XXV. THE PLASTIC AND GRAPHIC Arts XXVI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF TASTE. XXVII. THE CORRELATION OF STUDIES CALIFORNIA WHAT CHILDREN STUDY AND WHY CHAPTER I THE COURSE OF STUDY AS A WHOLE Ir is the purpose of this book to discuss the Course of Study of our elementary schools, treating its different subjects and departments seriatim and in some detail. But as a preliminary to such particular discussion, it seems necessary to consider briefly the curriculum as a whole, as to its aim and general character. The course of study in a system of schools, whether of a state, a county, or a municipality, serves a twofold purpose: one economic, the other educational. Its economic function is the unifying of the schools. It is the cohesive force that makes of an aggregation of schools a system. The educational function of the course is to serve as a guide to the teachers in their work; for, unlike the ordinary college curriculum, it is not made by those who are to use it, and hence may not be departed from at will. These two main functions call for special characteristics. I. THE ECONOMIC FUNCTION First, the economic function: what sort of unity is desirable in a school system, and how may a course of study promote such unity? Naturally, if the pupils in the schools are uniformly and exactly graded and daily tasks are prescribed for all the grades, the result will be uniformity, and uniformity is a kind of unity. Is it possible to give due recognition to a desirable freedom for the teachers and to the varying needs of children coming from many kinds of homes, and at the same time to preserve necessary unity? In any one of our larger cities, with its heterogeneous population, with the widely differing needs of black and white, foreign-born and native, children of millionaire and of ditch digger, those from homes of luxury and culture, where all the influences supplement the work of the school, and those from the abodes of poverty, vice, and ignorance, who are kept in school only through the force of law, is it possible under such varying conditions to frame a single course of study that will properly regard the needs of all and do violence to none? Is there any wide field of knowledge, any single line of intellectual activities, of such universal adaptation that all may profitably spend time in their cultivation and pursuit? Even if such subjects of study can be found, is it well to attempt to require the same attainments in them of all children of all sorts? In other words, is it possible to frame a prescriptive course of study for New York or Chicago or Philadelphia, or even for a small city, that will not do violence to the needs, not only of many individuals, but of some whole classes of children, some entire schools? If it were possible to frame a course having this negative adaptation, is it desirable, or is it necessary to the preservation of proper unity in a system? What Uniformity is Desirable. What degree of uniformity in a school system is desirable or necessary to the preservation of unity? I. It should be possible for every child to pass through all the grades of a system, from the lowest to the highest, without serious hindrance because of differences of subject matter taught, or of administration. 2. It should be possible for children changing their residences to go from one school to another without loss of grade or other embarrassment arising from differences in instruction. The good of the individual children requires this degree of uniformity. 3. It should be possible for supervising officials to judge of the efficiency of teachers according to some standard of attainment on the part of the pupils. It is not necessary, however, for this standard to be strictly uniform. 4. It is desirable, but not essential, that instructions given to teachers and aids furnished them for their work be of general service. This is more important in smaller communities than in very large cities, in which division of the supervising force and differentiation of function among its members are possible. These needs seem to indicate the natural limits of necessary uniformity in a course of study in a school system. It seems Differences in Administration Desirable. to me beyond question that there should be great differences in the course as administered in different schools, especially in large cities. The children of the poor foreigner, who hear no English in the home, who themselves are accustomed to speak a foreign tongue, whose knowledge of the English language is limited to a few incorrect or slang phrases picked up on the street, and whose schooling is almost sure to be limited to the minimum required by law, certainly must have instruction different from that needed by children who have been accustomed from infancy to good English only, and who are reasonably sure to continue in school at least to the end of the public school course. With the same course of study, the knowledge acquired by these children is sure to differ greatly; and the desired end of intellectual growth by all, as nearly equal as possible, would be greatly facilitated by treatment adapted to their individual conditions. Unity of Aim and Purpose. The unity to be sought is one of aim and purpose, the development of each child into the best possible for him. Individual growth, rather than the knowledge of the same facts by all, is the end to be desired. A Necessary Minimum. — A minimum must be fixed, necessarily, and this is not difficult. There are certain subjects so nearly universal in their adaptation that all children should pursue them. The differences should be mainly in the details of these subjects and in the methods of presentation. The subjects a knowledge of which the experience of mankind has singled out as essential to such an education as the good citizen needs, are: Reading with its corollary, good literature; writing; the use of the prevailing language, with us, English; arithmetic; and history, especially of the student's own country; and of minor, though great, importance to all, the laws and phenomena of nature, and various manual and industrial arts, such as drawing and the use of tools. These should be in all elementary courses of study. But it by no |