AMERICAN EDUCATION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1908, 17 November 1913, Page 5

AMERICAN EDUCATION.

PRESENT DAY TENDENCIES. BRITISH EXPERT'S VIEWS, Professor John Adams has returned to London from the Middlo West oi America, where he has been giving a course of lectures on Education to students in ( the Universities of Colorado and Illinois. To a representative of the "Morning Post" he gave a few of the more vivid impressions left upon his mind after an Ultimate study o! American schools, and the educational systems which spring Hi) in that fertile field of experiment. "1 was lecturing," ho said, "in connection with summer degree courses arranged by tho Universities which I visited. We have ho* thing on this side of the Atlantic which quite corresponds to these smnwier degree schools, as they iuay bo called. 'Credits,' as the technical phrase goes, given ..for attendance and examinations held, the results counting towards a degree. Mv students were doing post-graduate work ; tlicy were of good quality, and included a considerable sprinkling of superintendents of schools, inspectors, and other ofikials. To an English <»luoaticnist it is both a remarkable and a pleasant featme to find officials and administrators in attendance at these, classes, seeking a deeper theoretical knowledge of education, and mixing freely with the teachers. Indeed, the spirit of camaraderie between officials and teachers it* America is excellent. It is singular to lyito that" while, of course, women preuominat© in American education, almost all tho chief, administrative pqst-3 arc held by men, with some striking exceptions, such as the famous Mrs. Young, Superintendent of Schools in Chicago, -

, "Freedom between teacher and child is one of the main characteristics of education in tlio States. The pupils aw always more prominent than with us, the teacher is soldomer m the limelight. This freedom of intercourse is beginning to develop in Knglish schools; perhaps, in America, it is carried to exeess, and a little more restraint, a whslesome strain of'austerity, were better for the nation. In a book just published, 'Everyday Problems in Teaching,' Professor M. V. O'Shea, a close American observer, thinks 'that this '(class-room laxity is to blame for the,'' too many spoiled children,' and tiio absence of strenuousness from the child-efoaracter. It may be that the predominance of women teachers aceounts for much. Ii goes Avithout saying t|i,at I have nothing but admiration for tfio work of women teachers, but it seems to me that the! kind of order hy a woman ■ in a class of boys ranging in age from thirteen-to fifteen, is not, somehow w other, the most healthy type 1 of discipline. In America this employment of women in tho teaching of the highest classes of boys is altogether an economic question. Men; regard teaching as a more stepping-stone which they leave as soon as they can stride to the next- 1 - it is not at all an organised profession for men —and this fact explains what at first surprises one, that so many Americans distinguished in the law and in politics have at oiie- time or another been schoolmasters. Wo in Britain may,

sooner or later, eomo face to faco with the problem of a dearth of male teachers. The pioportion of women ever men iu our schools has gradually increased under the Education Act; In Scotland, in 1888, tho numbers of men and women certificated tnichers were, 1 thrnh, about equal, but women are now prfeponderating,there, * . Sociability fti tho Schoois> "American school's are cheerful, bright places, and a sease of g)udsomone.6s runs through tho whole of education. The Americans do not put up, shabby buildings in diiigy streets, as I have lately seen in the South of France, but niako their schools tlib centra of social life. Parents visit the schools frequent,ly while Jesso'iS are going on, and iu many citie3 £ho Parents' Associations (after tho same type, as our P.NJ2.U.. but not threaded up into any universal organisation), are. doing good work in creating closer! interest between home and school, citizen and teachcr. Here, again.' however, it is mostly women; tlioir husbands are too much absorbed in ■business to give hoed to these matters. 'When do you seo fywir children ?' I would ask an American father. 'Oh, «u Saturday nights and Sunday mornings,' would be -..he answer'nine times out of ten. I must remark hero upon the geii* eral good behaviour of the- American: child, for I know that is not- the usual impression. Oiie may',put it that there are no babies in America'—they peem to start life grotan up. Whatever may bo the case elsaivhero, in Amwioa it is true; as Professor Bagley puts it; 'A' child is the most serious thing in Nature.' Certainly tlhero is almost uo baby talk, which, of course, is psychologically right, but a certain human clvarm seems to be lost in consequence. In tho schools corporal punishment, is not used, which often makes it trying for tho teacher, there being no stern disciplinary background., and tliat is really all tho isano is in English schools." ~ . , . In reply to a question about open-air i schools in the , United States Professor Adams said that tho idea was stiongly approved, but no real system or organisation could yet be said to exist, bporadic experiments were being mauo in many of the States. "As for Montessdri, her methods are in high favour, but not always intelligently ' applied. The tendency is for the apparatus ->o bo used without tho inspiration which created it. I found strong opposition among. American teachers to tho commercialising of the apparatus, and you , must remember that .tho American, teacher is an idealist, Tho people who are worst paid in the States are tho thinkers and idealists —teachws, clergymen, professors, Judges-"these are, in this sense, the intellectual salt of the earth. Teachers have little social pres--,mouot[ .?p[3;r[ ait? sjoss&jwd 33] i ed. Tliey are regarded, perhaps, as clever 'cranks' by tho business men, with tho feeling, it may be, that though they are of no use in the really important business of life, they add somewhat to the national reputation. This W!is Cecil Rhodes's view, and probably is Mr. Carnegie's f" • Professor Adams digressed for a moment to show how curiously tit® Carnegie Pension Fund for professors was encroaching upon tho freedom of the Universities. At first . there Was eJimigh money to go round, and then a gradual insufficiency because of the widening circle.. A competition in the matter of

beneficiary interest sprang up among institutions, and the money is now beginning to dominate University education, assuming for itself a personality, as it were, an-d doing what its maker never intended it to do. Secondary Education.' "Secondary education in America is hot so well organised as the. primary. It is largely controlled by the Universities, to which the majority of tlie students do not- go. It is well known that tlio ecmplote school system in tho States' usually covers twelve years, cig.it being given up to elementary' work— 'the grades'—and four to sntondar.y. Between the grades and the high schoo.s comes tlio grammar school, and at present there is great discussion goißg ob about the place of ttiisgrammar school work. Tho. general view is m favour of rearranging tlio whole fiCbetnc, giving only six years to ,tlio grades, and completely reorganising the retaainiug six years' secondary work • Tho State Universities are good, and they are ' getting. better. I'Vir one reason, they have ;i goodly ravemiß. Tak« thn wise of For the next two ygars it

has allocated to it a State grant of 4.J million dollars per annum'. Fundamentally these State are, of course, utilitarian, perhaps mainly agri'cultural, but they are developing the humanistic side, and this, bo it noted, at the instigation of professors appointed solely because of their -scientific attainments. It shows how America is beginning to seek after the deeper things in education. On tho whole, tho proverbial 'ladder' is better runged in America than in this country, though Dr. A. C. Perry has been complaining that all is not well with the 'ladder' in the States. Ho wants a'hundred ladders branching off, as it were, to differ* out heights of destination. Tho University system dominates all, and why should it, he challenges, when only 10 per cent, of the primary pupils pass oft to the high schools, and 10 per cent, of these to the Universities. Their State-

aided Universities correspond closely to our 'civic 1 Universities in the corniflCr* eisl cities. Perhaps our system of linking up municipal secondary schools with thesa Uiiive'rsities by means of inspection and examination, preferably the former, is good on the whole. Freedom to Experiment. "Libert}' of experiment is a. hcaithy feature in education out tliora. failures are sometimes ma-do, of course, and nothing ntore is' said, but in li-Kgland wo aro lacking in the spirit of educational adventure for fear wo should find failuto aiid not .success. There is this to bo said; that even failure may yield great educational profit. ' _ Perhaps our teachers aro too much afraid to use tho liberty they have; the experiments Blr. Holmes describes as taking place ill Jus Utopia were mado by tlie teaclicr liorse-l-f without waiting for bureaucratic sanction- What struck mo most in -America was t-ho fnet that, while there is this freedom of experiment.and while each State is independent .of any other, a real unity in education has been attained throughout the 'land. 3 heir Bureau of Education has no reaj authority at all.. I found a gejiei'iil . movement towards havrai; a Board of OEihttatian after our pattern and with 'our powers, but this movement meets much opposition, and perhaps, after all, tlaey ai'ii better of as they are. "In everything educational they aro just a. bit ahead of us, whether in good or cvih ■ A'very great interest is taken in education; it is regarded, as a living force, which counts, materially, and not as a something extra—the average Englishman's view, I am soiry to say. Perhaps the shadow of the sectarian problem is beginning to rise in America in the case of Roman Catholics, who, I think, will soon begin to ask far separate schools. . But in the 'meantime the Americans aro free from our chief difficulty, and education on the other side of tiie Atlantic is generally in a very r live condition, less bookish than cnirs and readier, almost as a conecqnenee, t-o introduce the -other media which- aro in more direct touch with the world around. Scouting, for instance, has a Better chance in their schools, and everywhere I found the liveliest interest in Sir Robert Baden-Powell's work."