CHAPTER VIII

THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM AND ITS REORGANIZATION

IMPORTANCE OF A STUDY OF THE CURRICULUM

The last chapter failed of its purpose if it did not concentrate the attention of the reader on the school curriculum. The organized body of materials of instruction constitutes one of the most important factors which enter into the life of the school system. Along with the board of education, with the grading system, and with the staff of teachers and supervisory officers stands the curriculum as a kind of dominating personality always exercising a leading influence in the determination of every educational policy. It will be the business of this chapter to open the discussion of the curriculum by commenting on the history of courses of study and by pointing out some of the changes which recent years have wrought.

THE SPECIALIZED CURRICULUM OF HIGHER SCHOOLS

If one goes back to the beginnings of any school system, it will always be found that the original courses of study grow directly out of the intellectual ideals of the times. For example, if one goes back to the beginnings of medieval universities, he finds that these institutions grew up because there was an interest in certain well-defined bodies of ideas. At Bologna one Irnerius had made himself acquainted with the laws of the northern Italian cities, and students came from all Europe to hear him expound these laws. The course of study was directly related to a specific demand.

A professional theological curriculum was organized at the time of the founding of the early American universities. Harvard was at first a school for the training of clergymen. At that time there was no demand for lawyers trained in the New World. The law came from England, and from the same source came the lawyers. Medicine had hardly developed into a profession. Preaching and listening to sermons were, on the other hand, among the most absorbing occupations of the colonists, and Harvard was established to provide those who could preach. The courses of study were arranged according to the traditions of the single profession towards which the graduates were aiming.

PROBLEMS OF GENERALIZING A SPECIALIZED CURRICULUM

We may pursue this example further as typical of the complications which ultimately grow up around any course of study. The original purpose of Harvard was expanded with the passing years. A demand arose for lawyers and doctors; in the effort to meet this demand the institution was divided into separate schools. Still later students came to college seeking a general training not leading to any profession. Through all these changes in the demands of the student body the original courses of study have persistently battled their way down to the present. No clearer evidence can be found than this, that courses of study once created become vital factors in all the later life of the school. The college courses of study were in the first place the product of a particular professional demand. While satisfying this particular demand they became strong enough so that at a later period they have often dominated educational policies.

It is too flippant a remark to say that the classical education of the clerical period became the fashion and that later generations were afraid to be out of fashion, but something of this sort is what really happened. The traditions of a generation are hard to break. The father who took Greek as a part of his education hesitates to see his son enter upon life without the same equipment. Courses of study thus come to have an intellectual sanction which it is extraordinarily difficult to break down.

TRADITIONAL CHARACTER OF MATHEMATICS COURSES IN HIGH SCHOOLS

Another example of no less impressive a type can be drawn from the high-school curriculum of the present time. There is hardly a tradition of high schools which is more fixed than that of requiring algebra in the first year and geometry later. This practice persists even though it is a well-known fact that in many schools failures in high-school algebra are more numerous than in any other high-school course. Also, there is a clear recognition of the fact that by being required of all students in the first year algebra is in effect made the prerequisite of admission to the courses in science and literature which are open only to students who have reached the later years of the high school. The question which the student of education must raise is this: How did algebra secure this position of commanding importance, and how does it hold this position when experience shows that so many students cannot take it with success? The answer to these questions throws a strong light on the nature of the curriculum.

Mathematics in general gained a preëminent position in the educational scheme of the Western World as far back as the fifth century before Christ, in the days of Pythagoras. The branches of mathematics which were chiefly cultivated in those days were geometry and arithmetic. Geometry flourished as an experimental science, and arithmetic consisted in the most elaborate speculations about prime numbers and the properties of odd and even numbers. After these sciences had reached a certain maturity they were transferred to the University of Alexandria, where, in the third century before Christ, Euclid formulated the principles of geometry into the logical form which has persisted to our own time. If one asks why the same service was not rendered for arithmetic at the University of Alexandria, the answer is to be found in the fact that the Greeks had no adequate method of expressing number. They used a system of letters even more clumsy than the system employed by the Romans after them. If one needs further demonstration of the reason why arithmetic did not develop in the classical world, let him try to multiply DCCLXXVII by XCIX. Arithmetic was very little cultivated, therefore, while geometry was put into perfect logical form. Since arithmetic was so little developed in the ancient world, algebra never succeeded in getting a real start.

Geometry, thus launched as a systematized branch of learning superior to arithmetic, has held its place through all generations. In the medieval institutions the perfect logical form of geometry was fully recognized. Geometry was used to sharpen the logic of many a mind. Arithmetic developed only so far as it was needed for the practical purposes of daily life.

In due time there came into Europe oriental scholars who brought with them that marvelous invention—the Arabic numerals. They brought also the science of algebra with its profound abstractions. The Arabic numerals soon superseded the clumsy Roman numerals, and the common man found that he could easily deal with the practical matters of life by means of this number system which rendered all calculations simple. With arithmetic of the new type came algebra. The scientists of Europe found that the algebraic methods opened up possibilities of mathematical reasoning which were of the first importance to science. Algebra and arithmetic flourished. But did these two newcomers in any degree disturb the position of geometry? Not at all. Algebra may be as abstract as any subject in the curriculum, but its historical relations were from the first with arithmetic, while geometry was related to logic and the higher subjects. Geometry has continued since 300 B.C. to be a higher course. The situation in the high schools of to-day is in no sense due to a careful study of the degree of abstraction involved in geometry and algebra. It is in no sense a recognition of the fact that geometry was the first of the two subjects to develop. The present situation can be understood only by recognizing the strength of tradition and the persistence of a practice when once it gets itself established.

The situation is the more impressive because even a superficial study of the intellectual needs of pupils shows that there ought to be instruction in the lower grades in the discrimination of forms and designs. One does not master the forms even of common things until his attention has been turned to them again and again. The consequences to the curriculum of the elevation of geometry to the upper school are far-reaching in a negative as well as in a positive way. Space study has been kept out of the lower schools because the only orthodox form of space study is the geometry of the higher schools. Space study ought to have a place in the curriculum of every grade.

In the case of algebra, on the other hand, tradition has operated to keep the subject in the lower classes of the high school. That it would be better to change this situation appears in the fact that textbooks in algebra have in recent years been made much easier in the effort to fit the subject to pupils’ needs, in the fact that some high schools have made it elective, and in the fact that some high schools have rearranged the whole subject-matter of mathematics, breaking up the historical lines of division.

SUGGESTIONS OF NEW SUBJECTS

Other evidences that the curriculum is in need of radical reform appear when one notes that schools are curiously blind in the subjects which they omit. A recent writer has pointed out in a very interesting way the weakness of the ordinary school in its failure to give children any training in the use of money. A quotation from his introductory chapter will show the force of his criticism.

Most people if suddenly asked, “What financial training did you have as a child?” would probably say, “None.” If asked, “What financial training are you giving your own children?” many parents would give the same answer. All parents, however, do incidentally give lessons in finance and a few give definite instruction with regard to money.

The teacher, if thus questioned, would usually say something about arithmetic or perhaps refer to some system of money-saving that is being operated by the school. Much has really been done that educates children financially, but probably not one person in ten has ever seriously studied the problem of the need of financial training of children and of how that need at each age may best be met.

A moment’s reflection tells one that many adults do not know how to spend their money wisely and that still fewer know how to keep it safely or invest it successfully. Every day we see people spending money in ways that bring little satisfaction. Others are tortured by the fear of losing what they have, while still others are investing in schemes that promise much and yield little or nothing.

Charity workers are especially impressed with the inability of poor people to spend wisely the little money they get. One woman whose family was in a starving condition spent all of the dollar that was given her for canned lobster, and another in a similar situation had a picture taken.

Rich sons and daughters often spend the money accumulated by their fathers in even more foolish ways. In general it is only the common people who have had much experience in saving and spending money, who spend it wisely and many of these have paid a high price for their knowledge. If carefully planned financial training were given, the number spending wisely would doubtless be greatly increased.[41]

PRESENT-DAY SOCIAL DEMANDS

Other suggestions are being made these days for a change in the course of study. Sometimes the suggestions take the form of social movements. Such social movements often come in the form of violent criticisms of existing practices. These criticisms will be understood only when it is recognized that back of them there is often a social pressure which has not been understood and is now finding voice in a demand that requires immediate attention. It will be well for us to seek some examples of this type in order that we may come to understand that the school system is answerable at all times not merely to earlier social ideals which were incorporated into courses of study but also to the new ideals which arise with the later developments of community life.

An example of the type we are seeking appears in a study which was made in 1913 in the city of Minneapolis. The following extracts from an article published on March 10 in the _Morning Tribune_ of that city state the case fully:

A year ago a group of men and women interested in the welfare of boys and girls, and somewhat acquainted with conditions that confront them upon their entrance into industrial life, decided that it was time to make a survey of the city. There had been much talk of training for the trades in the public schools, and apparently there was reasonable ground for this advocacy....

Was there a real demand, or was this a new educational fad sweeping across the country, to be lost in the great abyss of educational nostrums, along with vertical writing and basketry? That was to be determined.

Educators are usually learned men; but this world generally does not ascribe to them an abundance of sound sense. These learned men have charge of the greatest plant in the world—our schools. A half million employees are at work at an annual expense to the nation of $450,000,000. The product of this institution should be manhood and womanhood, efficient to take its place in the world of workers, and firmly established in habits of right thinking and noble action. Yet who is accounted efficient for the work of to-day?

Certainly not the armorer, no matter how skilled—for what need have we of him? Possibly not the bootmaker; for the best and latest in boots come from big factories. And so rapidly do industries change that confusion awaits the man still using methods of ten years ago. No system of education can be efficient until the conditions of life to which pupils go are thoroughly known. No manufacturer would think of setting his machines to make “what-nots” or muzzle-loading guns; they were all right in their day but that day is now yesterday. The first thing for the man of business is to know what the market demands. And the managers of the schools must explore their market to know what is demanded of the education factory. That is the reason for this survey.

The commission was made up of persons well known in the city and representative of differing interests....

Ten months were spent in gathering the information, and a month in studying it and getting it into shape for presentation. The tables have been arranged in the following order: First, a set of three tables, showing the sources of the material studied, by school, by age, by grade, and by nationality, and the causes of retardation; second, a table showing upon whom the responsibility should be placed for the child’s leaving school; third, four tables setting forth the reasons for leaving school, and the economic status of the family; fourth, a table indicating the education of the children after leaving the public school; and fifth, five tables showing the industrial history of each child, his wages, the number of jobs, the kind of work, and his advancement.

In the discussion comparisons are frequently made with similar reports from other cities, and following these are the conclusions reached by the committee and recommendations for further work.

It will not be possible to give in detail all the results thus obtained. It must suffice to repeat here the figures which summarize the table of causes for leaving school. The percentages of pupils leaving for each cause are given with the statement of the cause.

Ill health 5.7 per cent Had to go to work 35.5 per cent Child’s desire to earn money 8.2 per cent Kept vacation work 2.6 per cent Disliked or not interested in school 29.6 per cent Trouble with teacher 3.1 per cent Failure to pass 1.1 per cent Further public school not worth while 14.2 per cent

The number of pupils who leave because they do not like school or do not believe it worth while is disturbingly large. That there should be so pronounced an adverse judgment on the part of pupils is perhaps to be explained in a measure by their immaturity and restlessness; but part of the school’s problem is to meet this immaturity and restlessness and to train the pupils with full regard to all that goes to make up their individual tastes and abilities.

It is especially important that a careful study be made of all available recommendations for improving the situation. We turn, therefore, to some of the leading recommendations of the Minneapolis commission:

That as rapidly as would be economical, the schools be organized on the “six-three-and-three” plan, beginning differentiated courses in the B seventh grade. These courses should follow three broad lines: (1) Leading toward the academic courses in high schools. (2) Toward the commercial courses, or directly to business. (3) Toward manual training in high school, or directly to manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.

That preparation for the trades can be best and most economically closely related to working conditions, while the necessary skill shall be gained in actual work under the usual commercial conditions.

That the membership of the Thomas Arnold school be enlarged to include all boys who have reached the age of fifteen and have not yet reached the seventh grade. And that a similar school be organized for girls.

That a department of vocational guidance be organized.

That, as an adjunct to the board of education, an advisory commission of 15 members, composed of employees, employers and educators, be established, whose duty it shall be to report changes in the demands of business and industry, and to advise modifications of the course of study to meet these new demands.

That a law should be enacted, making it mandatory that a boy shall be either in school or at work up to his eighteenth year, and that the department of vocational guidance be charged with the duty of enforcing such a provision.

This report has been reproduced at length because it furnishes a concrete example of the kind of demand which is being made on many sides for a complete remaking of the curriculum. The comments about school officers are also typical of much that is being laid at the door of the present-day pedagogue. Better than any theoretical answer to these critics is a careful study of the whole problem of reorganizing the curriculum.

TRADITIONAL NEGLECT OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION ON THE PART OF THE PUBLIC

The reasonableness of the demand that the schools prepare boys and girls for their work in the world raises at once the question: Why have the schools ever neglected this need? The answer to this question is supplied in part by the remoter history of schools which was touched on in an earlier chapter and in the early paragraphs of this chapter. European and American schools first dealt with professional and theological problems and have accordingly always had a strong leaning toward the literary subjects.

The early history of the American educational system throws light on this particular matter in a way which will help the reader to understand the present situation with regard to industrial education and traditional education.

At the same time that the New England colonies were passing laws establishing schools where children were to learn to read the Bible, they provided in such laws as the following for training in industrial lines. The Connecticut law of 1650 provides that “all parents and masters do breed and bring up their children and apprentices in some honest lawful labor, or employment, either in husbandry or some other trade profitable for themselves and the commonwealth, if they will not nor cannot train them up in learning, to fit them for higher employments, and if any of the selectmen, after admonition by them given to such masters of families, shall find them still negligent of their duty, ... the said selectmen, with the help of two magistrates, shall take such children or apprentices from them, and place them with some masters for years, boys until they come to be twenty-one, and girls to eighteen years of age complete.”

The conception of responsibility which lies back of this law is wholly different from that expressed in the legislation providing for reading-schools. A public officer was put in charge of reading. He was stimulated to carry on his work by the rewards which he received in the way of compensation for his services. The control of industrial education by the public was very slight. We can imagine some selectman whose attention was by chance drawn to a neglected child, debating with himself the wisdom of setting in motion the magistrates and his fellow selectmen in enforcing this somewhat vague law. The fact is that the law was not enforced. It became a dead letter, and public attention to vocational education has no history in this country until recent years, when the pressure of industrial competition has forced its recognition.

In the early days of the nation’s life the absence of any definite plan for public vocational education of young people was not a serious matter. Industrial life was relatively simple, and the family lived close to its sources of supplies. The family was able to take care of the children’s preparation for industrial life without aid or interference from the state. But social and industrial conditions have changed. With the development of factories, of elaborate systems of transportation, and of urban life it is no longer possible for the family to train the children, and the demand begins to be urgently felt that some agency give adequate preparation for the practical later life of the children, and that more especially where families are not well-to-do.

For a long period after this demand was felt the school went on with its specialized task, and the public was complacent to see the school neglect vocational training. The specialized task of the school, as thought of in those days, was to teach reading and the other subjects which naturally attached themselves to the literary tendencies that grew up in a reading-school. Private institutions, such as business colleges, sprang up as agencies for satisfying the demand for special vocational training. These were tuition schools and secured their students in many cases by criticizing the public school as incompetent and wasteful. In some cases employers, realizing the necessity of training their workers, made it a part of their industrial organization to teach certain branches of the trades. In other cases, a boy going into an occupation which had no regular training-school, either in a private institution or in the industrial plant, got his training as best he could by accepting a low wage and blundering along until he learned his trade. Even to-day the private training of young people for industry is conducted on a scale that shows how new is the idea that the public school is responsible in any degree for such training.

THE DEMAND FOR REVISION OF THE CURRICULUM

The historical sketch given above illustrates, as do the earlier examples presented in this chapter, the natural conservatism of the school curriculum on the one hand and the inevitableness of an expansion of the school on the other. Historically, the common school had no duties in the direction of vocational training. But we are beginning to realize that it is not profitable to try to throw off responsibility. To-day the school must cope with an urgent social problem. The curriculum was and is literary in its major content. The problem of the future is to expand it so that it shall combine with its literary content a new and productive body of vocational training.

SUMMARY

Our study of the curriculum has established, first, the important fact that courses of study are real factors to be dealt with in any school situation; second, the motives which give rise to particular forms of instruction are superseded in the course of school history by new social needs. Nevertheless, the curriculum tends to persist, and often because of its conservatism becomes a menace to progress. Suggestions for innovations come through the insights of individuals or through the formulation of social demands. Whatever the source of suggestions for change, the student of education will find his problem in the fact that the curriculum is undergoing change as is every other phase of modern life. How to understand the changes that are imminent and how to direct them into productive channels is a major problem of the science of education.

EXERCISES AND READINGS

Find new subjects other than those mentioned in the text which have been introduced into either the high-school curriculum or into the curriculum of the grades. Within the older courses find some new topics which have been introduced. New subjects in general are not looked on as entirely respectable. Why is this? What should be done to make them respectable?

Why does training for vocation seem less respectable than conventional school work? What is to be done to meet this situation?

Do people in general know what changes ought to be made in the curriculum? Note that the Minneapolis study found difficulties. For these it had clear scientific evidence. Did it have equally clear grounds for its recommendations? Should it have had? How could it secure evidence of this latter type?

Relating this discussion to the first paragraphs of Chapter I, let us inquire what steps with regard to informing the community are necessary to the success of a new program of studies.

Whose duty is it to plan new courses—that of the board of education, the superintendent, or the teacher who is a specialist in some subject?

BOBBITT, J. F. What the Schools Teach and Might Teach. Published by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation. (Copies may be secured from the Russell Sage Foundation.)

KOOS, L. V. The Administration of Secondary-School Units. Supplementary Educational Monograph No. 3, Vol. I, of the _School Review_ and the _Elementary School Journal_. The University of Chicago Press. Contains a summary of the practices of the approved schools of the North Central Association.

Minimum Essentials in Elementary-School Subjects. Fourteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part I, 1915. Public School Publishing Company, Bloomington, Illinois. This is an effort to bring together a statement of the essential requirements for the elementary curriculum.

Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary Education. National Education Association. American Book Company. The most important report ever prepared in relation to the organization and courses of study of the high school. Its appearance marked the beginnings of the present era of high-school expansion.

FOOTNOTES:

[41] Edwin A. Kirkpatrick, The Use of Money, pp. 1-2. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1915.