Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/50

46 I shall describe in detail an experiment in the elementary and high schools of the school of education of the University of Chicago which has already resulted in the complete elimination of one year from the elementary school and which we expect will ultimately eliminate a second year from the period of secondary education in the high school and junior colleges of the university. These schools occupy a peculiarly advantageous position for the conduct of such an experiment, being private schools unhampered by connection with a large school system and having faculties composed of teachers of rather more than ordinary professional training and interest, so organized that it is possible to treat the various stages of elementary and secondary education as a continuous process. The schools are large enough, having over 800 pupils from the homes of the immediate vicinity, to make the experiment typical and of value to other schools and communities.

It should perhaps be stated, at this point, that the program of the university elementary school contains considerable material that is not found in most schools. of similar grade. This includes either French or German, which all the pupils take continuously from the beginning of the fourth grade. Much attention is also given to nature study, including, in addition to work in the school gardens, considerable physics, hygiene, zoology and botany. A good deal of emphasis is also laid on instruction in the manual arts and in various industries, such as sewing, weaving, cooking, woodworking and printing. It should be understood that the effort to save time has not involved the elimination or curtailment of any of this work which is regarded as equally important with the other subjects of instruction.

That considerable time has been wasted in elementary schools by teaching material of no practical and little educational value is certain. Arithmetic offers a good illustration in which one may find, from examination of text-books or by consulting the memory of his own school days, a good deal of material of a highly specialized sort which is of no practical value to the pupils, and much more material whose only purpose is to serve as a basis for intellectual gymnastics, the value of which is highly questionable. By far greater waste is involved in the common practise of extended reviews in the upper grades by which each teacher has felt it necessary toward the end of the year to round out her pupils for the work of the year to come. This is not infrequently supplemented by another period of review at the beginning of the following year. The practise of devoting most of the last half of the eighth grade to a comprehensive review of the entire work of the elementary school is very common. It is a matter of common observation that these reviews are not interesting to the pupils and it may be concluded that they are ineffective from the fact that high-school teachers generally complain of the deficient preparation shown by the classes that come up from the lower schools. To such an extent is this