OCR Text |
Show Enlightened Systems of Education Have Largely Done Away With Truancy By CHARLES L. MOSHER, New York Educational Director. Adjusting the school to the various types of children rather than adjusting the children to the school is part of the system of education as developed by the state departments of education. . f Not very long ago a child was subject to an inflexible course of study from the first grade to high-school graduation; and in that period edu cation literally was shoved into his head, no allowance being made foi mental ability or emotional adequacy. But this system, after years of stady, has changed and will pontinuf to change. Adjusting every year of school to the child means greati power. There are as many different personalities as there are children and as many stages of native capability. Today we do not ask a boy to " absorb more than he has power to, and thus we avoid the conflict and thf rebellion bred in the old system. The wider scope of the educational objective has also solved for the most part the truancy problem. We are still troubled to some extent by such factors as foreign-born parents and economic hardships makinjz for illegal absences, bnt the truant of the old type who stayed out oi school as an expression of rebellion against the order of things hag dis appeared. |