Part 18 (1/2)
9 Why is it especially ireat characters of history?
10 Does acquaintance with the great in history tend to produce ood static character, or does it do more?
CHAPTER XXV
A TYPICAL VITALIZED SCHOOL
=The school an expression of the teacher=--The vitalized school may be a school of one rooe, in the haarten, a grade school, a high school, or a college The size or the location of the school does not determine its vital quality This, on the contrary, is determined by the character of its work and the spirit that obtains In general it may be said that the vitalized teacher renders the school vital This places upon her a large measure of responsibility, but she accepts it with equanimity, and rejoices in the opportunity to test out her powers It needs to be oft repeated that if the teacher is static, the school will be static; but if the teacher is dynaate, abrogate, abate, nor abridge her responsibility The school is either vitalized or it is not, according to what the teacher is and does, and what the teacher does depends upon what she is In short, the school is an expression of the teacher, and, if the school is not vitalized, the reason is not far to seek
=A centralized school=--For the purpose of illustration we may assume that the typical vitalized school is located in the country, and is what is known as a centralized school The grounds co contains, all told, not fewer than twenty rooned by a student of school problems, and is not merely a theory of the architect Each room, and each detail, articulates with every other rooeneral scheme of which the child and his interests are the pri of the child takes precedence over the reputation of the architect Every nook of the building has its specific function, and this function has vital reference to the child The location of each piece of furniture can be explained from the viewpoint of the child, and the architectural scheme is considered subsidiary The seats confor concerns itself with the child's welfare rather than with the external appearance
=Integrity in construction and decoration=--The decorations throughout the building are all chaste and artistic Nothing below this standard can win admission No picture is admitted that does not represent art
The theory is that the school has a reflex influence upon the homes that attracts them to its standards, and experience reveals the fact that the decorations in the ho in artistic tone The standards of the school become the standards of the pupils, and the pupils, in turn, ree of si that banishes frority in every detail of construction, and the absence of veneer gives to the pupils a definition of honesty and sincerity There is nothing either in the building or in the work of the school that savors of the show element
The teachers of history andand, therefore, there is no display of her products by the teacher of drawing This school believes in education but not in exhibition Words of commendation may be dispensed in the classrooms, but there is no exhibit of any department in the halls The teachers are too polite and too considerate to sanction any such display
=Simplicity and sincerity=--The library is notable for the character of the books, but not for the nuenuine ever to become thrasonical, and no teacher or pupil is ever heard to boast of anything pertaining to the school They neither boast nor apologize, but leave every visitor free to ings The teachers are too truly cultured and the pupils are too well trained ever to exploit themselves, their school, or their work The pictures, the statuary, the fittings, and the equipment are all of the best, and, hence, show for themselves without exploitation To teachers and pupils it would sees Such a thing is simply not done in this school The auditorium is a stately, commodious, and beautiful room, and everybody connected with the school accepts it as aapproaching braggadocio would prove a discordant note in this school, and, in this respect, it represents the American ideal that is to be
=Rooms are phases of life=--The home economics roo room, the rest rooms, and the hospital roos and equipment and all represent phases of life At luncheon each pupil is served a bowl of soup or other hot dish to supplement his own private lunch, and this food is supplied at public expense The school authorities have the wisdom to realize that health is an asset of the community and is fundamental in effective school work The pupils serve their schoolmates in relays, wash the dishes, and restore them to their places The boys do not think they demean themselves by such service, but enter into it in the true spirit of democracy A teacher is present to modify and chasten the hurry and heedlessness of childhood, and there is decorum without apparent repression
=Industrial work=--In connection with the industrial arts department there is a repair shop where all the iardens, orchards, and lawns are kept in repair
Here the auto trucks in which the pupils are brought to the school are repaired by the drivers, assisted by the boys In this shop the boys gain the practical knowledge that enables the automobiles, at their homes The farmers who have no sons in school avail themselves of the skill and fidelity that obtain in the shop, bringing in their tools, their harness, and their automobiles for needed repairs The money thus earned is expended for school equiparden are the property of the school and are all preserved for use in the hoe of the far staff The farral parts of the school, and perform the functions of laboratories
=School a life enterprise=--There are all grades in the school, froht disparity in the size of the classes, for the parents instinctively set apart thirteen years of the time of their children for life in the school To these parents school and life are synonyarten he enlists in the enterprise for a term of thirteen years The hoed on this basis, and this plan of procedure is ingrained in the social consciousness
Deserting the school is no ht of than any other form of suicide If, by any chance, a boy should desert the school, he would be a pariah in that coree of comfort He would be made to feel that he had debased himself and cast aspersion upon society The looks that the people would bestow upon hiellation He would be made to feel that he had expatriated hiood standing in the community They would be e
=Public sentiment=--In view of the school sentirade is practically as populous as the first grade Attendance upon school work is a habit of thinking both with the children and with their parents, and school is taken for granted the sa If a boy should, for any cause, fail to graduate froard it as a personal calamity They would feel that he had, somehow, been dropped off the train before he reached his destination, and the whole co Every parent is vitally interested in each child of the community, whether he has children in school or not, and thus school taxes are paid with pride and elation The school is regarded as a safe investe dividends Patrons rally to the calls of the school with rare unaniion evaporate in their school, for the school is the high plane upon which they meet in fraternal concord
=The course of study=--The course of study is flexible, and because of its resiliency it adapts itself easily and gracefully to the native dispositions and the aptitudes of the various pupils If the boy has a penchant for agriculture, provision is made for him, both in the theory and in the practical applications of the subject If he inclines to science, the laboratories accord hiracious welcome The studies are adapted to the boy and not the boy to the studies No boy need discontinue school to find on the outside soenial, for, within the school, he may find work that represents life in all its phases If he yearns for horticulture, then this study is ood tiardens If the course of study lacks the element which he craves and for which he has a natural aptitude, this branch is added to the course
The economy of life demands the conservation of childhood and youth and the school deems it the part of wisdom as well as civic and social economy to provide special instruction for this boy, as was done in the case of Helen Keller This school, in theory and in practice, is firirls Hence, ample provision is made for the child of unusual inclinations
=Electives=--The pupils do not elect a study because it is easy, but because their inclinations run in that direction Indeed, there are no easy courses, no snap courses in the school Diligent, careful, thorough work is the rule, and there can be found no se The school stands for purposes that are clear in definition and for work that is intense There are no prizes offered for excellent work, but the approbation of parents, teachers, and schoolmates, in the estimation of the pupils, far transcends any material or symbolic prizes that could be offered In school work and in conduct the pupils all strive to win this approval There is no coarseness nor boorishness, for that would forfeit this approval The cigarette is under ban, for public sentiainst it; and, after all, public sentiment is the final arbiter of conduct Hence, no boy will deh indulging in any practice that this senti