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Show pplymg Jcraciency rnnciples to Educating LMdren 1 " ' I.. ,.. , .. , ., ., .I , - , .11.11 I .1 -I ll.l.ll ' I A Noted Efficiency Expert Outlines the Weak Spots of Our School System, and Suggests Scientific Sci-entific Business Methods to Get Full Value for the $600,000,000 Spent Yearly on Our Coys and Gills By J. George Frederick, ii t'-l'resiilonl Bum ncss lionise. T:tR first thins that a nun of efficiency cduo.ithm net ices after citiitnlns pref?nt-il:iy education is how very much ft Is liko tho cotuii'.lon ot a factory bofora Efficiency has been introduced. These are the points of similarity: vd) Tie. pupils. liUo the workers hi the in-f::ic'ent in-f::ic'ent factory, are treated In a. mass, without icfcreru-e to individual differences. i.'i The responsibility for results Is placed on tho pupil and not upon the, teacher just as, la tl'.e inefficient factory, where responsibility is p.aced upon the workman rather than upon l.ie foreman. where it scientifically belongs. tl'.i That there is an effort in the school, as in the inefficient factory, to set a monotonously monotonous-ly similar product, instead of gre.it eucourago-rient eucourago-rient for Individual initiative and progressiva e: c.t'.iiz.ition and development. Here are three significant parallels which remonstrate from a new angle the now widely excepted need for better educational methods. Frankly, the inefficiency of modern education educa-tion is something to stir the blood of any man or woman who thinks. Considering the six hundred million dollars spent en education each year (a larger sum man any other nation spends!, and the obvious end universally inadequate results from it. is surely a call to immediate action. The most serious evidence of the Inefficiency cf present-day education tif any one needs such evidence) is the fact that in office and factory, where the finished products of the schools appear to start the actual work of life, it is necessary to do a very great deal of uii-lytrning uii-lytrning building up of discipline, training ir.to concentration, accuracy of observation and Cher qualifies which schools are supposed to fcave developed, before such raw material is rv?.i!y worth anything. As a well-known business man said to ma recently: "I am really conducting a free school fa Eiy office and pay the pupils while they are learning: I am overjoyed when I find only one young man or woman in twenty who has the qualities which proper school training could give them as well or better than I. The rest of the twenty I am obliged to make efficient at my own expense and teach them about the tame studies they were supposed to get in eehcol." - It is also pitiful how some of the most sim-r'.e sim-r'.e out vital conditions in pupils are over-. over-. lacked, and the same uniform, mechanical rou-t rou-t ::e forced down their throats, la my office I f.'.i'jd in tears one day a girl who was folding End enclosing circulars, together with some oliipr g:ris. The office manager had scolded for not setting nearly as many finished as Ihe o"h r girls. Just a little observation proved the fact that the irl s eyes were defective Ti t:-.a! she saw things in a blurred way and chilli no: r.-.s:b!y do ihe regular day's work. S.t" - was otlv-nwise intelligent, but had been t'oken in spirit and set back ten years be-i be-i ; "se some one as far back as the fourtn grade : : :chooi ha I faii?d to observe the girl's need cf optical attention. Other girls I have found ere deficient in their muscular co-ordination. E thing which a !i::le special training can re:ned. and thus have their school and business busi-ness -careers and their entire life affected. From the purely mental point of view n great ninny oi;ng men and women como from both school and college nut only without training, train-ing, but wiih u ery distinct handlcnp: thoy ro without zest, initiative, mental curiosity, concentrated energy, ability to think through to the end of a subject. Not only are those qualities lacking In a largo number of such applicants for positions, but they have qualities quali-ties in their place which are as troublesome as weeds in a garden to eliminate. Thoy have developed a cleverness at making excuses and n habit of Imitating; perfunctory performance of work which is oxasperatin.tr and costly. They are adopt In making their work look like the real tiling In putting up "a good front." Hut heaven pity you If you lay any real responsibility on them! . It has been tha custom to blame each one' Individually for this; but It is the modern efficiency point of view lo hold at least equally as much responsible, respon-sible, if not more so, tho teacher, tho supervisor, super-visor, the superintendent. Wo now know in factory and office management that it is unfair un-fair and extravagantly expensive to hire someone, some-one, sit them down to their work and tell them to "make good." We know that It Is up to directors direc-tors of labor to have so studied tho science of the particular labor we ask the worker to do that we can instruct him in tho exact methods of achieving the best results. The factory or office worker is in exactly tho same position, figuratively speaking, as the pupil in the school. We are after a certain cer-tain desirable result from both pupil and worker. We are the mental superior of those whom we are teaching and guiding: md the same principles which modern efficiency science has found so valuable in factory and office can well be applied to public education. The efficient general constructive plan should in my opinion be something like this. There should be a radical and fundamental change in the public school curriculum and pedagogical procedure, for tho sole purpose ot conserving the zest and mental curiosity of the pupil; wish a careful segregation of types so as to apply the individual stimulation necessary. nec-essary. The grading of the schools should not be alone according to set points in memory knowledge, but also according to condition and type of pupils.- Psychological laboratory examinations ex-aminations should be made upon all pupils to test their mental equipment, and a factor evolved from such examinations which would individually modify their examination averages. aver-ages. There should also be very especial devc-lon-n-ont of the school curriculum along the probably prob-ably most valuable, but little recognized, element ele-ment that of c-riul contrti-t. It Is not nearly so much what children learn out of book! at school that counts toward the real end of education edu-cation as the c-i'r miie r-'YcM and rficpfin 0 crnt"t Kift "thcr,i. Humanity, when sa-pge. sa-pge. always remains uneducated and unsocial-i:-cd. The more socialized it becomes, the more cducat-d it becomes. It is even true of the worhnien in a shop. Xo workman can become be-come a snocessf.-.I foreman before he becomos to a certain degree tnciili;i.tl, by which I mean able to wot 1; in effective harmony with others; to get the beat response out of others: to be sensiuve lo too rights and feelings oj others. If . . -1 L-s A n (?. , . ' t ,. t i I : A - i . i -" r:-,t; v- . ,-Jlnp Iiegulnr Drill Like This Showing the Children How lo Tine Ihc Tooth lirush Properly Will Save Their Teeth and Add Twenty-five Twenty-five Vvt Cent to Their Efficiency in Studies. It is an iiritounillnK furl, but truo, that the seh oo I haa no origin Izcd provision for thl enornumsly j m jiori ant bide of education. The avrrac pupil xoea IhnniKh kcIiooI moru or losi com pli'tcly uiiHoriali.ed, ur lnsu ff icl-n t ly ao-rlaliyod; ao-rlaliyod; and It has bci-n left to tho haphazard, haphaz-ard, artificial and oftt-n vicious hlsh Bchool collep-- lrulernlties and pinillar orpanlzations to take care of it. Yet iheo hap-hazard organ za-lions za-lions are the only nvailaMe outiv's of a preat natural division of education Fume temperaments tempera-ments w ant or need. It is perhaps not too much to say that much of the pr'iit-day class hitti mess, class nar and ?;'!) nil misunderslandliiK between la!jor and capital reactions from the terribly ex-n.m-rattfj, unsoei;ilied Individualism that iiafl made a Kocki-lelier possible has been due to central ion a of lack of social education. Neither Is it too much to surmise that had an intelligent elTort been possible to give public fducation In socialization a generation ao we mi.iiht not to-day be in tho conditions of indua-tnal indua-tnal recrimination and upheaval now on. From tho lower grades upward social education educa-tion not abstract study out of books alone, but fti-tua! orperitnental practise in social contact hhuuld be prominent in the curriculum. The Cieorpe Junior Itt-puMic idea should, in a num-bt num-bt - of particulars, be adapted To the public school, to throw upon the pupil himself actual toci.il and civic responsibility. Next and highly Important i the ro-ordlnntloa whil still in school between actual work and Ftudy. At present all our educational system is hased upon preparation for coIIrg to hlch actually 0 per cent never ro! For this preat mas.? of c" per cent there should be provision pro-vision for actual coord i na t ion of study room Bti.l wui k-l'op. A half day at school and a haif day in office, shop or factory is the ideal. In Cermany, Japan and in Cincinnati, where this has been tried, the results have been thoroughly thor-oughly pa t!: factory. The increasingly organised organ-ised movement among employers for "corporation "corpora-tion schools" (there was a large convention of employers on this subject just a few weeks ago at laylon. O ) shows the reality and Intensity In-tensity of interest there is in commercial education educa-tion among employers. The aeep Interest of employes is shown bj the extensive patron-Hge patron-Hge of correspondence schools, Y. M. C. V evening classes and many other speci-i! source of education fur concrete work. The trouble is that there are two omphalic om-phalic opinions heM nbuit eduction on ot which is Insulin that all educiitioTi ! hhould be classic anc i cult ureit, because up-; pon unity fur it wi' not again occur . I while the other in-' wists that one can teach culture whi.e lea-'hing the prac- - '' . i A v ' x , y ' "The Thild'a Abilities Should Be Tested with the Psychological Laboratory instruments.'' Instrument L'eed in Testing icyeBight. f ' ' " ' ' i Z ' r , ' , f ct - r ' & ' ' , - 1 . . ' i . v wi .-,' '.::' -:i--I'i 2,- . ..;...... ' t ' ' . - ' To One Child This Is Just a Picture of People, While to Anothei It Is a Poor Old -Man Turned Out for Not Paying His Rent. One of the Binet-Simon Tests. tliouBht. and certainly the trend of eniciency icicnce. is to bring into the daiiy WOrk of the world all the Ec.ence, art and culture there is. Business and factory men will rejoice and oniy too Rladly measure up to the responsibilities responsibil-ities of sharing in the new kind of education alons the efficiency lines, for they are everywhere every-where complaining now of the waste foisfed upoa tliem through inefficient education. The coming com-ing of scientific management almost demands and certainly beckons that opportunity. The better education of the worker for the new idea of the co-partnership of labor and capital makes it Impossible for one to prosper without also the other prospering. To recapitulate, the constructive efficiency suggestions for fducation might be outlined at follow s : (1) Put every pupil through an examination physically and mentally and socially, to get an Individual basis for adapting the curriculum to the pupil, rather than the pupil to the curriculum. curric-ulum. 1 2) Remake the school curriculum along new principles, adding something of the Montessori Idea and the Johnson "organic education" plan. and make the cultural studies and the sciences of practical value by utilizing tech i-il, trade. Industrial and commercial courses lor their development. de-velopment. (Remember that the arts are already al-ready most successfully taught in practical application to textiles in Philadelphia and elsewhere.) else-where.) (3) Pay marked attention In the curriculum to social education by adopting something of the George Juuior Republic idea of miniaturing miniatur-ing real life in its social relationships. Make a pupil's ability to co-ordinate his actions and his arguments to the minds and conditions around him count as much as conjugating ijrr1'.'. verus. (4i Lay all emphnsis and stress upon securing, se-curing, not general "smatteration' of "knowledge," "knowl-edge," but efficient attitude of mind, zest for conquering difficulties, interest, power of accurate accu-rate observation and logical deduction in practical prac-tical affairs. These are the important things which have been assumed to be "fostered" by our present curriculums, but which everyone knows are not fostered, but smothered. Ws cannot have au efficient nation without efficient effi-cient education adapted to the life and spirit of tee time3. |