hensive about school. But there's been an undercurrent that has caused THE SCHOOL to loom large in Bill's thoughts. "Do you go to SCHOOL, my little man?" people have asked him. "When are you going to start HIM to SCHOOL?" he's heard callers inquire of his mother. To Bill, such questions have had certain portent. Bill Gets Acquainted With the Teacher Hopefully, yet afraid, as this morning moves along-so much has seemed to be expected of him-Bill finally arrives at THE SCHOOL. He clasps his brief case tightly. In it, along with his pencils, tablet, and crayons, he has put some security-giving reminders of home. He moves his hand over the outside now and feels the shape of his beanshooter and of his comic books. Bill meets THE TEACHER, Miss Wilson. He has met her before, and that helps. She wasn't THE TEACHER when he met her. She was just Miss Wilson, a grown-up who he thought was pretty and interesting when she came to see his mother. Now since she is familiar, kind, and smiling, and glad to see him, he forgets about THE TEACHER and thinks of her again as MISS WILSON. He feels good to be near her. So Many Children But Bill sees the OTHER CHILDREN, more boys and girls of about his size in one place than he has ever seen in his life and that feels strange. He has seen several of them before. He has played with some of them. A boy sitting near lives in the same block. at first, among so many strangers, Bill hardly is conscious of the children he knows. Gradually he loses some of the strangeness. When he finds himself with just two or three children, playing with a wonderful train, he's happy. He belongs to the group. A New Life Begins From this day on, the school enriches the experiences Bill has at home. It adds new ones-experiences that begin in the schoolroom perhaps, and reach into his home and out into his community. Some of Bill's school experiences help him learn how to work better with the children and adults whom he meets every day. Others give him new understanding of his home and his community and help him gradually to become a more useful member of each. Woven in with his life experiences are the skills and knowledge he needs for further learning. Miss Wilson knows how uncertain Bill feels toward his new experiences at first. Bill senses that she knows. She considers it her big job to understand and to help him-to assist him through that first big day, and every succeeding day, so that each experience he has may become richer in assurance, happiness, and understanding because of her and the school. In fact, that is the job of all the teachers Bill will meet in the years to come. Skylines Draw Back The experiences which Bill will have with the help of his teachers and the school as the years pass are everyday experiences. They comprise Bill's CURRICULUM. Bill would have had some of them without going to school, but he might have had them without the interest and understanding that make life worth while. The good school makes everyday experiences richer and more meaningful through helping him get appropriate new facts, skills, and understanding. Bill's experiences include activities with other children, such as arranging the chairs for several boys and girls to use in planning work together, going with the group to buy groceries for the school lunch, marking the playground for a game, or arranging on a low table the picture books about the day's special interest. Other experiences include getting acquainted with grown-ups, such as the school bus driver, the janitor, the principal, and all the others of the school staff, and understanding what they do and why. They include knowing the mail carrier, the dairyman, and others in the community and understanding how they help him and how to cooperate with them. Buying paper and pencils, snacks and lunch, and toys and clothes and newspapers; earning money, taking care of things, being a useful citizen-these and many other activities in the ordinary business of living will be Bill's CURRICULUM experiences. Suppose Bill Lives in Texas Bill's experiences from year to year depend somewhat upon the place in which he lives. If Bill lives in central Texas, for example, around his home there may be fields of cotton. In the branches of trees Bill often sees clusters of mistletoe or Spanish moss. Bluebonnets or other flowers cover untilled fields in spring. The climate is mild in winter, hot in summer. Field crops, gardens, and flowers are adapted by nature to this climate and to the soil. Bill may speak Spanish. The other boys and girls speak English. He may like tortillas and chili to eat. The other children like bread, vegetables, and meat. Around him may be ways strange to him and new to his parents. If he lives in a city, busses, automobiles, streetcars, fine stores, big churches, many people affect his life. In school Bill feels lost. The other children don't speak his language. They have different ways. Indeed, Bill may have more to learn than the other children in order to have an equally good life. He needs the kind of curriculum experiences that really help him fit into the life around him and do his part in making it better. He needs the kind of curriculum experiences that help him fit in happily, yet be himself, with appreciation for the ways in which he is different. Maybe Bill Lives in Minnesota Bill may live in Minnesota. Many of his ways of living are the same as if his home were in Texas; he still lives in the United States of America. But in his life in Minnesota, or in some other State of the North Central region, there are things that are different from a life in Texas or in similar parts of the Southwest. Probably the people around him speak the same language he does. Perhaps they are of the same racial and national origin and culture. as his family. He may not have the difficulties in language and culture to overcome that he might have if he lived in certain places in Texas and belonged to a Spanish-speaking group there. The Minnesota climate is different. Bill has opportunities to learn to skate and to ski. He has fewer months for the outdoor life. Around him are trees and plants and flowers not commonly known in Texas. There are occupations and industries that do not exist in the part of Texas just described. People are employed in iron mining, in lumbering, in short-season crops and gardens, in the usual industries and businesses of cities. Wherever he lives, Bill grows more and more interested in the things around him and becomes better balanced through learning more about them and the problems related to them. The toys he makes, the pictures he paints, the handicrafts he produces, the stories he writes or likes to have told to him, the books he likes best to look at, the chores he does at home, the ways he earns his spending money when he is older, the way he budgets his money or plans his time-all reflect his background of experience and its influence on his development. His new experiences begin with what he knows and extend his knowledge. Bill Keeps His Teachers Alert Bill must have the kind of education that helps him in using the resources around him to solve his problems and meet his own needs well. The kind of education Bill requires has been briefly stated by the Educational Policies Commission2 in the following objectives: 1. Education for self-realization, which means: Are the children getting personal satisfaction out of life? Are they healthy and happy? Are they able to overcome petty annoyances or disappointments? Are they achieving the literacy skills needed to handle life in a modern home and a modern community? Are their knowledge and understanding becoming deep and broad enough for them to adjust to the social and physical world around them? 2. Education for human relationship, which means: Can the children get along with others? Are they courteous and polite? Do they enjoy being with others? Can they ignore personal grievances and work with others? Do they put human welfare above other goals? Can they compete pleasantly when competition seems desirable? Cooperate when cooperation is necessary? Are they learning to improve their home and family relationships? 3. Education for economic efficiency, which means: Are the children learning how to handle money and buy wisely? To earn or to produce? Are they learning to plan their lives well? Are they learning to understand, use, and improve the economic services of the community? 4. Education for civic responsibility, which means: Are the boys and girls learning how to perform civic duties efficiently and with interest? Are they beginning to understand democracy and do something to make their services count in its fulfillment and development in their community and in the wider community about them? Are they growing in loyalty to ideas of national and world democracy? Bill's need for the kind of education indicated by the objectives stated above keeps his teachers alert. They study not only Bill, but also his home and his community and the way these affect his life. In a day when the seeds of corn, oats, and cotton are produced and selected to fit particular regions, it is not surprising that Bill's teachers are placing less emphasis on ready-made courses of study and trying to help each child to select the curriculum experiences suitable for him in the place where he lives. The Place Where Children Live Affects Curriculum All children's activities in achieving the objectives stated above are different from school to school, community to community, region to region. They are different because the places are different culturally, industrially, geographically. Children's activities are also different for reasons of individual and group * Educational Policies Commission. The Purposes of Education in American Democracy. Washington, D. C., National Educational Association, 1938. 157 p. Items in italics only are quoted from report. needs, interests, and resources. is such a big one. That is why Bill's teachers' job In different regions of the United States ways of living vary. Soil Conservation Service divides the country into seven regions. In each region ways of living are different because of differences in natural resources, community structures, industries, and economic conditions. Every major region has smaller regions and communities with characteristic ways of living. In these, teachers see new activities for curriculum from day to day as they study their pupils' needs, interests, and life problems. Hobbs3 refers to some 20 subregions in the South.4 Regional influences of income level, culture, and family status affect curriculum. All are interrelated. Bossard says, "The region is being increasingy identified in cultural terms. Larger in size than the community and perhaps more generalized in its relations to the behavior development of the child it is of considerable significance."5 3 Hobbs, S. H., Jr., Rural Communities of the South. Chapel Hill. N. C., Institute of Re search and Social Science, 1946. p. 51-52. See also: Regional Factors in National Planning. National Resources Committee. Washington, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1935. Especially chapter XI. The Nature and Evolution of the Regional Idea. 5 Bossard, James H. S. The Sociology of Child Development. New York. Harper & Bros. p. 527. 1948. |