DEPARTMENT OF 'THEINTERIOR BUREAU OF EDUCATION tp, BULLE FIN, 1916, NO.8 REORGANIZATION OF THEPUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM By FRANK 'FORESTBUNKER FORMERLY ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENTSEAT-17,E. PUBLIC SCHOOLS ASSISTANT SUPER INTFNDENT LOS ANGFI -FSPUBLIC SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT BERJ(ELEY PUBLICSCHOOLS WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRIMING OFFICE 1916 ... ADDITIONAL COPIES 07' THU PDBLICIIION ILATBE 7ROCURZD 17t071 *Tip 5137ZY,CNTINDINT 07 DOCIIIIINT8 00VTAR117.777 PRIMING °MCI WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 20 CENTS PER COPY V et r CONTENTS. Preface Page. Chapter I.The rise of the chief division yf the American public-school syst$m 1 ILThe rise of the graded school 19 IILEfforts toward a functional reorganizationThe first decade of the discussion 40 IV.Efforts toward a functional reorganizationSecond decade of the discussion 156 V. Efforts toward a functional reorganizationThe practice___ 75 VI.The plan adopted by Berkeley, Cal 95 VII.The course of studyThe first cycle 116 VIII.The course of studyThe second and third cycles__-- 136 APPliNDIX. Saginaw (East Side), Mich., cout<es of study._ 160 A six-year high-school course_ 163 -Garfield Junior High School, Richmond, Ind., course of study 184 Union school district, Concord, N. H., course of study for the high school_ 165 Intermediate schools of Los Angeles, Cal., course of study 167 Berkeley, Cal., courses of study 169 JapanCourses of *study in the elementary schools 178 Bibliography 177 INDKX 188 -to ie PREFACE. A little more than two decades ago Charles W. Eliot, convinced that the age at which the college graduate completes hiscourse and begins supporting himself was too high, nut the question, Can school programs be shortened and enriched?This query precipitated a discussion which, while ranging over the entire field of educational the and practice, centered particularly upon the purpose and placiof the common school, the high school, and the institutions of higher learning: This critical examination of the principal parts of the system. has set in clearer light their characteristics and has led to the belief that a proper regard for the distinctive, functions of each makes imperative a reorganization, or at least a readjustment, of the chief divisions, of the system with respect to articulation, to internal orpnization, to grade span, and to defined. purpose. Though the discussion started with a specific problemthe needof reducing the age of college graduatesthe-original question was quickly forgotten, and the discussion became wholly academic and so remained throughout the first decade. The opening of the second decade saw the discussion brought( back to earth again by practical- minded administrators who sought a program of reorganization or of readjustment that gave reasonable promise of success. se- quence of this effort, plans for action emerged w e now being put to the test of practice.Thus the movement to a functional reorganization of the school system may properly be said to have survived two of the stages through which every project, on its way froirkzeption to practice, must riCcesarily pass : That of academic discussion, and that of a consideration of working plans.It is now entering the final stage, that of adoption and trial. The following is an attempt to set forth in orderly manner the progress of the movement as it has developed from its beginning to the present time.There is also an atteffipt to show, in some detail, how a regrouping of the grades of the system lends itself to changes in the elementary and secondary curricula that seem to be demanded: In treating the attempts which have been made to bring about this reorganization and the attendant effect upon courses of study, two alternatives were open: To describe, in as great detail as spice would perm' number of such efforts or to give a brief siunmary of the ntial features of each, with a more detailed description of some is 'VI REORGANIZATION OF THE PUBLIC sea00 L SYSTEM. one experience.The latter alternative has beenadopted, on the theory that a portrayal of the difficultiesencountered in putting into operation a given plan, anda description off the effect upon the organization and curriculum ofa single sciool department, even though such results fall short of theideal, would provemore helpful. Among those who have renderedmaterial assistance in the task of organizing the materials for this studyit is a pleasure to make special mention of Dr. Richard Gauss Boone,professor of education at the University of California. Thestudy was begun in his seminarand progressed for a considerable timeunder his stimulating direction. Special thanks are also due to Profs.Thomas M. Balliet, Herman H. Horne, Robert MacDougall, James E. Lough, and Paul R.Radosavl- jevich, of New York University. - 1100.'.4j . r J REORGANIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. Chapter I. THE RISE OF THE CHIEF DIVISIONS OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM. CONTENTS.Thethree divisionsDistinct sourcesElementary division ;beginnings; rotating schools; school districts; Government aid ;Northwest Territory ;Horace Mann ; Henry itarnard-- Dlvislon of higher education ;colonial, colleges ;preparation for the ministry ; place of Latin and Greek ; growth of the demand for higher ',duce- tion ;modificationsIn curricula ,departmental instruction ;electionof studies; ;period of internaldevelopment ;preparatory schoolsSecondary division ;Latin grammar schools ;the Renaissance; influence of local conditions; the academy ; function ;industrial development ;free public high school ;original purpooe; later development. The American public-school system now stands, after three cen- turies of growth, complete in form only.Its three divisionsele- mentary, secondary, and that embracing higher educationare joined together, end to end, forming a lineal whole.It is therefore now easy for a child of 6 to enter the elementary school, pass regu- larly from grade to grade, and finally to emerge, 16 or 18 years later, prepared'as far as academic study is concerned to begin his life work, and without direct cost to himself or to his parents. The story of the development of this system is the story of the conflict between two demands: That for a college preparation on the one hand, and on the other for a noncollegiate preparatiop extending beyond the elementary grades.As in every country developing a system of education, the collekes reached downward to find a means of preparation ,for the few, while the elementary schools reached upward in orderA to secure an extension of a general, practical educa- tion for the many.It has remained for America alone to develop an institution which has harmonized the twothe free public high school.Inasinuch, however, as each of the three divisions comprising the system-sprang from separate and distinct sources and grew to considerable proportions independently of the others, and in re- sponse to the shaping power of different conditions, the whole which the fusing process of recent years has given us is complete in form only.In organic relatiqn, in sharpness of province, and in die- 1 REORGANIZATION QF THE PUBLICSCHOOL SYSTEM. tinctiveness of function, thesedivisions are not yetsatisfactorily articulated. The English colonists hadscarcely set foot in the NewWorld before they began planning fo.r the education of their children. Within eightyears after the founding of Bostona college with a system of preparatory schools was established,and within 17 years the foundation, in theoryat least, of our entire Amerivinpublie- school system was laid. Thealo of 1642 and 1647 (Massachusetts)' not only recognized each of thethree divisions ofour present sys- tem, but in addition enunciatedthe right of the Stateto compcl proper provision for education, to determinethe kind of an educa- tion which should be given,to provide such eductition bygeneral tax and at public expense, andto proVide opportunities for college preparation.2 While legislation has addedbut two important,o4h- ciples to those set forth in theseearly Massachusetts actscompul- sory attendance and the making of freeschooling mandatoryyet the educational system foreshadowed in the original principlehas been exceedingly slow inunfolding, reachinga point in its develop- ment relatively complete onlywithin thejast half century. Though from the first therewas a demand by the masses for the rudiments of an education, yet such instruction during thecolonial period was meager and haphazard.While the legislation of the time recognized the elementaryschool and made its support by lic tax permissive, yet, pub- except in the larger towns, sucheducation was badly neglected.In some towns theparents instructed their children at home, or clubbedtogether and employeda yOung man or woman to give a start in 'readingand writing. Inone town the ehildren learned to write on birch bark and were taught inrotation' by the men of the villagewho could read.a In otherplaces the min- ister beame the schoolmaster. Even as late as 1817 the schoolcom- mittee of Boston denieda petition, signed by 160 inhabitants, asking. that primary schoolsbe established at publicexpense, defending, their denial on the ground,that the estab hm: .t of such would be too expensive; and, schools furthermore, that 'lost parents";have some leisure, and that withus few are un o the task of teach- 'ing the elements of letters. "' Much of the elementaryinstruction whichwas provi% in that dais was given in vacantcarpenters' shops, inspare dooms in old rvellin,ge, in unoccupiedbarns, in basementrooms, and in such other For early Massachusetts statutes see Rep. II. 8. Com. Ed., 1892-93, vol. 2,pp.4225- Wilma *Win. Tho Bootelloot of the Hass.Pub.soh.System, pp. 12-17 ; Hinsdale, 11(000. Mk 2-3. allatasaln, ivoleieloa of theMan. Pub. Re& Swiftest, p. 88. ,7k tl9 import, of the ontloStteo In full: 41.11114 Baal ht, pp. 11141. WrIghtnan, Annals of the Bodo*Priem', RISE OF THE CHIEF DIVISIONS. 3 places as chance presented.' Thescope of the work offered in these schools before the Revolution was limited merely to writing andthe rudiments of reading.Spelling and arithmetic as separate subjects were not required until well into the next century. The support of 'primary schools, as indeed of thegrammar schools of the period, was various and uncertain.