common ground. The teacher is concerned from the pro- 
 fessional point of view because illness interrupts educational 
 progress. The physician is primarily interested in the pre- 
 
The Public School and the Public Health i6i 
 
 vention of disease. The school nurse assists the physician 
 and acts as an intermediary between the home and the school. 
 The teacher reports on symptoms of illness observed, the 
 physician diagnoses the cases and prescribes treatment, the 
 nurse follows up all the cases of illness from the school to 
 the home until recovery can be reported and until, upon re- 
 examination by the physician, the child is permitted to re- 
 turn to school. The interest of boards of health lies in the 
 fact that the school presents dangerous possibilities of 
 spreading epidemics through the community. On the other 
 hand, it is a convenient agency to circulate information on 
 matters of hygiene and sanitation. 
 
 School Hygiene a Part of the Public Health Move- 
 ment. School hygiene and sanitation is a part of a world- 
 wide movement. Sanitation has reference to places and 
 things, hygiene has reference to persons. Stated in simple 
 form it is the purpose of each to prevent illness and prema- 
 ture death. Hygiene has been defined by Sedgwick as the 
 science and art of the conservation and promotion of health 
 both in individuals and communities. The movement tran- 
 scends the bounds of nationality in its interests. No nation 
 can in these days look with indifference upon a neighbor- 
 ing people that neglects the public health. 
 
 In the course of only a few centuries, the prevention of 
 disease, in principle and practice, has made impressive his- 
 tory among the foremost nations of the world. Three cen- 
 turies ago the death-rate of London was 80 per 1000; now it 
 is 15. In the i8th century before the introduction of vac- 
 cination, an average of 500,000 people died annually in 
 Europe of small-pox alone. This disease is now almost 
 unknown where vaccination is compulsory. Official reports 
 
1 62 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 show that the death-rate in England and Wales fell from 
 22.6 per looo in 1862 to 17.9 in 1889.^ 
 
 In New York City the death-rate in 1866 was 35 per 
 1000; in 1914, 13.3. In the same city from the period 
 1 868-1 877 to 191 3, the death-rate from diphtheria alone 
 fell from 154 per icx),ooo to 32.^ 
 
 The number of deaths from typhoid fever fell in Eng- 
 land and Wales from 39 in 1869 to 8.9 per 100,000 in 
 1905. Improved methods of sanitation and anti-typhoid 
 vaccination in the United States army have had the follow- 
 ing results : ^ 
 
 No, of men Cases of typhoid Deaths 
 Without vaccination in 
 
 Spanish War, 1898 107^973 20,738 1,580 
 
 With vaccination, army on 
 
 Mexican Border, 1913 90,000 3 o 
 
 Rejections for Service in the United States Army. 
 
 From the Report of the Provost Marshal General of the 
 First Draft under the Selective Service Act, 191 7, it appears 
 that the per cent of rejections in the draft was higher than 
 in the average of four drafts during the Civil War. The 
 totals of the Report give the number physically examined 
 by local boards and the number rejected as follows: 
 
 Total physically examined 2,510,706 
 
 Total rejected 730756 29.11 per cent. 
 
 Civil war per cent of rejections 25.74 
 
 A small number, 4 per cent, of those accepted by local 
 boards were rejected by camp surgeons. While there is 
 
 1 Egbert : " A Manual of Hygiene and Sanitation," Philadelphia, 
 1910, p. 21 ff. Lea and Febiger. 
 
 2 Wood : " Sanitation Practically Applied," New York, 1917. 
 
X ^ -'£ 
 
 163 
 
164 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 considerable difference in the per cent of rejections, seem- 
 ing to indicate a superior physical condition of American 
 citizenship at the time of the Civil War, the Report ^ makes 
 the following comment : 
 
 '' In view of the great advance since the Civil War in 
 standards of medical diagnosis and physical perfection, the 
 figures indicate a decided improvement in national physical 
 condition during the past two generations." 
 
 Death-rate in the United States. The death-rate in the 
 United States for 191 5 was 13.5 per 1000. Countries with 
 a lower rate were Denmark, Holland, Australia, and New 
 Zealand. From 1904 to 191 5 the mortality from tubercu- 
 losis in the United States fell 28 per cent,^ owing largely 
 no doubt to the active campaign that has been conducted 
 against the disease. 
 
 Infant Mortality. Although reduced to 95 per 1000 
 under the age of one year in the statistics for 1912, the 
 death-rate of infants is still very high. Out of a total mor- 
 tality of 128,136 in New York City in the three years 
 from 1890^1892, the following are the proportions with re- 
 spect to age : 
 
 Under i yr. 1-2 yrs. 2-5 yrs. 5-15 yrs. Over 15 yrs. 
 26 87 5 54 per cent 
 
 In England 85,000 children died in 19 16 within nine months 
 after birth. The Minister of Education declared that the 
 roll of infant casualties for that year equaled the roll of 
 casualties in one of the greatest and most protracted battles 
 
 1 Report of the Provost Marshal General of the First Draft under 
 the Selective Service Act, 191 7, p. 44-45. 
 
 2 Bulletin issued by the Census Bureau, Department of the Interior, 
 1916. 
 
The Public School and the Public Health 165 
 
 of the Great War. The rate was 105 per thousand, and it 
 was said, " It is more dangerous to be a baby in England 
 than a soldier in France." 
 
 The Duration of Life. Infant mortality is greater than 
 it need be in all the countries of the world. If a reasonable 
 number of deaths due to infantile diseases could be pre- 
 vented by insistence on pure milk, fresh air, pure water, and 
 reasonable measures of safety, eight years could be added 
 to the average duration of life in the United States.^ This 
 for the United States and England is 45 years, while for 
 Sweden and Denmark, for example, it is 5 years higher. In 
 India it is only 25 years. In America many lives are an- 
 nually sacrificed to preventable diseases, and to the mania 
 for rapid motion. 
 
 Money Cost of Disease in the United States. It is 
 estimated that tuberculosis alone costs the nation $1,000,- 
 000,000; typhoid fever, $300,000,000. In round numbers, 
 there are in this country 3,000,000 persons constantly in- 
 capacitated on account of sickness. 
 
 The Warfare Against Communicable Disease. The 
 Massachusetts Registration Report gives the number of 
 death-causing varieties of disease under the following 
 heads : 
 
 No. 
 
 I Zymotic diseases (Fever, etc.) 32 
 
 II Constitutional diseases (Cancer, gout, dropsy, etc.) 10 
 
 III Local diseases (Apoplexy, heart disease, etc.) 48 
 
 IV Developmental diseases (Old age, teething, etc.) 10 
 V Violence from without 14 
 
 1 Fisher : Report on " National Vitality, Its Waste and Conservation," 
 1909; Memorial to the U. S. Senate on Conservation, Congressional 
 Record, 1912. 
 
1 66 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 They may be classified into constitutional and environmental 
 or intrinsic and extrinsic.^ A late and convenient classifi- 
 cation for our purpose places the different diseases under 
 two heads: Communicable and Non-communicable.^ 
 Counting the communicable type as equivalent to the zy- 
 motic, or " fermentative," there are, then, 32 death-causing 
 varieties of this type of diseases. 
 
 Economy of Prevention. Both teachers and pupils need 
 to study the behavior of the micro-organisms that cause 
 these diseases in order to learn how to prevent them. All 
 the trouble or expense it may take to escape them is a vast 
 economy. An enlightened civic responsibility that would 
 guard even without legal restraint against the possibility 
 of transmitting them is also a proper goal for school in- 
 struction. Prevention at whatever expense is the great 
 strategy. " The public health is purchasable ; within natural 
 limitations a community can determine its own death rate." 
 
 School Diseases. The diseases which might possibly 
 break out in a school are enumerated in the rules of the 
 Wisconsin State Board of Health, which do not permit 
 
 " the attendance in private, parochial, or public school of any pu- 
 pil afflicted with a severe cough, a severe cold, itch, hce, or other 
 vermin, or any contagious skin disease, or who is filthy in body or 
 clothing, or who has the following dangerous, contagious or infect- 
 ious diseases, to wit : Diphtheria, small-pox, scarlet fever, measles, 
 whooping-cough, chicken-pox, mumps, pulmonary tuberculosis, 
 Asiatic cholera, yellow fever, typhus fever, bubonic plague, cere- 
 bro-spinal meningitis, or acute poliomyelitis. The teachers in all 
 schools shall without delay send home any pupil who is obviously 
 
 1 Sedgwick : " Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health," 
 New York, 1914, p. 8, The Macmillan Company, 
 
 2 Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene," op. cit., p. Z3^' 
 
The Public School and the Public Health 167 
 
 sick even if the ailment is unknown, and the teacher shall inform 
 the parents or guardians of the pupil and also the local health 
 officer as soon as possible, and the officer shall examine into the 
 case and take such action as is reasonable and necessary for the 
 benefit of the pupils and to prevent the Spread of infection." 
 
 The last few of the diseases named are comparatively 
 rare and teachers are not prepared to recognize their spe- 
 cific symptoms. Asiatic cholera, bubonic plague, typhus fe- 
 ver are almost unknown in America as strict enforcement of 
 quarantine regulations at ports of entry have kept them 
 from our shores. Tuberculosis is sometimes latent in chil- 
 dren, difficult to diagnose, and hardly distinguishable from 
 anaemia. It is, generally, anaemic children that are classed 
 as pretuberculous and they are best cared for in open 
 air schools. Yellow fever which took by death one in every 
 ten of the inhabitants of Philadelphia in 1793 has been 
 wiped out even in southern cities where it was of common 
 recurrence, through the discovery in 1900, that a species of 
 mosquito was the carrier that caused the disease. Small- 
 pox is very rare and not dangerous wherever the law on 
 compulsory vaccination is strictly enforced. The princi- 
 pal communicable diseases of the school that remain for us 
 to wage war against and exterminate are diphtheria, scarlet- 
 fever, measles, whooping-cough, chicken-pox, and mumps. 
 These are the chief, not forgetting, however, that certain 
 skin and eye diseases and influenza also assume consider- 
 able importance at timics. 
 
 What are Bacteria? The beginning of success in the 
 fight against communicable disease dates from the time be- 
 lief in spontaneous generation was abandoned and scientists 
 began to study the forms of life which were associated 
 
1 68 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 with these ailments. These were at first regarded as little 
 animals (animalcules) and the name germ was applied to 
 them under the mistaken conception. That they are plant 
 organisms is a comparatively recent discovery. Now the 
 authorized general name is bacterium, of which there are two 
 kinds : pathogenic, those causing disease, and non-patho- 
 genic, those that do not. We are concerned here with only 
 the former. They are minute forms, some spherical and 
 others elongated, varying in length from a fraction of a 
 micro-millimeter to 40 micro-millimeters, a micro-millimeter 
 being one twenty-five thousandth part of an inch. They 
 are unicellular organisms and belong to the division of 
 flowerless plants, being classed as fungi and related to the 
 molds, mildews, puffballs, mushrooms, etc. 
 
 They reproduce their kind by the method of fission, the 
 cell dividing to become two cells, and by the generation of 
 spores. It has been estimated that a single " germ " can 
 produce by simple fission two of its kind in an hour. In 
 three days there would be so many that they could hardly 
 be counted. 
 
 An Instructive Parallel. One of the most important 
 events in the history of medical science was the discovery 
 of the parallel between the process of fermentation and 
 the course of a communicable disease. It was known that 
 if any fruit juice was left exposed to the air fermentation 
 would soon begin. Then it would '' work," that is, it 
 would show disturbances on account of the generation of 
 gases. This was followed by a period of quiescence and 
 then the change would become complete, alcohol having 
 taken the place of the sugar content. After this there was 
 no change. It would now *' keep." In the same way there 
 
The Public School and the Public Health 169 
 
 are five steps in the course of a communicable disease: 
 I. Exposure, infection takes place. 2. A period of quie- 
 scence, incubation. 3. The active stage of the disease. 
 4. Convalescence, or death. 5. No further change, im- 
 munity. Immunity may be total, the disease will not re- 
 turn at all, or temporary, it will not soon return, or partial, 
 it will return only in a mild form.^ 
 
 Discovery of Specific Germs. Since these micro-organ- 
 isms were of the plant world a study of their growth was a 
 sort of horticulture. The name '' cultures " was therefore 
 given to groups of them isolated for study. In 1839 it was 
 discovered that yeast is a parasitic fungus and that favns 
 of the human scalp is a parasitic fungus growth at the roots 
 of the hair. In 1876 it was proved that in the case of an- 
 thrax, bacteria were the cause of the disease. In the early 
 eighties Pasteur made a public demonstration of his bril- 
 liant discoveries in splenic fever which affects cattle and 
 sheep. In 1882 the bacillus of tuberculosis and in the fol- 
 lowing year that of Asiatic cholera were discovered by 
 Koch. Other scientists isolated the bacilli of diphtheria 
 and tetanus in 1884. 
 
 Where Bacteria Thrive. Bacteria that cause disease 
 are to be found wherever man, animals, and plants live, die, 
 and decompose. If found in the air it is not far usually 
 from their chief food supply. There are none at the top 
 of the Alps, the higher the altitude the fewer there are. 
 They are to be found in the soil but not deeper down 
 than about a meter. If they are in the air it is due to 
 scattering along with the dust. Notwithstanding the fact 
 
 1 Sedgwick : " Principles of Sanitary Science and Public Health," 
 op. cit., p. 39. 
 
170 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 that bacteria are all about us, the body-juices and tissues of 
 normal animals are free from them. When they are trans- 
 ferred from without and into the blood and the tissues, they 
 set up a condition of disease. 
 
 How Bacteria Get into the Blood. Again fermentation 
 in the case of fruit may serve to illustrate. Peaches, plums, 
 apples, etc., decay when their covering is pierced. The skin 
 on the fruit is bacteria-proof. As soon as it is bruised or 
 punctured so that the skin is broken the infection begins 
 and spreads until the whole fruit undergoes a change. Sim- 
 ilarly the skin of the outside of the human body and the 
 epithelial structures or cellular coverings of the cavities and 
 canals within are to a certain extent protective. Those ep- 
 ithelia in which absorption and secretion take place are not 
 protective to the same degree as the outer covering, the skin, 
 but in normal conditions they are provided with certain 
 means of protection. 
 
 When the skin is pierced by a nail, a pin, a splinter, the 
 bacterial infection is carried in by means of these pene- 
 trating bodies. An antiseptic preparation is often used 
 after such an accident to cleanse the wound, not to keep in- 
 fection from the air out of the wound. W^hen a foreign 
 body pierces the skin the infection is at first local and later 
 may become general so as to involve finally the whole body 
 and in this form is often fatal and known as " blood-poison- 
 ing." Any foreign body penetrating the skin may bring 
 bacteria. It may be through bullets, knives, daggers, or 
 through the sting of insects or the bite of serpents. 
 
 Other modes of infection are through the delicate lining 
 of the cavities in the mouth, nose, throat, lungs, and di- 
 gestive and genito-urinary tracts. Under certain circum- 
 
The Public School and the Public Health 171 
 
 stances these structures become susceptible to infection 
 through a weakening of the tissues; in this case bacteria 
 instead of nutrient elements are absorbed and thus gain 
 an entrance into the blood. In diphtheria the bacilli of the 
 disease find lodgment on the tissues of the throat. As they 
 feed and multiply the normal activity of the cells is grad- 
 ually weakened, lymph exudes, '' white patches " form, 
 and the powerful toxin is absorbed into the blood. In sim- 
 ilar ways the bacilli of Asiatic cholera attack the large and 
 small intestine and those of typhoid fever, the small intes- 
 tine. The bacillus of tuberculosis usually prefers the epi- 
 thelial tissue of the lungs. 
 
 Modes of Transmission. Communicable diseases are 
 to be further classified as intestinal, eruptive, and respira- 
 tory. Of the first class are cholera, dysentery, and typhoid 
 fever. In this kind of disease the solid and liquid excreta 
 of the body are the sources of infection. Of the second 
 class are scarlet fever, measles, small-pox, etc. In these, 
 pustules form on the skin which in time open and discharge 
 their secretions and are sources of infection. The diseases 
 of the respiratory tract are those which affect the mouth, 
 nose, throat, or lungs. Diphtheria and tuberculosis be- 
 long to this group. They depend for their transmission 
 upon the secretions ejected from the mouth or the nostrils. 
 In all cases the infected matter may be carried to a sus- 
 ceptible person directly as solid matter, or in water or milk, 
 or may dry and in pulverized form be conveyed as dust. 
 It may be carried by animals and men not suffering from 
 the disease. The bacilli of diphtheria have been found in 
 the throat of well persons and such as were not at all likely 
 to be sick with the disease. Typhoid is carried by some 
 
172 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 patients for as much as a year after the beginning of con- 
 valescence. But the germs cannot exist long without con- 
 tact with a host. It is safe to believe that they cannot re- 
 main for a long time far from man, animal, or plant without 
 becoming much attenuated from lack of nourishment and 
 therefore comparatively harmless. 
 
 It is generally believed now that these diseases are trans- 
 mitted in almost all cases through actual contact, and when 
 symptoms appear it is held to be of greatest importance to 
 isolate at once the person infected and those exposed to the 
 infection. This is of primary importance; the disinfection 
 of books, clothing, furniture, letters, for example, is con- 
 sidered of secondary importance. Danger would lie only in 
 objects the diseased person had recently handled, put into 
 the mouth, or in some other way transferred the germs to 
 things about the person. In order that there may be infec- 
 tion from the air or objects handled the material of infec- 
 tion must be fresh, that is, the bacteria must recently have 
 been thrown off or ejected from a person ill with the disease. 
 Under hospital conditions, in which supreme regard is had 
 for cleanness, patients have been placed quite near to each 
 other without a separating partition and without danger of 
 infection simply because the air as such does not appear 
 to be a carrier of disease. 
 
 Why Dust is Dangerous. But dust is dangerous and 
 for two reasons : either as infected with microbes or in case 
 the particles which form it are gritty they tend to lacerate 
 the delicate lining of the throat and lungs and thus prepare 
 the way for bacterial infection. In the air itself very few 
 harmful bacteria could long survive. It is from dust stirred 
 up again and again on roads where human beings and ani- 
 
The Public School and the Public Health 173 
 
 mals travel and in rooms where they live that the air be- 
 comes germ-laden. In a dust-storm five feet above the sur- 
 face of a macadamized street there were detected in ten liters 
 of air 200,000 micro-organisms. Quiet air is relatively 
 free from them. Sewage has been found to contain 4,726,- 
 000 bacteria per cubic centimeter, but sewer air is often 
 quite free from microbes.^ One of the surprising facts 
 that bacteriology has actually demonstrated is that the ex- 
 pired breath of the ordinary human being is practically germ 
 free. The primary source of infection is in the solid and 
 liquid excreta of man and animals. It is from these dis- 
 charges and those from the skin that infected material gets 
 mixed with dirt, dries, and is blown about by the wind, or 
 it is carried by water or transferred by human contact. 
 To summarize, diseases may be transmitted by 
 
 1. Direct contact with the sick 
 
 2. Infection from food and drink 
 
 3. Insects, such as flies 
 
 4. Infected earth 
 
 5. Domestic animals 
 
 6. Germs adhering to clothing 
 
 7. Dust in the air 
 
 Susceptibility, Resistance, Immunity. Disease mi- 
 crobes usually thrive best in conditions that are most agree- 
 able to human beings. Most of them need a certain amount 
 of free oxygen, organic matter, and moisture in order to 
 live. The temperature of a comfortably heated room is 
 favorable to their growth. The direct rays of the sun and, 
 to a less degree, the rays of the electric arc-light retard the 
 
 1 Sedgwick : " Principles of Sanitary Science and Public Health," 
 pp. 113, 125. 
 
174 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 growth and in numerous cases kill bacteria. The presence 
 of certain chemical agents such as bichloride of mercury, 
 carbolic acid, and formaldehyde inhibit their development 
 and are known as antiseptics. 
 
 Vital Resistance is the intermediary condition between 
 immunity and susceptibility. The relation between vital 
 resistance and communicable disease, it has been suggested, 
 
 may be expressed in the formula, D equals — in which D 
 
 R 
 represents the disease, M the micro-organism causing it, and 
 
 R vital resistance of the organism attacked. The power of 
 
 M depends on the number of M and their virulence, hence 
 
 the formula should read D equals ^ .^ High resistance 
 
 R 
 and a limited number of microbes offer one means of escape 
 
 from disease ; immunity offers another. 
 
 Immunity is ability to resist infection. Animals and man 
 have a natural immunity to some bacteria. Certain animals 
 are immune to some and not to others. Human beings in 
 robust and healthy conditions are relatively immune to in- 
 fections. When vital resistance is lowered through loss of 
 sleep, malnutrition, or fatigue, the susceptibility to infec- 
 tion is increased. Immunity may be acquired by the system 
 after it has been subjected to the course of a disease. It 
 may be artificially induced before infection takes place as in 
 small-pox and typhoid vaccination, or after the first few 
 days of infection as in the case of diphtheria by means of 
 an anti-toxin. It was Pasteur's hypothesis that if an infec- 
 tious disease is really a struggle between man and the mi- 
 crobe it might be possible to reduce the virulence of any mi- 
 
 1 Sedgwick : op. cit., pp. 82-84. 
 
The Public School and the Public Health 175 
 
 crobe by subjecting it to an unfavorable environment and 
 thus give man the advantage in the conflict when it comes. 
 Heat, cold, starvation, overfeeding, suggested themselves as 
 means of producing " attenuation " in the microbes. He 
 finally proved by experiment that this could be done. By 
 means of cultures of attenuated bacteria he inoculated ani- 
 mals and proved that they became immune to the infection 
 of virulent bacteria of the same class. 
 
 The White Corpuscles. The theory of Metschnikoff 
 was that the source of resistance is in the white corpuscles 
 of the blood, that in the course of a communicable or in- 
 fectious disease the struggle is between these corpuscles and 
 the virulent microbes, and that the issue of life and death 
 depends on which of these win in the struggle. The in- 
 troduction of the weakened cultures before infection through 
 virulent microbes of the same class gives the white cor- 
 puscles an easy victory when the conflict comes and besides 
 induces in them a growing disposition to win out in any 
 succeeding conflicts.^ 
 
 Serums. The use of serums as a method of cure and to 
 produce immunity is another modern practice that should 
 be a part of a teacher's general information on the subject 
 of the diseases of school children. This is best illustrated 
 and most effective in the attack that has been made upon the 
 microbe of diphtheria. It is based on the theory that when 
 the microbe invades the blood with its toxin a defensive 
 substance is produced in the blood serum known as an anti- 
 toxin. 
 
 " Microbes of diphtheria are cultivated in a richly nutrient liquid 
 which gradually becomes charged with their toxin. The liquid is 
 
 1 Sedgwick : op. cit., pp. 82-84. 
 
176 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 filtered, and portions of the toxin-bearing filtrate are subcuta- 
 neously injected into horses, beginning with small doses and con- 
 tinuing until the animal is immune to large doses. Blood is then 
 drawn from the immune horse, and the serum from this blood is 
 found to contain anti-toxin in abundance. This serum is care- 
 fully filtered and then used subcutaneously as a reenforcing rem- 
 edy for persons actually ill with diphtheria, or as a preventive 
 medicine by those who either may or may not have been ' ex- 
 posed ' to it. The results of the serum treatment have every- 
 where been most significant and encouraging." ^ 
 
 Lowering of Vital Resistance. Conditions which cause 
 a low^ering of vital resistance are wet, cold, insufifiicient sleep, 
 worry, insufficient and unsuitable food, and artificial uni- 
 form temperature. Among the chief means of increasing 
 resistance are sunshine, regular habits, and fresh air usually 
 to be had in the fall and winter months only outside of 
 schoolrooms and dwelling and business houses. The rela- 
 tion between the prevalence of communicable diseases and 
 closed windows is clearly indicated in the records that have 
 been made of the incidence of these diseases for the months 
 of the year. See Charts XIV and XV. 
 
 Seasonal Diseases. These diseases occur most fre- 
 quently during the seasons of the year when children stay 
 inside on account of the weather and in those years of their 
 life when they have not yet formed habits of personal hy- 
 giene. Below the school age they live at home and to a 
 certain extent in comparative seclusion. During their first 
 years in school they mingle freely together and have a com- 
 munistic attitude to personal belongings and are perfectly 
 innocent of biological cleanliness. There is much borrow- 
 ing and lending and the commerce engaged in combines in 
 
 ^Sedgwick: op. cit., p. 84. 
 
The Public School and the Public Health 177 
 CHA.RT XIV 
 
 14---- - - 7-- 
 
 :: ::::: ::: :::: ::: :::: ::: :::: ::: ::^:5::: 
 
 1___ J- y___^__ 
 
 13 c ^- 
 
 ::i:::::i:::i::::i:::i:::=i::=i::::i:::;/::i::::^ 
 
 i2::i:::::i:::i::::=:::i::::=:::i::::i:::t::i::i:: 
 
 
 U 1 
 
 T 4. 
 
 11 ^ 
 
 
 iio-- ^\ - - - + -f -- 
 
 a ^" :\j 1 J _ 
 
 1 ::i::^ :::":"::"::=:::::::::::^:^:":::;::z: 
 
 1 8 ::::::|:::=::::::::::::::::::::::::f::::::i:^:: 
 
 1 1 k f LH N^ 
 
 Z 8 ::::::::i^^::::::::::::::::::::::::i:::;:::^:::: 
 
 I ::i:=::::v5--"":::::::::::::::^:::::::^::::: 
 
 1 ::=::i:":v'^":::;:5=-::::::::-^:::"?h:::i: 
 
 ^ ' n HLHJ i iw Ifr^m 
 
 i^s;-^^^ \ ^^ ; 1- 
 
 e:::::::::i:::5^:;i:::i;:::::::-Z ::::::: 
 
 : ::i : :=: :i : " : ii::ii::::=: ::^^^ 
 
 ::::=:::::::"::"ii:±s-:i:::::::::^::::":::i: 
 
 6 S, ^'- 
 
 -S, ^^ __ - _ _ 
 
 4 1 Ml^ 1 
 
 
 3 \ 1 LLJJ — 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 M 1 1 M 1 1 
 
 Jan, Feb. Mar. Apr. 
 
 May 
 
 June July 
 Months 
 
 Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. 
 
 cases of diphtheria from birth to five years of age. 
 cases of diphtheria from five to fourteen years of age. 
 
 (For the years 1 900-1 904 in the U. S. Registration area.) 
 Note increase during school months and decrease in vacation. 
 (Mass. State Board of Health, Monthly Bulletin, Sept., 1910.) 
 The curves in Chart XIV show that diphtheria increases in prevalence from 
 October to May, about the time when windows are closed and artificial systems 
 of ventilation are in operation. That this fact holds true for other diseases as 
 well as diphtheria is shown by the following Chart XV. It is seen here that 
 measles show exceptional activity from December to June. 
 
178 
 
The Public School and the Public Health 179 
 
 its scope unconsciously a free exchange of the vehicles of 
 infection. 
 
 '' All successful commerce is reciprocal and in this universal 
 trade in human saliva the fingers not only bring foreign secretions 
 to the mouth of their owner, but there, exchanging it for his own, 
 distributes the latter to everything that the hand touches. This 
 happens not once, but hundreds of times during the day's round of 
 a child's activities." ^ 
 
 Of the most important school diseases there is a serum 
 treatment for only tv^o, diphtheria and whooping cough. 
 For typhoid and small-pox, vaccination has proved an agency 
 of prevention. For all the other diseases named here, 
 measures of hygiene and sanitation are at present the only 
 means of prevention. When any of them makes its ap- 
 pearance, isolation of the sick and any others who are likely 
 to have taken the infection is the immediate necessity. The 
 earlier the symptoms are discovered the better. In fact, in 
 nearly all cases when the symptoms are in the more ad- 
 vanced stages and unmistakable as indicating serious illness, 
 the infection may already have been communicated. This 
 has been true particularly of measles. It is almost impos- 
 sible to discover the symptoms of this disease in time to 
 prevent infection. The best that doctors have been able to 
 do is to recognize its coming a few hours ahead by means 
 of Koplik's spots — small eruptions which appear inside the 
 cheek where the membrane rests against the teeth. 
 
 While it may be well for the teacher to inform herself 
 on the characteristic appearance of symptoms through the 
 course of these diseases, it must be remembered that her 
 
 1 Quoted from Chapin by Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hy- 
 giene." Op. cit., p. 161-162. 
 
i8o Education and the General Welfare 
 
 chief function is, rather, early discovery and before danger 
 of spread of the infection. The following ^ are general 
 early symptoms the teacher can be expected to look out 
 for: 
 
 I. Indications of fever may mean: chicken-pox, mumps, 
 measles, influenza, diphtheria, or scarlet fever. 2. Appear- 
 ance of lassitude may mean measles or diphtheria. 3. Vom- 
 iting may indicate chicken-pox, mumps, or scarlet fever. 
 4. Sore throat may indicate diphtheria or scarlet fever. 5. 
 Headache may point to scarlet fever, diphtheria, or mumps. 
 6. Eruptions will probably indicate measles, scarlet fever, 
 chicken-pox, or small-pox. 7. Malaise may indicate scarlet 
 fever, diphtheria, or chicken-pox. 
 
 Influenza. In a report issued by the United States Cen- 
 sus Bureau, November 17, 19 18, the following statement 
 was made : 
 
 " In forty-six American cities having a combined population of 
 only a little more than one-fifth the total for the country, the 
 mortality resulting from the influenza epidemic during the nine 
 weeks' period ending November 9, was nearly double that in the 
 American Expeditionary Forces from the time the first contingent 
 landed in France until the cessation of hostilities." 
 
 A study ^ of age distribution of the deaths from this dis- 
 
 iBennett : " School Efficiency," New York, 1917, p. 90-92, Ginn and 
 Company. Calvert : " Prevention of Contagious Diseases Among 
 School Children," Bulletin Univ. of Missouri, Medical Series, Vol. I, 
 No. 3, Hoag and Terman : "Health Work in the Schools," give com- 
 plete tabulation of general and specific symptoms, methods of infection, 
 and periods of exclusion recommended, pp. 192-195. 
 
 2 Robertson and Koehler : " Preliminary Report on the Influenza 
 Epidemic in Chicago," The American Journal of Public Health, Nov., 
 1918, pp. 849-856. 
 
The Public School and the Public Health i8i 
 
 ease and pneumonia in the epidemic in Chicago in the fall 
 of 1 91 8 shows that the largest percentage of deaths oc- 
 curred in persons between 20 and 40 years and under 10 
 years of age. 
 
 The onset of the disease is usually sudden and the symp- 
 toms manifested vary greatly in different persons. Even 
 a mild attack with a low temperature for only a few days 
 had marked and prolonged effects of great variety in dif- 
 ferent victims and in many cases produced a profound 
 nervous disturbance. The chief danger of the disease lay in 
 the sequelae and one of these was frequently pneumonia. 
 This complication, it was found, would be just as likely 
 to follow a mild as a severe attack. In many respects this 
 pandemic opened a new chapter in the mystery of disease. 
 
 Methods of Resistance. The disease was combatted al- 
 most entirely by the methods of prevention. In some of the 
 cities the boards of health requested the police to arrest all 
 " open " coughers or sneezers on streets and in public places 
 and to start an anti-spitting crusade. Warnings were issued 
 to persons having symptoms of a cold to go to bed at once 
 as the best precaution against the disease and as a means of 
 isolation. To keep resistance high freedom from worry 
 was recommended. A half -teaspoon of soda bicarbonate 
 (baking soda) in half a glass of water was recommended 
 to be used as a gargle several times a day. A quinine solu- 
 tion of two or three grains in a quart of water was also 
 recommended to be used in the same way about three times 
 a day. In one of the large cities ^ the following measures 
 were adopted to prevent the spread of the disease in the 
 schools ; and these schools were not closed : 
 1 Robertson and Koehler : op. cit. 
 
1 82 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 1. Open- window ventilation of all classrooms. 
 
 2. Pupils warmly dressed. 
 
 3. Daily thorough inspection of all pupils. 
 
 4. Pupils coughing or sneezing sent home at once. 
 
 Various Signs and Symptoms. The symptoms of an 
 ordinary cold with nasal discharge may mean influenza or 
 they may be the beginning of whooping cough or measles or 
 may suggest diphtheria or scarlet fever. In general, eyes 
 that discharge and glueing of the lids and redness under the 
 hds, extreme sensitiveness to light, any or all of these justify 
 exclusion of the child. Scratching is a sign of itch or of 
 pediculosis. In the case of eye diseases the infection is read- 
 ily transmitted to other children through towels, wash-basins, 
 or handkerchiefs used in common. In the case of pedicu- 
 losis, which is surprisingly common in the large cities, con- 
 tagion is brought about by an accidental exchange of caps or 
 the use of the same clothes hook, or from combs or brushes 
 used in common. 
 
 Hygiene and Economy. Physical hygiene is a neces- 
 sary measure of economy in the work of the school. What 
 effect can the best kind of teaching have if pupils are peri- 
 odically absent on account of illness? Absence through 
 sickness is as retarding as that from truancy. Besides, the 
 school is to be looked upon as in the broader sense one of 
 the agencies in the warfare against communicable disease, 
 which is not only a local, but a national and an international 
 movement. Pasteur said, '^ It is within the power of man 
 to rid himself of every parasitic disease." The school must 
 teach the theory and demonstrate the practice of hygiene and 
 sanitation. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 Why Children Are Dull 
 
 Chronic Disease and Physical Defects. While in the 
 aggregate communicable diseases cause much interruption 
 to the work of a school year, they are a hindrance to the 
 individual child's progress usually for a limited time only. 
 The children afflicted usually recover, return to school, and 
 are as bright and capable as before. But there are other 
 diseases of a chronic kind and physical defects of a more 
 or less permanent character which hinder school work even 
 though they may not cause the absence of the children from 
 school. These are not ordinarily a menace to the children 
 not afflicted and do not require the immediate attention of 
 the school officer. They are, however, a great source of 
 retardation in that they are a cause of lowered vitality, 
 which expresses itself in school work small in amount and 
 inferior in quality. 
 
 Levels of Efficiency. Besides, these children are in 
 classes with others relatively free from defects, and the most 
 serious waste of time results from the fact that children in 
 normal condition are held back, must wait and mark time 
 until the slower ones catch up with them. This is not all. 
 When children, or adults, get into careless habits of not 
 working to the limit of their capacity they in time become 
 accustomed to a slow rate of advance and a reduced effi- 
 
 183 
 
184 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 ciency. Unless the school presents a stimulus and an oppor- 
 tunity for normal advancement the time spent there may be 
 demoralizing and worse than simply wasted. 
 
 The Unwilling and the Incapable. This is the situation 
 that brings into being the lazy child, the child that is not 
 willing to study because it has no proper motive or stimulus 
 and is classed with those who cannot study with any con- 
 siderable degree of success. It is not through a vain con- 
 sciousness of superiority, it is rather because the bright but 
 indolent child in time convinces itself that it is also dull and 
 incapable of progress. Teaching how to study is an aid 
 to the incompetent but a concession to the indifferent. 
 
 Indifference and Dullness. The indifferent pupil will 
 not, the dull pupil cannot do good work in school. The in- 
 different become apparently dull and the dull through failure 
 become indifferent. Dullness is inability to get the thought 
 of another person or of a book. The dull mind exhibits a 
 certain degree of impenetrability to influences from without. 
 It takes no hints and responds to no suggestions. This is 
 the extreme type. There are of course different degrees of 
 dullness, but they are in many cases due to the same cause, 
 physical defects that interfere with certain of the vital func- 
 tions. On the other hand dullness does not necessarily go 
 with abnormal physical conditions. The pages of biog- 
 raphy are bright with instances of the triumph of the hu- 
 man spirit over a constitutional weakness of body. 
 
 However, a knowledge of certain causes of dullness is 
 essential to a proper understanding of a teacher's work. 
 In the following chart we have at once a list of the defects 
 that may occur and an indication of the frequency of their 
 occurrence among the number of children examined. 
 
Why Children Are Dull 185 
 
 CHART XVI 
 
 Physical Examination of School Children, City of Chicago 
 
 (Summary for the years 1909, 1910, 191 1) 
 Number of pupils examined 317,603 
 
 Number having physical defects 
 Defects found 
 
 Teeth 
 
 Tonsils — hypertrophy of 
 
 Eye — vision impaired 
 other defects of 
 
 Glands — enlargement of 
 
 Adenoids 
 
 Nasal breathing impaired 
 
 Anaemia 
 
 Nutrition 
 
 Skin disease 
 
 Ear — hearing impaired 
 discharging 
 
 Goitre 
 
 Palate defects 
 
 Orthopedic defects 
 
 Heart disease 
 
 Nervous diseases 
 
 Lung disease 
 
 Rachitic type 
 
 Mentally impaired 
 
 Other defects 8 
 
 Mental Consequences of Physical Defects. Non-com- 
 municable diseases and physical defects differ in general 
 from those studied in the previous chapter in that these pro- 
 duce certain permanent mental dispositions when they 
 cannot be relieved or cured. They are all likely to bring 
 with them the feeling of inferiority, a lack of the confidence 
 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 148,297 
 
 46.6 
 
 Number 
 
 
 116,081 
 
 36.5 
 
 66,939 
 
 21. 1 
 
 52,289 
 
 16.4 
 
 1,376 
 
 .4 
 
 45,043 
 
 14.1 
 
 12,255 
 
 3-8 
 
 14,936 
 
 4.7 
 
 8,251 
 
 2.5 
 
 6,958 
 
 2.2 
 
 5.999 
 
 1-9 
 
 5,705 
 
 1-7 
 
 584 
 
 .2 
 
 1,015 
 
 .3 
 
 1,193 
 
 .4 
 
 2,766 
 
 •9 
 
 1,682 
 
 •5 
 
 1,327 
 
 •4 
 
 751 
 
 .2 
 
 351 
 
 .1 
 
 1,112 
 
 .3 
 
1 86 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 in the self that is necessary to bring things to pass. Those 
 afflicted become accustomed to failure and expect nothing 
 else. They lack initiative and become mental dependents. 
 
 Effect of Consciousness of Weakness. In a certain 
 class of these weaknesses the children know only the conse- 
 quences of unknown causes. Malnutrition, adenoids, etc., 
 represent a constant condition, and the children have never 
 felt what it is to be well. And it is well that they have not 
 come to reflect on their bodily states, for this induces a sort 
 of sentimentalism that is but an additional burden. Parents 
 or teachers should not speak of children's defects in their 
 presence, as this will tend to make these defects an object of 
 thought for the children themselves. 
 
 In impaired vision and hearing, children become aware 
 of their deficiency by comparison with their classmates 
 whose senses bring more clear and correct impressions. In 
 certain others such as orthopedic handicaps or motor dis- 
 turbances they not alone discover them by comparison with 
 other children in plays and games but they may also, by re- 
 flection upon them, become painfully conscious of the dif- 
 ference between themselves and the great majority of their 
 playmates. Peculiarities of gait, posture, or speech may be 
 imitated by others and consciousness of them increased to a 
 deep-rooted morbidness. 
 
 This is one of the reasons why exceptional children should 
 be taught together. In some of the larger cities there are 
 special classes for crippled children, for the hard of hearing, 
 and hard-of-seeing, as well as for the blind and the deaf, the 
 anaemic and the pretuberculous, the retardates and accele- 
 rants. 
 
 Medical Diagnosis and Education. Medical inspection 
 
Why Children Are Dull 187 
 
 in the schools has justified itself not alone on the ground 
 of checking epidemic diseases but it has been serviceable 
 to parents and teachers in pointing out the need of remedial 
 measures for defects in the children which were overlooked. 
 The medical diagnosis makes the results of pedagogical tests 
 more intelligible. In the following, which is a part of the 
 report of the Chief Medical Inspector for the schools of 
 Cincinnati, the activities and results of a city medical serv- 
 ice are given: 
 
 CHART XVII 
 
 Medical Examination of School Children,^ City of 
 Cincinnati 
 
 (September 17, 1915, to June 9, 1916) 
 
 Part I 
 Number of Children 
 
 Public Parochial Total 
 
 Inspected after four days' absence 9,888 593 10,481 
 
 Referred to Doctor on account of minor 
 
 conditions 12,565 2,613 15,178 
 
 Examined but not recommended for treat- 
 ment 23,082 3,478 26,560 
 
 Needing treatment 1 5,945 2,332 18,277 
 
 Excluded on account of communicable 
 
 disease 1,214 68 1,282 
 
 Vaccinated by district physicians 2,774 1,102 3,876 
 
 Defects and Diseases Diagnosed by District Physicians 
 
 Acute Infectious Diseases (reportable)... 523 37 560 
 
 Defective Vision 1,109 ^88 1,297 
 
 Diseases of the Eye 870 no 980 
 
 Defective Hearing 104 15 119 
 
 1 Eighty-seventh Annual Report Cincinnati Public Schools for the 
 year ending August 31, 1916, Cincinnati, 1917, pp. 297-298. 
 
1 88 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Public Parochial Total 
 
 Diseases of the Ear 267 29 296 
 
 Defective Nasal Breathing- 140 19 i59 
 
 Hypertrophied Tonsils and Adenoids 974 156 1,130 
 
 Diseases of Respiratory Tract i,494 IM 1.608 
 
 Pulmonary Tuberculosis 3 i 4 
 
 Pre-Tuberculous Children 33 5 38 
 
 Anaemia 205 44 249 
 
 Cardiac Disease 24 6 30 
 
 Defective Teeth 5^144 1.126 6,270 
 
 Ringworm 125 6 131 
 
 Scabies 89 2 91 
 
 Impetigo Contagiosum 222 40 262 
 
 Pediculosis 1,105 165 1,270 
 
 Other Skin Diseases 1,016 91 1,107 
 
 Minor Surgical Conditions 2,090 121 2,211 
 
 Miscellaneous 7^6 79 795 
 
 Total 16,253 2,354 18,607 
 
 Part II 
 
 RESULTS OF SCHOOL MEDICAL EXAMINATION 
 
 Public Parochial Total 
 
 Children who were cured or improved 11,070 1,205 12,275 
 
 Refused treatment 264 47 311 
 
 Withdrawn from school, left city, etc 812 122 934 
 
 Pending cases 3799 958 4,757 
 
 Total 15.945 2,332 18,277 
 
 TREATMENT 
 
 Children treated by general practitioners.. 2,373 366 2,739 
 Children treated in clinics, hospitals and 
 
 dispensaries 5.063 498 5,561 
 
Why Children Are Dull 189 
 
 Public Parochial Total 
 Children treated by visiting school nurse. . 3,177 263 3,440 
 
 Total 10,613 1,127 ii>740 
 
 Defective Vision, Diseases of Eye (glasses 
 
 obtained) 807 124 931 
 
 Surgical interference for the removal of 
 
 tonsils and adenoids 632 92 724 
 
 Homes visited by nurse 5^731 922 6,653 
 
 Children taken to clinics, hospitals and 
 
 dispensaries 769 96 865 
 
 School Health Work a Permanent National Service. 
 
 In the discovery and correction of physical defects in school 
 children, teachers and health officers both serve the indi- 
 vidual child and perform a national service in the physical 
 improvement of future citizens. The caiises of rejection 
 of recruits for service in the United States army as set forth 
 in the Report ^ of the Provost Marshal General of the First 
 Draft under the Selective Service Act, 191 7, shov^ a v^ide 
 range of imperfection among those who were called to their 
 country's defense. The data were obtained from a study of 
 10,2^8 cases of rejection taken from eight of the camps. A 
 total number of 21 definite causes are given: 
 
 CHART XVIII 
 Causes Per cent 
 
 1. Physical undevelopment 4.06 
 
 2. Teeth 8.50 
 
 3- Ear 5.94 
 
 4. Eye 21,68 
 
 1 Report of the Provost Marshal General of the First Draft under 
 the Selective Service Act, 1917, p. 47. 
 
190 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Causes Per cent 
 
 5. Blood vessels 1.86 
 
 6. Muscles 0.64 
 
 7. Bones 2.96 
 
 8. Joints 3.37 
 
 9. Skin 1. 15 
 
 10. Flat foot 3.65 
 
 11. Underweight 1.59 
 
 12. Tuberculosis 5-37 
 
 13. Heart Diesase 5.87 
 
 14. Hernia 7-47 
 
 15. Digestive System 0.80 
 
 16. Respiratory 1.56 
 
 17. Genito-Urinary (non-venereal) 1.39 
 
 18. Genito-Urinary (venereal) 4-27 
 
 19. Mentally Deficient 4-53 
 
 20. Nervous Disorders (general and local) 3.77 
 
 21. Alcoholism and Drug Habit 0.77 
 
 22. Ill defined and not specified 0.91 
 
 23. Not stated 7-^ 
 
 Defects of the Respiratory System. Among the most 
 numerous and distressing of the defects that cause inca- 
 pacity in school children are those of the respiratory sys- 
 tem. Inspiration and expiration, which together make res- 
 piration, are normally carried on through the nose. When 
 the nose is obstructed with adenoids or a deflected septum 
 the child becomes partially or in toto a mouth-breather. 
 The teacher can leave the diagnosis of the real difficulty to 
 the medical inspector, the family physician, or the specialist. 
 It is sufhcient to know and report that the child does not 
 breathe the natural way. If the school is not under a sys- 
 tem of medical inspection, the parent can be informed and 
 advised to consult the family physician or a specialist. 
 
Why Children Are Dull 191 
 
 Nasal obstruction may be due to a lack of cleanliness, 
 according to Newmayer/ of the Philadelphia schools. Of 
 50 pupils sent by him to a nose and throat specialist, only 
 nine were found to have adenoids, "' while over half had 
 nasal obstruction and mouth-breathing from a lack of clean- 
 liness of the nostrils." 
 
 Mouth-breathing produces a condition of the mucous 
 membrane peculiarly favorable to the contraction of nasal 
 colds and the infection of diseases of the nose and throat. 
 It has a disturbing effect upon speech, as the nasal cavity 
 is required for the correct production of certain sounds. 
 When obstructed, sounds such as n and m cannot be given 
 their value. '' Nobody but Miss Nancy " becomes " Do- 
 body but Biss Dancy." 
 
 In a large number of cases of adenoid obstruction the 
 hearing is also impaired. 39 out of 47 cases examined by 
 Blake of Boston showed marked improvement in hearing 
 following operation upon the growths. When the condi- 
 tion has existed from infancy there is often marked de- 
 formity of the chest. It is a known cause of pigeon breast, 
 according to Holt. These growths also produce anaemia and 
 general malnutrition, owing to constant interference with 
 sleep through obstructed respiration, and they may be a 
 reflex cause of nervous disturbances, such as chorea, asthma, 
 and catarrhal spasm of the larynx. An obstruction suffi- 
 cient to cause serious disturbance may be present and yet 
 not be noticeable in day time. The condition is in some 
 cases indicated only by extreme restlessness at night. Pa- 
 tients with adenoid growths contract epidemic respiratory 
 
 iNewmayer: "Medical and Sanitary Inspection of 'Schools," Phila., 
 1913, Lea and Febiger. 
 
192 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 diseases more easily than do others, and under this condition 
 these diseases are hkely to be more severe. 
 
 With adenoid growths are to be classed enlargements of 
 the neck glands and enlarged tonsils. They are due to a 
 common cause, are commonly found together, and are desig- 
 nated by the general term '' lymphatism." ^ Enlarged tonsils 
 are a source of danger from catarrh and deafness and are 
 like adenoid growths in increasing the liability to diphtheria 
 and scarlet fever. 
 
 Defects of the Digestive System — The Teeth. It is 
 claimed that careful examination of school children will 
 reveal that 95 per cent have defective and diseased teeth. 
 This is an affliction that is older than history and one that 
 seems to keep step with advancing civilization. As indi- 
 cated by recovered skulls even pre-historic man had reduced 
 posterior molars and was troubled with caries. Nearly all 
 animal species and some savage races have strong and beau- 
 tiful teeth, although with no other care than what nature 
 gives them. Man alone of all animals normally has his 
 teeth in a closed series. When the unbroken line is inter- 
 rupted by extraction, the troubles of decay and infected 
 gums are likely to begin. To bridge the gaps and to crown 
 teeth rarely if ever proves sanitary. The worst of it is that 
 these devices often only conceal infections which can be 
 discovered only by means of the X-ray. In the familiar 
 gum-boil the infection exudes to the surface; in other in- 
 stances the concealed poison-sack drains continuously into 
 the system and becomes an unsuspected cause of disturbances 
 in the action of the heart, the kidneys, or other organs. 
 
 1 Holt, L. E. : " Diseases of Infancy and Childhood," New York, 
 191 1. 
 
Why Children Are Dull 193 
 
 Diseased Teeth and Retardation. While there are no 
 doubt many exceptions to the rule, it is believed by many 
 investigators that there is a close connection between dis- 
 eased teeth and mental and physical retardation. In gen- 
 eral they lower vitality, which diminishes resistance to dis- 
 ease and lowers the efficiency of the school child. Of 3,304 
 boys from ten to fourteen years of age examined by Ayres 
 in New York, 42 per cent of the dullards and 40 per cent 
 of those with average intelligence had defective teeth, but 
 only 34 per cent of those classed as bright. The statistics 
 of the proportion of school children with defective teeth 
 vary greatly, depending on what the examiners count as 
 defects. In the Charts of defects given in this chapter the 
 percentage of children so afflicted is not too high, the first 
 being 36.5 and the second 33.1 of the number examined. 
 
 Brushing and Cleansing the Teeth. The universally 
 recommended prophylactic is brushing and cleansing the 
 teeth. If there are spaces between the teeth silk floss is 
 recommended to keep the surfaces not reached by the brush 
 in sanitary condition. The teeth, including the temporary 
 set of the very young child, should be examined twice a year 
 by a competent dentist. The first permanent molars espe- 
 cially should be carefully watched simply because they may 
 not be recognized as permanent. The view that the tem- 
 porary sets need no attention because they are only tem- 
 porary anyway, is a mistaken one. 
 
 Poor general resistance, special susceptibility, form of 
 diet, acid in mouth, and bacteria are the usual causes of 
 caries. The only means of prevention is to cleanse and 
 brush the teeth so as to remove all causes of decay. The 
 process of brushing is apparently a very simple one, but to 
 
194 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 make it really effective medical inspectors have developed 
 a careful technique in the matter and in many schools tooth- 
 brush drills are given as class exercises. The following is a 
 procedure recommended in a recent book on the subject : 
 
 A small amount of precipitated chalk in the palm of one hand 
 
 Touch the chalk with a wet brush 
 
 Brush 
 
 1 up and down the inside of the lower front teeth 
 
 2 right and left side of the lower back teeth 
 
 3 inside of upper front teeth 
 
 4 right and left side of upper back teeth 
 
 5 outside of all teeth brushing up and down 
 
 Brush the teeth at night and rinse the mouth night and morning 
 with a teaspoonful of table salt dissolved in a tumbler of warm 
 water.^ 
 
 Malnutrition. This is another of the major causes of 
 dullness. The human body is normally a self-starting, self- 
 running, self-regulating, self-repairing, and at the same 
 time a growing machine. Physical defects in one way or 
 another interfere with these processes. The free-living 
 animal cell, in immediate contact with its environment, takes 
 therefrom a certain amount of organic substances and a 
 small quantity of inorganic salts as food. It also takes 
 oxygen. 
 
 Food is energy-producing fuel. Oxygen is an agent 
 of combustion. When the two are brought together the 
 product is energy. Now, the mechanism on which they 
 depend may not function properly. In a complex organism 
 like the human body, the cells are not in immediate contact 
 
 1 Newmayer : " Medical and Sanitary Inspection of Schools," op. cit., 
 p. 2 IS. 
 
Why Children Are Dull 195 
 
 with food and oxygen. These must be brought to the 
 cells of four kinds of tissue; the epithelial, representing all 
 coverings whether external or internal, the contractile, the 
 skeletal, and the nervous, or coordinating, tissues. Malnu- 
 trition may have its effect on any of them. The cells lying 
 far from the surface require a medium, blood and lymph, to 
 bring them food. But food as we know it is not found in 
 its simpler elements; the process of its transformation is 
 carried on in the digestive organs. This is preliminary to 
 assimilation through which the food elements become a 
 part of the various cells. 
 
 Malnutrition, therefore, may result from disorders of di- 
 gestion or from lack of assimilation. It may be due to an 
 insufficient amount of food, to a monotonous or unbalanced 
 diet, or to the use of improperly cooked food. It is usually, 
 but not necessarily, connected with poverty. The children 
 of the well-to-do may also suffer from it. There are statis- 
 tics extant to show that the number of school children af- 
 flicted may go as high as 30 per cent. It is believed, how- 
 ever, that this is much too high for a vast majority of the 
 schools. The per cent of cases reported from the list given 
 on page 185 is only 2.2. This would probably be much in- 
 creased in the congested districts. 
 
 Malnutrition and Dullness. But there can be no mis- 
 take that there is a close connection between malnutrition 
 and dullness. Dr. Warner found that of 100,000 London 
 school children whom he examined 28 per cent of the dull 
 pupils were undernourished and about the same per cent 
 of the under-nourished were dull. Macmillan and Bodine 
 found 54.6 per cent of 2,100 retarded children ill-nourished. 
 
 Rachitic Effects. Malnutrition may be evident in the 
 
196 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 muscular development or it may appear in the connective or 
 skeletal tissue and produce rickets. The skin is usually 
 pale and the body thin. This is not always the case, how- 
 ever. The rachitic effects are more clearly and unmistak- 
 ably manifest in bow-legs, knock-knees, pigeon breast, and 
 spinal curvature. 
 
 Spinal curvatures are of three forms : lateral to either side 
 and outward and inward. The posture which children must 
 assume at school desks unsuited to them accentuates the de- 
 fect. Some are predisposed to some form of curvature on 
 account of malnutrition before they appear at school. 
 The teacher should aim to discover this kind of defect as 
 soon as possible. If it is in a mild form care should be 
 taken to adjust the desk to the size of the pupil. If the 
 case is a marked one it should be referred to the school 
 physician. As a matter of 'course all the seats in the school- 
 room should be adjusted to the size of the children, only, 
 in the cases of spinal defects, it becomes all the more im- 
 perative. 
 
 School Feeding. The milder effects of malnutrition are 
 general lassitude, dullness of mind and expression, nervous- 
 ness, lack of energy and endurance, shortness of breath, and 
 listlessness. The work of the school is almost entirely 
 wasted on such children. In case it is due to insufficient 
 or unsuitable food, school feeding becomes a justifiable 
 measure of economy. This is by no means a new idea, for 
 the feeding of school children began on the continent of 
 Europe as early as 1790, and was introduced into English 
 territory when Victor Hugo, for the time being an exile 
 in the island of Guernsey, provided warm meals in his house 
 for the children of a school near by. In America the date 
 
Why Children Are Dull 197 
 
 of its beginning was 1855 when the Children's Aid Society 
 of New York City began to furnish free lunches for the 
 children of the industrial schools. The movement has be- 
 come national in scope in all the principal countries of Eu- 
 rope, including Finland and Russia. It was first a private 
 benefaction, then it became an object of charity organiza- 
 tions, and finally in many cities the work vv^as made a part 
 of the public educational organization. In most of the 
 cities in the United States the boards of education pay for 
 the equipment of school lunch rooms out of the public 
 funds, but do not provide food. This is undertaken by 
 civics leagues, women's clubs, mothers' clubs, or other volun- 
 tary organizations. 
 
 In 19 1 3 the school lunch had been introduced in thirty of 
 the cities of the country. In the state of Minnesota the 
 principle has been extended to the rural schools through 
 plans promoted by the Agricultural Division of the Uni- 
 versity of Minnesota. In the rural districts children usually 
 take cold lunches to school to eat them alone and without 
 order or ceremony. The new movement has made its be- 
 ginning with the simple equipment of a top to an ordinary 
 heating stove on which food can be cooked or warmed. 
 Providing a fuller equipment would require only a little co- 
 operation between the school's manual training and domestic 
 science departments. 
 
 Besides supplying well-cooked food which is necessary 
 to do good work in the school, lunch, whether supplied by 
 the city or the rural school, affords exceptional educational 
 opportunities. Not alone is there value in the actual work 
 of preparing and serving it, but the whole procedure gives 
 opportunity for the study of food values and habituation to 
 
198 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 table manners and etiquette. This is an excellent method of 
 establishing proper ideals of home life in the minds of chil- 
 dren who in many instances would have little opportunity 
 to learn elsewhere. Besides, it is a way of influencing them 
 directly and at once in improved methods of living.^ 
 
 Relieving malnutrition due to insufficient or unsuitable 
 food by means of school lunches has justified itself in the 
 improved physical condition of the children for whom it was 
 intended, in better school work, and in improved behavior. 
 Indirecdy, it has proved a means of social culture for all 
 the children. 
 
 Impoverished Blood — Anaemia. Although digestive 
 disturbances and a poor appetite are nearly always among 
 the symptoms of anaemia, it is held that this is a disease or 
 defect of the circulatory rather than of the digestive system. 
 Its immediate cause is a deficient proportion of red cor- 
 puscles. It is in these that the hemoglobin carry the oxygen 
 supply from the lungs to the cells of the body and brain. 
 The digestive system prepares the nutrient substance. This 
 is absorbed by the capillaries in the walls of the stomach 
 and intestines and carried by certain veins to the right 
 auricle of the heart.^ From there it passes to the lungs for 
 oxygen. Now if there is a deficiency in the hemoglobin 
 content of the blood, in the proportion of the red corpus- 
 cles, an insufficient supply of oxygen is provided for 
 the proper combustion of the energy-producing nutrient 
 fuel. 
 
 1 Bryant : " School Feeding," Phila., 1914, J. B. Lippincott and Com- 
 pany. 
 
 2 Kimber : " Anatomy and Physiology for Nurses," The Macmillan 
 Company, New York, 1910, Chap. VIII. 
 
Why Children Are Dull 199 
 
 In a cubic millimeter of the blood there are on an average 
 5,000,000 red and 7,000 white corpuscles. The number of 
 white varies normally much more than that of red. The 
 proportion of the white to the red is from i to 250 up to 
 I to 1,000. Sixty per cent of normal hemoglobin content 
 is the lowest limit in health. In the more serious degrees 
 of anaemia this may go down to thirty per cent. It is the 
 function of the white corpuscles, it will be remembered, to 
 kill bacteria ; they do this by generating a defensive proteid, 
 and by virtue of their power of spontaneous movement they 
 creep around bacteria, envelop, and " devour " them. The 
 diagnosis of anaemia requires blood tests which a competent 
 physician can make without pain or inconvenience to the 
 patient. 
 
 Anaemia and Dullness. The anaemic child is incapable 
 of sustained effort. Its small store of energy is soon de- 
 pleted and the school work done goes forward slowly and 
 on a low level of efficiency. Open air conditions in nearly 
 all cases bring about much improvement in the vigor and 
 alertness of this type of child. 
 
 Sense Defects. While in the infectious diseases there is 
 as little primary connection between any two as the species 
 of bacteria causing them are distinct and unrelated, in the 
 case of physical defects thus far considered there seems to 
 be a close relation. With adenoids are to be found symp- 
 toms of malnutrition and rickets, with defective teeth mal- 
 nutrition, with enlarged cervical glands, adenoids, with all 
 obstruction in the nose and throat, defective hearing. All 
 the physical defects seem rather closely correlated except 
 diseases of the eye. Defects of vision are not, like those of 
 hearing, a result of these constitutional disorders, they are 
 
200 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 rather to be classed with disturbances of a nervous charac- 
 ter but not such as predispose to mental dullness. 
 
 That there is nothing in the mind that was not before in 
 the sense is an old pedagogical dictum that makes sense de- 
 fects an obvious cause of mistaken impressions from the 
 external world. When the senses give no reports, or wrong 
 reports, of the environment, the mind must be poorly or 
 imperfectly furnished. Considering the number of children 
 affected, weakness of hearing and vision form two of the 
 most important defects in school children. 
 
 Hearing. In certain respects hearing, however, is of 
 higher educational value than certain other senses, at least 
 impaired hearing is a greater hindrance to educational prog- 
 ress for the reason that the highly valuable agency of 
 language is interfered with. And deafness means social 
 isolation, to a large extent, with its consequent psychic 
 effects. 
 
 From the statistics gathered by investigators, it is as- 
 sumed that from lo to 20 per cent of school children have 
 defective hearing to some degree. About half the cases 
 are due to heredity. The other half are usually the conse- 
 quences of one or another of the well-known infectious dis- 
 eases and the equally well-known defects of the nose and 
 throat. 
 
 Hearing Test. The most generally approved test for 
 hearing is the whispering test, the examiner using his re- 
 sidual air to produce the whisper. The pupil examined 
 stands with his back to the examiner and 20 feet away while 
 an assistant closes each of the pupil's ears in succession by 
 pressing his finger firmly on the tragus. If the whisper is 
 inaudible to the pupil, the voice of the examiner will be 
 
Why Children Are Dull 201 
 
 raised to a forced whisper, to ordinary voice, or to loud 
 voice, as may be necessary.^ 
 
 Impaired Hearing and Dullness. The relation of im- 
 paired hearing to dullness is shown by the results of investi- 
 gations made. The proportion of partially deaf children in 
 the schools of Camden, New Jersey,^ was found to be 50 
 per cent greater among those retarded than among those 
 who were up to grade. Of 5,005 Philadelphia school chil- 
 dren 3,587 who were excused from final examination on 
 the basis of good work had defects of hearing only half as 
 frequently as the 1,418 non-exempt. These are selected 
 and representative statistics of many that are available and 
 they indicate what is naturally to be inferred, that retarda- 
 tion is closely related to defects of hearing. 
 
 Symptoms of Defective Hearing. The symptoms of 
 defective hearing in children are unmistakable. As it is 
 often accompanied by obstructed breathing, it is character- 
 ized by the facial expression that goes with that ailment. 
 The voice is characteristic usually in the most severe cases. 
 In children there is much wandering of attention because 
 they are not in full mental connection with what goes on. 
 Speech is imperfect because imperfectly heard forms are 
 accepted as correct and used. 
 
 About the only immediate help a teacher can give a pupil 
 who is hard of hearing is to seat him advantageously. By 
 far the most common of the acute diseases of the ear is 
 inflammation of the middle ear. When ear trouble is of 
 
 1 This follows paragraph 39, General Order No. 66, U. S. Rules 
 for the Physical Examination of Recruits, quoted by Rosenau : " Pre- 
 ventive Medicine and Hygiene," op. cit., p. 1194. 
 
 2 Terman : " Hygiene of the School Child," p. 224. 
 
202 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 long standing it is usually very difficult to cure. It is im- 
 perative that a child afflicted in this way be sent as soon as 
 possible to a specialist for diagnosis and treatment. 
 
 Vision. The states of Connecticut, Vermont, Colorado, 
 and Massachusetts recjuire teachers to examine the eyes of 
 the pupils. Vermont and Massachusetts include tests for 
 hearing in the requirement. In 552 cities in the United 
 States vision and hearing tests are given by the teachers. 
 The formal regulations are usually printed with detailed 
 instructions as to the method of procedure. Test cards are 
 provided and it is claimed by authorities that teachers not 
 only can but that they should do this work, for they should 
 have this means of learning something about the vision of 
 pupils. However, the card tests must be regarded as pre- 
 liminary with those having defects. They must be advised 
 to consult competent specialists. On the other hand, if the 
 card tests are to decide finally, many a pupil will seem to 
 have perfect vision with their use and go on suffering with 
 headache and other nervous symptoms. Newmayer claims 
 that it is almost impossible to diagnose the kind of ametro- 
 pia present except when the child is under a mydriatic and 
 the oculist uses instruments of precision, such as the retino- 
 scope and the ophthalmoscope. " Under skilled examina- 
 tions the hyperopes (far-sighted) ^ vary from 75 to 85 per 
 cent of the defects found." That is, near-sight is not as 
 common as was supposed, for it averages less than 20 per 
 cent of the defects diagnosed. Of 3,397 children examined 
 under a mydriatic, Wessells found 70 per cent hyperopic, 12 
 per cent myopic (near-sighted), 9 per cent with mixed astig- 
 
 1 Newmayer : " Medical and Sanitary Inspection of Schools," op. cit., 
 p. 186. 
 
Why Children Are Dull 203 
 
 matism (refractive error due to unequal curvature of the 
 eye), and 9 per cent anisometropic (eyes differing in kind 
 of refractive error) } Available statistics indicate that 10 to 
 30 per cent of the children in school have defective vision. 
 In a class of forty children one might therefore expect to 
 find from four to twelve pupils with corrected or uncor- 
 rected vision. Vision is commonly tested by the Snellen 
 test card. This can be purchased at 'trifling expense. The 
 lines of letters of different size are marked to be read at 
 distances of 20, 30, 40, etc., feet. The child does not face 
 the light. One eye is tested at a time while the other is 
 covered with a piece of cardboard. Ability to read a ma- 
 jority of the letters is accepted as satisfactory. 
 
 Symptoms of Eye Strain. Newmayer regards the ordi- 
 nary method of observing signs and symptoms of eye-strain 
 as fairly reliable for any one not trained in the use of 
 instruments of precision. The following is a list of the 
 symptoms that an observant teacher, by her continuous 
 presence with the pupils at work, can readily discover : — 
 Squinting; wrinkling of the forehead; peculiar head pos- 
 tures; holding book near the eyes; headaches in the front, 
 temples, or base of the head ; nausea, especially when riding 
 in the cars; twitching of muscles of the forehead or face 
 resembling chorea; difficulty in reading from the black- 
 board; congested eyes; sensitiveness to light; holding book 
 farther from the eyes than is normal; blurring of letters; 
 double vision; deficiency in reading writing; lack of con- 
 centration. 
 
 Standard Size of Letters. The campaign against eye- 
 strain has resulted in the general acceptance of standards 
 1 Newmayer : op. cit. 
 
204 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 of type to be used in school books.^ The minimum standard 
 for the first year books is : 
 
 Size of type — 2.6 millimeters; 
 width of leading — 4.5 millimeters as 
 shown in this example. 
 
 For the second and third year : 
 
 Size — 2 millimeters; width of leading — 
 4 mm., as shown in this example. 
 
 For fourth year : 
 
 Size — 1.8 mm.; width of leading — -3.6 mm., as 
 here exemplified. 
 
 Conservation of Vision in School. There are many 
 more pupils with defective vision in the schools than there 
 are with defective hearing, although the deaf outnumber the 
 blind in the schools reported by the U. S. Commissioner of 
 Education. In the larger cities where the number seems to 
 justify the arrangement, those pupils who are not blind but 
 whose vision is so seriously impaired as to make them a spe- 
 cial problem in the regular classes, are taught together under 
 conditions specially favorable to the conservation of vision. 
 
 Speech Defects. These are to a considerable extent re- 
 lated to many of the defects already discussed. Certain of 
 the forms they may take are also closely connected with 
 nervousness. Palatal defects, if severe, such as cleft palate, 
 will be readily noticeable in speech. The expiring breath 
 which must be depended upon for the enunciation of the 
 
 iShaw : "School Hygiene," The Macmillan Company. New York, p. 178. 
 
Why Children Are Dull 205 
 
 sounds of language is diverted in the cavity of the cleft. 
 Correct speech is dependent upon normal conditions in lips, 
 teeth, tongue, palate, throat, nostrils, and nerve centers. 
 The most common of the speech defects found among school 
 children are hesitating speech, habitual carelessness in ren- 
 dering the speech sounds, stammering, of which lisping is 
 one of the forms, and stuttering. 
 
 In stammering the child is incapable of making certain 
 sounds correctly; for instance th is substituted for .y as in 
 the lisp, or k may take the place of sh. This defect is sug- 
 gestive of arrest of development from the time of the true 
 stammer, a period through which every child passes in the 
 early acquisition of speech. 
 
 On the other hand, the stutterer can pronounce all the 
 sounds, but not at all times. A sudden interruption of the 
 speech mechanism occurs at the beginning of words or ac- 
 cented syllables through a diversion of the available nervous 
 energy from the vocal and respiratory elements of speech to 
 accessory movements. In severe cases the misdirected 
 energy may overflow beyond these movements and affect 
 the whole body. A large proportion of the cases of stutter- 
 ing occur before the age of six and nearly all the remainder 
 before the age of fourteen. In a recent study of speech 
 defects among 89,057 school children of St. Louis, the grade 
 distribution of the lispers (stammerers) and stutterers was 
 as indicated in the following graph. Chart XIX, next page. 
 
 The total number of speech defectives among school chil- 
 dren from several extensive investigations range in America 
 from 2.2 to 2.8 per cent, 2.5 being a fair average. Of those 
 who stutter the range is from a little over a half per cent 
 to one and a half, with an average of about 0.9 per cent. 
 
2o6 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 CHART XIX 
 Grade Distribution of Lispers and Stutterers ^ 
 
 a.05fc 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3.0^ 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2.5^ 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2.0^ 
 
 ,---' 
 
 \\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1.5^ 
 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 s, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 ..\ 
 
 // 
 
 x\ 
 
 
 
 .^ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 1.0^ 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 <, 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 ^•^ 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 / 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
 
 \ 
 
 .\ 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ^'"^ 
 
 
 \^- 
 
 'i'/ 
 
 / 
 
 
 / 
 
 \, 
 
 
 ' 
 
 V 
 
 ^ 
 
 /" 
 
 \ 
 
 k 
 
 \ 
 
 
 / 
 
 • 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
 Gr.Kg. I II HI lY V VI VII VIII HS I U III lY 
 
 No. 
 Lispers Boys 852 Stutterers Boys 492 
 
 Lispers Girls 596 Stutterers 
 
 Girls 191 
 
 1 J. E. W. Wallin in G^rnd Rep. Supt. St. Louis Public Schools, 1916, 
 pp. 174-211. 
 
Why Children Are Dull 207 
 
 Speech Defects and Retardation. All the reports of 
 investigations agree that speech defects are closely corre- 
 lated ziith retardation. This is due to the fact that for a 
 considerable proportion of those afflicted the defect mani- 
 fested in speech is but one of many causes common to an 
 inferior heredity. In other cases the defect is aggravated 
 by a sensitive reaction to social experience, whatever its 
 cause may be; the child is often imitated and made self- 
 conscious of his difficulty. Teachers do not like to call on 
 those who stutter for in reciting in class they are almost 
 certain to exhibit the defect. This may create a laugh and 
 it invariably detracts the attention of the pupils from the 
 matter in hand. Hence the stutterer is to a large extent 
 cut off from full participation in the work of the school. 
 
 Cure of Speech Defect. Stuttering is curable in 80 per 
 cent of the cases. The percentage rises higher under the 
 most skillful treatment. Lisping is not so complicated as 
 stuttering and yields as a rule more readily to treatment in 
 the case of children who are otherwise normal. In the 
 larger cities the special classes or schools in which the chil- 
 dren can be kept all day have, it seems, proved the most suc- 
 cessful in curing the defect. Whether the defect can be 
 cured in any individual cases depends on the instructor, the 
 child, and the severity of the defect. In all cases of the 
 stammering or lisping type, the regular teacher can do much 
 by means of articulation drills, where special classes are 
 not available. Stuttering may have nervous complications 
 which are hard to reach. Affections due to it disappear 
 as soon as a cure takes place. 
 
 Mental Types of Stutterers. Two types of mental dis- 
 positions are recognized in those who stutter. There are 
 
2o8 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 those who exercise undue haste in speecli in an effort to side- 
 track the difficulty. They are active and alert minded, talk 
 much, and stutter at intervals. The other type is shy and 
 silent, repressing speech altogether as much as possible. 
 They avoid occasions that require speech, hence they become 
 unsociable and lonely, acquiring a disposition somewhat akin 
 to that of those who are cut off from social intercourse on 
 the passive side of speech through the loss of hearing. And 
 yet there is still another type, those who are perfectly normal 
 in all other respects and who would be readily curable with 
 proper drill in articulation along with a regulated breathing 
 such as every one who speaks normally exemplifies; a quick 
 inspiration is followed by slow expiration in regular uninter- 
 rupted speech, sufficient breath being taken in to support 
 and regulate the outflow in continuous speech. 
 
 Summary. The aims of education are to a certain ex- 
 tent defeated on the part of the child through 
 
 1. Communicable disease, on account of temporary in- 
 terruptions of school work and possible consequences in per- 
 manent impairment of sense organs or other powers. 
 
 2. Mental incompleteness, which involves all the degrees 
 of feeblemindedness and border line cases manifested by 
 extreme retardation. 
 
 3. Mental limitations due to physical defect. 
 
 4. Nervousness due to reflex irritation from physical de- 
 fects, of which defective vision is the clearest example. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 Original Assets of Character 
 
 By Way of Transition. In the light of what is to follow 
 the preceding chapters give a view of the conditions which 
 are preliminary to the teacher's success. Buildings and 
 grounds, for instance, are equipped and made sanitary, at- 
 tractive, and comfortable. If, to begin with, such primary 
 matters are not properly attended to, no blame can rest on 
 the teacher. Again, if a child is mentally deficient or suffers 
 from physical defects that hamper school progress, these 
 also are causes beyond the teacher's control. Now, how- 
 ever, in this and succeeding chapters, we come to a place 
 where the teacher assumes large responsibilities. 
 
 In the management of the school and the actual training 
 of the children the field of endeavor is peculiarly the teach- 
 er's own. In this, the proper work of the school, all other 
 appointees of the system, the superintendent and the board 
 of education with their numerous official helpers, the medi- 
 cal supervisors, and the janitors — the work of all of them 
 is only preliminary or accessory to the actual work done by 
 the teacher with the children. She may secure the advice 
 of friends, parents, principals, and others, consult books for 
 principles of guidance, but the final responsibility is her own. 
 
 Pupil Management. Having her pupils under daily ob- 
 servation, the teacher has a peculiar advantage in the study 
 of her work over practitioners in other professional fields. 
 
 209 
 
210 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 But pupil management is a difficult problem and school 
 government sometimes turns out to be teacher management 
 by the pupils. Just as in the home it may happen that 
 children have a shrewder sense of the gentle means of con- 
 trol over the parents than the parents have over the children. 
 
 The Child's Initial Equipment. As a means of exer- 
 cising a wise control over children, it is well to assume that 
 on their first appearance at school they bring a certain equip- 
 ment of powers. It is a reasonable and business-like pro- 
 cedure to take stock in a general way of what each child 
 c^n do before the school work begins. 
 
 In the first place, he brings an equipment of health which 
 must in no way be impaired. He has had much experience 
 in the exercise of the senses and is still fond of using these 
 natural avenues of information in regard to the qualities of 
 objects. He has learned the intricate mechanism of a lan- 
 guage and speaks probably in accordance with correct gram- 
 mar and with a nicety of pronunciation that is surprising 
 for one who is practically self-taught. All his attainments 
 have come to him with Httle conscious effort in his self- 
 instituted school of play. He has exercised a daring fancy 
 with the limited data derived from experience ever since he 
 heard his first story, thus bringing into being a rich imagi- 
 nary world of his own. We may well wonder whether he 
 will advance as rapidly with us in the school as he did 
 when by himself. 
 
 Furthermore, the child comes to school with a certain 
 degree of moral development. This fact it is also necessary 
 to take into account. The school is not the place to build 
 character out of nothing. It is the place to guide and form 
 the promising beginnings. If young children are not moral. 
 
Original Assets of Character 211 
 
 it is because they are unmoral, not immoral. If children 
 are old enough and are immoral, the public school is not the 
 place for them. Its function is not restorative in either 
 health or morals. It is neither a sanitarium nor a house of 
 correction. 
 
 But the school must preserve the moral as well as the 
 physical health. Without health, educational values are 
 lost and v^ithout morals they are perverted. But while 
 health, mind, and morals are separately conceivable, in real- 
 ity the mind acts as a unit. There is a hygiene of the men- 
 tal and the moral life. Also, the will takes part in an act 
 of thought as well as in emotional and physical control. 
 
 Accordingly, in the following pages artificial distinctions 
 between the moral and the other factors of the mind will as 
 far as possible be avoided, and the view will be maintained 
 that there is a hygiene of native impulses, of emotional con- 
 trol, and of mental and social development. 
 
 Original tendencies that are favorable to the development 
 of character are manifest in the child from the beginning. 
 That they may be stifled and perverted and bear evil fruit 
 is possible, but if opportunities are offered in time for their 
 exercise in the right direction they can produce only good 
 results. Signs of mental as well as physical health are mani- 
 fested by normally constituted children. They are naturally 
 endowed with tendencies that conserve mental integrity. 
 To recognize their value in the school and the home is a 
 measure of good management and economy. 
 
 The Impulse to Act. The normal child manifests an 
 active attitude.^ In early life the field of association, de- 
 
 1 Burnham : " Mental Health for School Children," Mental Hygiene, 
 Vol. II, January, 1918, pp. 19-22. 
 
212 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 liberation, and analysis is relatively limited; but the paths 
 to impression and response are wide open. Normal de- 
 velopment of the higher powers depends on normal exercise 
 of impression and response. Children come to school to do 
 things. Unless they are usefully employed they are likely 
 to get into mischief. The teacher should not regard this as 
 an indication that they are trying her patience or wish her 
 ill. They simply feel an abundance -of energy which seeks 
 expression. This condition is not to 'be confused with the 
 chronic nervousness to be described in another chapter. 
 There is here no abnormal alertness of a wavering attention. 
 To manifest an active attitude is consistent with the power 
 to concentrate attention upon any object of interest, whether 
 it be a bear-story or a ball. 
 
 The Impulse to Resist. This is also a form of activity 
 of the normal mind. It is indispensable to the moral life. 
 The sense of individuahty cannot round itself into form 
 without exercise of the powers of resistance. In early life 
 the impulse is a necessary means to learn the distinction 
 between the " me " and the '' not-me." In the moral char- 
 acter of adult life it makes clear the difference between 
 what one stands for and what he opposes. To stand for 
 something means to oppose something else. Men become 
 great through resistance to forces that hinder and oppose. 
 Without this impulse the issues of life become obscured and 
 personality becomes weak and colorless. 
 
 However, action is the normal result of the impulse. But 
 this may lead to extremes of conduct. The remedy still is 
 action, not inaction and repression, but action diverted from 
 the original cause of offense. The mother or teacher for 
 whom a child becomes violently agitated through opposition 
 
Original Assets of Character 213 
 
 to its wishes, does well to divert the attention to something 
 else that also requires resistant action. The school boy on 
 the playground who was kept from his chance at the swing 
 and therefore became very angry, did well to give vent to his 
 passion by climbing a pole. He relieved the tension by giv- 
 ing it an outlet through muscular action. Otherwise it 
 would have short-circuited and caused nervous strain. 
 
 The results of repression may be noted in the subdued and 
 morbidly sensitive bearing of children in whom every whim- 
 per of opposition is always immediately crushed by arbi- 
 trary force. Intense feelings harbored in silence produce' 
 unbalanced tendencies and maladjustments to the demands 
 of normal life. In adjusting differences between pupils, 
 or between the teacher and a pupil, the tension may be re- 
 lieved by talking the matter out together and thus arriving at 
 an understanding all around. Facing a situation frankly 
 and in an active way drains off the dead weight of inter- 
 fering repressed emotions and restores the power of normal 
 response. 
 
 Another favorable sign in children is the tendency to dis- 
 pel feelings of ill-zdll. The normal child lives so intensely 
 in the present that the emotions attendant upon experiences 
 are relatively discontinuous and short-lived. Young chil- 
 dren naturally live by the injunction, " Let not the sun go 
 down on your wrath." It is a matter of surprise and won- 
 derment among them to learn how long their elders can be 
 " mad " and pass without speaking. It is known that chil- 
 dren note and talk about quarrels of long standing and in 
 time come to admire the attitude and try hard to imitate it 
 as a sign of strength of character. When children quarrel 
 in school, and it is not necessarily a bad sign if they do, the 
 
214 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 teacher should look for opportunities to have them meet in 
 common play or work in such a way that the disturbed feel- 
 ings will soon be dissipated. Signs of coolness and dissen- 
 sion between their teachers in the same room or building 
 are likely to be harmfully suggestive. 
 
 The impulse to render service is commonly manifested by 
 children of school age. They delight in activities that are 
 of value to the teacher or the school. The tendency is so 
 strong that asking a child to do something, run an errand, 
 open or close a window, take care of a plant, or assist the 
 teacher in other ways, has the effect of bestowing a reward 
 for good behavior. The service is free and voluntary, and 
 to be valuable this must be so. The greatest service that 
 has ever come to humanity was ever rendered without 
 money and without price. Children should have opportuni- 
 ties to give expression to this impulse so that it may not be 
 an unknown experience in later life. The commercial in- 
 terest will come soon enough, without anticipations and 
 promptings through money rewards often given in the home 
 for a trifling service. It is a part of the training in citizen- 
 ship to learn to think of political service to the country as of 
 a kind that is fundamentally a free-will offering and not an 
 opportunity to make money. It should be an experience 
 not unknown to the child in relation to the home and the 
 school before the duties of citizenship are formally assumed. 
 
 The impulse to take the initiative and assume respofisibil- 
 ity is another sign of mental health. If the teacher and 
 parent would have the character of the child develop in a 
 normal way this impulse must not be repressed. There is 
 no trait more common nor more interesting in young chil- 
 dren than their purposeful readiness to act. They are al- 
 
Original Assets of Character 215 
 
 ways willing to go ahead and produce results and eager to 
 accept responsibility for them. When anything is to be 
 undertaken to do the parent hears the insistent " Let me " 
 and when it is finished and the results can be exhibited the 
 satisfied ego says, '' I did that." The few scrawls that 
 represent a drawing that perhaps an artist would hesitate to 
 undertake are handed around with admirable assurance and 
 without a commentary of excuses on account of the diffi- 
 culties of the subject. 
 
 Clearly as w^e recognize this characteristic of childhood, 
 just so certainly do we witness its gradual disappearance in 
 the years of school life. The child becomes a part of the 
 school machinery, lessons are assigned, tasks are imposed, 
 and a routine is established that makes no allowance for a 
 child's initiative and tends to reduce all individualities to a 
 common level. Some children become so habituated to 
 having others plan their activities that they become uncertain 
 of means to ends and awkward in the use of means decided 
 upon. The school experience often establishes an attitude 
 of concern about the consequences to the self and self-con- 
 scious incompetence leads to an unwillingness to assume re- 
 sponsibility for any undertaking. On the other hand, to 
 induce a self-conscious feeling of superiority through re- 
 peated comment on a child's excellence in his presence is also 
 an unfavorable result of school training. The child should 
 not get into the habit of comparing himself with other 
 children. It is better to direct the mind to results achieved 
 or to be achieved than to contemplation of the personal quaH- 
 ties of the self. 
 
 It is a normal impulse of children to seek companionship 
 with those of their own age. At first it is an expedient to 
 
2i6 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 further the play activity. To play alone makes demands of 
 imaginative powers that some children do not possess. The 
 only child, or the only small child in a family, may supply 
 an imaginary companion for a real one which circumstances 
 have denied him. But all normal children seem to prefer a 
 playmate in flesh and blood. They like to go to school be- 
 cause of the other children, like to read books about children 
 of their own age in their own or other lands. There is no 
 better means of all-around character development than is 
 offered by association in free play at school. Here if the 
 teacher remains somewhat in the background the give and 
 take of strenuous play will weaken conventional inhibi- 
 tions and all kinds of impulses will come to the surface. 
 Along with free activity comes exercise of judgment of how 
 to act and how to resist aggression, and primary lessons of 
 justice taught by the reactions of the group to unworthy 
 conduct induce a growing sense of moral responsibility. 
 
 In the course of time there develops a strong desire for 
 the approval of the group. If a child manifests a feeling 
 of aloofness from a sense of intellectual or social superiority, 
 we have an unpromising symptom. This is not a normal 
 tendency; an aristocratic feeling must be artificially im- 
 planted by parents, it is not a natural growth. When the 
 higher plane of development has been reached, the approval 
 of the group will serve the needs of government and disci- 
 pline just as public opinion in the larger sense controls the 
 destinies of a free state. And the capable manager of a 
 school will make use of it, will not violate the child's sense 
 of justice and fair play by unreasonable and arbitrary de- 
 cisions in regard to the conduct of any pupil. 
 
 Out of the impulse to seek companionship comes also the 
 
Original Assets of Character 217 
 
 desire to cooperate for any common good. When children 
 have learned how to play together they will also know how 
 to work together. They will learn to be leaders and fol- 
 lowers. Since in companionship the impulse is to be with 
 those of their own age, it is best if their teachers do not act 
 as leaders among them. This principle controls in the kin- 
 dergarten where the director plays as one of their number. 
 As the children grow older the teacher should withdraw 
 more and more into the background and let them as far as 
 possible plan and carry out their own enterprises. In the 
 higher grades the pride of the group in matters of honor 
 or achievement becomes a strong force in discipline. And 
 this is training in democracy and community life. It is a 
 way to nourish the growth of social ideals which in mature 
 life will demand the best attainable for the city, the state, 
 and the nation. 
 
 The natural hunger of the senses is one of the forces of 
 training that, strange to say, is often forgotten. The ordi- 
 nary schoolroom offers little satisfaction to the eager curi- 
 osity of the child. It is bare of real objects. There are a 
 few books and maps and perhaps pictures but these are ab- 
 stractions compared with growing, living things. When we 
 accept the view that there is nothing in the mind that was 
 not first in the senses, we can believe that empty-headedness 
 is demoralizing; for the too limited data of experience lead 
 to over-elaboration, which is a fruitful source of superstition 
 and of false and evil ideas of life. It also induces in chil- 
 dren a premature inward turn to the mind on the states of 
 the self. 
 
 " We believe it is not well for little children of six to be set down 
 in rows of wood and iron seats and bidden to fold their hands, face 
 
2i8 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 front, look at the teacher, wait for the teacher's direction, do noth- 
 ing except as the teacher bids them, and reduce themselves as 
 promptly as possible to a very close likeness to those wooden and 
 iron seats in which they sit." ^ 
 
 " Many teachers who believe that learning and doing go together 
 have put forth great efforts to make their schoolrooms veritable 
 laboratories in which the material and the tools used prove that 
 experimentation has an important place in all of their plans. One 
 of these wise teachers of first-grade children says that she wants 
 her children to know that the world is full of interesting things to 
 be done, and she wants them to be able to fill their time with good 
 work without the what and when always coming from somebody 
 else." 2 
 
 A desire to get on, to make appreciable progress, is an- 
 other normal sign. Children must feel that they are going 
 on or they will be oppressed by monotony. The younger 
 they are, the less can their attention sustain itself on minute 
 analysis. There must be signs of progress in the number of 
 pages covered and the succession of points considered. 
 When the teacher makes a reasonable adjustment to this 
 demand of the nature of her children she is not likely to 
 fall into the error of too slow and too thorough. There is 
 danger in the motto, '' Not how much but how well " as 
 related to young children in school. Years ago when this 
 was applied to teaching reading thoroughly for perfect ex- 
 pression and weeks and even months were spent on a teach- 
 er's favorite classic and her ideals of elocution, the time de- 
 voted to the subject was largely wasted and led to disgust for 
 the performance with no real gain in the power to use 
 
 1 In Report of Third Annual Meeting National Council of Primary 
 Education, Bulletin No. 26, 1918, U. S. Bureau of Education, pp. I3-I5- 
 
 2 Op. cit., p. 196. 
 
Original Assets of Character 219 
 
 books. There is a limit beyond which drill on a subject 
 will simply no longer " take " as shown by the fact that the 
 children will make the same errors over and over in spite 
 of the efforts of the overworked teacher. In errors in Eng- 
 lish, for instance, instead of harping on all the errors made 
 all the time, it is much better to take one at a time and thus 
 create the impression of going on from one to the next until 
 the whole matter is covered. 
 
 Among the older children there is a normal desire 
 for completed action, a mental satisfaction in feeling, 
 ''Well, that is done; now for something else." It is 
 undesirable to assign a lesson too long to com- 
 plete within the time allowed. And repeatedly to take the 
 same lesson over undermines the will to work. The lessons 
 have to be planned so that the unit assigned can be satis- 
 factorily covered. And when a lesson has been assigned it 
 is important that every pupil have an opportunity to render 
 a part in the final account, to take part in the concluding 
 act, the recitation or report. When children or even older 
 students are not called on to recite what they have learned, 
 they will not long be faithful to their studies. They like to 
 finish what they begin. In the higher grades a day may 
 pass without calling on some of the pupils, but this should 
 not happen below the seventh grade. 
 
 Closely related to the foregoing is a desire for residts 
 of a sensible kind. It is too much to expect that an ele- 
 mentary or high school pupil will act on the principle that 
 either learning or virtue is its own reward. They require 
 some tangible or visible evidence of success in their studies. 
 This may take the form of an exhibition of work done, a 
 certificate, a mark in the form of a grade, or some other 
 
220 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 token. It is unnecessary to argue that this is a perfectly 
 normal trait, for the same rule holds in general of all per- 
 sons, old or young. All require some evidence of success 
 that is generally appreciable. The good that one gets out of 
 a course of study as a reward, regardless or in spite of the 
 marks received, is an ideal toward which all should strive; 
 but no teacher in any grade of school is justified in assum- 
 ing that it exists in any student. Even though a student 
 does not succeed, he desires some indication of the extent 
 of his success or failure. 
 
 The impulse to strive is a most marked and interesting 
 characteristic of childhood. It is a peculiarly human trait. 
 Heredity has fixed the extent to which animals may rise; 
 man has risen against the force of gravity and lifts his head 
 toward the stars. No one can predict the direction or 
 extent of man's future achievements. The impulse mani- 
 fests itself early, for instance, in the infant's strenuous ef- 
 forts to hold itself erect. These early steps in development 
 are the aspiring kind, not done to win over another nor to 
 gain honor or respect, but to outdo a former achievement. 
 Although no moral motives are attributable to it, this high- 
 est form of striving is common among children. As beat- 
 ing one's own record is a high form of striving, emulation 
 simply to win over some perhaps hated rival is a low and un- 
 social form of the same impulse. Ambition, '' the last in- 
 firmity of noble minds," in which social approval is the 
 satisfaction sought is also lower than aspiration purely for 
 personal excellence. This is the ideal that must be held 
 uppermost in school life. It will not be necessary to try 
 to do away with all rivalry. Competition is a wholesome 
 stimulus in play and work. However, striving should have 
 
Original Assets of Character 221 
 
 its final illustration in the effort to improve one's own record. 
 
 It is familiar to all how well athletic games foster the im- 
 pulse to strive and how little strenuous effort ordinary men- 
 tal work in school calls forth. This should all be changed. 
 There should be contests in skill, powers of analysis, and 
 endurance in the intellectual field as well as in the physical. 
 If there were goals set in the effort to sit still and concen- 
 trate attention to a chapter in a difficult book, the young 
 mind would be eager to respond. It is seldom that one 
 hears a teacher tell children how they shall treat their minds 
 to make them grow strong and how they may dissipate their 
 energies. But this is just as much in place as to tell them 
 how to make their bodies strong. If definite goals adjusted 
 to their stage of advancement are set in the mental field 
 they will take pleasure in striving to reach them. And 
 there will be no more danger of overstrain than in physical 
 games, because in intellectual striving the impulse is also a 
 natural one and a sign of healthy functioning. 
 
 The Direction of Development. In all the normal ten- 
 dencies enumerated in this chapter growth- is by activity 
 from within outward. This is true whether the goal of 
 effort is physical or mental, whether the exercise is a foot- 
 race or a spelling-match. In either type of exercise, whether 
 it be a test of mind or body strength, the attention is focused 
 beyond the self; it absorbs the powers of the self, is not 
 divided between the self and another object. There is no 
 clearer picture of the healthy functioning of the mental 
 powers than the activities of a normal child of pre-school 
 age. It is the part of school management to foster develop- 
 ment in the same direction as the child continues its progress 
 through the grades. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Problem of the Emotions 
 
 Study of the Emotions. The emotional Hfe is the 
 fundamental determiner of character. We differ from one 
 another in the number and variety of emotional responses, 
 in their strength, and in the objects which are capable of 
 arousing them. This is where lie the more striking as well 
 as the finer shades of difference between individuals. A 
 study of this difference in school children is within the 
 peculiar province of school management. The grades of 
 intelligence determine the curriculum and the methods of 
 teaching; a knowledge of the emotional character of the 
 children is the means of solving the problems of constructive 
 discipline. 
 
 This is a difficult subject and there are no general rules 
 of procedure. In dealing with children the teacher has, 
 however, one advantage; they are as yet plastic and their 
 emotional life is not covered up with a mass of social inhi- 
 bitions which grow with age. But, on second thought, this 
 is only relatively true. Children of the same age will re- 
 veal different degrees of the power of self-control. As they 
 come to school on the first day they will respond in various 
 ways to the new- situation. As time wears on and the 
 feeling of familiarity with the surroundings weakens the 
 acquired inhibitions of behavior, more marked differences 
 
 222 
 
Problem of the Emotions 223 
 
 will appear and new qualities of character will emerge. 
 Some habitually show a tendency to think before they make 
 a decision while others are impulsive. Some like to be con- 
 spicuous, others do not care to shine. Some profit by the 
 mistakes they make, others repeat the same errors. Some 
 are always eager to learn more, others are self-satisfied. 
 Some seem self-possessed, generous, sympathetic, respect- 
 ful, interested in their work, while others may be self-con- 
 scious, self-willed, morose, or they may exhibit other marked 
 characteristics. 
 
 But however varied these manifestations may be, it is 
 important to have in each child an emotive basis. The 
 work of the school can be efifective only when it can be made 
 to spring from within, from the inner driving power of 
 desire to be and to do. Many a child outwardly unpromis- 
 ing may be touched with an enthusiasm for high ideals. 
 Strong emotions if not under control may be inconvenient 
 and hard to manage in a schoolroom, but it should be borne 
 in mind that the great achievements of the human race do 
 not issue from a shallow emotional life. Much depends 
 upon the impulses from within. These must first be pres- 
 ent and then put under control by being directed upon a 
 proper object. Given a capacity for emotions in any child, 
 we can assume a source of power which will impel all the 
 activities of the self. When not so excessive as to cloud the 
 consciousness, emotions are individualizing processes ; the 
 ego is always sure of itself; it always knows who loves or 
 hates or hopes or fears, and usually the object is equally 
 clear. School management means providing opportunities 
 for the self to become engaged with proper objects. When 
 it repeatedly succeeds in this, the emotions are cultivated and 
 
224 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 character is formed. This is fundamental to the aim of 
 education; it is to the hfe of the spirit what health is to the 
 body. 
 
 Personal Reactions. Whatever characteristics children may re- 
 veal, it is to be assumed that teachers are not to be governed by 
 their own personal reactions to the behavior of the pupils. The 
 question whether one form of conduct or another is desirable de- 
 pends on its effect on the child's own development and that of other 
 children. Nothing is forbidden by the teacher because " I do not 
 like it " but because society has thrown restraints on certain forms 
 of conduct. One must not get the illusion that only the pupils who 
 are personally agreeable will profit by the opportunities the school 
 affords. A teacher should strive to inspire enthusiasm for the 
 work of the school rather than devotion to herself. On the pupil's 
 side, however, personal reactions will control conduct. A liking 
 for the teacher and the subject-matter are affections that cannot 
 be sundered. Especially in the lower grades, the teacher will be 
 loved, imitated, and idealized. Her enthusiasms will be catching, 
 and the pupils will follow in her the mere appearance of activity 
 and diligence. 
 
 Rational Attitude to Behavior. Instead of reacting to pupils in 
 a personal way as if they were adults, the teacher takes a rational 
 attitude to immature behavior. She remembers that the nervous 
 system of children is normally in somewhat unstable equilibrium, 
 that there are unbalancing forces within and everywhere around, 
 that conduct although " three- fourths of life " is the most difficult 
 art for old and young, that in their striving to be, children are 
 often awkw^ard and sometimes seem vicious, that they must grow 
 gradually into a unity of control of mind and body, and that the 
 keynote of modern school management as of hygiene is to build 
 up as far as possible the powers of resistance against evil rather 
 than to study the methods of cure. 
 
 Continuity of Emotion. Emotional reactions tend to be 
 continuous in their effects after the experience v^hich called 
 
Problem of the Emotions 225 
 
 them forth has passed away or is forgotten. Thus a past 
 state of mind may extend into the present and put one in a 
 mood favorable to the task of the hour or it may be a dis- 
 turbing force and lower efficiency. Children may come to 
 school in a state of agitation caused by some harrowing 
 experience at home. The teacher herself may bring into the 
 schoolroom a feeling of dejection caused by something in no 
 way connected with the work at hand. To throw off in- 
 fluences that are unfavorable to the needs of the hour is an 
 exercise of self-control which the teacher should be the first 
 to exemplify, for the good of her own work and to prevent 
 the spread of the mood by suggestion to the children in her 
 care. 
 
 This same principle is also illustrated in the emotional factor of 
 " mental set." The attention focuses gradually before it becomes 
 fully adjusted to an object of thought. Then the frame of adjust- 
 ment tends to continue its state in the presence of new matter. 
 This suggests that a quick transition from one subject of study to 
 another would be somewhat disturbing. One cannot, for instance, 
 leave an absorbing problem in arithmetic and at once take up a 
 piece of literature for immediate appreciation. Poets recognize 
 this principle of emotional inertia when they induce the proper 
 mood for the main substance of a poem by means of an introduc- 
 tory setting, or atmosphere. On the same principle it is possible 
 to ask thought questions in too rapid succession, especially when 
 the connection between them is not close. 
 
 Affective Displacement. Since emotion tends to be 
 continuous, when it is restrained it is often simply diverted 
 or displaced. A boy on coming to boarding school became 
 homesick at once. When asked whether he liked the place, 
 he pointed to clouds in the sky beyond his window, whim- 
 pering, '' I don't like those clouds out there." The boy 
 
226 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 ascribed his feeling to the clouds, suppressing the idea that 
 he was homesick. This illustrates the well-known fact that 
 unpleasant emotional effects are referred to what is not their 
 real cause. Disagreeable emotions due to failure in school 
 work are attributed to the teacher or anything else related 
 to the school, the subconscious assumption being that the self 
 is not at fault. Instead of applying himself to the task, the 
 pupil will make various excuses ; he does not know how, the 
 teacher has favorites, there is not enough time, the books are 
 not satisfactory, etc. On the other hand, if the child suc- 
 ceeds everything else is satisfactory. Success in one thing 
 will often make other studies endurable. It is a good prin- 
 ciple to make sure of interesting a child in at least one of the 
 activities of the school; it may be constructive work, ath- 
 letic games, nature study, dravving, or some other study. 
 In time the interest will spread to all that pertains to the 
 school. 
 
 The Unwilling Pupil. If a child cannot find anything 
 in school that is satisfying, nothing will be done with the 
 will to succeed. An unfavorable attitude is set up. With 
 some children matters grow worse as the weeks pass. They 
 go to school because they have to. They are slow to learn, 
 know it, have no regrets, and are always impatient for re- 
 lease from the hours of school work. They may have spirit 
 and be openly rebellious or they may be passive under the 
 yoke. They may actively resist education and use remark- 
 able ingenuity in making a safe escape from the work as- 
 signed. They look forward to holidays, try various schemes 
 to get away before the actual beginning of the vacation, 
 often ask to be excused early in the day because they are 
 " wanted at home," etc. If they could be led to acquire 
 
Problem of the Emotions 227 
 
 one absorbing interest in the school, there would be a com- 
 plete change. 
 
 Emotion and Object. Emotions are pleasant or un- 
 pleasant, simple or complex, exciting or depressive ; some are 
 more fundamental than others and appear outwardly more 
 powerful, some have a marked effect on organic functions. 
 But in themselves they are neither good nor bad. It is 
 good to hate a bad thing and it is bad to love a bad thing. 
 The proper objects of emotional regard are largely a matter 
 determined by our social inheritance, which every child may 
 learn of in the home, the school, the church, in customs, lan- 
 guage, literature, and art. 
 
 Development of Likes and Dislikes. In the home, the 
 school, and especially in the free activities of the playground 
 where many children of about the same age meet, there will 
 be opportunities for personal relations to bring out likes and 
 dislikes. An early conception of a bad boy is one who is 
 not nice to play with, who hurts you, or interferes with you. 
 This may be reenforced by standards of conduct that are 
 inculcated in the good home, as illustrated by a boy who 
 played in the home yard with a neighbor's lad of the same 
 age only so long as the boy from across the way used proper 
 language. Whenever he was tempted to use bad words his 
 companion stopped play at once, took him to the gate, and 
 bade him go home. In no other way than among children 
 of about the same age engaged in free play will standards 
 of conduct emerge more clearly for personal approval or dis- 
 approval. In this stage of development all ideals will exist 
 only as living embodiments. 
 
 Animals and Flowers. Children seem to recognize early 
 in life a kinship with flowers, and they look upon animals as 
 
228 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 friends and companions. They bring out emotions of a 
 kind that need to be aroused and exercised at an early age. 
 Normal children are never selfish with their pets and they 
 soon learn to endow flowers with the finest human qualities. 
 This is especially the case when they can have them for 
 their very own and are allowed to care and provide for them. 
 Thus opportunity is also afforded for exercise of the emo- 
 tions aroused, in outward action. The result of all this will 
 be an attitude of kindness to all animals and pity for the 
 weak and helpless before the deeper human sympathies make 
 their appearance. 
 
 Symbols. When children strive to rise to an ideal which 
 they cannot fully comprehend, their emotions at first attach 
 to its associates and symbols. The young boy desires to 
 be a policeman ; he does not comprehend a policeman's duties, 
 but he is charmed with the blue coat and bright buttons. 
 As he looks over the pages of a history he admires the gen- 
 eral with epaulets and gold lace rather than the statesman 
 in conventional dress. He likes to wear badges, medals, 
 and decorations on his manly breast. They are points of 
 attachment for his admiration until he can comprehend the 
 meaning back of them. 
 
 For young and old it may be impossible to grasp the 
 abstract idea of Our Country but they all thrill to the Flag. 
 The symbols of patriotism and religion have aroused in 
 many with only a vague idea of their meaning a devotion 
 that proved faithful unto death. The motive of symbols 
 and emblems has been widely used for educational purposes 
 and with satisfactory results. 
 
 Good and Evil. For most persons as well as for school 
 
Problem of the Emotions 229 
 
 children the ideas of good and evil must be embodied to 
 make them possible objects for the exercise of emotion. 
 Living characters serve the purpose more readily than those 
 that have passed into history. The latter must be recon- 
 structed and related to the present to make them appreciable. 
 This makes demands on the art of portrayal and the power 
 of interpretation. Moreover, the good, whether in con- 
 temporary life or in the past, is not so impressive as the 
 evil. Evil is exceptional, unexpected, spectacular, and sen- 
 sational. It excites the imagination of the young. It fas- 
 cinates the writer so that the villain of fiction becomes the 
 center of interest. Boys take to the bad habits of their 
 elders largely because they are so easy to imitate. Good 
 conduct, on the other hand, is in its nature rational, orderly, 
 restrained, according to law, predictable. When all the 
 characters of a stor}^ are good, it cannot command interest 
 throughout except as a matter of duty. Besides, to be true 
 to life, fiction must present both good and evil. 
 
 How can a child, or any one else, profit in the contempla- 
 tion of both kinds of character? Whether in life or in fic- 
 tion the process is the same. If the matter is presented in 
 such a light and so perceived that the good will be admired 
 and the evil condemned, the two contrary emotions will 
 have the same moral effect. And since one can see only 
 himself in any kind of character, since he can in no way 
 understand another person but by the measure of his own 
 experiences of the same general kind, what he comes to ad- 
 mire or condemn with all the force of his emotions is what 
 in his own life of a similar, not necessarily identical, nature 
 is admirable or damnable. Thus in the contemplation of 
 
230 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 the characters of literature and life, one nourishes the good 
 in himself by exalting it and purges away the evil by loath- 
 ing and disgust. 
 
 In the religious tradition the Great Exemplar represents 
 the devotee's ideas of infinite perfection, which without the 
 objective ideal would be more vaguely conceived and less 
 effectively striven after. In good or ill, the object loved 
 transforms the lover into its own image. 
 
 From the classic literature read in all the grades, which 
 has been preserved from oblivion by many generations of 
 readers, school children should derive proper attitudes to- 
 ward the good and evil impulses of life. 
 
 Emotional Excess. When judged by adult standards 
 children usually manifest a certain lack of emotional bal- 
 ance. Childhood is the normal period for the rise and de- 
 cline of the self -regarding emotions. In a normal develop- 
 ment under proper home and school influences, they are to 
 a certain extent outgrown just as physical weaknesses and 
 disproportions are outgrown. Usually individualistic ten- 
 dencies are so strong that they need little if any encourage- 
 ment. The '' spoiled child " has had its ego too much in- 
 dulged. It has been the center of interest at home for so 
 long a time that in school it manifests an expectant atti- 
 tude for all kinds of preferences and favors. This exag- 
 gerated self-feeling cannot be ruthlessly stamped out; it 
 must be gradually transformed. When this is not done in 
 early life, there will remain a settled self -contemplative ego- 
 ism for the maturer years that will cause its victim much 
 disappointment and sorrow. 
 
 When the ego-centric disposition takes the heroic and de- 
 fensive form, much might be said in its favor. Funda- 
 
Problem of the Emotions 231 
 
 mentally it is valuable as making for responsible behavior, 
 for backbone, for the will to be counted as an individual 
 against hosts of opponents if need be. But when exag- 
 gerated it means a watchful guarding of the precious self, a 
 suffering sensitiveness to all kinds of imagined slights and 
 affronts. The child looks for, waits for trouble, and usu- 
 ally finds it. 
 
 When this same tendency takes the aggressive form, the 
 child becomes a bully among his weaker playmates. The 
 little children are in constant dread of him. Presuming 
 upon his superior strength he goes about seeking those whom 
 his vanity can devour. If the smaller children do not obey 
 his commands, he hurts them by bending their fingers, twist- 
 ing their arms, pinching, and beating them, and threatens 
 them with dire harm if he meet them alone. In this form 
 of excess one is tempted more than anywhere else to think 
 of corporal punishment as the proper curative agency. If 
 the distemper does not yield to persuasion, it seems to pre- 
 sent a clear case where sparing the rod spoils the child. 
 
 The Law on Corporal Punishment. Sometimes children defy all 
 authority because they know that the courts protect them against 
 corporal punishment. The rules of the board may state that no 
 teacher shall administer this kind of chastisement upon any pupil 
 in the school, and there may be no special school for incorrigibles. 
 Or the law may read like that of the state of New Jersey: " No 
 principal, teacher, or other person employed in any capacity in any 
 school or educational institution, whether public or private, shall 
 inflict corporal punishment upon any pupil attending such school or 
 institution." Or if there is no specific law on the subject, the 
 courts may be known to class corporal punishment as assault and 
 battery committed by the teacher upon the pupil. This is not fa- 
 vorable to the best order and the highest efficiency of the schools. 
 
232 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 It is not intended here to advocate indiscriminate corporal punish- 
 ment, but it is not fair to the teacher to remove all doubt that it 
 will under any circumstances be inflicted. Enactments such as 
 that of the new state of Arizona do not withhold the power of 
 punishment from the teacher, only stating, however, that '' violence 
 to a person shall not constitute assault and battery in the exercise 
 of moderate restraint or correction given by law to parent over 
 child, guardian over ward, or teacher over pupil." The Montana 
 law reads, " After notice to parent, teacher may inflict corporal 
 punishment, but in case of flagrant defiance such punishment may 
 be inflicted without notice to parent." 
 
 A Study of Cases. When the law does not limit in ad- 
 vance the means of corrective discipline, there will be pos- 
 sible a range of consequences that may become very inter- 
 esting to the willful offender. However, every case should 
 be studied, if its disposition can be deferred. Waiting for a 
 long period of time in the teacher's office while an investiga- 
 tion is being made with the final decision in suspense, is an 
 experience that no juvenile culprit courts. Studying each 
 case separately also gives an impression of judicial fairness 
 and leaves the teacher blameless. But a child may have 
 grown so far in the wrong direction that to bring him back 
 without force may be a slow and impracticable process. For 
 instance, take this actual case reported by a teacher : 
 
 Boy in the eighth grade, fifteen years old, only boy in the family, 
 naturally bright, favored and spoiled in every way by father, 
 mother, and sisters until they lost complete control over him. If 
 denied any favor or privilege, he teased and coaxed, then became 
 so violent of temper that the family gave in to him to prevent his 
 doing them personal harm. In school he had, almost from the 
 first grade, been hard to control and as he grew older seemed more 
 determined to have his own way. When he reached the eighth 
 grade he had become openly defiant to authority and was con- 
 
Problem of the Emotions 233 
 
 stantly on the alert to cause trouble by assuming a noisy manner, 
 smiling scornfully at rebuke, or answering in an insolelnt manner, 
 making noises with his feet, hands, or mouth, talking in an under- 
 tone to himself or those around him and in every way distracting 
 the attention of the class from the work in hand. In the teacher's 
 efforts to control hm there was never at any time any support from 
 his home. 
 
 What is to be done in such a case? It might have a 
 sobering effect on the youth to learn that he was being 
 studied. Referring to a preceding chapter, one might fol- 
 low the classifications given there and by the method of 
 elimination find the trouble. Even though the boy passes 
 for bright, intelligence tests might be attempted by a psy- 
 chologist. If the average results do not indicate mental de- 
 ficiency, they may point to a decided lack of mental balance. 
 If there is any doubt an alienist might be called in consulta- 
 tion. One should suspect, from the symptoms given in the 
 description, moral imbecility. If not, his true place is in a 
 school for incorrigibles. To let him remain in an ordinary 
 school is an injustice to the teacher, a wrong to the other 
 pupils, and is not for his own good. If he must stay in 
 school and cannot be reached by gentler methods corporal 
 punishment seems the only recourse left. 
 
 There seems to be general agreement among authorities 
 on child training from the gentle Pestalozzi down to our 
 own time that there are extreme circumstances when the best 
 that can -happen to such a child is this kind of restraint. A 
 callous and headstrong disposition can at times be checked 
 in no other way. Without it the youth will continue to 
 live in a sort of romantic world of his own fashioning, 
 untrue to actual life. He needs opposition in the form of 
 
234 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 pain to reawaken in him a sense of the sober realities of 
 life. 
 
 But conduct arising from excessive timidity and a shrink- 
 ing sensitiveness should never receive any form of punish- 
 ment whatever except its own unavoidable consequences. 
 On the contrary the sense of personality must be fostered 
 and not crushed. It is the main ingredient of self-respect. 
 This must be jealously guarded. The wise teacher will not 
 violate it. She will not exact obedience for the sake of 
 obedience. Her attitude will be a constant recognition that 
 she is dealing with an individual with views and opinions 
 of his own. This will in turn arouse in the child a feeling 
 of responsibility for his reasonings as well as his conduct. 
 
 Excessive Fears. One of the common illusions of 
 adulthood is that children are care- free and happy and have 
 but a shallow emotional life. The sorrows of childhood 
 are real and that they may become serious is shown by the 
 fact that suicides among school children have not been un- 
 common in Germany, for instance, and are by no means 
 unknown in other lands, including our own. 
 
 It would not be desirable, even though it were possible, 
 to prevent all the griefs that come in childhood, for the pic- 
 tures that experience throws upon the screen of the soul 
 must have both light and dark shades. But the lives of 
 children of the emotional type are often made wretched by 
 harrowing fears. ^ It may be the fear of pain, of ridicule, 
 of humiliation, of the powers of nature, of wild animals, 
 the supernatural, death, everlasting punishment in a lake of 
 
 1 Hall : " A Synthetic Genetic Study of Fear," American Journal of 
 Psychology, Vol. XXV, pp. 149-200; 321-392. See especially Shock 
 and Pavor Nocturnus, p. I72ff. 
 
Problem of the Emotions 235 
 
 fire. From whatever cause there may be disastrous effects 
 on the mind and health. It is a well-known principle of 
 physiology that pleasurable emotions tend to quicken the 
 processes that are of advantage to the organism, while long- 
 continued distressing ones tend to interfere and arrest these 
 processes. Besides, violent emotional reaction in the young 
 tend to disturb the growing powers of association, causing 
 more or less permanent mental injury. " Much of the self- 
 consciousness, introspection, neurasthenia, hypochondriasis, 
 and hysteria which is noticeable in adults may be traced to 
 the effects of fear in early life." ^ 
 
 Children Conceal Their Fears. In many cases, perhaps 
 in nearly all of them, children keep their fears concealed, 
 giving no sign of their existence to others, for they have 
 learned that telling about them invites ridicule. Many 
 grown up persons recall to this day the objects o-f their child- 
 hood's fears and even still retain one or two '' favorite " 
 ones to which they give considerable attention. A glover's 
 sign in the shape of a huge hand is said to have terrified 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes. ^ Sir Walter Scott had a super- 
 stitious fear for statuary of all kinds. Miss Martineau 
 says : '' I was as timid a child as ever was born ; yet no- 
 body knew or could know the extent of this timidity; for 
 though abnormally open about everything else I was as 
 secret as the grave about this. I had a dream at four years 
 old which terrified me to such an excess that I cannot now 
 recall it without a beating of the heart. The horrors of my 
 nights were inexpressible." A magic lantern was her pet 
 
 1 Guthrie : " Functional Nervous Disorders in Childhood," Oxford 
 University Press, 1907, p. 38. 
 
 2 Guthrie: op. cit. 
 
236 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 terror. Charles Lamb says, " I never laid my head on my 
 pillow I suppose from the fourth to the seventh year of my 
 life, so far as my memory serves in things so long ago, 
 without an assurance, which realized its own prophecy, of 
 seeing some frightful specter." 
 
 Fear as a Means of Discipline. Fear of consequences 
 is nature's own regulator of conduct. It prevents the repe- 
 tition of harmful experiences. To this extent fear is a part 
 of the world's wisdom. As a means of discipline it is 
 harmful when exaggerated or when aroused by a figment of 
 the imagination. Parents tell their children of monsters 
 that will come and get them if they are not good. When 
 the parent pretends belief in such a being he only postpones 
 the real problem of discipline to the time when the child dis- 
 covers the deception. But there is another bad feature; 
 the parent suggests that a malevolent power is allied with 
 him against the child. If the effect of such a threat is suffi- 
 ciently strong to influence the child's conduct, it is probably 
 harmful; if there is no effect, it is useless. 
 
 When children are old enough to conceive its meaning, 
 fear of failure may be the monster that threatens them. 
 But this is a real danger in a school where honorable stand- 
 ards are observed. School is and ought to be just like real 
 life in this respect; neglect has its penalties everywhere. 
 There is nothing unnatural or harmful in a child's fear of an 
 examination which is not beyond its powers; it operates a 
 long time in advance and stimulates caution and systematic 
 preparation. To happy-go-lucky students who do not seek 
 an education but only a passing mark, this fear is indis- 
 pensable to success. Fear is dangerous, however, in any 
 case when it becomes excessive. It is uneconomical, too, 
 
Problem of the Emotions 237 
 
 when it unmans the student and beclouds his understanding. 
 Then the fear of failure becomes the cause of it. Some 
 children are very conscientious and only too sensitive to the 
 dangers that lie in wait for them. To play upon their fears 
 in aid of discipline either in the home or at school does more 
 harm than good. 
 
 From much fault-finding and scolding children become 
 fearful of the results of any work they may undertake. In 
 this attitude of mind they come to school as indifferent to 
 praise as they are sensitive to blame. Such children should 
 be taken in hand by the teachers and brought out of the 
 despair in which they live. 
 
 Cases reported: 
 
 A pupil was miklly reproved for neglecting to bring a dress she 
 had finished to school. She took it so to heart that she wept bit- 
 terly and could not meet the glance of the teacher for days. 
 
 A child could not be called on to recite without showing marked 
 signs of fear. She seemed afraid to be heard, although she knew 
 her lessons. The teacher investigated and found the home life 
 unpleasant. 
 
 High school girl, never hopeful, never gay, always looked on the 
 dark side of life. She was so sure she would not graduate that she 
 did not get her dress for the occasion until a few days before com- 
 mencement. Even after the principal told her she would get 
 through, she hesitated to believe it. 
 
 Fears Dissolved by Understanding. These children 
 came to school and continued there in constant fear of fail- 
 ure and expecting nothing else. To the teacher who investi- 
 gates, the causes in the home life of such a state of mind may 
 be clear enough, but the pupil herself is clearly conscious 
 only of the paralyzing effects. The unpleasant experiences 
 have continued for so long a time that, as is usual in such 
 
238 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 cases, the morbid sensitiveness takes a large place in the 
 consciousness and prevents an understanding of the whole 
 situation. 
 
 How can a teacher dissolve fears and reestablish confi- 
 dence in the pupil's self? By bringing about in the pupil 
 an understanding of the causes, conditions, and consequences 
 of these particular fears. The very fact that the children 
 suffer from this kind of neglect is an indication of their 
 craving for approval and sympathy. This suggests the first 
 step -to be taken to restore the pupil's confidence. After a 
 relation of sympathy has been established, the conversations 
 that follow will gradually reveal the causes of such a 
 state of mind. It will also become clear that the mind is 
 the more immediate cause and is itself to blame for the fear 
 of failure. Fear cannot exist, unless assented to and enter- 
 tained. It becomes a self-imposed obstacle to success; for 
 what success one has depends on how well he does his work 
 and not what some one else may say or think about it. 
 When fear becomes a hindrance it is unreasonable. It can 
 be overcome. One must believe it can be overcome and at 
 once assume the feeling of confidence. 
 
 If the younger children are unduly disturbed by excessive 
 fears, it is possible also to remove them by explanation and 
 understanding. In such a case the teacher or parent may 
 tell stories of her own childhood with its groundless fears, 
 of the cause of dreams on account of illness, of happy and 
 helpful fairies too little to be feared, of the cry of a ghost- 
 child heard in a near-by field that came from the old house- 
 cat, and other incidents that will make good stories and at 
 the same time show that there is no conspiracy of evil to 
 destroy innocent children. Young children may conceal 
 
Problem of the Emotions 239 
 
 their fears, but so long as there are no obvious disturbing 
 effects from them they can do no harm. It is good to 
 know something of fear for a proper fullness and balance of 
 the emotional life. 
 
 Anger. Another of the troublesome emotions encoun- 
 tered in the school and the home is anger. In many cases 
 this seizes upon a child and makes him lose control of him- 
 self. A very trifling matter may cause it. In general, the 
 child wants something and is hindered from getting it ; this 
 causes a welling up of the passion. It is an old and common 
 practice to still a child's rage by quickly thrusting a toy into 
 his hands. The object is to stop the crying, and it usually 
 succeeds. It may be explained as a diversion of the atten- 
 tion and the aroused emotion into a channel of a less dis- 
 turbing form of motor activity. In the schoolroom such 
 seizures may be diverted in the same way by quickly induc- 
 ing some other form of activity. If this does not succeed 
 the child should be taken out of the room until he has calmed 
 down, for it is better not to have a " scene " in the presence 
 of the other children who will lose their own composure by 
 it and come under its suggestive influence. 
 
 Violent outbursts of anger are always interesting. Chil- 
 dren look on in awe if there is any possible reason for fear, 
 or with growing amusement if the spectacle is often re- 
 peated and harmless in its consequences. A child may be 
 teased by playmates because they want to have some fun ; 
 they want to hear his eloquent profanity or see the play of 
 passion on his expressive countenance. The teacher may 
 also well bear in mind that if she herself can produce on oc- 
 casion a lively example of spectacular wrath, there will al- 
 ways be a few children who will be interested to see the 
 
240 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 performance repeated. There can be no doubt that per- 
 sons are teased for amusement, and that teasing stops when 
 amusement ceases. When a child is old enough and can be 
 brought to see its passion in all its course as others see it, 
 the emotional extravagance will come under the dominance 
 of the understanding and will gradually disappear. 
 
 As reported to the writer by the principal of a school for incor- 
 rigibles, a severe case of violent temper was relieved in the follow- 
 ing unusual way : the principal told the boy why he was committed 
 to his care, explaining that so long as he could not control his 
 anger he was handicapped for life. Then the principal said: "I 
 will now ask the other boys to make you mad and I hope to see 
 you do your best to control yourself. See, now, whether you can- 
 not be a man and master your temper regardless of what they may 
 say or do to you." The principal was present at the " trial." The 
 tempters made their plan and gathered in a group on one side of 
 the room and faced the boy. They improvised a taunting mimicry 
 of a member of the boy's race representing an organ grinder wath 
 a monkey. The boy's ire rose at once, his limbs trembled, his fists 
 doubled, his eyes blazed, he breathed hard, but he stood still — a 
 complete picture of the passion. But very soon he regained com- 
 posure and became calm. He won. The principal asserts that as 
 long as he knew^ the boy the fits of violence did not return. Always 
 afterward he was a good fellow. He came to know the passion, 
 " looked down " upon it, and controlled it. But the method used 
 cannot be generally recommended to all teachers. 
 
 Nervous Instability. Instead of a disturbance that af- 
 fects children only occasionally, but profoundly, there may 
 be a constant state of nervousness with a slow waste of en- 
 ergy going on day and night. This kind of child responds 
 to stimuli too readily, is over-alert, acts impulsively, is quick 
 to answer questions without taking time for orderly asso- 
 ciation. Instances of this type are to be found most fre- 
 
Problem of the Emotions 241 
 
 quently in crowded city districts. Sometimes a majority 
 of the class become afflicted with the disorder by suggestion 
 from a few. A vivacious teacher overstimulates them. In 
 response to a question they rise from their seats, wave their 
 hands, and snap their fingers for attention. Their answers 
 are Httle better than guesses. Sometimes these guesses are 
 right, and for a time the school work goes on like an inter- 
 esting game, a sort of gamble as to who will hit the mark 
 and win the approving smile. Mental effort is related solely 
 to discerning by surface signs what answers the teacher may 
 want. An exercise that represents profitable work can be 
 carried on for only a short time before interest lags and 
 attention wanders. 
 
 The disorder is sometimes associated with high intellec- 
 tual endowment, but stimulation of interest soon leads to 
 fatigue and reactions unfavorable to school work. It is also 
 indicative of inferior mental character as manifested by 
 flightiness of attention, poor memory, and weakness in the 
 power of abstraction. There is alv/ays a tendency to motor 
 restlessness, the child cannot sit still ; there is a tendency 
 to play, to bother somebody, to handle something. The ef- 
 fort to think is attended with difficulty; some sort of motor 
 support seems to be needed; to hold attention to the matter 
 under consideration, it becomes necessary to drum with the 
 fingers, to handle a pencil, to swing the feet, or to chew 
 gum. 
 
 Like symptoms may also be observed in normal children 
 on " off days " after exhausting social diversions. 
 
 Influence of the Teacher. What is to be done in such 
 cases? They are as puzzling to the school physician as to 
 the teacher. The influence of the teacher, however, is most 
 
242 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 important Since we know that a manifest disorder like this 
 may spread so that in time a whole class may by uncon- 
 scious imitation affect the mannerisms of a few, the principle 
 of suggestion may be relied upon to work also in the oppo- 
 site direction. The teacher must be the very opposite of 
 the nervous child. She must of all things not be nervous 
 herself. The child will gain by the teacher's calm and rest- 
 ful manner. She will be careful not to overstimulate. The 
 tempo of the recitation must not be too slow or too fast. 
 There must be a suggestion of order and calm in the sur- 
 roundings everywhere. The teacher will not become per- 
 sonal nor important and explosive in manner. She will not 
 wander away from the subject-matter. Everything done 
 must suggest the power of coordinated and unified action; 
 this the child lacks. The teacher must have perfect control 
 of herself first, and second, of the whole classroom situa- 
 tion. If the school cannot be a corrective influence in this 
 kind of disorder it is likely to do more harm than good, and 
 the child had better not go to school at all. The condition 
 should be relieved in any particular instance as soon as it 
 manifests itself, not alone for the sake of the victim but 
 also for the sake of those who are likely to come under its 
 influence. Nervous, fidgety children should be given an in- 
 conspicuous place in the room, rear seats, so that their antics 
 may not always be in view to affect the behavior of normal 
 children. 
 
 Excessive Inhibition. Stubbornness is sometimes ad- 
 mired as showing strength of will and character. This is 
 an error. It is not an active characteristic, not the result 
 of normal deliberation. Inhibition sets in before reflection 
 
Problem of the Emotions 243 
 
 begins. In its pure form the spell is not broken by a violent 
 outburst of emotion; it must wear itself away gradually. 
 Different methods of dispelling the disorder have been tried 
 by teachers. Corporal punishment has been resorted to, 
 but this is not at all a satisfactory way to cope with it. 
 A mild form of it may sometimes yield to reproof and a 
 show of authority on the part of the teacher. A severe 
 case of the kind reported by a teacher, was cured on the 
 principle of '' natural punishment." According to this 
 method the matter is so managed that the pupil will suffer 
 the natural consequences of his behavior. 
 
 Alice aged ii came from a home where conditions were bad. 
 She was always terribly beaten by a brutal father for the slightest 
 offenses. In school she one day suddenly decided to do nothing 
 required of her; kept her seat when others recited, refused to 
 answer when spoken to. She made herself a social oddity in the 
 school and the teacher decided to let her have all she wanted of her 
 assumed character. She was let alone. After some time the other 
 children became curious and asked the teacher why Alice did not 
 recite' with them. The teacher simply answered that Alice did not 
 want to. The children soon forgot about her in their activities 
 and also made up their games with Alice left out. In the mean- 
 time the teacher spoke kindly to the girl whenever there was occa- 
 sion for it, but in no way recognized her as a part of the school 
 life from which she had separated herself. One day Alice brought 
 the teacher a bouquet of flowers, but this made no difference in her 
 school status. Another day she came to the teacher and whis- 
 pered, " I want to be a good girl now." She was fully restored to 
 her class and gave no further trouble. 
 
 Summary. In this chapter we have carried the question 
 of how children differ into the field of the emotions. Here 
 lie both cause and effect of character. The reactions of the 
 
244 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 children to each other, to the teacher, and the subject-matter, 
 and the teacher's reactions to the pupils are of vital impor- 
 tance in the problems of school management. Since emo- 
 tions tend to be continuous, their causes are likely to be dis- 
 placed. This becomes a fertile source of misunderstanding, 
 therefore, when the emotions are unpleasant. To induce un- 
 obtrusively the right kind of responses to proper objects is 
 a test of the highest skill in school management. When 
 emotions become excessive and are harmful to the child 
 and disturb the good order of the school, they require espe- 
 cial attention. Moreover, each child should be studied as an 
 individual; if possible before anything has happened that 
 needs correction. This is in accordance with the principle 
 of constructive discipline. Specimen cases have been cited 
 with the intention that they may serve as " studies " and not 
 as giving rule-of-thumb methods of procedure. As a gen- 
 eral principle it is suggested that, as in excessive emotions 
 there is loss of control because " he does not know what he 
 is doing," so restoring an understanding of the whole situa- 
 tion will probably restore control. 
 
 Usually persons with a capacity for strong feeling are 
 also of high mental endowment in other respects. The emo- 
 tional temperament under control is a most desirable ele- 
 ment of human character. '' Without it all would be re- 
 duced to the same level of dullness and mediocrity. The 
 creative faculty in art, science, and literature depends upon 
 imagination and upon emotional susceptibility. It is prob- 
 able that no advance and no reform since civilization began 
 has ever been effected by any one bereft of emotional ca- 
 pacity, and therefore if on recognizing this temperament in 
 early childhood when emotions are most keenly felt and 
 
Problem of the Emotions 245 
 
 their effects are indelible, we are able in any way to guide 
 and modify it by cultivating reason and common sense, and 
 intelligent sympathy, we may do good service to mankind." ^ 
 
 1 Guthrie : op. cit. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 Factors in Self-Control 
 
 It is entirely proper and commendable to study the be- 
 havior of exceptional children for the good we may do 
 them. But the teacher has in mind another purpose besides. 
 They present possibilities of disturbance all out of propor- 
 tion to their number. They give exceptional trouble. One 
 pupil incapable of self-control may exact more attention 
 than all the others combined; one thirtieth of the children 
 may consume two-thirds of the teacher's energy. Hence a 
 study of the few will in the end be of service to the many. 
 We think of self-control as particularly related to the good 
 of the social whole. 
 
 The Self -Controlled. H it were not for the fact that 
 the larger number of children are tractable and quiescent, 
 school management would present insuperable difficulties. 
 Simply as concrete examples such children become a factor 
 in the self-control of the erratic and unbalanced. But these 
 children are also relatively unemotional and cannot be so 
 easily aroused to supreme effort. They are not much af- 
 flicted with '^ the divine unrest." They have only ordinary 
 ambitions. They sleep and eat well with perfect digestion. 
 They study, but never to the point of personal discomfort. 
 They are not without emotions but have an affinity for the 
 pleasurable kind. They live in the present, spend little 
 
 246 
 
Factors in Self-Control 247 
 
 time with regrets and indulge in no vain expectations. They 
 are satisfied if they can pass their studies, and do not envy 
 the prodigy at the head of the class. In general they are 
 conservative, with an eye for the solid and substantial com- 
 forts of real life. They do not dream of distinction and 
 greatness to come, of triumphal tours and ovations from 
 the multitude. They will always be in line with school re- 
 quirements but particularly interested in minimum essentials 
 and somewhat suspicious of what seems to them imprac- 
 tical. They are willing and obedient, but not deeply in- 
 terested. They present no problems of discipline, but they 
 are also never destined to be a source of pride in the achieve- 
 ments of teaching. 
 
 There is, to be sure, a number in every group of children, 
 relatively small, who seem to have all the desired qualities. 
 They are self-possessed, of equable disposition, quick to ob- 
 serve, ready to learn. They are unselfish, adaptable to 
 every situation, and pass with the highest marks. Their 
 life is pleasant, everybody speaks well of them, and yet they 
 remain unspoiled through it all. But even here there is an- 
 other side. These persons sail smooth seas but they know 
 little of resistance. Satisfactions come to them as they 
 go along; they are not tossed by the storms of baffled ambi- 
 tions. They experience no limited successes in school life 
 that hurt their pride and make them summon all their en- 
 ergies to surpass all others in some future achievements. 
 In school they excel without trying hard ; they may lack in- 
 itiative and force afterward. 
 
 Study o£ Means of Self-Control. It is a generally ac- 
 cepted principle that growth of control is from within and 
 not through compulsion from without. Forcible repression 
 
248 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 is easier and more immediate but its results are lasting 
 very often only when they are unfavorable. But how can 
 self-control begin and continue? How can a child learn to 
 use those elements of its original nature which are at the 
 basis of character development? What are the factors that 
 tend to unify the self and adjust it to the environment? 
 
 This is the source of the guiding principles of school 
 management. One of the factors has already been referred 
 to several times in the preceding chapter; the intellect is 
 helped to gain a view of extravagant manifestations and 
 then puts them under restraint, just as a child quits crying 
 when held up to a mirror to see itself. But control from 
 within cannot take place before there is a sense of self. To 
 form the self the child first goes through a period of in- 
 tense individuahsm. This is essential to the future altruistic 
 goal of character. Unless a person knows himself as an 
 individual he cannot put himself into the place of another. 
 He cannot know how to do unto others before he has a con- 
 ception of how he would be done by. High character is 
 always strong character with power to stand alone if need 
 be. But '' Thy neighbor as thyself " — self and neighbor, 
 the individual and the other self are the twin bases of hu- 
 man character. Of the first the child knows much in a nar- 
 row way before coming to school, but it has not yet arrived 
 at an adequate conception of the second. How can it bridge 
 the gap? 
 
 Instinctive Support. Social experiences are at first in- 
 terpreted in terms of individual value in order that more 
 and more individual experiences may be interpreted in 
 terms of social value. In the desire for companionship there 
 is a deep-rooted individualism. Animal species became gre- 
 
Factors in Self-Control 249 
 
 garious for the sake of individual protection. Alone they 
 were lost, together they were safe. The group spirit was 
 nourished by repeated success in repelling attacks. Satis- 
 faction with positive group achievements gave rise in the 
 end to the spirit of cooperation. More and more collective 
 purposes became central while mere self-satisfactions fell 
 into the background. Desire for recognition and approval 
 by the group or its leader remains strong, especially in chil- 
 dren, and it should also be recognized as a factor of support 
 to the self in its endeavor to reach the higher goal. Ap- 
 peals to the inherent desire for companionship, for coop- 
 eration, for approval — half individual and half social — 
 are among the means to make grow from within the child 
 the power of self-control in the school environment. 
 
 Desire to Be a Man. As children grow in social ex- 
 perience they lose much of their native instability and grad- 
 ually take on more of the settled composure of their elders. 
 As every one knows the children of the lowest grades are 
 relatively spontaneous and naively expressive. However, 
 by the time they pass the third year in school they develop 
 a growing aversion to the characteristics of childishness. 
 '' Don't be a baby " becomes a strong deterrent to outbursts 
 of individual ill-will. This is the time when the teacher's 
 appeal to the little man and little woman in the child becomes 
 especially effective for discipline. It is interesting to note, 
 too, in passing, that about this time the most opprobrious 
 epithet that can be applied to most boys is anything that 
 suggests effeminacy. To be called a " sissy " may bring 
 tears of resentment and rage. On the other hand, a girl 
 does not object to being called a tomboy. 
 
 It is particularly valuable at this time to manifest confi- 
 
250 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 dence and assume that the child will do the manly part. 
 At this time also school work should seem worth while. It 
 is safe to assume that the children want the kind and amount 
 of work that will test their mettle. Soft pedagogy and 
 sentimentalism seem out of place here more than anywhere 
 else and especially fatal to the interest of boys in school 
 work. 
 
 A Controlling Interest. It is well known that work or 
 business has a stabilizing effect on a man's character. Men 
 and women can keep themselves in hand when they have 
 a special interest in the concerns of life. The same is true 
 of children. A dominant interest unifies the self and gives 
 it point and outward direction. To grow up into adoles- 
 cence with nothing in particular to occupy the mind leaves 
 it open to all sorts of temptations. Youth is particularly 
 the time for active interests in such fields as athletic games 
 and civic and social service. 
 
 In some pupils control follows the more purely intel- 
 lectual interests. They are not intensely practical and seem 
 to enjoy thinking partly for its own sake. They are in- 
 clined to be analytic ; they like to look at the inner consti- 
 tution of things. They are willing to while away time in 
 study; a problem or puzzle is a challenge to their type of 
 mind. Moreover, they are likely to be bored by the hum- 
 drum interests of the ordinary pupil and will soon tire 
 of what seems perfectly obvious, and concentrate but poorly 
 on matters of practical value. Among them we should 
 expect to find the inventor, the explorer, or the research 
 scholar of the future. They are often neglected in school 
 for the mediocre many. Unless the teacher is resourceful 
 and fully alive to the needs of this type, the school will of- 
 
Factors in Self -Control 251 
 
 fer too few opportunities for intellectual adventure and 
 may do harm to such a pupil if compelled to stay in it. 
 
 Self-Control and Leadership. Some children are at 
 their best when they can take the lead. They take satis- 
 faction in planning, managing, and bringing things to pass. 
 But this is so valuable a means of growth that it should not 
 be always reserved for those who manifest the greatest de- 
 sire for it. 
 
 It is not so important for a pupil to have a sense of mas- 
 tery as it is important not to have a feeling of incapacity 
 for any kind of subject-matter. The elementary school in 
 particular is not the place to ignore weaknesses and develop 
 special abilities. It will be best to remove, if possible, ah 
 causes of the feeling of incompetence in any of the ele- 
 mentary school essentials. If a child is weak in arithmetic 
 and strong in history, for instance, if quick to solve exer- 
 cises but slow to analyze problems, the lack should be made 
 good. Specialization comes later. 
 
 Imagination and Character. To conjure up a clear 
 vision of a distant goal, to idealize results, and to anticipate 
 satisfactions of attainment, are all the part of the imagina- 
 tion in stimulating and organizing effort directed to some 
 end. 
 
 When imagination is weak or immature a distant goal 
 is not envisaged and effort must be immediately rewarded. 
 Young children want what they want '' right now." Long 
 deferred satisfactions cannot be anticipated. Present com- 
 forts obscure the attractions of the future. The lowest goal 
 of effort is immediate material good. The dog leaps high 
 because of the food held up in the hand of his master. 
 When a child cannot appreciate the higher motive, a lower 
 
252 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 one is in order. To conceive of virtue as its own reward 
 and study for its own sake is not possible to any school 
 child. One cannot expect, for instance, that a child will be 
 punctual in the morning for the sake of punctuality. He 
 may come early to engage in play or to satisfy his curiosity 
 or to win personal approval or the sign of it in a beautiful 
 engraved card with his name inscribed upon it, or he may 
 have been punctual so often that he has the habit which it 
 is hard to break. Ordinarily it will be hard to yield the 
 present comfort of a warm bed for any deferred higher 
 satisfactions. In such cases the attractions of the school 
 may have to be reenforced by the parental vis a tergo. 
 When children are too young to appreciate the ultimate 
 good of regular attendance, they must accept the advice 
 of those who can. The plan of frequent promotions is a 
 spur to the efforts of children who cannot a year in ad- 
 vance conceive the pleasure of passing and the distress of 
 failure. Signs of progress must mark time for them as 
 the weeks pass. 
 
 Power to resist present delights and live laborious days 
 for idealized future good, is, however, one of the higher pur- 
 poses of school training. To appreciate and strive for 
 what is best in the long run should be the chief concern of 
 all. School practices should teach step by step that there 
 are higher things to strive for than immediate material good 
 or money or things useful or things beautiful or rewards of 
 merit or certificates of promotion or individual preferment. 
 These are at best but temporary supports to those that need 
 them, steps on the way to a higher ideal of service. 
 
 Imitation of Ideals. Living characters in a community 
 are likely to be admired and imitated whether they are 
 
Factors in Self -Control 253 
 
 worthy or not. Under their influence children think they 
 know what to do and how to conduct themselves. Ideals 
 in fiction and biography make greater demands of the im- 
 agination ; it is difficult without suggestive help from teachers 
 to appreciate the good in them. Under the influence of the 
 admiration they arouse, the child takes on by unconscious 
 imitation the point of view and general tendencies of these 
 originals ; this may be followed by voluntary translation of 
 these tendencies into outward action. The influence of 
 ideals may remain subjective and may not be realized in 
 action ; or it may remain superficial as mere acting, in which 
 the feeling basis as well as behavior is simulated. 
 
 The Critical Point of the Imagination. " The free im- 
 agination of wished for things results well for the mind 
 through painting in more glowing colors the excellence of 
 what is wished for, and firing the ambition to strive for it 
 the more intensely." In Miss Bryant's novel, little Jim Hib- 
 bault trudged along by the side of his exhausted and self- 
 immolated mother : '* I'll make roads when I'm big," he told 
 her, " real good ones that you can walk on easy " — a, vision 
 of countless toiling human beings traveling on his roads all 
 down the coming ages, knowing them for good roads, and 
 praising the maker. And such roads we know he did build, 
 not only for people's feet, but for their lives. No posses- 
 sion is more precious than the power to create such visions, 
 so long as it gives stimulus for putting them into action. 
 But the case is not always so fortunate. 
 
 " Physics teaches that if a substance be subjected to different 
 forces, such as temperature or pressure, critical points are reached, 
 that is, points above and below which the properties of the sub- 
 stances are greatly different. Water has critical points at 32°, 
 
254 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 where it freezes, or 212° Fahrenheit, where it changes into steam. 
 Imagination acts similarly on character. It has a critical point 
 where we cease to be fired by the imagination, but drop back upon 
 it alone. Poets have sung the mental delights that may come from 
 nothing but imagery; what is equally important is that imagina- 
 tion carries with it no dependence upon, or responsibility to, the 
 external world. It is never kept late at its office, and runs up no 
 bills. This fact, that daydreams are not continually confronted 
 with experience, makes it possible for them to take on forms that 
 do not fit the actual conditions of one's life." ^ 
 
 Daydreaming. When thinking by means of ideas is as 
 yet impossible on account of Hmited experience the mental 
 life of the child is largely taken up with fanciful reveries. 
 Where this is balanced by much outward activity with things 
 in play and the child is not too much isolated from other 
 children, it is to be regarded as one of the signs of normal 
 development. But when there is too little objective ex- 
 perience the development of the imagination may come at an 
 early age to the critical point referred to. In the overde- 
 velopment of the tendency to create the fanciful, there come 
 to be two worlds for the child : that for its necessary con- 
 tact with daily life, and that of its pleasurable fancies. 
 When contact with actual life becomes in any way distress- 
 ing, the child falls back on its dream world. Here hopes, 
 wishes, and even sensual desires may find psychic fulfillment. 
 This world becomes more and more separated from the ac- 
 tual. The child keeps the secret, seeks solitude, avoids play 
 and playmates, and in the presence of other persons is back- 
 ward, confused, uncertain. To cope with the real world be- 
 comes more and more difficult. To correct the distemper it 
 
 1 Wells: "Mental Adjustments" (Conduct of Mind Series), New 
 York, 1917, p. II. 
 
Factors in Self -Control 255 
 
 must be taken in time and objective interests must be in- 
 creased and intensified. Such a child needs the society of 
 vigorous playmates, toys that invite activity, no stories, 
 many plans for every day, " hiking " trips, and a healthful 
 fatigue on retiring for the night so that sleep may be spon- 
 taneous and immediate. 
 
 For a child with very active fancies, the school should 
 provide many opportunities for expression, for this is a 
 way of keeping open the connection between the mental and 
 the actual world. The children of the kindergarten and 
 the lower grades should be encouraged to tell about their 
 dreams and fancies, to draw and write about them. 
 
 Falsifying. Unscrupulous use may be made of a re- 
 sourceful imagination. In typical instances the motive may 
 be reward or profit or it may be to escape the penalty of 
 wrong-doing. However, untruths may be told without any 
 intention to deceive. When children are too young to dis- 
 tinguish the fanciful from the actual they may tell their 
 fancies as truths. These are not falsehoods, properly speak- 
 ing, and merit no punishment. Sometimes the wish is father 
 to the fancy as in the following, reported by a teacher : 
 
 A little girl, an only child, invited me, her teacher, to call at her 
 home to see her Httle baby sister just arrived. She said, " We are 
 all crazy about it." So one evening after school I called and in- 
 formed the mother of the purpose of my visit. The report was 
 untrue. The mother asked how such a pernicious habit could be 
 broken up. The child's excuse was that she wanted " somebody to 
 play with." 
 
 This kind of prevarication is indulged in usually by chil- 
 dren in the pre-school period. It is comparatively rare 
 above the kindergarten age. The lie that is told to shield a 
 
256 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 schoolmate or to protect companions against the schemes 
 of an unfriendly group comes at a later period when the 
 gang spirit exacts its tribute of honor and loyalty. The 
 prudent teacher will not require treason to associates as a 
 support for his disciplinary measures, but rather will mani- 
 fest a hostile attitude to all sorts of '' tattling " because he 
 will know it to be a means of weakening the morale of the 
 school. The strong teacher will not need the support of 
 spies and gossips. He will be alert and wide awake to all 
 that happens but will not play the role of the police officer 
 or detective who assumes the existence of evils and spends 
 his time in ferreting them out. There will be no tempta- 
 tion in his school to tell lies of loyalty or disloyalty to the 
 gang. 
 
 The lie told to companions which exaggerates the strength 
 or prowess of the teller will not long be troublesome, for 
 sooner or later such a child will meet severe punishment in 
 the mistrust and ridicule of his playmates. 
 
 The most dangerous of all lies told by children is one that 
 offers an easy way out of a more culpable fault. When 
 such a case comes up in school, the teacher will do well to 
 take the parent into his counsel, and the two should give it 
 the attention its seriousness deserves. The selfish lie is the 
 basest of all, and it may appear in various forms. It is, 
 however, not a common fault among school children. Open- 
 ing exercises may be used to point out typical instances of 
 honor and truthfulness and to explain why they are valued 
 among men. 
 
 Summary. In all that has been said, there is one gen- 
 eral dominating fact. It is the self-regarding emotions that 
 undermine self-control. Anger, fear, nervous sensitiveness, 
 
Factors in Self-Control 257 
 
 aggressive egotism, etc., disturb mental balance by exag- 
 gerating the importance of the self. The imagination is 
 favorable to the character up to a certain point; only so 
 long as it is unselfish. Perversion takes place when the 
 imagination turns inward from proper objects outside the 
 self and becomes self-indulgent and by its figments falsi- 
 fies reality. Growth in self-control as well as in mental in- 
 tegrity is indicated in decreasing self-love and a lessened 
 self-consciouness, '' the two fountainheads of maladapta- 
 tion." ^ When children develop normally, they gradually 
 outgrow their self-regarding tendencies. Intellectual and 
 moral development go best hand in hand. With a gain in 
 the power of concentration, orderly association, and con- 
 secutive thinking, the teacher may expect a corresponding 
 increase in patience and persistence in work, in self-reliance 
 and self-control, in the power of initiative and the sense of 
 responsibility. To train for moral integrity, the teacher 
 needs to keep in mind only one simple rule: Think of 
 other persons and things, never of the self and its for- 
 tunes and misfortunes. That this attitude is also favorable 
 to the development of mental power and its control will 
 appear in the next chapter. 
 
 1 Wells : " Mental Adaptation," Mental Hygiene, Vol I, Jan., 1917, 
 pp. 60-80, D. Appleton and Company. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 Mental Development Through Attitudes 
 
 In preceding chapters we have discussed initial impulses 
 at the basis of character, emotions which disturb it, and fac- 
 tors which support or weaken self-control. We now come 
 to speak of the habits and attitudes of a final character, such 
 as the school should establish not alone for its own proper 
 management but also for their value in life. 
 
 In habit an act is made easy by repetition. In attitudes 
 we put the body in a position or the mind in a mood. This 
 may be done in two ways : there is an active attitude which 
 is favorable to a desired result, and there is a so-called atti- 
 tude or inclination of consciousness due to repeated feeling 
 reactions in view of certain objects of thought. When one 
 puts himself into a pleasant frame of mind because he 
 knows it to be favorable to the study of the lesson, we have 
 the first. When from repeated feelings of satisfaction due 
 to a teacher's approval of a pupil's good work, a disposition 
 favorable to that kind of work is established, the pupil will 
 like it. This gives us the second. The feeling reactions 
 may be positive or negative, depending on the tone of the 
 reactions whether pleasant or unpleasant. To arouse in the 
 child repeatedly pleasurable emotions in the presence of a 
 good thing or act, or aversion and disgust for what is bad, is 
 to wield a powerful instrument in the development of char- 
 
 258 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 259 
 
 acter. This will leave a permanent disposition of the con- 
 sciousness which will operate even though its effect may not 
 reach the level of awareness. 
 
 Launching the Day's Work. The first thing to do is to 
 establish an active attitude favorable to the work of the 
 school. This does not have to be assumed; for there is to 
 build on, especially in the morning, a normal impulse to 
 activity which comes from an accumulation of energy after 
 the night's repose. And then the morning air and sunlight 
 on the way to school cause peripheral responses that make 
 the blood tingle and add vigor to the energy that seeks re- 
 lease in doing something. All that is needed is to direct 
 this activity in harmony with the prevailing mood into chan- 
 nels that bring satisfaction. If, however, there is an at- 
 mosphere of depression, if the teacher is slow and lifeless, 
 this will tend to check enthusiasm for the work of the school. 
 
 The Cheerful Attitude. Between the cheerful and the 
 depressing tone there is a marked difference in relation to 
 efficiency. The one is generally favorable to work, the other 
 unfavorable. Curiosity, eagerness to learn, etc., go with 
 the feeling of good cheer, fear of we know not what and a 
 general arrest of activity go with depression. 
 
 A favorable disposition, a feeling of confidence, will bring 
 clear perceptions and fine discriminations. Without it ef- 
 fort will succeed but slowly and so slowly that the result 
 will be discouragement and further depression. The teacher 
 must look to the general tone of the school life. The de- 
 pressing atmosphere must be dissipated. And this can be 
 done on the part of the teacher by cultivating a sense of 
 humor and by assuming the bodily attitudes which go with 
 the more favorable emotions. The proper tone for work 
 
26o Education and the General Welfare 
 
 and study will also aid in general control. It promotes a 
 feeling of satisfaction with the things that are and reduces 
 fretfulness and the spirit of insurrection. In the effort to 
 gain control of a situation that has gone wrong, it is a good 
 plan to return first to a general feeling of good humor 
 and make that the point of departure for the desired goal. 
 
 The emotional tone that is favorable to activity promotes 
 also the feeling of interested cooperation, a sense of belong- 
 ing to the community, while depression tends to breed iso- 
 lation of mind and the feeling that '' nobody likes me." 
 This brings us to the powerful motive of esprit de corps. 
 This may be invoked for all kinds of betterments. When 
 all are in a mood to work together to attain an object, the 
 reflex on the character is usually more valuable than the 
 end obtained. An appeal to this spirit reduces tardiness 
 and improves the attendance record. It has a restraining 
 influence when the good name of the school is at stake. 
 The spirit can be enlisted to bring about community reform. 
 It is one of the most powerful agencies in supplying a mo- 
 tive for work which appeals to all alike. And there is 
 hardly any other motive that makes for good order to the 
 same degree as the spirit of cooperation for a common end. 
 And every piece of constructive work or every series of 
 games that the whole school unites " to put across " means 
 self -disciplinary control and a lesson in democracy, not to 
 speak of the results of an academic character that the under- 
 taking affords. 
 
 The Right Use of the Mind. The attitudes that are es- 
 tablished in school depend much on what the teacher accepts 
 and approves. This is usually applied to moral conduct; 
 we show our approval of right acts and thus give them a 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 261 
 
 social sanction. But this phase of discipHne is so well un- 
 derstood that it hardly needs mention. It is our purpose 
 in this place to consider particularly those tendencies which 
 develop the mental character without intending to imply 
 that they are not related to moral development. The goal 
 of school work is not so important as the training afforded 
 in reaching the goal. The final difference between the man 
 who has profited by his school work and the other kind is 
 that the former has learned how to use his powers and the 
 other has not. All.good schools are training grounds in the 
 right use of the mind. 
 
 The Attitude of Attention. One would naturally think 
 first of the physical attitude of attention as a necessary con- 
 dition of mental activity. In its primitive form and when 
 directed to a material object it consists in bodily stillness and 
 a fixed attitude. It is well illustrated in the case of a wild 
 beast or the common house cat lying in wait for its prey. 
 The particular object is singled out and all the world be- 
 side is excluded from the gaze. The degree of concen- 
 tration is greatly increased when the object is seen to move. 
 In man this outward form of attention when directed to a 
 material object is most instinctive and unreflective. There is 
 much more meaning in a moving than a still picture for a 
 child. For him the moving thing lives, the still is dead. 
 The children of a kindergarten were asked to name the 
 things in the room that were alive; they had no doubt but 
 that the smoke and the fire were among the living things. 
 
 In the young child the fixed attitude cannot long be main- 
 tained before random motor reactions manifest themselves. 
 In the pre-school period when the child is largely under the 
 tuition of his impulses and when he learns rapidly, he is 
 
262 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 seldom still except for a few moments but passes rapidly 
 from one thing to another and spends his time mainly in 
 doing and acting. 
 
 The Child's Attention. When the child comes to school 
 the teacher must remember, therefore, that its attention is 
 dynamic as in play rather than static as in quiet analysis. 
 This is generally true of the first few years of the child's 
 school life. The power to think as an adult does comes 
 slowly and gradually. To gain a thought is analogous to 
 early attempts to grasp a toy: there are at first random, dif- 
 fuse, round-about, and apparently useless attempts; think- 
 ing goes by jerks and starts and sudden flashes of inner 
 light, and not in the orderly procession of formal steps. 
 
 Bodily Positions and Thinking. Among adults the 
 thinking attitude takes various forms. Some say that they 
 always think better on their feet, others find that their best 
 thinking is done after they retire for the night, boys in col- 
 lege dormitories usually seem to prefer the horizontal posi- 
 tion with the feet somewhat higher than the head, others 
 think best walking to and fro in a room, and others still, 
 prefer a piece of paper with a pen or pencil in hand. How- 
 ever, individuals may differ, it seems certain that the sitting 
 and the standing position are most generally useful in sit- 
 uations that do not admit of delay or postponement. Hence, 
 the school should cultivate the erect attitude of sitting and 
 standing in connection with the thought processes, whatever 
 individual preferences may be in the prolonged study of 
 problems. 
 
 Thinking Under Difficulties. Allowance, however, 
 should be made for those pupils of the emotional type who 
 find it difficult to do themselves justice in the presence of 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 263 
 
 their classmates. Under their emotional stress they are in- 
 capable of clear expression and would prefer to work out 
 their problems alone and present them in writing. Those 
 who do best, on the other hand, when under the stimulus of 
 their classmates are often disappointing when their turn 
 comes to make a written report. Both are, to a certain 
 extent, handicapped and it should be the aim of the school 
 to give them corrective training. 
 
 Concentrated and Distributed Attention. These 
 forms of attention are both normal and necessary. The 
 field of consciousness is often conceived of in the image of 
 the field of vision. We may see a number of things at the 
 same time, but some of them more clearly than others. The 
 point in the field to which we direct the attention is clearer 
 than any other point. The things which are farthest away 
 from that point are in the margin of the field of vision 
 and are least clearly seen; those between the point or 
 focus and the margin are seen with different degrees of 
 clearness. The consciousness has a similar character. The 
 point to which we direct the attention is the focus of con- 
 centration. The attention may be relatively narrowed and 
 intensified in the conscious field or it may be distributed 
 over a comparatively large portion. This is not because 
 we are able to attend to two or more things at once but 
 rather because the attention is capable of passing very 
 rapidly from one thing to another. It is necessary for eflfi- 
 ciency in life to cultivate both powers. With only the first 
 the teacher will be absorbed in the lesson and will be men- 
 tally absent from everything else in the room. This is not 
 favorable to good control. The teacher with the alert at- 
 tention will be able both to follow the lesson and know what 
 
264 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 is going on in the remote corners of the room ; she will know 
 even in a large class who is not paying attention or who is 
 trying to give merely the appearance of paying attention. 
 That this kind of attention is necessary in social life, busi- 
 ness, and all administrative work needs no particular em- 
 phasis. 
 
 Causes of Mental Inefficiency. The work of the school 
 may be such as to cause mental arrest and weakness instead 
 of a growing control of the essential powers of the mind. 
 We have seen that the two phases of attention just de- 
 scribed are necessary to meet the ordinary situations that 
 life presents. Let us imagine now the absence of one or the 
 other of these powers of attention. If there is extreme dis- 
 tribution with little or no concentration, we have the scat- 
 tered or vacillating attention which is not anchored to any 
 point of support. In its extreme form, the mind is incom- 
 petent and powerless to produce definite results of any 
 kind. On the other hand, if concentration is strong with 
 little or no distribution, we have absent-mindedness of pos- 
 sibly various degrees of seriousness. The scholar or the 
 inventor, for instance, is so absorbed with his problem that 
 he forgets his surroundings. The danger here lies only in 
 the direction that might be taken by the focus of attention; 
 it may be concentrated on an improper object. The healthy 
 mind has the power to concentrate on the main duties and 
 demands of life and will not waste its energies on evil 
 thoughts. 
 
 How Mental Power Is Weakened. We shall not con- 
 sider here the mental aberrations that are best illustrated 
 in the hospitals for the insane, although the fundamental 
 principles are just the same, but the milder forms of the 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 265 
 
 tendencies that weaken mind and character, with special 
 reference to what may happen in school life. There are 
 two recognized ways in which mental powers may be ar- 
 rested or weakened : First, by concentration or exercise of 
 attention on the improper, the abnormal, the unessential; 
 Second, by a weakening of the power of concentration on 
 account of a divided, unstable, or wavering attention due 
 to uncertainty of purpose or indecision in regard to several 
 possible modes of action. These topics will be taken up in 
 order. The first relates in general to a loss of perspective 
 in regard to the things of school and life. The mind of the 
 school child may be exercised, as we shall see, only in the 
 subordinate mental functions. Or it may linger on in- 
 appropriate subject-matter. The efficient life is in harmony 
 with social decency; the mind of the child is weakened by 
 engaging his energies on matters that he would be ashamed 
 to tell about. Nor should he dote on horrors, crimes, and 
 catastrophies. Although attention will go where interest 
 leads, the mind should finally dwell on the normal rather 
 than the abnormal and exceptional, on justice rather than 
 injustice, on the positive rather than the negative forces of 
 life. 
 
 Thinking of Self. Any habit of mind depends on re- 
 peated use or indulgence of an impulse and on the material 
 or object on which the effort made is employed. Attention 
 has already been called in another chapter to the self -re- 
 garding emotions as causing maladjustment between the in- 
 dividual and his environment. It is not necessary to point 
 out that the subjective contemplation of the self is a hin- 
 drance to thinking and that it is not a proper object for the 
 continued exercise of the mental powers. It is the business 
 of the school to keep the pupils busy with either mental or 
 
266 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 physical activities directed always into wholesome objective 
 channels. 
 
 The Practice of Thinking in School. A teacher or a 
 pupil may magnify some non-essential school activity out of 
 all proportion. He may mistake means for ends or em- 
 phasize unduly any subject matter of subordinate character. 
 The reason for the existence of any organ, function, or 
 power is that there is use for it. The mind grows in the 
 direction of use. If we read in a foreign language we 
 learn to read in that language; if we speak a foreign lan- 
 guage we learn to speak that foreign language. If we 
 simply read without speaking, we do not learn to speak it. 
 We can learn to do both if we practice in both. Children 
 in school will learn to do what they get practice in doing. 
 If they are stimulated to do thinking and are expected to do 
 it, they will practice that function. If the school is so 
 conducted as to give the lion's share of practice to functions 
 that should be subordinated it misses its aim. Thinking is 
 the most useful function for life that the school can exercise. 
 It is also the most wholesome mental exercise ; for, directed 
 upon the proper object, it strengthens the mind in its unity 
 and integrity. It is always original and it makes for the 
 development of mind and character. 
 
 Substitutes for Thinking. But school work may not 
 reach the level of thinking at all. There is not much doubt 
 that some schools never for a moment get into the thinking 
 field. Other powers that are useful only in surbordination 
 are made the end of all activity. And there is a wide-spread 
 misconception of the kind of work a school should do. One 
 often hears, in discussions of excellence of mind, of great 
 memories, exceptional powers of retention for words, for 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 267 
 
 names, for lines of poetry or prose, or for dates in history, 
 as if these things were the aim of education. 
 
 Memory for Words. A strong verbal memory com- 
 bined with imitative skill in language may have all the ap- 
 pearance of wisdom. The teacher may flatter herself to 
 learn how well the children get their lessons and how cor- 
 rectly they write their examinations. If this is final in 
 school, if the memory of words is made the end of school 
 work, if this is the habit of mind that the pupil acquires, he 
 will to a large extent waste his time. To keep the mind 
 on this level is to arrest and weaken it. Children get into 
 the habit of accepting words as if they had meanings that 
 they understood. And this may happen through all the 
 years of school life and through all the subjects studied. 
 
 Memory of Words a Means to Higher Ends. There 
 is a time, it is true, when it is altogether proper to give 
 considerable attention to words and forms of language. In 
 early life children hear much from their elders which they 
 cannot justly comprehend until they have had more experi- 
 ence in life. At this time they hear language that they after- 
 ward fill with meaning. '' Thoughts are more important 
 than words but words come first," as Erasmus put it. Lan- 
 guage is not only a means of expression, but also a means of 
 thinking. Children need words as a beginning step in get- 
 ting meanings. In a new subject with technical terms and 
 phrases peculiar to it, students need to pay close attention 
 to the words of the book for a working vocabulary. To get 
 the proper effect of the work of classic writers, who have 
 given final form to noble thought, it is a good practice to 
 memorize large passages of the text. In all these instances, 
 however, the exercise is a means to higher ends. 
 
268 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Memory of Facts. Another use to which the mind is put 
 is to remember facts. But if facts are not seen in relation to 
 each other, the result will not be knowledge. Their accu- 
 mulation in the memory will serve only for reproduction in 
 mechanical sequence. It is like the memory of words on the 
 page or their sound to the ear or their " feel " to the vocal 
 organs. Students who are not accustomed to this kind of 
 work often find it hard to get along in a school in which the 
 chief emphasis is placed on verbal reproduction. They have 
 put their minds to better use. They dread recitations, tests, 
 and examinations which make exhaustive requirements of 
 the memory, because they have learned by experience that 
 it often proves treacherous. This kind of school practice 
 is one of the few causes of educational overstrain. 
 
 Memory for Relations. A memory for relations is the 
 highest type of memory. It serves in reproducing one's own 
 thought, or the thought of another. If it is not too far in 
 the past, by means of the memory relations one's own 
 thought will readily recur in its original or an improved 
 order; all that is necessary for a cue to begin is some re- 
 lated word or thought. The better the original organiza- 
 tion of the thought, the easier will be its recall. 
 
 In learning to reproduce the thought of another as in a 
 speech, it is first necessary to go through the production and 
 trace relations that exist between the points considered, from 
 the first to the second and from the second to the third and 
 so on, thus making a chain of relations that will hold to- 
 gether and will be suggested in their order when beginning 
 with the first point. With a very thorough study of the or- 
 ganization any part may be suggested as a beginning, all the 
 links in the chain will then fall in line. This is the way to 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 269 
 
 study a history lesson or any other logical product. " The 
 more true and natural the thought links are that are invented 
 to bind one idea to another, the more lasting and the surer 
 will be the recall/' ^ 
 
 Thought links are much more powerful than those of mere 
 association. If one would learn nonsense syllables quickly 
 he must imagine connections of thought between them in 
 order. 
 
 " Man does not live to remember, and any system of education 
 which appeals mainly to the memory has so far failed to meet its 
 purpose. Man lives to think, to know, to feel, and to do, and to 
 have constant pleasure in all these. Memory is only a means 
 thereto. It is only the thoughts and knowledge embodied in words, 
 only the beauty inherent in the symbols to be learnt, which we 
 cherish." ^ 
 
 Steps in Development of Thinking. If this is the pre- 
 dominant attitude of the teacher, it will become the control- 
 ing influence over the work of the school. But the memory 
 for thought is so nearly identical with thinking that we 
 ought to consider in more positive terms what the steps in 
 the development of the thinking attitude are. 
 
 To begin with, when a small child is asked to say what 
 anything is, thought and language are identical, no distinc- 
 tion being made between the name and the thing itself. If 
 asked, '' What is a fork ? " the child will answer, '' A fork 
 is a fork." It knows also what familiar things are not, 
 that a fork is not a book. Later comes the definition of use, 
 " The fork is to eat with." This is for a long time a child's 
 
 1 Watt: ''The Economy and Training of Memory," third impression, 
 New York, 1911, p. 109, Chap. VI, Longmans, Green and Company. 
 
 2 Watt: op. cit. 
 
270 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 means of readily defining any object within its experience. 
 It is a good definition, too, as it fully supplies the mental 
 need. It suggests also to the teacher that experience should 
 come before definitions, distinctions, and explanations. As 
 the child grows in experience and the use of language, ques- 
 tions will arise as to the likeness and unlikeness of different 
 objects; classifications will be made and analogies drawn 
 on a somewhat higher plane. Sometimes the constructive 
 fancy will be involved in a pretty conception, as when a child 
 called a butterfly a flying pansy. 
 
 It is not possible to say at what age a child begins to man- 
 ifest certain tendencies of thought except in a very general 
 way. It is certain, however, that in the lower grades the 
 thinking tendencies should find expression in spontaneous 
 language, in connection with exercises in language play and 
 in conversation. Thoughts should not be " extracted " from 
 children. In the lower grades to stimulate expression is to 
 stimulate thinking. There must be perfect freedom and tol- 
 erance for all childlike crudities of thought. 
 
 The Spirit of Inquiry Is Essential to Thinking. The 
 children of all grades should be encouraged to ask questions. 
 In the lower grades the questions asked are often such that 
 perhaps no one could answer satisfactorily. Here the chil- 
 dren seem to have unlimited confidence in what the teacher 
 knows. A little girl came running to her teacher to ask her, 
 ''Who was the wisest man?" The teacher answered 
 thoughtfully that it was usually held that Solomon was the 
 wisest man, whereupon the little girl exclaimed gratefully : 
 " I just knew you'd know." In the upper grades the chil- 
 dren believe 'that the teacher knows nearly everything and 
 this checks the spirit of inquiry. In all the grades it is es- 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 271 
 
 pecially important that the teacher says frankly that he does 
 not know, when such is the case. When the teacher knows 
 everything there is no object in finding out anything to tell 
 to the class. 
 
 A supervisor of practice on finding a class he visited rather 
 unresponsive asked one of the pupils in the course of the 
 recitation to ask the teacher a question which the super- 
 visor whispered to him. The teacher somewhat embar- 
 rassed had to admit she did not know. Then at once every 
 child was wide awake to find out. They were ready to make 
 a general scramble for the reference books. Here was 
 something worth finding oiit when no one in the room knew 
 it. 
 
 Ordinarily, when the teacher knows it all and everything 
 is settled the whole atmosphere is unfavorable to thinking. 
 The teacher should think out plans to have certain informa- 
 tion which is new brought into class by the pupils in the 
 higher grades. There is hardly any subject that does not 
 afford opportunities. And let the teacher dispel the idea 
 that any one knows everything. Rather let it be known 
 that we are all on the very frontier of the known and the 
 unknown in every subject. Of even the commonest things 
 like dogs and cats and grains of wheat and flowers, etc., 
 there is much that nobody knows. Let the teacher try to 
 elicit information from the children on subjects they know 
 about but that she may be ignorant of. It is practically true 
 that every person has made observations that have not come 
 within the experience of any one else. 
 
 To establish the thinking attitude much will depend on 
 the tone and tempo of the teacher s questioning. If the 
 questions are '' shot " at the pupil in quick succession with 
 
272 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 little allowance of time for a thoughtful reply, the impres- 
 sion is made that no such reply is expected. If the tone of 
 the questioner is, '' Here, you, what do you know 
 about — ?" the suggestion of a lack of deference to the 
 pupil as a thinking individual will inhibit the thought pro- 
 cesses. To be sure, there is a part of the body of knowl- 
 edge that every one is expected to know and know on de- 
 mand. There can be no doubt or uncertainty about the 
 number of quarts in a peck or the rule of verbal agreement 
 which custom has permanently settled. But it is well in 
 other fields to assume that the mystery of the unknown 
 touches our life at every point and invites discovery; that 
 things about us ask : 
 
 " What is our origin and our destiny, how are we caused and con- 
 stituted and what effects do we produce, what do we depend on, 
 what are our relations and our qualities, how do we live, grow, and 
 change, and how do we serve you ? " 
 
 This should be our attitude to the meaning of things. 
 When we come to the general statements found in the lit- 
 erature we read we should try to verify them. The teacher 
 should dispel the common indifference to statements that 
 challenge belief. The question now is simply " Is the state- 
 ment true? " that is, '' How does it square with our experi- 
 ence? " 
 
 The time will come when we should expect the pupil to 
 follow a chain of thought or reasoning. In our progress 
 onward in the development of the thinking pupil, we have 
 advanced from the small child's extremely narrow span of 
 thinking consciousness, when things are regarded as isolated 
 and meanings are given in terms of identity, to an ever en- 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 273 
 
 larging grasp of connected wholes. Thinking the relations 
 that exist between facts acquired unifies and organizes the 
 mental content and, as we have seen before, gives the mind 
 the power of retention in its highest degree. The following 
 facts, for instance, may be seen in isolation : increased cost 
 of living, men zvithdrawn from industry, advance in price of 
 products of labor, call for troops, increased price of labor. 
 
 I 
 They may be seen as a connected whole : call for troops, men 
 
 2 3 
 
 withdrawn from industry, price of labor, price of the prod- 
 
 4 5 
 ucts of labor, increased cost of living. There might be more 
 links in the chain with the fifth remaining the same or 
 the chain might be indefinitely lengthened. The relation 
 between i and 2, i and 3, i and 4, i and 5, are seen with in- 
 creasing difficulty. Let this typical case suggest the two 
 forms of thinking that may be carried on in the school: 
 First, a chain of cause and effect may be constructed begin- 
 ning with some fact and adding others in order : i n. 
 
 Second, two more or less remotely related facts may be 
 
 given, the problem being to supply the missing links : i 5. 
 
 The work of the school will always afford material for prob- 
 lems of this kind. 
 
 The more purely constructive type of thinking requires an 
 assembling of thought material to satisfy the demands of a 
 previously conceived plan or design. This is illustrated in 
 the industrial and the fine arts where wood, stone, color, or 
 other material is used to realize the idea. The most familiar 
 example of this kind of work in school is the constructive 
 use of language in the story, the poem, the essay, the debate, 
 
274 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 or the theme. These are formidable names to most school 
 children, and yet the exercises which they represent are car- 
 ried on in informal ways in all the grades. Essentially, con- 
 structive thinking is reorganizing a set of relations for a 
 new purpose. Or it may take the form of combining several 
 sets of relations to form a new order of thought. 
 
 Constructive Use of Knowledge. In one form or an- 
 other, in schools in which the right kind of work is done, 
 constructive thinking is done in nearly all the subjects. It 
 takes place every time the thought gathered from a book is 
 related to the facts of life, every time a general principle 
 discovered by a pupil is applied to new-found instances, and 
 every time one branch of study serves as a means to aid in 
 the mastery of another. Reorganization implies the power 
 of original dissociation before there can be a re-combination. 
 In simpler language, this means that the highest effect of 
 knowledge is the power to do something with it. It should 
 be the aim in all the grades to find use for what is learned. 
 To make constructive use of what is acquired, whether it be 
 in Latin or arithmetic, is the natural intent and final act of 
 study. This does not mean that some time in perhaps the 
 distant future a study will become useful. It means rather 
 that what we gain from it will find use in our present proj- 
 ects and purposes of study and thinking. It relates to theo- 
 retical as well as to practical needs. 
 
 What the Mind Is For. This is the mind's part in the 
 business of life. As eyes are for seeing and ears for hear- 
 ing so the mind is for thinking. And all the other functions 
 and powers are contributary to it. It is the main purpose 
 of discipline and management to make the conditions favor- 
 able for the exercise of this function. But all real thinking 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 275 
 
 is original. " You can lead a person to knowledge, but you 
 cannot make him think." 
 
 Control of Attention. We have discussed what are the 
 proper objects of thought and what is the proper function of 
 the mind. We turn now to the control of attention when 
 directed upon a proper object of thought. It is a common 
 experience to find pupils who work faithfully on a proper 
 object of thought and yet succeed in obtaining only the most 
 meager results. They want to think but they lack the power 
 of concentration. This is the second cause of mental ineffi- 
 ciency, which was said before to be due to a divided, un- 
 stable, or wavering attention. This is a weakness of whose 
 cause students will always be ignorant unless by psychologi- 
 cal self -analysis they come to discover it or have others dis- 
 cover it for them. To know the cause of the disturbance 
 is the first step in effecting a cure, if a cure is possible. 
 
 Attention, as is well known, follows interest. We might 
 well counsel a student who really wants to do what he is 
 doing — " Assume an interest if you have it not." One can 
 try to find attractions and uses in a forbidding subject, fall 
 back on one's pride and confidence in his powers that will 
 not be " beaten " by any task undertaken, or think that 
 " if others can master it I can." Children sometimes take a 
 fatalistic attitude that makes an initial interest or disinterest 
 final. They should not get the impression from their 
 parents and teachers that the fates have decided for them 
 what they can or cannot do. This is one of those subjective 
 attitudes that are unfavorable to development. It is a much 
 better sign if children always show an unquestioning eager- 
 ness to attack. 
 
 It often happens, too, that a subject is not given a fair 
 
276 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 trial. Children do not approach it in good humor and do 
 not give it sufficient time and attention to find out whether 
 it is likeable or not. Intellectual light will make almost any 
 subject beautiful. It is also true that interest follows at- 
 tention. 
 
 Inner and Outer Factors of Attention. To be able to 
 hold the attention to any subject and shift it at will from 
 one thing to another is the chief sign of mental control. 
 But conditions are possible when no person can exercise at- 
 tention for a long time. There are always two factors, an 
 inner and an outer. If the outer factor is small, as, for 
 instance, the point of a pin, no one can hold the attention to 
 it for more than a few seconds. If the inner factor is small 
 due to lack of experience and interest, the attention will 
 also not long be held to an object. If the object of attention 
 is such as to give the inner or subjective factor much room 
 to enlarge itself upon it, as in the case of a book and a 
 reader, a picture and an artist, a problem and a mathema- 
 tician, attention may be held to it for perhaps hours at a 
 time. 
 
 Attention and Stillness. The child's normal attention 
 is weak because of its limited experience. And while it 
 tries to fix the thought it can command on a book or other 
 object, the attention is easily disturbed. There are so many 
 things that are more attractive. Every unusual sight or 
 sound distracts. To make a noise seems a delightful diver- 
 sion at all times. The schoolroom must be quiet, but only 
 so far that no one is disturbed. A deadly stillness so that 
 one can hear a pin drop, the old-fashioned ideal of order of 
 forty years ago, is not favorable to the best kind of work. 
 Still work is unnatural for children in the elementary school. 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 2yy 
 
 And it has been found by experiment that the best work is 
 accompHshed when there is a business-Hke noise going on. 
 
 Concentration Weakened by Impulse to Be Active. 
 And then distractions come because of the impulse to be 
 active when the matter in hand gives no opportunity for it. 
 Children ask to leave the room or make other excuses simply 
 to move about and relieve the tedium of sitting still. And 
 when asked to run an errand that takes them into the open 
 air for a little while, they are always overjoyed with this 
 sign of the teacher's special favor. 
 
 Concentration Weakened by Anticipations and Mem- 
 ories. Distractions are also due to anticipations of some 
 future joy or to the memory of past experiences more pleas- 
 ant to contemplate than the problem in hand. It is such 
 emotional experiences as these that work havoc with pres- 
 ent efficiency. This is particularly true of the emotional 
 type of child. The continuing emotional tone will work its 
 way subconsciously into the fabric of the present thought 
 and will weaken the attention on the present problem. The 
 result may be a general weakening of the attention or it may 
 be a straying away and a returning of the attention to the 
 present thought. Every child is familiar with this charac- 
 teristic of the weakened attention to the matter in hand. 
 Every one finds it hard after a long vacation to settle down 
 to the study of a book; the mind keeps wandering back to 
 past delights. And in the spring near the end of the year 
 when children anticipate freedom from school and there are 
 exercises and other signs of the school year's close, children 
 again find it hard to keep at their studies until the very end. 
 
 Chief Sign of Mental Strength. When children and 
 teachers give way to these emotional influences they under- 
 
278 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 mine the power of attention. It is good that the matter 
 is no worse, that the disturbing emotions are cheerful. If 
 grief over the past or fear of the future weaken attention to 
 the present need, the condition is a more serious one. An 
 emotion or feeHng appropriate to the occasion tends to unify 
 thought; rivalry between several emotions tends to scatter 
 it. To be able to hold the attention to the present and shut 
 out the past and the future at will is the chief sign of mental 
 strength. This should be one of the aims of discipline. 
 Children should practice shutting out of the mind the things 
 of the past as well as the things of the future and learn to 
 employ their full powers on present realities. In case of 
 fears they should hold to the maxim of Sir Thomas More : 
 
 If evils come not then our fears are vain, 
 And if they do fear but augments the pain. 
 
 Mistakes in Double-Track Thinking. Emotional dis- 
 turbances are often the unrecognized cause of a waste of 
 much energy by both pupil and teacher. Teachers fre- 
 quently give drill exercises in such subjects as numbers and 
 English, and require a certain amount of written work to be 
 handed in. They take the papers home and their nightly 
 task is to correct many of the same mistakes over and over 
 again. The children do not seem to profit by the drill. An 
 explanation of the difficulty seems to be this : the desired 
 effect of the drill becomes the cause of the errors made. It 
 is intended to make the number combinations and the proper 
 English forms an automatic possession of the child. The 
 more automatic they become, the more they will be like any 
 other exercise of this kind, such, for instance, as piano 
 playing. The player can in time talk while playing. Now, 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 279 
 
 if one is not interested in the playing but rather in the talk- 
 ing the wrong keys will occasionally be struck. In the same 
 way in the other exercises. Numbers and English forms 
 may be known automatically, but then they will be just the 
 place where mistakes will be made if while working the 
 exercises the child's other interests and emotions cause in- 
 terference in the orderly associations that have been so pain- 
 fully acquired. 
 
 Exercise to Increase Power of Concentration. In- 
 stead of repeating the same errors day after day, the chil- 
 dren should learn why they make the same mistakes again 
 and again, and the teacher should give them drills in con- 
 centrating their attention on every present exercise. Chil- 
 dren must think about what they are doing. They do not 
 have to scatter their energies on two trains of mental opera- 
 tions. The teacher must insist that they keep their minds 
 strictly on what they are doing. That is the proper way to 
 use the mind. It is the kind of exercise that increases the 
 power of concentration. 
 
 The Divided Attention. In all these cases it is tem- 
 porary and changing interests that interfere with the de- 
 mands of the hour. The outside attractions that take the 
 mind from the school work are not the same from day to day. 
 A divided attention on permanent rival interests has more 
 serious consequences, and it brings about marked symptoms 
 of inefificiency. In the more extreme forms it leads to patho- 
 logical states and mental breakdown. But" this rarely hap- 
 pens among school children. 
 
 Indecision, however, a sort of attention rivalry, is one of 
 the common causes of inefficiency in every day life. One 
 may be undecided as to what to think, what to say, or what 
 
28o Education and the General Welfare 
 
 to do. As a result usually of bad training children hesitate 
 about everything and are sure of nothing. They are ineffi- 
 cient in thinking because they have been allowed to acquire 
 the habit of reading in the teacher's expressive countenance 
 whether to say yes or no. They look for the familiar nod 
 of approval rather than think much on the question to be 
 answered. In certain schools a rising inflection of doubt in 
 answering all questions has become a settled mannerism, 
 which means " I am not at all sure of this and don't pretend 
 to know, so I am really asking you." To assent to what 
 one hears is an easy escape from the trouble to think. 
 
 Importance of Being Certain. To prevent this ten- 
 dency children should be trained to initiate thought, lessons 
 must not be too long, and the tempo of the school work must 
 not be too fast. They should be trained in time to arrive 
 at such a degree of certainty in their conclusions that they 
 would be willing to defend them against the contention of 
 any one even including the teacher. It is not for them to 
 worry over the questions of an examination for fear that 
 they may not say in answer what the teacher might want. 
 It is rather their part of the work to determine what the 
 questions ought to mean and then give the answer that is 
 certainly correct, whoever in the wide world shall happen 
 to read it. Children must learn in school that whatever 
 is right, is right in spite of any person. It is an im- 
 portant day in his training when a child becomes sure of 
 something. 
 
 Indecision as Reflected in School Work. Indecision 
 and a wavering attention is indicated on the written page 
 not alone in the confusion of ideas found upon it but even 
 in the variant forms of penmanship, ink blots and blurs, and 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 281 
 
 a writing that straggles over the margins at the side, top, 
 and bottom. This kind of work is characteristic of the 
 emotional temperament and is often attended by great ex- 
 citement. It is a condition that may be observed among 
 students of high school age and above that during the 
 period of examinations. There are those who would say 
 that the system of examinations is at fault; it is rather the 
 fault of habitual indecision. A teacher reports that this con- 
 dition was relieved after a long and careful study of such a 
 case by explaining to the student the nature of the difficulty 
 and then simply adding " Now, stop it." This was done at 
 the very beginning of the examination in a low tone of 
 voice so that no one else heard it. The result was altogether 
 favorable. Later after every examination, the student left 
 the room in a calm frame of mind and her papers were 
 greatly improved. In another instance where the confu- 
 sion of mind ended in an outburst of weeping, the same 
 plan was pursued with the result that the student resumed 
 work on the exaimination and succeeded in passing it. 
 
 Home Training in Indecision. Habitual indecision be- 
 tween courses of action presents serious possibilities. It is 
 also a result of neglected training. When children are 
 young they manifest healthy impulses to action in their prob- 
 lems of conduct. In time these are weakened by the par- 
 ental tendency to forbid all their proposals, projects, or plans. 
 In their attempts to carry out a course of action to its con- 
 clusion, the children are met with an indiscriminate " You 
 mustn't " or '' You can't." This begets an attitude of re- 
 pression to their impulses and increases timidity and self- 
 consciousness. Thus, not gaining practice in meeting the 
 situations presented in alternative courses of conduct, they 
 
282 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 become indifferent to the issues of life or they become power- 
 less to decide rationally what is best for them to do and 
 instead of thinking out their own problems take refuge in 
 some one's advice. If the matter is too trivial for that, or 
 if it is a secret which out of self-respect must not be di- 
 vulged, they will never be certain of the course to take, or if 
 they do act they are usually self-conscious and awkward. 
 Thus '' function is smothered in surmise . . ." and '' enter- 
 prises of great pitch and moment . . . lose the name of 
 action." 
 
 Facing and Settling Problems. Suppose two possible 
 modes of action present themselves. There are several ways 
 of not meeting the problem. One may suppress both and 
 remain inactive. One may act on one and suppress the 
 other. One may act on both alternately, that is, suppress 
 now one and now the other. In none of these cases do we 
 get clear of one of the alternatives, they only sink into the 
 subconsciousness. In no one of these cases do we arrive at 
 a clear and final decision, the buried impulses are still alive 
 and keep the purpose unsettled and the power of execution 
 blunted. Finally, another and the proper way to meet the 
 situation is to meet it frankly and fully, facing it with all 
 the vigor of our best powers of thought and deciding what 
 we should do, and then doing it. This. is the way to be true 
 to one's self and not " be false to any man." Thus we 
 choose one course of action and root out the tendencies to do 
 the other. This is a way to clear up '' misunderstandings," 
 to accept a belief, and to decide on a proper course of action. 
 To meet and solve the problems of conduct is one of the 
 nonmal responsibilities of life. If we shirk or refuse to 
 accept them, penalties are exacted of different degrees of 
 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 283 
 
 severity from the normal forms of indecision and disturb- 
 ances of attention to imad-house insanity. 
 
 The hygiene and discipline of the mind is one of the most 
 important phases of school management. We have long 
 known the kind of discipline in the home and the school that 
 had for its chief injunction the warning '' Keep still." If 
 this were all of discipline the problem would be easy to solve 
 by force and would not require any thought or discrimina- 
 tion on the part of the teacher. But we have not alone 
 moral but also mental characters to deal with during the 
 most impressionable years of life. We should know what 
 the conditions of mental activity really are, what attitudes to 
 establish, what to make the object of attention, what to 
 subordinate, what to avoid, and how to prevent hindrances 
 to concentration and to decision of character. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 The Individual and the Group 
 
 Society does not teach behavior by formal instruction, 
 but ignorance of its written and unwritten laws excuses no 
 one from its penalties. Manners, customs, statutes — the 
 rules of the group — are instituted to control the emotions 
 of the individual. In mental discipline control must come 
 from within, a person must take himself in hand; thinking 
 is original. In social discipline, the individual profits by 
 association with others; he learns to limit his desires for 
 the good of all and to revise his ideas by correction with 
 those of his equals, and he gains ultimately the civic virtue of 
 obedience to the will of the people and the voice of ma- 
 jorities. 
 
 The school is so organized that it can give this training by 
 practice. In fact, it cannot help giving some kind of train- 
 ing in the social order. It is in itself a society in which, 
 as in society at large, the same laws control and both teacher 
 and pupil are under their dominion. 
 
 Limitations of Freedom. The group limits the freedom 
 of the individual. The larger this group the greater the 
 limitation. The small child longs for the freedom of the 
 older children and these for the freedom of their elders. 
 In time all come to learn that there is no person in the wide 
 world who can do as he pleases. It is a familiar thought 
 
 284 
 
The Individual and the Group 285 
 
 that the universe of time and space imposes its limitations on 
 human endeavor. The best we can do is to make a sort 
 of compromise. We adjust ourselves to times and seasons 
 and make our lives beat in the rhythms of the universe. 
 We work by day and rest by night, we sow in spring to reap 
 in summer. Nature exacts the severest penalties for being 
 behind time. To get the habit of going to sleep at sundown 
 and rising at dawn is the beginning of the moral life in the 
 young child as well as a benefit to the health. To eat and 
 sleep at regular intervals is for all persons to draw on the 
 rhythmic forces of nature for health and enjoyment. Keep- 
 ing regular hours has a distinct relation to character 
 growth. The school as well as the home throws around the 
 child certain limitations of conduct, the full significance of 
 which he is not able to comprehend. In these things the 
 child needs the direction of the parent and the teacher. 
 
 The Teacher in Relation to the School. The school is 
 a group of which the teacher also is a part. The only im- 
 portant difference between him and the other members of 
 the group is due to the fact that by virtue of his experience 
 he knows lines of conduct whose value he can more fully 
 comprehend than they. In these matters he commands their 
 obedience on the ground of their confidence in his wisdom. 
 
 The School an Organic Unit. The school is also to be 
 looked upon as a little community united for a common use- 
 ful purpose. The teacher is the head or leader through 
 whom all the parts of the organization are coordinated and 
 through whom all the activities are systematized. Each 
 pupil should feel that he has a place in the system, a part to 
 perform that is in a way indispensable. The different ac- 
 tivities of the school should reveal such an evident purpose- 
 
286 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 fulness that those who engage in them should see the rela- 
 tion of what they do to the good of the whole school. This 
 is a higher principle of action than mere blind obedience and 
 thus has educational value in itself. The teacher himself 
 is obedient to this principle. He too is loyal to what is best 
 for all, and he does not expect and will not countenance a 
 personal loyalty to himself when it does not mean faithful- 
 ness to the highest purpose for which the school exists. He 
 does not play the role of the benevolent despot. The pur- 
 pose of the school should, as far as possible, be uppermost 
 in the minds of all, teacher and pupils alike, and he who is 
 sincerely loyal to that purpose exercises the highest type of 
 allegiance. 
 
 Danger in the Strong Personality. The strong per- 
 sonality may not be an unmixed blessing in the schoolroom. 
 An unobtrusive director is better for the children than a 
 domineering leader. Children should not get the idea that 
 unbecoming behavior annoys the teacher, but that it disturbs 
 the work of the school. The work that is done should not 
 seem to please the teacher : " Let us " is a better form of 
 assignment than " I want you to." And the teacher will 
 not be opinionated. He will not dogmatize too much. His 
 mind will be open for further evidence. He will not begin 
 instruction with conclusions and results, for this will para- 
 lyze activity of the right kind among the pupils. When 
 everything is done, when opinions are fixed, when the truths 
 are all defined to begin with, what can students do but com- 
 mit to memory generalized statements and at best try to 
 corroborate what the books and the teacher are sure of? 
 
 Teacher's Duty to the Group. As a part of the school 
 communitv, it is the teacher's duty to the group to be punc- 
 
The Individual and the Group 287 
 
 tual in all ^his engagements. He must not only be on time 
 but he must be ready for work on time. This will require 
 preparation of material in advance and having the plans for 
 work ready when needed. The teacher will begin to plan 
 before the first day of school. He will visit the neighbor- 
 hood and learn of the character of the people. An inter- 
 view might be had with the last teacher of the school, or the 
 county superintendent, or the principal if the school is in a 
 city district. If it is learned that for some reason no ma- 
 terial will be available at the beginning of the session, the 
 teacher will have time to plan to get along without this help. 
 Under no circumstances should the children be dismissed the 
 first day without anything done nor should they be excused 
 before the closing time. The teacher and the children should 
 begin the work on schedule time. Any other practice may 
 invite dawdling throughout the year. The first day is the 
 most exacting of all upon the teacher's skill in management. 
 First impressions are important, and the teacher should be 
 careful to initiate only such attitudes to the work of the 
 school as are desired to be permanent throughout the year. 
 
 Training for Grroup Activity. Degrees of civilization 
 and enlightenment may be measured by the number of people 
 that can live together for the common good. The young 
 infant comes into the world without the power of adapta- 
 tion and subjects the whole family group to its needs. As 
 it grows older it adjusts itself more and more to the wishes 
 of the group until its rights are balanced by its duties as in 
 the case of any other member of the family. On going to 
 school to join a larger group, the child faces a critical period 
 of life. And the school is only a step to the life in the 
 larger community in which he lives. Here the child is sup- 
 
288 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 posed to learn to become also a member of the larger com- 
 munities, as the city, the state, and the nation. Savage 
 tribes are capable of only a limited extension of their mental 
 and social horizon. The " lower savages " are said to have 
 the power of combining in hordes of only about forty, the 
 next rank combine to the number of one hundred and fifty, 
 the next three hundred and sixty ; the " lower barbarians " 
 can live in towns of a thousand inhabitants and the " lower 
 cultured " in cities of six million inhabitants. Only races 
 capable of union have succeeded in perpetuating themselves.^ 
 To become truly citizens of the world requires a culture and 
 training of which not all are capable. 
 
 From Family to School. To make the adjustment from 
 the family to the larger group of the school is attended with 
 considerable difficulty. The laws of the smaller group are 
 different from those of the larger. The children of the same 
 family are likely to be communistic at home with respect to 
 familiar things to eat and wear. They are individualistic 
 in regard to novelties. They are likely to quarrel over the 
 possession of a new toy. When the novelty has worn off, 
 the toy falls to the communistic level. In school to use pen- 
 cils, towels, etc., in common is forbidden as unhygienic; its 
 consequences may be very serious. In the home to pick up 
 money of the more familiar denominations that happens to 
 lie around, and use it, is perhaps a pardonable fault; in 
 school, the same act is criminal. 
 
 Group Efficiency Requires System. In the smaller 
 group an order of procedure may not be necessary ; in the 
 larger group it saves time and confusion. In school there 
 
 1 Sutherland : " Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, Vol. I, p. 
 366, Longmans, Green and Company. 
 
The Individual and the Group 289 
 
 must be a time and place for everything. The child must 
 learn the difference between mine and thine with respect to 
 space as well as to property. There must be a place for 
 the child's things, a locker or clothes hook, and he must 
 keep it as a possession and no one must appropriate it. 
 There must be a time to do certain things and a time not 
 to do them. At home a child can be more free from re- 
 strictions. Those children who come from well regulated 
 families make the transition to the larger group with less 
 difficulty than others. If the children at home are required 
 to be on time at their meals and on retiring at night they 
 are likely to be prompt at school. 
 
 In school there must be an orderly procedure to expedite 
 work, to exhibit an example of the way to do things, and to 
 inculcate orderly habits. With the larger group this be- 
 comes particularly necessary in order to curb individual haste 
 and impatience. This kind of training is also necessary for 
 its effect upon individual efficiency. When one has a num- 
 ber of things to do he is wise to classify them and do 
 them in a certain order. We economize time by remember- 
 ing our different errands and we plan to do them so as not to 
 do more walking than necessary. We arrange the places in 
 order and do the errands in orderly succession. We use 
 pigeon-holes and desks with drawers so that we can dis- 
 tribute the things we need in order, so that we may become 
 accustomed to finding them in the same place each time and 
 habituate our movements, thus saving time and energy 
 which we need for other things. On the same principle, in 
 school " We have a place for everything and every thing in 
 its place," not simply because some one told us or because 
 we read it in a book, but because we know we can accom- 
 
2go Education and the General Welfare 
 
 plish more this way and the children need it as an exhibi- 
 tion of order in community Hfe. 
 
 In school, children learn to act together in larger and 
 larger groups as the years go by. From the very first they 
 learn to do certain things at the same time. They assemble 
 promptly and without individual exception at the time of 
 opening the session. They are dismissed at the same time. 
 In order to avoid confusion with large numbers of children 
 an order of procedure is initiated in which each child has 
 to wait his turn. This the teacher plans for in advance 
 and with such care and forethought that it may not have to 
 be changed after it once is instituted. An order of pro- 
 cedure succeeds only if it affects all the children alike and 
 if it is repeated without exception until it becomes habitual. 
 To contribute its part to community orderliness is an im- 
 portant part of the child's training. 
 
 Distinguishing Constants and Variables. It is an 
 economy to the individual and the group to anticipate in this 
 way what it is known will recur again and again in order to 
 have greater freedom to attend to those things which re- 
 quire our best thought. It is a useful principle to divide 
 the activities that confront us into those that are repeated 
 and those that are not — into constants and variables. The 
 former we habituate ourselves to so that we can do them 
 without thinking and apply ourselves to the things of life 
 whose character we can never predict. This is a lesson for 
 the school to exemplify. The first few days or weeks of 
 school life before the routine activities have become estab- 
 lished are the most trying to teacher and pupils. They pass 
 but slowly. Attention at first must be scattered over numer- 
 ous details that afterward become automatic and subside 
 
The Individual and the Group 291 
 
 from the consciousness. Then the days pass more rapidly 
 and the mind is more free to concentrate on matters that can- 
 not be anticipated or prepared for. 
 
 The Appeal to Reason. Training for group activity 
 should be on a rational basis. As far as possible children 
 should understand the reasons that underlie orderly conduct 
 in a group. The future citizens should get into the habit of 
 acting on principle, in obedience to reason and law, and not 
 on impulses of personal likes and dislikes. Every activity of 
 the school should have a reasonable motive which the child 
 can understand. In group discipline the principles of con- 
 duct in a community gain control over the children of the 
 school and the proper habits are acquired for a decent civil 
 Hfe. 
 
 The Individual and the Group in Class Work. The 
 practice of teaching children together in classes came rela- 
 tively late in the history of instruction. As late as the be- 
 ginning of the eighteenth century children were taught indi- 
 vidually. Although they were instructed in the same room 
 and by the same teacher, they were called up one by one to 
 the teacher's desk to recite their lessons. The advantages of 
 having children work together in the same class are of vari- 
 ous kinds. More ground can be covered by means of the 
 class organization, and it is a financial economy to accom- 
 modate many pupils at the same time so as to reduce the 
 number of teachers that have to be engaged and remuner- 
 ated. Individual '' coaching " is superior when preparation 
 is hurried and the matter is to be retained only until exam- 
 inations are over. Good class work should '' season " 
 knowledge and make it more usable. 
 
 There is, of course, an advantage of a social character in 
 
292 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 the method of class instruction. It brings the children in 
 close mental relation to each other ; they are rivals or help- 
 ers to the teacher or to each other, thus contributing their 
 part to the common knowledge of the whole group. The 
 spirit of emulation is a means to spur individuals on to 
 greater effort. It is useful in competitive games on sub- 
 jects requiring much drill. The class organization also af- 
 fords opportunity for group divisions who select portions 
 of work to do independently of each other, which they re- 
 port upon to the whole class. 
 
 Individual vs. Class Teaching. In class work there are 
 two complementary factors. If the effort of the teacher is 
 directed to the whole class as such it is superficial and inef- 
 fectual; if it is directed to individuals in turn it becomes 
 exclusive and narrow. The proper kind of class work 
 reaches the individual through the class and the class through 
 the individuals. There is no way of reaching the whole 
 class without reaching the individual members. The best 
 teaching never loses sight of the fact that instruction and 
 training never reach the mark unless they come home to each 
 person. In the matter of attention, each individual must 
 exercise it whether it be to a demonstration by the teacher or 
 by one of the pupils. 
 
 Individual and Social Elements in the Formal Recita- 
 tion. Knowledge is founded on experience, and experience 
 is individual. As illustrated in the process of perception, 
 the new object of sense must be interpreted with something 
 remembered. But the remembered experience is an individ- 
 ual matter. In applying this principle in gaining knowledge, 
 the individual experience must therefore be the key to the un- 
 derstanding of the new. Hence each student must have 
 
The Individual and the Group 2g^ 
 
 perfect freedom to use his experience in the recitation, for 
 it is his only means of understanding and appreciation. 
 This is the individual side of class work. Arousing mem- 
 ories of experiences that pertain to the, matter in hand is 
 also the first of the steps of the formal recitation. Group 
 activity comes next into play. The members of the class 
 A, B, C, etc., in bringing their different experiences to bear 
 on the subject of study will necessarily bring out differences 
 and resemblances which will enrich the total concept in the 
 minds of all. This is made possible by the fact that A, B, C, 
 etc., work together. They may now, as a next step, together 
 frame and criticize a generalized statement on what they 
 have together learned of the subject of study. The final 
 form of statement is such as can be verbally remembered. 
 It is also understood. It may now be applied to other 
 instances. In this last step each can again work by 
 himself.^ 
 
 If each of the students contributes his part to the whole 
 procedure and gives his full attention to the contributions 
 of the others, the knowledge gained is as complete as it 
 practically can be; if this is not the case there is no magic 
 power in the social situation presented by the class that 
 can bring it about. In short, learning in a class can come 
 about only through the interested cooperation of all the in- 
 dividuals of the class. 
 
 Value of Class Criticism. Criticism, or the judgment 
 of excellence, on the part of the pupils can function best in 
 the class organization. The reading or speaking that chil- 
 dren do should be directed to the class, not to the teacher. 
 It might well be made a general rule that a pupil always 
 1 Compare the Herbartian steps of the recitation. 
 
294 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 directs his attention to the class and never to the teacher. 
 The teacher is not a good audience, for he knows already 
 what should be said and hence there is no proper motive to 
 tell him. The object in reciting to a teacher is usually as- 
 sumed to be for a test of correctness of form. While the 
 main concern of the teacher is whether the pupil is right 
 and uses the proper forms of expression, the pupil's atten- 
 tion must be directed to giving the substance of thought. In 
 the class exercise the form side is properly subordinated to 
 the content. That is, it is better for the child to get the 
 habit of thinking what he is going to say than to be think- 
 ing how he ought to say it. Directing his remarks to the 
 class favors the former attitude. 
 
 Establishing Class Standards. Even as critics of form 
 the classmates are more effective than the teacher. The 
 teacher knows ; he ought to know, of course. The pupil will 
 not measure himself by the attainments of the teacher. 
 But it is a challenge to his pride to lay himself open to cor- 
 rection by a classmate who should not know more about the 
 matter than himself. The pupil will forget the teacher's 
 criticism but will likely remember distinctly that a classmate 
 was able to correct him and what he was corrected for. 
 Comparison of themselves with others of the class is the 
 most concrete way children have of measuring their indi- 
 vidual progress. The teacher should manage to have pupils 
 set high standards of excellence in class work. The intel- 
 lectual leaders should go first. When any new form of 
 work is undertaken, the more capable students should lead 
 the way. This establishes the class expectation of a high 
 standard of work. It will not do to let the weaker ones set 
 the pace. These can follow, and they will more readily rise 
 
The Individual and the Group 295 
 
 to the standard set by a classmate than they would to one 
 set by the teacher. 
 
 Cooperative Class Work. The class organization also 
 gives opportunities for joint work of other kinds. A read- 
 ing lesson is often much improved when a dramatic render- 
 ing is improvised. The class may engage in other common 
 projects, such as a program of entertainment for other 
 classes, exhibitions of skill in the manual arts or in gym- 
 nastic exercises. Now the class spirit is drawn on to mo- 
 tivate endeavor. This form of exercise has its weak side 
 in that it does not draw on the capability of the individual 
 members of the class in the same degree. There will always 
 be favorite parts in a dramatic representation which all want 
 to take. And repetitions with change of parts cannot well 
 be carried on with a constant degree of interest. 
 
 Group Appreciations. The group organization has spe- 
 cial advantages in the field of appreciation. Sharing the 
 good in pictures, music, and the drama multiplies enjoyment 
 and gives opportunity for discriminative discussions of ex- 
 cellence. The interest and enthusiasm of a few may affect 
 the whole group. In this way the more stolid temperaments 
 may be reached that would otherwise remain unresponsive. 
 
 Weakening Initiative and Power of Attack. The class 
 situation is sometimes looked upon as a means of creating 
 social opportunities of mutual assistance. It is held that 
 this begets an attitude of helpfulness which is indispensable 
 to a well-ordered community life. There are, however, two 
 sides to the situation, that of the helper and that of those 
 who are helped. During the class period helping others 
 gives the public presumption of superiority to those who en- 
 gage in it and stimulates their energies. On the other hand, 
 
296 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 while it may be a wholesome hint to those who have neg- 
 lected to do their work during the study period, its value is 
 limited for those who always need assistance. It offers a 
 means of escape from individual initiative and diminishes 
 the power of attack. It should rather be understood that 
 the lessons are to be individually prepared before the time of 
 the class period and that the class period proper is the occa- 
 sion when individual preparations are subjected by all to re- 
 view and criticism. The lesson of mutual helpfulness 
 should not be the aim but rather the by-product of this test 
 of the results of preparation. 
 
 Group Preparation. Study in preparation for an as- 
 signment, however, need not always be carried on individ- 
 ually and alone. Drill exercises may be helpfully practiced 
 together. Drill in numbers or language forms or in any 
 other field in which facts are final and unchanging can be 
 conducted by the students themselves. Lessons in apprecia- 
 tion of classic literature often give increased enjoyment when 
 students read to each other. 
 
 Intellectual and Social Value of Intensive Class Work. 
 When pupils answer questions, recite, or report upon work, 
 an opportunity is offered in the class period to cultivate the 
 power to concentrate and the power and patience to listen to 
 what others have to say, that is unrivaled by any other ex- 
 ercise. It has both intellectual and social value ; it is neces- 
 sary for the power of continuous thought and it is a social 
 courtesy. While the class work continues, the pupil must at- 
 tend to what is going on. When inattention is revealed by 
 the blank, far-away look, which cannot deceive the teacher, 
 or in other and more overt ways, the intermittent question 
 should bring back the wandering attention. There is a time 
 
The Individual and the Group 297 
 
 for rest and recreation; there must also be a time for 
 strenuous work as well as play. The state compels the 
 physical presence of the children in the school at great ex- 
 pense to the citizens; if their mental presence is not also 
 assured, there is loss all around. Under good discipline 
 the school manages to have something to do that is worth 
 while and to have it done in a whole-hearted way. 
 
 Loss of Individual in the Group. When classes become 
 too large many of the advantages of this form of school 
 work are lost. Under this condition the group phase out- 
 weighs the individual phase of the work. Writers on the 
 subject have usually given thirty as the maximum size of the 
 class. When classes are much larger, the individual ele- 
 ments composing the group are to a certain extent lost and 
 instruction becomes rigid and mechanical. 
 
 Group Consistency. Even though a class is not too 
 large, the work done will not reach all the members if the 
 group lacks consistency. The principle that unifies a group 
 in school is equality of its members in the grade of advance- 
 ment. Even in large cities where the numbers are large 
 enough to make the grading close, the classes which con- 
 front the teacher are often lacking in uniform ability to 
 profit by the work that should be done. For example, Dr. 
 Bonser found that 90 per cent of 4A pupils tested in " Rea- 
 soning Ability " were superior to the poorest of the 5A pu- 
 pils, and that 79 per cent of them were better than the 
 poorest of the 6A pupils. The Courtis tests in arithmetic 
 have shown that it is possible to find in any fourth grade, 
 pupils whose ability is equal to that of the average pupil of 
 the seventh grade or to that of more than a fourth of the 
 eighth grade pupils, and to find in the eighth grade, pupils 
 
298 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 whose ability is below the average ability in the fifth grade 
 or that of a third of the pupils in the fourth grade. 
 
 Promotion and Grading. Teaching children in groups 
 misses its aim if they are not graded according to degree of 
 advancement. When the grading is faulty, the work will 
 go too rapidly and without sufficient detail for some, while 
 for others it will be too slow and seem trivial. In one case, 
 it has well been said, there will be " effort without success," 
 in the other " success without effort." This is demoralizing 
 for all. Inequality in a class cannot be avoided, but the 
 methods of promotion may be so bad that a class may become 
 disintegrated. 
 
 Where the Trouble Begins. The children of the first 
 grade are an unselected group, as they enter on the sole basis 
 of age. Besides, there are usually a great number of them 
 under the same teacher. A first grade of sixty or more is 
 not uncommon in the cities. Under such conditions, the end 
 of the year will probably show a large number of unequal 
 groups. 
 
 Appointed Times for Promotion. Under the system of 
 annual promotions a child cannot go ahead of the class he is 
 in until the end of the year and then he must skip a whole 
 year. And a child who fails to pass at the end of the year 
 must repeat the whole year. In most cities a grade is di- 
 vided into two sections, half a year apart, and there are 
 semi-annual promotions. In the larger cities where the 
 grades are large enough to be divided into four sections and 
 can be together in the same building, there may be quar- 
 terly promotions, so that there cannot be a loss to a mis- 
 placed pupil of more than a quarter of a year. 
 
 Keeping the Group Consistent. Inequality in a group 
 
The Individual and the Group 299 
 
 may be conceived of as due to difference in (i) rate of 
 progress in the same course of study, (2) amount of work 
 done, (3) power to do work, and (4) ability to do the work 
 of the several branches of study. 
 
 (i) To correct inequalities there are opportunities for 
 frequent promotions, at the end of a half year, a quarter of 
 a year, or promotions may be made at any time. Accord- 
 ing to the Cambridge Plan ^ there are two parallel courses, 
 a basal or eight-year course and the other a six-year course. 
 For each year except the last of these courses there are three 
 sections, so that failure in any section will mean the loss of 
 only a third of a year. On the other hand promotion from 
 the slower eight-year course to the six-year course, or the re- 
 verse, may be made at five places in the course. According 
 to the Pueblo Plan the individual need is the controlling 
 principle. Each pupil goes as fast as he can, completing 
 each piece of work before he takes up another. In large 
 schools groups are formed and the pupils are moved from 
 one group to another on the principle of rate of progress. 
 
 (2) On the basis of the amount of work done, three 
 courses are mapped out for each of the first six grades: 
 one, a course of minimum essentials; another, a course 
 for the average group with something added to the preced- 
 ing; a third course with some additions to the preceding for 
 the superior group. Promotion by subjects comes after the 
 sixth grade. 
 
 (3) Under the Batavia Plan a special effort is made to 
 develop power to do the work required, to help slow pupils 
 to keep even in the ranks. In classes of fifty or less half 
 
 1 Cubberley : " Public School Administration," The Macmillan Com- 
 pany, New York, 1916, pp. 300-310. 
 
300 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 the teacher's time is devoted to directing study. When 
 classes are larger, a second teacher assists the regular teacher 
 who conducts the recitations. 
 
 (4) In the higher grades usually, the pupils may be pro- 
 moted to higher classes in those subjects in which they ex- 
 cel the members of their own group. 
 
 Group Organizations. Usually teachers are free to con- 
 duct their classes according to their own ideas of manage- 
 ment. Whatever the methods of promotion may be, or 
 however coherent the parts of the class may be, teachers 
 may organize a class for the various purposes of instruction. 
 When the classes are large they may be divided into two 
 groups, alternating oral and written or construction work. 
 There are those who recommend that all classes be divided 
 into three groups and that different amounts of work be as- 
 signed for the average, the slow, and the superior. The 
 psychological order of instruction as indicated in the fol- 
 lowing chapter would make a division of a class or group 
 into several parts a convenience. 
 
 But the group plan of class organization often is followed 
 more unreservedly. In such a case the teachers make the 
 work informal, use movable chairs, and provide a table 
 for each of the groups of six or eight. They stimulate in- 
 dividual and group initiative, encourage competition between 
 the groups, and emphasize cooperation. They allow a wide 
 latitude of freedom to the whole class or any group to form 
 plans for work or entertainment or to engage in a group 
 or school enterprise. 
 
 In this chapter we have considered that part of discipline 
 which relates particularly to group organization and a kind 
 of training for which the school has special advantages. 
 
The Individual and the Group 301 
 
 Here the children learn to act together as a larger group 
 for a common purpose, they learn to think together, and to 
 react to group opinion. Their play, their work, their lan- 
 guage, their thought, are all better because of their life in 
 the group. This training is essentially such as should lead 
 by the time the child passes through the sixth grade to a fair 
 appreciation of the obligations of community life and the 
 spirit of citizenship. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 The Work of the School Day 
 
 All the problems of teaching come to a focus in the 
 actual work of the school day. Under simplest conditions, 
 the number of children who appear for the work are all of 
 the same grade of advancement. It is to be supposed that 
 they are able to do about the same work in all the branches. 
 When they are of unequal attainments the problem is at once 
 complicated. They must now be classified or graded. In 
 every school where this becomes necessary there is usually 
 a record of the classification of the preceding year. When 
 as many as eight grades must be provided for, as may hap- 
 pen in a one-teacher rural school, the problem of manage- 
 ment presents itself in the most perplexing form. There 
 may be as many as ten subjects to be provided for in each 
 of eight grades. If there were a recitation in each subject 
 for each grade there would be eighty recitations in a school 
 day. If the school day is one of three hundred and sixty 
 minutes there would be four and one-half minutes for a 
 recitation without making allowance for recesses. But as- 
 suming that there are forty-eight pupils in the school, or 
 an average of six per grade, there would be a recitation time 
 of three-quarters of a minute per pupil per subject, and in 
 ten subjects there would be an average of seven and a half 
 minutes a day of recitation time. 
 
 Principles of Program Making. To avoid an impos- 
 sible situation such as is conceived above, the program must 
 
 302 
 
The Work of the School Day 303 
 
 be organized in view of the nature and importance of the 
 subjects taught. Any daily program is therefore made by 
 
 1 taking the number of subjects to be taught 
 
 2 in a day of 360 minutes (let us say) less the time taken out 
 for recesses and general exercises 
 
 3 dividing 2 by i 
 
 4 distributing the time on the basis of the importance of the 
 subjects for each grade, noting at the same time those that 
 
 (a) are to be omitted for certain grades 
 
 (b) require no preparation 
 
 (c) can be taught to combined groups or to the school as 
 
 a whole 
 
 (d) can be alternated 
 
 (e) can be combined 
 
 Time Distribution. When we consider the amount of 
 time that should be devoted to each subject we are greatly 
 influenced by common practice in the matter. The follow- 
 ing gives the distribution of time in minutes per week by 
 subjects and grades in fifty cities : 
 
 CHART XX 
 
 Time Distribution by Subjects and by Grades in 
 Fifty Cities ^ 
 
 Grade 
 
 Minutes per week devoted to- 
 
 I II III IV V VI VII VIII 
 
 Opening Exercises 59 59 59 54 49 48 48 48 
 
 Reading 412 364 291 236 195 181 151 150 
 
 Language 116 122 145 164 179 182 207 220 
 
 Spelling 83 102 113 103 94 89 80 79 
 
 Penmanship 77 92 80 82 77 7^ 60 57 
 
 Arithmetic 92 148 203 230 223 226 217 220 
 
 Geography 25 13 77 128 158 166 151 118 
 
 1 See foot-note, next page. 
 
304 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Time Distribution by Subjects and by Grades in 
 Fifty Cities ^ 
 
 Grade 
 Minutes per week devoted to 
 
 I II III IV V VI VII VIII 
 
 History 42 48 54 88 103 no 141 181 
 
 Science 57 63 62 57 53 62 70 88 
 
 Drawing 151 83 87 82 yy yy yy 76 
 
 Music 70 130 yz y\ 70 70 70 68 
 
 Manual training 65 yz 62 70 yy 88 iii 114 
 
 Physical training 71 63 62 62 59 62 59 6c 
 
 A Rural School Program. The problem of adjusting a 
 daily program of a large number of subjects to the maxi- 
 mum number of elementary grades is a difficult one. Stand- 
 ard programs consist of two parts : one, a program of reci- 
 tations; the other, a program of study periods for each class. 
 A continuous program for eight successive grades or di- 
 visions is not attempted. There are never more than five 
 divisions. Some states authorize programs of only four 
 divisions. When a program of five divisions is used, it is 
 carried out by the method of alternations. In the author- 
 ized program for the elementary schools of Illinois, for 
 instance, there are two parts : one mapping out the work to 
 be done in Even Numbered Years Work (19 18, 1920, etc.) 
 and one for the Odd Numbered Year's Work (1919, 1921, 
 etc.). In the following chart the recitation section of these 
 two programs is given in parallel columns for convenient 
 reference in explaining the methods of alternation. 
 
 1 Compiled from Table II, study by H. W. Holmes and others, in 
 "Fourteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Edu- 
 cation," Part II, page 26 (1915) ; from total annual allotment in hours, 
 divided by average number of weeks of school year (38.75) > ^nd re- 
 duced to minutes. 
 
The Work of the School Day 
 
 CHART XXI 
 
 A One-Teacher Rural School Recitation Program 
 
 305 
 
 Begin 
 
 Time Year Even No. 
 
 Years 
 
 Time Year Odd No. Years 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 9:00 
 
 10 
 
 All 
 
 Op. Exercises 
 
 10 
 
 All 
 
 Op. Exercises 
 
 
 10 
 
 I 
 
 Primary Work 
 
 10 
 
 I 
 
 Primary Work 
 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 Number 
 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 Number 
 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 Reading 
 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 Grammar 
 
 10:00 
 
 IS 
 
 All 
 
 Recess 
 
 
 15 
 
 All 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 I 
 
 Primary Work 
 
 10 
 
 I 
 
 Primary Work 
 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 Spelling 
 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 Spelling 
 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 Reading 
 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 Reading 
 
 
 20 
 
 8 
 
 Grammar 
 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 Reading 
 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 Spelling 
 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 Spelling 
 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 Spelling 
 
 
 10 
 10 
 
 6 
 8 
 
 SpelHng 
 Spelling 
 
 12: 00 
 
 60 
 
 All 
 
 Noon 
 
 
 60 
 
 All 
 
 
 1:00 
 
 10 
 
 All 
 
 Gen. Exercises 
 
 10 
 
 All 
 
 Gen. Exercises 
 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 Spelling 
 
 
 10 
 
 I 
 
 Primary Work 
 
 
 10 
 
 I 
 
 Primary Work 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 Reading 
 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 Reading 
 
 
 15 
 
 All 
 
 Writing & Draw. 
 
 
 15 
 
 All 
 
 Writing & 
 
 Draw. 
 
 15' 
 
 8 
 
 Geography 
 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 Geography 
 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 Reading 
 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 Reading 
 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 History 
 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 Geography 
 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 Geography 
 
 2:30 
 
 15 
 
 All 
 
 Recess 
 
 
 15 
 
 All 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 1-2 
 
 Lang. & N. 
 
 S. 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 History 
 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 History 
 
 
 15 
 
 1-2 
 
 Lang. & N. S. 
 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 Lang. & N. 
 
 S. 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 Lang. & N. S. 
 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 Lang. & N. 
 
 S. 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 Lang. & N. S. 
 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 Physiol. -Civics 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 Physiol.-Civics 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 Geography 
 
 1 Tabulated from published programs in " Course of Study for Com- 
 mon Schools of Illinois," 1918, Taylorsville, 111., pp. 16-17. 
 
3o6 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 In this program the General Exercises are devoted to 
 Music or Morals and Manners or Agriculture; and the 5th 
 and 6th Sewing, and 7th and 8th Cooking take the period 
 after the afternoon recess the first and the third Friday of 
 each month. 
 
 Explanation of Chart. The program of study periods 
 for each class is not given here. Important though it be for 
 the teacher to have the whole study program carefully 
 mapped out, it is not necessary to publish it here for an ex- 
 planation of the essential features of the whole plan. The 
 recitation program is the hinge on which everything turns. 
 The study program is mapped out on the basis of the time 
 not taken by the recitations. Given the time when each class 
 recites, the rest of the time available is taken up in prepara- 
 tion. The Illinois study program, however, has one par- 
 ticularly noteworthy feature not indicated here; it follows 
 the principle that preparation of the new assignment be 
 made immediately after the recitation. This rule is carried 
 out in the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th years and to a limited extent 
 in the 3rd and the 4th. 
 
 In column I is given the time of beginning each exercise. 
 As there is some difference of detail in the two columns of 
 recitations only the more important points in the time 
 schedule are given. Columns II and V will make the clock 
 time of each exercise clear enough, as well as give the 
 amount of time devoted to each recitation. In columns III 
 and VI the years, or grades, reciting and in columns IV and 
 VII the subjects of recitation, are given for the even and 
 the odd numbered years respectively. 
 
 Method of Alternation. It will be seen from an inspec- 
 
The Work of the School Day 
 
 307 
 
 tion of columns III and VI which years, or grades, are heard 
 in recitation and which are omitted. In column III it ap- 
 pears that I, 3, 5, 7 year (grade) pupils recite in all the 
 subjects, 2 in reading, spelling, and number, 4 in arithmetic, 
 and 8 in grammar. In the Odd Numbered Year's Work, 
 classes are organized for 2, 4, 6, 8, in every subject, i in read- 
 ing, spelling, and number, 3 in arithmetic, 7 in grammar. 
 
 The Program for 19 19. Taking the program for 191 9, 
 an odd numbered year, as we go down the list from the top 
 of column VI we find alternations as follows : 
 
 7th year pupils in arithmetic take the work with 8th year pupils 
 
 5th 
 
 <i 
 
 ii li le 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 ' 6th 
 
 11 I 
 
 5th 
 
 " 
 
 " " reading 
 
 
 '( 
 
 
 ' 6th 
 
 11 I 
 
 3rd 
 
 (C 
 
 " spelHng 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 ' 4th 
 
 li < 
 
 5th 
 
 '* 
 
 a <( n 
 
 
 t( 
 
 
 ' 6th 
 
 (( t 
 
 7th 
 
 (C 
 
 <t a a 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 ' 8th 
 
 11 I 
 
 7th 
 
 (< 
 
 " " geography 
 
 
 (< 
 
 
 ' 8th 
 
 li < 
 
 3rd 
 
 i( 
 
 " reading 
 
 
 <e 
 
 
 ' 4th 
 
 11 { 
 
 3rd 
 
 ii 
 
 " begin geography 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 ' 4th 
 
 a ( 
 
 7th 
 
 " 
 
 *' in history 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 ' 8th 
 
 ii ( 
 
 5th 
 
 il 
 
 " lang. & N. S. 
 
 
 li 
 
 
 ' 6th 
 
 It i 
 
 3rd 
 
 u 
 
 a li li 
 
 
 ti 
 
 
 ' 4th 
 
 a I 
 
 7th 
 
 " 
 
 " '' physiol-civics 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 ' 8th 
 
 It i 
 
 5th 
 
 il 
 
 " geography 
 
 
 <( 
 
 
 ' 6th 
 
 ii I 
 
 In other words — 
 
 7th and 8th years are alternated in everything but grammar 
 5th " 6th " 
 
 3rd " 4th " " " " " " arithmetic 
 
 1st " 2nd " " " " " " lang. & N. S. 
 
 Program Is Suggestive. It has seemed best to give this 
 program in some detail because it is an approved way of 
 
3o8 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 meeting the problem at its worst and not because the condi- 
 tions it represents are typical of rural schools. The one- 
 teacher school is usually small and if there are pupils in each 
 of the eight grades they are so few in number, in the highest 
 grades at least, as to make the problem of reducing the num- 
 ber of classes to be heard during each day not so difficult 
 as it might appear from a study of the program presented. 
 If the number of pupils of two grades, or years, combined 
 should be as large as twelve to fifteen, there should be no 
 alternation in such a case. It is desirable only when the 
 number of pupils per grade is small. If there are eight 
 grades, the lower four averaging eight pupils and the re- 
 maining averaging four there would be no alternation in 
 the first four grades. And such a school would have to 
 be regarded as large for one unassisted teacher. With al- 
 ternation in the four higher grades there would remain a 
 program of six divisions instead of five as shown above. 
 Usually, however, such a condition does not appear, there 
 being so few as a rule in the higher grades that they can be 
 taught without burdening the general program with formal 
 classes. When any of the grades, or years, are not repre- 
 sented it is an easy matter to modify the program and omit 
 alternations. However, when classes are very small it is 
 recommended that several be combined in certain subjects 
 under any circumstances. 
 
 The Formal Recitation in School Programs. How- 
 ever highly we may regard the latest ingenious developments 
 of program making, we should not, simply in obedience to 
 tradition, ignore the manifest short-comings of any program 
 whose controlling feature is the formal recitation. The pro- 
 gram which has just been studied is divided into two parts. 
 
The Work of the School Day 309 
 
 it is true, a schedule of recitations and a program of study- 
 periods for each class. The arrangement gives an order of 
 subjects for study for pupils who are not reciting. But the 
 matter of importance in teaching is the time of " mental con- 
 tact " between teacher and pupils. Even though pupils have 
 a long time for study, they are left to themselves in it, the 
 teacher is otherwise engaged all the time. 
 
 The Teacher's Time. She hears the pupils recite in the 
 program just studied from twenty-six to twenty-eight times 
 a day. Ten to fifteen minutes are devoted to each recitation 
 time, usually only ten. If there are twelve pupils per class 
 the average time each pupil has in each recitation is usually 
 much less than a minute per day per subject and for all the 
 studies it would not average five minutes a day, considering 
 that the teacher also takes up some of the recitation time. 
 That is, the first grade, for instance, studies with no help 
 from the teacher all but fifty minutes and the seventh grade 
 all but ninety minutes of the school time each day, to have 
 less than five minutes to say something about all the sub- 
 jects they study taken together. The teacher devotes the 
 whole time to recitations but hears from each of the pupils 
 less on each subject than one can say in a minute. 
 
 Original Function of the Oral Recitation. The oral 
 recitation has an ancient history, dating back to the time 
 when the subject-matter was wholly of such a nature as not 
 to admit of investigation and inquiry. For the younger 
 children the form of instruction was catechetical; older stu- 
 dents heard a master of exegesis explain the sacred text. 
 In both cases the exact form of the language was essential. 
 Proof of retention was given by the pupil when he literally 
 recited from memory. School work has since become public 
 
3IO Education and the General Welfare 
 
 and secular in content and the curriculum has been widened 
 to relate closely to the interests of daily life. The old 
 mechanism of the daily program is out of harmony with the 
 newer content and with aims that require independent think- 
 ing on the part of the student. 
 
 Recitation as Related to Subject-Matter. But we seem 
 to think we must have children recite and recite in every 
 subject. We make sure of this and of this alone. x\nd we 
 are particular to make a just distribution of time between 
 the rival subjects, often giving a larger place on the pro- 
 gram for what we consider difficult and analytic subjects 
 than for subjects that are more purely adapted to expression 
 and expatiation. We regard arithmetic with oral reading 
 and grammatical analysis with oral composition as equally 
 oral recitation subjects. Which of us, who as students went 
 through the mill of oral analysis of mathematical problems 
 year after year through the grades and the high school, have 
 now a consciousness of the practical life value of such per- 
 formances? Or what do we now think of the value of the 
 elaborate formulas for parsing and analysis which repeatedly 
 consumed the class time through vain reiteration. 
 
 The view that mathematical analysis has to be oral in 
 order to be effective for life needs is manifestly unfounded. 
 No one that we know does his everyday arithmetic that way 
 and no one formally parses or analyzes a sentence to get 
 its meaning. If, moreover, we use the oral recitation purely 
 as a test of knowing, we waste much time with our wordy 
 formulations. 
 
 Importance of the Day's Work. It is hardly necessary 
 to insist that the daily program is of utmost importance. 
 The time units of which it is made up are final in determining 
 
The Work of the School Day 311 
 
 the character of the larger divisions in days, weeks, months, 
 and years. What is done at each period devoted to a subject 
 during the day is ultimately the measure of all that is done. 
 If we find, then, that all the time of the teacher is taken up 
 in recitations, and recitations so short that they cannot sat- 
 isfy the purpose that called them into being, it seems that the 
 program is nearly destroyed in the making. And this is 
 true because every other factor of school work is usually 
 ignored for the sake of oral recitation. 
 
 The Essential Factors of School Work. Given a cer- 
 tain amount of time the question is what shall be done 
 with it? School w^ork, as every one knows, is mental work. 
 The factors that are involved in it are psychological. Every 
 total psychic event consists of sensory activity, association, 
 and motor response. On the neurological side they are com- 
 monly represented in a diagram such as the following: 
 
 
 
 FlGURE 8 
 
 
 
 sensory fibers. 
 
 b- 
 
 -association area. 
 
 c- 
 
 - motor fibers. 
 
 receptors 
 
 
 adjustors 
 
 
 effectors 
 
 On the instinctive level neural activity goes by way of 
 a, B, c. This route represents the immediate response to a 
 stimulus among man and animals. More and more as the 
 child grows older and learns from experience sensory im- 
 
312 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 pressions are referred to the higher level h for control of 
 the responses. Education means growth of the association 
 area. Responses may be inhibited or deferred. Sensory 
 impressions may become memories, or ideas, before they are 
 elaborated in the association area. We can collect data and 
 defer organizing them and we can organize them and defer 
 giving expression of our results. 
 
 The following correspondences with a, h, c may be noted 
 in connection with the factors of school work: 
 
 sensory impression 
 
 association 
 
 motor expression 
 
 Logical terms: 
 
 
 
 subject 
 
 thought 
 
 language 
 
 Pedagogical terms: 
 
 
 
 the assignment 
 
 study 
 
 recitation 
 
 Manual activity: 
 
 
 
 material and effect to be 
 
 
 
 produced 
 
 plan 
 
 construction 
 
 Nature study: 
 
 
 
 collecting specimens 
 
 classification 
 
 
 
 analysis 
 
 report 
 
 observation 
 
 organization 
 
 report 
 
 Geography : 
 
 
 
 getting data 
 
 organization 
 
 report 
 map 
 
 diagram 
 graph 
 
 Household arts : 
 
 
 
 properties of material 
 
 preparing 
 
 serving 
 
 Arithmetic : 
 
 
 
 conditions of problem 
 
 analysis 
 
 solution 
 
 English Composition: 
 
 
 
 material and effect to be 
 
 
 
 produced 
 
 organization 
 
 composition and oral 
 delivery 
 
 evidence 
 
 brief 
 
 argument 
 
The Work of the School Day 313 
 
 The corresponding factors in spelling are, first, finding the 
 words that cause trouble and finding where the trouble lies, 
 second, fixing the right associations, and third, making use 
 of the words in writing. 
 
 The lower down we go in the grades, that is, the younger 
 the child the more immediately continuous the course of 
 psychic activity will be. As children grow older, the power 
 of inhibition increases. The power to deliberate before re- 
 sponses are made is one of the results of school training. 
 In our everyday life as we go from place to place or read 
 the newspapers we often exercise a a great deal without 
 much oi h, and as for c we have relatively little opportunity 
 to talk our ideas all out. But it is not always necessary 
 to call a group together whether in school or in life to pre- 
 sent in language the results of thinking. All that may be 
 needed to satisfy the demands of c is constructive use. This 
 may be communicative or not. We may make mental use 
 of the material of thought. 
 
 However, it is not intended to minimize the importance 
 of any of the three factors of school work. When any of 
 them is too much ignored in the school program or too much 
 emphasized all the rest will suffer. For instance, if the lan- 
 guage response is emphasized at the expense in time of those 
 activities of the school which are really the necessary ante- 
 cedents of expression, there is no real gain to the child and 
 perhaps it would be better for practical life to be somewhat 
 exercised in thought without expression rather than expres- 
 sion without thought. 
 
 a 
 
 Too Many Impressions. In considering each of the fac- 
 tors separately, it will appear that the school must aim at a 
 
314 Education mid the General Welfare 
 
 fair balance among them. It is possible to have too little or 
 too much of any of them. There may be too much of a. 
 This will lead to confusion of thought and will check the 
 powers of organization. It is worse than futile to assign 
 a lesson too long for thorough organization. Students 
 sometimes, under the department plan, may be required to 
 look up too many references not by any one of the teachers 
 but by all of them together, each one apparently thinking 
 that no other teacher requires any. We have the same ef- 
 fect in the grades when the tempo of the class work is too 
 fast. Getting too many impressions, seeing too many pic- 
 tures, visiting too many galleries, is not only dazzling and 
 confusing but also fatiguing even though the experience it- 
 self is pleasurable. Under these conditions c as well as h 
 will fail. 
 
 Too Few Impressions. There may be too little of a. 
 A man of little observation and limited reading will prob- 
 ably over-elaborate the few ideas he has got. He will make 
 more of the facts than belongs to them. Inferences will be 
 far-fetched and thought and language will be shallow. In 
 school when pupils are hard pressed for lack of matter they 
 will speak in very general terms. They have no thought to 
 express because they have had nothing to think about. In 
 school there may be too few books to read and too little con- 
 crete material. The assimilating powers of young children 
 are unusually strong and there is little danger of confronting 
 them with too much material so long as it is on the level of 
 their appreciation. It is through a that the field of the 
 school's activities should be extended. The material for 
 use in study should be brought from the home, the farm, the 
 field, and the woods. If the school is not favorably located 
 
The Work of the School Day 315 
 
 for such extensions, animal life may be brought into the 
 schoolroom in an aquarium or terrareum. In the lower 
 grades each child should care for a single plant in its cycle 
 of life from seed to seed and later should join the school 
 garden movement. Besides, the school should have as a 
 part of its equipment a phonograph and a moving picture 
 projector. 
 
 Over-Elaboration. There may be too much, relatively, 
 or too little oih. Unwarranted inferences or unsound judg- 
 ments, and the too active pursuit of a single idea, are the 
 result of too much elaboration of limited data. " Jumping 
 at conclusions " without taking into consideration enough 
 of the facts that are available is one of the common faults 
 of thinking in school as well as life. The same theory may 
 serve to explain too many problems. It is a fault of little 
 knowledge and much experience in teaching to fit a common 
 method to every type of practice. It is the case of the 
 child's delightful fancies which are the achievement of an 
 active mind with a limited amount of constructive material ; 
 a lack of balance in the early years between mental vigor and 
 experience in the world. It is the case of Hamlet who 
 thinks but does not act and who although he has flashes of 
 brilliancy achieves but a broken and fitful frame for the 
 thought that is in him. It is the case of the hermit in his 
 cell and the philosopher in his attic. 
 
 Want of Elaboration. The opposite is so common and 
 well known among teachers that it needs no discussion. We 
 know how little children learn of organization of material 
 and how little opportunity the school program usually gives 
 
3i6 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 them for the exercise of this power. It is not because it is 
 difficult per se, for on their own level of experience kinder- 
 garten children are capable of it; it is rather because of little 
 practice in this normal mental function that it is avoided 
 for the more familiar and easier route of mechanical mem- 
 ory. Then the language of some one else is substituted for 
 one's own thought and language. 
 
 Empty Language. When we consider to what extent 
 preliminary factors may be neglected or overemphasized we 
 need not wonder at disappointing results in expression. In 
 the public school program too little is made as a rule of a 
 and h. The verbal showing made at the fixed intervals of 
 a program of formal recitations reveals the short-comings 
 that precede. There may be an unwarranted fullness of ex- 
 pression; the exercise of an active external mechanism of 
 language to compensate for emptiness within. Thus a pro- 
 gram of oral recitations gives practice in talk when one has 
 really nothing to say. One may hold that habituation in the 
 use of correct language forms is in itself valuable at least 
 in the lower grades or in the case of children of foreign par- 
 entage, but one may finally question the educational value of 
 language that is not informed by one's own thought. 
 
 Cross-Purposes in the Recitation. But usually when 
 the time of the teacher is devoted to hearing recitations, the 
 issue is not so fortunate. The pupil's efforts at expression 
 are halting and utterance is fragmentary. Then the teacher 
 comes to the rescue with promptings and suggestive ques- 
 tioning. In the end little is done to justify the time spent 
 in school or the cost of maintaining it. 
 
The Work of the School Day 317 
 
 We are, In fact at that period of transition in the history 
 of the recitation when it serves a double function. Influ- 
 enced by the modern aim of school work it consists of ques- 
 tions and answers which are in the nature of oral tests of the 
 effect of study. On the other hand we expect fluency of 
 language and continuity of thought. This can be had under 
 the ordinary conditions only as a summary of the frag- 
 mentary work done in class of which several individuals are 
 the sources of the fragments. These functions should be 
 wholly separated. The recitation proper should be a con- 
 tinuous whole of language and thought. In a well-organ- 
 ized program special provision will be made for this kind of 
 exercise. Probings, questioning, and oral tests bring results 
 which are also of the character of c, but they are relatively 
 incomplete results incidental to h as revealing weaknesses of 
 organization for immediate correction and in preparation of 
 the continuous recitation proper in topical form. 
 
 Modern Program Requirements. Since re-citing is no 
 longer the sole function of school because of the nature of 
 the studies in the modern curriculum, it is necessary to con- 
 sider ways and means of giving such recognition to the 
 other essential factors of school work as will give the pupil 
 a sense of their importance. The relation of the teacher to 
 the program of all the work that is done should be to impress 
 upon the pupil that there are at most three things to do for 
 effective learning in any subject. There is a psychology of 
 each: of observation, thinking, and expression. While in 
 the first three grades where the proportion of oral work is 
 large it may not serve a good purpose in practice to draw 
 the line between them too closely, beginning with the fourth 
 grade, these processes provide a psychological basis for a 
 
3i8 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 distribution of work between groups of any size of the same 
 grade or of different grades combined pursuing the same 
 study. Directions are given simultaneously to a group 
 whether it be an assignment or what to do with the assign- 
 ment. While this is taking place another group is studying 
 an assignment previously made and afterward a possible 
 third group is tested on the results of their work. Probing 
 for results may be made orally or in writing but always with 
 the view of getting at the status of the individual. Prelim- 
 inary to this in any group there may be an exercise in de- 
 velopment. Before the new assignment is made to any 
 group there may be a summary of what preceded the day be- 
 fore. It will not take long in any case to find out how the 
 work is going. The teacher is at hand to help out with 
 difficulties or she may think it best for the student to strive 
 alone. The exercise may be varied by competition between 
 groups, or one group may be engaged in testing another with 
 open book before them on memoriter work. The teacher's 
 time is devoted alternately to the different groups. How 
 much time will be required for the factors of preparation 
 cannot always be determined in advance. For the gathering 
 of data, for making observations, etc., and for thinking out 
 a problem we cannot properly fix time limits. For routine 
 drill in fixing associations or for any kind of routine repeti- 
 tion or the exercise of the mechanical memory, we can make 
 a fair estimate of how long it will take to cover an assign- 
 ment. We can say to a child you may repeat orally or write 
 out certain multiplication tables or you may play games for 
 the next half hour. That period of time can be filled up 
 even. But in original work, that is, work done for the first 
 time and not in the nature of repetition, the processes will 
 
The Work of the School Day 319 
 
 not come out even with a fixed period of time. If any 
 pupil gets through before the time Hmit has expired he earns 
 a leisure to do something else in 'the courses that especially 
 interest him or he may prefer to advance more rapidly and 
 in time join a higher group. If he does not succeed as a 
 rule in getting through with the others, it may be better for 
 him to drop down to the next group below. Promotion, or 
 the contrary, becomes feasible particularly if all the groups 
 work in the same subject at the same period. This gives 
 opportunity to exhibit relations of the parts to the whole 
 and avoids the necessity of a frequent change of mental 
 " set." Instead of having ten or fifteen minutes for each of 
 several unrelated subjects in succession, related matter is 
 arranged and, if possible, thrown together-. Variation to 
 prevent fatigue and monotony can be had within the limits 
 of the longer periods by a change of the character of the 
 exercise whenever the need for it is felt. 
 
 Organizing a Program. Instead of having a daily pro- 
 gram of isolated and consequently formal exercises, the sub- 
 jects may to a large extent be organized as means and ends. 
 In their nature they may be characterized as one or the 
 other. For instance, an oral presentation or a written com- 
 position is an end for which reading or observation and 
 thinking are means. Reading for content is a means of 
 gathering material for thought on a subject such as history 
 or geography. If in school we read for thought we might as 
 well read for the kind of thought we have use for in one 
 of the content studies. We need not limit ourselves to this 
 kind of reading, however. We can also read literary se- 
 lections but also with a motive ; for we will allow consider- 
 able time for general exercises where we will satisfy the 
 
320 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 desire for public performances for which the whole school 
 forms the audience. Here a second or third grade will show 
 how well they can read or recite poetry or tell a story. This 
 is the place for the recitation. It is prepared for during 
 the regular periods. It differs from the work of those pe- 
 riods as it is a prepared-for and uninterrupted performance. 
 Other grades can prepare a dramatic piece to present or 
 compositions to read or deliver. 
 
 There may be pedagogical organization within the limits 
 of a period. We put Numbers and Hand Work or Con- 
 structive Work in the same period, for the little folks can 
 thus apply their numbers. We put Spelling in so far as it 
 relates to the observation and study of words in the same 
 period with Reading. It appears again in connection with 
 use in Written Composition. The periods are related to 
 each other when, for instance, Reading contributes to our 
 thought on the geography or history lesson for to-day or to- 
 morrow. And all the periods, some more than others, may 
 be directly or indirectly related to what is done at the gen- 
 eral exercises. 
 
 The question and answer form of recitation will be a part 
 of every lesson; that of connected thought and language is 
 reserved for general exercises. As it is an exercise in lan- 
 guage, in communication or expression, it requires a real 
 audience and the motive of an occasion. Without a motive 
 any exercise of language whether in school or life becomes 
 artificial. The recurrence of the recitation at stated in- 
 tervals when there is no occasion to prepare for, reduces 
 it to a routine performance even though it is related to 
 content rather than form studies. As a form of exercise 
 it is best suited to memoriter or motor drill. To hear only 
 
The Work of the School Day 
 
 321 
 
 such exercises requires no great skill. The resourceful 
 teacher wastes time in a daily program limited to such per- 
 formance. 
 
 The following program " successfully used by a teacher of two 
 grades " ^ is a form of flexible program. Each grade is divided 
 into two groups A and B. The groups vary from six to twelve 
 pupils each. 
 
 9:00- 9:15 
 9:15-10:30 
 
 Arithmetic 
 (55"iin.) 
 
 [0:10-10:50 
 
 Geography 
 (4omin.) 
 
 CHART XXII 
 Opening Exercises. 
 
 5 min. Assign problems to 6A at seats ; assign prob- 
 lems to 6B at blackboard. 
 35 min. Develop topic with 5A. 
 15 min. 5B recite on topic developed yesterday and 
 studies during preceding 40 min. 
 
 (Following day 6A has new topic in 35 min. 
 5A recites 15 min., 5B works at blackboard, 
 6B at seats.) 
 (On the next day, 6B has new topic, 6A recita- 
 tion, 5A at board, 5B at seats, etc., as closely 
 as the nature of the work permits.) 
 (In this room it is convenient to use the fifth 
 day in each week for combining groups in re- 
 view and drill work.) 
 
 10 min. Review 5th grade on essentials of yester- 
 day's lesson and outline advanced assignment; 6th 
 grade preparing. 
 
 30 min. Recitation or development in 6th grade; 
 5th grade studying 
 
 (Reverse on the following day.) 
 
 1 Bennett : " School Efficiency," New York, 1917, pp. 177-178, Ginn and 
 Company. 
 
2^22 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 10:50-11:10 Both grades together, alternating with drawing, 
 arithmetic drill, or supervised study period. 
 Singing 
 (20 min.) 
 11:10-11:50 Reverse geography schedule for the day. 
 History 
 (40 min.) 
 II :50-i2:oo 
 (10 min.) Spelling and penmanship drills for those below 
 
 standard. 
 I :oo-i :40 
 
 Period divided about equally between the two grades, 
 
 not divided into permanent sections. Time 
 
 Reading varies with selection but is balanced from day to 
 
 (40 min.) day. Once a week all combine in some selection of 
 
 interest to all. 
 1 :40-2 :35 
 
 Division of period and rotation as in arithmetic. 
 Language Composition usually instead of blackboard work. 
 
 (55 min.) 
 2 :35-3 :oo 
 
 Hygiene, 5th grade Mon. & Wed. ; 6th grade study. 
 Physiology, 6th grade, Tues. & Thurs. ; 5th grade 
 study. Current events, all, Friday. 
 
 A Suggested Departure from the Recitation Program. 
 
 An eight-grade program with many pupils to provide for 
 in a one-teacher school presents a discouraging situation 
 under any scheme of management. However, even here one 
 departure might be made from the daily succession of oral 
 rehearsals. The formal recitations might be omitted at 
 times to give the time to showing the children how to pre- 
 pare for them. Then recitations would be had only when 
 preparation had been made and pupils had something to say. 
 Especially at the beginning of a term, there might be no reci- 
 
 I 
 
The Work of the School Day 323 
 
 tations at all for a few days or a week. After a time the 
 pupils would learn what it means to prepare and as they gain 
 the power of self-direction more and more, there would be 
 increasing time for recitations. 
 
 Organization Within the Time Periods. In the work 
 of the primary grades this kind of organization would bring 
 scattered periods for Copying, Reading, Blackboard Work, 
 Written Work, Language, Nature Study, Numbers, etc., to- 
 gether under two heads : Reading and Language, and Num- 
 bers. Drawing may be related to the Reading work, or Lan- 
 guage, or Nature Study. Nature Study is often either 
 book work or preliminary to report in language. Hand 
 Work is combined with Numbers because it will serve for 
 the application of number. When thus organized, studies 
 do not remain isolated memories easily forgotten, but they 
 become a part of the warp and woof of knowledge actually 
 established by constructive use. 
 
 Following is a second grade program in present use in 
 arithmetic, reading and language, nature study, drawing and 
 writing. A period of 30 minutes is devoted to General Ex- 
 ercises, There are two sections. The periods are long, but 
 as they are varied in character of the exercises, they are not 
 more tedious than if a certain number of fixed minutes were 
 set down for each exercise. Without fixed limitations the 
 exercises will yield to organisation. The time division is as 
 follows : 
 
 CHART XXIII 
 
 8:30-9:30 General Exercises 
 
 A child tells a story 
 Several poems are recited 
 Song by all 
 
324 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 9 :oo-io :oo Arithmetic 
 
 Review drill with number games 
 
 Application — Hand Work 
 
 Development of new work 
 
 Written exercise 
 10:00-10:15 Recess 
 10:15-11:25 Reading and Language 
 
 Oral exercises 
 
 Silent reading 
 
 Spelling and dictation 
 
 Seat work 
 
 1 :oo-2 :oo Nature study 
 
 Observation 
 Drawing 
 Writing 
 2:00-2:15 Recess 
 
 2 :i5-3 :i5 Reading and Language 
 
 Oral expression 
 Seat work 
 Written work 
 
 Note. — Five minutes of physical exercise gives further variation 
 in every hour of the program. 
 
 Organization Between the Periods. This is best il- 
 lustrated in the higher grades. For instance, silent reading 
 has a large place here. Hence the teacher may organize the 
 work so that the reading period will not be aimless but con- 
 tribute something to the work in history, geography, or per- 
 haps physiology. The History period itself will be largely 
 reserved for the use of material gathered in Reading and for 
 the study of the meaning of events, past and current. The 
 Geography period will be largely for study and construction 
 work in map-making from observation, map-reading, etc. 
 While Spelling is organized within the period on the one 
 
The Work of the School Day 325 
 
 side with Reading and on the other with Composition, Com- 
 position itself will also be an end for which the work in 
 Reading, Geograph}^ History, etc., are the means. Literary 
 reading and dramatics will not be neglected. Writing is a 
 means to Composition, and Drawing may be used to illus- 
 trate Composition. Nature Study in the higher divisions 
 is organized with Geography and both are the end for which 
 field excursions are the means. In a program for the 4th 
 and 5th grade with Reading, Arithmetic, Language and 
 Composition, Geography (Nature Study), History, Spelling, 
 Drawing, Writing, Music, and Physical Training to provide 
 for, the two grades being in the same room and under only 
 one teacher, the distribution of the time between the grades 
 would be as indicated before, in connection with the other 
 programs, on the basis of the different factors of mental 
 work. 
 
 CHART XXIV 
 
 Program for Fourth and Fifth Grades 
 
 A 8:45- 9-^5 General Exercises 
 Music 
 Program an outgrowth of the work of preceding 
 
 days: 
 Readings, recitations, dramatic work, etc., etc. 
 (C) (E) 
 B 9:15-10:15 Arithmetic 
 
 Application to home problems, geography, gar- 
 dening, nature study, etc. 
 10:15-10:30 Recess 
 C 10:30-11:30 Reading 
 
 Study of words — Spelling 
 
 Literary reading and dramatization (A) or 
 
F 
 
 2:15-2:30 
 
 G 
 
 2:30-3:30 
 
 H 
 
 3:30-4:00 
 
 326 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Geographical and science reading or Nature 
 
 study and hygiene (G) or 
 History and biography (stories) (H) 
 D 11:30-12:00 Writing and Drawing 
 E 1:15-2:15 Language and Composition 
 
 Written use of words — Spelling 
 Written composition 
 
 Sources of material — (C) and life 
 Preparation for (A) or (H) 
 Physical Training 
 
 Geography (Nature Study) or History (i day) 
 Home geography and map-making and map- 
 reading 
 General Exercises 
 
 Same as (A) but especially story telling of 
 animal life, biography, and history (including 
 current history) 
 
 Note. — On days when it is desired to make an excursion for 
 observational nature study, G and C may exchange places and D 
 may be omitted. Correlation between the Periods is indicated by 
 letters in parenthesis. 
 
 Directed Study. Thus the time not employed in the reci- 
 tation is organized for directed study, and study, moreover, 
 with an immediate purpose to use the results. This is a 
 practical way of meeting the needs of an organized study 
 program when the teaching force is too small to carry out 
 more comprehensive supervised study plans. ^ 
 
 Departmental Programs. When a school curriculum is 
 divided into departments with a teacher in charge of the 
 work in each, dividing classes into grotips becomes partic- 
 
 ^ For various ways of organizing time for study in Intermediate and 
 High Schools see Hall-Quest: "Supervised Study," The Macmillan 
 Company, New York, 1916, pp. 94-160 and Appendix pp. 399-408. 
 
The Work of the School Day 327 
 
 ularly feasible, and the time the pupils remain with the 
 same teacher can readily be distributed as the needs of the 
 day may require. In the public school system of Gary, In- 
 diana, the regular studies are divided into two departments ; 
 arithmetic, history, and geography being grouped in one, 
 and reading, writing, spelling, and composition in the other. 
 '' Half the day is given to the regular studies, and half the 
 day to special activities. The regular studies occupy two 
 periods of 90 minutes each, one in the forenoon and one 
 in the afternoon. Each regular teacher has but one class at 
 a time, and the way in which the time is divided, whether in 
 recitation, study, individual help, or otherwise, depends upon 
 the needs of those in the class." ^ 
 
 1 Burris : " The Public School System of Gary," Bulletin 1914, No. 
 18, U. S. Bureau of Education, p. 14. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 The Play Instinct in School Work 
 
 All forms of activity whether in school or life may be 
 comprehended under the terms of work and play. An at- 
 tempt will be made in this chapter to point out the more im- 
 portant marks of distinction between them because of their 
 relation to an intelligent management of the activities of 
 school life. To know something of the difference between 
 work and play is essential to the motivation of school work. 
 
 Play and the Development of the Self. First Stage. 
 The development of the forms of activity parallels the stages 
 in the development of the self. The initial powers by means 
 of which the child's self merges into being are willing and 
 feeling by means of the nervous structures transmitted by 
 heredity. The first field in which they operate to develop 
 themselves is the physical body of the child. In this stage 
 the child's muscles learn to respond to impulses from within, 
 an early antecedent to the development of voluntary control 
 of the resources of the body. 
 
 Second and Third Stage. In the second stage of de- 
 velopment the operations of the growing self are extended 
 to things beyond the body by means of the control now par- 
 tially established. There are things to be reached for, to 
 go to, to remove from one place to another. A further ex- 
 tension is made through the use of tools; for instance, a 
 
 328 
 
The Play Instinct in School Work 329 
 
 stick or some other object is used to effect a change in the 
 surroundings. And then there are things that resist and 
 their resistance has to be overcome, affording further 
 growth of voluntary power and also marking out the bounds 
 more definitely between the self and the not-self. 
 
 At first things and persons in the world around are reacted 
 to indiscriminately as things; then persons and things are 
 reacted to as persons ; finally persons and things are dis- 
 tinguished. Thus through the child's play activities the self 
 develops; becomes limited, rounded out, and unified. This 
 is nature's own way, and there is no other way, for the 
 child to develop the self. In summary, the first essential in 
 the development of the self is the hereditary nervous struc- 
 ture with which the child manifests its hereditary will and 
 feelings. This is the means of gaining acquaintance with 
 the resources of the body. The body is in turn the means 
 of becoming acquainted with things and other selves. 
 
 The child's play activities run parallel to these stages in 
 the development of the self. There is first a kind of play 
 which is due to pleasure in activity for its own sake. Sec- 
 ond, there is a kind of play in which the interest lies in how 
 things behave. Third, there is a kind of play in which the 
 interest is in persons, who are made to act in one's own per- 
 son because, unlike things, they are not under our immediate 
 control. 
 
 General Agreements and Differences Between Work 
 and Play. Before distinguishing types of activity, it is well 
 to bear in mind that any form of human activity is a mental 
 as well as a physical event. One that seems to be pre- 
 dominantly physical in its manifestations still has a mental 
 component, as one that is regarded as mental has also a 
 
330 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 physical component. We are concerned here with the men- 
 tal component of all the forms of activity. All activities 
 run a course. They are accompanied by different mental 
 states at different moments of their course. Work and play 
 begin differently, they end differently. They are initiated 
 with different degrees of psychic impulsions and carried on 
 in different degrees of suspense. There may, to all outward 
 appearances, be no difference in intensity of application or 
 in foot-pound results, but they represent different kinds and 
 degrees of satisfaction or dissatisfaction during or at the 
 close of the course of the activity. They differ in the degree 
 they enlist curiosity in the outcome, in the plot interest they 
 arouse. The fundamental basis of distinction between the 
 types that follow will be the degree in which they engage 
 the total self and the point in the course of the activity upon 
 which the consciousness is chiefly focused. 
 
 TYPES OF ACTIVITY PLAY 
 
 I 
 
 We shall regard the first kind of activity mentioned above 
 in tracing the development of the self as type one. It has 
 been described as an impulsive movement or a mechanical 
 response to a stimulus from within. It is here that we come 
 upon the Spencerian principle of excess energy, which is re- 
 leased through outward movement. Bodily movements of 
 this kind in time become pleasurable and are then made for 
 their own sake. 
 
 Besides the spontaneous movements of children in kicking 
 their feet, curling the toes, stretching and bending the limbs 
 and trunk, the gambols of animals illustrate this form of 
 play. But pleasure in movement for its own sake is a part 
 
The Play Instinct in School Work 331 
 
 not alone of play but also of work. The general feeling of 
 well-being prompts activity in either. But the point to be 
 emphasized here is that there is a type of play in which this 
 is the chief pleasure. Other forms of this activity are prim- 
 itive emotional dancing and the natural dances of childhood. 
 Under this head come also gymnastic exercises. If the at- 
 tainment of superior skill becomes the dominant motive we 
 have the amateur acrobat, gymnast, swimmer, etc. 
 
 When this activity is play there is perfect freedom of 
 initiative. One can begin or stop the activity whenever one 
 pleases. The interest is in the activity for its own sake. 
 There is no accumulation of interest in any part of its 
 course ; that is, it is void of plot-interest. 
 
 When it becomes work, freedom of initiative is limited. 
 When exercises are undertaken at regular intervals under 
 direction for the purpose of strengthening some muscle or 
 improving the general health, they pass beyond the realm of 
 play. When freedom of initiative and continuance is lim- 
 ited by the professional contract made by a skilled performer, 
 for instance, this type of activity becomes work. To make 
 it work, however, does not take away the pleasure in 
 doing it. 
 
 In school a teacher can safely count on pleasure in ac- 
 tivity for its own sake, whether mental or physical, as a fun- 
 damental impulse. This is true whether it be directed work 
 or free play. 
 
 Plot-Interest in Play. But interest in activity is much 
 increased if, instead of being evenly distributed, it is cumu- 
 lative; if the interest is directed chiefly to the outcome. In 
 other words, plot interest is the controlling motive of play 
 as distinguished from work. This is the chief interest in 
 
332 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 all the types of play that are to follow ; interest in the activity 
 for its own sake is either subordinate or lacking. 
 
 II 
 
 Very soon in the life of the child in connection with the 
 development of the sense of self, plot interest develops. The 
 first form which it seems to take is interest in what the self 
 can achieve. Without freedom of initiative this interest in 
 the self would not be possible. For instance, a child takes 
 pleasure at first in learning to walk. So long as there is 
 some uncertainty of the outcome, the achievement brings 
 satisfaction to the ego. When the movement has been 
 learned and becomes automatic, interest is lost in it. It may 
 be recovered by self-imposed handicaps. All along the in- 
 terest is ego-centric — '' See whether I can do it." The child 
 will try in succession, perhaps, to keep its equilibrium while 
 walking on a narrow board, on the top rail of a fence, on 
 a branch of a tree, on a taut rope. It will try other modes 
 of locomotion such as hopping on one foot, jumping rope, 
 etc. With *' I can do it " comes much satisfaction to the 
 ego. There is a feeling of equality with those who are im- 
 itated and of superiority over the younger children. In the 
 meantime these apparently useless activities have increased 
 the sense of balance and improved walking and allied move- 
 ments. 
 
 Too seldom in school do we connect the growing sense of 
 self and the pride of power with ability to do school work 
 of a difficult character. It would be well to challenge the 
 ego by saying, '' I'll give you something hard ; I wonder 
 whether you can do it; I believe you can." Freedom of 
 initiative is taken away when teachers insist always on sim- 
 
The Play Instinct in School Work 333 
 
 plifying the approaches to difficult problems. One of the 
 most important elements of training is the power of attack. 
 This is developed only by a skillful appeal to the child's 
 total self. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The third type of activity does not consist in exploring the 
 resources of physical powers but in producing a change in 
 the world of things around. Again freedom of initiative 
 and plot-interest are the characteristics of the play side of 
 the activity. But now the interest is, at least at first, in how 
 things behave; what will happen to them if you interfere. 
 An early form of this activity consists in testing the sense 
 qualities of objects: a spoon is dropped from the table, for 
 instance, to hear the sound it makes, a ball is rolled and 
 bounced, blocks are set up, thrown down, and set up again. 
 Again the interest is not in the activity but in the outcome. 
 The interest is in results, in what happens. 
 
 Plot-Interest in a Ball. As the child grows older the 
 ball as a plaything affords increasing possibilities. Being 
 round and rolling it seems like a thing alive. There are 
 more possibilities of chance in a ball than in any other 
 form of plaything. What will happen with it is an inter- 
 esting uncertainty to the child. There is an infinite number 
 of directions it may take. It is a willful and wayward 
 thing. The difficulties and uncertainties are enhanced in 
 adding the use of the bat, as rounded surface meets rounded 
 surface. In other words, the ball, and the ball and bat, are 
 replete with plot-interest. 
 
 In the individual child's play with objects the course of 
 the activity is short. There is little waiting for the result 
 
334 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 and the patience is not strained. Under certain condi- 
 tions, when the course of the activity is prolonged, there is 
 a heightening of the interest in the outcome. But plot-in- 
 terest may be present in short as well as long games. Under 
 this type come such childhood games as tag, drop-the-hand- 
 kerchief, blind man's buff, etc. The difference between 
 games for small children and for larger ones is always in the 
 length of what may be called plot-development. 
 
 Heightened Plot-Interest. The competitive game 
 brings in a new factor which greatly heightens plot-interest. 
 Another personality now confronts us, not things which are 
 pliable, adaptable, and passive. This kind of activity en- 
 lists the full powers of the normal individual more than any- 
 thing else in the world. Again the interest is not in the 
 activity for its own sake ; it is in who beats. The more un- 
 certain the outcome seems to be in the course of a game, 
 the stronger is the plot-interest ; first for the players and then 
 also for the spectators. If the interest were in the activity 
 for its own sake, the movements would be made self-con- 
 sciously and would be mentally disturbing and a hindrance 
 to success. Play cannot become a pleasure at all until one 
 can forget everything else and focus attention on what is to 
 be accomplished. To be sure, one does not think of the 
 last result directly in the course of a game but on all the 
 critical moments and minor climaxes as they come. Every 
 ball that is thrown or batted is watched to see whether it 
 arrives or where it goes. The interest is always in the out- 
 come with its possible satisfactions or disappointments. If 
 this can be surely predicted, interest is lost for the man who 
 is sure to win, the man who is sure to lose, and for the 
 spectators. 
 
The Play Instinct in School Work 335 
 
 Feeling of Responsibility. In a competitive game the 
 interest in the outcome is so intense because personal re- 
 sponsibility for losing or winning is always clearly fixed. 
 This is closely related to the state of the total self. The 
 player is always conscious of this responsibility. It gives 
 the loser an uncomfortable feeling. He makes all sorts of 
 excuses to himself. He looks intently at the bat after 
 '^ three strikes and out " or perhaps throws it aside angrily, 
 as if to shift the disagreeable feeling of responsibility. 
 After a misstroke at tennis he looks at the racket to find an 
 excuse for his fault. He explains defeat by loss of sleep, 
 stiff joints, or indigestion, trying to shift the blame from the 
 total self. If he succeeds there is just a general feeling of 
 well-being without specifications. 
 
 The Quitter. While theoretically a player is free at any 
 time to quit or continue playing, personal honor limits this 
 freedom and compels him to play a losing game through. If 
 he does not, he is reproached with the universally oppro- 
 brious name of quitter. To play a losing game is to make 
 the activity a burden. Strictly the quitter is one who, al- 
 though he plays on, has lost all interest in the game because 
 of the way it is going. He is prematurely discouraged. 
 This spoils interest in the outcome. It can too easily be 
 predicted. 
 
 Summary of the Characteristics of Play. 
 
 I. Freedom of initiative. This is possible in school ac- 
 tivities only to a limited extent. However, it should be the 
 teacher's aim to encourage it in every possible way. There 
 may also be group initiative when children are allowed to 
 plan general school exercises. When a program is flexible 
 and individual children have the opportunity to earn a period 
 
2^^6 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 of leisure, occasions arise for the exercise of initiative. 
 Even in the regular work of the school there are children 
 who show leadership and a power of self-direction in ad- 
 vanced work that is not definitely required. 
 
 2. The consequence of individual or group initiative is 
 that the responsibility for losing and credit for winning are 
 clearly indicated. Winning begets confidence and the con- 
 sciousness of power. Losing has the contrary effect. 
 When children work in groups in which they always lose in 
 a contest, they become discouraged and demoralized. The 
 groupings should be so made as to prevent as far as possible 
 the habit of failure. 
 
 3. Play absorbs the attention ; that is, it engages the whole 
 self. A divided interest or attention is fatal to success. In 
 the strenuous games out of doors a divided attention is 
 " losing one's head," *' going to pieces." It is caused by a 
 momentary attention to the activity itself or the movements 
 made or brooding on failure to score, or on the errors made. 
 The exercise of playing games makes for mental health, in 
 that it gives practice in concentrating attention on the main 
 issue. To do otherwise brings its swift punishment. 
 
 4. Variety of experience is assured in a game which leaves 
 considerable latitude for the play of the accidental. The 
 teacher should study how to promote a reasonable amount 
 of variety in the regular school exercises. This tends to in- 
 troduce into the work an element of play. When children 
 can always predict the course of an exercise, it will soon be- 
 come monotonous. This is deadening and should be 
 avoided. 
 
 5. Plot-interest. This is the central play interest. It ab- 
 sorbs attention and is heightened by freedom of initiative 
 
The Play Instinct in School Work 337 
 
 and a variety of incidents. To begin with results some one 
 else has discovered is fatal to good work in school, espe- 
 cially in the field of natural science. The pleasure of dis- 
 covery is one of the vital rewards of school work. 
 
 6. Satisfactions at the end of a course of activity are the 
 primal rewards to those who reach the goal. They are to 
 be described as a general feeling that all is well, a sense 
 of fitness, a feeling of capability and efficiency — a total 
 self-feeling which can better be felt than described. The 
 feeling of confidence gained is an integrating force favor- 
 able to concentration and future success. 
 
 These are several of the ways by means of which school 
 work may be vitalized by appealing to the energy of the 
 child's total self. This is how " to put one's self into one's 
 work " as the popular phrase has it. 
 
 On the other hand, to make the school activities purely 
 work and nothing else (a procedure which a few writers 
 seem to prefer), to impose the exercises upon the pupil and 
 leave him no initiative whatever; to let him remain silent 
 until he is spoken to; to take all plot-interest out of the ex- 
 ercises, removing all doubt in the beginning a*s to how it is 
 expected to come out; to make all exercises as uniform as 
 possible so that children may be able to predict what is going 
 to happen every moment in advance; call on the children in 
 order; exhibit results at once and have the children learn 
 what they are. These are some of the ways to make 
 school children acquainted with the work side of their ex- 
 ercises. 
 
 Play as Mental Hygiene. In the development of the 
 self it is the need of activity that impels a child to play. 
 It is also the need of unified action that causes a child to 
 
^2f^ Education and the General Welfare 
 
 concentrate his attention upon the issues of the game. Play 
 is practice not so much to prepare the muscles for future 
 work but to integrate the action of the nervous forces. In 
 the types of activity thus far discussed, the child learns to 
 command his resources, to make the body serve the dictates 
 of the will, to concentrate his energies at any particular point 
 and in quick response to the needs of the moment. Thus is 
 promoted a habit of concentration instead of a divided at- 
 tention. 
 
 IV 
 
 When through a certain amount of experience in self-di- 
 rected action the child finally rounds out a sense of a unified 
 self, he further extends his field of experience by transfer- 
 ring his personality to other persons. This is the fourth 
 type of activity to be distinguished. It is called dramatic 
 imitation. As said before, the child plays because of the 
 need of activity for normal mental as well as bodily growth. 
 Thus he also becomes acquainted with things in the sur- 
 roundings. But things are amenable to immediate control, 
 persons are not. For this reason the child assumes the char- 
 acter of other persons in order to use them in play. 
 
 The Play Illusion. The child puts himself under illu- 
 sions, for illusion increases the educational possibilities of 
 the objects of play. For instance, a little girl plays that her 
 doll is sick and that she, its mother, is greatly worried ; the 
 boy learns the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk and then 
 puts himself under the illusion that he is Jack. The child 
 is at once dramatist, actor, and spectator. The illusion 
 created may be of several degrees of depth. In one, the con- 
 
The Play Instinct in School Work 339 
 
 sciousness that the child creating the illusion and the other 
 person are actually different is always present; in the sec- 
 ond, the consciousness of this difference seems momentarily 
 lost and there are actual tears, which have been seen in the 
 nursery as well as on the stage. 
 
 In this kind of play, dumb, lifeless things may be imitated 
 as well as persons and animals. The former usually serve 
 for comic effects. But in all cases objects of importance to 
 the child's view are used for dramatic imitation in order to 
 heighten plot-interest in the play of adventure; for what 
 happens to the child in his own person is of little conse- 
 quence, but what happens to Napoleon, for instance, who is 
 present in person, is an exciting adventure. 
 
 This type of play activity used in school in connection 
 with history, composition, and reading has the most pow- 
 erful educative effect. It is easy to introduce, for the re- 
 sourceful imagination of the children will readily supply all 
 deficiencies of costume and stage properties. 
 
 A related motive is imitation of the social, industrial, and 
 political environment. Children in the adolescent period, 
 particularly, will be interested in doing what their elders do. 
 Thus the Red Cross and Thrift Stamp campaigns were not 
 only used as motives for school work but were carried on in 
 school in exactly the same way as outside. 
 
 Again, older students sometimes engage in school work 
 with greater earnestness when it is related to permanent life 
 interests. It is the imitative impulse that accounts for the 
 passion to apply the tools of knowledge to the problems of 
 practical household and business management. 
 
340 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 V 
 
 Constructive Activity — Play and Work. The fifth 
 type is practice in realizing an idea through material means, 
 (a) It is the type used first by the child when in the block- 
 building and paper-cutting stage of its development. The 
 result of the activity is variable. One must try and see. 
 The chief interest here too is in how it will come out; that 
 is : there is plot-interest in constructive work of every kind 
 so long as it is not repeated according to specifications; so 
 long as there is no uniform standardized product. In build- 
 ing an article of furniture or a house, painting a picture, 
 carving a statue, there is freedom of initiative, variety of 
 incidents, possibility of success or failure, responsibihty, 
 suspense, and satisfaction with the completed product, (b) 
 When the end is necessarily foreseen, when the work is so 
 certain to come out in a specified way that it can be con- 
 tracted for and delivered in accordance with specifications, 
 this form of activity becomes work, although it does not lose 
 all the characteristics of the play activity. The constructive 
 worker may still put plot-interest into his work if he has 
 rising or at least changing ideals. He may destroy all exe- 
 cuted designs and plans. But if he repeats the product with 
 a machine and like a machine with unvarying regularity, 
 the play element will be lacking. When the work becomes 
 automatic, the self will be entirely disengaged and taken up 
 with some other object or idea. 
 
 Constructive activity in school should function as play 
 and recreation. Manual training should be carried on for 
 recreative purposes like athletics. It should go as far along 
 a certain line of work as is necessary to prove to oneself 
 
The Play Instinct in School Work 341 
 
 that he can realize the idea or design. Repetition for au- 
 tomatic mastery is not necessary for general training and 
 is not educative. 
 
 VI 
 
 Work. In this type of activity the interest lies in the 
 constant product and the constant material reward. This is 
 to be sharply distinguished from all other types. This is 
 v^ork, and v^ork only. In this case the product is made ac- 
 cording to specifications and indefinitely multiplied. The 
 process of production is repeated until the unforeseen no 
 longer happens. Every movement becomes habitual, all the 
 parts are standardized, the product is unvariable. Here 
 there is no uncertainty of the outcome, no plot-interest. If 
 I am not convinced that the v^orker will produce results ac- 
 cording to expectations I will not hire him. The contract 
 limits freedom of initiative or change. 
 
 In all other types of activity there were opportunities to 
 exercise free ideas. Here the worker is capable of free 
 ideas only in connection with the material reward of his 
 labors. With this he may do what he pleases. This is his 
 motive but it is not a necessary characteristic or circum- 
 stance of work. There may be work without this result. 
 The work of the school is without a material reward, as a 
 rule. In fact such a motive for school work is universally 
 condemned as the lowest possible; especially is this true of 
 the elementary and the secondary school. Here we see that 
 we cannot hold to the well known distinction that in play 
 interest is in the activity, while in work it is in the result of 
 the activity. 
 
 But when there happens to be a material reward for 
 
342 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 work, it becomes to a certain extent the worker's field of free 
 ideas. What to do with the proceeds is a matter for him to 
 decide. 
 
 VII 
 
 However, at this point we pass to a seventh type. In case 
 the worker's wages are always required for his bare exist- 
 ence, there are no free ideas connected with the reward for 
 his work. If he has no surplus, he has no choice whether 
 to spend or to save and if to spend, what for. So much as 
 he receives for his work is only necessary expense for " up- 
 keep " — food, clothing, and shelter. This is the type of 
 work that animals and human slaves that are well cared for 
 have in common ; the return is only sufficient to keep the ani- 
 mated machine in repair for continued work. This is also 
 the parallel of the situation of the household drudge who 
 has a just sufficient allowance. 
 
 VIII 
 
 In all the preceding types of activity there is in no case a 
 denial of a consciousness of being a cause. This conscious- 
 ness is confirmed when one sees the result of the work or 
 social manifestations of approval. This is a source of grati- 
 fication to the humblest worker. It is one of the most 
 powerful motives to excel in all the fields of art and skill. 
 One of the most precious rewards for the school child is to 
 have the product of his work exhibited with his name at- 
 tached to it. 
 
 Imagine that neither the worker nor any one else that he 
 knows of ever recognizes the product as his work, and add 
 to this the denial of free ideas and the gratification of the 
 
The Play Instinct in School Work 343 
 
 self before mentioned, and we come to the level when the in- 
 dividual is no longer a person but a machine. The mere ma- 
 chine knows nothing, needs to know nothing of results. 
 
 In summary, the eight types of activity may be grouped 
 as follows: i to v(a) are forms of play; v(b) to viii are 
 forms of work. In general, when an activity is limited in 
 scope and tends to uniformity of method and sameness of 
 results, we have work; when an activity has a wide range 
 of possibilities, a possible variety of incidents, a fixed per- 
 sonal responsibility, and an unpredicted outcome, we have 
 play. 
 
 Other Forms of Play — Preliminary Practice. This 
 has usually all the appearance of the form of work called 
 drill. It is, however, to be classed as play simply because 
 it is preliminary to it. The tedium of drill work in school 
 may be relieved by transforming the activity into a com- 
 petitive game. Many teachers hold, however, that even so 
 some routine drill work is absolutely necessary. But even 
 this may be relieved by having the children understand that 
 they are preparing for the competitive game which is to 
 follow at once or at some other period of the day. This is 
 a way of vitalizing the most deadening routine drill that 
 seems so necessary at times. 
 
 Amusement. In amusement there is a passive interest 
 in the activity of some one else. Criticism of the play mo- 
 tive in education has been due largely to the confusion be- 
 tween play as an active and play as a passive interest. 
 When people condemn teaching that aims to keep the child 
 interested, they have in mind a form of exercise in which 
 the teacher is active and the children passive; they cannot 
 mean one that engages the sum of the child's active energies. 
 
344 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 And it is correct to assume that the kind of appeal that the 
 school child requires is one that engages the total self as in 
 active play, and not one that engages only the contempla- 
 tive interest which characterizes amusement. There are 
 educational values of a high order in amusement, too, but 
 they are adapted to the adult mind rather than that of the 
 child. The child's interest in the appreciation side for in- 
 stance of music, the drama, and the arts is limited; but on 
 the productive side, in making music, in acting, in printing, 
 and in modeling, its energies may be fully engaged. 
 
 Dawdling. Dawdling is keeping busy at one or more 
 tasks to excuse ourselves for shirking another which we 
 greatly dislike. An apt illustration of this is given by Wil- 
 liam James : " I know of a person, for example, who will 
 poke the fire, set chairs straight, pick dust-specks from the 
 floor, arrange his table, snatch up the newspaper, take down 
 any book which catches his eye, trim his nails, waste the 
 morning anyhow, in short, and all without premeditation, 
 simply because the only thing he ought to attend to is a 
 noonday lesson in formal logic which he detests. Any- 
 thing but that." 
 
 Relation of the Scientific Interest to the Drudgery of 
 Work. Much of the work that is usually regarded as 
 drudgery may be relieved by the illumination of knowledge. 
 If science and method can be applied to any activity it may 
 reveal an ever deepening interest. This has come to re- 
 deem the work of the household and the farm. The ap- 
 plication of chemistry, botany, and physics has done much to 
 dignify the labor and mitigate its drudgery. 
 
 In the schoolroom the application of individual psychol- 
 ogy will also relieve to a great extent certain routine ex- 
 
The Play Instinct m School Work 345 
 
 ercises and improve the teaching. The correction of Eng- 
 Hsh papers will be more interesting when the teacher can 
 discover in them manifestations of individual character. 
 The opportunities for this will be much enhanced if the 
 exercises given are of such a kind as will allow a latitude 
 for the expression of individuality. 
 
 Mental Parallels of Physical Types of Work. Activ- 
 ities that are almost exclusively mental in character are to 
 be classified in the same way as the physical types. In the 
 mental field we also have as the first type, activity for its 
 own sake. This is uncontrolled association of ideas, the 
 activity of our periods of relaxation which at times we call 
 reverie. 
 
 Then come controlled associations, which in play are self- 
 imposed. 
 
 The third type is the game in which objective symbols 
 guide the mental operations. 
 
 The fourth is illustrated by dramatic constructions. 
 
 The fifth is illustrated by artistic activity including the 
 creation of literature and music. When this is done under 
 contract as, for instance, in literary hack work — work 
 under contract to produce so many lines at a certain time 
 for specified pay — it is not art but work. 
 
 Under the first part of five (Va) comes the management 
 of an enterprise. The manager has a wide scope of activ- 
 ity, is to a large extent free to choose his time, exercises in- 
 itiative, takes responsibility, meets unforeseen emergencies, 
 cannot absolutely predict results as a whole, hopes for the 
 best. The operatives of the factory have little responsibility 
 except to be on time and be faithful machines. If the enter- 
 prise is failing for the time being they need not even know 
 
34^ Education and the General Welfare 
 
 about it. A certain type of mind dislikes to take the initia- 
 tive and shuns personal responsibility everywhere. Persons 
 of this type are happiest when their activities are reduced to 
 the automatic, for it relieves them of the responsibility of 
 having to initiate thought about anything. The more orig- 
 inal type of mind will not long be content with monotony, 
 will rather study out a machine to do the work. 
 
 In school we have a type who are soon wearied of drill 
 exercises and prefer original or concrete problems, another 
 who are helpless with problems that require them to initiate 
 thought. These prefer the mechanical mental operations 
 and never seem to weary of drill. 
 
 Summary — How to Vitalize School Work. Finally 
 to summarize what may already be inferred, to put vitality 
 into school work — stimulate individual initiative in thought 
 and act, assign individual work as far as possible to cultivate 
 a favorable attitude to assuming responsibility, stimulate in- 
 dividual and group competition within reasonable limits, 
 make the work constructive rather than contemplative and 
 critical, exhibit results of individual pupils, give opportuni- 
 ties for discovery, dramatize history and stories, let the chil- 
 dren imitate the contemporaneous political and social activi- 
 ties of adults, let the children plan their general school activi- 
 ties, avoid monotony, and in general assume the attitude of 
 deference and courtesy to each individual child in order to 
 nourish the sense of individual significance and of being a 
 responsible part of the school community. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 Food and Sleep 
 
 Prophylaxis. The school activities for which plans are 
 made with the utmost care so that every minute of a child's 
 time may be educative in all ways, cover a period of only 
 one-fourth or less of the whole day. The school should not 
 obtrude unnecessarily upon anything that is within the pecul- 
 iar province of the home, but it is a matter of great im- 
 portance to the economy of its management that some ac- 
 count be taken of the child's life out of school hours. If 
 the whole round of each child's daily activities were sur- 
 veyed, it would clear up many of the problems of discipline 
 and would reveal to what extent the practices and attitudes 
 of the home support or hinder the requirements of the 
 school. 
 
 The kind of home life that is good for the physical, 
 mental, and moral well-being of the child is the very thing 
 needful for the child in school. The whole child goes to 
 school. What he is for three-fourths of the time at home 
 he will be probably for one-fourth of the time at school. 
 This is most strictly true on the physical side of his nature. 
 The firm basis of general health must be established at home. 
 But modern psychology goes further by contending that pre- 
 ventive physical hygiene has a close relation to both mental 
 and moral prophylaxis; that is, a proper physical regimen 
 is to a large extent preventive of all ills whether physical, 
 mental, or moral. 
 
 347 
 
34^ Education and the General Welfare 
 
 As we have seen in other chapters, there are many ills the 
 flesh is prone to, but there is also possible an increase in the 
 power of resistance which will reduce the virulence of dis- 
 ease or repel its attack altogether. And nature, with an 
 accumulated strength of many centuries of race survival, 
 prepares man for arduous physical labor, for mental work, 
 and to go through moral crises, by means of good and suffi- 
 cient food, regular and sufficient sleep, and a certain amount 
 of well-distributed recreative exercise. 
 
 While this is true for all people old and young, it has spe- 
 cial force as related to the children of school and pre-school 
 age. For the value of these preventive measures is not alone 
 good for day by day needs but they are indispensable in 
 building up a stock of the fundamental resources of charac- 
 ter that will last through the future years. 
 
 Food. When children come to school with insufficient 
 nutrition and energy from improper or too little food to 
 profit by the work undertaken, something must be done at 
 once if the efforts of both teacher and pupil are not to be 
 wasted. School feeding has resulted in increased efficiency 
 and improved behavior in school, but it is a temporary 
 measure. It is not the final solution of the problem. The 
 child needs three good meals a day to build for growth and 
 permanent strength. Undernourished children may suffer 
 the consequences of their condition long after the immediate 
 cause of their ailment no longer exists. " Of children born 
 in the famine years in Europe, in 1816 and 181 7, an un- 
 usually large number proved unfit for military service." ^ 
 We are told that for lack of sufficient fat in their ration 
 
 1 Tyler : " Growth and Education," New York, 1906, p. 121, Houghton 
 Mifflin Company. 
 
Food and Sleep 349 
 
 there was a great increase in tuberculosis among Belgian 
 children. In all the warring countries a rise in the mor- 
 tality from tuberculosis is reported, presumably due to the 
 extraordinary food restrictions. Waywardness and juve- 
 nile crime have also been everywhere on the increase. 
 
 The rapid rise in the cost of foodstuffs has made the 
 need for home instruction universal and immediate. In a 
 study made under the auspices of the New York Associa- 
 tion for Improving the Condition of the Poor it was found 
 that y6 per cent of the families studied were getting less 
 than the standard requirements of food. But the problem 
 of food and health conservation affects all classes alike. 
 Science must be brought into the kitchen to guide in the selec- 
 tion of what is required to sustain life in normal health. 
 
 " Never before has it been more necessary for the housekeeper to 
 bear constantly in mind the fundamental facts regarding food 
 values and food requirements. In some cases the new situation 
 may simply have constrained her to cut out certain luxuries from 
 her grocery list. In other cases it has been necessary to spend 
 more money for food, even at the expense of other necessities of 
 life. Some families are simply doing without food which is abso- 
 lutely essential. Economy there must be, but it should be economy 
 carried on with intelligence. The diet of children must be not only 
 well chosen but plentiful, if the youngsters are to grow and 
 thrive." ^ 
 
 This situation has more than ever before made the prob- 
 lem of children's food the common interest of the home 
 and the school. Fortunately, it finds at hand a household 
 economics department established some years ago with a 
 
 i"War Prices and Undernourished Children," Good Housekeeping 
 Magazine, July, 1918. Reprinted as a publication of the Child Health 
 Organization, New York. 
 
350 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 well-settled theory of food values. There is no longer a 
 disconcerting conflict of opinions in regard to what is proper 
 food and the needed amount and proportion of its different 
 elements that are needed to sustain the body in health. But 
 the teachers of cooking can no longer under present con- 
 ditions limit the field of work to the schoolroom. Here not 
 all the children are reached and the need of instruction for 
 parents upon whom the problem presses most heavily is uni- 
 versal and immediate. 
 
 Food Campaigns. Hence, the public school systems 
 through their home economics department are making sys- 
 tematic campaigns to bring to the knowledge of the parent 
 the simple facts of food economy and the proper feeding of 
 children. The first step is to make a survey of dietaries in 
 the homes in order to find what knowledge is lacking. In 
 one city, for instance, in order to obtain data for more in- 
 telligent service in the lunch room, a survey was made in 
 regard to the amount of milk children drink daily at home. 
 This revealed rather surprising conditions. 
 
 The investigation concerned 13,601 children of the kin- 
 dergarten and elementary schools. It revealed the fact 
 that only 7 per cent had the amount of milk a child should 
 have every day and that more than half had no milk at all. 
 The following are the figures in detail for these schools : 
 
 Number of Children Milk Used per Day Other Beverages 
 
 13,601 I qt. I pt. >4 pt. Coffee Tea Beer 
 
 7% 19% 20% 37% 18% 9% 
 
 Total 46% Total 54% 
 
 It seems from these figures that only 46 per cent of the 
 children use milk and that 54 per cent use none at all but 
 
Food and Sleep 351 
 
 instead drink coffee, tea, or beer. These facts revealed at 
 once the direction the campaign for better child feeding 
 should take. To encourage a more general use of milk, 
 leaflets were prepared for free distribution on " Milk " and 
 '' Ways of Using More Milk " with the purpose of bringing 
 to the attention of the parents certain well-ascertained facts 
 about milk as a diet, such as the following : 
 
 Milk is our most valuable food. 
 
 Milk is meat and drink. 
 
 Whole milk contains everything necessary for growth and for 
 good health. 
 
 Milk is the one best food for children under sixteen. 
 
 One quart of milk costing 15 cents, gives the same value as one 
 pound of lean beef, costing 35 cents, or one pound of eggs (9), 
 costing 35 cents, or one quart of oysters, costing 75 cents. 
 
 Save in other foods if necessary but not on milk. 
 
 Give your child a quart of milk every day for his chance to 
 grow and be strong. Milk will help him to win in his fight against 
 disease. 
 
 Milk and bread with cereals, fruit and vegetables should be the 
 daily diet of boys and girls. 
 
 Notice children who do not get milk; most of them look pale 
 and undernourished. 
 
 Does your child get a quart of milk every day?^ 
 
 Theory and Practice. A food campaign such as is here 
 described is an administrative measure, concerning chiefly 
 the home economics department. It is directed to the 
 parent. The pupil in school may be reached in various 
 ways. He learns something of food values and prices at 
 luncheon time from the outlines and tables on the blackboard. 
 In connection with the book work in hygiene he learns, too, 
 
 1 Seventh Report of the Board of Education, 1917-1918, Louisville, 
 Ky., pp. 88^96. 
 
35^ Education and the General Welfare 
 
 something about good food habits ^ such as being on time at 
 meals, eating at regular times and not between meals, learn- 
 ing to like food that is good for him, avoiding highly sea- 
 soned foods, taking time to eat, being clean, and being of 
 good cheer while eating. And then, too, children are ap- 
 pealed to in terms of patriotic duty to make themselves 
 strong for the service of their country. 
 
 A practical application of the rules of diet is, of course, 
 the only way to solve the problem in all those children of 
 lowered vitality who especially need help. In the larger 
 cities there are thousands of children suffering from malnu- 
 trition. The demonstrations that have been made with 
 groups of such children prove that increased weight and 
 vitality will follow proper feeding.^ 
 
 How a Teacher May Know Whether a Child Is Well- 
 Nourished. There are certain well known marks of malnu- 
 trition which have always been recognized. These are a 
 dull expression, pale cheeks, and dark rings around the eyes 
 as against bright eyes, red lips, and rosy cheeks. There 
 have been attempts to measure it in more scientific ways. 
 But of all, the most important index of nutrition is The Re- 
 lation of Weight to Height. To this have been added the 
 annual gain in zv eight and height and the general appear- 
 ance of the child. The last named is often unreliable, 
 the second shows wide variation in different races, com- 
 munities, and families. The first remains as the only one 
 that it is safe to depend on. 
 
 1 " The Diet of the School Child," 1918, Child Health Organization, 
 New York, 15 pp. 
 
 2 " Demonstration and Its Application," Child Health Organization, 
 New York, 14 pp. 
 
Food and Sleep 
 
 353 
 
 Height and Weight Table ^ 
 
 The standard or normal weight for a child is found where the 
 horizontal column opposite height crosses the vertical column 
 under age. The age is taken at nearest birthday. 
 
 CHART XXV 
 
 For Boys 
 Illustration — The standard weight for a boy 57 inchesi high and 
 
 13 years old is 83 pounds. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Height 
 
 5 ^ 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 Inches 
 
 Yrs. Yr 
 
 s. Yrs. 
 
 Yrs 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 39 
 
 35 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 37 3^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 41 
 
 39 4 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 42 
 
 41 4 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 43 4' 
 
 \ 44 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 45 4 
 
 5 46 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 .... 4 
 
 7 47 
 
 48 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 .... 4( 
 
 P 50 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 
 •• 51 
 
 52 
 
 52 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 
 •• 53 
 
 54 
 
 55 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 56 
 
 57 
 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 59 
 
 59 
 
 
 
 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 61 
 
 62 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 
 
 
 64 
 
 65 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 
 53 
 
 
 
 
 67 
 
 68 
 
 68 
 
 68 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 71 
 
 71 
 
 72 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 75 
 
 76 
 
 76 
 
 
 56 
 
 
 
 
 .... 
 
 77 
 
 79 
 
 79 
 
 80 
 
 
 57 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 81 
 
 82 
 
 83 
 
 84 
 
 58 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 84 
 
 85 
 
 87 
 
 88 
 
 59 
 
 
 
 
 1 . . . . 
 
 
 
 88 
 
 89 
 
 91 
 
 1 From Standards of Nutrition and Growth, Child Health Organiza- 
 tion, 289 Fourth Avenue, New York. 
 
354 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Height 
 Inches 
 
 5 
 Yrs. 
 
 6 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 7 
 Yrs. 
 
 8 
 Yrs. 
 
 9 
 Yrs. 
 
 10 
 Yrs. 
 
 II 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 12 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 13 
 Yrs. 
 
 14 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 90 
 
 92 
 
 97 
 100 
 104 
 
 94 
 
 99 
 
 102 
 
 61 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 63 
 64 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 106 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 112 
 tt8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CHART XXVI 
 For Girls 
 
 Illustration — The standard weight for a girl 50 inches high 
 and 9 years old is 59 pounds. 
 
 Height 
 
 5678 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 Inches 
 
 Yrs. Yrs. Yrs. Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 39 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 35 37 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 41 
 
 39 39 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 42 
 
 41 42 42 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 43 44 44 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 45 46 46 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 • • • • 47 47 47 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 ....48 49 50 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 50 51 
 
 53 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 52 53 
 
 54 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 55 
 
 56 
 
 57 
 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 57 
 
 59 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 51 
 
 
 61 
 
 62 
 
 63 
 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 
 65 
 
 66 
 
 67 
 
 
 
 
 53 
 
 
 .... 
 
 68 
 
 68 
 
 69 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 71 
 
 71 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 
 
 
 
 7^ 
 
 73 
 
 74 
 
 
Courtesy of the Child Health Organization 
 
 Figure 9 
 
Food and Sleep 
 
 355 
 
 Height 
 Inches 
 
 5 
 Yrs. 
 
 6 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 7 
 Yrs. 
 
 8 
 Yrs. 
 
 9 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 10 
 Yrs. 
 
 II 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 12 
 
 Yrs. 
 
 13 
 Yrs. 
 
 14 
 Yrs. 
 
 56 
 57 
 58 
 59 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 76 
 
 77 
 79 
 85 
 
 77 
 82 
 88 
 92 
 97 
 99 
 104 
 
 79 
 85 
 93 
 95 
 99 
 102 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 105 
 107 
 
 63 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Only scales with bar and weights should be purchased for school 
 use. Spring scales with dial face are not very durable and are likely 
 to get out of order soon. 
 
 Measurements for height should be taken with the child standing 
 with feet close together and close against the measuring rod, or for 
 school use a measuring tape may be tacked against a wall and a book 
 placed on the child's head, edgewise, to mark his height. 
 
 Every school should have a weighing and measuring 
 equipment. A ten cent tape line tacked against the wall 
 and a pair of scales with bar and weights will serve the 
 purpose.^ 
 
 Nutrition Depends Not on Food Alone. Good food is 
 not sufficient to correct malnutrition and bring about an in- 
 crease in weight. There must also be fresh air day and 
 night and sufficient sleep. 
 
 Sleep. In sleep we have another protective and preven- 
 tive function. It is, like food and recreation, a means of 
 
 iHolt, L. E.: "Standards of Nutrition and Growth," 1918, Child 
 Health Organization, New York. Standards given here are taken 
 from this valuable pamphlet. For details of method and equipment 
 consult this same source. For devices by way of tags, classroom 
 weight cards, etc., to interest the children in weighing contests write 
 Child Health Organization, 289 Fourth Avenue, New York. 
 
356 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 resistance to the demands made upon our store of energy. 
 If, as was held in another chapter, D (disease) is equal to 
 M (the cause) over R (vital resistance), sleep is one of 
 the three factors which increase R. It is universally pre- 
 scribed as a remedy for nervous breakdown. Of the few 
 who have made extensive investigations of its function, 
 nearly all agree with the conclusions of Claperede, who says : 
 " Sleep is a protective function, an instinct having for its 
 end, in striking the animal with inertia, to prevent it from 
 arriving at a condition of exhaustion. We sleep, not be- 
 cause we are poisoned or exhausted but so that we shall be 
 neither poisoned nor exhausted." That is to say, we sleep 
 not because we are poisoned by the toxin of fatigue but to 
 prevent such a condition. 
 
 The Amount of Sleep. Authorities on sleep are not 
 agreed as to the exact amount of time that is required for 
 it at different ages. The estimates given by several of them, 
 for children of school age, vary as follows : 
 
 Age 
 
 Estimates vary from 
 
 5-6 
 
 II -13^ hours 
 
 7 
 
 io>^-i3 
 
 8 
 
 ioy2-i2y2 
 
 9 
 
 ioy2-i2 
 
 10 
 
 10 -ii>^ 
 
 II 
 
 9/2-1 1 
 
 12 
 
 9 -io>^ 
 
 13 
 
 8>^-io 
 
 14 
 
 8^-10 
 
 15 
 
 s -9y2 
 
 i6 
 
 8 ~9 
 
 17 
 
 8 -9 
 
 i8 
 
 8 -9 
 
Food and Sleep 357 
 
 The uncertainty as to the amount of time that should be 
 taken for sleep by school children does not hold for those 
 of pre-school age. Infants under one year should have a 
 total of fifteen hours in twenty-four, under two they should 
 have not less than fourteen, under three to five not less than 
 thirteen. For all children under twelve it is safe to incline 
 to the maximum estimates given above. For children of 
 lowered vitality and underweight the maximum hours must 
 be taken. In general, it may be said, the younger the child 
 the greater the necessity for long and regular hours of 
 sleep; for sufficient sleep is one of the factors in building a 
 sound physical constitution to which the life of the young 
 child is specially devoted, and regular hours make not alone 
 for health but in addition are the beginning of habits that 
 will prove to have moral value. 
 
 Quality of Sleep. As children grow older a limited loss 
 of sleep does not show any ill effects. And for the older 
 children the amount of time given to sleep is so much a mat- 
 ter of individual habit and need that there seems to be no 
 connection between the amount of sleep and efficiency in 
 school work. In an investigation by Terman and Hocking 
 of 2,692 children between 6 and 20 it was found that " the 
 school grades of the ten pupils receiving the smallest amount 
 of sleep did not rank below the grades of the average sleeper, 
 but instead slightly above." ^ It would seem that quality, 
 rather than quantity, combined with regular habits of rising 
 and retiring is a matter of importance in the hygiene of 
 sleep. This principle may explain why there is a difference 
 in the amount of sleep required by different persons. New- 
 
 1 Terman and Hocking: "The Sleep of School Children," Jour. Ed. 
 Psy,, Vol. 4, 1913, pp. 138, 199, 269. Bibliography p. 281. 
 
358 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 ton and Leibnitz, it is stated, required only a few hours of 
 interruption from their scholarly labors for sleep. Many 
 persons find eight hours hardly sufficient. 
 
 But whatever may be true of adult men and women, for 
 school children it is safe to hold to the requirement of regu- 
 lar hours, inclining to the maximum of nature's demands for 
 those under twelve. Later, perhaps, quality may be im- 
 proved by a lessening of the quantity. By the time the child 
 has reached the age of twelve or thirteen, proper habits ac- 
 cording to individual need should be fairly well established. 
 Training should aim at regularity and at finding the mini- 
 mum amount necessary to insure hygienic quality. 
 
 Quality of Sleep an Effect. But the quality of a per- 
 son's sleep is an effect as often as it is a cause. It is a 
 symptom of the physical, particularly nervous, condition of 
 the child. One of the well-known causes of a disturbed 
 sleep is indigestion due to improper diet, eating at unseason- 
 able hours, gorging food after a long period of deprivation. 
 The use of tea or coffee, or of cocoa or chocolate late in the 
 day, is generally regarded as harmful and as bringing in 
 its train disturbances or the postponement of sleep. It is 
 also one of the many ill effects of obstructed breathing. 
 Overstimulation whether brought on by physical or mental 
 agencies is unfavorable to sound sleep. Extreme nervous- 
 ness such as is indicated by nightmare or dreams of horrid 
 monsters, of falling from giddy heights, of being lost in 
 the woods, should arouse the concern of the parent and the 
 teacher and justifies calling the attention of the school or 
 family physician. 
 
 Sleep and Home Conditions. The living conditions in 
 
Food and Sleep 359 
 
 the homes of both the poor and the well-to-do are often un- 
 favorable to hygienic sleep. The retiring hour and the ris- 
 ing hour are both often too late. The rising hour should 
 not be later than seven o'clock for all children above eight 
 years of age. Then too children should sleep alone in a 
 room and under any circumstances alone in a bed. They 
 should sleep with windows open to allow a current of air to 
 pass through the room at all seasons of the year. Any one 
 can find on investigation that this necessary condition of 
 healthful sleep is altogether too rare. This is especially true 
 of country houses. The windows should remain open 
 throughout the year, adjustment to the changing seasons 
 being made by the amount of bedding. This may not be 
 possible in the poorest families. Poverty is often the cause 
 also of insufficient room; the one-room tenement where the 
 parents and all the children eat, bathe, and sleep is not un- 
 known in this country — a condition which for moral as 
 well as physical hygiene should be forbidden by law in 
 every state. 
 
 In Terman's investigation referred to above it was found 
 that only 3.1 per cent of the children enjoyed open-air 
 sleeping rooms and this even in the mild and equable climate 
 of California. It is common in many homes to shut the 
 windows tight in cold weather '' to keep the warm air in " 
 and thus save fuel. The teacher should know which of the 
 children are poor sleepers and should find the causes of the 
 disturbance and seek to correct the evils in cooperation with 
 the parents. 
 
 John Locke on Sleep. It will be instructive to quote 
 on the hygiene of sleep, John Locke, the founder of hygiene 
 
360 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 and the apostle of discipline as a hardening process, and 
 compare his views with those that obtain in our own time. 
 He says : 
 
 " Of all that looks soft and effeminate, nothing is more to be 
 indulg'd Children, than Sleep. In this alone they are to be per- 
 mitted to have their full satisfaction; nothing contributing more 
 to the Growth and Health of Children, than Sleep. All that is to 
 be regulated in it, is, in what Part of the twenty-four Hours they 
 should take it ; which will easily be resolved, by only saying that 
 it is of great Use to accustom 'em to rise early in the Morning. 
 It is best so to do for Health ; and he that, from his Childhood, 
 has, by a settled Custom, made rising betimes easy and familiar 
 to him, will not, when he is a Man, waste the best and most useful 
 Part of his Life in Drowsiness, and lying a-bed. . . . 
 
 " Though I have said, a large allowance of Sleep, even as much as 
 they will take, should be made to Children when they are little ; yet 
 I do not mean, that it should always be continued to them in so 
 large a Proportion, and they suffer'd to indulge a drowsy Laziness 
 in their Bed, as they grow up bigger. But whether they should 
 begin to be restrained at seven or ten Years old, or any other 
 Time, is impossible to be precisely determined. Their Tempers, 
 Strength, and Constitution must be consider'd. But sometime be- 
 tween seven and fourteen, if they are too great Lovers of their 
 Beds, I think it may be seasonable to begin to reduce them by 
 Degrees to about eight hours, which is generally Rest enough for 
 healthy grown People. . . . Great Care should be taken in waking 
 them, that it be not done hastily, nor with a loud or shrill Voice, 
 or any other sudden violent Noise. This often affrights Children, 
 and does them great Harm ; and sound Sleep thus broken off, with 
 sudden Alarms, is apt enough to discompose any one. When 
 Children are to be wakened out of their Sleep, be sure to begin 
 with a low Call and some gentle Motion, and so draw them out of 
 it by degrees, and give them none but kind Words and Usage, 'till 
 they are come perfectly to themselves, and being quite dress'd, you 
 are sure they are thoroughly awake. The being forced from their 
 
Food and Sleep 361 
 
 Sleep, how gently soever you do it, is Pain enough for them; and 
 Care should be taken not to add any other Uneasiness to it, espe- 
 cially such that may terrify them." ^ 
 
 Effect of Too Much Sleep. It is generally agreed 
 among students of sleep that there may among adults be 
 those who get into the habit of taking too much sleep. In- 
 creasing the amount of time taken for sleep has no necessary 
 relation to the quality except to reduce it. According to 
 Marie de Manaceine too much sleep results in an enfeeble- 
 ment of consciousness through lack of exercise and in " an 
 adaptation of the vessels to an abnormal state of nutritive 
 circulation, to the detriment of the functional circulation." ^ 
 
 The Cause of Sleep and Cure of Sleeplessness. In the 
 numerous experiments made by Sidis, he came to the con- 
 clusion that sleep may be artificially induced by limiting 
 the sensory impressions by closing the eyes of his subjects, 
 inhibiting voluntary movements, and applying a monoto- 
 nous stimulus. He found that children reacted more read- 
 ily than adults to his methods of bringing on sleep, account- 
 ing for the fact " by the comparatively small amount of vari- 
 ability of conscious activity present in the child and the 
 variability of mental content being an important factor in 
 keeping up the freshness, continuity, and qualitative inten- 
 sity of consciousness. Now, as the child depends entirely 
 for the variability of its consciousness on muscular activity 
 and external impressions, we can well realize that when 
 those sources become limited and monotonous the child 
 falls under the influence of all the important conditions 
 
 1 Locke : " Thoughts on Education," Pitt Press Ed., pp. 14-16. 
 
 2 Quoted in Bruce : " Sleep and Sleeplessness," Boston, 1915, p. 31, 
 Little, Brown and Company. 
 
362 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 requisite for the induction of sleep. The child, in short, 
 has no inner wealth of mental life to fall upon; it has little 
 if any resources; that is why it falls an easy prey to sleep 
 when the external resources lose their variability, become 
 uniform, and monotonous." ^ 
 
 From this it becomes evident that when sleeplessness is 
 not due to physical ills, it is to be accounted for among 
 adults by subjective mental occupation, by worries and men- 
 tal distress, with the self as the focus of thought. It may 
 also be caused by such mental occupations as are carried on 
 during the waking time, such as could then too be carried 
 on with the eyes closed. The cure for this, therefore, 
 would be effected by taking on objective interests as in 
 games, sports, fishing, hunting, etc., such as can be shut out 
 of the consciousness by the closing of the eyes. And 
 sedentary habits should be exchanged for those of more or 
 less strenuous activity so that when the attitude of repose 
 is taken there may be a change to limited activity and 
 monotony. 
 
 1 Sidis : " An Experimental Study of Sleep," R. G. Badger, Boston. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 Recreation 
 
 Without activity in the open air there can be no value 
 to a regimen of food and sleep. The round of life requires 
 fatigue before sleep, and hunger before food. Work or 
 play in the open air will bring both a healthy fatigue and a 
 normal appetite. 
 
 Nature provides the impulse for activity in children be- 
 cause they need it for their physical and mental develop- 
 ment. Their impatience with any long-continued activity 
 is nature's way of avoiding a limited routine and special- 
 ization of powers before growth has ceased. It is believed 
 that too early a limitation of activity to the narrow and me- 
 chanical lines of work before the nerve-centers are fully 
 developed by all-around play will produce a fatigue of a 
 mild but chronic sort that will affect the whole of adult Hfe. 
 It has been held that the tramps of a country are recruited 
 from those children whose play life was prematurely cut 
 short by work. If the child's activity cannot be work, it 
 must be play, and organized play; for children will not be 
 able to plan spontaneously among themselves a sufficient 
 variety of games either to keep up the interest or for all- 
 around development. 
 
 Benefits of Play. Teachers believe in play as a growing 
 modern need under the conditions of life in the cities. It is 
 hygienic as related to normal individual growth and the 
 
 .363 
 
364 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 normal functioning of the various organs. It is educative, 
 because when not formally imposed it enlists the whole self 
 of the child ; there is no exercise in which sense perception 
 is so keen, discrimination so fine, mind and body so alert, 
 with such quickness of decision and promptness of action, 
 as in play. The school usually gives few opportunities for 
 the exercise of mental powers on actual objective material 
 except in the activities of the playground. If a child's play 
 life is greatly limited or lacking it will have nothing left 
 but its subjective self to be active in. It will more and more 
 renounce the actual world, live in daydreams, seek solitude, 
 avoid play and playmates, become estranged from society, 
 confused in the presence of others, uncertain, self-neglect- 
 ful, and irresponsible. To correct such a condition an en- 
 larging activity with playmates and playthings is perhaps the 
 only known remedial measure. 
 
 It is recreative and recuperative. It is an antidote for 
 fatigue. Perhaps in some of its forms it realizes race 
 memories or remote activities that had decisive value in the 
 survival of the species. It restores the powers used up in 
 work or worry. 
 
 It is practice. Through the play activities movements 
 are learned which will be of service in the more serious 
 activities of life. Play may to a certain extent anticipate 
 the activities of productive industry. 
 
 It keeps children out of mischief such as fighting, teasing, 
 pitching pennies, and predatory acts. It is estimated that 
 an adequate and well-administered playground prevents or 
 cures 50 per cent of juvenile delinquency.^ In the games 
 
 ^Curtis: "Does Public Recreation Pay?" The American City, I9I3» 
 Vol. VIII. 
 
Recreation 365 
 
 recognizing the need of rules and obedience to them in 
 order to have play at all, is a practical lesson in the principles 
 of civics. Other effects to be noted in passing are related 
 to physical hygiene. The play exercise improves the appe- 
 tite for food and checks the desire for narcotics and alco- 
 holic stimulants. It gives the maximum, benefits of the open 
 air conditions in which it takes place. The value of food 
 and fresh air depends upon the hunger of the cells and not 
 upon eating the food and breathing the air. Physical exer- 
 cise prepares the cells for their food. It prepares the mind 
 and body for refreshing sleep. It is closely related to sex 
 hygiene. It provides the occasions that induce regular 
 habits in bathing. These habits established after exercise 
 that starts perspiration are regarded by authorities in the 
 matter almost as valuable as the exercise itself. 
 
 Value of Open Air Recreation. All classes of exercise 
 or games are always most effective in the open air. Here 
 there is room, fresh air, and usually sunshine. We have 
 seen in past chapters that the school diseases make their 
 appearance chiefly during the shut-in months. Inside the 
 dust gathers and rising slowly is suspended in the air during 
 exercises; outside, there is less dust and it is less danger- 
 ous. Besides, the outside provides the natural stimuli to 
 activity. The tendency is growing everywhere to have the 
 physical activity of school children take place in the open. 
 There are those who believe that a gymnasium is not a 
 profitable investment and some predict that it will in time 
 be superseded by the well-equipped and spatial outside play- 
 ground, where pupils will take their exercises in all seasons 
 and weathers of the years just as they have always done in 
 seasonal sports. 
 
366 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Universal Play Impulse. It is natural for the young 
 child to play. Even among wild animals the struggle for 
 existence is never too great to allow leisure for play under 
 parent protection. The common sense of humanity appre- 
 ciates games; they are the most ancient of all human insti- 
 tutions. Through all the turmoil of change from the be- 
 ginnings of recorded history the children of the world from 
 generation to generation and from nation to nation have 
 joined hands in happy play. Empires, religions, and civil- 
 izations have come and gone but the simple games of child- 
 hood have remained almost the same in unbroken succession. 
 More than forty of the simple games that the children of 
 the world play to-day were played in the streets of Athens 
 in the most glorious epoch of ancient Greece. 
 
 Like science, literature, music, and art, play speaks a uni- 
 versal language. There is no history more ancient than that 
 of the doll and the cock-horse. Plutarch tells us that Age- 
 silaos, the king of Sparta, played horse by riding a stick 
 among groups of playing children. Socrates the philoso- 
 pher was found by the young Alcibiades playing horse in the 
 same way with his children. Greece was the greatest player 
 nation of the world. The Greek played from childhood to 
 gray old age. The first school for the Greek child was ^a 
 play school. Here he learned courage and restraint, self- 
 denial and patience, love and sacrifice. The Olympic game 
 festivals were under the special patronage of the gods. 
 With the physical development the games brought about 
 came health, strength, mental growth, and beauty of form 
 and proportion, which were all under divine favor. The 
 play festivals were to the Greek people the greatest pleasures 
 of life and it is said they could not conceive of a future 
 
Recreation 367 
 
 abode of the blest without a place for games. When the 
 ten thousand heroes of the Anabasis reached the Mediter- 
 ranean from the deserts of Asia, it was by arranging a 
 series of competitive sports that they made known their 
 gratitude to the gods. Play was worship. 
 
 It was the other way in the Middle Ages. In the severe 
 ideals of that period toil was worship. It was then thought 
 that exercises such as running, tilting, stone-throwing, wres- 
 tling, and jumping were devices of the Evil One '' for cap- 
 turing souls with pride." However, the renaissance re- 
 formers saw in athletic games a way of occupying minds 
 that would otherwise be given over to evil-doing. Co- 
 menius regarded physical training as an essential part of 
 school instruction and emphasized the need of suitable play- 
 grounds adjacent to the school. Basedow trained his pupils 
 in " racing, wrestling, poising, fencing, dancing, — in short, 
 in everything that gives strength to the nerves, agility to 
 the limbs, keenness to the senses, and firmness, mobility, 
 and strength to the whole body." ^ 
 
 It is widely claimed that the " nations that have given the 
 most attention to the care of the body have not only been of 
 superior quality physically but also have invariably attained 
 the greatest mental preeminence.^ Ancient Greece, re- 
 garded by many who are in a position to know as superior 
 to any other nation in history, devoted more time to the 
 physical training of her youth, according to Grote, than to 
 all other branches combined. 
 
 ^Kotelman: "School Hygiene" (not dated), C. W. Bardeen, Syra- 
 cuse, New York. 
 
 - Sargent : " Physical Education,'' Ginn and Company, New York, 
 1906. 
 
368 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 The larger modern nations have given much attention to 
 the physical training of school children, Germany being 
 known the world over for her system of gymnastics and 
 England for athletic games and sports. The American 
 predilection is like England's in favor of games and sports, 
 and American athletes have been singularly successful in 
 international contests. 
 
 The modern Olympic games, which the coming of the 
 World War interrupted, are a revival of the famous games 
 of Greece. The plan for them formulated in 1894 by 
 Pierre de Coubertin, of Paris, provided that contests in ath- 
 letic sports open to all nations should be held every four 
 years in one of the great capitals of the world. American 
 contestants have made splendid records in these Olympiads, 
 carrying off highest honors in several of them. In the 
 fifth and last held at Stockholm, Sweden, in 19 12, the repre- 
 sentatives from the United States led by many points; 
 Sweden coming second, and Great Britain, Finland, Ger- 
 many, and France following in order.^ 
 
 Physical Fitness as a Patriotic Duty. A nation must 
 not only keep well but also physically fit for whatever emer- 
 gency that may arise. The work that is done along these 
 lines will be most fruitful of abiding results in children of 
 school age. All agree that infancy and childhood is the 
 time to lay the physical basis sure for manhood and woman- 
 hood. No other claim supersedes this. Nature begins the 
 education of the child in this way from the first minutes 
 of life. If mental development did not keep pace with 
 physical growth, it could wait. From the patriotic point of 
 view we should be reminded of the aim of education as 
 
 1 The Independent, New York, Vol. 7:^, p. 172. 
 
Recreation 369 
 
 Milton defines it : "I call a complete and generous edu- 
 cation that which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and 
 magnanimously all the offices, both public and private, of 
 peace and war." 
 
 Exercises in Physical Training. Two general types of 
 activities of interest to teachers may be distinguished: 
 formal exercises, and plays and games. Every day in most 
 schools a part of the time is devoted to exercises in physi- 
 cal training for relaxation from sitting still at a desk and 
 doing mental work. These are arm, leg, head and trunk 
 movements, wand exercises, etc., given in obedience to com- 
 mands. They require action in common with chin forward, 
 chest out, head up, mind alert, and readiness to obey com- 
 mands. They include marching, running, and dancing. 
 They are intended to restore the body to normal functioning 
 after close concentration; also, to develop the parts of the 
 body so exercised, to form habits of good posture, to con- 
 trol impulsive movements, and to cultivate a graceful car- 
 riage. When these exercises are accompanied by music 
 pleasure in their rhythm is much increased. They may be 
 an improvised part of the program at any time during the 
 day that the children seem to need relief in a change from a 
 mental to a physical occupation. Or regular periods of con- 
 siderable length may be devoted to them every day. In all 
 cases, however, they must be carried on with all the windows 
 wide open from the bottom. And this is only for the short 
 exercises; when they are as long as fifteen minutes they 
 should always be in the open air. 
 
 Interest in this kind of exercises has lately been revived 
 because certain of them are in their nature like the military 
 drill that has been adopted for high school training in 
 
37'o Education and the General Welfare 
 
 some of the states. Since 19 16 fourteen states have revised 
 their laws or made new ones on the subject of physical edu- 
 cation. New York has a state-wide requirement of com- 
 pulsory physical education with the minimum of 100 min- 
 utes' weekly practice for all school children. Illinois re- 
 quires a minimum of one hour weekly for all grades. Four 
 states have new laws providing for some form of military 
 training in high school.^ The purpose is to develop a 
 strong physique and cultivate a manly bearing in boys. 
 
 This kind of exercise has certain values that are not nec- 
 essarily military. It is group training in obedience to the 
 command of a leader, which may become useful in civil life 
 for the orderly disposal of large numbers of persons in the 
 performance of a uniform and definite duty. However, 
 mast teachers prefer plays and games to formal exercises, 
 and the prevailing opinion of school men is unfavorable to 
 military training in the public schools. 
 
 Playground Interests. There are many playground 
 games available for all schools, one book listing and describ- 
 ing 209 for elementary schools alone. ^ Playground inter- 
 ests are wide and varied. They have been divided into 
 four classes. There is first the group of Directed Play- 
 ground Activities. ^"^ This comprehends those activities 
 which are related to playground apparatus and its proper 
 
 1 Bulletin, 1918, No. State Laws Relating to Education, Enacted in 
 1915, 1916, and 1917, U. S. Bureau of Education, 1919. 
 
 2 Bancroft : " Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gym- 
 nasium," The Macmillan Company, New York, 1915. 
 
 3 De Groot : " Recreation Facilities in Public Parks," The American 
 City, 1914, Vol. X, pp. 8-15. Gives suitable equipment for a children's, 
 for a boys' and for a girls' playground, with total cost for each of the 
 three. 
 
Recreation 371 
 
 use. For the smaller children this kind of play is largely 
 individual, consisting in the use of the sand-bin, the wading 
 pool, the slides, swings, ladders, strides, etc., etc. 
 
 The second group of interests is Traditional Track and 
 Field Athletics. This is for the older children who delight 
 in competitive tests of strength and speed. This requires 
 running tracks, high jump sets, shot-put equipment, pole 
 vault sets, broad jump lanes, etc., etc. The third group 
 comprises Traditional Games, the most popular of all, such 
 as tennis, basket, foot, and base ball. 
 
 Finally, there are the Sports of the Season, such as ice 
 and snow sports, water sports, hiking, bicycling, camping, 
 picnics, etc. There is much need of a popular extension of 
 interest in outdoor winter sports. The kindergarten is the 
 only school that has in its way given a place in the program 
 to this interest. The children suitably clothed are taken out 
 in the open for a time at frequent intervals in the winter 
 months. 
 
 Organization of Play. The history of the outdoor play- 
 ground movement began about thirty years ago with the 
 establishment of a few children's sand gardens in the city 
 of Boston. In 191 5 the city of Chicago had spent more 
 than $11,000,000 for recreational centers, which measures 
 the remarkable advance of this movement and a broadening 
 of its scope so as to include men and women. 
 
 According to statistics collected a few years ago, there 
 were then in this country 3,270 supervised playgrounds in 
 414 cities with 7,500 summer workers and 1,050 the year 
 round. In 163 cities (191 5) school playgrounds were open 
 for after-school athletics with 40,000 boys making use of 
 them. In northern states facilities for recreation are ex- 
 
2)72. Education and the General Welfare 
 
 tended by means of flooded areas to provide skating. In 
 129 cities there are 524 playgrounds operated under artifi- 
 cial lighting in the evenings.^ But this is only a faint be- 
 ginning for cities large and small. 
 
 There is a growing demand for extensive rather than in- 
 tensive physical training. It is better to have the many 
 enjoy the benefits of physical exercise than to train a few 
 record-breaking athletes. The schools should be the center 
 of the nation-wide program for physical betterment to avoid 
 unnecessary duplication of effort and waste of time. 
 Whether the aim be higher standards of fitness and health or 
 pre-military training, this is a kind of national service that 
 school children can give and it should be under the control 
 of our educational forces. 
 
 Play in the Country. In the rural districts where so 
 often the natural interests of children are neglected for the 
 more serious concerns of the moment, there is a large op- 
 portunity for organized play. Hamilton County, Tennessee, 
 found that the work of a paid organizer of games increased 
 attendance in the schools nearly 20 per cent. The open 
 country is particularly suited to play festivals and pageants. 
 The rural school grounds should be large enough for base 
 ball, volley ball, croquet, and basket ball, besides a sand- 
 bin, swings, a horizontal bar, a running track, and a jumping 
 pit. Every out-door yard should have a sand-bin, a swing, 
 and a tent or a playhouse for the small child. 
 
 The country affords diversions and opportunities for ad- 
 venture unexcelled. There is swimming, climbing trees, 
 fishing, and hunting. And then in the country one can keep 
 
 1 Dealey : " Educational Control of National Service," Pedagogical 
 Seminary, Vol. XXIV, p. 245, June, 191 7. 
 
Recreation 373 
 
 pets comfortably and without interference. For the vari- 
 ous forms of spontaneous activities it excites, a fifty-cent 
 dog is worth more than a ten thousand dollar gymnasium. 
 There are predatory animals to track, chase, and kill, thus 
 combining play and conservation. Each rat is said to be 
 responsible for the loss of a bushel of grain and each Eng- 
 lish sparrow for a peck. For the older girls as well as boys, 
 there can be motoring, horseback riding, several kinds of 
 ball games, coasting parties, corn roasts, picnics, and camp- 
 ing out. Neglect of the country children in this matter of 
 recreation, it must be remembered, means neglect of 59 per 
 cent of all our school children.^ 
 
 Play in the City. In the city where play is much more 
 in evidence than in the country, large numbers are not 
 reached by the organized playground movement. In 191 5 
 only 25 per cent of New York City children who must seek 
 recreation outside of their homes were in attendance upon 
 the summer playgrounds. It is often found that a large 
 per cent of the children of the city schools do not engage in 
 the popular forms of organized ball playing. In a large 
 city of the Middle West where the average is high, one out 
 of every three boys of the elementary schools over 8 years 
 of age does not play base ball. Seventeen per cent of those 
 who are over 10 years do not play. Among the high school 
 boys only ten per cent do not play but seventy-four per cent 
 of the players are not organized. One in five elementary 
 
 lAngell: "Play," Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1912; Cur- 
 tis : " Play and Education," The Macmillan Company, New York, 
 1914 ; Johnson : " Education by Games and Plays," G.inn and Com- 
 pany, Boston, 1907. 
 
374 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 school boys over lo years, three out of five high school boys, 
 and two in five of high school girls play basket ball. In 
 all the games the unorganized players are largely in the 
 majority. ■'^ 
 
 Ability to swim is a requirement in some schools for 
 graduation. It is regarded by the highest authorities as the 
 best of all exercises for the fundamental muscle groups, as 
 the physiological ideal of activity for feminine development, 
 and of all sports the most quickly recuperative. Reports 
 from 3,308 public school pupils show the following : 
 
 Per cent who cannot swim 
 No. of Pupils Elementary Schools, pupils over 8 High School 
 
 Girls Boys Girls Boys 
 
 3.308 88 45 77 34 
 
 Sports in the Elementary School. The time to learn 
 to swim for boys and girls is within the limits of the ele- 
 mentary school period. The statistics of swimming indi- 
 cate that if the art is not learned by the 14th year only six 
 out of a hundred learn after that age.^ More than half of 
 the children who swim had learned by the 12th year. Run- 
 ning is another exercise that is favorable to the proper de- 
 velopment of the larger muscles. This, too, comes properly 
 in the period of the elementary school. The favorite period 
 for sports involving this exercise for girls is between six and 
 ten years. Leaping is at all times a favorable exercise for 
 boys and best for girls to engage in before 10 or 12. Row- 
 ing is of the highest value ; for girls there is nothing better 
 
 1 Johnson : " Education through Recreation," The Cleveland Survey 
 Committee, Cleveland, O. 1915, 94 pp. 
 
 2 Ihid., op. cit., p. 23. 
 
Recreation 375 
 
 excepting, perhaps, swimming. In general, it seems that 
 the time for most active games which involve the muscles 
 of the trunk, legs, and arms is the elementary school period. 
 
 A Scale of Play Values. The question arises whether 
 there is a scale of values in plays and games or whether 
 they are all alike. They have been classified into individual 
 and social plays, -^ plays of sensation, plays of motion of 
 parts of the body and of foreign bodies, destructive and con- 
 structive play. Gutsmuths classified them into movement 
 plays and sitting plays; Richter, into plays of reception and 
 plays of activity; Froebel, into physical, sense, and mental 
 plays. 
 
 It is hardly possible to arrange games in order as higher 
 or lower. However, certain of them are popularly regarded 
 as less valuable than others. We do not think favorably, 
 for instance, of games which allow the child to remain 
 passive. The child is in the active rather than the contem- 
 plative age. And one may well believe that a child can give 
 too much time to a park swing, a merry-go-round, or a 
 chute-the-chutes or remain inactive too long with mumblety- 
 peg, cards, or tiddly-winks. 
 
 It is also safe to say that not all games are of equal value 
 at the same time of life. Adults take to certain childlike 
 plays only when they feel like " acting up." Other types 
 of play are always proper. If we should tentatively arrange 
 plays or games we might put them in the following order : 
 
 Those of rhythmic motion, like rocking and swinging of early 
 life — mainly passive movement. 
 
 iGroos: *' The Play of Animals," D. Appleton and Company, New 
 York, 1898 ; " Play of Man," D. Appleton and Company, New York, 
 1 901. 
 
^^76 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 Those of motion without rhythm, like sliding. 
 
 Rapid exercise of an acquired power, like running. 
 
 Mastery of a power shown by doing it under difficulties, as in 
 hopping on one foot. 
 
 Games in competition, like tag, foot races. 
 
 Social games in which the competitive idea is much reduced as 
 they involve larger numbers and emphasize social good will, 
 as ring games. 
 
 Imitations of life in the home as with dolls and dollhouses, of occu- 
 pations as driving horses, engines, or autos, or of animals and 
 persons as in dramatic imitation. 
 
 Constructive plays controlled by an idea to be realized with mate- 
 rial means such as sand, clay, blocks, and later with the use 
 of tools in fashioning playhouses, toy furniture, kites, boats, 
 wagons, and other toys. 
 Group games with a system of rules to be observed requires 
 
 a higher order of adjustment, as in baseball. 
 
 Much of the work that children undertake is done in imi- 
 tation of their elders and has the force of play. They are 
 likely to be influenced by whatever is carried on so that they 
 can see it, be it gardening, motoring, music, or drawing. 
 But they are interested in the active phase of these occupa- 
 tions or diversions, in the actual use of the pencil or brush, 
 in singing or playing an instrument; the child will make 
 music, or noise, and draw pictures somehow before there will 
 be any passive appreciation of these interests. 
 
 Revelations of a Play Census. But it may be said that 
 with all the interests that have been enumerated, the ele- 
 mentary school period would be overcrowded. Although 
 no child pursues all interests, it would still be true that the 
 elementary school cannot find time in its present program 
 to satisfy all the normal yearnings of childhood. The child 
 is not in school long enough. If we allow 9 hours for 
 
Recreation 
 
 377 
 
 sleep and 3 for meals and other necessary duties each day of 
 the year, each child has a total of 4,380 hours a year avail- 
 able for work or play. Give him all of 52 Sundays and he 
 would still have over 3,100 hours. Of these the school re- 
 quires not more than six per day for 200 days or 1,200 
 hours. The question is what interests do children under 
 working age follow for 1,900 hours? 
 
 A play census taken June 23, 1913, under the direction 
 of the Chief Medical Inspector and the Assistant Superin- 
 tendent in charge of physical education ^ showed what 
 14,683 Cleveland children were doing and where they were 
 on that date. 
 
 CHART XXVII 
 A Play Census of 14,683 Children on June 2^, 1913 
 
 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 Total 
 
 Where they 
 
 On streets 
 
 5,241 
 
 2,558 
 
 7,799 
 
 were seen 
 
 In yards 
 
 1,583 
 
 1,998 
 
 3,581 
 
 
 In vacant lots 
 
 686 
 
 197 
 
 883 
 
 
 In playgrounds 
 
 997 
 
 872 
 
 1,869 
 
 
 In alleys 
 
 413 
 
 138 
 
 551 
 
 What they 
 
 Doing nothing 
 
 3,737 
 
 2,234 
 
 5,961 
 
 were doing 
 
 Playing 
 
 4,601 
 
 2,757 
 
 7,358 
 
 
 Working 
 
 719 
 
 635 
 
 1,354 
 
 What games 
 
 Baseball 
 
 1,448 
 
 190 
 
 1,638 
 
 they were 
 
 Kites 
 
 482 
 
 49 
 
 531 
 
 playing 
 
 Sand piles 
 
 241 
 
 250 
 
 471 
 
 
 Tag 
 
 100 
 
 53 
 
 153 
 
 
 Jackstones 
 
 68 
 
 257 
 
 325 
 
 
 Dolls 
 
 89 
 
 193 
 
 282 
 
 1 Johnson : " Education through Recreation," op. cit. 
 
^y8 Education and the General Welfare 
 CHART XXVU — cGHtinued 
 
 Sewing 
 
 H 
 
 130 
 
 144 
 
 Housekeeping 
 
 53 
 
 191 
 
 244 
 
 Horse and wagon 
 
 89 
 
 24 
 
 113 
 
 Bicycle riding 
 
 79 
 
 13 
 
 92 
 
 Minding baby 
 
 19 
 
 41 
 
 60 
 
 Reading 
 
 17 
 
 35 
 
 52 
 
 Roller-skating 
 
 18 
 
 29 
 
 47 
 
 Gardening 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 27 
 
 Caddy 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 Marbles 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Playing in other ways, 
 
 
 
 
 mainly just fooling 
 
 1,863 
 
 1,308 
 
 3,171 
 
 These were children under the age of fifteen when play 
 and general activity are required for proper growth; 41 per 
 cent of them were doing nothing. They could initiate 
 nothing; they needed a leader and organizer. Many were 
 seen in the streets, 5 1 per cent, some playing, others not, but 
 all were in the dust of traffic among surroundings that are 
 not suited to the spirit of play. At the same time 36 play- 
 grounds were open but only 1,869 or 11 per cent of these 
 children were playing in them. It appears, therefore, that 
 school plays and games are not interesting to the large ma- 
 jority of school children out of school hours. The influence 
 of the school does not carry on during vacations. In all the 
 free time which is longer than the school time, recreation 
 is unorganized and uncontrolled. The school cannot change 
 this without lengthening its day and year. In Gary, Indi- 
 ana, the school day is eight hours long, and is divided into 
 a period for study, a period for work in the shops or labora- 
 tories, and a period for play. It is aimed to control in this 
 way the recreation activities of the children. If on account 
 
Recreation 379 
 
 of the hold of tradition such an adjustment cannot be made, 
 the school must in this as in other things definitely extend 
 its activities and gain support from outside agencies. The 
 problem is to keep young people busy with what they like 
 to do. This problem will be taken up in the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 Auxiliary Agencies 
 
 Modem Needs. The school must have organized sup- 
 port from the homes and community in directing the recrea- 
 tion interests of the young or it must take more time and 
 greatly increase its present working forces. But the com- 
 plex character of modern life which the children though 
 young must to a certain extent share simply because they 
 are a part of it, requires an extension of the traditional lines 
 of school work in other respects as well. The place of a 
 number of the agencies which in one way or another can 
 support the work of the school will now be considered. 
 
 Cooperation of the Home. That there is a vital con- 
 nection between the home and the school meets us at every 
 turn in all the phases of management. However, it is well 
 known that cooperation between them is often lacking. 
 The fundamental need to secure it is a common sympathy 
 and understanding between the two. As the years pass that 
 part of the province of education which was in former times 
 reserved for the home is ever growing narrower. And 
 what the family can no longer do, the school is largely held 
 responsible for doing. On the other hand, it is not always 
 clear to parents that the sole interest of the teachers is the 
 highest welfare of their children. When the school leads 
 an isolated and cloistered existence in any community, mis- 
 
 380 
 
Auxiliary Agencies 381 
 
 understandings are likely to grow and pupils will give un- 
 w^illing obedience and resist all efforts at guidance and con- 
 trol in an attitude of rebellion. 
 
 How to Win Parents. There is one proper way to win 
 parents. It is to take a genuine interest in their children 
 and, moreover, to manifest that interest first to the child 
 himself by recognizing him as a responsible individual, ap- 
 preciating his presence, missing him when absent, knowing 
 him by name and by his interests, and acting on the assump- 
 tion that he is truthful and trustworthy. He is not just one 
 of a number and a mere unit in the mass. In the second 
 place, this interest must be made manifest to the parent. A 
 way to dispel misunderstandings is by conference. In many 
 schools, however, the only time when a parent meets with 
 a teacher or principal is when something has happened that 
 either side feels must at once be corrected. Conference is 
 not of permanent value when it takes place only when dis- 
 agreeable matters must be settled. To establish mutual 
 confidence and sympathy they must be sought on occasions 
 that begin and end in a pleasant frame of mind. 
 
 The vital point of connection between the interest of the 
 parent and that of the teacher is not so much in what the 
 children may be assumed to be but what they can do. If 
 they can get together on this common ground, the school 
 visitor or mediator between them, employed in some cities, 
 will not be necessary. AMien all other attempts to have 
 the parents meet with the teachers in a social hour fail, 
 school exercises in which their children have a part, given 
 at a convenient time, will command their presence and bring 
 them into pleasant relations with the teachers. 
 
 The Parent-Teacher Association. \\'hen parents be- 
 
382 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 come aware of what the school is doing for their children in 
 this way, a natural basis is established for a growing appre- 
 ciation of the needs of the school by way of support from 
 the home and the community. How an indifferent and re- 
 bellious district may in such a way be transformed for the 
 good of a city school is well illustrated by a story told in 
 the reference given below.^ This is the natural origin of 
 organizations such as the Parent-Teacher Associations, 
 which are intended to bring about a common understanding 
 of school aims and problems. 
 
 Possible Influence of Such Organizations. The con- 
 ferences and discussions at the meetings of these associations 
 and their ultimate influence in the neighborhood, should lead 
 to at least three important things: to an interest in child 
 welfare, to a home solution of many problems of discipline 
 before they appear in school, and to an appreciation of the 
 home as a sort of laboratory source of school projects and 
 problems and as a field for practice of what is learned at 
 school. 
 
 Every School Needs a Laboratory. The difificulties of 
 enlarged responsibilities with a limited time program for 
 their discharge is to be met by this new viewpoint and by a 
 change of method. The school's new way to meet the 
 problem of many studies is to organize them so that one 
 may serve as a means to the knowledge of the other and 
 to emphasize the practice of the common factor in all of 
 them — orderly thinking. And furthermore, in the case 
 of school children, thinking must be first done with concrete 
 material. This must be somewhere accessible. In short, 
 
 1 Patri : " A Schoolmaster of the Great City," The Macmillan Com- 
 pany, New York, 1917. Chapters IV and V, pp. 84-153. 
 
Auxiliary Agencies 383 
 
 every school needs a laboratory. The kindergarten has al- 
 ways had it. The blocks, sticks, yarns, colors, etc., are all 
 things to work with and get impressions from. The sand, 
 clay, and paper, satisfy creative impulses. At the same time 
 the child is given opportunities for actual practice in social 
 behavior with others of the same class. The kindergarten 
 has ways also to make the practices learned carry over into 
 the home. Some of the play material used may come from 
 the home. The kindergarten pictures in a small way the 
 correlations between the home and the school that should 
 obtain in all public schools. 
 
 The traditional program of the elementary school, the 
 high school, and to a certain extent the college, has, until 
 recent years, been divorced from the concrete. Only in the 
 more advanced classes and especially in the graduate school 
 has the student been introduced to the microscope and ex- 
 perimental apparatus and been allowed to work directly with 
 the basic material of the science pursued. 
 
 Between the kindergarten and the more advanced school 
 work there is usually a gap of dreary formalism. And it is 
 a significant fact that the educational critic judging by re- 
 sults, usually makes this period so scant of concrete interest 
 the target of his attacks. It is widely held that in this 
 country the only educational institutions that have proved 
 generally satisfactory are these two at their best : the kinder- 
 garten and the graduate school. The new program demands 
 that the traditional lack be made good by providing the more 
 concrete material as a means of education in the grades 
 where it has so long been neglected. 
 
 Hence, the school must open its doors to the field and the 
 v/oods and the home. We cannot bring the laboratory into 
 
384 Educatioii and the General Welfare 
 
 the schoolhouse. It is too large. We must go out to it. 
 And when we come to think that the child is in it every day 
 under any circumstances, why not utilize the home and its 
 surroundings as a laboratory for the school? Instead of 
 having the pupil always stand before the teacher with hands 
 folded and eyes to the ceiling trying to remember the num- 
 ber tables so often repeated, why not repeat these processes 
 with a great variety of material and learn numbers while 
 we learn also about the things. Also, instead of reading 
 the same words over and over again in the same book, why 
 not practice reading these words in ever new settings in a 
 variety of readable and interesting books. A stock of sup- 
 plementary matter from the library read for pleasure or for 
 something one wishes to find out, is the laboratory phase of 
 reading. 
 
 The Home as a Source of Projects. There is now a 
 science of dish-washing, dusting, cleaning, and laundering 
 as well as a chemistry and physics, and a science of cooking 
 and an economics of buying and marketing. There is also a 
 biology and hygiene in the care of infants. There is much 
 waste of goods and life in American homes because these 
 matters are not given intelligent thought. The school can 
 connect with these interests and give superior drill in the 
 three R's while it is doing so. 
 
 Little Mothers' Leagues. About eighty of the larger 
 cities of the country have organizations known as Little 
 Mothers' Leagues. In one of the cities there were in 19 14, 
 the first year the work was undertaken, eleven public and 
 four parochial schools to take part in the movement. In 
 three years in the same city 4,200 girls were enrolled in 28 
 schools. 
 
Auxiliary Agencies 385 
 
 The purpose of these organizations is to conserve the 
 health and Hves of infants. Membership is Hmited to the 
 girls of the seventh and eighth grades. The meetings are 
 held in the schoolhouses and are conducted in orderly form. 
 Instruction is given and demonstrations are made by a school 
 nurse. The lessons include simple definitions of terms used ; 
 home sanitation; care of the house, yard and alley; proper 
 disposal of refuse matter; ventilation; disease carriers; the 
 proper handling and care of the baby indoors and out of 
 doors, including clothing, bathing, care at the time of erup- 
 tion of teeth, the qualities of natural and artificial feeding, 
 care of milk and its containers in the home, etc., etc. 
 
 Care of offspring must be one of the fundamental aims 
 of education. In this kind of work the school serves its 
 own cause when it saves the health of future children by 
 spreading knowledge of hygiene in their early care. In 
 some cities there are child welfare bureaus where mothers 
 are encouraged to bring their children of pre-school age for 
 examination, and any diseases or defects discovered are ex- 
 plained to these women in simple terms, and advice given, 
 and in case of the very poor a free clinic is recommended. 
 This advice is " followed up " by volunteer workers to see 
 that it is carried out. Neglect of children at birth, lack of 
 proper care, unsuitable food, bad housing, all contribute their 
 share to a chronic condition of weakness, physical and men- 
 tal, with which children eventually come to school, and 
 measures then taken by school physicians to make them fit 
 for their work may come several years too late. 
 
 The National Children's Bureau. This work is in line with the 
 activities of the National Bureau of Child Welfare. This bureau 
 was established to promote the physical well-being of infants. 
 
386 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 The national campaign carried out in 1918 aimed at saving at least 
 100,000 of 300,000 children who die annually of preventable dis- 
 eases. The first activity of the year was a test of children of pre- 
 school age to ascertain whether they were up to the standards of 
 weight and height for their ages. Millions of volunteer workers 
 participated in the work, 7,000,000 record cards were issued of 
 which over 2,000,000 have been tabulated. Many communities 
 have engaged in a second test to note improvements. There were 
 established one hundred and thirty-four children's health centers, 
 to which mothers can go for expert advice concerning the best 
 means of caring for their children. 
 
 School Gardening. This is an example of an educa- 
 tional agency which for many years was independent of the 
 regular school organization. In the last few years it has 
 grown in favor until it has become an integral part of school 
 work in many cities and villages. It supplies attractive ma- 
 terial for study and teaches a useful occupation. It has the 
 desirable feature of giving occasion for the use of tools 
 which are safe in the hands of the smallest school child. It 
 can be pursued as a scientific and an economic project. 
 Many a child welcomes the chance to engage in it as a means 
 of earning some money. It is educational from the time 
 of preparing the soil to the gathering of the crops, the mar- 
 keting, and the settling of accounts. Besides, the work is 
 carried on in the open air and sunlight and at a time when 
 many boys and girls would be idle in the streets. 
 
 The movement gained a tremendous impetus through the 
 organization of the United States School Garden Army with 
 its million and a half boys and girls enrolled in 1918 and 
 directed by 25,000 or more teachers under the general di- 
 rection of the Bureau of Education. The campaign for 
 food conservation gave to each child engaged in the work a 
 
Auxiliary Agencies 387 
 
 sense of aiding his country's cause and helping to control 
 the fate of the people of other lands. 
 
 Under intelligent guidance there will be much use in this 
 work for the three R's, and with the national and world- 
 wide significance attached to it, the lessons in geography and 
 history will hereafter mean much more. 
 
 School Savings Banks. When children learn how to 
 earn money as in gardening, they should also be taught how 
 to save. There is no other agency with a more definite aim 
 than the school bank. It teaches thrift and something of 
 the ways of practical banking, and without formal lessons. 
 No other bank could serve this purpose in the same ef- 
 fective way. Its place of business is in daily evidence and 
 at an appointed time it receives deposits. The attention 
 of the children is constantly drawn to the existence of the 
 bank and by that fact they are constantly reminded of the 
 policy of saving. Thrift stamps and war savings certifi- 
 cates have been an added stimulus to saving among school 
 children. Who can doubt but that all this outside experience 
 will have a vital effect on classroom arithmetic, if the teacher 
 knows how to utilize it? 
 
 Civics Clubs. These are usually formed in the eighth 
 grade or the years of the high school and are intended for 
 practice in the usages of parliamentary bodies and for dis- 
 cussions and debates relating to community improvement 
 and civic betterment. In the larger cities a number of these 
 clubs unite in a civic and vocational league or junior 
 chamber of commerce in which the work done is given a 
 large scope and wide outlook. The chamber of commerce 
 supports the organization and cooperates with it. The de- 
 clared purpose of the league in one of the cities is " to 
 
388 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 study the civic and vocational life of the city by first-hand 
 observation, to learn what opportunities the industrial life of 
 the city offers to young people, to teach its members to think 
 seriously and wisely concerning various occupations, to as- 
 sist in preparing its members for an active and efficient place 
 in these vocations, to connect more closely the work of the 
 public schools with the life of the community, to teach its 
 members to aid effectively in meeting the civic needs of the 
 community, and to assist civic institutions in promoting the 
 general welfare of the city." ^ 
 
 The Scouts Organizations. The scout movement has 
 been called " the most significant educational contribution 
 of our time." ^ It combines with play and recreation all 
 the educational interests described in the present chapter and 
 many others besides, while it pursues its chief purpose of 
 forming the character of youth. Its special province is the 
 moral development of children of the teen-age. All that is 
 taught and all that is done has a relation to the practical 
 mastery of some line of useful work. Scouting is not lec- 
 tures or talks by a master or teacher; it is more a system of 
 action than of words, and this is the chief reason why it 
 makes an effective appeal to children. It relates itself 
 closely to the study of nature and experience with the forms 
 of wild life; it is an open-air institution. 
 
 The scouts organizations aim to cooperate with the home, 
 the school, and the church, and membership in them is not 
 denied to any creed. They appeal to instincts of child life 
 
 1 Eighty-seventh Annual Report, Cincinnati Public Schools, 1917. 
 p. 68. 
 
 2 Russell : " Scouting Education," Teachers College Record, Jan., 
 1917, pp. 1-13. 
 
Auxiliary Agencies 389 
 
 that cannot be safely ignored in training. The simple uni- 
 form gives the scout a visible distinction and it is a guaran- 
 tee of v^orthy conduct. The badges and insignia satisfy the 
 natural desire for personal decoration, and there are so many 
 of them that they arouse the collecting instinct. There are 
 badges of rank, emblems and colors, merit badges, patrol 
 signs, honor medals, and service stripes. For every stage 
 of advancement there is a visible reward. 
 
 The Boy Scouts. According to the revised " oath," be- 
 fore he becomes a scout, a boy must promise : On my honor 
 I will do my best — 
 
 1. To do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the scout 
 law. 
 
 2. To help other people at all times. 
 
 3. To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and 
 morally straight. 
 
 The laws he promises to obey are expressed in twelve 
 short sentences. Without repeating words, they are : A 
 scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, 
 obedient, cheer fid, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. The 
 motto of the scouts is : Be Prepared. The tests for ad- 
 vancement in the three classes of scouts include tracking, 
 compass reading, fire building, thrift as indicated by a sav- 
 ings account, map reading, distance judging, administering 
 first aid, camp cooking, signaling, describing plants, trees, 
 birds, and wild animals, and training other boys. After 
 passing all the requirements of the three classes a boy is 
 eligible to qualify for various badges. These are awarded 
 for knowledge and practical skill in agriculture, gardening, 
 athletics, architecture, art, business, bird study, camping, 
 
390 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 cooking, civics, archery, bee-keeping, marksmanship, per- 
 sonal health, path-finding, life-saving, signaling, electrical 
 work, dairying, firemanship, swimming, public health, and 
 many other activities. 
 
 That the training boy scouts receive has excellent results 
 is shown by what they can do when called out for emergency 
 service. In one city boy scouts were called out to act as 
 traffic officers in the absence of the police. There was no 
 question that " they knew just what to do and when to do 
 it. They did not get excited neither did they become filled 
 with self-importance. They took hold of a very complex 
 situation in a masterly way and kept the traffic moving in 
 accordance with the regulations." ^ Later they did a simi- 
 lar service in guarding fire-boxes against lawless elements 
 for a city fire department. In such work they were excused 
 meanwhile from school because of the practical civics value 
 of their service. 
 
 Although the boy scouts were not organized to prepare 
 for military service it is reported that the men in the Allied 
 armies who had scout training gave proof of unusual effi- 
 ciency. In Great Britain 20,000 of them were requisi- 
 tioned for special non-military duties during the war. 
 
 Girl Scouts. The Camp Fire Girls and Girl Scouts are 
 similar organizations for girls. The latter is a parallel to 
 the Boy Scouts. It was founded by Miss Agnes Baden- 
 Powell, sister of General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the 
 founder of the Boy Scouts. Its motto is the same and the 
 " promise " and the scout laws are nearly the same. The 
 age when a girl may become a scout is 10, two years less 
 than the age requirement in the boys' organization. 
 1 Local news report. 
 
Auxiliary Agencies 391 
 
 The qualifications for regular advancement in rank are 
 to be able to tie useful knots, cook a simple dish, make a bed 
 properly, make an invalid's bed, know what to do in case 
 of fire, know what habits to acquire for health, work a but- 
 ton-hole, do plain sewing, set the table properly for the 
 three meals of the day, bathe and dress a child two years 
 old or younger, pass an examination in first aid, swim fifty 
 yards, and know the simple laws of sanitation and ventila- 
 tion. She must know how to distinguish and name ten 
 trees, ten wild animals, and ten wild birds. 
 
 There are merit badges for knowing approved methods 
 of resuscitation in cases of drowning, knowing how to teach 
 a certain number of popular games, knowing the purposes 
 of the Audubon Society, taking care of a baby for a specified 
 time, keeping household accounts, knowing how to test milk, 
 launder and press, use a rifle, play a musical instrument, 
 turn in a fire-alarm, and for skill in gardening, domestic art, 
 photography, and many other lines of work. 
 
 The girl scout is enjoined to put duty before pleasure, 
 safety or comfort. '/ Do a good turn to some one every 
 day " is a practical precept. No reward is accepted for 
 helpfulness. Modesty in dress and deportment is inculcated. 
 '' Girl scouts are not loud and boisterous in order to draw 
 attention to themselves " and they " do not allow desire for 
 admiration of personal charms to rule their conduct." The 
 girl scout is required to have a savings account, to learn to 
 be a good housekeeper, avoid waste of every kind, and 
 see that her clothing is cared for properly. She is enjoined 
 *' not to shirk dif^culties or trouble but is taught to think her 
 way through them smiling." 
 
 We can give only the principles, the scout method of 
 
392 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 teaching them is by exemplification in the child's own prac- 
 tice. This seems better than to teach morals by dictated 
 precepts or even by stories or moving pictures of moral 
 conduct. Children under the legal age to work have too 
 much time on their hands, which they do not know how to 
 employ. This is especially true in small towns and villages. 
 The scout organization and its activities would be a means 
 of solving this problem. 
 
 But the scout organization needs closer relations with the 
 teachers and administrators of our schools. The call for 
 scout masters is very urgent and there are none who are 
 better fitted for the work than teachers. The work of a 
 scout master requires ordinarily three hours a week outside 
 of school hours. The work of no organization has greater 
 educational significance nor larger opportunities for con- 
 structive service than that of the scouts. 
 
 The Social Center.^ The social center is first of all a 
 place, and second an institution. All the agencies enumer- 
 ated, of which the scout movement is the most comprehen- 
 sive, are auxiliaries of the school. Although not all a part 
 of the school organization, they all cooperate with the school 
 in its broader educational aims. They represent no creed or 
 party. All are at the same time community and school 
 interests, and the schoolhouse is their local habitation. Here 
 they are joined and coordinated, here they find expression 
 and from this center their influence radiates. 
 
 But now this place becomes an institution and broadens 
 its scope. The schoolhouse now becomes the community 
 capital and parliament house, the forum for public discus- 
 
 ^ Jackson : " A Community Center, What It Is and How to Organize 
 It," Bulletin, 1918, No. 11, U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 
Auxiliary Agencies 393 
 
 sions, for the consideration of questions that pertain to the 
 welfare of the school and the community, the voting place 
 where matters of local and political policy are decided. 
 There may be exercises such as train in citizenship, like con- 
 ducting a mock court, or a naturalization hearing ; there may 
 be exhibits of the home making, household economics, and 
 gardening courses; there may be public receptions to new 
 citizens, celebrations of a patriotic character; meetings of 
 various society groups like the parent-teacher association, 
 associated charities, home and school leagues, ward or vil- 
 lage improvement associations, etc., etc. 
 
 There may also be educational conferences, exhibitions, 
 lectures or talks, loan art exhibits, child welfare exhibits; 
 there may be entertainments with choral singing, concerts, 
 dialogues, playlets, impersonations, motion pictures, nights 
 of all nations, readings, story-telling, tableaux, vaudeville 
 stunts. 
 
 There may be spelling, arithmetic, grammar, pronuncia- 
 tion matches; contests in declamation, essay writing, or 
 story-telling; there may be debates, which will combine in- 
 terest in competition with discussion of questions of civic 
 or other educational nature. Besides, there will be occa- 
 sions of a purely social character such as banquets, parties, 
 celebrations, folk-dances, etc. Gymnastic and athletic con- 
 tests will be sure to enlist the interest and participation of 
 all the children. 
 
 The social center is a place where all the people of the 
 neighborhood, rich or poor, old or young, can meet for 
 mutual benefit and enjoyment. And since it is the common 
 meeting place for all the people and since the expense is met 
 by funds derived from public taxation, the use of the school 
 
394 Education and the General Welfare 
 
 property must be for all on equal terms and not devoted to 
 sectarian or partisan purpose. In this way the full value 
 of the school plant will be realized and the interests of the 
 community will be drawn together upon the common object 
 of the school and all that supports it. In this way an inter- 
 est in the building itself will be promoted, to make it fully 
 adequate for school and community center purposes. 
 
 The Unit of Democracy. Thus the dream of Jefferson 
 comes true. It was his idea that the school community 
 should be the ultimate unit of American democracy. In the 
 words of Commissioner Claxton — '' The ultimate unit in 
 every State, Territory, and possession of the United States 
 is the school district. Every school district should therefore 
 be a little democracy, and the schoolhouse should be the com- 
 munity capitol." 
 
 The School Needs the Social Center. The school 
 needs the social center for the opportunities it affords the 
 children for expression in one form or another. The na- 
 tive impulse of communication craves an audience. The 
 best possible audience is not the teacher but a gathering of 
 neighbors and friends. Thus the interests of the school will 
 become the interests of the community, and the problems 
 of the community will engage the attention of the school. 
 In this way as the pupils grow older they gradually pass in 
 an easy transition from the school to their place as citizens.^ 
 
 These matters often succeed better in the cities than in the 
 
 1 See Calendar No. 335, Report No. 391, United States Senate, 2nd 
 Session, 63rd Congress, for an address by Hon. Woodrow Wilson, 
 Gov. of New Jersey, at Madison, Wisconsin, on " The Social Center : 
 A Means of Common Understanding." And one by Mr. Edward J. 
 Ward on " The Schoolhouse is the Civic and Social Center of the 
 Community." 
 
Auxiliary Agencies 395 
 
 rural districts. But the greater need is in the country- 
 schools. Life there is usually too greatly lacking in those 
 social advantages that lure people to cities. There is too 
 Httle going on, as a rule, to engage the mental energies of 
 the children with the result that neglect of use results in a 
 weakness somewhat the same as if the powers were lacking 
 in the first place. 
 
 Child Welfare a Universal Interest. The movements 
 mentioned in this chapter are a selected few of thousands 
 that have been organized in recent years in all countries to 
 promote child welfare in one phase or another from infancy 
 to youth. There are not less than 7,000 organizations in 
 this country engaged in activities that relate to the home 
 and the school. Special efforts of the U. S. Department of 
 the Interior with the cooperation of 75,000 qualified work- 
 ers are directed toward conserving child life in the rural 
 districts of 2,100 counties.^ Most of the States, through 
 their boards of health, publish and distribute pamphlets on 
 sanitation and the care of children. The universities, 
 through their extension work in home economics, are en- 
 gaged in the same service. Eight of them offer courses in 
 scout leadership. Five states and 39 cities have established 
 bureaus of child hygiene. Besides, private associations in 
 many cities and villages carry on some form of child wel- 
 fare work.^ 
 
 The Promise of the Profession. This is the dominant 
 
 1 Lombard: "Home Education." Bulletin, 1919, No. 3, U. S. Bureau 
 of Education. 
 
 - West : " Child Care." Care of Children Series, No. 3, Children's 
 Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor. With bibliography including an 
 extensive list of Government Publications on Child Welfare. 
 
39^ Education and the General Welfare 
 
 interest of our time. Some one has called this the century 
 of the child. The profession of teaching is renewing its 
 life with a constantly enlarging horizon. Its body of 
 knowledge is rapidly growing in extent and in scientific ac- 
 curacy. To know the main phases of the whole school 
 situation is now essential for intelligent citizenship. And 
 the young teacher has a right to feel that now more than 
 ever before in the world's history the work of the school 
 with all that concerns it is rich in the possibilities of cultural 
 growth and worthy of the devotion of a life-time of service. 
 
APPENDIX 
 Standardizing Requirements 
 
 State control of education has given rise to the need of 
 standards. Some of the states define by statute the prov- 
 ince of each type of school and make out a list of require- 
 ments that must be met by local boards in order to deter- 
 mine to what extent, if at all, the schools may share in the 
 annual state appropriation. 
 
 The Kindergarten. This has been recognized for many 
 years as a part of city school systems, but has not been the 
 subject of state school legislation until a few years ago. 
 Now it is everywhere regarded as an effective educational 
 instrument both as it affects the children themselves and for 
 its influence upon the homes of the children. In several of 
 the states kindergartens must now be established on petition 
 of a specified number of parents. Although it came orig- 
 inally from abroad, it has developed a practice that ac- 
 knowledges no foreign inspiration. It has had so marked 
 an influence in the methods used in the regular school grades 
 that it is now considered desirable that those preparing to 
 teach in the grades above it should study the methods of 
 the kindergarten. 
 
 The kindergartner is not supposed to be a teacher in the 
 ordinary sense of the term. She takes rather her place 
 among the children of her circle, is in full sympathy with 
 child nature, and with an adequate repertoire of dances, 
 
 397 
 
398 Appendix 
 
 songs, stories, games, and motives for constructive plays 
 in sand, clay, wood, and paper, she brings about situations 
 that call forth the spontaneous activities of the children. 
 Incidentally the child develops physically and socially, learns 
 good manners and gains ideals of behavior, and acquires in- 
 formation and a certain degree of skill of definite value in 
 the first grade of the elementary school to which he is next 
 admitted. 
 
 Merging the Kindergarten and the Elementary 
 School. It is believed that more of the free spirit of the 
 kindergarten should be introduced in the grades, particularly 
 in the lower ones. Some of the states have revised their 
 statutes so as to provide for kindergartens as a part of the 
 common school course. Many administrators believe that 
 this can best be done by merging the two organizations. In 
 some places this change has already been made, the name 
 kindergarten having disappeared, while its spirit is expected 
 to remain. 
 
 What Is an Elementary School? Beginning at the age 
 of six the child enters the first grade of the elementary 
 school and continues under the traditional plan for eight 
 years. An elementary school has been defined by statute as 
 " one in which instruction and training are given in spelling, 
 reading, writing, arithmetic, English language, English 
 grammar and composition, geography, history of the United 
 States including civil government, physiology, and hygiene. 
 Nothing herein shall abridge the power of boards of educa- 
 tion to cause instruction and training to be given in vocal 
 music, drawing, elementary algebra, the elements of agri- 
 culture, and other branches which they deem advisable for 
 the best interests of the schools under their charge." 
 
Appendix 399 
 
 Classes of Elementary Schools. In certain states where 
 standards are required as a condition for state support, ele- 
 mentary schools are divided into classes. In Ohio the fol- 
 lowing are the minimum standard requirements for a first- 
 grade one-room school : 
 
 1. Clean buildings and yard 
 
 2. Building in good repair 
 
 3. Separate screened privies or inside toilets 
 
 4. Maps of Ohio and the United States 
 
 5. Library of not less than fifty volumes 
 
 6. 100 square feet of slate or composition blackboard. The 
 lower margin of not less than twelve lineal feet of which board 
 shall be within two feet of the floor. 
 
 7. A system of heating with ventilation — minimum a jacketed 
 stove. 
 
 8. Buildings hereafter constructed to have in connection with 
 them not less than one acre of land for organized play. 
 
 9. Teacher with at least a three-year certificate. 
 
 10. Agricultural apparatus to the value of $15. 
 
 These are the minimum standards that have to be main- 
 tained or the school will not receive its annual state ap- 
 propriation. A one-room school of the second grade is re- 
 quired to fullfil the first three conditions only. 
 
 Graded Schools. In country villages where the number 
 of pupils is too large for one teacher or room, the elementary 
 school is divided between two or m.ore teachers each taking 
 in charge usually several grades classified according to age 
 and advancement of pupils. This is called a Graded School. 
 
 Consolidated Schools. The consolidated school is a cen- 
 tralized school (elementary or high school) which two or 
 more districts combine to establish and maintain. When the 
 attendance in a rural district with a depleted population runs 
 
400 Appendix 
 
 low and especially if there are two or more such districts 
 in the same territory the expense per pupil of maintaining 
 the school comes high even with a cheap and unsatisfactory 
 equipment. When in Ohio the average daily attendance of 
 any school for the preceding year has been below ten, such 
 a school shall be suspended and the board of education shall 
 provide for the conveyance of pupils attending such school 
 to a public school in another district. This condition has 
 also given rise to the demand that several weak districts 
 abandon their several schoolhouses and combine into one 
 consolidated or central school where, with usually no greater 
 expense, the number of pupils will justify a better equip- 
 ment and better paid teachers. In many of the states this 
 type of school is especially favored with appropriations but 
 it must come up to certain standards. In Ohio, the mini- 
 mum requirements are the same as i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of the 
 rural one-room school of the first class; with additional re- 
 quirements for a first grade and a second grade consolidated 
 school as follows : 
 
 1. Library of not less than 150 — second grade consolidated, 100 
 volumes. 
 
 2. A case of not less than six maps, including map of Ohio — 
 same for both grades. 
 
 3. Buildings hereafter constructed to have at least three acres of 
 land in connection with each school, one for agricultural and school 
 garden purposes — second grade consolidated, two acres. 
 
 4. Three rooms and three teachers or more on full time, one 
 teacher to have at least a three-year certificate — two rooms and 
 two teachers in second grade. 
 
 5. Agricultural and domestic science apparatus to the value of at 
 least one hundred dollars — for second grade, agricultural appa- 
 ratus to the value of at least twenty-five dollars. 
 
Appendix 401 
 
 6. Two teachers to be employed for ten months each, one teach- 
 ing agriculture during the school term and to supervise agriculture 
 during part of the vacation. The other to teach domestic science 
 at the same periods of time — second grade, one teacher to be 
 employed either for agriculture or domestic science or both. 
 
 According to Ohio law — "After September ist, 19 15, 
 the holder of a certificate of graduation from any one-room 
 rural school of the first grade or of any consolidated rural 
 school which has been recognized shall be entitled to admis- 
 sion to any high school without examination. Graduates 
 of any elementary school shall be admitted to any high 
 school without examination on the certificate of the district 
 superintendent." 
 
 What Is a High School? The Ohio statute defines a 
 high school as " One of higher grade than an elementary 
 school, in which instruction and training are given in ap- 
 proved courses in the history of the United States and other 
 countries; composition, rhetoric, English and American lit- 
 erature; algebra and geometry; natural science, political or 
 mental science, ancient or modern foreign languages, or 
 both; commercial and industrial branches; or such of the 
 branches named as the length of its curriculum makes pos- 
 sible." 
 
 High schools are classified in many states. Usually there 
 are three grades. In Ohio : 
 
 First — not less than 4 years of 32 weeks and not less than 16 
 courses 
 
 Second — not less than 3 years of 32 weeks each and not less 
 than 12 courses 
 
 Third — not less than 2 years of 28 weeks and not less than 8 
 courses 
 
402 Appendix 
 
 (A course of study has been defined as consisting of not less 
 than four recitations per week throughout the school year.) 
 
 With respect to graduation from high school, the statute 
 says : '' After September ist, 19 15, the holder of a diploma 
 from a first grade high school shall be entitled to admission 
 without examination to the academic department of any 
 college or university which is supported wholly or in part 
 by the state." 
 
 All institutions of high school rank whether public or 
 private go under the name of secondary schools. They fol- 
 low the elementary schools and have generally in times past 
 functioned as preparatory to institutions of collegiate grade. 
 The college is vaguely defined as " an institution of a more 
 advanced type than the high school, in which such studies 
 as science, mathematics, and the languages are further 
 studied with higher ideals of breadth and thoroughness.'' 
 And this kind of school, the goal of the high school, is pre- 
 paratory to graduate work in the university. Finally, a 
 university is an aggregation of colleges under one and the 
 same management. 
 
 Time Units. The school year in the different states is 
 of varying length. In the larger cities it consists of ten 
 school months. As is well known, the school month con- 
 sists of twenty days, the school week of five days, and the 
 school day of six full hours or less. With the scope of the 
 course fixed, a longer day or a longer week or a longer 
 school year or all of these would reduce the whole number 
 of years a child would be required to spend in school. 
 
 The years of school life and the corresponding age of the 
 pupil in years, under ordinary conditions, are as follows : 
 
Appendix 403 
 
 
 
 
 School life 
 
 Age of 
 
 
 
 
 in years 
 
 pupil 
 
 Graduate School 
 
 
 
 19 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 24 
 
 23 
 
 22 
 
 College 
 
 
 
 16 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 21 
 20 
 19 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 17 
 
 Senior 
 
 High 
 
 School 
 
 II 
 
 16 
 
 High School 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 Junior 
 
 High 
 
 School 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 13 
 12 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 Elementary School 
 
 I 
 
 
 3 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 6 (bet. 6 & 7) 
 
 If the school day were increased to seven hours from six, 
 the gain in six years would be one year; if increased to 
 eight, the gain would be two years in six. In a six instead 
 of a five day week, a six years' course could be finished in 
 five and a twelve years' course in ten years. In 240 instead 
 of 200 days per year, a twelve years' course could be finished 
 in ten years. 
 
 " In general, it is believed that wherever school boards can find 
 the means, the present^ emergency is an opportune time for re- 
 
 1 Teachers' Leaflet, No. 3, April, 1918, Government Policies Involv- 
 
404 Appendix 
 
 adjusting the schools on an all-year-round basis, with a school of 
 48 weeks, divided into four quarters of twelve weeks each. The 
 schools would then be in continuous operation, but individual 
 teachers and pupils would have the option of taking one quarter 
 off at prearranged periods for needed change.'' 
 
 Under the traditional system a pupil may complete the 
 elementary course in eight years, the high school course in 
 four, the college in four, and the professional or graduate 
 school in three. The new arrangement plans to provide 
 for the completion of th elementary course at the end of 
 the sixth school year and the high school in six more or it 
 divides the following six years into periods of three years 
 each. In a few states private institutions whose work is 
 partly in the high school and partly in the college field have 
 been standardized as Junior colleges, the last two years being 
 equivalent to the first two of college. If all these newer di- 
 visions of the whole time of school life are considered, a 
 student can finish a general academic course at the end of 
 the sixth, ninth, twelfth, fourteenth, or sixteenth year and 
 leave school or remain for further work of a general charac- 
 ter or by a differentiated course prepare for a life calling. 
 
 Differentiation of Courses. Every one who is at all 
 conversant with school work knows at least in a general 
 way what is done in the first six grades of the elementary 
 school. The character of the work and aims is about the 
 same everywhere. Here we expect the pupil to learn to 
 write a legible hand, to speak and write in good English, 
 to read with such habituation to the process that it may be 
 done rapidly and with pleasure, to perform the fundamental 
 
 ing the Schools in War Time, p. 3, Dept. of the Interior, Washington, 
 D. C. 
 
Appendix 405 
 
 operations of arithmetic with facility and accuracy in ap- 
 plication to practical life needs, and to gain ideals in the en- 
 joyment of leisure. 
 
 The differentiation comes after the sixth year or after 
 the eighth year in the elementary school. In small high 
 schools there will naturally be few courses to choose from. 
 A large high school will have an Intermediate School, or 
 Junior High School, after the sixth year, covering the work 
 in three years and then the High School proper with dif- 
 ferent courses named, perhaps, as follows: Literary, Sci- 
 entific, Domestic Science and Art, Business, Agriculture, 
 Trade. 
 
 In one of the large high schools of the Middle West ^ 
 there is possible after the eighth grade a choice among ten 
 four-year courses. They are classified as academic and 
 technical : 
 
 Academic Courses Technical Courses 
 
 General Agricultural 
 
 Classical Art 
 
 Domestic Science Commercial 
 
 Manual Training Music 
 
 Technical Cooperative (Boys) 
 Technical Cooperative (Girls) 
 
 The art course is taken in part at the local art academy. 
 The music course is taken in part in music schools outside. 
 The cooperative courses are taken on the cooperative plan 
 of alternate two weeks in school and in shop. The Classical 
 and other Academic Courses are preparatory for higher in- 
 stitutions. 
 
 After the age of fourteen is reached a vocational course of 
 1 Hughes High School, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
4o6 Appendix 
 
 one or more years is available through the provisions of the 
 Smith-Hughes Act, or Vocational Education Law. Such 
 courses may be in machine shop, printing, carpentry, home 
 economics, agriculture, sheet metal working, building con- 
 struction, automobile repair and construction, drawing and 
 design, etc. Every one of the forty-eight states has ac- 
 cepted the proposal of the law, and the state board of voca- 
 tional education of each in cooperation with the national 
 board is making out vocational courses for pupils above the 
 age of fourteen and for the training of teachers for this 
 work. 
 
 Standard Schools. State school laws do not cover all 
 the details of school organization. This is left to a large 
 extent to the local administration. The state lays down the 
 minimal requirements. Administrators see that these are 
 met and extended. Hence in some states the board of ad- 
 ministration publishes desirable standards that should be 
 reached.^ 
 
 Illinois publishes ^ a list of the requirements for one- 
 room schools. If, upon inspection by a member of the state 
 department, these have been met a diploma will be awarded 
 to the school and a plate will be placed above the door on 
 the outside. Standard School. If local school officers wish 
 to go higher than the essentials of a good one-room school 
 as represented by the name a Standard School, they can as- 
 pire to the distinction of having a name plate above the 
 door indicating a Superior School. In this case, if after 
 
 1 Desirable Physical Standards of a Good School, Dept. of Pub. In- 
 struction, Trenton, N. J. 
 
 2 The One-room and Consolidated Country School of 111., Circular 
 No. 124, Sixth Edition, 1917. 
 
Appendix 407 
 
 inspection the school is found to merit the distinction, a 
 diploma is awarded on a special occasion in the presence of 
 invited guests, including the state superintendent himself. 
 
 The same state publishes also a list of Requirements for 
 a Standard Village or City Elementary School in circular 
 form for general distribution. This list includes besides 
 physical conditions and equipment an extensive outline of 
 the requirements in regard to supervision, teaching and dis- 
 cipline, qualification of teachers, professional growth, 
 teachers' meetings, parent-teacher associations, courses of 
 study, salary of teachers, length of term, janitor service, 
 board meetings, enrollment not fewer than 15 and not more 
 than 45 per teacher, and the standard of work done. A 
 representative of the state office makes the inspection. If 
 the requirements are met, a diploma is awarded. 
 
 Score Cards. This is a plan of judging the school con- 
 ditions particularly as related to the buildings and equip- 
 ment. The score card had its origin in agricultural colleges, 
 in judging the points of horses and other live stock. This 
 plan has been followed in judging schools by making out a 
 list of desired conditions. These are weighted, some bring- 
 ing more points to the final score than others. 
 
 The following is the Montana Score Card: 
 
4o8 Appendix 
 
 STANDARD OR SUPERIOR SCHOOL 
 RATING CARD ^ 
 
 FOR 
 
 MONTANA RURAL SCHOOLS 
 
 1919 
 
 To Be Filled Out and Reported by County Superin- 
 tendent After Visit and Inspection. 
 
 County 
 
 Visited 19. . Reported 19. . 
 
 Name of School Dist. No 
 
 Rating Standard or Superior 
 
 Teacher or Principal 
 
 Address 
 
 School Clerk 
 
 Address 
 
 County Superintendent. 
 
 Approved by Rural Inspector. 
 
 If visited by Inspector, date 
 
 Date name plate was sent 
 
 To whom sent 
 
 1 Courtesy of State Department of Public Instruction, Helena, Mon- 
 tana. 
 
Appendix 
 
 409 
 
 STANDARD OR SUPERIOR SCHOOL RATING CARD. 
 
 I. 
 
 SCHOOL YARD — 5 Points. 
 
 Perfect 
 
 1. Flag, 4' X 6', flying, weather permitting 5 
 
 2. Grounds well fenced. Good walks from road 
 
 to front entrance; from building to out- 
 buildings 1.5 
 
 3. Playground adequate and kept in good condi- 
 
 tion 5 
 
 4. Sanitary screened toilets, or indoor toilets, se- 
 
 cluded, provided with indoor latch, toilet 
 paper, urinals for boys and kept clean and 
 free from marks 2.5 
 
 II. 
 SCHOOL BUILDINGS— 10 Points. 
 
 1. Floor, air, and window space, location of 
 
 windows and vestibule as required by law 1.5 
 
 2. Standard heating and ventilating system . . 1.5 
 
 3. Lighted cloak rooms with adequate hooks; 
 
 warm closet or shelves for dinner buckets i 
 
 4. All windows fitted with good rolling shades .5 
 
 5. Paint or finish outside and inside in good 
 
 condition. Plastered walls and ceilings 
 kalsomined with a light tint I 
 
 6. Entire interior of building cleaned at least 
 
 once in three months. After social func- 
 tions or community affairs building and 
 equipment left as found 2 
 
 7. Buildings and equipment kept in repair i 
 
 8. Extra rooms — closet or storeroom, library 
 
 alcove, fuel room (or convenient shed) . . 1.5 
 
 Allowed by 
 Co. Supt. or 
 Rural Insp. 
 
4IO Appendix 
 
 III. 
 
 SCHOOL EQUIPMENT — 21 Points. 
 
 1. Study chairs or single patent desks of at least 
 
 three sizes fastened to strips or the floor i 
 
 2. Children seated in proper sized seats and no 
 
 child unable to reach the floor with his feet i 
 
 3. At least twenty linear feet of good black- 
 
 board, four feet wide, set from 26" to 30" 
 from the floor, and fitted with sanitary 
 chalk troughs I 
 
 4. At least two standard framed pictures i 
 
 5. Supply of at least four types of primary ma- 
 
 terials, as : Word and sentence cards ; 
 domino cards, toy money, etc.; folding and 
 cutting papers, blunt scissors, paste ; rags, 
 rafiia, corn husks, yarn, warp, weaving 
 frame ; clay, sand ; drawing papers, pencils, 
 water colors 1.5 
 
 6. At least two sets of supplementary readers 
 
 for lower grades or classes; all basal texts I 
 
 7. Library books purchased early in school year : 
 
 list approved by County Superintendent be- 
 fore purchase is made I 
 
 8. Good library, bookcases with books kept in 
 
 place properly labeled, and library rules 
 followed. Bulletin boards provided 1.5 
 
 9. An unabridged dictionary in good condition 
 
 with stand or shelf i 
 
 10. Good map of Montana; at least six other 
 
 good maps in case ; suspended globe ; 
 weights and measures ; good supply of 
 bulletins and educative free materials .... 2 
 
 11. Pure water supply; covered water cooler with 
 
 spigot and individual or paper drinking 
 cups, or sanitary bubbler 2 
 
 12. Sanitary towels, wash basin, floor brush, 
 
 sweeping compound, shoe scrapers, good 
 pencil sharpener 1.5 
 
Appendix 411 
 
 Building and equipment clean and orderly . . i 
 
 Musical instrument; community song books i 
 
 Playground equipment, at least three features i 
 
 Household Arts equipment for hot lunch; 
 
 Manual Training equipment — tools, bench, 
 
 lumber ; Agricultural equipment — seed 
 
 testers, containers, collections of specimens 
 
 and products, bulletins 1.5 
 
 Good convenient boarding place or teacherage 
 provided for teacher i 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE TEACHER — 38 Points. 
 
 1. At least one year of professional training . . 3 
 
 2. First or higher grade certificate granted be- 
 
 fore opening of school 2 
 
 3. At least two books from Teacher's Reading 
 
 Course read within a year and reports 
 written i 
 
 4. At least one educational journal used i 
 
 5. Daily program with seat work indicated, 
 
 posted and followed 1.5 
 
 6. Classes combined and alternated according 
 
 to plan in latest State Manual; 24 or 
 fewer classes daily 1.5 
 
 7. Working knowledge of State Course of 
 
 Study, and used as required by law 2 
 
 8. As much time and attention given to lower as 
 
 upper grades i 
 
 Daily preparation of work for both study and 
 
 recitation period 3 
 
 All children profitably employed during study 
 
 periods 2 
 
 Good order maintained at all times i 
 
 Neatness of appearance and of work ; well 
 
 modulated voice i 
 
 Good work in agriculture, household arts, in- 
 dustrial arts and music 2 
 
412 Appendix 
 
 14. Efficiency of the teaching as determined 
 
 by motivation of class and seat work; 
 ability to judge relative values by pupils; 
 ability to organize data shown by pupils; 
 development of initiative in pupils; ability 
 to apply knowledge shown by pupils 5 
 
 15. Supervised play i 
 
 16. Live in the community seven days in the week i 
 
 17. Teacher retained entire school year 5 
 
 18. Teacher retained for second year 1.5 
 
 19. All homes of pupils visited; participation 
 
 in community activities i 
 
 20. Unquestioned patriotism and possession of 
 
 high moral standards 2 
 
 21. Neatness, accuracy and fullness of all records 
 
 and reports i 
 
 22. Responsive attitude toward supervision 3 
 
 V. 
 
 PUPILS — 9 Points. 
 
 1. All children of school age, who have not 
 
 finished the eighth grade, in regular attend- 
 ance, unless excused for good cause 2 
 
 2. Regularity and punctuality of attendance of 
 
 all pupils regularly enrolled 2 
 
 3. Neatness in care of books and desks ; train- 
 
 ing in thrift and good citizenship 2 
 
 4. Cleanliness and neatness in personal appear- 
 
 ance; respectful bearing of pupils 1.5 
 
 5. Loyalty, patriotism, obedience, industry, 
 
 courtesy and other virtues established in 
 children 1.5 
 
 VI. 
 
 COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES — 17 Points. 
 
 I. Regular community meetings ; meetings of 
 
 social organizations having educative value 1.5 
 
Appendix 413 
 
 2. School represented in Boys' and Girls' club 
 
 work at county or state fair 1.5 
 
 3. Play festival, field meet, school or community 
 
 fair, or county spelling or arithmetic con- 
 tests 1.5 
 
 4. Special day program, an outgrowth of regular 
 
 school work 1.5 
 
 5. School visited by all trustees and at least 
 
 three other patrons 2 
 
 6* Strong evidences of active cooperation of 
 
 patrons and fine community spirit 5 
 
 7. Commendable improvements by local initiative 
 
 not listed above i 
 
 8. Session of not less than 170 days in year .... 3 
 
 THE RATING CARD. 
 
 PURPOSE: To improve every county and village school through 
 better buildings, better equipment, better teaching, and finer com- 
 munity cooperation, name plates are issued by the State Superin- 
 tendent to all schools which receive satisfactory standings on this 
 rating card. The aim is to require only those things necessary to a 
 good school. Essentials, rather than minor details, will determine the 
 matter, but the school must be a good one. 
 
 PLAN : The county superintendent should furnish every teacher, 
 school clerk, and school trustee in her county with a copy of the 
 rating card at the opening of each school year. The teacher should 
 score with a pencil each point on the card (except those pertain- 
 ing to the teacher) previous to the county superintendent's visit, and 
 submit the same to her at that time. The county superintendent 
 should then check up the list and complete the scoring. All schools 
 are to be rated, even though they are not ready for standardization. 
 To all schools whose rating card shows a total score of 70 or more 
 points, as rated by the county superintendent, with the assistance of 
 the teacher, and when approved by the State Inspector of Rural 
 Schools, one of two name plates will be awarded by the State Superin- 
 tendent. The rating of the several rooms in consolidated and village 
 schools will be averaged in determining the total score of these 
 schools. 
 STANDARD SCHOOL : A name plate bearing the words " Standard 
 
414 Appendix 
 
 School" will be awarded to these schools scoring between 70 and 
 89 on the rating card. To become a standard school all the forces in 
 the community should work together. The school trustees, the 
 teacher, the pupils, and the patrons of the school have each a share 
 in the work of improving the school. Every community that is found 
 to be actively engaged in building a good school deserves honorable 
 mention, even though the name-plate cannot be obtained at the time. 
 SUPERIOR SCHOOL: There is a laudable desire on the part of 
 some school officers to make their school as nearly perfect as pos- 
 sible. To encourage this a name-plate bearing the words " Superior 
 School " will be awarded to schools rating 90 or above on the rating 
 card. A superior school is one that is taught by a teacher of superior 
 qualifications and with the highest efficiency, in a house that is as nearly 
 perfect in all the essentials as possible and furnished with everything 
 needed. The community must show the interest that the claim of such 
 a school implies. 
 
 RETAINING THE NAME PLATE: Schools are standardized for 
 an indefinite period of time. The approved lists of all Standard or 
 Superior schools are kept on file in the office of the State Superintend- 
 ent. If it is found, upon later inspection by the county superintendent, 
 or State Inspector of Rural Schools, that a school no longer has the 
 required score for standardization, conditions must be improved with- 
 out delay, or the name-plate will be removed. Every school should 
 try not only to secure or retain the name-plate, but also to build a 
 finer and better school from year to year. 
 
 Score Card for City Buildings.^ A score card for city 
 buildings was developed as a part of the advanced work 
 in educational administration in Teachers College, Co- 
 lumbia University, New York. Its basis for scoring is a 
 thousand points. It sets high standards such as one might 
 expect in school buildings of the larger American cities. 
 The Montana card is evidently intended to stimulate im- 
 provements particularly in the rural one-room schools, 
 which seem to need encouragement in all the states. 
 
 ■^ Strayer : " Score Card for City School Buildings," Teachers Col- 
 lege, Columbia University, 1916, 11 pp. 
 
Appendix 415 
 
 With these score cards pointing the way, others may be 
 arranged to suit local conditions in any state or city. That 
 it may serve in a similar way, the following score card has 
 been arranged in view of standards set in the preceding 
 chapters, and particularly for schools in small cities, villages, 
 and consolidated districts. The basis for scoring is five 
 hundred points. 
 
 Score Card for Schools in Small Cities, Villages, and 
 Consolidated Districts 
 
 I 
 
 BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 
 
 1. Environment — moral, physical, esthetic 10 
 
 2. Size of grounds, whole plot not less than 200 sq. ft. per 
 
 child 5 
 
 3. Condition of grounds, trees, flowers, grass, concrete walks, 
 
 playground lo 
 
 4. School garden 10 
 
 5. Good walls and ceilings, properly tinted; shades; no leaks 
 
 in roof 5 
 
 6. Good floors, scrubbed at least once a month; sweeping 
 
 compound used 10 
 
 7. Floor space 20 sq. ft.; air space 250 cu. ft. to 300 cu. ft. 
 
 per child 10 
 
 8. Built-in cupboards and lockers for materials used in pri- 
 
 mary work 5 
 
 9. Cloakrooms — ample, separate for boys and girls, each 
 
 with one entrance only and that from schoolroom side . . 7 
 
 10. Finish inside and outside 5 
 
 11. Ventilation satisfactory 10 
 
 12. Windows — unbroken, clean, one fifth of floor space, left 
 
 and rear 10 
 
 13. Artificial lighting, classrooms (gas — one 3-foot burner 
 
 per 12 sq. ft.; electric light — one candle power per 
 2 sq. ft.) 5 
 
41 6 Appendix 
 
 14. Toilet rooms properly located, ample, clean, and well ven- 
 
 tilated 20 
 
 15. Assembly hall, or auditorium, with capacity for at least 
 
 half the number of pupils accommodated in the class- 
 rooms 15 
 
 16. Gymnasium, at least a room 40x60 with a height of at 
 
 least 15 feet 10 
 
 17. Laboratory, equipped for at least one science, with ap- 
 
 paratus to the value of $250 20 
 
 II 
 
 EQUIPMENT 
 
 1. Desks, single, adjustable — movable tables and chairs for 
 
 first three grades 10 
 
 2. Teacher's desk and chair 2 
 
 3. Primary work equipment 8 
 
 4. Library, not less than 300 volumes of standard literature 
 
 and science, a standard cyclopedia, and in each room 
 above the fifth grade an unabridged dictionary 15 
 
 5. Full set of maps; also globes; weights and measures; 
 
 scales for weighing 10 
 
 6. Blackboard, slate or composition, not less than 100 sq. ft., 
 
 of proper height, fitted with chalk troughs; dustless 
 crayon 5 
 
 7. Good water from drinking fountains, one at least to 6,000 
 
 sq. ft. of floor space 10 
 
 8. Sinks, lavatories, sanitary towels 10 
 
 9. Fire prevention — fire drills; standard chemical fire extin- 
 
 guishers, one to 2,000 sq. ft. of floor space ; trip fire 
 gongs; standpipe and iy2 inch hose in basement to reach 
 
 any part of the building 15 
 
 10. Equipment for manual training and home economics 15 
 
 11. Free textbooks 5 
 
 12. United States flag and flag staff 5 
 
 13. Playground equipment 10 
 
Appendix 417 
 
 III 
 
 THE SCHOOL 
 
 1. Medical inspection, including school nurse 20 
 
 2. Attendance, averaging not less than 90 per cent of the 
 
 school enrollment 20 
 
 3. One teacher to every 30 or fewer pupils enrolled 10 
 
 4. High School teachers, at least college graduates; other 
 
 teachers below high school at least two-year Normal 
 course after high school graduation 20 
 
 5. School visited by all the members of the board 10 
 
 6. Teachers retained second year or longer 8 
 
 7. Popular athletic games for boys and girls 10 
 
 8. School savings bank 10 
 
 9. School year not less than 36 weeks 10 
 
 ID. Passing on to higher institutions; 60 per cent from the 
 
 grades and 20 per cent from the high school 15 
 
 IV 
 
 SCHOOL — HOME — COMMUNITY 
 
 1. School represented in garden, corn, potato, pig, poultry, 
 
 or other clubs 20 
 
 2. School exhibits 15 
 
 3. Civics or literary club, eighth grade and above 15 
 
 4. Community social gathering, with program prepared wholly 
 
 or in part by the students, occurring once a month 15 
 
 5. Home project work 15 
 
 Total points 500 
 
 Note. — Of those who in one way or another gave assistance in 
 working out the above, special mention should be made of Mr. F. O. 
 Horton, a graduate student in education in the University of Cincinnati. 
 
SELECTED REFERENCES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Abbott, G. The Immigrant and the Community. New York, 
 
 1917. 303 P- 
 Abbott, L. America in the Making. New Haven, 191 1. 233 p. 
 Bloomfield. Readings in Vocational Guidance. New York, 191 5. 
 
 723 P- 
 
 Dewey. Democracy and Education. New York, 19 16. 434 p. 
 
 Foerster and Pierson, eds. American Ideals. New York, 1917. 
 326 p. 
 
 Hill, D. J. Americanism, what it is. New York, 1916. 280 p. 
 
 Hill. The Teaching of Civics. New York, 1914. 145 p. 
 
 Lapp and Mote. Learning to Earn. Indianapolis, 191 5. 421 p. 
 
 Lutz. Wage Earning and Education. Cleveland, 1916. 208 p. 
 
 Mahoney and Herlihy. First Steps in Americanization. New 
 York, 1918. 142 p. 
 
 McCarthy. Where garments and Americans are Made ; story of 
 system of factory education for Americanization of foreign- 
 ers. New York, 1917. 57 p. 
 
 Miller. The School and the Immigrant. Cleveland, 1916. 102 p. 
 
 Patriotism. A Reading List. New York Public Library, 19 17. 
 
 Schouler. Ideals of the Republic. Boston, 1908. 304 p. 
 
 Senger. The American House. The Survey, Vol. XLI, No. 22, 
 Mar. I, 1919. Pp. 788-790. 
 
 Spencer. Education. New York, 1900. 301 p. 
 
 United States Bureau of Naturalization. The Work of the public 
 schools with the Bureau of Naturalization in the preparation 
 for citizenship responsibilities of the candidate for naturali- 
 zation. Washington, D. C., 1917. 50 p. 
 
 United States Chamber of Commerce. Governmental Activities 
 for Americanization. Washington, 1917. Bulletin XIV, 
 Immigration Committee. 4 p. 
 
 418 
 
Selected References 419 
 
 Willoughby. Rights and Duties of American Citizenship. New 
 York, 1898. 336 p. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Andrews. The Land Grant of 1862 and the Land-Grant Colleges. 
 
 Bulletin, 1918, No. 13, U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 Bard. The City School District. New York, 1909. 118 p. 
 
 Bibliography. 
 Cubberley. School Organization and Administration. New York, 
 
 1916. 340 p. Chapter XIII, The Financial Problem. Pp. 
 
 315-332. 
 Cubberley and Elliot. State and County School Administration. 
 
 Source Book. New York, 1915. y2y p. Chapters I, II, III. 
 Ohio School Laws, 19 15. 478 p. Pp. 150-183. 
 Lapp. Federal grants in Aid. Explanation of the Morrill Act of 
 
 1890, the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, and the Smith-Hughes 
 
 Bill. American Pol. Sci, Review, Nov., 1916. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Cubberley and Elliott. State and County School Administration. 
 Source Book. Chapter XVII and XVIIL 
 
 Clark. Financing the Public Schools. Cleveland, 191 5. 133 p. 
 
 Comparative Study of the public school systems in Alabama and 
 other typical states; and an exhibition of educational condi- 
 tions in the 67 counties of Alabama. Montgomery, Ala., 19 16. 
 Bulletin 55. 32 p. 
 
 Hood. Digest of State Laws Relating to Public Education in 
 force Jan. i, 1915. Bulletin 1915, No. 47. U. S. Bureau of 
 Education. 985 p. 
 
 Judd. Introduction to the Scientific Study of Education. New 
 York, 1918. 333 p. Chapter IV. Investing Public Money 
 in a New Generation. Pp. 46-62. 
 
 MacDowell. State vs. Local Control of Elementary Education. 
 Bulletin 19 5, No. 22, U. S. Bureau of Education. 83 p. 
 
420 Selected References 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Bowen. Safeguards for City Youth at Work and at Play. New 
 
 York, 1914. 241 p. 
 Breckenridge, ed. The Child in the City. Chicago, 1912. 502 p. 
 Clopper. Child Labor in the City Streets. New York, 1912. 
 
 280 p. Bibliography. 
 Davis. Street-Land, its little people and big problems. Boston, 
 
 1915. 291 p. 
 Fiske. The Meaning of Infancy. Boston, 1909. 43 p. 
 Hunter. Poverty. New York, 1905. 382 p. 
 Kellor. Out of Work, a study of unemployment. New York, 
 
 1915- 569 p. Chapter III. Children and the Labor Market. 
 
 Pp. 58-110. 
 Spargo. The Bitter Cry of the Children. New York, 1906. 
 Stimson. The Massachusetts Home-Project Plan of Vocational 
 
 Agricultural Education. Bulletin, 1914, No. 8. U. S. Bureau 
 
 of Education. 104 p. Bibliography. Pp. 75-94. 
 Van Vorst. The Cry of the Children. New York, 1908. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Abbott and Breckenridge. Truancy and Non-Attendance in the 
 Chicago Schools. University of Chicago Press, 1917. 465 p. 
 
 The Delinquent Child and the Home, a study of the de- 
 linquent wards of the juvenile court of Chicago. New York, 
 
 1917. 355 P- 
 
 Ayres. Child Accounting in the Public Schools. Cleveland, 
 1915. 68 p. 
 
 Carstens. Public Pensions to Widows with Children. New York, 
 1913. R. S. Foundation. 36 p. 
 
 Deffenbaugh, Hand, and Others. Compulsory Attendance Laws in 
 United States; The Need of Compulsory Education in 
 the South, Laws of Ohio and Massachusetts Relating to Com- 
 pulsory Attendance and Child Labor. Bibliography. Bulle- 
 tin, 1914, No. 2. U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 
Selected References 421 
 
 Devine. Pensions for Mothers. The Survey, Vol. XXX. No. 
 
 14, July 5» 1913- 
 Taylor, ed. Child Labor, Education and Mothers' Pension Laws 
 
 in Brief. New York, 1917. 84 p. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Ayres. Constant and Variable Occupations and their bearing on 
 problems of vocational education. New York. Russell Sage 
 Foundation, 1914. 11 p. 
 
 Some conditions affecting problems of industrial educa- 
 tion in 78 American school systems. New York. Russell 
 Sage Foundation, 1914. 22 p. 
 
 Bloomfield. The School and the Start in Life; study of the rela- 
 tion between school and employment in England, Scotland, 
 and Germany, Washington, D. C, 1914. 149 p. 
 
 Breese. Vocational Guidance. Unpopular Review, Vol. V, pp. 
 343-355- Oct.-Dec, 1915. 
 
 Brewer. The Vocational Guidance Movement. New York, 1918. 
 
 Bryner. The Garment Trades. Cleveland, 1916. 153 p. 
 
 Choosing an Occupation, a list of books and references on voca- 
 tional choice, guidance and training in the Brooklyn Public 
 Library. Brooklyn, 1913. 63 p. 
 
 Dean. The Worker and the State. New York, 1912. 355 p. 
 Bibliography. Pp. 345-355- 
 
 Ellis. The Money Value of Education. Bulletin, 1917. No. 22. 
 U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 
 Fleming. Railroad and Street Transportation. Cleveland, 1916. 
 76 p. 
 
 Hedges. Wage Worth of School Training. Columbia University, 
 New York. Contribution to Education. Teachers' College 
 Series. 1915. 173 p. 
 
 Laselle and Wiley. Vocations for Girls. New York, 1913. 
 
 Lutz. The Metal Trades. Cleveland, 1916. 129 p. 
 
 McKeever. The Industrial Training of the Boy. New York, 
 1914. 72 p. Bibliography. 
 
422 Selected References 
 
 O'Leary. Department Store Occupations. Cleveland, 1916. 
 
 127 p. 
 Parsons. Choosing a Vocation. New York, 1909. 165 p. 
 Puffer. Vocational Guidance, The Teacher as a Counselor. 
 
 New York, 19 13. 306 p. 
 Ryan. Vocational Guidance and the Public Schools, Bulletin, 
 
 1918. No. 24. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bibliography. 
 
 Pp. 102-131. 
 Schneider. Education for Industrial Workers. New York, 1915. 
 
 98 p. 
 Shaw. The Building Trades. Cleveland, 1916. 95 p. 
 
 The Printing Trades. Cleveland, 1916. 95 p. 
 
 Snedden, Weeks and Cubberley. Vocational Education. Boston, 
 
 1912. 208 p. 
 Stevens. Boys and Girls in Commercial Work. Cleveland, 1916. 
 
 181 p. 
 Vocational Guidance in Secondary Education. Bulletin, 1918, No. 
 
 19. U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 Weaver. Vocations for Girls. New York, 1913. 
 Weyl. The New Democracy. New York, 1914. 370 p. 
 Woolley, H. T. The Mind of a Boy. Survey, Vol. 2>7y PP- 122- 
 
 125, Nov. 4, 1916. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Ayres. School Buildings and Equipment. Cleveland, 1916. 
 
 117 p. 
 Bancroft. The Posture of School Children. New York, 1913. 
 
 327 P- 
 Cubberley. School Organization and Administration. New York, 
 
 1916. 340 p. Chapter X. The School Plant. Pp. 229-268. 
 Dresslar. American Schoolhouses. Bulletin, 1910, No. 5. U. S. 
 
 Bureau of Education. 131 p. 
 
 Rural Schoolhouses and Grounds. Bulletin, 19 14, No. 12. 
 
 U. S. Bureau of Education. 162 pp. and illustrations. (Re- 
 port on health problems by a joint committee of the National 
 Council of Education and the American Medical Association.) 
 
Selected References 423 
 
 Dresslar. School Hygiene. New York, 19 13. 369 p. Chapters 
 III, IV, V, VI. 
 
 Gregg. Landscape Development of Schoolgrounds. American 
 City,January, 1916. 
 
 Hartwell. Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan. Cleve- 
 land, 1 91 6. 77 p. 
 
 Judd. Introduction to the Scientific Study of Education. New 
 York, 19 1 8. 333 p. Chapter VI. The School Building. Pp. 
 
 78-95- 
 Rosenau. Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. New York, 1917. 
 
 3rd edition. 1374 p. 
 Safeguarding School Children from Fire. Boston, 1916. 54 p. 
 
 Illus. National Fire Protective Association. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Baker. Classroom Ventilation and Respiratory Diseases Among 
 School Children. New York, 1918. 10 p. 
 
 Final Report of the Committee on Standard Methods for the Ex- 
 amination of Air. Presented before the laboratory section, 
 American Public Health Association, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 
 27, 1916. Published in the American Journal of Public Health, 
 Jan., 1917. 
 
 Haldane. Organism and Environment — Breathing. New Haven, 
 1917. 138 p. 
 
 Hill, L. Stuffy Rooms. Popular Science Monthly, igi2. 390 p. 
 
 Kingsley and Dresslar. Open-Air Schools. Bulletin, 1916, No. 
 23. U. S. Bureau of Education. 283 p. Bibliography, 
 pp. 271-280. 
 
 Macfie. Air and Health. New York, 1909. 345 p. 
 
 Report of the Chicago Commission on Ventilation. Chicago, 
 1915. 99 p. 
 
 Rosenau. Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. Pp. 746-766. 
 (References) pp. 661-745. 
 
 Thorndike and others. Ventilation in Relation to Mental Work. 
 Columbia University, New York. Contributions to Educa- 
 tion. Teachers' College Series, 1916. 83 p. 
 
424 Selected References 
 
 Ward. Climate, Considered Especially in Relation to Man. 
 
 New York, 1908. 372 p. 
 Woodman and Norton. Air, Water and Food. New York, 1914. 
 
 248 p. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Burrage and Baily. School Sanitation and Decoration. New 
 York, 1899. 191 p. 
 
 Clark, Collins and Treadway. Rural School Sanitation, including 
 physical and mental status of school children in Porter Co., 
 Indiana. Washington, D. C. 19 16. U. S. Public Health 
 Bulletin yy. 
 
 Dresslar. School Hygiene. Chapters VII, VIII, IX, XXIV, 
 XXV, XXVI. 
 
 Gerhard. Guide to Sanitary Inspection. New York, 1909. 239 p. 
 
 Sanitation of Public Buildings. New York, 1907. 262 p. 
 
 King. Hygienic Conditions in Iowa Schools, a report on condi- 
 tions in schools of 181 cities and towns in Iowa. Iowa City, 
 1915- 36 P- University of Iowa Extension Bulletin, No. 11. 
 
 Sedgwick. Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health. 
 New York, 1914. 368 p. 
 
 West. Child Care. Part I. Care of Children Series No. 3, 
 Children's Bureau Publication, No. 30. U. S. Department of 
 Labor. References on Sanitation and Household Economics, 
 pp. 77-78. 
 
 Whipple, G. C. How to Determine Relative Values in Sanita- 
 tion. American City. May, 1914. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Claghorn. Juvenile Delinquency in Rural New York. Washing- 
 ton, D. C, 1918. 199 p. Children's Bureau. U. S. Depart- 
 ment of Labor. 
 
 Davenport. The Origin and Control of Mental Defectiveness. 
 Popular Science Monthly, Jan., 1912, pp. 87-90. 
 
 Goddard. The Kallikak Family. New York, 1912. 121 p. 
 
 Groszmann. The Exceptional Child. New York, 19 17. 764 p. 
 
Selected References 425 
 
 Guyer. Being Well Born. Indianapolis, 1916. 374 p. 
 
 Hall, G. S. Educational Problems. New York, 191 1. Vol. II. 
 714 p. Chapter XL Special Child-Welfare Agencies Outside 
 the School, pp. 72-149. 
 
 Healy. The Individual Delinquent. Boston, 1915. 830 p. 
 
 Holmes. Backward Children, Indianapolis, 1915. 247 p. 
 
 Kellicott. The Social Direction of Human Evolution. New 
 York, 191 1. 240 p. 
 
 Mangold. Problems of Child Welfare. New York, 1914. 522 p. 
 Bibliography. 
 
 Mitchell. Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children. Cleve- 
 land, 1916. 122 p. 
 
 Wallin. Mental Health of the School Child. New Haven, 191 5. 
 
 450 p. 
 Walter. Genetics; an introduction to the study of heredity. 
 
 New York, 19 14. 272 p. 
 White. Principles of Mental Hygiene. New York, 1917. 323 p. 
 Whitley. An Empirical Study of Certain Tests for Individual 
 
 Differences. New York, 191 1. 146 p. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Allen. Civics and Health. New York, 1909. 403 p. 
 
 Ayres. Health Work in the Public Schools. Cleveland, 191 5. 
 
 59 P- 
 Cabot. A Layman's Handbook of Medicine. Boston, 1916. 
 
 524 p. 
 Chapin. Sources and Modes of Infection. New York, 1912. 
 
 481 p. 
 Gulick and Ayres. Medical Inspection of Schools. New York, 
 
 1913. Russell Sage Foundation. 224 p. 
 
 Hall, G. S. Educational Problems. New York, 191 1. Vol. II. 
 
 714 p. Chapter XII, Preventive and Constructive Movements, 
 
 pp. 150-222. 
 Hoag and Terman. Health Work in the Schools. New York, 
 
 1914. 321 p. 
 
426 Selected References 
 
 MacNutt. A Manual for Health Officers. New York, 191 5. 
 650 p. 
 
 Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Transactions of the 
 American Medical Association. Chicago, 111., 191 1. 264 p. 
 
 Rapeer, ed. Educational Hygiene. New York, 19 15. 650 p. 
 
 Roseneau. Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. Chapter I. Sec- 
 tion H. Immunity. 
 
 Sedgwick. Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health. 
 New York, 1914. 368 p. 
 
 West. Child Care. Part I. Care of Children Series, No. 3. 
 Children's Bureau Publication No. 30. U. S. Department of 
 Labor. References on Care and Hygiene of Children, pp. 75- 
 y6; on Disease, p. yy. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Allport. School Children's Eyes. Chicago. 11 p. American 
 
 Medical Association. One of a series of Conservation of 
 
 Vision pamphlets. 
 Ayres. The Relation of Physical Defects to School Progress. 
 
 New York, 1912. 12 p. Russell Sage Foundation. 
 Best. The Deaf. New York, 1914. 340 p. 
 
 The Blind. New York, 1919. 763 p. 
 
 Dresslar. School Hygiene. Chapters XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII. 
 
 New York. 
 Hoag and Terman. Health Work in the Schools. New York, 
 
 1914. 321 p. 
 Kelynack. Defective Children. New York, 191 5. 462 p. 
 Scripture. Stuttering and Lisping. New York, 1912. 251 p. 
 Swift, W. B. Speech Defects in School Children. Boston, 1918. 
 
 128 p. 
 Terman. Hygiene of the School Child. Boston, 1914. 417 p. 
 
 Bibliography. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Burnham. Mental Health for Normal Children. Mental Hygiene, 
 Vol. II, No. I. January, 1918. Pp. 19-22. 
 
Selected References 427 
 
 Norsworthy and Whitley. Psychology of Childhood. New York, 
 
 1918. 375 p. Chapters II, III, IV. 
 Shand. The Foundations of Character. New York, 1914. 532 p. 
 Sisson. The Essentials of Character. New York, 191 5. 214 p. 
 
 Chapters I and II. Native Tendencies and the Treatment of 
 
 Native Tendencies. 
 Thorndike. Educational Psychology. Vol. I. Original Nature 
 
 of Man. New York, 1913. 327 p. Bibliography, pp. 313- 
 
 318. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Bagley. School Discipline. New York, 191 5. 259 p. 
 Bruce. Handicaps of Childhood. New York, 1917. 310 p. 
 Forel. Nervous and Mental Hygiene. New York, 1907. 343 p. 
 Groszmann. The Exceptional Child. New York, 1917. 764 p. 
 Guthrie. Functional Nervous Disorders in Childhood. London, 
 
 1909. 300 p. 
 Harris. Nerves. New York, 19 13. 256 p. 
 Jennings, Watson, Meyer, and Thomas. Suggestions of Modern 
 
 Science Concerning Education. New York, 1917. 211 p. 
 
 P. lOI. 
 Morehouse. The Discipline of the School. New York, 1914. 
 
 342 p. 
 Rachford. Neurotic Disorders of Childhood, New York, 1905. 
 
 440 p. 
 Richardson. Psychology and Pedagogy of Anger. Baltimore, 
 
 1918. 
 Rosenau. Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. Chapter VI. Men- 
 tal Hygiene, 331-359. Bibliography. 
 Swift, E. J. Mind in the Making. New York, 1908. 329 p. 
 White. Mental Hygiene of Childhood. Boston, 1919. 
 Woodworth. Dynamic Psychology. New York, 1918. 210 p. 
 
 See Chapter on Drive and Mechanism in Abnormal Behavior. 
 
428 Selected References 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Hall, G. S. Educational Problems. New York, 191 1. Chapter V. 
 Moral Education. Chapter VI. Children's Lies, pp. 200-387. 
 Healy. Honesty. Indianapolis, 191 5. 220 p. 
 
 Mental Conflicts and Misconduct. Boston, 1917. 330 p. 
 
 Jastrow. Character and Temperament. New York, 19 15. 596 p. 
 O'Shea. Social Development and Education. New York, 1909. 
 
 561 p. 
 Sisson. The Essentials of Character. New York, 1915. 214 p. 
 Ladd. The Secret of Personality. New York, 1918. 287 p. 
 Swift, E. J. Youth and the Race. New York, 19 12. 342 p. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Binet. The Psychology of Reasoning. Chicago, 1912. 191 p. 
 Bolton. Principles of Education. New York, 1910. 790 p. 
 
 Chapter XXII. 
 Dewey. How We Think. New York, 1910. 224 p. 
 Gordon. Educational Psychology. New York, 1917. 294 p. 
 Holt, E. B. The Freudian Wish. New York, 191 5. 208 p. 
 Norsworthy. Psychology of Childhood. Chapters VI and X. 
 Pillsbury. Psychology of Reasoning. New York, 191 0. 305 p. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Ayers. The Effect of Promotion Rates in School Efficiency. 
 New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1913. 13 p. 
 
 The Money Cost of Repetition versus the Money Saving 
 
 through Acceleration. New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 
 1912. 12 p. 
 
 Baldwin. The Individual and Society. Boston, 191 1. 210 p. 
 
 Judd. Introduction to the Scientific Study of Education. New 
 York, 1918. 333 p. Chapter VII. Grouping Pupils in 
 Classes. 
 
 Scott, C. A. Social Education. Boston, 1908. 300 p. 
 
 Vincent. The Rivalry of Social Groups. Amer. Journal of So- 
 ciology, Vol. XVI, pp. 469-484. 
 
Selected References 429 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Bagley. Classroom Management. New York, 1912. 322 p. 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 Bennet. School Efficiency. New York, 19 18. 374 p. Chapter 
 
 XVI. The Daily Schedule. Pp. 167-193. 
 Colgrove. The Teacher and the School. New York, 1910. 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 Hall-Quest. Supervised Study. New York, 1916. 433 p. 
 
 Chapter IV. Proper Conditions of and Hindrances to Stucfy, 
 
 Chapters VII and VIII, Methods of Studying. 
 McMurry. How to Study and Teaching How to Study. Boston, 
 
 1909. 324 p. 
 Meumann. The Psychology of Learning. New York, 1913. 
 
 393 P- Observational Learning, pp. 49-137. Associational 
 
 Learning, pp. 138-364. 
 Miller. The Psychology of Thinking. 1909. 
 Sears. Classroom Organization and Control. New York, 1918. 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 Wilson. The Motivation of School Work. Boston. 249 p. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Acher. Spontaneous Constructions and Primitive Activities of 
 
 Children. Amer. Journal of Psychology, 1910, 1 14-150. 
 Dewey. Interest and Effort in Education. Boston. loi p. 
 Hall, G. S. Recreation and Reversion. Pedagogical Seminary, 
 
 Vol. XXII, pp. 510-520. 
 Jennings and others. Suggestions of Modern Science Concerning 
 
 Education, p. 159. 
 Lee. Play in Education. New York, 191 5. 500 p. 
 Norsworthy. Psychology of Childhood. Chapter XII. 
 Palmer. Play Life in the First Eight Years. New York, 1916. 
 
 281 p. 
 Patrick. Psychology of Relaxation. New York, 1916. 280 p 
 Scott. Increasing Human Efficiency in Business. New York, 
 
 1914- 339 P- 
 
430 Selected References 
 
 Strayer and Norsworthy. How to Teach. New York, 1917. 
 
 297 p. Chapter IX. The Meaning of Play in Education. 
 Waddle. Introduction to 'Child Psychology. New York, 1918. 
 
 317 p. Chapter VI. The Play of Children. Bibliography. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Baldwin, B. T. Physical Growth and School Progress. Bulletin, 
 1914, No. 10. U. S. Bureau of Education. 215 p. Bibli- 
 ography (336 titles), pp. 189-212. 
 
 Boughton. Household Arts and School Lunches. Cleveland, 
 1916. 170 p. 
 
 Bryant. School Feeding; Its history and practice at home and 
 abroad. Philadelphia, 1913. 345 p. 
 
 Claparede. Experimental Pedagogy and the Psychology of the 
 Child. New York, 191 1. 332 p. Rest and Sleep, pp. 293- 
 
 317- 
 DeManaceine. Sleep, Its Physiology, Pathology, Hygiene, and 
 
 Psychology. London, 1897. 341 p. 
 Fisher and Fisk. How to Live. New York, 1917. 345 p. 
 Guthrie. Functional Nervous Disorders in Childhood. Chapter 
 
 VIII. Disorders of Sleep. 
 Lusk. The Fundamental Basis of Nutrition. New Haven, 1914. 
 
 62 p. 
 McCollum. The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition, The Use of 
 
 Foods for the Preservation of Vitality and Health. New 
 
 York, 1918. 199 p. Bibliography. 
 Rose. Feeding the Family. New York, 1916. 
 Sidis. Experimental Study of Sleep. Boston, 1909. 106 p. 
 Terman. The Hygiene of the School Child. Chapter XX. The 
 
 Sleep of School Children. Bibliography. 
 West. Child Care. Part I. Care of Children Series No. 3. 
 
 Children's Bureau Publication, No. 30. U. S. Department of 
 
 Labor. References on Milk and Other Foods, p. 76. 
 
Selected References 431 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 Bancroft. Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gym- 
 nasium. New York, 1914. 456 p. 
 
 Bancroft and Pulvermacher. Handbook of Athletic Games. 
 New York, 19 16. 62^ p. 
 
 Clark. Physical Training for the Elementary Schools. New 
 York, 1917. 415 p. 
 
 Curtis. Education Through Play. New York, 1915. 359 p. 
 
 Dresslar. School Hygiene. Chapter II. 
 
 Edgerton. The Playground and Its Place in the Administration 
 of a City. Playground Extension Leaflet, No. 59. Playground 
 Association of America, i Madison Avenue, New York City. 
 
 Johnson. Education Through Recreation. Cleveland, 1916. 94 p. 
 Education by Games and Plays. New York, 1907. 234 p. 
 Bibliography, pp. 223-228. 
 
 Kingsland. The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games. New 
 York, 1913. 610 p. 
 
 List of References on Play and Playgrounds. Literary Leaflet 
 No. 3, April, 1919. II p. U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 
 Rowe. The Physical Nature of the Child and How to Study It. 
 New York, 1900. 207 p. Bibliography. 
 
 Tyler. Growth and Education. Boston, 1907. 294 p. Bibli- 
 ography pp. 270-291. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Ayres and McKinnie. The Public Library and the PubHc 
 Schools. Cleveland, 1916. 
 
 Baden-Powell. Scouting for Boys. London, 1910. 320 p. 
 
 Educational Possibilities of Boy Scouts' Training. Nine- 
 teenth Century. London, 191 1. Pp. 293-305. 
 
 Bates. Pageants and Pageantry. New York, 1912. 294 p. 
 
 Cabot. Volunteer Help to the Schools. New York, 19 14. 140 p. 
 
 Chubb. P. Festivals and Plays. New York, 1912. 402 p. Bib- 
 liography. 
 
 Forbush. The Coming Generation. New York, 1912. 402 p. 
 
43^ Selected References 
 
 Greene. Among School Gardens. New York, 1910. 388 p. 
 
 Illus. 
 Jackson. A Community Center. New York, 1918. 159 p. 
 Judd. Introduction to the Scientific Study of Education. New 
 
 York, 1918. 333 p. Chapter X. 
 King. Social Aspects of Education. New York, 1912. 425 p. 
 
 Chapter VIII, The School Garden, its educational and social 
 
 value, with bibliography. Pp. 129-143. 
 Miller. School Gardens in Relation to the Three R's. Educa- 
 tion, 1905, pp. 531-542. 
 New Possibilities in Education. The Annals of the American 
 
 Acad, of Pol. and Social Science. Vol. LXVII, Sept., 1916. 
 Patri. A Schoolmaster of the Great City. New York, 1917. 
 
 222 p. 
 Perry. Educational Extension. Cleveland, 19 16. 
 
 Community Center Activities. New York, 1916. 127 p. 
 
 Russell Sage Foundation. 
 
 The Wider Use of the School Plant. Department of 
 
 Child Hygiene, Russell Sage Foundation, New York City. 
 
 Significant School Extension Records. " How to Secure 
 
 Them." Bulletin No. 41, 1915. U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 
 Randall. Educative and Economic Possibilities of School-Di- 
 rected Home-Gardening in Richmond, Indiana. Bulletin, 
 1917, No. 6. U. S. Bureau of Education. 
 
 Russell, J. E. Scouting Education. Teachers College Record, 
 January, 1917. 
 
 School Savings Banks. Report of Special Committee, New York 
 Board of Education. New York, 1914. 
 
 Tanner. The Child. Chicago, 1915. 534 p. Chapter XXI, 
 The Child in Democracy, pp. 513-525. Bibliography. 
 
 Ward, E. J. The Social Center. New York, 1913. 359 p. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbott, E., 74, 75, yy, 78. 
 
 Absence, causes of, yz ff- 
 
 Accelerants and retardants, 147. 
 
 Activity, types of, 330-343; con- 
 structive, of children, 62. 
 
 Adenoids, 190, 192. 
 
 Age-height-wreight table, for boys, 
 353; for girls, 354. 
 
 Agencies auxiliary to the school, 
 380 ff. 
 
 Agriculture, 17-19; study of, 29- 
 35. 
 
 Aid to schools, federal, 27 ff. 
 
 Aim of education, Americaniza- 
 tion as, 9-17; according to Con- 
 stitution of 1780, Massachusetts, 
 2(i; according to Milton, 368; 
 care of offspring as, 5 ; content, 
 5 ; economic independence as, 5 ; 
 formal, 8; literacy in English 
 as minimum, 9, 11-16; political, 
 5; social, 5. 
 
 Aims of education, major life in- 
 terests as, 5 ; maximum, 8, 21- 
 22; minimum, 8, 20; achieve- 
 ment, 22; leisure, 21; recreation, 
 22, 361 ff. ; order of importance 
 of, 5; summary of, 21-22. 
 
 Air, clean, 119; fresh, ii4ff. ; 132; 
 constituents of atmospheric, 
 117; experiments on, 118; harm- 
 ful gases in, 119; oxygen con- 
 tent of, 117. 
 
 Air movement, 122, 127. 
 
 Alabama, 11, 42, 69; rural school 
 attendance in, 76. 
 
 Allegiance of the spirit, 11-12. 
 
 Alternation, method of, in school 
 programs, 307. 
 
 American children, future of, 17- 
 19. ^ 
 
 American House, 16. 
 
 Americanization, 15 ff. 
 
 Amusement, 343. 
 
 Anaemia, 198; and dullness, 199. 
 
 Angell, E. D., 373. 
 
 Anger, 239-240. 
 
 Animals and flowers, children 
 and, 227. 
 
 Appendix, 397. 
 
 Appropriations, federal, 30 ff. ; 
 state, for weak districts, yjt 68. 
 
 Arizona, 11, 42, 69. 
 
 Arkansas, 11, 42, 69. 
 
 Association, 315; parent-teacher, 
 381-382. 
 
 Attendance, compulsory, dy ff. ; 
 regular, 80; laws, general effect 
 of, 84; officers, support of, 80. 
 
 Attention, and interest, 275; and 
 stillness, 276; attitude of, 261; 
 child's, 262 ; concentrated, 263 ; 
 control of, 275 ; distributed, 263 ; 
 divided, 279; inner and outer 
 factors of, 276. 
 
 Attitude, teacher's, to behavior of 
 children, 224. 
 
 Attitudes, cheerful, 259; child's, 
 of attention, 262; favorable, to 
 work of the school, 259; inde- 
 cision, 280 ; in thinking, 262 ; 
 of attention, 261 ; of concentra- 
 tion, 263; of harmony, 260; of 
 inquiry, 270. 
 
 Ayres, L. P., 88, 105, 193. 
 
 Backward children, 144. 
 
 433 
 
434 
 
 Index 
 
 Bacteria, 167-176; discovery of, 
 169; modes of transmission, 171. 
 
 Baden-Powell, Agnes, and Sir 
 Robert, 390. 
 
 Baltimore, 47. 
 
 Bancroft, J. H., 370. 
 
 Baseball, Z7Z, Z7^- 
 
 Batavia plan, 299. 
 
 Bennett, H. E., 181, 321. 
 
 Berry, C. S., 147. 
 
 Blackboards, iii. 
 
 Bodine, 195. 
 
 Body heat, excess of, 121. 
 
 Bonser, F. G., 297. 
 
 Boston, 47, 371. 
 
 Boy Scouts, 389. 
 
 Boys, height and weight table for, 
 
 353- 
 Breckenridge, S. P., 74, 75, yy, 78. 
 Bruce, H. A., 361. 
 Brushing teeth, 193. 
 Bryant, L. S., 198. 
 Buffalo, 47. 
 Buildings, score card for city, 414, 
 
 415 ; types of, 96. 
 Burnham, W. H., 211. 
 Burris, W. P., 327. 
 
 California, 11, 42, 68, 72. 
 Calvert, W. J, 180. 
 Cambridge plan, 299. 
 Carbon-dioxide content of the air, 
 
 117; of the lungs, 118; function 
 
 of, 117. 
 Care of children, 5, 384-386. 
 Cases in discipline, study of, 2:^2 ff. 
 Certificates, employment, 86. 
 Chairs, movable tables and, no. 
 Chapin, C. V., 179. 
 Chicago, 181, 185, 371. 
 Chicken-pox, 166, 167, 180. 
 Childhood, conservation of, 50 ff. ; 
 
 meaning, 50. 
 Child labor, effects of, 52 ff. ; in 
 
 cities, 57, 59; i" country, 58; 
 
 laws, 54 ff.; school controlled 
 enterprises vs., 65; in England, 
 53. 54; remedial legislation, 60. 
 
 Children, backward, 144; classifi- 
 cation of, 142; comparison of 
 wages of, 93-94; city and coun- 
 try, 150-152; constructive ac- 
 tivities of, 62; delinquent, 153- 
 156; dependent, 156; difference 
 between, due to economic and 
 social conditions, 152; dull, 
 183 ff. ; effect of ventilation on 
 health of, 133; fears of, 231 ff. ; 
 feeble-minded, 143; immigrants, 
 16; initial equipment of, 210; 
 neglected, 156; of pre-school 
 age, 210 ff., 384-386; relation of, 
 to illiteracy, 16, 68, 69; state's 
 guardianship of, 155 ; well-nour- 
 ished, 352; work of, under four- 
 teen, 61. 
 
 Child welfare, 50 ff. ; a universal 
 interest, 395. 
 
 Cincinnati, 27, 41, 187, 388, 405. 
 
 Civics clubs, 387. 
 
 Civil War, rejections for service 
 in, 162. 
 
 Clark, E., 46, 47. 
 
 Class criticism, value of, 293. 
 
 Classrooms, air space of, 106; 
 comfort, no; floor space, 106; 
 heating of, 114 ff.; lighting of, 
 107; safety, 109; standard di- 
 mensions of, 108. 
 
 Class standards, 294. 
 
 Class work, cooperative, 295 ; in- 
 dividual and group in, 291 ; in- 
 tensive, 296. 
 
 Claxton, P. P., 394. 
 
 Cleaning standards, 137-138. 
 
 Cleansing teeth, 193. 
 
 Cleveland, 46, 47, ^yy. 
 
 Colds, causes of, 130. 
 
 Colorado, 11, 29, 42, 69, y2, yz, 76, 
 202. 
 
Index 
 
 435 
 
 Commission on ventilation, Chi- 
 cago, 132; New York, 130. 
 Communicable disease, warfare 
 
 against, 165. 
 Concentration, how weakened, 
 
 277; increase of power of, 279. 
 Connecticut, 11, 42, 68, 76, 202. 
 Consciousness of weakness, effect 
 
 of, in children, 186. 
 Conservation of resources, 2 ff., 
 
 50 ff. 
 Consolidated schools, 399-400. 
 Constants and variables in school 
 
 management, 290. 
 Constructive activity in play and 
 
 work, 340. 
 Constructive use of knowledge, 
 
 274. 
 Continuation schools, 34. 
 Control of schools, local and state, 
 
 24-25, 67. 
 Cooperation between attendance 
 
 department and teachers, 79; 
 
 between home and school, 381. 
 Cooperative schools, 34. 
 Corporal punishment, law on, 231. 
 Cost of education in United 
 
 States, 39; in cities, 47; in 
 
 states, 42. 
 Courses, differentiation of, 404- 
 
 406. 
 Courtis, S. A., 297. 
 Crowder, Major General E. H., 
 
 164, 189. 
 Crowder, T. R., 123. 
 Crowding in the elementary 
 
 school, 48. 
 Cubberley, E. P., 29, 108, 299. 
 Cupboards and lockers in primary 
 
 rooms, III. 
 Curtis, H. C, 364, 379. 
 
 Death-rate in United States, 164. 
 
 Defects, and retardation, 207; in 
 circulatory system, 198-199; 
 mental consequences of physical, 
 185-186; of digestive system, 
 192-198; of respiratory organs, 
 190-192 ; of sense, 199 ff. ; 
 speech, 204-208. 
 
 DeGroot, E. B., 370. 
 
 Delaware, 11, 42, 69, 76. 
 
 Delinquency, penalty for contrib- 
 uting to, 157. 
 
 Delinquents, 153-156. 
 
 Democracy, units of, 394. 
 
 Departmental programs, 326. 
 
 Dependent children, 156. 
 
 Desks, adjustable, no. 
 
 Desire of child to earn money, 64; 
 to be a man, 249. 
 
 Detroit, 47. 
 
 Development, direction of, 221 ; 
 of likes and dislikes, 227; steps 
 in, of thinking, 269. 
 
 Diphtheria, 162, 163, 166, 167, 169, 
 171, 175, 178, 179, 180, 182. 
 
 Discipline, fear as means of, 236. 
 
 Disease, course of communicable, 
 168; death-causing varieties of, 
 165-166. 
 
 Diseased teeth, 192. 
 
 Diseases, of school children, 166- 
 167; seasonal, 176. 
 
 Disinfection, 139. 
 
 Distribution of school funds, 48. 
 
 Dresslar, F. B., 108. 
 
 Drinking-water, 136. 
 
 Drudgery of work, relation of sci- 
 entific interest to, 344. 
 
 Dullness, 183 ff. 
 
 Duration of life, 165. 
 
 Dust, 172-173- 
 
 Dawdling, 344. 
 Daydreaming, 254. 
 Dealey, W. H., 372. 
 
 Economic independence, 5. 
 Economy of prevention, 166, 182. 
 Education, aims of, 5; compul- 
 
436 
 
 Index 
 
 sory, 6y^.; cost of, 39; federal 
 aid for, 27 ff. ; land grants in 
 support of, 27 ff. ; local senti- 
 ment for, 25 ; means of, 23 ; 
 medical diagnosis and, 187; na- 
 tional sentiment for, 25 ff. ; scope 
 in Massachusetts Constitution 
 of 1780, 26. 
 
 Educational guidance, 85. 
 
 Education and citizenship, 26. 
 
 Efficiency, group, 288-290, 370; 
 levels of, 183. 
 
 Egbert, S., 162. 
 
 Elaboration, 311-315- 
 
 Elementary schools, 398-399 ; 
 sports in, 374; crowding, 48. 
 
 Eliot, C. W., 21. 
 
 Elliott, E. C, 29. 
 
 Emerson, Harrington, 4. 
 
 Emotional excess, 230. 
 
 Emotion, and object, 227; contin- 
 uity of, 224; displacement of, 
 225; study of, 222. 
 
 Employment certificates, 86. 
 
 Enterprises, school-controlled, 65. 
 
 Environment, of the school, 103, 
 104 ; country and city, 150-152. 
 
 Equipment, iii; for playground, 
 370; pupil's initial, 210. 
 
 Evening schools, 34, 61. 
 
 Examination, physical, 187-189. 
 
 Exemption from school attend- 
 ance, 71-73. • 
 
 Expenses, distribution of, 39-42 ; 
 of special schools, 40; total, per 
 pupil, 47. 
 
 Experiments in ventilation, 118. 
 
 Expression, 311-317. 
 
 Eyestrain, symptoms of, 203. 
 
 Facing problems, 282. 
 
 " Faddism," educational, 19-21. 
 
 Falsifying, 255-256. 
 
 Family, relation of, to school, 288. 
 
 Fear, as a means of discipline, 
 
 236; children conceal their, 235; 
 
 dissolved by understanding, 
 
 237-238; excessive, 234. 
 Feeble-minded, grades of, 143; 
 
 number of, 143. 
 Feeding school children, 196. 
 Fire prevention, 109. 
 Fisher, I., 165. 
 Fitness, physical, as a patriotic 
 
 duty, 5, 368. 
 Fitzpatrick, F. W., no. 
 Floors, 137-139. 
 Floor space, 106. 
 Florida, 11, 42, 69. 
 Foght, H. W., 39. 
 Food, 348; and body heat, 120; in 
 
 prophylaxis, 348. 
 Food campaigns, 350. 
 Food habits, 352. 
 Freedom, limitations of, 284; of 
 
 initiative, 335. 
 Full Time schools, 34. 
 Funds, sources of, school, 27^.; 
 
 method of distribution of, 48; 
 
 permanent state, 29. 
 Furniture, school, 110-112. 
 
 Games, group, 370, 375-378. 
 
 Gary, Ind., 327, 378. 
 
 Gases, harmful, 119. 
 
 Georgia, 11, 42, 69. 
 
 Germs, discovery of specific, 169. 
 
 Gibbons, C. F., 58. 
 
 Girl Scouts, 390-392. 
 
 Goddard, H. H., 144. 
 
 Good and evil, 228-230. 
 
 Graded schools, 399. 
 
 Grading, promotion and, 298. 
 
 Groos, K., 375. 
 
 Grounds, care of, 101-108; sani- 
 tation of, 135; size of, 102. 
 
 Group, teacher's duty to, 286. 
 
 Group activity, training for, 287. 
 
 Group appreciations, 295 ; consis- 
 tency, 297, 298; efficiency, 288- 
 
Index 
 
 437 
 
 290; organizations, 300; prep- 
 aration, 296. 
 
 Guardianship of children, state's, 
 155. 
 
 Guthrie, L. G., 235. 
 
 Habits in eating, 352. 
 
 Haines, T. H., 145, 
 
 Haldane, J. S., 118. 
 
 Hall, G. S., 63, 234. 
 
 Hall-Quest, A, L., 2)^6. 
 
 Health, 5 ; and the state, 159. 
 
 Health monitors, 140, 
 
 Health work as a national service, 
 
 189. 
 Hearing, defective, and dullness, 
 
 200; symptoms of, 201. 
 Hearing test, 200. 
 Heating, requirements for 114- 
 
 116; methods of, 128-129. 
 Heating systems, 128. 
 Height-weight-age table, for boys, 
 
 353 ; for girls, 354- 
 High schools, classes of, 401-402. 
 Hill, E. v., 132. 
 Hill, L., 119. 
 Hoag, E. B., 180. 
 Hocking, 357. 
 Holt, L. E., 191, 192, 355. 
 Home as a source of projects, 
 
 384. 
 Home conditions and school at- 
 tendance, 74. 
 Home cooperation with school, 
 
 381. 
 Hugo, Victor, 196. 
 Humidity, relative, 120, 128-129. 
 Huntington, E., 124, 
 Hygiene, of character, 347; of 
 
 mind, 283; practice of personal, 
 
 139. 
 
 Idaho, II, 29, 42, 69. 
 
 Ideals, imitation of, 252-253; of 
 
 achievement, 22; of recreation, 
 21. 
 
 Idiots, 143, 
 
 Illinois, II, 29, 42, 69, 304, 406. 
 
 Illiteracy, age groups, 12-13; by 
 states, 11; in America, 9-17; in 
 Europe, 10; juvenile, 68, 69. 
 
 Illusion in play, 338-339. 
 
 Imagination, and character, 251- 
 252; critical point of, 253-254. 
 
 Imbeciles, 143, 146. 
 
 Immigration law, of 1917, 12. 
 
 Immunity from communicable 
 disease, 173. 
 
 Impression, 3ii-3i5- 
 
 Impulses, native, 211-221; uni- 
 versal play, 366. 
 
 Incapable, the, and the unwilling, 
 184. 
 
 Indecision, as reflected in school 
 work, 280; home training in, 
 281-282. 
 
 Indiana, 11, 42, 69. 
 
 Indianapolis, 47. 
 
 Indifference, and dullness, 184; lo- 
 cal, to schools, 24-25. 
 
 Individual, loss of, in group, 297. 
 
 Individual vs. class teaching, 292. 
 
 Industrial training, 18-19; stages 
 of development in, 64. 
 
 Infant mortality, 164. 
 
 Influenza, 167, 180-182. 
 
 Inhibition, excessive, 242-243. 
 
 Inlets and outlets, effect of loca- 
 tion of, 127. 
 
 Instability, nervous, 240-241. 
 
 Interest, and attention, 276; po- 
 litical, 5; social, 5- 
 
 Interests, of leisure, 7; play- 
 ground, Z70^. 
 
 Interests of life, major, 5- 
 
 Iowa, II, 42, 69. 
 
 Jackson, H. E., 392. 
 Jefferson, T., 26, 394. 
 
438 
 
 Index 
 
 Jersey City, 47. 
 
 Joffe, E., 76. 
 
 Johnson, G. E., Z7Z, 374, Z77- 
 
 Juvenile disorderly person, 72. 
 
 Kansas, 11, 43, 69, 136. 
 
 Kansas City, 47. 
 
 Kentucky, 11, 14, 43, 69; "moon- 
 light" schools of, 14-15. 
 
 Kimber, D. C, 198. 
 
 Kindergarten, 391 ; merging of, 
 and elementary school, 398. 
 
 Klapper, P., 79. 
 
 Knowledge, constructive use of, 
 274; of concrete things, 20-21. 
 
 Koehler, G., 180-191. 
 
 Koplik's spots, 179. 
 
 Kotelman, L., 367. 
 
 Laboratory in schools, 382-384. 
 
 Land grants, 2y ff . ; in support of 
 higher education, 28, 29. 
 
 Languages spoken by foreign chil- 
 dren in American schools, 16. 
 
 Law, Morrill, 29, 30; agricultural 
 extension (Smith-Lever), 31; 
 immigration, 12 ; naturalization, 
 13; vocational education (Smith- 
 Hughes), 32-36. 
 
 Laws, against contributing to de- 
 linquency, 157; against prema- 
 ture withdrawal from school, 
 86-88; child labor, 54-56; defin- 
 ing delinquent, dependent, and 
 neglected children, 156; immi- 
 gration, 12; mandatory and per- 
 missive health service, 160; 
 naturalization, 13; on construc- 
 tion of school buildings, 105 ff.; 
 on corporal punishment, 231 ; 
 on environment of schools, 103- 
 105; on fire prevention, 109; on 
 length of school term, 68-69 5 on 
 nuisances, 137; on sanitation, 
 136 ff.; on size of grounds, 102; 
 
 on ventilation and heating, 114- 
 116. 
 
 Laws compelling school attend- 
 ance, 67 ; causes for exemption 
 from, 71; defiance of, 84; gen- 
 eral effect of, 84; penalty, 71; 
 poverty as cause of exemption 
 from, 73. 
 
 Leagues, Little Mother's, 384- 
 386. 
 
 Legislation against child labor, 60. 
 
 Letters, standard size of, 203. 
 
 Lisping (stammering), 205-206. 
 
 Little Mother's Leagues, 384-386. 
 
 Lloyd-George, 2. 
 
 Location of school buildings, 96. 
 
 Locke, J., 359- 
 
 Locke on sleep, 359-361. 
 
 Lombard, 395. 
 
 Los Angeles, 47. 
 
 Louisiana, 11, 43, 69. 
 
 Louisville, 351. 
 
 Lutz, R. R., 21. 
 
 Macmillan, D. P., 195. 
 
 Maine, 11, 43, 69. 
 
 Malnutrition, 194; and dullness, 
 
 195. 
 Manaceine, M. de, 361. 
 Maryland, 11, 43, 68, 76, 102. 
 Massachusetts, 11, 13-14, 43, 68, 
 
 76, 102, 202; Constitution of 
 
 1780, 26. 
 Measles, 163, 166, 167, 178-180, 
 
 182. 
 Medical diagnosis and education, 
 
 187. 
 
 Memory, for words, 267; for 
 words as means to higher ends, 
 267; for facts, 268; for rela- 
 tions, 268. 
 
 Mental consequences of physical 
 defects, 185-186. 
 
 Mental hygiene, play, as, 337. 
 
 Mental inefficiency, causes of, 264. 
 
Index 
 
 439 
 
 Mental parallels of physical types 
 
 of work, 345. 
 Mental power, how weakened, 
 
 264-265. 
 Mental strength, chief sign of, 
 
 277. 
 Mental types of stutterers, 207. 
 Metschnikoff, 175. 
 Michigan, 11, 43, 69, 73. 
 Milk as food, 350-351. 
 Miller, H. A, 16. 
 Milwaukee, 47. 
 Mind, resources of, 2; right use 
 
 of, 260. 
 Minneapolis, 47. 
 
 Minnesota, 11, 29, 43, 69, 105, 197. 
 Mississippi, 11, 43, 69. 
 Missouri, 11, 43, 69. 
 Money cost of disease in United 
 
 States, 165. 
 Money, desire to earn, 64. 
 Monitors, health, 140. 
 Montana, 11, 43, 68; rating card, 
 
 408. 
 " Moonlight schools," 14-15. 
 Moral delinquents, types of, 154. 
 Moral imbeciles, 146. 
 Moral influence of the school, 154. 
 Morons, 143. 
 Mortality, infant, 164. 
 Mothers' pensions, 73. 
 Mouth-breathing, 191. 
 Mumps, 166, 167, 180. 
 
 Naturalization laws, 13. 
 
 Nebraska, 11, 29, 43, 69. 
 
 Needs, modern, of the school, 
 380 ff. _ 
 
 Nervous instability, 240-241 ; influ- 
 ence of teacher upon, 241-242. 
 
 Neural basis of work and play, 
 51. 
 
 Nevada, 11, 43, 69, 73. 
 
 New Hampshire, 11, 43, 69. 
 
 New Jersey, 11, 43, 68. 
 
 Newmayer, S. W., 191, 194, 202, 
 203. 
 
 New Mexico, 11, 29, 43, 69. 
 
 New Orleans, 47. 
 
 New York, 11, 14, 43, 68, 87, 370. 
 
 New York City, 77, 78, 93, I33, 
 197, 373- 
 
 Nitrogen of the air, function in 
 respiration, 117. 
 
 Non-attendance, legal and illegal, 
 73 fif. ; in rural communities, 
 causes of, 76; trivial reasons 
 for, 79; through process of 
 transfer from one school to an- 
 other, 78; corrective procedure 
 in, 81 ; preventive measures, 82. 
 
 North Carolina, 11, 43, 69, 73. 
 
 North Dakota, 11, 30, 43, 69, 73, 
 102. 
 
 Nuisances, 137. 
 
 Occupations, 17-19, 56, 92, 93. 
 Ohio, II, 27, 28, 29, 36, 48, 68, 72, 
 
 73, 86, 102, 105, 109, 136, 137, 
 
 160, 399, 400, 401. 
 Oklahoma, 11, 29, 43, 58, 69, 73. 
 Open-air conditions, 132. 
 Open-window ventilation, 131, 134, 
 
 140. 
 Oral recitation, original function 
 
 of, 309- 
 Ordinance of 1785 and 1787, 27. 
 Oregon, 11, 43, 69, 76. 
 Organization, of play, 371 ff. ; of 
 
 school program, 319, 323-325- 
 Organizations, group, 300; the 
 
 Scouts, 388. 
 Outside temperature, 124. 
 Oxygen, content, of air, 117; of 
 
 the lungs, 117; function of, 117. 
 
 Palmer, G. T., 130. 
 Parents, how to win, 381. 
 Parent-teacher association, 381- 
 3S2. 
 
440 
 
 Index 
 
 Part Time schools, 34. 
 
 Pasteur, 174, 182. 
 
 Patri, A., 382. 
 
 Pediculosis, 182. 
 
 Penalty for illegal non-attend- 
 ance, 71. 
 
 Pennsylvania, 11, 43, 68, 73. 
 
 Perkins, D. H., 99. 
 
 Personal hygiene, practice of, 139. 
 
 Personality, of teacher, 113; dan- 
 ger in strong, 286; sense of, in 
 child, 234. 
 
 Physical defects, and efficiency, 
 183; mental consequences of, 
 185. 
 
 Physical training, exercises in, 
 369-370. 
 
 Pittsburgh, 47. 
 
 Play, and stages of self-develop- 
 ment, 328-329. 
 
 Play census, 376. 
 
 Playground interests, 370. 
 
 Play illusion, 338-3391 impulse, 
 366. 
 
 Play instinct, 366. 
 
 Play, plot-interest in, 331 ; as men- 
 tal hygiene, 337; as practice, 
 364; benefits of, 363-365; char- 
 acteristics of, 335-337; organi- 
 zation of, 371; in city, 2>7Z\ in 
 country, 372. 
 
 Play values, scale of, 375. 
 
 Play, work and, differences be- 
 tween, 329. 
 
 Plot-interest, in play, 331 ; height- 
 ened by competition, 334. 
 
 Political interest, 5. 
 
 Poverty as cause for exemption 
 from school attendance, 7Z- 
 
 Practice as play, 343. 
 
 Premature legal withdrawal from 
 
 school, 88-90. 
 Prevention, economy of, 166, 182. 
 Program making, principles of, 
 303- 
 
 Program, organization of, 319- 
 326, requirements, 302, 317-319; 
 rural school, 304. 
 
 Programs, departmental, 326; 
 flexible, 317 ff.; formal recita- 
 tion, in school, 308. 
 
 Projects, home as the source of, 
 381, 384. 
 
 Promotion, and grading, 298; ap- 
 pointed times for, 298. 
 
 Prophylaxis, 347 ff. 
 
 Public health movement, 159. 
 
 Public opinion as influencing edu- 
 cation, 24 ff, 
 
 Pueblo plan, 299. 
 
 Pupils, number, per teacher, 42- 
 44; unwilling, 184, 226. 
 
 Questioning, tone and tempo of, 
 
 271. 
 Quitter, the, 335. 
 
 Rachitic effects of malnutrition, 
 195. 
 
 Reactions, personal, to behavior of 
 children, 224. 
 
 Recitation, as related to subject- 
 matter, 310; cross-purposes in 
 the modern, 316; formal, 308; 
 original function of the oral, 
 
 309. 
 
 Recreation, 363 ; ideals of, 21 ; 
 value of open-air, 365. 
 
 Red corpuscles, function of, 198. 
 
 Rejections for military service, 
 162, 189. 
 
 Requirements, of a modern pro- 
 gram, 317; for a standard 
 school, 408 ff. 
 
 Resources, national, 2-4; conser- 
 vation of, 3-4. 
 
 Responsibility in play, 335. 
 
 Responsibility of state for health 
 of pupils, 159. 
 
Index 
 
 441 
 
 Retardants and accelerants, 147. 
 
 Retardation and physical defects, 
 183 ff. 
 
 Rhode Island, 11, 30, 43, 68. 
 
 Robertson, J. D., 180, 181. 
 
 Rosenau, M. J., 108, 117, 119, 129, 
 130, 166, 179, 201. 
 
 Rural communities, non-attend- 
 ance in, 76. 
 
 Russell, J. E., 388. 
 
 San Francisco, 47. 
 
 St. Louis, 47, 206. 
 
 Sanitation, 135 ff. 
 
 Sargent, D. A., 367. 
 
 Scarlet fever, 163, 166, 167, 178, 
 180, 182. 
 
 School, environment of, 103, 104; 
 moral influence of, 154; an or- 
 ganic unit, 285. 
 
 Schools, Continuation, 34-35 ; Co- 
 operative, 34; Evening, 34, 61; 
 federal aid to, 27 ff. ; Full Time, 
 34; "moonlight," 14-15; neg- 
 lected, 24-25; of Germany, 2; 
 Part Time, 34; special, expenses 
 of, 40; Trade Extension, 34; 
 Trade Preparatory, 34, 
 
 School buildings, location of, 96. 
 
 School census, 72. 
 
 School children, future of, 17; dis- 
 eases of, 166-167. 
 
 School day, work of, 302 ff. 
 
 School diseases, 166-167. 
 
 School expenses in United States, 
 39 ff. ; in the states, 42 ff., 48. 
 
 School feeding, 196. 
 
 School fires, 109. 
 
 School fun Is, distribution of, 38 ff. 
 
 School gardening, 386. 
 
 School grounds, size of, 102, 140. 
 
 School health work, 160; a per- 
 manent national service, 189. 
 
 School housekeeping, 135 ff. 
 
 School hygiene, a part of the pub- 
 
 lic health movement, 161; the 
 professions in, 160. 
 
 School lands, 27 ff. 
 
 School needs, 381. 
 
 School program, 304 ff. ; flexible, 
 317 ff. 
 
 Schoolroom, standard atmospheric 
 conditions of, 132; dimensions 
 of, 108; air space, 106; floor 
 space, 105; lighting, 107; num- 
 ber of pupils per, 109. 
 
 School savings bank, 387. 
 
 School standards, 406 ff. 
 
 School work, aims at individual, 
 8; essential factors of, 311-317; 
 formal aim of, 8; higher values 
 of, 94; how to vitalize, 346; in- 
 decision as reflected in, 280; 
 money value of, 92-94. 
 
 Score card, for city schools, 414; 
 for rural schools, 408 ff.; for 
 village and consolidated schools, 
 415 ff. 
 
 Scouts organizations, 388; boys, 
 389-390; girls, 390-392. 
 
 Seasonal diseases, 176 ff. 
 
 Seattle, 47. 
 
 Sedgwick, W. T., 161, 166, 169, 
 173, 174, 176. 
 
 Self as the object of thought, 265; 
 stages of development, 328-329. 
 
 Self-control, instinctive support 
 in, 248-249; means of, 247. 
 
 Self-controlled, The, 246. 
 
 Senger, H., 16. 
 
 Sense defects, 199 ff. 
 
 Sense hunger, 217. 
 
 Serums, 175. 
 
 Service in U. S. army, rejections 
 for, 162; causes of rejections, 
 189. 
 
 Shaw, E. R., no, 127. 
 
 Sidis, B., 362. 
 
 Sleep, 355; amount of, 356; and 
 home conditions, 358; effect of 
 
442 
 
 Index 
 
 too much, 361 ; Locke on, 359- 
 360; quality of, 357. 
 
 Snedden, D., 63. 
 
 Social center, 392-394, 
 
 Social elements in the formal reci- 
 tation, 292. 
 
 Social interests, 5, 112. 
 
 South Carolina, 11, 43. 
 
 South Dakota, 11, 29, 43. 
 
 Speech defectives, number of, 206. 
 
 Speech defects, 204-208; and re- 
 tardation, 207 ; cure of, 207. 
 
 Spencer, H., 8. 
 
 Sports in the schools, 374. 
 
 Stecher, L. I., 129. 
 
 Stewart, C. W., 15. 
 
 Strayer, G. D., 414. 
 
 Study, directed, 326. 
 
 Stutterers, 206; mental types of, 
 208. 
 
 Sutherland. A., 288. 
 
 Symbols, emotions attaching to, 
 228. 
 
 Systems, heating, 128. 
 
 Tables and chairs, no. 
 
 Taylor, F. I., 56. 
 
 Teacher, as counselor in voca- 
 tional guidance, 91 ; financial re- 
 turn to, per pupil, 45 ; number 
 of pupils per, 42-44; relation of, 
 to school, 285. 
 
 Teachers, salaries of, 38-39- 
 
 Teeth, 192; and retardation, 193. 
 
 Temperature stimulation, chang- 
 ing rate of, 123; outside, 124. 
 
 Tennessee, 11, 43, 69, 7Z, Z7^' 
 
 Terman, L. M., 145, 180, 357- 
 
 Texas, 11, 43- 
 
 Thinking, bodily position in, 262; 
 constructive type of, 272 ff. ; ob- 
 ject of, 26s; practice of, 266; 
 substitutes for, 266; steps in de- 
 velopment of, 269; spirit of in- 
 quiry essential to, 270. 
 
 Time distribution in daily pro- 
 gram, 303. 
 
 Time units, 402-404. 
 
 Todd, J. B., 99. 
 
 Toilet accommodations, 136. 
 
 Transmission of disease germs, 
 modes of, 171. 
 
 Treadway, W. L., 145. 
 
 Truancy, 76; causes of, yy. 
 
 Tuberculosis, 166, 169, 171, 180. 
 
 Tyler, J. M., 348. 
 
 Typhoid fever, 162, 171. 
 
 Understanding, fears and troubles 
 
 dissolved by, 237-238. 
 United States flag, 112, 
 Units of democracy, 394. 
 Unwilling pupils, 184, 226. 
 Utah, II, 43, 69, 7z. 
 
 Vaccination for typhoid, 162. 
 Ventilation, and sanitation, 136; 
 
 effect of, on school children, 
 
 133; factors of, 116; types of, 
 
 131, 134- 
 Vermont, 11, 43, 69, 202. 
 Virginia, 11, 43. 
 Vision, 202; conservation of, 204; 
 
 symptoms of defective, 203. 
 Vision test, Snellen card, 203. 
 Vital resistance to disease, 174; 
 
 lowering of, 130, 174. 
 Vocational education, 32-36. 
 Vocational guidance, 90, 
 
 Wallin, J. E. W., 206. 
 
 Ward, E. J., 394. 
 
 Warner, F., 195. 
 
 Washington, D. C, 47. 
 
 Washington, G., 26. 
 
 Washington State, ii, 29, 43, 68, 
 
 102. 
 Watt, H. J., 269. 
 Weight-height-age table, for boys, 
 
 353 ; for girls, 354. 
 
Index 
 
 443 
 
 Wells, F. L., 254. Wood, H. B, 162. 
 West, M., 395. Work, of children under four- 
 White corpuscles as source of re- teen, 61; of the school day, 310; 
 
 sistance to disease, 175. mental parallels of physical 
 
 Whooping-cough, 166, 167, 179, types of, 345; right and wrong 
 
 180, 182. conditions of, 63. 
 
 Wilson, W., 394. Work and play, neural basis of, 
 
 Window space, 107. 51; types of, 330 ff. 
 
 Winslow, L. F., 146. World War, 2-3, 9, 39, 164, 189, 
 
 Wisconsin, 11, 43, 68, 166. 349, 368. 
 
 Withdrawal from school, illegal, Wyoming, 11, 29, 43, 69. 
 
 87; premature legal, 188-90. 
 
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