April, 1912.J 



353 



Education! 



He then refers to courses of study in 

 larger cities where the school authorities 

 have been confronted with the problem 

 of how best to deal with non-English 

 speaking children, 



Chas. P. Wheelock, Asst. Comm. Edu- 

 cation Inspection Div., N. Y. State Ed. 

 Dept. : It would seem to me that the 

 main purpose of your instruction should 

 be to make this polyglot aggregation 

 of children fairly intelligent regarding 

 ordinary things of life and to give them 

 the ability to express what they know in 

 Intelligent English. The course of study 

 that you have submitted seems to be, in 

 the main, a most excellent one. In minor 

 details I should suggest changing it, but 

 possibly your experience may prove that 

 I am wrong 



" The Nature Work.— The work seems 

 to be most excellently arranged. Nature 

 study looks a little heavy in the advanced 

 grades. Experience would be needed to 

 determine whether it could be done or 

 not. 



" I find it frequently true that children 

 have powers beyond what they are 

 ordinarily credited with, and that many 

 of the limitations that we have been 

 accustomed to put on courses of study, 

 because we believe the children in- 

 capable were really unnecessary." 



He criticises somewhat the industrial 

 work if it be intended that boys and girls 

 are required to do the same work— thinks 

 there should be a division. AI90 in 

 number work of the third grade he 

 criticises the limitations of numbers to 

 1,000 and the multipliers and divisors to 

 two figures. He considers the limitations 

 unwise, as he says " in the third grade 

 the children should begin to do a little 

 generalising, and be able to imagine some 

 things they have never seen. 



" I fear that I have not given you any- 

 thing of very great value, but I wish to 

 assure you that I have gained something 

 myself from your letter and from the 

 course of study which you sent me." 



{Note.) Whether the nature study be 

 considered too heavy in the advanced 

 grades depends much upon the manner 

 45 



of presentation. The work was not in- 

 tended to be treated from a scientific 

 standpoint, but simple experiments and 

 observation of various processes in 

 nature and the arts — a knowledge of 

 common things about us. The more 

 advanced grades are found mostly 

 in the centres of population near 

 the various industries, and such children 

 are brought more or less into con- 

 tact with pulleys, machinery, sugar 

 mills, wharves, etc. As I said before, 

 whether this part of the nature study 

 be heavy or the reverse depends alto- 

 gether upon the method of presentation 

 of the subjects. 



In regard to limiting the number of 

 work in the third grade in the making of 

 bills, for instance, to article the kind, 

 measure and prices of which are known, 

 the idea was to warn teachers against 

 the use of words without thought, parti- 

 cularly necessary on account of the 

 many non-English speaking children in 

 the schools. Limiting operation of 

 numbers to 1,000 was done, so that 

 children would work only with numbers 

 which were possible of comprehension 

 by them. 



Prof. Henry W, Holmes, Division of 

 Education, Harvard University: "In 

 general, it seems to me that your course 

 of study is excellent. Naturally every- 

 thing depends on the way in which it is 

 carried out, but so far as your program 

 on paper is concerned, it is unquestion- 

 ably commendable. I have only one 

 doubt about the general character of the 

 program ; it seems to me too difficult. 

 It is not too meagre nor graded too low 

 for a good city system of schools in the 

 States. I should fear, therefore, that 

 teachers would find it a hard program to 

 carry out under your conditions. But of 

 this point you can best judge for your- 

 self 



" I cannot, I regret to say, criticise 

 your elementary school program in great 

 details, but I will add here one or two 

 remarks on certain particular points, 

 which may indicate for you the basis of 

 my general reaction as given above. I 

 shall give you rather the poiqts of ad* 



