PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



Delaware County Institute of Science 



Volume VII Number i 



THE EDUCATIONAL FAILURE AND ITS MEANING. 



BY ALBERT W. BARKER. 



That our system of genera) fundamental education is a 

 failure is recognized by those in a position to see. In spite 

 of increaseji school facilities and vast expenditures we bring 

 our pupils to the test in active life or in the higher and special 

 schools to find that we have built neither character nor a body 

 of precise, available .knowledge ; that in the fundamentals of 

 education we have been and are retrograding rather than 

 advancing. 



As the matter stands, no teacher is surprised at the student 

 who "had" Physics last year, as well as "Laboratory 

 work," and when asked to tell what she knows of gravitation 

 answers that there are three laws, but she has forgotten them. 

 The teacher, asking not for laws, but everyday instances 

 (having in mind the pendulum, weight, specific gravit}^ flo- 

 tation, and such; the student "can't remember." In fact, 

 can't remember last year's laboratory experiments. She has 

 also " had " Latin, but it appears to have been a light case 

 and left no scar. Yet it meant, with other "studies," mid- 

 night work, eye strain, headache and nervous breakdown in a 

 state where child labor for useful ends is strictly limited by 

 law. She does not know what is meant by specific gravity, 

 " did know ; the definition is about so long " (three inches), 

 but after explanation confesses that she never really knew 



