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    "title": "ELEMENTARY EDUCATION",
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    "verified_text": "the changes which have taken place in elementary schools since 1910 represent the natural development, perhaps accelerated, of the principle that elementary education is an integral part of a comprehensive national education which aims primarily at the all-round develop- ment of each human personality. (see education.) i. great britain in england and wales the policy of the board of education } indicates clearly enough the official ideal of the responsible department of state during this period. the only uniformity of practice that the board of education desire to sce in the teaching of public clementary schools is that each teach- er shall think for himself, and work out for himself, such methods of teaching as may use his powers to the best advantage and be suited to the particular needs and conditions of the school. uniformity in details of practice (except in the mere routine of school manage- ment) is not desirable even if it were attainable. but freedom im- plies a corresponding responsibility in its use. the administration and inspection of public elementary edu- cation upon lines broad as these have combined with other in- fluences to produce the variety which at the moment character- ises english and welsh elementary schools and which indeed makes it difficult to generalise about them with accuracy. in- fluences other than those directly exercised by the board of education are in the nature of things far less easy to trace, yet some of them require specific mention. influence of psychological science—the study of psychology has exercised a powerful and widespread influence upon ele- mentary school teaching, which shows no sign of waning. for example, the emphasis placed by w. macdougall (social psychology, 1908) and his school upon the importance of the factor of “interest” in education has been almost universally reflected in school methods and schemes of work and has been largely although not entirely responsible for many attempts— often singularly original and successful—to co-ordinate the life 'see the prefatory memorandum of the suggestions for the con- sideration of teachers and others concerned in the work of public elementary schools published in 1905 and re-affirmed in subsequent issues of this pamphlet. (cd. 2638.) elementary education of the child in school with his life at home and for the adoption of “imaginative methods,” e.g., free drawing, dramatisation, modelling, etc., in the teaching of subjects which have hitherto been taught almost entirely by oral instruction by the teacher. intelligence tests—again, teachers everywhere have taken great interest in both the theory and practice of intelligence tests (g.v.). the recognition of the possibility that much ability may pass through the elementary school undetected by the tradi- tional methods and content of teaching has led to much original experiment under both these heads. in particular it has led to a critical scrutiny of traditional examinations. physical training—the criticism of medical authorities (closely associated with the development of the school medical service) has checked any tendencies to regard education as an exclusively intellectual process. the modern elementary school has an equal regard for the physical as for the mental develop- ment of its pupils and, quite apart from the specifically remedial action of the school medical officers, now does much to improve the physique of its children (see physical training). consider- able time and attention are devoted to suitable games (largely musical in character) in the infants’ schools; and organised games, such as cricket, football, swimming, netball and folk dancing are practically universal in the senior schools. steady progress has been made in the provision of special schools for blind, deaf, physically and mentally defective children, though much yet remains to be done. individual methods.—the influence of mme. montessori’s theories (see montessorr system) has been very marked, not indeed by any wholesale adoption of them, but in directing criticism against the traditional classroom methods of teaching and so leading on to a particularly fruitful experimentation in individual methods of instryction, which has been remarkably general and often remarkably successful in the infants’ schools. perhaps the great majority of english infants’ schools now em- ploy “individual methods ” to a substantial extent, although seldom relying upon them to the entire exclusion of the more traditional classroom methods. somewhat similar methods— such as those adopted under variations of the well-known ‘dalton plan ”’-—are now being largely applied to the case of older pupils, the broad aim being to train the children to use books and to work individually with self-reliance and effect. curiously enough, too, the elementary schools in their en- deavour to increase the effective interest of school-life have found it worth while to take a leaf out of the book of the most traditional of english educational institutions—the english public schools. the house and team systems, now frequently adopted, covering both work and games, represent an attempt to cultivate the healthy spirit of group rivalry. —, teachers’ courses.—some reference must be made to the growing importance of “‘ teachers’ courses ” in the development of elementary school teaching. year by year since the war the popularity of ‘refresher courses”? for teachers already fully qualified has increased and these courses are now attended by thousands of teachers annually (sce summmer schoots). the courses may be held during the school holidays or the school terms; they may take the shape of continuous fortnights of study or of weekly demonstrations and lectures; they may be con- ducted by a local education authority, the board of education or private enterprise; they may deal with the theory or practice of education or aim merely at deepening the teacher’s knowledge of a particular subject. but whatever their system they have exerted a very beneficial influence upon elementary school teaching by helping to keep the teacher alive and interested in his work and in touch also with current developments in educa- tional ideas and contemporary scholarship. special developments —administrative action during the period 1910-25 has increasingly recognised the necessity for the unification of the system of public education and has made a steadily increasing provision for the advanced education of elementary school children who are capable of profiting by it. the brighter children are now drafted away in increasing num- bers from the elementary schools at the age of 11-12 to continue 965 by means of scholarships and free places their education in the secondary schools. notwithstanding recent financial stringency, the action of the secondary schools in this respect has been con- siderably intensified by the establishment in a large number of areas of “ central schools,” ‘‘ central classes,’’ ‘‘ higher tops ” and distinctively vocational schools which also draw their pupils from contributory elementary schools, generally on a selective basis. thus more and more the children remaining in the elementary schools beyond the age of 12 are those that are left after the cream has been drawn off. the process is inevitable and all to the good from the point of view of the individual child. but the elementary school is left with a new problem to solve, viz.: the evolution of a new type of education for children not of the first ability, who have only two or three years more of school life before them, but who have nevertheless outgrown the meth- ods of the middle-school and now require to be prepared effec- tively for life as adolescents in trade or business. the present tendency is to favour the application of individual methods with an increasing amount of practical work of all kinds for these children. in conclusion it may be well to endeavour to characterise briefly, in so far as the variety of the schools makes this possible, the outstanding features of the public elementary school at the moment. relations with parents.—first, the elementary school as a whole since 1910 has very definitely resisted any tendency to become an educational machine for the instilling of mere infor- mation into children. year by year it has become more and more clearly an organ of general social welfare—with a particular function of its own, it is true, but none the less for that, part of the great general movement of the age making for social better- ment. it has won general recognition among the parents; it has ceased to be the enemy of the family as it once often seemed, and has become instead a friend to be trusted and assisted. tew things are so significant as this changed relationship between the teachers and the parents, so strikingly exemplified since the war by the widespread popularity of the ‘‘ education week ’—a week set apart by a local authority in order to explain and exhibit its system of education to the public. infants’ schools —as regards the infants’ school, the special aim here is, not only to impart the rudiments of the 3 r’s—and much ingenuity has gone since 1010 to the formulation of rapid and interesting methods of teaching these—but to develop interest and the natural activities, special weight being laid perhaps upon oral responsiveness. the lively, eager interested child, although with the powers of concentration proper to his age, is increasingly regarded as the typical product of the good infant school. senior schools —in the senior schools the general aim is to train the child in habits of independent work and self-reliance and to cultivate in him an interest and ability in intelligent work —at least of some sort—which will stand him in good stead long after he has passed the age of compulsory attendance. jn par- ticular, it seems as though the position of arithmetic as the weightiest subject in the elementary school curriculum has now been severely shaken, if not definitely occupied by english—a subject which has made great advance during the last 10 or 15 years. in any case, the old multiplicity of subjects 1s now defin- ing itself into two groups—the english group, including reading, spelling, compositions, the study of elementary literature, geography and history; and the mathematical-scientific group, including arithmetic, elementary mathematics and physical science. this process of definition with its accompanying simpli- fication of the whole and co-ordination of parts is doing a great deal to liberalise both the content and method of teaching. handwork—handwork has established itself firmly as a teaching method; as a subject in the shape of laundry, cookery and housewifery for girls, and wood, metal and varied work for boys, its value is increasingly allowed, especially for the kind of children likely now to remain in the elementary scliools until their school-life finishes; its development in these more specialised directions has, however, since the conclusion of the world war been unavoidably checked by financial con- siderations. still more recently some reaction may be discerned ¥ g66 against the more extravagant doctrines of self-expression and self-development. this reaction is likely perhaps to lead to an increasing emphasis upon the value of the more formal elements in education. see epucation and the bibliography thereto. (k. m. a.) ii. the united states progress in the development of elementary education has been made during the years 1910-25: (1) through the adoption of compulsory education laws by all of the states which did not have such laws; (2) through consolidation of rural schools; (3) through the enrichment of the curriculum, especially in the upper grades; (4) through the improvement of the training of teachers; (5) through the lengthening of the school year; and (6) through the erection of many modern school buildings with enlarged equipment. compulsory laws.—compulsory education laws were enacted in 1915 by alabama, florida, south carolina and texas; in 1916 by georgia and in 1918 by mississippi. the movement to make compulsory cducation universal in the united states, which began in 1852 in massachusetts, was thus consummated by the legislatures of the states mentioned. in these states public education developed slowly after the civil war and the enact- ment of compulsory education was delayed by economic and social conditions. in 15 of the older states recent legislation has raised the age limit of compulsory school attendance from 14 to 16 years. there seems to be a tendency to carry the limit finally to 18, which limit is now set by idaho. hf this tendency is real- ised in legislation it will undoubtedly be accompanied, as was similar legislation in england, by provision for supervised en- trance of a part of the school population upon industrial occu- pations (see continuation schools). rural schools ——rural schools, which have always been meagre and ill-equipped as compared with urban schools, have been greatly improved, especially through the consolidation of several school districts and the transportation of pupils to a single central building, where better facilities are provided because of the type of organisation which can be adopted when larger numbers of pupils are grouped together in classes. the u.s. commissioner of education is authority for the statement that in 1924 approximately 1,coo school consolidations were made; about 5,000 one-room schools were absorbed into con- solidated centres; and expenditures for the transportation of pupils increased in that year by $3,500,000. curriculum changes.—the fact that modern life because of its complexity makes a broader education necessary for success, has led to an expansion of the curriculum by the introduction of new materials of instruction and by the great enlargement of some of the traditional subjects. where pupils used to read one book a year they now read 10 to 20 books in the reading class. nature study is common as an extension of geography and as a means of introducing pupils to the principles of science. practical activi- ties, such as cooking, sewing and manual training, are now very general. health education has been enlarged as never before, and takes cither the form of scientific teaching of hygiene and physiology or the form of practical exercises in the gymnasium or clinics. a general tendency has appeared to carry down into the elementary school certain courses which were formerly regarded as the exclusive property of the high schools. such are courses in foreign languages and mathematics beyond arithme- tic. this tendency to enlarge the work of the upper grades is directly related to the development of the junior high school (sce secondary schools). | training of teachers.—much agitation has in recent years led to a serious consideration of the very general lack of training on the part of teachers. it has been estimated that from 25 °% to 40% of the teachers in public schools, especially the one-room rural schools, are without a high-school training. probably less than one quarter of the teaching staff. of all schools is made up of normal school graduates. the agitation has resulted in legisla- tion empowering state departments of education in the various states to raise the requirements for teachers’ certificates and elements, transmutation of—elevators to compel communities to pay higher salaries. twelve states increased the requirements for teachers’ certificates in 1924. attendances —the school year has been lengthened steadily during the period in which the u.s. bureau of education has collected statistics, as has also the average number of days of attendance of individual pupils. the following table gives de- tails of these increases since 1900. 1900 1905 | 1910 i9i5 average no. of days schools were in session . : ; average no. of days attended by each pupil enrolled 144-3] 150-9 | 157°5 | 159-4 | 161-9 | 164-0 | 99-9] 105-2 | 113-0 | t21-2 | 121-2 | 1306 new buildings —the crection of new school buildings has gone on at an unprecedented rate since the world war. in 1910 expenditures for sites, buildings and equipment were $69,978,370; in 1920 they were $153,542,852 and in 1922 $305,940,965. the huildings are better planned and more hygienic and include in many cases auditoria, gymnasia, science laboratories and shops, thus providing more adequately for the enriched programme of instruction, and also for the use of the buildings for many community purposes. (c.-t) elements, transmutation of: sce transmutation of elements.",
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