46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



I shall describe in detail an experiment in the elementary and high 

 schools of the school of education of the University of Chicago which 

 has already resulted in the complete elimination of one year from the 

 elementary school and which we expect will ultimately eliminate a 

 second year from the period of secondary education in the high school 

 and junior colleges of the university. These schools occupy a peculiarly 

 advantageous position for the conduct of such an experiment, being 

 private schools unhampered by connection with a large school system 

 and having faculties composed of teachers of rather more than ordinary 

 professional training and interest, so organized that it is possible to 

 treat the various stages of elementary and secondary education as a 

 continuous process. The schools are large enough, having over 800 

 pupils from the homes of the immediate vicinity, to make the experi- 

 ment typical and of value to other schools and communities. 



It should perhaps be stated, at this point, that the program of the 

 university elementary school contains considerable material that is not 

 found in most schools. of similar grade. This includes either French 

 or German, which all the pupils take continuously from the beginning 

 of the fourth grade. Much attention is also given to nature study, 

 including, in addition to work in the school gardens, considerable 

 physics, hygiene, zoology and botany. A good deal of emphasis is also 

 laid on instruction in the manual arts and in various industries, such as 

 sewing, weaving, cooking, woodworking and printing. It should be 

 understood that the effort to save time has not involved the elimination 

 or curtailment of any of this work which is regarded as equally impor- 

 tant with the other subjects of instruction. 



That considerable time has been wasted in elementary schools by 

 teaching material of no practical and little educational value is certain. 

 Arithmetic offers a good illustration in which one may find, from 

 examination of text-books or by consulting the memory of his own 

 school days, a good deal of material of a highly specialized sort which 

 is of no practical value to the pupils, and much more material whose 

 only purpose is to serve as a basis for intellectual gymnastics, the value 

 of which is highly questionable. By far greater waste is involved in the 

 common practise of extended reviews in the upper grades by which 

 each teacher has felt it necessary toward the end of the year to round 

 out her pupils for the work of the year to come. This is not infre- 

 quently supplemented by another period of review at the beginning of 

 the following year. The practise of devoting most of the last half of 

 the eighth grade to a comprehensive review of the entire work of the 

 elementary school is very common. It is a matter of common observa- 

 tion that these reviews are not interesting to the pupils and it may be 

 concluded that they are ineffective from the fact that high-school teach- 

 ers generally complain of the deficient preparation shown by the classes 

 that come up from the lower schools. To such an extent is this recog- 



