Education. 



352 



[April, 1912, 



brated Cook County Normal School, 

 Miss Zonia Baber and Miss Flora J. Cook 

 of the education department of Chicago 

 University, Prof. John Dewey, and 

 others, some of whom have more than a 

 national reputation as educators. 



Before making any recommendations 

 of my own on the subject, I decided to 

 consult leading educators and college 

 men connected with educational affairs 

 throughout the States. I wrote a per- 

 sonal letter to each describing conditions 

 here and stating the character of our 

 school population. I enclosed copy of 

 our Course of Study and asked for sug- 

 gestions and criticisms in regard to the 

 same. I quote from the replies received 

 up to the present time. 



Prof. Chas. E. Bessey, University of 

 Nebraska : " I realize that you have a 

 problem which is entirely different from 

 that which confronts us in the States, 

 and as I look over the printed course 

 of study it seems to me that you have 

 mastered the situation in a most ex- 

 cellent way. I am greatly pleased with 

 what you have outlined, and I think es- 

 pecially that your plan of 'creating the 

 necessity for language ' in what you plan 

 for the children to do is admirable. In 

 this way you will accomplish the first 

 great thing to be done, namely, that of 

 bringing the children to an understand- 

 ing of the English language 



" Next to the acquidtion of the English 

 language by these people of many 

 nationalities, an industrial training is of 

 most importance, and since the work in 

 the Islands is largely agricultural, it is 

 desirable that the grammar school should 

 articulate with the agricultural college. 

 So I commend this feature of your plan 



very thoroughly One thing must 



not be lost sight of, and that is, that 

 year by year all over the world we are 

 becoming more and more mechanical ; 

 that is, even in agriculture and horti- 

 culture and allied subjects people are 

 depending more and more upon mechan- 

 ical devices, so that it is imperative that 

 the industrial work that you give the 

 pupils shall have much of the mechan- 



ical brought in. It is not enough that 

 they should be taught to get out into 

 the gardens and fields for agricultural 

 purposes, but they must be taught to 

 undersand and to know mechanical 

 problems. 



" The only question that I have in con- 

 nection with the printed course of study 

 is whether you have not made the nature 

 study a little stiffer and harder than it 

 should be for the degree of development 

 of the children. This question is raised 

 not as a finality, but merely as a question. 

 However, this can be determined by 

 trial. 



"I like very much your suggestion of 

 4 collecting ' under nature study. If you 

 can extend this part of the nature study, 

 I am sure you will be helping to make it 

 more efficient. 



"I shall be very glad to continue this 

 correspondence, for I am greatly interest- 

 ed in it." 



(Note). NatureStudy. In speaking of 

 nature study, Dewey says : " The aim of 

 the elementary school is wrong, It 

 should not be knowledge but to organize 

 the instincts and impulses of children 

 into working interests and tools." The 

 stress should be on methods not results. 

 Not that we do not want results, but 

 that we get better results when we 

 transfer the emphasis of attention to 

 the problem of mental attitude and 

 operation. We need to develop a certain 

 active interest in truth and its allies, a 

 certain disposition of inquiry together 

 with the command of the tools that 

 make it effective, and to organize certain 

 modes of activity and observation, con- 

 struction, expression and reflection. 



Jas. E. Russell, Dean, Teacher's College, 

 Columbia University : " Upon examin- 

 ation of the Course of Study which you 

 sent, I find it very difficult to judge of 

 the work which you plan to do in your 

 schools. Your plan for teaching English, 

 which is indicated briefly in the course 

 of study, and to which you call attention 

 in your letter, is sound in principle and 

 has proved successful in the foreign dis- 

 tricts in our large cities," 



v 



