The High School Failures Part 14

The recognition of individual differences urged in section 1 necessitates a differentiation and a flexibility of the high school curriculum that is limited only by the social and individual needs to be served, the size of the school, and the availability of means. The rigid inflexibility of the inherited course of study has contributed perhaps more than its full share to the waste product of the educational machinery. The importance of this change from compulsion and rigidity toward greater flexibility has already received attention and commendation. One authority[57] states that "one main cause of (H.S.) elimination is incapacity for and lack of interest in the sort of intellectual work demanded by the present courses of study," and further that "specialization of instruction for different pupils within one cla.s.s is needed as well as specialization of the curriculum for different cla.s.ses." There must be less of the a.s.sumption that the pupils are made for the schools, whose regime they must fit or else fail repeatedly where they do not fit. Theoretically considerable progress has already been made in the differentiation of curricula, but in practice the opportunity that is offered to the pupils to profit thereby is curtailed, because of the rigid organization of courses and the uniform requirements that are dictated by administrative convenience or by the college entrance needs of the minority. The only permissible limitations to the variables of the curriculum should be such as aim to secure a reasonable continuity and sequence of subjects in one or more of the fields selected. One of the chief barriers to a more general flexibility has been the notion of inequality between the cla.s.sical and all other types of education. This a.s.sumption has had its foundations heavily shaken of late. The quality of response which it elicits has come to receive precedence over the name by which a subject happens to be cla.s.sified. "France has come out boldly and recognized at least officially the exact parity between the scientific education and the cla.s.sical education."[58] Indeed one may doubt whether this parity will ever again be seriously questioned, because of the elevation of scientific training and accomplishment in the great world wars as well as in its adaptation for the direct and purposeful dealing with the problems of modern life. Especially for the early cla.s.ses in the high school does the situation demand a relatively flexible curriculum, else the only choice will be to drop out to escape drudgery or failure.

Inglis maintains that the selective function of the high school may operate by a process of differentiation rather than by a wholesale elimination.[59] The pupil surely cannot know in advance what he is best fitted for, but the school must help him find that out, if it is to render a very valuable service, and one at all comparable to the success of the industrial expert in utilizing his material and in minimizing waste. The junior high school especially aims to perform this function that is so slighted in the senior high school. Yet neither the organization nor the purpose of the two are so far apart as to excuse the helplessness of the latter in this important duty.

There is apparently no const.i.tutional impediment to a still further extension of the principle of flexibility and to the minimizing of loss by what has been a costly trial and error method of fitting the pupils and the subjects to each other. Short unit courses are not unfamiliar in certain educational fields, and they lend themselves very readily to definite and specific needs. Their usefulness may be regarded as a warrant of a wider adoption of them. Although they are as yet employed mainly for an intensive form of training or instruction to meet specific needs of a particular group in a limited time,[60] the principle of their use is no longer novel. A unit course of an extensive nature is also conceivable, for instance, a semester of any subject ent.i.tled to two credits might allow a division into two approximately equal portions. If then both teacher and pupil feel, when one unit is completed, that the pupil is in the wrong subject or that his work is hopeless in that subject, he might be permitted to withdraw and be charged with a failure of only one point, that is, just one-half the failure of a semester's work in the subject--or one-fourth that for a whole year with no semester divisions. Even if this scheme would not work equally well in all subjects, it implies no extensive reorganization to employ it in the ones adapted. It is not incredible that, as the people more generally understand that physics, chemistry, and biology have become vital to national self-preservation and social well-being, their emphasis as subjects required or as subjects sought by most of the pupils may lead to a high percentage of failures, such as is found for Latin and mathematics usually, or for science as reported in St. Louis, where it was required of all and yielded the highest percentage of failures. Now the teaching of most sciences by the unit plan will comprise no greater difficulty than is involved in overcoming text-book methods and the conservatism of convention. The project device, as employed in vocational education, will also lend itself in many instances to the unit division of work. The first consequence of this plan will be a reduction of failures for the pupil in those subjects whose continued pursuit would mean increased failure.

The second consequence may be to relieve teachers of hopeless cases of misfit in any subject, for if the pupils no longer have intolerable subjects imposed on them the teachers will come to demand only tolerable work in the subjects of their choice. The third consequence will probably be to encourage pupils to find themselves by trying out subjects at less risk of such c.u.mulative failures as are disclosed in section 3 of the preceding chapter.

4. PROVISION FOR THE DIRECTION OF THE PUPILS' STUDY

The forms of treatment suggested in the first three sections of this chapter for the diminution of failures will find their natural culmination of effectiveness in a plan for helping the pupils to help themselves. This has been notably lacking in most school practice.

Every improvement of the school adaptation still a.s.sumes that the pupils are to apply themselves to honest, thorough study. But the high school must bear in mind that good studying implies good teaching. It cannot be trusted to intuition or to individual discovery. Real, earnest studying is hard work. The teachers have usually presupposed habits of study on the part of the pupils, but one of the important lessons for the school to teach the pupil is how to use his mind and his books effectively and efficiently. Even the simplest kinds of apprenticeship instruct the novice in the use of each device and in the handling of each tool to a degree which the school most often disregards when requiring the pupil to use even highly abstract and complex instrumentalities. The practice of the school almost glorifies drudgery as a genuine virtue. E.R. Breslich refers to this fact,[61]

saying, "so it happens that the preparation for the cla.s.swork, not the cla.s.swork itself burdens the lives of the pupils." The indefensibleness of the indiscriminate lesson giving consists in the fact that it is not the load but the harness that is too heavy. The harness is more exhausting and burdensome than the load appointed. The destination sought and the course to be followed in the lesson preparation are very many times not clearly indicated, lest the discipline, negative and repressive though it be, should be extracted from the struggle. The fact is that discouragement and failure are too often the best of testimony that teachers are not much concerned about how the pupil employs his time or books in studying a lesson. The point is ill.u.s.trated admirably by the report in the _Ladies Home Journal_, for January, 1913, of a request from a hardworking widow that the teacher of one of her children in school try teaching the child instead of just hearing the lessons which the mother had taught.

Directing the pupils' study is sometimes regarded as a more or less formalized scheme of organization and procedure, which requires extra time, extra teachers, and a lesser degree of independence on the part of the pupils. But here too the important things are differentiation and specific direction as adapted to the needs of the subject, the topic or the pupils. It must be insisted that supervised study is not the same thing in all schools, in all subjects, or for all pupils. In other words, its very purpose is defeated if it is overformalized. An experiment is reported by J.H. Minnick with two cla.s.ses in plane geometry,[62] of practically the same size, ability, and time allowance for study, which indicated that the supervised pupils were the less dependent as judged by their success in tests consisting of new problems. The pupils also liked the method, in spite of their early opposition, and no one failed, while two of the unsupervised cla.s.s failed. William Wiener also speaks of the wonderful self-control which springs from the supervised study program.[63] As to the need of extra teachers for the purpose there is not much real agreement, since the plans of adaptation are so different in themselves. Increased labor for the same teachers will rightly imply greater renumeration. Colvin makes mention of the additional expense imposed by the larger force of teachers required.[64] But J.S. Brown finds that the failures are so largely reduced that with fewer repeaters there is a consequent saving in the teaching force.[65] With a faculty of 66 teachers, he reports 38 cla.s.ses in which there was no failure, and a marked reduction of failures in general by the use of supervised study. It is interesting and significant to note here that by allowing 100 daily pupil recitations to the teacher the repeated subjects reported in this study would require 87 teachers for one semester or 11 teachers for the full four years. This fact represents more than $50,000 in salaries alone.

Buildings, equipment, heat, and other expenses will more than double the amount. But such expense is incomparable with what the pupils pay in time, in struggles, and in disappointment in order to succeed later in only 66.7 per cent of the subjects repeated. As none of the eight schools provided anything more definite than a general after school hour for offering help, and which often has a punitive suggestion to it, the possibility of saving many of these pupils from failure and repet.i.tion by the wise and helpful direction of their study is simply unmeasured. A conclusion that is particularly encouraging is reported by W.C. Reavis to the effect that the poorer pupils--the ones who most need the direction--are the ones that supervised study helps the most.[66] There is nothing novel in saying that good teaching and good studying are but different aspects of the same process, but it would be an innovation to find this conception generally realized in the school practice.

5. A GREATER RECOGNITION AND EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS AS REVEALED BY ACCURATE AND COMPLETE SCHOOL RECORDS

It is unfortunate that the detailed and complete records which tell the whole story about the failures in the school and for the individual are found in relatively few schools, even when on all sides business enterprises find a complete system of detailed records, filed and indexed, altogether indispensable for their intelligent operation and administration. The school still proceeds in its sphere too much by chance and faith, forgetting mistakes and recalling successes. This is possible because there is no question of self-support or of solvency to face, and because neither the teachers nor the inst.i.tution are in danger of direct financial loss by their waste, duplication, or failures. In the absence of records it is always possible to calmly a.s.sume that the facts are not so bad as for other schools which do report their recorded facts. The prevailing unfamiliarity with statistical methods may also favor a skepticism as to their proper application to education, since it is not an exact science. But the fact remains established that it is always possible to measure qualitative differences if stated in terms of their quant.i.tative amounts.

Admirable and complete as are the records for the many schools of the minority group possessing them, their more general value and information are still quite securely hidden away in the files which contain them. Peculiarly interesting was the surprise expressed by the princ.i.p.als at the extensive and significant information which their own school records provided, when they received individual reports on the data collected and tabulated for this study. Yet they received only the portions of the tabulations which seemed most likely to interest them.

The princ.i.p.als do not have the time or the a.s.sistance to study in a collective way the facts which are provided by their own records, but they are ent.i.tled to much credit for so courteously cooperating with any competent person for utilizing their records for approved purposes and in turn sharing their results with the school. To proceed wisely in the administration of the school we must have a chance to know and discuss the facts. It is not possible to know the facts without adequate records. The absence of evidence gives prominence to opinion and precedent. Accordingly, it is entirely incredible that the number, the repet.i.tion, and the acc.u.mulation of failures would remain unchanged after a fair exposition and discussion of the evidence presented in a collective and comprehensive form. It may be necessary to admit that a few teachers will hold opinions so strong that they will discredit all testimony not in support of such opinions. But the high school teachers in general seem fairly and earnestly disposed, even about revising their notions concerning the truth in any situation. In regard to the relative number and time of the failures, the actual and relative success in repeated work, the advantage of repet.i.tion for later work, the relation of success to the size of the schedule, the influence of the number of failures on graduation, and numbers of other vital facts, it could be said of the teachers in general that they simply knew not what they were doing. They even thought they were doing what they were not. The school records must be disclosed and utilized more fully if their value and importance are to be realized. It will be a large source of satisfaction if this report helps to direct attention to the official school records, from which a frequent 'trial balance'

will help to rectify and clarify the school practice. Both are needed.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER VII

The contributing factors found in the school must first be remedied, before responsibility for the failures can be fairly apportioned to the pupils.

The provision of uniform conditions for all is based on the false doctrine of the uniformity of the human mind. Such conditions may prove very unequal for some individuals, and achievement is not then a real measure of ability.

By applying a functioning psychology to school practice, more adaptation and specialization are required to meet the individual differences of pupils.

No change of subjects is in general necessitated, but a change of the att.i.tude which subjects pupils to the subjects seems essential.

The genuineness of the pupil's response depends on the pupil and the subject. A policy of coercion will usually beget only dislike or failure.

Properly selected student advisers, appointed early, may transform the school for the pupil, save the pupil for the school, and his work from failures.

A relatively high degree of flexibility and specialization of the curriculum will help the pupil find what he is best fitted for, and thereby minimize waste. This will include a virtual parity between the cla.s.sical and scientific subjects.

The reduction of some subjects to smaller units will tend to facilitate flexibility and a reduction of failures.

The provision of directed study will help the pupils to help themselves. Good teaching demands it. The harness is often heavier than the load. Failures are inevitable.

The plan of study direction must be varied according to the varying needs of pupils, subjects, and schools. The poorer pupils are aided most. They are made even more reliant on themselves. The reduction of failures tends to balance any added expense.

Records adequate and complete should be a part of the business and educational equipment of every school. The exposition and use of these facts as recorded will then give direction to school progress, and dethrone the authority of a.s.sumption and opinion.

REFERENCES:

54. Thorndike, E.L. _Individuality_, pp. 38, 51.

55. Neuman, H. _Moral Values in Secondary Education_, United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, No. 51, 1917, pp. 18, 17.

56. Maxwell, W.H. _A Quarter Century of Public School Development_, p. 89.

57. Thorndike, E.L. _The Elimination of Pupils from School_, U.S.

Bureau of Education Bulletin, No. 4, 1907, p. 10.

58. Farrington, F.E. _French Secondary Schools_, p. 124.

59. Inglis, A. _Principles of Secondary Education_, p. 669.

60. Committee of N.E.A. _Vocational Secondary Education_, U.S. Bureau of Education Bulletin No. 21, 1916, p. 58.

61. Breslich, E.R. _Supervised Study as Supplementary Instruction, Thirteenth Yearbook_, p. 43.

62. Minnick, J.H. "The Supervised Study of Mathematics," _School Review_, 21-670.

63. Wiener, W. "Home Study Reform," _School Review_, 20-526.

64. Colvin, S.S. _An Introduction to High School Teaching_, p. 366.

65. Brown, J.S. _School and Home Education_, February, 1915, p. 207.

66. Reavis, W.C. "Supervised Study," in Parker's _Methods of Teaching in the High School_, p. 398.

VITA

FRANCIS PAUL OBRIEN was born at Overton, Pa., November 12, 1885.

He received his early education in the village school of Overton, Pa., and graduated from the high school at Wilkesbarre, Pa., in 1904. He was a student at Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., receiving the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1908. He was a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University, from 1915 to 1918, receiving the degree of Master of Arts in Education in 1916.

During 1908-09 he was high school teacher of science and history at South River, N.J.; 1909-10, princ.i.p.al of the high school, and 1910-15 superintendent of schools at South River, N.J.

He received honors and held offices in college as follows: Compet.i.tive prize scholarship at Lafayette College, and junior oratorical prize at the same college, 1907; officer in college debating club, 1907-1908; vice-president of Y.M.C.A., Teachers College, 1907; member of Columbia chapter, Phi Delta Kappa, 1917.