Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/83

Rh other hand, a motorist, though tied to a roadway, makes his twenty-five miles an hour because he sticks to that well-surfaced track instead of trying to wander through bushes, potato-fields and gravel banks. He doesn't leave the road, but he sees and knows the whole surrounding territory. Consequently a fourth essential of speed is thoroughness in one line with an outlook into many lines, with an intelligent interest in many things, and with a broad attitude towards all human interests.

A fifth essential of speed is the cutting of red tape. Circumlocution, that curse of the law, is being rapidly driven out of business, because a merchant or manufacturer can not afi'ord to waste time and lose headway in doubling and twisting. If there is a short way of doing a thing—be it in business or in school—do it; and save time, money and nervous energy.

Therefore in demanding of the high school graduate rational and orderly speed, modern business asks the teachers of those young men and women:

1. That they do everything possible to send into business life sound animals who appreciate the value of good health and who know how to conserve it;

2. That they give those pupils such studies and exercises and in such a way as to result in activity of mind, thorough coordination between mind and bod}", well-trained senses and an eagerness to work and to learn;

3. That all the school work be so carried on as to foster a spirit of team-play, a sense of the value and power of working together for the common weal;

4. That to this end the teacher subordinate the memorizing of facts to the inculcating of promptness, obedience and loyalty;

5. That the studies which make for breadth of view and variety of interest be emphasized, and those which make for mere information, technic and drill, be minimized;

6. That, to accomplish this, subjects like arithmetic, bookkeeping, grammar, rhetoric, etc., be cut down to their lowest terms and fewest principles, throwing out all processes and exercises which are obsolete, little-used or cumbersome, putting in all the short-cuts and labor-saving devices which are of general application; and that those subjects, such as history, economics, political and economic geography, etc., which make for breadth of view; those exercises, such as rightly conceived manual training, ordered games, freehand drawing, etc., which make for quickness and control of the body; and those general school relationships which promote team-play, loyalty, the spirit of working together for a tangible and desirable end, be fostered, amplified, and in every way, encouraged.

Above all, the community high school should be the medium for leading the boy and girl from the irresponsibility of children into the