THE BULLETIN ofthe NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY- SCHOOL PRINCIPALS — Novemags, Wear DMA That All May By B. L. DODDS A HANDBOOK of information published by the Imple- mentation Committee for the use of American secondary- school principals and teachers who are trying to adjust the pro- grams of their schools to the educational needs of all youth. KK. J. Cuaax, ex-officio DsWirr S. Moncan Eur C. Fostzs Wuuam F. Rac Jou W. Hazazson Hoon H. Srawast ts P, C, Janus Howasp Dans Wars Gonos C. Jaaux Wa Fasncn, Chairmen The Contents of This Bulletin Are Listed in “Education Index” ~ SERVICE ORGAN FOR AMERICAN SECONDARY SCH@LS NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOON PRINCIPALS the NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION OFFICERS 1939-1940 $635 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Principal of Newton High School, Newtonville, Massachusetts Vinci. M. Harpin Potertnal. Phe: cad igh aes Yay Seen Serene weet Reht an eet ae School, Spokane, Washington UGH Srzwaxt Principal Devie High School, Mt. Vernon, New York NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY M. R. McDanrat, President Principal ot Och Park and Bivcc. Forest Tout tah Sebeel. Cok’ Pork, Gist Cuanuss F, ALLEN Published at Berrien Springs, Michigan, by the National Association of Secondary-School Principals of the National Education Association 5835 Kimbark idorga Chicago Pie Entered as second- 193 IE Accaptas Soe, lip Sol a ha Beale A, Aa Ree authorized November THE BULLETIN OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Issued Eight Times a Year Monthly October to May Inclusive NOVEMBER, 1939 Serial Number 85 BULLETIN NO. 85 THAT ALL MAY LEARN By B. L. DODDS A HANDBOOK of information published by the Imple- mentaton Committee for the use of American secondary- school principals and teachers who are trying to adjust the programs of their schools to the educational needs of all youth. IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE K. J. Crark, ex-officio DeWirr S. Morcan Eu: C. Foster WiuiaM F, RascuHe Oscar GRANGER Francis T. SPAULDING Joun W. Harseson Hvecu H. Strewarr F. C. JENKINS Howarp Dare WuitTeE Georce C, JENSEN Wit Frencn, Chairman THE CONTENTS OF THIS BULLETIN ARE LISTED IN EDUCATION INDEX Published by THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION H. V. CHURCH, Executive Secretary 5835 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago That All May Learn By B. L. DODDS A HANDBOOK of information published by the Imple- mentation Committee for the use of American secondary- school principals and teachers who are trying to adjust the programs of their schools to the educational needs of all youth. IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE K. J. Crark, ex-officio DeWirr S. Morcan Eur C. Foster WixuraM F, Rascue Oscar GRANGER Francis T. SpauLDING Joun W. Harseson Hvucu H. Stewart F. C. JENKINS Howarp Dare WuirTe GerorcE C. JENSEN Wirt Frencu, Chairman Published by the National Association of Secondary-School Principals, 1939 ee a eee ~~ tA Qa J ey a tl h Foreword That All May Learn has been prepared and published at the instance of the Implementation Committee of The National Association of Secondary School Principals in an effort to provide in a convenient and available form for the use of principals and teachers reliable information on what has been written and done about adjusting a commonly too academic secondary school curriculum to the needs and abilities of all the youth who now enter these schools. That the problem is common to practically all secondary schools and that it has become an increasingly serious one during the last ten years needs no elaboration here, as the Implementation Committee has already presented these facts in the Bulletin for Mav 1939. During this decade a large but scattered literature on the problem has been accumulating. Although many secondary schools have made more or less comprehensive attacks on the problem, accounts of these have in many cases not found their way into print. Many secondary school workers have consequently not been able to keep themselves well informed on developments in this field. This Committee has therefore undertaken to assemble in That All May Learn a summary and interpretation of the best thought, research, and practice dealing with this problem. The hope is that this handbook may be helpful to the many prin- cipals and teachers who are attempting to adapt the programs in their schools to the needs of all youth. 3 National Association of Secondary-School Principals {November The Implementation Committee is indebted to Professor B. L. Dodds, now of the education faculty of Purdue Univer- sity, who while in residence at Teachers College, Columbia University, spent a large part of two years in the investigations and research necessary to prepare the manuscript. To him the committee here expresses its thanks and appreciation. Wit FreNcH December, 1939 Chairman II. Ill. IV. V. VI. SELECTED REFERENCES CONTENTS CHAPTER Wuo ARE THE EpucATIONALLY NEGLECTED? THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED Tue NEeEDs OF THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED THE EpucaTIONALLY NEGLECTED STUDENT AS A LEARNER IMPROVEMENT OF OPPORTUNITIES AMONG THE EpUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED PAGE I. THe AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL Faces THE FUTURE 7 18) 37 57 120 166 CHAPTER I The American Secondary School Faces the Future THE story of their own time is not always clear to those who live in the midst of social change. All phases of American life have undergone a great transition during the past forty years. This transition, from a predominantly agricultural to an industrial economy, has affected every phase of life with inevitable repercussions on the American educational system. The American secondary school especially has been influenced by this change. This school has been evolving from a selective institution, primarily engaged in preparing a fortunate minor- ity for careers in the professions and strictly scholarly pursuits, to a “people’s school.” With this evolution have come the un- escapable problems involved in devising an appropriate and suitable education for all youth — problems which become each year more acute. Those actually engaged in undertaking to make secondary education universal seldom appreciate the boldness of their attempt. Yet no other nation has ever tried to provide a sys- tem of free secondary education in one institution for all its youth up to the age at present required in this country and certainly not to the age toward which every indication points that our educational system is moving. Kandel states that The public high school of the United States is, however, a unique in- stitution; in its present form it is of recent origin, and it is still in a stage of transition. .. . The American high school is essaying the task distributed in other countries among a great variety of schools, only 7 8 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November one of which grants the privilege of further advancement to higher education.! There are those who doubt the wisdom of this attempt. They question the advisability of trying to give youth extended secondary education under the limitations that are necessarily a part of a public institution such as the high school. UNIVERSAL SECONDARY EDUCATION IMPERATIVE There are those who would stamp the attempt at universal secondary education foolhardy and Utopian. Nevertheless, the great weight of American public opinion, both among professional and lay groups, is that free universal secondary ed- ucation is necessary for the implementation of our democratic ideals in a modern society. As a democracy this nation has placed its faith in an educated and intelligent citizenry. There- fore the complexity of the modern world places an increasingly greater responsibility upon the schools. The time is long past when a few short years of education sufficed to meet the problems of living. Impartial observation of the complexity of the problems faced by the average man in his personal and social life provides convincing evidence of the need for a period of education extending at least through the secondary school.’ 1 Kandel, I. L., History of Secondary Education, p. 496. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930. 2 For a more detailed discussion of this question see: Report of the Committee on Orientation of Secondary Education, Department of Secondary School Principals of the National Education Association, Issues of Secondary Education, Bulletin of Department of Secondary School Principals of the National Education Association, 20: 31-78, January 1936. Report of the Regents’ Inquiry into the Cost and Character of Public Educa- tion in the State of New York, Education for American Life, p. 38. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. Educational Policies Commission, National Education Association of the United States and the American Association of School Administrators, The Structure and Administration of Education in American Democracy, p. 10. Washington, D. C.: National Education Association, 1938. ao.lUCmkmklCUCMmOllUMOlC lCUMlC SS li lO hl eli e_—sasae el re }] op © = co" © © cq é 1939] American Secondary School Faces the Future g In the final analysis, the decision as to whether this country will have a system of universal secondary education within one institution or will return to the policy of selective education will not be decided by the opinions of learned bodies. Al- though the American people traditionally place tremendous faith in education, the recent years of economic stress have brought with them an increasingly critical attitude toward the values of education. Blind faith has been wisely replaced, to a certain extent, by an attempt to appraise the results of educa- tion, and this has been done by examining the tangible con- tributions which have been made toward effective living among the graduates of the schools. The secondary school must there- fore justify itself by more than academic opinion if it is to con- tinue to receive the support of the public. The decision as to whether or not there is to be a system of universal free sec- ondary education within one institution will be determined largely by the degree to which the high schools develop a pro- gram of education whereby every boy and girl, regardless of type of ability or talent, can profit by this extended education, and demonstrate this gain by contributing to the stabilization and improvement of our society. APPROACH OF UNIVERSAL SECONDARY EDUCATION There is little need to elaborate upon the phenomenal growth of the secondary school in this country. Each succeeding dec- ade from 1890 to 1930 has witnessed the doubling of the num- ber of youth previously enrolled in high schools. Today ap- proximately two thirds of America’s youth of secondary school age is enrolled in school. In certain states the enrollment has approached go per cent of the youth of the state.® It is not 8 U.S. Office of Education, Trends in Secondary Education, Bulletin, 1937, No. 2, p. 1. (Being Chapter II of Volume I of the Biennial Survey of Education in the United States 1934-36.) 10 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November necessary to discuss in detail the social and economic causes which have contributed to this surprising expansion. The in- crease in wealth available for public education, technological changes that tend to delay the age of entrance into gainful employment, and the profound and continuing faith of the American people in education have all contributed to this de- velopment. There is no evidence as yet that this growth of the secondary school has been halted. A decline in the national birth rate is decreasing the elementary school enrollment, and may serve to lessen somewhat the rate of increase of enrollment in the secondary school, but with one third of the high school age group not yet in school, there is a vast reservoir of students whose future attendance should for some time to come, more than compensate for this decline in the birth rate. Evidence today available points toward the secondary school of the future carrying all of the youth of high school age to the completion of the twelfth grade or beyond. The extension of high school education into the thirteenth and fourteenth year of school is but a manifestation of this phenomenon of expanding universal secondary education. PROBLEMS OF NEW STUDENTS This influx of new students presents unparalleled problems to the secondary school. The selected enrollments of the earlier days represented student bodies largely devoted, through in- terest and ability, to traditional academic pursuits. It cannot be maintained that these limited groups of earlier years were entirely homogeneous. True homogeneity can never exist in any group, no matter how selected, but certainly the increasing enrollments of recent times have brought with them an ever- increasing heterogeneity.* Universal secondary education in- 4 Ibid., p. 2. 1939] American Secondary School Faces the Future 11 evitably means a school population with a range of interests, special abilities and aptitudes, vocational purposes, and life plans representative of the entire population. What the change means specifically, in terms of pupil char- acteristics and needs, must be determined by examination in detail. It is sufficient here to point out that it has brought to the high school problems far broader than those involved in providing a sufficient number of teachers and additional build- ing facilities to care for the increased numbers. It means that a secondary school program must be provided in which the curriculum content and the methods of instruction are differen- tiated and developed to meet the capacities and needs of all types of youth. The public educational system of America, which provides within one educational institution a program so varied and flexible and so well adapted to promote the welfare of a mul- titude of different types of youth, is an achievement of which this nation may well be proud. The comprehensive high school, planned to serve without social, class, or economic dis- tinctions the community of which it is a part, is a unique and distinctly American institution to which the people of this country have given their approval and confidence. Nevertheless, this is no time for complacency. The Ameri- can experiment of free universal secondary education within one institution is facing a critical time. The success of those who must furnish leadership in adapting the high school pro- gram to meet this crisis will in the years ahead determine whether this American experiment of a universal system of free secondary education is to be a page in the record of our democratic achievement or will be thought of as merely an ill-guided social institution which failed to meet the challenge of its times. 12 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November DEVICES FOR MEETING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES INADEQUATE The problem of meeting individual differences in the sec- ondary school has made itself felt over a long period. New devices have been hailed with enthusiasm but still the almost frantic search for new methods of adapting the program testi- fies to recognition of the inadequacy of traditional methods. As the high school has developed, the educational program of- fered in the school has continued to expand, and attempts have been made to devise techniques to care for the wide range of individual differences. Besides the conventional college pre- paratory courses, vocational courses and general courses are now offered. The number and type of elective courses offered have been multiplied. A more flexible type of unit assignment has been introduced. And yet the cry goes out, “What shall we do with this multitude of new types of students crowding into our high schools?” What shall we do with these youths, designated by a diversity of names, to whom the conventional goals of the high school are obviously ill adapted and for whom the comparatively few skilled vocations for which the majority of our high schools are now able to train are far too limited? What shall we do for these students when our standard tech- niques for meeting individual differences are relatively inef- fective? The problem of dealing with this educationally neglected group in the high school is not peculiar to any section of the country. The inquiry conducted by the Committee on Im- plementation has revealed that the instruction of the “non- academic” or “slow” pupil, the “nonscholastically” apt pupil is a problem in every geographical area of the country.® This 6 Ror a report of this inquiry see: Patrick, Robert B., “Most Pressing Problems of Principals” (Part II of the Preliminary Report of the Implementation Committee), The Bulletin of the Department of Secondary School Principals, 23: 4-28, May 1939. 1939] American Secondary School Faces the Future 13 same inquiry indicates that secondary school principals and teachers realize the existence of a large group of students in high school today for whom the conventional program is poorly adapted. The present program fails so signally to meet the needs of these students that they may well be thought of as educationally neglected. Inasmuch as current discussion con- centrates on the problem of the “nonacademic,” the “new type,” or the “nonscholastically apt” student in the high school, the term “educationally neglected” has been chosen for use in this bulletin. The negative terms ordinarily used generally carry an implication which is inconsistent with the realization among those interested in secondary education that the fundamental approach to the orientation of a school for all youth is the adjustment of the curriculum to the student. Those who are connected with the small high school are of- ten inclined to feel that in the large high school with its greater range of possible electives and more elaborate equipment the solution of this problem must be relatively simple. Yet from these larger schools the problem of adjustment of curriculum to student is submitted with equal frequency. Also there is no reason to believe that the problem is temporary. As we move toward universal secondary education the problem can only become more acute. Truly universal secondary education would bring into the schools that one third of the youth now failing to attend and undoubtedly increase the number in the very sizable group of the educationally neglected which prin- cipals and teachers testify exists today. NEED FOR FULLEST DEVELOPMENT OF ABILITIES To be successful the approach to the problem of adjusting instruction to all youth in high school must be made with a mental attitude that refuses to scale values to a particular type 14 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November of scholastic aptitude and achievement. No one will attempt to deny that contributions to society have been made by individ- uals who, because of special interests and aptitudes, have de- voted their lives to scholarly study and research and to the professions demanding this type of work. The continued progress of our civilization demands rigorous preparation of the limited number of people who by inclination and aptitude are fitted for such study. But it is becoming increasingly ap- parent that the proportion of such people which any society can absorb is relatively limited.’ The work of the world demands the fullest development of all types of aptitudes and abilities. It is necessary to remember that history is studded with the names of men and women who failed to achieve adjustment and scholastic success in our educational institutions, and yet have achieved renown and prestige and made definite contribu- tions to the progress of the world. Since society does need all types of abilities, and since individuals vary widely in these, it is absurd for an educational institution which attempts to serve all youth to base its entire system of values upon a given type of academic aptitude and then attempt to mold every pupil to this pattern insofar as possible. It is an attempt doomed to failure by the very nature of individual differences and would be highly undesirable even if possible. 6 It is beyond the scope of this bulletin to enter into consideration of whether we are preparing an inadequate or excessive number of people for the professions. The situation varies in the different professions to a degree that makes any generali- zation unreliable. Such studies as have been made would indicate that in general the major problem today is that of making professional education more broadly available to youth of all economic classes and improving the quality of professional education. Those interested in this problem will find some excellent materials available in: Kotschnig, Walter M., Unemployment in the Learned Professions, Part II. Lon- don: Oxford University Press, 1937. Clark, Harold F., Economic Theory and Current Occupational Distribution. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1931. 1939] American Secondary School Faces the Future 15 In a democracy the approach to this problem must be based upon a recognition of society’s need for the maximum con- tribution of each individual, a recognition of his unique char- acter, a respect for his individual capacities and interests, what- ever they may be, and a sincere desire to aid him in the devel- opment of his abilities and purposes without reference to any preconceived system of prestige values. Only such an ap- proach can possibly bring about the achievement of an educa- tional program which can function effectively in a system of universal secondary education. It is the only approach to be made by a democracy which professes to believe that respect for the unique character of each individual is its basic principle. NO SINGLE SOLUTION TO PROBLEMS OF EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED It would be naive to assume that there exists a simple, single, and complete solution to the problem concerning secondary education among the educationally neglected. The entire edu- cational system is at present undergoing change. Moreover, new educational agencies are being developed. The Civilian Con- servation Corps and the National Youth Administration, re- cently organized governmental experiments, have their educa- tional implications; curricular experimentation and reorgani- zation go on apace; vocational programs are being expanded. From the shifting educational pattern of today the secondary school program of the future must form a new pattern. Not even in discussing so specific a problem as the adjustment of secondary education to the educationally neglected student can it be assumed that this exists as an absolutely separate and dis- tinct problem of secondary education. The changing nature of our vast and complex technical civilization demands the re- orientation of our whole concept of secondary education. The education of any single group is only one aspect of a larger 16 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November problem. It is not inconceivable, however, that out of the greater opportunity and freedom for experimentation in de- veloping the educational program of the educationally neg- lected, the noncollege student, will come patterns and pro- cedures which will aid in the adaptation and general improve- ment of education for all youth. SUPREME TEST OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL The period of expansion of enrollments in the secondary school is nearing its close; however, the important problem that the school faces is what to do with the great number of youth now that they are in school. Obviously all is not well today. As the American secondary school faces the future, the greatest problem of its organization and administration, as well as of its instructional program, is concerned with providing adequate and appropriate education for all the children of all the peo- ple, and its supreme test will be met in the degree to which it succeeds in providing functional positive education for all youth. It is certain that the existence of the American sec- ondary school and, quite possibly, the existence of American Society will rise or fall as this test is or is not met. The following pages represent a part of a broad effort on the part of the National Association of Secondary School Prin- cipals to be of assistance to the principals, teachers, and patrons whose attention is focused on this problem and to call to the attention of all those who are involved the magnitude of the problem and its critical nature. Any systematic consideration of the problem that has been outlined above will call for answers to the following questions: 1. Who are these educationally neglected youth? 2. What are they like? 3. What do they need from the schools? 1939] American Secondary School Faces the Future 4. How may they best be taught? 5. What are the promising developments now going on in the secondary schools? CHAPTER II Who Are the Educationally Neglected? STATED BROADLY, an educationally neglected student is one to whom appropriate educational facilities are not available for any one or a number of reasons. This bulletin is more specifi- cally concerned with the group of students who fall under the popular classification “nonscholarly.” In a general way the educationally neglected student may be termed that student to whom the conventional curriculum is maladjusted. But when one examines the pupil population to find a basis for classify- ing it into types, it soon becomes apparent that any such classi- fication is limited by the very nature of the criteria selected. The school population might conceivably be divided according to height, weight, sex, color of hair, racial origin, or any one of a number of criteria. No one of these classifications, except the one taken into consideration, would insure any great degree of homogeneity. The illustrations cited are, of course, absurd, but the classifications often used among school populations suffer in a very real degree from the same defect. It needs to be recognized that the so-called intelligence tests today so widely used for pupil classification are no exception. What- ever these tests may measure, beyond ability to deal successfully with verbal materials and abstractions, they do not measure such factors as mechanical aptitude, artistic possibilities, social maturity, personality adjustments, or a host of other qualities forming the total make-up of an individual, nor do they indi- cate the potential value of that individual to society if educated. 18 ~~ 4 Se Gr oOo ®» ses 4 te U 1939] Who Are the Educationally Neglected? 19 Numerous studies have been made which attempt to measure the relation between the various kinds of abilities possessed by individuals. One cannot generalize from the results of these studies except to state that while varying degrees of positive relationships do seem to exist, the relationships are, in practi- cally all cases, of such nature as to render all-inclusive prediction based on the measurement of any one ability extremely unre- liable. Within the field of so-called academic studies it is not unusual to find students excelling in certain branches of study and exhibiting mediocre accomplishments in others. The factor of interest may possibly influence such cases, but there is reason to believe that specialization of abilities is also a factor. NORMAL DISTRIBUTION OF ABILITIES Furthermore, whatever criterion is used in making a classi- fication, the nature of abilities is not such that students can be segregated into natural groupings. Scientific studies of abilities reveal that all measurable traits tend to group themselves around a median or average point in accordance with the normal probability curve. Thus, except in very extreme cases, it is not correct to say that an individual is musical or nonmusi- cal, brilliant or dull, academic or nonacademic. For the great majority of people taken individually, it is a matter of degree — a person is somewhat musical or academic, more or less tall, etc. Freeman’ in an extended discussion of this point states: Popular opinion has created types for almost all traits, those of men- tality as well as those of physique and personality. The popular view has separated people into distinct classes in respect to mental traits, for until the development of experimental psychology, human nature was a matter of rough empirical observation and speculation. The persistence 1 Freeman, Frank S., Individual Differences, pp. 33-63. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1934. 20 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November of the fallacy of distinct types today is due simply to the fact that scien- tific data and doctrines have not penetrated sufficiently to the non-tech- nical reader.” . . . But when persons in general are considered, it is found that in- stead of distinct opposed types there is a continuous graduation from one extreme to the other, showing a concentration of individuals about a cen- tral point, with the frequency of occurrence decreasing as the distance from the central tendency increases. It should be remembered that the common classification of school pupils, according to intelligence quotients, from genius through various categories to idiot is a purely arbitrary classi- fication, which serves a purpose only if used with full realiza- tion of its limitations. A pupil is not specifically superior, average, or dull, but varies in degree from the average. A change of a few points in quotient may in reality have little significance, yet adding a few points may change a classifica- tion from very superior to genius or from moron to feeble- minded according to the purely artificial lines of demarcation set up. Since all abilities possessed by any group are distributed in a normal way it is inevitable that if an identical program is demanded alike of all youth, superior ability will be exhibited only by a relatively small proportion of the group. A high school faculty should realize that to expect a high level of abil- ity in all students is contrary to any reasonable expectation and that fully half of any unselected group will exhibit average or less than average ability in a particular line of endeavor. INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION The recognition of the fact that the many abilities of any individual, or of individuals taken collectively, do not fall at a 2 Ibid., p. 33. 8 Ibid., p. 35. f l- l- iS > te d rr 1939] Who Are the Educationally Neglected? 21 common level and that they fail to correlate highly according to any single criterion would indicate that all education must be to some extent individualized. Since no two individuals are ever identical in characteristics, needs, and capacities, the education of each pupil should be adapted to him accordingly. This point of approach needs continuous emphasis, for it must be remembered that identical education for large groups does not necessarily result in equality of opportunity. From a prac- tical standpoint, however, individualized education is slightly fantastic and, even if possible, not desirable. Universal education as it is envisioned for this country must inevitably be group education. Successful modern living de- mands the ability to live and work with others. For this reason group education that shall contribute toward social adjustment is not only necessary but desirable. However, within any framework of general instruction there should exist a flexibil- ity that will ensure the adaptability of the program to the in- dividual’s needs to a maximal extent. Any valid classification that serves to reduce the heterogeneity within groups will simplify the problem of adjusting instruction to the group. Despite the limitations that appear when attempting to use classifications as a method, classifications may be said to have relative value. Accordingly one may be justified in attempting to consider a specific group of pupils, termed the educationally neglected, while realizing fully that such a classification is purely arbitrary and has serious limitations. CAUSAL FACTORS IN PUPIL MALADJUSTMENT While the educationally neglected student may be termed, in a general way, that student to whom the conventional academic curriculum is maladjusted, in actually selecting the student this criterion helps very little. Maladjustment may be caused 22. National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November by any one of a number of factors, or by a combination of fac- tors. No single criterion of maladjustment exists. The so- called academic curriculum is not uniformly carried out in all the thousands of high schools in which it is found in this coun- try. Yet to deny its existence in our high schools simply be- cause one cannot draw specific lines of segregation among the students merely evades the issue. The testimony of all those connected with the secondary schools verifies the fact that there is a large group of youth to whom the conventional school program is maladjusted. This maladjustment is evi- denced by failure, insignificant achievement, irregular attend- ance, discipline problems, and, although to a lesser extent to- day than formerly, by withdrawal from school. It is possible to indicate several more or less common factors associated with this maladjustment. The two factors that appear most per- sistently are lack of interest in traditional academic work and lack of verbal ability, as measured by intelligence tests. CONVENTIONAL SUBJECTS CORE OF CURRICULUM It is quite commonly assumed that the expansion of the sec- ondary school offerings and the wide adoption of the elective system has resulted in a flexibility that permits the curriculum to be adapted to the widest range of student needs. Yet exam- ination of actual student programs reveals that the conventional fields of study are still in the main the core of each student’s program. In the small school, with its limited offering, these studies may constitute the entire program. In the large school the traditional prestige of these fields results in the major em- phasis being placed on them. Vocational and general curricula include, asa rule, a large core of work which is as academic and conventional as the college preparatory work. This emphasis on academic work apparently is partly due to the limited offer- 1939] Who Are the Educationally Neglected? 23 ings in many schools and partly due to the traditional prestige of the academic fields, which draw students regardless of their actual abilities or interests. The fact remains, however, that the typical high school program consists largely of the con- ventional fields of study: English, social studies, languages, mathematics, and science. Douglass states that Compilations of credits earned by graduates of senior and four-year high schools show some three fourths of the total amount of work to have been devoted to the academic subjects and about one fourth to non-academic subjects . . . for graduates going on to college, the propor- tionate time given to academic studies is probably somewhat larger. .. . Pupils without college intentions probably turn in larger numbers to the industrial arts; those not finishing high school may be expected to earn more credit in the vocation subjects.‘ The programs completed by high school graduates show almost no “pattern” other than the conventional subjects pat- tern. The student then whose abilities and interests do not lie in the academic fields is not likely to find his experience in the typical high school very satisfactory. INTERESTS AND SPECIAL ABILITIES AS RELATED TO SCHOOL ADJUSTMENT In recent years the necessity of pupil interest as a requisite for success in any line of endeavor has been increasingly em- phasized. A number of research studies are being devoted to an examination of the interests of both children and adoles- cents. It is not pertinent at this point to discuss the findings of these studies, but to point out that they have found that maladjustment to the academic curriculum may result largely from the fact that the individual’s interests are of a different 4 Douglass, A. A., Modern Secondary Education, p. 681. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1938. 24 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November nature from those around which the conventional college pre- paratory curriculum centers. The high school student who, although he possesses a high type of ability, achieves only mediocre success in all or part of his formalized studies is a common phenomenon. Perhaps in some instances this is a re- sult of inadequate motivation. In many cases, however, stu- dents show evidence of talents of a high order in areas other than those covered by conventional studies. Special interests in the arts, music, and skilled handicrafts are demonstrated, and may to a considerable degree outweigh any interests in formal studies of a more conventional nature. Though these students may possess ability and, through the application of external pressure or because of personal pride, may achieve moderate success in the formal academic curricula, in the broader sense they may be considered educationally neglected. INTELLIGENCE AND ACADEMIC SUCCESS It is an elaboration of the obvious to point out that intelli- gence and failure in the academic curriculum are related. The ordinary type of intelligence test demands ability of an abstract and verbal type which is prerequisite to success in the academic curriculum. The fact that the correlation between intelligence and school achievement is higher than it is for intelligence and any other ascertainable factor ° has led to the contention that these tests measure little of a fundamental nature other than 5 For the summary of an experimental study of these correlations see: Burt, Cyril, The Backward Child, pp. 449-450. New York: D. Appleton-Cen- tury Company, 1937. Summaries of the findings of similar studies are presented in Mursell, James L., The Psychology of Secondary School Teaching, pp. 304- 305. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1939. Griffiths, Coleman R., An Introduction to Educational Psychology, p. 562. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1935. 1939} Who Are the Educationally Neglected? 25 the special ability to succeed in academic study.° To the in- dividual interested in practical school adjustments this conten- tion is of little importance. The type of ability necessary to attain a high level of success in the academic curriculum is lacking in a large proportion of the present pupil population. Since failure and withdrawal from school are evidences of maladjustment, examination of the research studies dealing with these phenomena might conceivably give some idea of the extent of maladjustment, and of the proportion of the stu- dent body who reasonably may be considered educationally neglected. FAILURE IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL A study of failures in the secondary schools shows that it is doubtful whether the number and extent of failures in different areas reveals the degree of pupil maladjustment there. Failure in academic study is doubtless closely related to what we have chosen to call intelligence, although many other factors are involved. What is not indicated by the statistics on failure is the large number of students who, although they re- ceive passing marks, really fail to profit to any important de- gree by the instruction offered. A tendency in recent years, motivated in general by a humane consideration of pupil de- velopment, has been to frown upon a high proportion of fail- ures in any area of study. The number of failures is much more likely to be determined by administrative policy than by an evaluation of the contribution that instruction has made to pupil growth.” Few today would advise instituting a high per- 6 Ingram, Christine P., Education of the Slow Learning Child, p. 393. Yonkers- on-Hudson: World Book Company, 1935. 7 John L. Tildsley presents an account of the extent of this practice together with a strong indictment of the policy in The Mounting Waste in Secondary Educa- tion. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936. 26 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November centage of failures, which as a policy inevitably causes emotional maladjustments among adolescent pupils, but the policy of using lenient standards of passing whereby a respectable num- ber of students are promoted may be a means of avoiding the uncomfortable fact that a number of pupils are failing to profit from the type of instruction offered. Use of such a policy does not reveal the number of students who, though receiving pass- ing marks, have by poor achievement, really evidenced a fail- ure to profit by the instruction. Briggs, in his Inglis Lecture at Harvard in 1930, presented convincing evidence of the fail- ure of many high school students to achieve a satisfactory level of accomplishment in the customary subjects of instruction. The remedy, it seems, lies not in modification of standards for failure, since, as Briggs says: The lowering of standards that a respectable percentage may pass is fair to students at neither extreme: Those with exceptional academic abilities are not challenged as they should be to the high accomplish- ment of which they are capable: those with abilities of other kinds are wasting their time in attempting a program for which nature did not equip them and in which they are doomed to insignificant achievement or to failure.® Although there is ample evidence that many youth are fail- ing to profit in any great degree from much of the instruction offered in our secondary schools, one is forced to conclude that an examination of the number of high school students failing to be promoted does not disclose this fact. In other words, those failing to be promoted represent only the extreme cases and not the larger group of students who, although passing, fail to achieve a level of profitable accomplishment. 8 Briggs, Thomas H., The Great Investment, p. 131. Cambridge: The Harvard University Press, 1930. See also Portenier, Lillian G., Pupils of Low Mentality in High School, pp. 92-94. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1933. 1939] Who Are the Educationally Neglected? 27 ELIMINATION AS A MEASURE OF MALADJUSTMENT The fact that today a larger percentage of the youth popula- tion than ever before is enrolled in high school is usually given as the reason why the problem of the nonacademic and dull youth exists in high school. In a general way this is true. At least this fact shows that the problem is more critical and press- ing than ever before. No doubt several decades ago the gen- eral cultural and industrial conditions, which made easy and even necessary the employment of adolescents at a compara- tively early age, served to eliminate the majority of youth from high school attendance. During this period these factors served to exclude from high school practically all youth who lacked the so-called academic interests and abilities, but un- doubtedly it excluded also a great many who did possess high academic ability. A comparison of the characteristics of the present high school population and those of the population of former years yields some indication of the changes which have taken place in high school students in recent years. Bell and Proctor compared a student body of a California high school for the year 1917-18 with the student body of the same school for 1933-34 and found that the median intelligence quotient had dropped from 108 to 104. They also found a marked in- crease in the percentage of pupils with intelligence quotients below 95 and an increase in the percentage of pupils from homes where the father was employed at unskilled labor.’ Portenier studied the constancy of the mean level of intelli- gence of students in certain selected high schools and found: (a) a fairly consistent tendency toward a lowering of the mean mental and chronological ages resulting in pupils of a lower degree of mental maturity; (4) a slight but quite clear tendency toward a low- 9 Bell, Havrah and Proctor, William Martin, “High School Population Then and Now — A Sixteen-Year Span,” School Review, 44:689-93, November 1936. 28 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November ering of the mean intelligence quotients of high school pupils and an increase in the percentage of pupils of low mentality who are entering high school, as well as an increase of those who are remaining to be giaduated.!9 Numerous studies of withdrawal from school have been made in recent years in order to discover the factors responsi- ble for this situation. It appears that level of intelligence is a contributing factor. There is a general tendency for greater numbers of the less academically able students to withdraw as compared with the more able. This is indicated by the fact that the median intelligence quotient of each class rises in a small but significant amount from the ninth to the twelfth grades.'' Numerous other investigations have verified the fact that a greater number of the so-called dull pupils than of the more academically able pupils withdraw from secondary school.*? In a report of the Regents’ Inquiry, When Youth Leave School, the authors, Eckert and Marshall, state: A marked tendency exists for the less academically able students, as measured by both aptitude test results and school marks, to withdraw at low grade levels. On the average, the less competent a pupil has 10 Portenier, op. cit., p. 92. 11 The National Survey of Secondary Education discovered the average intelli- gence quotients of presumably typical groups of high school classes to be as follows: ninth grade, 98.6; tenth, 101; eleventh, 103.7; twelfth, 104.5. Kefauver, Grayson N., Noll, Victor H., and Drake, C. Elwood, The Horizontal Organization of Secondary Education. National Survey of Secondary Education, U. S. Office of Education, Bul- letin, 1932, No. 17, Monograph No. 2, p. 139. 12 Douglass, Harl R. and Wind, Kate, “Factors Related to Withdrawal from Junior High Schools in Minneapolis,” Elementary School Journal, 37:375-80, Jan- uary 1937. Dowd, Constance E., “A Study of High School Graduates with Reference to Level of Intelligence,” The Journal of Educational Psychology, 23:687-702, December 1933. Woody, Wilford H. and Cushman, C. L., “A Study of Continuance and Dis- continuance,” Journal of Educational Research, 30:183-87, November 1936. { : 3 DOA ARB hTERT UE a te es Shae PIP ABI A A OS BD St 1939} Who Are the Educationally Neglected? 29 shown himself to be in meeting school tasks, the more quickly he is released to face adult problems. Those who will be least able to acquire socially useful habits, information, and points of view without formal instruction are those to whom the school has given least attention... .18 These statistical studies of the changes in intelligence level and of the nature of withdrawals from high school tend to verify what general observation would indicate, the very trends that common sense would suspect. However, as a basis for affording a means of classification for educationally neglected students, these studies are of little use. Each succeeding per- centage increase of youth in high school attendance has not been composed exclusively of youth of less mental ability than the previous group. When 10 per cent of the youth of the nation were in high school, this percentage group did not rep- resent the upper 10 per cent in ability. Neither is the group of 30 to 4o per cent of boys and girls of high school age who are not in school today composed exclusively of individuals in the lower ranges of ability. A host of factors determine the length of period any pupil remains in high school. The economic position of the home, the occupation of the father, the racial and cultural group, state compulsory education laws, conditions of gainful employment, the individual interests of the pupil, the availability of the high school, sex and health of the pupil, school failure, and low in- telligence, all apparently have a relation to length of school attendance."* For every youth of low ability who leaves school, 18 Eckert, Ruth E. and Marshall, Thomas O., When Youth Leave School, pp. 67-68. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1939. 14 Counts, George Sylvester, The Selective Character of American Secondary Education. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1922. Kefauver, Grayson N., Noll, Victor H., and Drake, C. Elwood, The Secondary School Population. National Survey of Secondary Education, U. S. Office of Educa- tion Bulletin, 1932, No. 17, Monograph No. 4. Calever, Ambrose, Secondary Education for Negroes, pp. 11, 15, 16, 17, 19, 30 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November a youth of corresponding ability remains.’* The number of highly able youth whom the secondary schools fail to hold is of tragic proportions. One is forced to conclude that all the available evidence shows that maladjustment in high school is caused by more than a single factor, and that research offers no single or ade- quate criterion with which to differentiate the educationally neglected group. Nevertheless, low mental ability, as measured by verbal intelligence tests, appears and reappears persistently as a factor, related directly to school failures. Withdrawals from high school generally show levels of mental ability lower than those of the remaining students. However, even though maladjustment to school cannot be assumed to result from any single cause, the recurrence of low mental ability as a related factor warrants a consideration, by itself, of the group who lack high intelligence. ARBITRARY LINE OF CLASSIFICATION Just what proportion of students are capable of profiting from academic studies through lack of special aptitude cannot be exactly determined, for the answer is dependent upon first determining the flexibility of the academic curriculum of a particulas school, what one considers a profitable level of and 113. National Survey of Secondary Education, U. S. Office of Education Bulletin, 1932, Monograph No. 7. Bell, Howard M., Youth Tell Their Story, pp. 63-64. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education, 1938. Cook, Katherine M. and Gaumnitz, W. H., “Availability of Schools in Rural Communities,” (Part I: The Status of Rural Education, pp. 55-95. Thirtieth Year- book of the National Society for the Study of Education.) Bloomington: Public School Publishing Company, 1931. 15 Carlisle, John C. and Williams, L. A., “What Pupils Are Being Eliminated,” The Clearing House, 13:233-34, December 1938. 1939] Who Are the Educationally Neglected? 31 achievement, and the interest and motivation of the individual student. Terman has stated that Largely through the influence of the university, the bars have been raised until graduation is well beyond the intellectual endowment of a large proportion of children. Below go I1.Q., graduation is by no means likely and nearly a third of all children are this low or lower.1® After a study of the progress of a group of children from the sixth grade through high school in Cincinnati, Dowd states, “Pupils with percentile ranks [in intelligence] under 25 may achieve graduation, but the probability is slight.”*7 A per- centile rank of 25 in an unselected group would correspond to an I.Q. of slightly above go. In 1937 the Pennsylvania Branch of the Department of Sec- ondary School Principals of the National Education Associa- tion appointed a committee to study the curriculum planned for “nonacademically minded” students. A questionnaire study conducted early in 1938 in Pennsylvania indicated that, in the opinion of those directing the schools, between 40 and 50 per cent of the total secondary school population could be designated as belonging to this educationally neglected group." Cobb has stated that the child of less than 100 I.Q. or less than 14 mental age should be encouraged to try other types of train- ing than that offered in the academic high school.’® Pinter states that pupils with intelligence quotients of between go 16 Terman, Louis M., The Intelligence of School Children, p. 90. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919. 17 Dowd, op. cit., p. 701. 18 Pennsylvania Branch, Department of Secondary School Principals of the Na- tional Education Association, Brief Outline of Curriculum Studies for the Non-College Pupil in Pennsylvania Secondary Schools, p. 2. February 1939. 19 Cobb, M. V., “The Limits Set to Educational Achievement by Limited In- telligence,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 13:549, 1922. 32 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November and 100 have great difficulty in graduating from our present high schools.”° Psychologists and students of the problems of mentally lim- ited students have in their attempts at classification considered those with I.Q.’s between 75 and go as constituting what is termed the dull normal group. There is little doubt that the greater part of the conventional high school program is defi- nitely beyond the ability of these boys and girls, who constitute about 20 per cent of the total of all youth. However, the ma- jority of the opinions quoted have tended to place the level of intelligence necessary for profitable academic study consider- ably above an I.Q. of 90. There appears to be ample reason for believing that if the I.Q. falls in any great degree be- low the average, the chances of any worth-while degree of achievement in the academic curriculum are slight. If such a basis of classification is used, fully half of an unselected high school population might be termed educationally neglected. On the other hand, in the average high school, where the median intelligence quotient still remains somewhat above the theoretical median of 100, 30 to 4o per cent of the school popu- lation could still be classified as educationally neglected. Douglass,’ in discussing the instruction of the “pupils of an intelligence level of low average or below” states It is estimated that, under average conditions, there will be from 30 to 40 per cent of the entire number of pupils in a given high school who are gaining little profit from their attendance upon the excessively academic and verbal curriculum. Thus if for the purposes of delimitation and discussion an 1.Q. below 100, determined on the basis of abstract ability, is 20 Pinter, Rudolph, Intelligence Testing, p. 280. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1931. 21 Douglass, A. A., Modern Secondary Education, p. 658. New’ York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1938. i. 2 a a ae ae ~A 1939] Who Are the Educationally Neglected? 33 arbitrarily accepted for classification of the educationally neg- lected, with full realization that many individual exceptions will exist, one might conceive of the student body of a school as consisting of three general and admittedly vaguely defined groups: a relatively small group who by interest and type of ability are adjusted to and capable of success in a verbalized and academic curriculum; a group who although possessing above average abstract ability are, through lack of interest in academic fields and perhaps specialized interests in other fields, not adjusted to academic study; and finally a group, a very sizable group, who lack both the interests and ability for ad- justment to verbalized academic study. Butterfield, in a challenging article entitled “The New Fifty Per Cent,” has suggested from the standpoint of occupational destinations a somewhat similar distribution. He has con- ceived of the school population as being composed of three general groups: a group of approximately 25 per cent who will attend a university and presumably enter the professions; a group of approximately 25 per cent who are moderately well adjusted to the specialized vocational work offered in most of the larger high schools and who will enter the skilled trades; and finally a group, termed the “new fifty per cent,” who will work mainly in unskilled and semiskilled jobs and for whom the present high school offers little of practical value. He suggests that the latter group, as a rule, will be characterized by an I.Q. of below roo, although this certainly will not be the only factor placing students in this group.** While the percentages offered by Butterfield are only approximations they are somewhat near the percentages that general opinions and observations would suggest. 22 Butterfield, E. W., “The New Fifty Per Cent,” Junior and Senior High School Clearing House, 8:265-72, January, 1934. [November 34 National Association of Secondary-School Principals Modifying Butterfield’s point of view but slightly, these groups might be conceived of as follows: (@) a group whose work will demand continued study in books and laboratories, the so-called scholars and near-scholars of society; (4) a group who will utilize and apply the knowledge of others; and finally, (¢) a group who will learn largely through practical experience and for whom verbal methods of learning will play a relatively small part. It is with “the new fifty per cent” — the educationally neg- lected — that this bulletin will deal. It should be repeated that this so-called educationally neglected group exists not because its members are inherently different from other individuals. It is created primarily by the curriculum of the high school. With a less verbal and formalized curriculum the distinction between the groups ceases to exist. It is not argued, however, that the conventional academic program is the best possible pro- gram for the upper half in mental ability. Quite conceivably the whole program needs reorientation and the suggestions of- fered for training the educationally neglected student can be used to improve the effectiveness of the program for all stu- dents. There is, however, ample evidence that the academic curriculum, although possibly the best conceivable program for some, is not adjusted to this large group of youth — the new fifty per cent. The number of withdrawals, the number of outright failures, or the number whose level of achievement warrants their being classified as educationally neglected show that the curriculum is not adjusted to the student. The following facts from the evidence examined in this chapter would seem to have significance for those engaged in secondary school work: 1. The tendency to think of students in sharply divided groups, as being academic or nonacademic, verbal or hand- SC 1939 | Who Are the Educationally Neglected? 35 minded, as either possessing or not possessing any particular ability, must be discarded in favor of a recognition of the fact that abilities are distributed in a continuous manner from none to many, the great majority being average. In fields of com- mon endeavor the large majority of an unselected school popu- lation cannot possess a relatively high level of ability. In an ordinary high school high academic achievement cannot and will not be attained by a large proportion of students. 2. Maladjustment in school as indicated by elimination, failure, and low level of achievement is the result of many con- tributing factors and not the result of any single and simple cause, and while interest and low level of verbal intelligence are persistently related factors individual cases must be ex- amined in the light of all facts. 3. The number of school eliminations and failures in school work does not give a true or complete picture of the extent of school maladjustment. School faculties need to examine real- istically the accomplishment of students beyond the matter of failure or promotion to determine if any worth-while level of achievement is being attained. 4. The conventional academic curriculum, which evidence shows is still the main core of the secondary school program, is largely maladjusted to the 30 or 40 per cent of the typical high school enrollment, who are below the average in intel- ligence. These youth under the present program of education are neglected educationally because of our failure to provide for them a program from which they can profit. The conven- tional program fails to take into consideration the group who, although possessed of above average ability, have interests in areas other than conventional studies. If this great group of students are neglected by the secondary schools, as the evidence indicates, then it behooves those who 36 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November are engaged in teaching and directing secondary schools to consider which type of program is most appropriate and ef- fective. Any such consideration must, however, be based upon examination of the characteristics of the boys and girls in this group. CHAPTER III The Characteristics of the Educationally Neglected The typical educationally neglected student might be de- scribed in terms of a hypothetical person. Since, however, any group of students is composed of individuals varying widely in all of the different characteristics that go to make up a total human personality such a hypothetical person would be a pure abstraction, and never met in an actual school. Abilities and traits are not absent or present in certain groups of students but are present in varying degrees in individuals where they are combined to form an infinite variety of patterns. An at- tempt to take a broadly defined group, classify it as a given type, and rigidly institute an educational program based upon such a theoretical type is unsound. The sounder and more serviceable approach is to examine those general characteristics which are reported, by those who have made the most painstaking research in the field, as having the greater frequency of occurrence among the educationally neglected pupils. From an examination of this research guidance in the adaptation of an educational program may be gained. THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED STUDENT A NORMAL INDIVIDUAL Any sound approach to the instruction of the educationally neglected must be based on the realization that these students are not in any way abnormal individuals. In fact the academic person who can happily devote a lifetime to the pursuit of work dealing largely in abstract symbols of experience as re- 37 38 National Association of Secondary-School Principals |November ported through writing could with far more justification be considered abnormal. Nothing about the appearance of the educationally neglected in any way differentiates them from others. Socially they may be well adjusted and physically of normal development; in every way they may play a normal part in society. These are the persons who successfully carry on a great part of the work of the world; they are our friends and neighbors and are in every way an integral and essential part of the social and economic structure. Lincoln’s famous saying anent “the common people” might equally well be ap- plied to the educationally neglected. That they get along bet- ter almost everywhere else than in school may be more of a reflection on the school than on them. Many popular con- ceptions regarding the abnormalities of the definitely mentally handicapped (many of which are ill founded) have been gen- eralized to include a multitude of students who have failed in academic adjustment.’ It is possible that the fact that the great majority of the sec- ondary school teachers are drawn from a group who were well adjusted by nature of ability to academic study, and probably highly docile in their reaction to conventional school procedure, has contributed to the tragic lack of understanding of the prob- lems of these new pupils entering the high school. Much of the current writing concerning the instruction of the “non- academic” pupil has stressed the necessity for the teacher to possess a generous amount of missionary patience and sym- pathy when called upon to deal with these students. Patience 1 Feldman after an experimental study of dull and average students in junior high school dealing with academic work, nonacademic work, social and civic par- ticipation, length of time in school and work experiences conciudes, “The similarities between dull and average children have been more striking in this study than the dissimilarities.” Feldman, E. E., “The Dull Child and the Junior High School Cur- riculum,” Journal of Experimental Education, 5:206-11, December 1936. 1939] | The Characteristics of the Educationally Neglected 39 and sympathy are admirable virtues in any school situation but one may question if in this case the special brand counseled for instructors is not far more likely to result in the teacher’s approaching the problem with the mental attitude of the martyr rather than that of a normal individual assisting other normal individuals. Observation of the very real success in the after-school life of many people who were very poor academic students should be illuminating and thought-pro- voking for the educator, and result in helping teachers to real- ize that the exclusively academic and the exclusively nonaca- demic are equally abnormal. STUDIES OF DIFFERENCES Numerous attempts have been made to isolate the character- istics of the so-called bright and dull pupils. Some studies have dealt in a general way with this problem, drawing conclusions largely from the observations and experiences of teachers. A very few studies of a psychological nature have attempted to discover whether the mental processes of these groups are fun- damentally different from each other. The former type of study suffers from the tendency to con- sider characteristics exhibited largely in relation to academic study. It may be questioned if the inferences which have been drawn from observing the conduct of dull pupils engaged in rigorous academic study are valid. Characteristics so derived may very likely reflect the reactions of any adolescent faced with a problem foreign to his type of ability, and may not be peculiar to any one class of pupils. To say that the dull pupil usually fails to exhibit initiative may be quite true with regard to the study of grammar but entirely erroneous with regard to his conduct on the athletic field or in practical work outside of school. After all, people are judged in life by far broader crite- ria than the characteristics they exhibited in formal school situ- 40 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November ations. A certain minimum of formal and verbalized learning may quite reasonably be necessary for the progress of any child, and with regard to this learning these attributed characteristics may quite possibly be valid, but we cannot legitimately gen- eralize to the extent of saying that these characteristics are present in all the conduct and learning situations of the less scholarly student. This should never be forgotten. Further- more, many of the characteristics attributed to dull pupils have been drawn from observation of the very dull and are not exhibited in exaggerated form by the majority of the educationally neglected pupils. PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED As a general assumption it is defensible to consider the edu- cationally neglected group as possessing the normal range of human physical development. No evidence is found to prove that the old proverb “a strong back and a weak mind” can be taken as a principle. The fact is the evidence points to the conclusion that the bright child, as a rule, is more likely to be above the normal in physical growth and development. The acceleration of the bright and the retardation of the dull in school have tended to create the impression that the dull stu- dent is often a large overgrown individual. However, when comparisons are made on the basis of chronological age such differences disappear.* With a group as inclusive as the edu- 2 Burt states: “The rule appears to be that, within normal healthy limits, physical growth and mental growth run parallel.” Burt, Cyril, The Backward Child, p. 163. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1937. Stoke found a low but positive correlation between intelligence quotient and height, weight and anatomic index. Stoke, Steward M., Occupational Groups and Child Development, pp. 54-68. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1927. See also Hollingworth, Leta S., Gifted Children, pp. 78-115. The Macmillan Company, 1926, and Hollingworth, Leta S., The Psychology of Subnormal Children, pp. 132-49. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1929. 1939] The Characteristics of the Educationally Neglected 41 cationally neglected the assumption of a normal range of physi- cal development is justified. The fact that there is a greater expectancy of physical underdevelopment rather than of over- development points to the need that even closer attention be given to the health and physical problems of this group. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED In speaking of the dull pupil, Baker suggests that “although some slow pupils possess very desirable personal and social qualities, the trend is toward the antisocial and the undesir- able.” * On the other hand, Cole, although she suggests that among the dull “amoral” behavior may result from failure to comprehend the generalized principles of behavior in society, makes this general comment: There is no reason to suppose that social incompetence is inherent in dull and low normal individuals. . . . Naturally, however, many dull adolescents develop undesirable personal traits because too much is asked of them. They become discouraged, disillusioned, unhappy, truculent, and sometimes delinquent. Such traits appear at any level of intelligence among those who believe themselves to be chronic failures. A good adjustment is made out of successes — not failures. If dull children show unfavorable traits more frequently than those of average ability, it is because they have more occasion for despair. . . .4 Should this be true, it is a sad commentary on an institution, one of whose basic aims is to develop higher standards of moral and social behavior among all youth. Experimental evidence with regard to social and moral 8 Baker, Harry J., “The Psychology of Ability Groups and Implications for In- structional Differentiation,” Part I, The Grouping of Pupils, Chap. VIII, p. 147, Thirty-fifth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Bloom- ington: Public School Publishing Company, 1936. 4 Cole, Luella, Psychology of Adolescence, pp. 344-45. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1936. 42 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November characteristics is in general lacking, primarily because the measurement of moral and social qualities is in its infancy. Investigation of the intelligence of social delinquents has re- vealed in some cases a median intelligence somewhat below the average,” but this does not warrant the assumption that a causal relation exists. Delinquency grows out of a complex interrelation of factors, and is not a concomitant of any one trait or a number of traits. Healy and Bronner in a recent study of delinquency present evidence that it is not the re- sult of a single factor of intelligence or of environment,® but that it is a form of conduct arising from felt personal needs and desires and grows out of conditions causing social and emotional maladjustments. Since the available evidence concerning the personal qual- ities of the educationally neglected does not provide an ade- quate basis for any general conclusion concerning moral and personal traits, the persons engaged in the training of educa- tionally neglected students will do well to assume that among this group there is a normal distribution of personal qualities. It is unwise for school people to make generalizations upon which to base school practices from the correlations found in the studies of out-of-school groups. Every individual is unique. When extremes of special abilities exist among individuals, the only educational practice which is justifiable is to treat each case individually and not to draw assumptions from very general groups tendencies. 5 See Glueck, S. and Glueck, E. T., One Thousand Juvenile Delinquents. Cam- bridge: Harvard University Press, 1934. Rogers, K. H. and Austin, O. L., “Intelligence Quotients of Juvenile Delin- quents,” Journal of Juvenile Research, 18:103-106, 1934. 6 Healy, William and Bronner, Augusta F., New Light on Delinquency and Its Treatment. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1936. ee S; ts 1939] The Characteristics of the Educationally Neglected 43 SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED Caution should be used in generalizing regarding the rela- tion of the socio-economic status of the home and the intel- ligence level of the children from the home. Douglass pre- sents a summary of several investigations which tend to show that children from the so-called upper social brackets tend to make higher scores on intelligence tests than children from other social groups, and that among children of parents from the different occupational groups the intelligence level tends to lower as one goes from the professional occupations down through the various classifications to the unskilled.’ Burt’s studies of the mentally retarded in the London schools tend to verify these findings.* It is beyond the scope of this presentation to speculate on whether the socio-economic level is a causal factor of low in- telligence. Certainly one should examine the evidence care- fully before accepting as final the theory of pure determinism in regard to intelligence. The recent studies in child psychol- ogy at Iowa State University offer some evidence that intelli- gence is not entirely independent of environment and that favorable conditions at an early age may actually increase intel- ligence. Other competent authorities question these findings.° These general facts are only of value in emphasizing that the school should examine all cases individually for all perti- nent factors. The knowledge of socio-economic status is of primary importance only in the degree to which the schools take definite steps to offset the deficiencies of the environment that are found to affect the youth’s educational progress. 7 Douglass, A. A., Modern Secondary Education, pp. 82-84. New York: Hough- ton Mifflin Company, 1938. 8 Burt, op. cit., pp. 89-134. 9 Stoddard, George D., “The I.Q.: Its Ups and Downs,” The Educational Record, 20:44-57 (Supplement No. 12). January, 1939. 44 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November The exceptions to the general tendencies are perhaps more important than the group tendency. The youth from the scholastic or professional home, with nonacademic interests, who because of parental expectation is forced into uncongenial work, may be as badly in need of assistance and adjustment as are the boys and girls from less fortunate homes. Whatever may be the general tendencies with regard to the socio-economic status of the educationally neglected, extreme care should be exercised in interpreting conclusions. There is apparently a greater expectancy that these students will come from homes of less favored economic and occupational position, but it should be remembered that youth from homes of low economic status include many students of very high ability. Stoke in a study of occupational groups and child development found that three fourths of the children above average in ability did not come from the highest occupational group.’° DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIAL ABILITIES OF THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED Those studies of the special abilities of the educationally neglected that have been made tend to show that these traits are distributed in a normal manner, that is, the variation in special abilities is as great among the dull as among the bright."* This statement does not mean that unusual ability in special lines is as likely to be found among the dull as among the bright, but rather that individual variations are likely to be equally wide in both groups. As a matter of fact while verbal and abstract intelligence is not closely related to 10 Stoke, op. cit., p. 87. 11 See Brown, A. W., The Unevenness of the Abilities of Dull and Bright Children, p. 109. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1926. A Feb hihi the NANAK ce 5 atte ber re he sts, ial ht ia 1 A Aah al te SCAR. 1939] The Characteristics of the Educationally Neglected 45 many special abilities, the correlation of these factors is posi- tive. The probabilities are greater that special abilities among the bright pupils will be of a higher order than among the dull. Contrary to popular supposition, there is no evidence of compensation in abilities. The highly comforting assurance that the less gifted mentally are usually endowed with superior manual facility unfortunately finds no verification in fact; in- deed, available evidence points to the contrary.’* DIFFERENCES OF DEGREE RATHER THAN KIND The little experimental evidence available would tend to indicate that whatever differences exist between the bright and the dull are in the nature of degree rather than of kind. The mental processes of the dull are not peculiar to this group; they learn by the same process as the bright. H. A. Carroll in studying the generalizations among bright and dull children in spelling concludes that “it cannot be said that the bright generalize and the dull do not,” ** although apparently the bright children generalize a great deal more than do the dull. F. T. Wilson in a study of the learning of bright and dull children concludes that “Differences in ability to learn various responses are differentiated in degree not in kind.” However, he also states that so many functions are involved in the prac- 12 Brown, op. ctt., pp. 35-45. Stenquist, John L., Measurement of Mechanical Ability, pp. 58 and 82-88. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1923. Burt, op. cit., pp. 260-69. Farnsworth, Paul R., “The Effects of Nature and Nurture on Musicality,” Part II, Nature and Nurture, Chap. XI, pp. 223-47. Twenty-seventh Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Bloomington: Public School Publish- ing Company, 1928. 13° Carroll, H. A., Generalizations of Bright and Dull Children, p. 53. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1930. 46 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November tical situations of life that for groups differing widely in so- called brightness the “ability to learn in general is character- ized, for all practical purposes, by differences in kind.” ™* There is a dearth of experimental evidence from which to draw reliable conclusions, but there is certainly no objective evidence to prove that the learning process of either bright or dull students is characterized by any unique or peculiar method of learning. However, it should not be immediately concluded from this statement that because the learning process may be similar that methods of instruction for children of all degrees of brightness should be identical. From a practical standpoint, for example, economy of time, a method found to be time- saving with one group may actually be wasteful of time with another. The excessive use of verbal material may cease to be practical with the very dull; the overuse of the concrete may be unnecessary for the bright. LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES AMONG THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED Since the most common persistent factor found in isolating the educationally neglected group is below average standing on verbal intelligence tests, it, of course, follows that, since such tests depend heavily on verbal or language abilities, the educationally neglected will be distinguished by slow develop- ment of language skills. Being a poor reader in the face of a secondary school curriculum that assumes good reading ability may be said to be the chief handicap of this group. This fact receives more emphasis than any other in the writings of those who have studied the group. When speaking of dull normal pupils, Ingram asserts that “language development is slower 14 Wilson, F. T., Learning of Bright and Dull Children, p. 49. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1928. 1939] The Characteristics of the Educationally Neglected 47 than that of the normal” and “that word meanings and vo- cabulary development come more slowly and only through actual experience.” '° Cole states concerning the dull child that “he has great difficulty with abstractions. He is typically a nonverbal, nonacademic individual.” '* Schorling comments on this student’s “weakness in forming associations between words and ideas.” *” Ingram ** further suggests that the rote memory of the dull is better than their associative memory, while Baker suggests that “rich associative processes and methods are likely to con- fuse and bewilder rather than to clarify.”'® As a converse, Ingram and Baker both emphasize that the dull pupil is more interested in the concrete and specific than in the general and abstract.”° The implications of this lesser verbal ability among the edu- cationally neglected in secondary school will be more fully discussed after a consideration of the needs of these students. The issue, however, which limited ability in language skills raises, concerns the alternatives of the school program; attempt- ing to raise the level of reading ability or attempting to empha- size other methods of learning and accepting a fairly low level of language accomplishments. ATTENTION SPAN OF THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED Various writers insist that the attention span of the dull student is shorter than that of the bright student. Baker sug- 15 Ingram, Christine P., Education of the Slow Learning Child, p. 392. Yon- kers-on-Hudson: World Book Company, 1935. 16 Cole, op. cit., p. 344. 17 Schorling, Raleigh, “The Slow Learning Pupil,” Educational Forum, 1:212, January 1937. 18 Ingram, op. cit., p. 392. 19 Baker, op. cit., p. 146. 20 Ingram, Joc. cit., and Baker, loc. cit. 48 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November gests that the dull student prefers short units of work and specific assignments.** Inskeep also comments on the short attention span of the dull pupil.?* Apparently there is little reason to question this generalization with reference to school work of the conventional nature. However, evidence taken from practical school situations shows that the attention span is largely a function of the activity under way. The inability of any individual to concentrate long on materials beyond both his comprehension and his interest leads one to doubt that a short attention span is primarily a characteristic of the non- academic or dull. The girl who can concentrate on the battles of Caesar for a short while only may work willingly a whole day making a new dress. Burt suggests that attention is largely a matter of will: “To pin oneself down for long periods to- gether to a prescribed monotonous task is not so much an intel- lectual feat; it is a feat of character.” ** Somewhat inconsistent with the assumption of the short attention span is the emphasis placed by some writers on the fact that the dull pupil may prefer rote and familiar material. Cole says that “the dull pupil has one characteristic that is of great commercial value — only he does not know it. In all probability he likes monotony.” ** These statements lead us to believe that the dull pupil when engaged in activities within his range of ability and experience may actually prefer and be able to devote his attention to a task that would soon become uninteresting to an individual of high academic ability. As suggested by Cole, this ability can have 21 Baker, op. cit. 22 Inskeep, Annie Dolman, “Adapting Modern Teaching Procedure to the Dull or Mentally Deficient Child,” California Quarterly of Secondary Education, 8:357, June 1933. 23 Burt, op. cit., p. 485. 24 Cole, op. cit., p. 349. ante ot mae St tinialte 3 Pieris Loree i Aan atablie Se 1939] The Characteristics of the Educationally Neglected 49 considerable practical value in this day of industrial specializa- tion. SELF-EVALUATION BY THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED Baker comments on the limited ability of the dull pupil to be self-critical.2* Ingram and Schorling present similar evi- dence with regard to this type of pupil.*° It is quite conceiv- able that because of his more limited informational background the educationally neglected student is less able to apply adult and comprehensive standards of evaluation to his own work. Again, however, is this principle all-inclusive? The boy who is apparently utterly incapable of applying any reasonable standard of evaluation to his work in English composition may be critical of his own performance in the shop or studio or athletic field; or the girl who is utterly incapable of detecting any error of logic in a mathematical problem may with some degree of reality appraise the results of her work in preparing a meal or decorating her own room. THE ABILITY TO GENERALIZE The ability to generalize is a matter of fundamental im- portance to education, but any adequate treatment of this topic would run far beyond the confines of this bulletin. Any con- sideration of this phenomenon should include an analysis of the methods which an individual uses in applying previous learning to new and different situations. The theories con- cerning the operation of this mental process have been the sub- ject of much controversy among psychologists.?” 25 Baker, op. cit., p. 146. 26 Ingram, op. cit., p. 392, and Schorling, op. cit., p. 212. 27 Thorndike, E. L., Educational Psychology, Vol. 2, Chap. 12. New York Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913. (Footnote con’t.) 50 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November The assumption behind practically all activity carried on within a school is that the student will apply the principles, facts, or skills learned in connection with these activities to meet problems in out-of-school life. If no such power as gen- eralization or transfer exists, then, obviously, all learning must be specific and any activity carried on in school must be a life situation. To make this possible with regard to the greater part of the program of any system of education of an institu- tionalized nature would be out of the question. Fortunately this is unnecessary; no one would contend that all learning needs to be absolutely specific. Attempting to teach or at- tempting to learn the specific response for every situation which life will present would be beyond the ability of any teacher or pupil. Also, people meet new situations in life and usually respond in some rational manner. Presumably when an individual reacts to an unfamiliar situation he reacts in terms of some part of his past experience. The question that really arises then is not: Does generalization occur in ordinary situations? The first question of concern to the educator is: Will the student generalize and apply the learning that has taken place in the school to the different situations occurring in out- of-school environment? From the experimental evidence obtainable the optimistic assumption that all or a great deal that is learned in school will be automatically applied to out-of-school life has little foundation in fact. The amount of work credited to the stu- Judd, Charles Hubbard, Psychology of Secondary Education, Chap. 19. New York: Ginn and Company, 1927. Orata, Pedro T., “Transfer of Training and Educational Pseudo-Science,” The Mathematics Teacher, 28:265-89, May 1935. Hollingworth, L. H., Educational Psychology, Chap. 18. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1933. Laycock, S. R., Adaptability to New Situations. Baltimore: Warwick and York, Inc., 1929. ber les, to en- ust life ter ry ‘ill en tic ol tle u- 1939] | The Characteristics of the Educationally Neglected 51 dent in the social sciences has apparently had little relation to his ability to solve validly the social problems of contemporary society. The study of formal grammar and English has ap- parently failed appreciably to affect the everyday usage of the Native tongue. Mastery of the pattern of logical reasoning in geometry as it is usually taught has offered no guarantee that this pattern would be used in the solution of problems outside this specific mathematical field. However, while the first re- action from such experimental evidence might be to assume that all education must be specific, more careful thought upon the problem establishes the conviction that generalization or transfer from the school to the life situation may be the result of the teaching process, that is, it may be that generalization and transfer have not resulted from our teaching because we have not taught with this as our purpose. In other words, generalization will not necessarily take place automatically, but it may occur if the instruction is carefully given with the definite purpose of securing transfer.”* Probably one of the real difficulties is that only a few teach- ers have ever definitely considered what constitutes life situ- ations or situations for which, presumably, the school instruc- tion purports to prepare, and then set up their program accord- ingly to achieve this aim. Some experimental evidence has been accumulated which indicates that the amount of generali- zation or transfer which definite instruction may achieve can be very appreciably increased when the instruction is deliber- ately organized to achieve this aim.*® The possibilities which 28 Orata, op. cit., pp. 281-82. 29 Salisbury, Rachel, “A Study of the Transfer Effect of Training in Logical Organization,” Journal of Educational Research, 28:241-54, December 1934. Salisbury, Rachel, “Integration and Transfer in the Junior High School,” Clearing House, 9:423-27, March 1935. (Footnote continued.) 52 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November are discussed here affect, of course, the entire high school popu- lation. However, since this bulletin is more immediately con- cerned with the educationally neglected than any other group, the problem raised here is whether these students are particu- larly weak in the ability to generalize. When speaking of the dull, emphasis is placed by many writers on their lack of ability to generalize.*® Allied to this, as more or less of a corollary, is the commonly made comment that the dull are lacking in resourcefulness, imagination, and ability to project themselves into new situations. Inasmuch as these traits are related to the individual’s ability to draw upon past experience for use in new and changed situations, this fac- tor is intimately related to the power of generalization. How- ever, it may be that the primary weakness in the dull is not so much the lack of power to generalize as the inability to generalize with reference to relevant previous information and learnings. Nevertheless, it may be said that this factor, ability to gen- eralize, reveals one of the primary differences between the bright and the dull. The nature of intelligence is extremely complex and there is no absolute agreement among the dis- tinguished students of the field concerning it. A very good case may be developed, however, for the theory that one of the essential factors which go to make up intelligence is this ability to generalize from past experiences when in the face of strange, that is, unrecognized situations. This factor, more Salisbury, Rachel, “Some Effects of Training in Outlining,” English Journal (High School Ed.), 24:111-16, 1935. Faweett, Harold P., The Nature of Proof. ‘The Thirteenth Yearbook of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Bureau of Publications, Teachers Col- lege, Columbia University, 1938. 30 See Ingram, op. cit., p. 392; Inskeep, op. cit., p. 357; Schorling, op. cit., p. 212; and Carroll, op. cit., p. 534. nber pu- up, icu- any his, ent ind | as 1939] The Characteristics of the Educationally Neglected 53 than attention, judgment, or even memory, appears to be the factor which most clearly differentiates the different levels of intelligence.** The able student is capable of taking informa- tion and facts which he has mastered and applying them in situations which little resemble the total situation in which the fact was originally learned. Probably educators have overesti- mated this ability among the more able, who are characterized by the ability to form a multitude of associations. This ability has most certainly been vastly overestimated among low average and dull students. If it is true that the most essential difference between the bright, average, and dull is this ability to translate the experience of one situation into others having similarity in varying degrees, then we have a fundamental criterion for in- struction of all pupils. Featherstone has conceived of instruc- tional method in the broader sense as extending along a scale from what he terms the “identity” end to the “nonidentity” end.** At the identity end the school situation would be sim- ilar in all respects to the situation in which the learning would be re-enacted; there would be no problem of transfer or gen- eralization involved. Memory alone would be the requisite for later application. According to this method, at the non- identity end the school situation would in no way resemble a life situation. Between these two extremes there would be 81 For a comprehensive summary of the evidence concerning the relation of the general nature of intelligence to this ability, see W. B. Featherstone, The Curriculum of the Special Class, p. 56. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1932. “. . . although foresight, sustained attention, sound judgment, good memory are important evidences of effective intelligence, they are but aspects of a gencral and fundamental pattern which characterizes mental life as a whole, . . . the basic factor is the ability of the individual to respond with present meanings when they are represented in later situations only by partial aspects of their former contexts in the form of symbols or other surrogates.” 82 Featherstone, op. cit., pp. 32-37. 54 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November other situations resembling the actual life situation in varying degrees. If the power of generalization is an essential factor in intelligence then among those of lower intelligence we must take care that the school situation be more nearly the life sit- uation. ‘This point of view may well be considered funda- mental to instruction of any nature, although it is recognized that as a principle it is difficult to apply. To what extent the school situation needs to require all pupils to re-enact the life situation is a problem which can be solved by no explicit rule of procedure. Until research gives us more light on this aspect of the problem, the school must depend upon the empirical practices of teachers. Certainly we can be fairly sure that too much of our instruction has been in terms of abstractions and symbolization far too remote from life situations for any possible later transference to life situations even among the able students. The use of “good English” among the adult population might serve as an illustration. When these adults were in high school their instruction in English, mathematics, and history was evidently so abstract, though conscientiously presented to them, that in later life the principles involved in these subjects have become almost entirely nonfunctional. It would seem that too much reliance was placed upon transfer- ence. SUMMARY An attempt has been made here to examine the characteris- tics of the educationally neglected, starting with the assumption that normal individuals cannot be grouped as types but possess common characteristics in varying degrees. From studying these characteristics have come certain findings of significance to those interested in the adaptation of a secondary school program to the educationally neglected: (1) certain common mber ying r in nust sit- 1da- zed the life ule ect cal hat wu 1939] The Characteristics of the Educationally Neglected 55 assumptions concerning differences cannot be substantiated or are found to be even directly contrary to facts; (2) certain gen- eralizations are of limited validity; (3) certain new considera- tions appear which are of fundamental importance. Among the first category of findings, the study reveals that as a rule the dull student is neither accelerated in physical de- velopment nor endowed with superior abilities in manual or other special skills, but that more often the contrary is true. Also, the evidence is too inadequate to draw any conclusions regarding social development, therefore there is little or no basis for attributing any innate tendency toward antisocial be- havior. There is a marked tendency for educationally neg- lected students to be drawn from homes of low economic levels, which homes also contribute a number of the children of above average ability. With reference to the second category of findings, it can be stated that the generalization that less able students possess shorter spans of attention and have limited powers of self- evaluation is of limited validity. The evidence concerning these factors is not sufficiently adequate to assume that these traits are exhibited alike in all situations, but there is reason to be- lieve that attention and self-evaluation are variables related to the activity under way. With reference to the third group of findings, it can be said that fundamental to guidance in developing a program for educationally neglected boys and girls is recognition of their more limited ability in language skills and their inability to ransfer the learning of school situations to the more practical situations of life. This latter difference points to the important necessity of assuring that learning situations in school resemble as nearly as possible situations out of school, so that functional learning can take place. This principle of instruction cannot 56 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November be effectually applied in any planned system of education with- out considering what skills, knowledge, and training will be most functional in the life of the pupil. To attempt to create a life situation which the pupil will never meet is obviously an elaborate effort aimed at nothing. Therefore before consider- ing the methods and actual practices through which the schools may and are creating learning situations which are functional and capable of transference, we need next to examine the actual life needs and interests of the educationally neglected. CHAPTER IV The Needs of the Educationally Neglected PusLic scHOOLs are supported by the state on the assumption that education is not a philanthropy but a means of bringing about more effective functioning of citizens, with consequent improvement of the state.’ Verbal agreement on a principle, however, is one thing, while translation of that principle into actual school and life practices is another. Instruction to be effective must present as its goal some pur- pose — the satisfaction of some need — which the student can perceive, and can relate to the problems of his life. The prin- ciple almost universally accepted is that the curriculum of any school must be adapted to the needs and interests of each of its pupils. If this principle is not accepted, what passes as learn- ing may be in some cases little more than verbalization achieved by extrinsic pressure, which can never affect the active life of the individual, as universal education supported by a tax on citizens assumes that it should. Any attempt to examine the various proposals advanced as methods of achieving the end of making the curriculum meet the needs of youth brings a realization that the interpretation of the term “needs” varies widely in practice. The student of 1 For an exposition of this thesis see Briggs, Thomas H., The Great Investment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930. Douglass, Harl R., Secondary Education for Youth in Modern America, pp. 71-89. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education, 1937. Committee on Orientation of Secondary Education, Department of Secondary School Principals of the National Education Association, Issues of Secondary Educa- tion, pp. 129-56. Bulletin of the Department of Secondary School Principals, Vol. 20, No. 59. January 1936. 57 58 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November individual growth and development will define need in terms of the physiological, emotional, and personal requirements of the biological organism. The student of society and social structure will conceive of needs in terms of the demands pe- culiar to our civilization. A curriculum organized in terms of either category alone disregards the realities of the situation, for, after all, personal, individual needs are not satisfied in con- stant seclusion, nor can the social needs of any society remain entirely alien and antagonistic to those of the individuals com- prising the group. If consideration of the actual felt needs of the individual as a basis for any curriculum excludes recogni- tion of the degree to which society limits, restricts, and pre- scribes the conditions for satisfaction of these needs it is doing no real service to the student who, after all, must live his life in some degree of harmony with the rest of his world. It is equally true that a curriculum formulated exclusively on the basis of the needs, or ascribed needs, of the social group as a unit will be merely superimposed unless the student is able to relate those needs to his own life; for to the individual the demands of society are not felt needs until they impinge upon his own existence. One may speculate on the extent to which educators, with a laudable desire to improve society, have built their curricula in terms of the adult world and the larger social needs, with the result that characteristics of the group for whom the cur- ricula were developed have been overlooked. The education- ally neglected have been especially sinned against in this re- gard. This group, without ability to take delight in dealing with abstractions, and with perhaps a considerable lack of abil- ity to recognize and appreciate distant goals, have too often been asked to attempt a curriculum based upon remote future 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 59 needs. In other words, while carrying on life under conditions and pressures that realistically present needs and demands, the educationally neglected youth has been asked to consider prob- lems he can comprehend only faintly, if at all, and which con- cern some vague future period of his life. Wanting bread for the here and now, he has been asked to take stones for the future, with very little assurance that they will ever be needed. If in this situation he rebels he is criticized for not being inter- ested in an education. There is some reason to question whether the docility that secures commendation in the tra- ditional school is actually an asset for real life. In the ideal democratic state there would be no conflict be- tween the needs recognized by society and those felt by the in- dividual, but since this Utopia remains largely an ideal, school curricula must include a judicious blending of the two. Only as social needs are related to the life of the individual, and as that relationship is perceived by him, will they provide effective and functioning bases for instruction. The inference might be drawn that there is an inevitable conflict between the personal needs of the individual and the larger needs of society.” To a great extent this is not true in a democracy. The biological and personal needs of the organ- ism may be innate, but the degree to which these needs are realized and the manner of their satisfaction becomes inextri- cably woven into the pattern of the social order. The work of the democratic world demands the competency of individ- uals in vocational pursuits, and this competency in turn can sat- isfy the personal needs of security, adequacy, self-realization, ae excellent discussion of the “synthesis” of the personal needs of the pupil and those of the society see Knudsen, Charles W., “Adapting the Curriculum to the Needs and Interests of Adolescents,” The Bulletin of the Department of Sec- ondary School Principals, 22:1-7, May 1938. 60 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November and assurance, and in addition provide means for satisfaction of the purely physiological demands for food, clothing, and shelter. Thus we find that the major problem is not that of weighing alternately the needs of the individual and those of society, but rather that of insuring that the relationship is real- ized and comprehended by the student. NEEDS OF THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED NOT UNIQUE Examination of the educationally neglected group has up to now revealed nothing that would lead to the assumption that these young people are in any way peculiar, or are a group apart, with a specific set of needs differing fundamentally from those of other sections of the student population. The same personal urges for affection, security, and self-realization are paramount in all groups. Certainly the social demands for vocational efficiency, intelligent citizenship, good character, and all the values that constitute a stable society are equally desirable for every type of individual, whatever his gifts or limitations. The problem, then, in any consideration of the needs of the educationally neglected, is not that of attempting to isolate the particular and peculiar needs of this group, but rather that of examining methods by which the school can as- sist in meeting the needs, and the degree of the school’s respon- sibility with regard to the satisfaction of different demands. The fact that the educationally neglected tend to come from homes of limited environment, and that this group fails to profit broadly from experiences in the total environment places an added responsibility on the school. It is admittedly true that our secondary schools have been more successful in meet- ing the needs of the academic and scholarly student than they have those of his differing brother. The individual differences 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 61 by their very nature suggest that a school program meeting the basic needs of one group will fail utterly to meet the same needs of other groups. A purely academic program undoubt- edly makes its contribution to vocational efficiency and self- realization for a limited group headed for the professions, but to assume that it has similar values in the same degree for all who may enter the secondary schools is absurd. Only in the degree to which a school can adjust its instruction to satisfy the present real and personal needs of all pupils can it hope to provide the conditions that lead to the larger objectives of preparation for an adjusted and satisfying adult life. Personal Needs The studies of adolescence and child development made by numerous investigators present a large list of basic needs for youth of secondary school age. Different categories have been developed for classification, but in this brief presentation there can be no attempt to catalog and discuss in detail all such per- sonal needs of youth of this age. Prescott, in a report of the Committee on the Relation of Emotion to the Educative Pro- cess, sets up three general categories of individual needs: phys- iological needs, social needs,* and ego needs. No attempt will be made here to consider all of the items presented in Prescott’s study, but brief reference will be made to a few which appear to concern especially the educationally neglected in the secondary school. 8 Social as here used refers to the needs of the individual for certain types of relationships with other people rather than to needs of the society as the term has been used in this chapter. 4 Prescott, Daniel Alfred, Emotion and the Educative Process, pp. 110-38. A Report of the Committee on the Relation of Emotion to the Educative Process. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education, 1938. 62 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November Physiological Needs The satisfaction of the needs for food, clothing, shelter, and rest are primarily the responsibility of the home and society at large. The contribution which the school can make in this area will in most instances be only indirect, and will vary with the demands of the local situation. The realization that effec- tive participation in any activity is predicated upon good health has led the schools to give increasing attention to the physi- cal welfare of their students. Maladjustment in school may be and often is the result of ill health which may be due to a num- ber of causes, and recognition of these needs should be part of any general program of adjustment. Since, as has been pre- viously pointed out, the educationally neglected generally tend to come from homes of lower economic status, it may well be that this group requires special attention with regard to health. The school cannot remedy conditions that are basically the result of economic circumstances, but in codperation with such agencies as the home, public organizations, relief agencies, the churches, and civic organizations, it may contribute toward the securing of the necessary readjustments. Social Needs Prescott has suggested three general needs of the individual in his relation to other people; the need for affection, the need for belonging, and the need for likeness to others. Without attempting to develop the specific implication of each of these, the question may be raised as to whether the secondary school has been contributing to the satisfaction of any or all of these needs, or whether, on the contrary, in many cases it has not actually contributed to the negative result. The whole system 5 Op. cit., pp. 116-18. ber 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 63 of grades, with its emphasis on academic and verbal achieve- ment to the exclusion of other accomplishments, has resulted in creating a general atmosphere wherein the variations and limi- tations of the educationally neglected are emphasized. The general public has been much more liberal in its recognition of all types of accomplishment than have our schools. It would appear that conditions within schools are quite definitely being modified in this respect, but there is still ample reason to be- lieve that the educationally neglected student is far more likely to feel that he does not belong in the high school and does not fit the acceptable pattern of high school students than he is to feel the contrary. If the high school is to be a place where all students may live and work in a situation satisfying to their personal needs, it must definitely recognize and assign a place to every type of personality (exclusive, of course, of those pri- marily evidencing definitely antisocial traits). Case histories of youth unsuccessful in school do not lack evidence that schools have created tensions and maladjustments that defi- nitely demoralized individuals. A secondary school faces the necessity of according recognition and prestige to activities sat- isfying and appropriate to the educationally neglected, rather than of continuing to accentuate the traditional prestige of academic accomplishment only. If a school is to live and prac- tice the democracy concerning which so much has been said, it must succeed in creating an atmosphere wherein every stu- dent feels that he has a definite place. Ego Needs Under “ego needs” Prescott suggests a number of specific needs of the adolescent which must be satisfied in the interests of the student’s adjustment. These needs are: contact with reality, harmony with reality, progressive symbolization, in- 64 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November creasing self-direction, a fair balance between success and fail- ure, and the attainment of selfhood or individuality.° Without attempting to consider these in detail, although there are mani- fold implications for educators in each one, it is pertinent to point out that present instructional methods leave much to be desired in regard to many of these demands. Certainly tra- ditional practices have given to the educationally neglected student a sense of failure which might well have a demoraliz- ing effect on him. On the other hand, no service is being done the student in according the recognition of success to accom- plishment which will not receive like judgment in real life. As Prescott says, there must be “some fair balance between suc- cess and failure,” which suggests that the remedy for excessive failure of the educationally neglected in school is not the policy of indiscriminate passing or sugar-coating of traditional work. It would appear that the fundamental problem is that of ad- justing the content of the school program to the needs and in- terests of the educationally neglected, and then setting stand- ards of accomplishment within the range of reasonable ex- pectation in those areas where the student is himself capable of a degree of self-evaluation. Failure in areas of work where com- petence is forever beyond the student’s ability to attain is one thing, but failure in an area of work where the student himself can recognize his possibilities for better performance is entirely justifiable. It is obvious that in the vocational field especially the school owes it to society and the student not to recognize as adequate a level of achievement which will be judged unsatisfactory in out-of-school work. While it may be true that the vocational skill being taught is and needs to be for the particular student relatively elementary or simple, nevertheless the standard of 6 Op. cit., pp. 118-25. rber ail- out 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 65 achievement must be in accord with what out-of-school situa- tions will demand. Standards in the areas of vocational train- ing are perhaps simpler to establish than are those in the more general areas of instruction, for there, at least, is found some- thing approaching a recognized level of competence, whether it be professional skill in highly complex areas, or the most routine of unskilled tasks. If a goal is within the reach of the student, the school is justified in setting up a standard, although for one it may re- quire solving quadratic equations or an appreciation of the Shakespearian plays, and for another it may require balancing a personal account or gaining certain elementary facts of in- formation from a daily tabloid. From such school experiences the pupil, either academic or nonacademic, is far more likely to arrive at a fair evaluation of self, which is a first step toward arriving at true and mature selfhood or individuality. Eckert and Marshall in their Regents’ Inquiry report also emphasize the need for the school to be acquainted with the realities of the lives of the students and former students of the school: With all students — the outstandingly successful and the failures, and the socially competent and the incapable, as well as the great mass of youth between these extremes — the school needs to broaden consider- ably its acquaintance. A school that is to be more than an ornament of a culture system, an institution that exists apart from a rapidly changing social scene, must constantly appraise the effectiveness of its own pro- gram by discovering where its young people go and in what specific activities they engage.” DEMANDS OF SOCIETY ON THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED Much concern has been manifested about those great social 7 Eckert, Ruth E. and Marshall, Thomas O., When Youth Leave School, p. 190. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1939. 66 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November adjustments which our time and age demand of everyone. The personal adjustments of individuals are largely contingent upon conditions in society itself, which, in turn, for its own stability and improvement makes certain demands on its indi- vidual members. Recent years have witnessed some compre- hensive surveys that have brought together an impressive ar- ray of information regarding the needs, desires, and present status of youth, The work of the American Youth Commis- sion of the American Council on Education in its comprehen- sive surveys of conditions among youth in various typical areas, the Reports of the Regents’ Inquiry into the Character and Cost of Education in the State of New York, the social surveys of the Lynds in Middletown and the reports of President Hoover’s Research Committee on Recent Social Trends have provided a wealth of material from which to draw information and conclusions having important implications for the curricula and instruction of secondary school students of all conceivable types. In addition to these surveys there is a host of others of a local and specific nature. One of the most encouraging as- pects of such materials is that they may supply the stimulus and pattern for local surveys of youth which can provide basic direction and orientation for the local schools. Many of our current works of fiction are not without examples of youth problems which should be thought provoking to the educator. In reviewing these materials in current use an attempt will be made to give in detail some of the more significant findings and to consider their bearing upon the educationally neglected students. NEED FOR VOCATIONAL ADJ USTMENT It would be impossible to deny the crucial importance of vo- cational adjustment in the life of the individual. It is perhaps ao «- fF 865 FR 4a bet or 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 67 futile to discuss training for worthy home membership, wise use of leisure time, citizenship, or any of the other factors of adjustment that contribute to the happy and well-balanced in- dividual and community, when vocational opportunity and ad- justment are lacking. Our established system of life is so or- ganized that the first necessity for every mature youth is to procure a job, if for no other reason than to secure the means for satisfaction of his needs. Certainly, however, although the mere getting of a job has been no mean task for youth in recent years, vocational adjustment should include more than this. Positive vocational adjustment demands that youth be guided and assisted into lines of work from which he can derive not only an income but also some measure of happiness and recre- ation, and in which he has a reasonable chance of being suc- cessful. The individual for whom the satisfactions and pleas- ures of life must come entirely out of activities apart from his work has certainly relatively less chance for happy and bal- anced living. The problems of vocational guidance, training, and place- ment are of bewildering complexity. The lack of available jobs has intensified what was already a major problem. There is some reason to believe that in recent years schools, faced with what seemed the futility of attempting to guide and prepare their students for nonexistent jobs, have hesitated to assume any responsibility whatever for the vocational guidance and training of youth. Yet every examination and survey reveals that the primary need of great masses of young people is guid- ance and training for lifework. The survey of the American Youth Commission, which reached more than thirteen thousand Maryland youth, revealed that boys and girls conceive their major problem to be eco- nomic, and primarily this means jobs — jobs that offer some op- 68 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November portunity for individual satisfaction and security, and a return adequate to permit him to lead a normal life.® The report of the Regents’ Inquiry in New York State sug- gests that one of the chief reasons for attending school, in the minds of girls and boys, is the vocational motive. . .. It is therefore a circumstance to be reckoned with that the voca- tional motive is not merely the chief motive for school attendance in the minds of large numbers of these young people; it is for many of them the only motive which seems to them adequately to justify their con- tinued schooling.® An impressive array of evidence of similar nature might be assembled.’® After all, the very facts of modern life make it inevitable that choosing, training for, and securing suitable lifework will continue to be primary considerations in the lives of the vast majority of our people. The school is not the only agency able to contribute to the oc- cupational adjustment of youth, but certainly it has a major re- sponsibility for furthering those initial adjustments which are crucial in the lives of young people entering the field of gain- ful employment. The fact that both parents and students have 8 Bell, Howard M., Youth Tell Their Story, p. 103. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education, 1938. 9 Spaulding, Francis T., High School and Life, p. 37. New York: The Mc- Graw-Hill Book Company, 1938. 10 Rainey, Homer P., “Our Youth Problem in America,” California Journal of Secondary Education, 12:333-38, October 1937. Johnson, George, “Needs of Youth,” Catholic Educational Review, 36:3-16. January 1938. Andrus, E. P., “What the Girl of Today Asks of the School,” Journal of the American Association of University Women, 25:146-48. April 1932. Fuller, Raymond G., A Study of Youth Needs and Services in Muncie, Indiana. A report to the American Youth Commission, Washington, D.C.: The American Council on Education, 1938. Robertson, Jack, A Study of Youth Needs and Services in Dallas, Texas. A report to the American Youth Commission. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1938. 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 69 so much faith in the school’s contribution toward their ability to make a better living is a challenge to the secondary school to more abundantly justify this faith. Choice of a Career That choosing a vocation is a crucial act in the life of every youth cannot be overemphasized. Secondary schools have realized this for some time, but there is little evidence that any great number of them have succeeded in any comprehensive way in guiding their students in making occupational choices. The utter lack of reality exhibited by great masses of boys and girls in their stated vocational ambitions cannot be attributed entirely to the natural romantic illusions of youth. It points rather to an emphasis in the secondary school which has fos- tered and definitely encouraged such illusions. The education- ally neglected student is one who, by the nature of his abilities, will presumably find little opportunity for success in the pro- fessions. Yet the occupational choices of the unselected student enrollment of today are almost as predominantly professional and managerial as they were in the past, when the high school was a selective institution and a steppingstone to college and the professions. The survey of youth in Maryland revealed that of more than five thousand employed boys and girls almost half indicated a desire to do professional, technical, or managerial work; *? and that among out-of-school youth, a group in which the median grade attainment was the completion of the ninth grade, more than a third expressed a desire for training in the professions.’ A. A. Douglass,'* in summarizing a number 11 Bell, op. cit., p. 132. 12 Ibid., p. 72. 13 Douglass, A. A., Modern Secondary Education, p. 504. New York: Hough- ton Mifflin Company, 1938. 70 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November of studies of occupational choices of high school pupils, sug- gests that the less able students may show as wide a range of oc- cupational selection as the able students, but more often fail to realize their limitations. The history of our nation has emphasized the possibility that any boy or girl, no matter how humble his beginnings, may rise to success in any line of endeavor. This point of view is a part, and a valuable part, of our national tradition. No one would suggest any arbitrary limitation upon the ambitions of the young, and there are, quite possibly, fields of professional service in which expansion may be expected. Nevertheless, it is obvious that society cannot absorb relatively large percentages of its people into the professions, and that only a relatively small group are fitted by natural capacity and interest for such work, or will be able to find true happiness in such endeavor. A democracy must do everything possible to facilitate the ad- vancement of each youth in proportion to his abilities, but that does not mean maintaining an illusion impossible of at- tainment for many. Although the general traditions of this country may be in large part responsible for this failure to face facts, the school cannot escape all responsibility. As part of our academic tradition we have placed an emphasis on the professional job, on the white collar worker. Any attempt at vocational guidance suffers from severe handicaps. Even ex- tensive information and skillful guidance may work ineffec- tively in an atmosphere where a few chosen life vocations are exhalted above all others. One wonders whether many of the vocational choices indicated by youth represent actual desires or merely the response which they have been led to believe is the respectable answer. After careful examination of a large number of cases Eckert and Marshall state: res Wie 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 71 Many young people are wandering in the dark concerning eventual jobs. Among withdrawing pupils, graduates, and postgraduates alike, the majority are entirely without a career motive or are so definitely fixed on one field that change will involve difficult adjustment. Of con- siderable concern is the fact that the less able a student is the less likely also is he to have clearly outlined but flexible plans. . . .14 A school must accept as part of its responsibility the task of acquainting its students with facts. Encouraging large num- bers to train in occupations where small opportunity exists or in which they will have relatively little chance of success will lead to a waste of public money and be of no service to individ- uals, Furthermore, there is ample reason to believe that much vo- cational training in secondary schools today is for badly over- crowded occupations, or for those in which there is a decreas- ing demand for workers. A public school cannot arbitrarily limit or restrict the numbers training in any vocational field, but it has the responsibility of ascertaining the facts and pre- senting to its students the situation these facts disclose. The vocational guidance program, formal or informal, should take into account the actual jobs available in the local community. The following comment by Spaulding in the Report of the Regents’ Inquiry is applicable to more schools than those of New York State: But there is ground for disquiet in complete planlessness on the part of boys and girls who are face to face with the necessity of earning a living. There is ground for disquiet also in vocational ambitions which are not so much optimistic as thoroughly fantastic. There is ground for disquiet in young people’s confident reliance on information about jobs which turns out to have been no information at all. Each of these weaknesses in their readiness to make a living is characteristic of large 14 Eckert, Ruth E. and Marshall, Thomas O., op. cit., p. 155. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1939. numbers of the boys and girls who are now leaving school in New York State.15 As Bell concludes, the school cannot escape the entire re- sponsibility for this lack of planning: These two facts — the outstanding preference for professional train- ing and the generally low grade attained — can, and probably do, mean two things. They mean that this younger generation aspires in the tra- ditional manner of all younger generations. It wants to do bigger and better things. They also mean that, for some reason or other, there has been precious little realism injected into the thinking of a large propor- tion of our young people about the jobs that are available and the services they are qualified to perform. In view of the almost complete absence of vocational guidance from their school experiences, at least a part of the responsibility for this dearth of realism can justly be laid at the doorstep of the schools.!® The conclusions with regard to the lack of rational vocational planning are applicable to all secondary youth, but to the edu- cationally neglected student they become doubly pertinent. As previously suggested, for the large majority of this group the professions obviously are ill suited, and yet the secondary school, their primary source of information and guidance and their last opportunity for obtaining organized knowledge, has concentrated its greatest effort on the very fields in which these young people have small chance for success or happiness. The group most in need of actual information and assistance, they have received the least. To point out areas of need in which the school should make its contribution is always easier than to devise practical means for its doing so. Obviously a helpful orientation of the edu- cationally neglected requires a much more extensive and in- clusive system of vocational guidance than is customary. It 15 Spaulding, op. cit., p. 58. 16 Bell, op. cit., p. 72. 72 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November hdee tcaiealcte tber ork re- 1in- ean tra- ind has or- the ete ta al As 1e ry d as 3) 1S l- \- 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 73 means the collection and organization of all pertinent informa- tion concerning each individual student and having available accurate and extensive information concerning the vocational opportunities present, particularly in the local community, and to a considerable extent on a state or national scale. Effective guidance, however, includes much more than this. It requires first, on the part of teachers and administrators, the develop- ment of an attitude of concern for the vocational aims of all students. It means that in the curriculum there must be a place for a study of the world of work as it is and in all its aspects. It means an attempt to understand and examine in a concrete way all forms of vocational life available and to relate the information so gained to the school. It means an examina- tion of the qualities demanded by different tasks, and the de- veloping in each student of ability to make a true self-appraisal of his own talents. It means bringing into the school at every possible opportunity representatives of different occupations, members not only of the professions but of all vocations, inso- far as this is possible. These are not new ventures in secondary education. Progressive schools are attempting these and many other innovations. Principal Francis L. Bacon, of the Evanston Township High School, reported a conference on careers sponsored by the stu- dent clubs of the school, which brought into the school from the community representatives of a large number of fields of work, for round-table discussions with students. The 1939 conference program listed thirty-two areas of work. The problems to be discussed were so formulated as to reveal the needs of the student and to give him information regarding the training, possibilities, and qualities necessary for different careers. In material received from Principal Max Smith, of Reading, 74 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November Michigan, High School, the following statement concerning “our vocations class” is found: After a rather extensive study of the various vocations and occupa- tions, representatives of some of them are invited to come in and be in- terviewed by the class. The students prepared the list of questions which is the basic outline of the interview. If time permits, other questions of a more personal nature are frequently asked by the members of the group. Ralph P. Gallagher, Supervisor of Guidance in Secondary Schools, Elizabeth, New Jersey, lists, among a number of other guidance activities, classes in guidance throughout the junior high school years intended “to give them (students) practice in making sound educational and vocational judgments about their future careers.” “Speakers are scheduled for assemblies or for smaller groups to acquaint pupils with both the possibili- ties and responsibilities in the world of work,” and each pupil leaving the Elizabeth schools — withdrawal or graduate — is helped at the time of leaving to evaluate his own accomplish- ments and to make further plans. Vocational guidance is being increasingly accepted by sec- ondary schools as their responsibility. Classes in the study of occupations, common in schools today, offer promise for bet- ter vocational adjustment. Whether the facilities usually available in the average secondary school can be made ade- quate to the needs of all youth is a problem with which every school should be concerned. It has been suggested that one of the basic functional areas of the curriculum should be the vocational. It is argued that an understanding of this area, sufficient to warrant a wise vocational choice on the part of the student can be attained only by continuous study of the work activities of man through elementary and high school, and that relatively short, disconnected, periodic courses in vocations nber ing upa- - in- lich s of the ry ler ior ice ut 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 75 can be at best only superficial. Certainly such study would be of immeasurably greater value to the educationally neglected than their insignificant achievements in the customary academic program.*? Preparing for Work In spite of the strides made during the past twenty years by the high schools in training for jobs, problems in this area are becoming increasingly difficult and complex. Further speciali- zation in industry, the increase in the number of semiskilled tasks and the rapidly changing industrial processes, all add to the difficulty of the high school that attempts to provide specific training for all types of work. The areas of work in which the educationally neglected will engage include a very wide range of specific tasks. As we have defined it, the group will include those who will enter the skilled, semiskilled, and un- skilled vocations. While there will be exceptions it is not to be expected that the professions will claim these students; few of them will enter the highly skilled trades. It will be the great bulk of routine tasks that will be done by these people, al- though many of them will exhibit specialized abilities capable of being developed into skills of a high type, and will achieve marketable trade proficiency. Every school should be alert to the possibilities of developing the individual talents of each student, regardless of his mental capacities. We are concerned with a large group, however, and, to the extent that generaliza- tions are ever valid, it may be postulated as a reasonable ex- pectation that the majority of the educationally neglected stu- dents will enter the less skilled vocations. In terms of vocational training, this means at least two things. 17 See Clark, Harold F., “What Economic Information Is of Most Worth,” Teachers College Record, 39:475-82, March 1938. 76 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November If training for an actual job is given in high school, the length of time devoted to this training will be relatively short. Homer P, Rainey has stated that It is estimated that go per cent of all employed persons in the United States in all types of occupations and professions can be trained for the work of their particular jobs in six months or less, . . . not more than 5 per cent of all workers in industry today may be classified as skilled workers in the sense that they require special skilled training for their work,!8 C. A. Koepke, after a survey of industries in Minnesota, re- ports that only 4 per cent of the jobs in these industries re- quired the equivalent of a vocational course of four or more years; 72 per cent required less than nine months; and more than half of the jobs required less than two months’ training.’® In view of Koepke’s findings, which cover the wide range of industrial jobs, it is apparent that for the educationally neg- lected who are largely entering the lesser skilled jobs, actual vo- cational training in terms of mastery of specific skills will take comparatively little of the total school time. Those, then, who consider that the problem of educating the less academic student will be solved entirely by vocational training are ap- parently not considering actual facts. It is difficult to imagine organizing the entire high school program of a boy or girl up to the age of eighteen around vocational training of a specific nature, the mastery of which might require only a month or at most six months. The second question involved in the vocational training of this large group entering the semiskilled and unskilled trades is how much specific training for these jobs can the school of- 18 Rainey, Homer P., “Our Youth Problem in the United States,” California Journal of Secondary Education, 12:336, October 1937. 19 Koepke, C. A., “A Job Analysis Survey,” Occupations, 12:20, June 1934. bet 9 See eis rad te aieatiaiininl atin tere. ee 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 77 fer? The highly specialized nature of the tasks, the rate at which technical alterations change the specific skills required, and the difficulty, if not impossibility, to say nothing of the expense, of providing equipment for training, make it difficult to determine how much vocational training in the many in- dustrial fields a school can undertake. Problems in the dis- tributive fields may not be so great as in industry, but they, too, are far from simple. Much of the vocational training in these relatively unskilled fields should be of a somewhat gen- eral nature. Because of the number and type of problems en- countered it has seemed wise to attempt to train for “families of vocations.” This approach seems eminently sound, although it is doubtful if many have a clear and practical concept of a “family of vocations.” Many of our specialized vocational schools of today are not as helpful as they should be in solving the problem of training the educationally neglected vocationally. The “all or none” procedure has been all too common in many vocational schools. If the student does not show promise of becoming a highly skilled workman, he is apt to be eliminated more quickly by the vocational school than he is by the academic school. And yet there are a great many jobs which demand the mastery of but a few simple and elementary skills. There is a definite need for vocational training covering a relatively short period of time, coming late in the secondary school years or at the junior college level, preceding ocr paralleling entrance into employment, and related to this great group of semiskilled and unskilled jobs. Whatever may be the possibilities for the future development of vocational education, there are certain very real limitations which restrict the average school today. The primary concern of this bulletin is with the present, and with what the average 78 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November secondary school, which is not a large city high school but a relatively small school, may do toward the vocational training of its educationally neglected. It is believed that the school can make a definite contribution to vocational adjustment. The ability to get along successfully in a job demands more than the mastery of certain skills. Employers are divided as to what constitutes adequate training for entrance to work, but there is practically universal agreement that certain social and character traits are necessary for practical vocational compe- tence. The ability to work and codperate with others is a pri- mary requisite for most jobs. A willingness and a certain apti- tude for learning the necessary skills are essential. Given this cooperativeness and aptitude, many employers maintain that numerous job skills, particularly at the relatively unskilled levels, may be learned on the job. Spaulding has thought of vocational competence in this broader sense as involving three general factors: The competence which the work outside the school requires of the boy or girl who has just left school is not an ability to step at once into an involved and intricate job, but such capacity as will enable him to make a promising start in some recognized field of work. The capacity to get along tactfully and intelligently with employers and with other employees. . . . The ability to adjust to new conditions and to learn on the job. . . . Possession of sufficient skill to insure employment at what- ever the bottom of the beginner’s chosen field may be.?° The contribution which a secondary school might make toward the development of this ability to work with others and to adjust to new and changing demands is not fully real- ized today. To a certain extent, such qualities may be devel- oped in the individual as a result of the influence of the whole 20 Spaulding, Francis T., “Educating for Vocational Competence,” Occupations, 14:755, May 1936. 1939} The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 79 educational system; the attitude and ability to work with others can be powerfully conditioned by the school. Direct instruc- tion is not without possibilities. Any school directing its at- tention to the study of the world of work, even though this be considered primarily a social science study, can help the in- dividual to develop personal attributes demanded by actual jobs. A tentative course of study on social behavior devised for the Toms River, New Jersey, High School, includes the outline of a unit on “Social Behavior in Business.” The preface of the study contains the following statement, “What every employer wants above all else is not strong muscles, or manual dexterity, or even mental keenness, but certain character traits: honesty, loyalty, ambition, codperation, and so forth.” The outline of the unit develops the actual practice of “honesty, loyalty, relia- bility, punctuality, codperation, efficiency, ambition, general conduct, and grooming,” not simply in relation to jobs in gen- eral but to “clerical positions, merchandising, service occupa- tions, common labor, skilled labor, and professional pursuits.” The tentative outline provided indicates an attempt to draw upon specific jobs and situations for class materials. It closes with a discussion of the possibility of utilizing all school activi- ties as areas where “children may be charged with responsibil- ity and called upon to practice the qualities demanded by the vocational world.” The suggestion that the teacher encourage each pupil to make a self-survey and form the habit of checking himself indicates that the attempt is to make a very practical approach, which should make material contribution to voca- tional competence. Within the framework of many traditional courses are oppor- tunities for introducing material contributing toward an under- standing of those practices of courtesy and codperative social 80 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November relations so necessary to the success of many jobs. To illustrate, the general English courses for seniors of the noncollege group in the Haverford Township High School, at Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, contain units on English as it relates to civic, home, business, and social responsibilities. The outline of the course states, “The study of business responsibilities involves English for interviews, reports, membership in committees, participation in business meetings, and telephone conversa- tions. It also necessitates a knowledge of ordinary business etiquette.” One may -onclude that the average school can contribute greatly toward the vocational competence of its students, re- gardless of the extent of specific vocational training which the school is in a position to offer. The school considering exami- nation of the whole area of “making a living,” whether as a social science or a vocational study, not only can offer oppor- tunities for wiser occupational choices on the part of its stu- dents, but also can make a positive contribution to vocational competence in the chosen work by having emphasized the personal qualities demanded by different jobs. Securing a Job The part which the secondary school should play in bridg- ing the gap between graduation and employment is not sim- ple to determine. After the student has been in school ten, twelve, or fourteen years, that agency should have in its pos- session invaluable information concerning the student which should help in placing him suitably in work. Whether the school should attempt actual placement will depend to a con- siderable extent upon the placement opportunities provided by the community. The Educational Policies Commission has well summarized the present position of the school with regard to placement in the following statement: y» c, 1e es S, SS 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected $1 So important are the continuing contacts between the school staff and the young people on their first jobs that much is to be said for extending the practice of giving the schools primary responsibility for junior place- ment service wherever this arrangement is practicable. Certainly where the school is ready to meet adequately the need for this service and no other agency is, the school should not hesitate to assume placement re- sponsibilities if the costs can be satisfactorily met. In the long run, how- ever, the entire undertaking will demand the wholehearted codperation of certain other interests — such as industrial, commercial, and financial enterprises, organized labor, and the United States Employment Service. Effective codperation among these interests may call for considerable variation in organization and functioning from place to place. No standard set-up can as yet be wisely prescribed. At the same time, it is clear that for the present, if youth are to be adequately served in the matter of securing their initial employment, the schools must exhibit initiative and leadership.?2 The school which concerns itself actively with community life, which attempts to study the vocational world outside its doors, will inevitably find itself in a position to assist in the placement of its leaving students. Realization on the part of employers that such a school is not an academic cloister but an institution engaged in a study of contemporary conditions will help to establish a relationship in which employing groups will seek the school’s assistance in selecting employees. A school which has available pertinent information about its individual students and uses this information to assist in their suitable placement will find itself the agency to which employers in- creasingly turn for assistance in the selection of new employees, even though that school has a relatively small amount of formal placement machinery or organization. The small high school, unable to afford a great deal of specialized machinery for job 21 The Educational Policies Commission, The Structure and Administration of Education in American Democracy, p. 29. Washington, D.C.: National Education Association of the United States, 1938. 82 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November placement, can, nevertheless, perhaps in an informal way, place itself in a strategic and effective position in helping the student to bridge the gap between school and work. In a direct way, a high school may offer specific instruction to its leaving students on the methods of getting a job. An account of an occupational conference in Oakland, California, contains the following statement concerning activities of the Oakland High Schools directed toward assisting students to obtain jobs: Participants were keenly interested in two motion picture films which were shown at one of the sessions. These films, which had been planned and photographed by members of the Oakland staff, were entitled, “How to Get a Job,” and “Twenty-four Occupations Followed by Grad- uates of Oakland High Schools.” Both are used in a course required of all seniors in Oakland high schools, the main purpose of which is to examine the varied ways and means of getting and succeeding in a job.?2 An attempt has been made to point out some of the respon- sibilities and possibilities of the high school in contributing to vocational adjustment with regard to choosing a vocation, de- veloping competence in that vocation, and securing employ- ment in that vocation. Various possible approaches are sug- gested by the activities which the schools are today developing, but as yet the relative effectiveness of these different procedures has not been determined. Such procedures and practices in preparing students for effective participation in work can only be evaluated in terms of the degree to which students of a given school succeed in making good vocational adjustment. A study of occupational adjustment is now being inaugurated under the auspices of the Committee on Implementation of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, a study which proposes to evaluate scientifically the effectiveness 22 Lee, Edwin A., “Occupational Adjustment from Coast to Coast,” Occupa- tions, 17:802, June 1939. ce nt -O> a. se Oo 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 83 of different school procedures aimed toward securing vocational competence. Careful examination will be made of the actual job adjustment of students who have received such training. Such a study holds manifold possibilities for designating specific procedures that a high school may use with some as- surance that they will be effective. Evidence reveals that the vocational adjustment of the edu- cationally neglected demands a comprehensive program of activities on the part of the secondary school, far beyond that ordinarily undertaken. Such a program involves more than sporadic consideration of a few selected occupations and train- ing in a few fields. It demands an extensive and comprehen- sive study of all types of jobs, their availability, returns, and de- mands. It requires the provision of specific training when possible and feasible and in all cases an attempt to understand and develop those social qualities and that adaptability de- manded in practically all fields of work. Finally, the secondary school which assumes responsibility for the vocational training of the educationally neglected, must, on the basis of its knowl- edge of these boys and girls, also assume some responsibility for their best possible placement. EDUCATION FOR THE USE OF LEISURE TIME There are those who doubt the effectiveness of the conven- tional school program in establishing any very lasting interests or providing the initial stimulus for activities which can be or are carried over into the recreational life of after-school years.”* In the lives of the great majority of people, work is the cen- tral factor. Nevertheless, important as is work, it is only one of the great activities of life in which most normal individuals engage. The success of any individual in leading a happy, 23 Eckert, Ruth E. and Marshall, Thomas O., op. cit., pp. 286-301. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1939. 84 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November well-adjusted life depends upon his ability to develop satisfac- tory relationships and activities, not only in gainful employ- ment, but in his leisure time as well; not only among his fel- low workers but also in the family and community. Life can- not be separated into sharply divided compartments. Efficiency on the job will depend upon many factors in the worker’s life outside of his hours of employment. Increasing Amount of Leisure Time To elaborate upon the increasing amount of leisure time available to the average person today is unnecessary. The mechanization of industry and agriculture has made it pos- sible to supply the needs of society with far fewer hours of labor than was formerly imaginable. The average number of working hours per individual per day and week has steadily dropped during the past several decades and there is some reason to believe that this number will continue to decrease.”* The manner in which this amount of leisure time is utilized, the degree to which individuals can be guided into activities which are not only satisfying to them but also contributory to the general development of society can and will have a pro- found effect upon the development of the whole nation. The problems arising in this area concern every social agency and every age level. Their close relationship to juvenile delinquency and crime is obvious. The school, then, has an important function in any comprehensive program of educating for the use of leisure time. The interests developed and the activities promoted among adolescents will set the pattern and provide the stimulus with which to influence the recreational activities 24 Lies, Eugene T., The New Leisure Challenges the Schools, Chap. 1. Wash- ington, D.C.: National Recreation Association, National Education Association, 1933. vel VIC tur yo par Cat: eve hig tha pro ad fort tion the The limi 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 85 of the adult. With these activities and interests the secondary school should be concerned. Youth's Leisure Activities No Cause for Complacency In an age which has produced such a variety of recreational activities, and made available a vast increase in time for par- ticipation in them, one might assume that youth readily can find suitable and worth-while recreation. Yet an examination of the actual facilities available to large numbers of youth shows that this assumption is not true. Commercial amuse- ments (we are not here considering their desirability) are widely available, it is true, but a large portion of the youth population have not the financial resources for extensive utiliza- tion of such amusement. Consideration of the need for de- velopment of community recreation centers *° which will pro- vide youth (particularly out-of-school youth) with an oppor- tunity for inexpensive and wholesome group activities is be- yond the scope of this bulletin, but attention is called to the part the school can play, particularly with reference to the edu- cationally neglected. The opportunities for group activities, hobby clubs, social events, and participation in games offered today by the average high school are more extensive than formerly. Recognition that such activities are a part of a total well-rounded educational program has guided the school’s action and has resulted in a desirable expansion of this part of the school program. Very fortunately the distinctions which have characterized the educa- tionally neglected student in the academic program have in the main not been transferred to this extracurricular area. The rigorous restrictions occasionally established by schools limiting participation in the extracurricular program, unless 25 Bell, op. cit., pp. 180-89. 86 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November achievement in the conventional program reaches a certain grade standard, are often unfortunate and of doubtful wisdom. If these allied social and group activities have value in them- selves, then there is no reason to limit participation in them because of failure in academic studies, which many students of secondary education today believe of much more questionable value than the extracurricular activities. The educationally neg- lected student has found his most satisfactory experiences in high school in these allied social, special interests, and recrea- tional activities. Equality of educational opportunity has been more freely offered here than in the conventional program, al- though even here economic restrictions operate. The secondary school which is seeking to extend an equal opportunity to every student must strive to maintain all of its special activities in such a way as not to demand excessive individual expenditures. When the social life of the school demands a standard of dress and incidental expenditure which cannot be met by the eco- nomically less fortunate among its student body, it does not contribute to the equality of opportunity which a free, demo- cratic public school is obligated to offer. Again, such discrimi- nation, while it affects students of all types of abilities, more markedly affects the educationally neglected, who are drawn largely from the lower economic levels. The old story is re- peated: to those least in need of a school program of social and group recreational activities, the program is most readily avail- able, while to those most in need of such a program, it is least available. Training for Future Leisure Activities To be functioning actively in the development of its students a school must contribute to the satisfaction of their immediate leisure and recreational needs. However, the secondary school ve ac Ca ta: cr ca: tic de ral evi Nc to fac aft sck cot girl wh 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 87 program should help the individual to discover those interests, abilities, and skills, which in after-school life will also provide the basis for satisfying and worth-while pursuits for him as an adult. A great deal of leisure time is not devoted to group or social activities, but to individual avocations. Unfortunate is the person who finds it impossible to enjoy some of his leisure time alone. Reading, handicrafts, music, radio enter- tainment, the movies, hiking, nature study are among the host of valuable activities on which individuals spend most of their time. The school undoubtedly is making contributions to the de- velopment of avocational interests of every type. Every subject of study in the high school has its possibilities for developing activities in which individual students may find lifetime avo- cational pursuits. Whether the secondary school realizes these possibilities to the fullest extent is doubtful. The zeal to develop tastes and interests of the highest type in literature, arts and crafts, music, and the sciences is laudable, but in too many cases has resulted in pitching instruction at a level of apprecia- tion and specialization far beyond that of the majority of stu- dents. Only a minority of students are able to profit from elabo- rate and detailed study of the classics, the arts, historical events, or the principles and intricacies of the natural sciences. No one would question the desirability of helping the student to raise the level of his appreciation as high as possible, but the fact that so few students continue these academic pursuits in after-school life leads one to the inevitable conclusion that the school is not being very effective in its attempts. The following comment from a Regents’ Inquiry report is pertinent: Much less encouraging is the complete abandonment by the boys and girls who do not go on to higher schools of many of the activities on which secondary schools commonly lay great emphasis. Left to their 88 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November own devices, most of these young people cease to read serious books and articles or good fiction; they seldom listen to the best music; they study as a means of preparing for a vocation, rather than for fun or to add to their general education.?® Again, it would seem that the secondary school has failed to adapt itself to the present, more inclusive pupil population. Those in charge of the secondary schools should find out just what the actual recreational activities of all students, and espe- cially the educationally neglected, are, and what they may con- tinue to be. If students’ reading is confined largely to contem- porary magazines, then certainly the level for further encour- agement and development of leisure reading needs to start with such materials. Develop and improve standards of apprecia- tion, yes — and to the greatest extent possible — but cease to assume that true appreciation is going to be developed by de- tailed and specialized study on a level so remote from the stu- dents’ experience that more often than not a profound distaste for good reading results. Whether or not the part which the radio and the movies play in the education of the public today is viewed with alarm, the fact remains that these features of our modern world with- out doubt will continue to play a large part in the recreational life of the majority of people. Deploring the quality of the radio program or screen drama avails little, if anything, in improving it. It would be far better to make these programs a part of school discussion and study, even though many are of small merit, and attempt to develop discrimination in selection and enjoyment. A secondary school must realize that individual avocations are to be judged primarily from their effect on the individual. Interests and avocations which are satisfying to the individual, 26 Spaulding, op. cit., p. 52. 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 89 unless they are definitely antisocial, need to be encouraged re- gardless of whether they fit any preconceived pattern of re- spectability and acceptability. The arts and crafts offer possi- bilities for a tremendous range of activities that will be pursued with consuming interest for a lifetime by many individuals, and can provide the means for individual expression so often denied in modern industrial work. The natural sciences offer a wide range of possibilities for individual hobbies. The ten- dency today to emphasize in physical education sports that may be carried on by individuals in after-school life, with rela- tively little equipment and organization, rather than highly organized team sports exclusively is encouraging. The schools are expanding their concept of interests and hobbies which may be included in both the curricular and the extracurricular programs. The lists of special clubs which function in many of the average and larger high schools in- clude almost every conceivable interest. An outline of “Information Concerning Student Organiza- tions,” from the Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, Senior High School lists twenty-six special interest clubs, ranging from a “World Affairs Forum,” and a “Latin Club,” to “Table Ten- nis,” “Girls Bowling Club,” “Chess Club,” “First Aid and Social Service,” “Riding Club,” “Rifle Club,” etc. An interesting and unique innovation, a schedule-less day, is reported by Principal T. N. Thomas, of the Centreville Pub- lic Schools, Centreville, Michigan. A “problem day” consist- ing of . . . from one half to a full day set aside each week or two, during which the pupil may work on a vital (to him) problem uninterrupted by bells or passage to class. .. . Students are encouraged to select problems arising from their classwork, continue them throughout the problem day, and then carry them back into the class period. .. . On problem day no 90 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November bells are rung. Pupils are asked to be present not later than 8:20, but may begin to work upon arrival and continue throughout the day un- interrupted. This day devoted to pursuit of individual problems is not in- tended primarily for developing avocational interests. The activities which are listed for a typical problem day are so var- ied that many of them also contribute to other objectives of secondary education. A report of another problem day in this school lists sixty-five separate activities carried on by ninety- three students — such activities as construction of equipment for the home and farm, learning to weave, making a dress, planning a trip, studying the decoration of a room, fixing the car, practicing glass blowing, using a microscope, or following up problems for study in academic fields. Thomas reports: In evaluating the results, we feel that the process tends toward better correlation, real planning, extended thought, better application and enthusiasm on the part of pupils in that they have a chance really to carry through a project without being interrupted every hour. There just isn’t a discipline problem during this period. Wilson, in his Regents’ Inquiry report, comments on a “Club and Conference Day,” observed in a high school in New York State, as follows: There each Wednesday is Club and Conference Day. No regular academic classes are held, but the regular class periods are maintained. A great variety of clubs and organizations meet during these periods, and pupils are urged to participate in them, subject to individual guid- ance and advice for those who seem to overdo such activities. The at- tempt is to prevent a few people from carrying the whole responsibility for the organizations and to get all pupils active in at least one or two of them. On Wednesdays, under this plan, all pupils normally engage in two or three “activities,” and, when not so engaged, go to classrooms for individual or small-group help from the teacher on academic work. The plan, in this sense, has academic merit as well as sociological merit, } 4 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 91 especially for the small school where pupils travel by bus and cannot give many extra school hours to such activities.?7 In a bulletin entitled Our Schools, Local Innovations, from the Reading, Michigan, High School, an account entitled “We Learn to Dance” is given, describing how faculty members and student helpers conduct a dancing school for those who wish to learn to dance. Another section tells of a noon recre- ation program which is being introduced by the pupils: The program is based on student choices. Games new to the stu- dents are being introduced as the season changes. Boxing, dancing, group singing, volleyball, table tennis, soccer, chess, dominoes, and read- ing have been introduced to date. It is hoped that enthusiastic leaders may volunteer to introduce bridge, and help with chess and checkers. Most folks must earn their bread and butter by the sweat of their brows and must trust that somehow the opportunity for enjoyment of life will be given during the hours of leisure... . Such a program as this may help make hours of leisure enjoyable and purposeful. Examples are not lacking of courses in the regular school program being developed from primarily the consumer or ap- preciative point of view. The Princeton, New Jersey, High School reports a course, “Practical Music,” which is part of the social-scientific curriculum, a curriculum intended primarily for the less academic students. The ultimate aim of music in this curriculum is stated to be “to help take care of the leisure- time activities of the students,” while the aim of this specific course is “to prepare students to listen intelligently to music on the radio.” In class the students discuss radio programs that they have heard, and use the radio and the phonograph. The fourteen units of work used during a semester five days a week are: “Types of Music Heard on the Radio,” “Folk Music of Many Lands,” “Types of Voices and the Art Song,” “Forms 27 Wilson, Howard E., Education for Citizenship, pp. 210-11. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938. 92 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November in Music,” “Program Music,” “The Suite,” “The Overture,” “The Symphony Orchestras,” “Music for the Piano,” “The Symphony,” “The Opera,” “Famous Composers,” “Jazz,” “Review of Phonograph Recordings, Piano Pieces.” In order to develop wider reading interests many schools are using free reading programs which provide a wide range of reading material and allow the students to follow their own interests chiefly, rather than a prescribed program. Interest- ingly enough, it is being discovered that such free reading pro- cedure not only awakens a more lively interest in reading, but also often results in a greater increase in reading ability than the more conventional and formal procedure.*® In an outline of the daily program for the ninth grade stu- dents of the Fowler Union High School in California, the fol- lowing statement describing the activities of the hour devoted to physical education is found: Major emphasis is placed on sports having life interest — chess, check- ers, table tennis, badminton, croquet, tennis, horse-shoes, swimming — with, of course, the usual team activities. Approximately one fifth of the total year’s time is devoted to coeducational play activities, climaxed by a spring party sponsored by the Freshman Committee. In the account of the activity period it is stated that Three days are reserved for interest groups — modern manners, model airplanes, camera, rifle, manuscript writing. Students may regis- ter for the school band, for a voice group, or for study. And finally in the day’s program, one hour is scheduled as 38 For illustrative reports of such procedure see Anders, L. L., “Remedial Effects of a Free Reading Program,” English Journal (H. S. edition), 25:851-56, December 1936. “The English Curriculum for Low-Ability Groups at Evanston Township High School,” Bulletin of the Department of Secondary School Principals, 20:8-41, December 1936. 1939} The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 93 the “Hobby Hour,” when “each student selects the subject nearest his heart.” *° In the variety of activities introduced in the curriculum a wide opportunity is given for development of worthy avocational as well as practical interests. The leisure-time interests of the educationally neglected stu- dent will cover the entire range of such activities, but will certainly emphasize less the more literary and abstract types of activities. The high school which is conscientiously attempting to meet the needs of all its students in training for worthy use of leisure time must enlarge its concept of individual interests to include the whole range of possible activities, rather than emphasize exclusively a select group of highly cultural and academically respected interests. It must note carefully the realities of the existing community, study what resources that community offers for individual avocation, and recognize any poor economic conditions which may limit the use of leisure activities for certain groups of youth in the community. Only out of such an approach can come an educational program oriented to the development of worth-while leisure activities for the educationally neglected. TRAINING FOR DEMOCRATIC LIVING Training for citizenship in a democracy has been a funda- mental objective of our public school system since its inception. The realization of the responsibility of the school has been heightened in recent years by the trend in world events. The social sciences, broadly defined, are increasingly becoming the core of the secondary school curriculum. The special facts and developments which are now current in education with 29 Petit, Clare N., “How a Small School Revises Its Curriculum,” California Journal of Secondary Education, 14:39-40, January 1939. 94 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November regard to training for democratic living need not be reviewed here, but several factors which specifically concern the edu- cationally neglected student might well be considered. Democratic Practices in School If a school is to be a training ground for future living it must practice those principles which it seeks to develop for adult living. Wide recognition is given this principle without careful examination of what it means in practice. Certainly it does not mean turning the high school over to the dictates of its students. It does mean the extension of responsibilities, of group control, with respect for individual student opinions to the widest feasible extent consistent with the maturity and ex- perience of the students. Within those areas where democratic student control does function, the widest participation of all stu- dents needs to be secured. Student control can be small group, clique, or class control as truly as can that of nations. The fact that the students have assumed responsibility for directing any particular endeavor gives no assurance that democratic pro- cedure is being used. Unfortunate patterns in the local com- munity social structure can all too easily be carried over into high school activities. This is not to argue that leadership should not arise from student activities — it inevitably will — but rather to emphasize that such leadership should be based upon factors inherent in the situation. Selecting students to assume student responsibilities primarily upon the basis of academic achievement is to act on a limitation which certainly does not and should not receive like emphasis in real life. Acuvities of Democratic Citizenship Democratic citizenship means more than the periodic ex- ercise of the right to vote; it involves the whole pattern of liv- oe %. ~ ~~ oO. = Ae | OE 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 95 ing and working together in groups. The individual’s concept of citizenship and his exercise of the privileges and obligations thereof needs to be projected as far as possible beyond the im- mediate local groups, but it is as a member of local community groups that the individual generally exercises to the greatest extent his privileges and obligations as a citizen. Perhaps it would be an exaggeration to insist that the development of an intelligent and responsible citizenry with regard to the local community would automatically produce the same with regard to the nation. Understandings of national and international import need to be sought to the greatest possible extent by all, but the development of such understandings undoubtedly grow out of the individual’s experiences and observations with relation to the local community. The development of an un- derstanding of the simple and acceptable rules of behavior which govern personal relationships certainly increases the ability to work with others, and in the broader sense has im- plications for the development of good citizenship, especially among the educationally neglected. It has been assumed too generally that the study of historical facts and broad social movements remote in time and space from the lives of the students would contribute to social com- petence in future citizens of the nation. Unfortunately such investigations as have been made show practically no relation between the amount of such studies and the degree of under- standing or even information concerning contemporary prob- lems.*° Perhaps very able students can, although it is doubtful 80 See Melbo, Irving R., “Information of High School Seniors on Contemporary Problems,” Social Studies, 27:82-86, January 1936. The Division of Field Studies, Institute of Educational Research, Teachers College, Columbia University, 4 Report of a Survey of the Public Schools of St. Louis, Missouri, pp. 42-51. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1939. 96 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November that they do, ** draw from detailed and abstract study of the facts and events of past history generalizations which effectively contribute to the understanding of contemporary problems of citizenship, but there is little reason to believe that much of practical value is gained by the average or less than average student from such study. Featherstone has aptly stated this point of view as follows: . - + But I find it very difficult to understand how a teacher who has read much about the psychology of individual differences or who has a clear insight into how the human mind operates can entertain the notion that studying the merits of the Intolerable Acts is going to have much effect upon the public morality of the personal social-economic efficiency of young persons of average or less than average ability in the year of Brace, 1939. The almost certain consequence for the non-academic in high school of abridged or vest-pocket editions of college or graduate school courses in the social sciences is little or no real knowledge or understanding, accompanied almost certainly by feelings of futility, disappointment, resentment, and disillusionment. I have been unable to discover any careful study that has attributed discernible practical results in im- proved social-civic-economic efficiency to such technical courses, nor have I seen the results of any study that establishes convincingly the achieve- ment of any substantial generalized controls of behavior, such as im- proved powers of thought or improved skill in analysis of social eco- nomic issues or improved attitudes toward fellow men. There is doubt- less some value in knowledge for its own sake, but with the non- academic the enormous cost of inculcating such supposedly essential knowledge seems hardly a defensible use of public funds.3? The educationally neglected student, with his limited pow- ers of imagination and his inability to generalize from ex- periences remote from his own daily life, must have his study for democratic citizenship oriented around the observable, 81 See Wilson, op. cit., Chap. Il. 82 Featherstone, W. B., “Social Education of the Non-Academic,” Social Edu- cation, 3:163, March 1939. salah gr tio as: sp SOC liv gr cu! its ric stu , = 1939} The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 97 concrete happenings which impinge upon him in his everyday living. The inadequacy of the knowledge of the average high- school-leaving student concerning his own community has been verified by examination (at least in one state.) ** There is no reason to suppose that the study of contemporary prob- lems in the local community should be confined to any one high school group. The contention here is that, desirable as it may be for all, it is the sole point of approach that will have any appreciable practical value, in terms of improved citizen- ship, for the educationally neglected students. Such a study of the concrete problems of citizens generally may serve as the groundwork for a larger and more generalized study of na- tional and world citizenship, but to start with the remote and assume automatic, self-initiated student application to the specific is futile. An ever-growing number of schools are reorganizing the social studies curriculum around the problems of community living and are utilizing community resources. In revised pro- grams, local and statewide, the emphasis is increasingly on the current problems of society. Only a few of these can be cited. The Mount Holly, New Jersey, High School has organized its social science curriculum, for the four-year period, a cur- riculum specifically organized for noncollege noncommercial students, around the following four major areas: The Art of Living in the Home (Grade 9). The Art of Living in the Community (Grade 10). The Art of Making a Living (Grade 11). The Principles and Problems of American Democracy (Grade 12). In connection with the topic for the twelfth year, Principal Waldro J. Kindig writes: 88 Spaulding, op. cit., pp. 15-32. 98 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November Topics of discussion here will not refer to the study of the tariff or an exhaustive research on our foreign policy, but they will learn about the National Housing Program, the Social Security Act, and its operation, unemployment insurance, National and State Parks, and other current problems that are directly related to the welfare, happiness, and security of the working man and his family. The Evanston Township High School, Evanston, Illinois, has instituted a course for seniors entitled “Personal and Social Problems.” A detailed account of this course by David Cam- eron, one of the teachers, appeared in the School Review,** April 1939. In material secured from the Evanston Township High School, Cameron adds the following statement concern- ing the course: The course in “Personal and Social Problems” aims to help prepare the pupil who is not going to college to face the host of unsolved and often unconsidered problems which await him after graduation. Al- though it would be difficult to make a list of every topic that comes to the attention of the class, some of those which receive most consideration are the following: consumer education, the handling of money, jobs, per- sonality adjustment, hobbies and recreation, propaganda analysis, hous- ing, crime, health, oral and written expression, and local, national, and international affairs. These and other problems are handled through the media of class study and discussion or individual project and report. An effort is made to sce that individuals recognize the personal significance that these problems have for them. Whenever possible, group study is supple- mented by field trips and by talks to the class by qualified outsiders. The tentative outline of a course in social studies to be used in the tenth grade of the high schools of Yonkers, New York, as a part of the social-civic curriculum, a curriculum designed for noncollege students, lists the following units for study, units in which the approach indicated is always to be from the pres- 84 Cameron, David, “A Specially Adjusted Course in Personal and Social Problems,” School Review, 47:290-98, April 1939. 1939} The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 99 ent and in which past history is utilized for clarification and understanding of contemporary problems rather than as iso- lated information: . Man Uses Science to Improve His Life. . Man Conquers Time and Space. . Man as a Religious Animal Develops a Moral Code. . Man Struggles to Learn (Education). - Man Builds for Himself and the Gods. . How Man Has Entertained Himself. . Man Develops Laws to Make for Harmonious Living. . Why Has Government Taken Different Forms? . How Organized Government Has Contributed to the Advance of Civilization. 10. How Has Civilization Been Retarded by Weaknesses in Govern- ment? 11. Conflict Among Nations Today. Principal L. L. Forsythe, of the Ann Arbor, Michigan, Senior High School, reports the inauguration in September 1938 of a course entitled “Unified Senior Studies.” This course, which utilized three hours a day of the program during the senior year for the noncollege preparatory students, lists a wide variety of current topics for consideration, including the following: © ON AVM SS WN . Consumer Problems. . Vocations. . Health. . Problems of Owning or Renting, and of Furnishing and Operating Homes. . Conservation of Natural Resources. . Social Relationships. . Current Events. There is probably no one best pattern for organization of social studies or for the development of good citizenship (the study of history as usually carried on is obviously a poor one), but the atmosphere and general operation of a high school in 100 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November its dealing with individuals can be one of the most powerful conditioning factors in the training for democratic living. For the educationally neglected the formal program assuredly must be organized around the problems of present contemporary life (with local applications) as it affects the average individual, before any great amount of functional learning which will in a practical way affect the lives of these potential citizens, can be anticipated. EDUCATION FOR FAMILY LIVING The importance of the family as the basic social unit of our society long since led to a recognition of the fact that the school should assist in training for participation in family life. The Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education of the National Education Association in 1918 listed “Worthy Home Membership” as one of the cardinal principles of sec- ondary education.*® Modern conditions which appear to be changing the function of the home and the increase in the in- stability of the home as evidenced by our high divorce rate serve to emphasize the necessity for training youth to accept re- sponsibilities and privileges of family life. Even though the home, particularly in urban America, is not the economic unit which it was in an earlier time, it is still the unit, the stability of which will determine largely the stability and progress of the nation. It still remains the social unit which exerts the greatest influence on the character, health, and education of the succeeding generations. Relationships within the family group determine most forcibly the happiness of the individual. Education for family living is therefore important, and es- pecially necessary for the educationally neglected, who in sec- 85 Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education, Department of the Interior, U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1918, No. 35, pp. 7-16. ber ur 1939} The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 101 ondary school get their final full-time education. Certainly training for worthy home membership involves more than cooking, sewing and child care, although these are undoubtedly essential activities in the average American home. It in- volves education which will develop some concept of the im- portance of the family as a social unit, perhaps some knowledge of the history and function of the family, the financial aspects of homemaking and homeowning, family consumer problems, respect for other personalities, and the whole series of common relationships, attitudes, ideals, and appreciations existent among the different members of a happy, well-adjusted family. One of the most effective approaches to education for family life lies in the area of adult education. When family problems are real, immediate, and pressing, as they are in the early years of marriage, learning that contributes to the solution of these problems will be purposive and highly motivated. The sec- ondary school is in a position to make very real contributions in this area, and it should do so especially when opportunity for adult education is not otherwise available. To set up an effective program of training for the early adolescent years based upon adult needs a decade away in the life of the learner is impossible. In the earlier years of high school the solution of problems of adjustment to family life must involve the prob- lems actually encountered by the learner in his or her status as a youth in a family. That this training will in some degree transfer to the status of husband or wife, father or mother, seems reasonable. In the later years of high school, increased maturity in the learner will permit much more effective in- struction concerning future adult family problems. In many instances approaching marriage or anticipation of marriage will make the problem of financing, operating, and maintain- ing a home of very real significance to the learner. 102 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November While little or no statistical evidence is available, it is com- mon knowledge that the educationally neglected group will be more immediately concerned with the problems of family life than will the college-preparatory group. When no long period of education is anticipated, the expectation of marriage at an earlier age is greater. Principal Waldro J. Kindig, of the Mount Holly, New Jersey, High School, in recounting the findings of a survey of the needs of those boys and girls here termed educationally neglected writes, It was discovered that they married young and their responsibilities of maintaining a home were accelerated by six or eight years ahead of the college-preparatory and commercial students. Marrying at this early age means that they are called upon to establish a home and maintain a family on a limited income. Certainly to this group, for whom high school education is the final formal educational opportunity, the high school owes a responsibility and offers remarkable opportunities for de- veloping educational units that can contribute materially to- ward the establishment of happy, well-adjusted family life. Many schools, in attempting to organize their programs for the less scholarly students around functional areas, have found the problems of the home to be among the most practical cen- ters around which to develop curricula. It is not necessary to elaborate here on the developments that have taken place in the Home Arts or the Home Economics field, but it should be pointed out that a wide concept of the function of such education has been accepted, which is con- cerned with problems that include more than the mastery of technical skills in cooking and sewing. Specific courses on family relationships and on problems dealing with economic and social conditions of the modern family, family finances, health, the care of children, and other pertinent topics are 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 103 common today. As an example of the orientation of a voca- tional program around the problems of the home, part of the outline of a plan for a new curriculum issued by the Vocational Division of the Department of Public Instruction of the State of New Jersey is given here: STATE OF NEw JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION VOCATIONAL DIVISION TRENTON Outline of Plan for a New Curriculum in Which Home and Community Living Are Dominant Interests Origin A curriculum planned by the County Superintendent of Schools in Cape May County for five codperating high schools called a “Course in Codperative Living” and curriculum in Rancocas Valley Regional High School at Mount Holly called “The Civics Curriculum” were the experiments from which were developed this plan. In both the original plans there was an integration of subject matter with the central theme, “Successful Living in the Home and Community.” Boys and girls were registered in these classes. Title of the New Curriculum A conference group of those interested considered at some length what the new curriculum should be called in order that the name might serve as a favorable introduction to parents and pupils. It was finally de- cided to experiment with Social Scientific Course in Problems of Modern Living. Group Served The new curriculum is designed to serve boys and girls who will have no formal education beyond the high school. This program may, in selected schools, supersede what is now called the “General Course.” 104 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November Place in the High School The program may be organized on a four-year basis or in the case of senior high schools, on a three-year basis. It may also be organized as a two-year course for pupils who wish to elect other subjects for the remainder of their high school course. The pupils enrolled will be taught as a separate group in all except such very general subjects as physical education, music, etc. The program may, if necessary, be set up with such subject matter as deals specifically with the family and the home and their relations with the community in the first two years of the curriculum. In this case, the remaining time may be given more definitely to such subjects as civic welfare, government, occupations, transportation, automobile safety, etc. Home Economics Subjects Defined Home economics subjects may include: Food subjects: Selecting, purchasing, preparing and serving foods; nutrition, dietetics. Clothing subjects: Selecting, purchasing, and construction of clothing; care, repair, and cleaning. The home: Its planning and care, maintenance, decoration, and financing. Children: Their care and development and their place in the home and family life. Home nursing: Codperation with doctor, some skill in nontechnical care of sick, ability to meet emergencies, use of simple home remedies. Consumer education: Dealing with problems involved in retail buying of goods for personal and home use. Family and community relations: Factors involved in successful home and community living. Related Subjects Defined Related subjects may include: The social sciences, civics, sociology, economics. The natural sciences, physical, biological, and chemical. th 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 105 Art as related to planning home and grounds and selection of furnish- ings and clothing. Mathematics, small business transactions which are part of individual and family living, also those involved in financing the home. Boys’ Part in the Program The general plan is that boys share equally in all the program except such parts as may deal specifically with girls’ interests. They are in- cluded in the skilled subjects insofar as their own problems and some appreciation of the whole field is involved. While girls have further work in cooking and sewing, boys should be sent to the school shop to work with the industrial arts teacher on projects dealing with household construction and repair. This may cover a wide field from cement work to making book shelves, a window box, children’s toys, or setting a pane of glass. Some knowledge of domestic heating plants and their efficient operation may well be included. While boys have their special clothing problems, girls may go to the shop for instruction in such things as care of electrical equipment, how to put up curtain rods, and other mechani- cal household jobs. Radio operation and repair is a subject of interest to both boys and girls. Opportunities in Many Fields Many different specific areas of study offer manifold possibil- ities for development of understandings and skills relating to home life. Reading may be guided into channels which can develop an appreciation of family problems and congenial re- lationships within the family. The biological sciences offer an opportunity for developing an understanding and a healthy, normal attitude toward the problems of sex. The physical sciences offer numerous opportunities for a study of the con- struction, operation, and maintenance of household appliances, as do also the general shop courses. Mathematics offers an op- portunity for the development of mathematical skills around the problems of home and household finance. General busi- 106 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November ness courses afford similar opportunities. Courses in social sci- ences offer an opportunity for a study of different types of fam- ily organization and for developing appreciation of the family as a social unit. There are innumerable examples of schools that are attempting to provide education for family living by approaching it through the different subject matter fields. The Tentative Outline of a Course in Social Finance for tenth or eleventh grade students of the social-civic curriculum in Yonkers, New York, is organized around the financial prob- lems of the ordinary citizen, and includes such topics relating directly to the maintenance of the home as: “budgets” (per- sonal and family), “thrift,” “savings,” “emergency financing,” “installment buying,” “home finance,” (renting a home, financ- ing the purchase of a home, etc.). The Neptune High School at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, pre- sents a course for noncollege seniors entitled “Problems in Everyday Living,” which contains an extensive unit on the home. In this unit, Principal Harry A. Titcomb reports the consideration of such topics as “Responsibility of the High School Student in His Home,” “Personal Qualities Young Peo- ple Appreciate in the Opposite Sex,” “Choosing a Mate,” “Fac- tors That Make for Happy Marriage,” “Cooperation in the Home.” In an outline of the General English Course the Haverford Township High School lists as one of the four general topics of the work as organized, “English Needed in Meeting Home Responsibilities.” As stated in the outline, “Since 95 per cent of these people will establish homes, the individual members are assigned reports on costs of living in this community.” With this as the starting point a series of projects are organized around such specific topics as “clothing, labor saving devices, home decorating, home economy, and amusements.” These 9 66 bi IO ce Oe CRAG aha Pi Liaaiaitk once “il aoa WAS a ae ar va al Ree eee et eC eee nt na Ned ties. > shake aa tan latest nl em e. the pr ter the sci ey Be nats Pena gee et eltep i ee: he a city BADR E>. 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 107 constitute the functional units around which a part of the work may center. Principal Ted H. Barnard, of the Princeton, New Jersey, High School, states that this school has utilized the problems of the home in organizing its social-scientific curriculum, which is planned specifically for the educationally neglected student. The following illustrations of the approach used are given in a report of the curriculum by Jeanne M. Wright, teacher in the Princeton High School: Practical science is taught in both the ninth and tenth grades to mixed classes of boys and girls. In the ninth grade, such a course is sponsored by the department of Home Economics; in the tenth grade, by the de- partment of Science. A stimulating project was carried on by one of the ninth grade classes. It began with the use of a Sweet's catalogue of manufacturers. A letter was sent out to many of the manufacturers therein listed, asking for samples of various and assorted building mate- rials. Everyone was enthusiastic with the results. Materials of woods, fabrics, linoleums, varnish, ozite pads, soaps, cleansers, electrical devices and even cosmetics poured into the school. The students loved it and the teacher beamed with maternal pride. The whole aim of the course has been to make the students conscious of better buying and better ap- preciation of the home. Always it is the students who are encouraged to lead and participate in the class discussions. Many new realms of in- terest have opened up. Obviously there is a decided vocational value to the course as well. The practical science of the tenth grade is conducted more along scientific lines. Its purpose is to acquaint students with the mechanical devices of the home, such as the gas and the electric ice box, the vacuum cleaner, furnaces and oil burners, their construction and comparative merits, ventilation, insulation, electric fans, irons, percolators and the like. In the department of mathematics, practical mathematics have been the keynote of the course. The chief study has been that of the family budget. In studying each item of that budget, actual visits have been made locally to the department stores, food markets, amusement halls, doctors’ offices and real estate agencies. All aspects of money and its relation to life are discussed. 108 National Association of Secondary-School Principals {November In the shop we find two new courses: one in safety, which includes a study of automobile driving and traffic regulations; the other in home mechanics, which is what the name implies, a course which centers about practical helps for the home. Repair work of all sorts is under- taken, gas meters are read, fuses are replaced. This department, as well as that of Home Economics, has pioneered in the endeavor to prepare the child for living. In this department of Home Economics an emphasis has been laid on the development of personality, reliability, and sincerity. Again, the study has been directed toward an appreciation of a family unit: its food, its dress, its attitudes, its budget, its health problems and its leisure interests. The direct approach is used by the Toms River, New Jer- sey, High School in introducing a required senior course en- titled “Family Relationships.” The tentative course of study prepared for use lists eight units of study: . Origin and Early Development of the Family. . Background of the Modern American Family. . Structure of the Family. . Adjustments before Marriage. . Adjustments after Marriage. . Functions of the Family. . Leisure and Its Opportunities. . The Family and the Community. on AMS WwW NN One might continue to give illustrations of the manner in which schools are organizing instruction around the needs of the family. It is an area of knowledge important in the educa- tion of practically all students. To return to the recurrent theme, it is, however, peculiarly important to educationally neglected youth. The probability of marriage at an early age for this group, their few chances for further formal education, the great probability of their having to live in limited environ- ment with limited financial resources, all conspire to increase the responsibility of the secondary school for making the avail- 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 109 able instruction definitely contribute toward the development of stable, happy home life for the educationally neglected. The fact that many of the problems met in this area are of such a vital and pressing nature, and so much a part of the real ex- perience of individual students as to provide strong motivation for the study of such problems, further points to the practicabil- ity of instruction organized around the theme of family life. HEALTH The statement that success in any endeavor is largely predi- cated upon sound physical health needs no elaboration. School people have become increasingly aware that any comprehen- sive program of education must be concerned with the physical as well as the mental development of the child. The extent of the responsibility of the school has been summarized by Wins- low in the opening paragraph of his New York Regents’ In- quiry report as follows: During the school-age period, the child is in a very real sense a ward of the state. Education for healthful living should be one of the main objectives of any school system; but this is only one of the health prob- lems of public education. During the hours spent in school the child should be protected against harmful environmental conditions and pro- vided with facilities for the practice of health habits inculcated in the classroom. Furthermore, during this period, the state assumes special responsibility for the health supervision of the individual child, including a determination of health status and an attempt to secure the correction and prevention of remediable defects which tend to hamper school progress or to interfere with fullness of living.®* The scope of such a program extends far beyond an academic consideration of health rules. The comprehensive nature of the 86 Winslow, C.-E. A., The School Health Program, p. 1. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938. 110 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November problem can be realized in part by considering the different areas of activity which such a program involves: (1) the pro- vision of physical surroundings which are conducive to good health; (2) the teaching and practice in school of good health habits; (3) attention to bodily development in physical educa- tion; and (4) the detection of specific physical deficiencies through medical examinations, and, where necessary, assistance in their alleviation. The typical school health program is organized without ref- erence to the classification of students in various curricula or ability groups. It is neither possible nor desirable to discuss the physical education or health program of any specific group seg- regated on academic or intellectual grounds, for the responsi- bilities of the school and the needs of all youth are not so dif- ferentiated in the field of health. A Healthful Environment The provision of a healthful physical environment (ample playgrounds, adequate buildings, appropriate equipment, proper lighting, ample ventilation, and sanitary precautions) is a first responsibility of the school in its concern with pupil health. The conditions under which students carry on their daily work in the school are vitally related to the maintenance of individual health. Buildings constructed in an earlier pe- riod and crowded with the influx of new high school students may offer almost insurmountable handicaps. Nevertheless, adjustments can often be made even under the most unfavor- able conditions. The provisions for lighting of rooms, seating of pupils, and ventilation of buildings, and for ordinary sani- tary precautions should be considered critically to discover pos- sibilities of improvement; and this is even more important 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 111 where the general school plant is old or ill adapted to modern conditions. A Program of Physical Education The physical education program which centers its attention on providing activities in which all students can participate is making a greater contribution to the present and future wel- fare of its students than the usual program, which emphasizes competitive team sports exclusively. The development of in- terest and some degree of proficiency in sports and activities of an individual nature which have lifetime possibilities for en- joyment and participation needs to be encouraged in school programs. Progressive schools are constantly expanding the range of physical activities and sports to be incorporated in the school curriculum, although as yet the typical program is far too specialized and restricted. The trained physical education teacher is splendidly equipped to make a very valuable con- tribution to the health program of the school in detecting physi- cal deficiencies, both present and incipient, and in organizing a program of remedial work for those in need of such aid. Health Instruction One way that a school can make a positive contribution to- ward raising the general level of physical fitness for all pupils is to give the individual training that will lay the foundation for maintaining his health in after-school years, and that will also engender a sense of responsibility on his part toward con- tributing to the maintenance of public health. The study in home economics of factors related.to family health, diets, sanitation, care of the sick, and the like is one ex- ample of the use of such social instruction. The biological 112 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November sciences offer a particularly promising field for the develop- ment of units of instruction directly contributing to public and private health. The detailed and specialized study of bodily structure and functions is of questionable value for most high school students, but the study of the underlying causes of diseases and the everyday practices which affect the personal well-being of individuals can be highly functional, for, after all, most people are vitally interested in maintaining their personal health. An understanding of the causes and control of communicable diseases and the responsibility of each individual to exercise care in the control of such diseases should be the outcome of such a study. The social studies can play an important part by emphasizing the need of understanding and appreciating the availability of community health organiza- tions, and any activities directed toward raising the general level of health of individuals in the community. Activities which can contribute to this general area of need can originate in many fields of learning. The question may appropriately be raised whether it would be more effective and desirable to organize instruction directly for the study of health rather than to assume that the need is met by contributions from different fields of study. Since health is recognized as one of the major needs of youth and one of the primary objectives of secondary education, the trend is toward organizing a core of instruction in this field, instruction that includes physical education, the sciences, and special fields. Schools following this plan are unwilling to trust that such needs will be fully met by concomitant and subsidiary activities in a wide variety of fields. Again there is a lack of experiential evidence to warrant any specific conclusions, but there is a definite need for more scientific study and research on the subject. 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected Needed Service Finally, schools are assuming responsibility for the detection of physical handicaps. Periodic and comprehensive physical examinations are also increasingly becoming a part of the school program.** It is in this portion of the health program that special atten- tion may be necessary for the educationally neglected. To the extent that physical backwardness and poor economic and en- vironmental conditions are more general in this group, the school health service will be more essential. The educationally neglected pupil in the secondary school often presents a history of physical neglect, poor health, and lowered physical efficiency stretching far back into childhood, even to infancy. Limited economic resources in the home, the crowded living quarters, inadequate diets, absence of play facili- ties, with related conditions, have their result both in irregular school attendance and in lowered physical vitality, and these, in turn, often produce a school career marked by maladjust- ment and negligible achievement. In such a case, the secondary school reaps the cumulative harvest of years of neglect, of im- proper and inadequate attention paid to the physical health of the child. It is well for those studying the adjustment of stu- dents in high school to be constantly alert to the relation of physical defects to school maladjustment, for it is becoming in- creasingly evident that the children of the depression, whether they come from the homes on relief or on the border line above, are inevitably showing the effects that limited economic re- sources have on the standards of living and health. A health program for school children should not be left to 87 Winslow recommends that three such comprehensive physical examinations should be given during the period of school life. Winslow, op. cit., pp. 84-87. 114 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November the secondary school; it should begin in the preschool and elementary years and continue through high school and adult life. This continuing program, however, should give special attention during high school years to those health interests and activities related to adolescence. While poor health may not be the greatest cause of malad- justment and backwardness in school, it is often a basic con- tributing factor.** Medical examinations and clinical services should be available in the schools to determine the degree to which bodily deficiencies are contributing to the lack of suc- cess of some pupils. Schools must be willing to make allow- ances and adjustments in the school program for those physi- cally under par. In the last analysis, however, positive action on the part of the school demands more than adjusting programs to the physically handicapped. It is of doubtful efficiency to direct all effort toward adjustment of the school program where the ailments are of a curable nature. The school must take the initiative, where necessary, in directing the student to those agencies which can give the needed remedial treatment to remove the basic difficulties. Perhaps a specially adjusted school program will be found unnecessary. How far the school should go in providing medical treatment or in supplementing inadequate diets is an issue that cannot be determined by rule. It must be decided by the circumstances of the particular situation. In or- dinary cases, the actual remedial work involving medical treat- ment is the responsibility of the home and the family doctor. The health work of the school should be so codrdinated with the work of the health agencies serving the community, that the agency needed can be called upon for its services for a stu- 88 Burt, op. cit., pp. 164-207. 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 115 dent whose family’s resources do not permit adequate treat- ment.®® Civic clubs can be drawn into support of such activities if school people are alert to the resources of the community. In extreme cases and in the absence of other agencies, the school itself may have to take the responsibility of furnishing medical treatment and supplementing inadequate diets. The school program must be sufficiently comprehensive to provide for all students: (1) healthful physical surroundings, (2) a comprehensive and varied program of physical educa- tion, (3) positive and functional instruction and practice in health habits, public and private, and (4) the detection of physical handicaps and guidance in their remedial treatment. EXAMINATION OF LOCAL NEEDS BY COMMUNITY General discussion and perusal of extensive surveys of repre- sentative youth have helped to identify the youth needs under discussion in this chapter, but it cannot be assumed that the needs of all communities are accurately portrayed in such gen- eral studies. The economic level of the entire community and of various sections of the community, the vocational pattern, the local cultural pattern, the mobility of the population, the religious background, the development of new industries and the passing of old ones, and a number of other factors make the conditions in a given community unique. This fact points to the desirability of having each school or community attempt to survey the youth needs of that particular locality. The elaborateness of such a survey will depend upon the resources available and on the size and complexity of the community. Something is to be gained by such procedure, 89 Educational Policies Commission, Social Services and the Schools. Wash- ington, D.C.: National Education Association, 1939. 116 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November since examination of problems and needs of youth uncovered by any foreign youth survey, no matter how ably presented, will never quite assume the reality assumed by a survey of the youth, of the actual boys and girls of a particular community. No better initial point of attack for examining the curriculum of a high school can be conceived than that of undertaking a study of the local youth problems, needs, and conditions. The degree to which teachers and community members can actively be drawn into and participate in such an examination will fur- ther determine the effectiveness of such a youth survey. In considering the problem of the education of the neglected, one community undertook a study of the general background of these individual youths. Earlier mention was made of cer- tain items in the program at the Mount Holly, New Jersey, High School. The following excerpt from a letter from Prin- cipal Waldro J. Kindig shows how their initial approach to the problem was made: Over a period of about six or eight years we have had a continuous modification of our subject matter, until at the present time we have a distinct demarcation for this type of boy and girl from the college pre- paratory and commercial student. For a period of about two years a committee of the faculty made a survey of the needs of these boys and girls. The research included the study of the occupations of the families from which these boys and girls came, the economic status of the homes, and the vocational interests of the children along with this factual data their homes were visited and an honest endeavor was made to acquaint ourselves with the environment of these boys and girls. We talked with their parents, and brought the boys and girls into the picture of con- structing a new curriculum. A few of the outstanding characteristics of this group may be of in- terest. These boys and girls are from families having a low economic income, a rather high degree of personality problems within the home, and a limited intelligence. It was also discovered that a great deal of the subject matter was entirely foreign to the personal experience and Ay hw ——_ — > ea ee —Z 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 117 environment of these boys and girls, having neither an immediate or deferred value. It was discovered that they married young and their responsibilities of maintaining a home were accelerated by six or eight years ahead of the college preparatory and commercial student. Marry- ing at this early age meant that they were called upon to establish a home and maintain a family on a limited income. The committee of teachers found it necessary to take an entirely dif- ferent approach from that to which their training had conditioned them to gain a common viewpoint of the needs of these students. Further illustrating this approach is the development of the high school program at Toms River, New Jersey, which ac- cording to the testimony of Supervising Principal Edgar M. Finck has been strongly conditioned by a survey in 1929-30 of more than nine hundred eighth grade graduates of the town and surrounding area. An attempt was made to examine the needs, not of high school graduates, but of the potential high school population, regardless of whether all continued into high school or not. The discovery that a large proportion of the pupils remained in the county or moved to similar com- munities has guided the vocational program of the school, while the salient facts of information regarding what these people felt they needed from the school, what they received, and what they wanted to receive, have influenced the develop- ment of the educational program. Variation in Types of Surveys The American Council on Education has made available a bulletin entitled How to Make a Community Youth Survey,*° which contains valuable information for setting up a survey on a comprehensive basis. However, if a community is not able to 40 American Council on Education, How to Make a Community Youth Survey, Washington, D. C., 1938. (Price 25 cents.) 118 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November conduct a comprehensive survey, a great deal of information may be gathered by using informal methods. Even in the small community where presumably everyone knows about everyone else, examination and appraisal by the school faculty and other interested people of the known facts about the youth of the community can result in a revealing and worth-while evaluation of the school’s activities. A community survey of youth will undoubtedly reveal areas of youth needs which the secondary school is not meeting to the fullest extent possible. It will give secondary school faculties direction in meeting their clearly evident responsibility to provide a program adapted to the needs of the educationally neglected student, and to all secondary school youth as well. SUMMARY The personal needs of the educationally neglected have been considered in five general areas of social need: vocational, lei- sure time, citizenship, family, and health. Quite conceivably there are other needs that might well be considered, but the five provide a general framework for the program of these educa- tionally neglected youth. It will be recognized that in actual practice social needs do not divide sharply into neatly separated categories. Vocational adjustment, satisfactory personal ad- justment within family and community, recreation, and bodily health all are interrelated to produce what has been termed the socially competent person. Neither can it-be maintained that instruction within a school should contribute solely to one gen- eral aim or objective. A course or unit of instruction may be oriented primarily around one major objective, but the impli- cation of such instruction cannot but affect the total pattern of adjustment achieved by the student. 1939] The Needs of the Educationally Neglected 119 These five general areas of needs have been examined with particular reference to educationally neglected youth. No pe- culiar or unique needs have been uncovered in this group, but the evidence shows that continually the high school should take greater responsibility for helping the student to satisfy these basic needs. The high school is the last formal educational institution which these students will attend. The background of home and general environment among these students is edu- cationally limited; the pressure of economic need is great. The group is to a large extent less self-educable than the more verbally competent students and they read more poorly and less. In short, the educationally neglected are much more definitely dependent upon the secondary school, not only for securing information, but also for those skills and attitudes which go to make up the socially competent person. Further, the task of producing future worthy citizens falls more and more heavily on the school. The success of the high school in meeting these needs cannot but profoundly affect the future progress of our democracy. CHAPTER V The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner EXAMINATION of contemporary youth problems has revealed a tremendous variety of information, skills, and attitudes as needed by youth of today in becoming successful citizens of to-morrow. The needs and characteristics of the educationally neglected student have been discussed earlier in this study. The problem that remains is how this student may best acquire those informations, skills, and attitudes postulated as neces- sary. To express this in the familiar way — which, incidentally, implies a more passive attitude on the part of the student than is psychologically sound — How may the educationally neg- lected student best be taught? To reiterate a theme stated with regard to other matters concerning the educationally neglected, there is no separate, divided, unique set of principles which can be established re- garding the learning of these less academically inclined young people. Identical laws of learning are applicable to all students. However, differing techniques of instruction may be useful; different types of abilities may require adaptation of old tech- niques and tools of instruction or the introduction of entirely new ones. APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEM OF INSTRUCTION Instruction of the educationally neglected may be approached from two points of view. The problem may be conceived as simply that of devising better techniques of class procedure, 120 nt Ts g ts. h- ly as 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 121 supervised study, drill, assignments, instructional aids, and all the details of instructional procedure in order to achieve greater mastery of conventional materials. This point of view im- plicitly assumes that the content and materials of instruction are relatively fixed and standardized and that the problem of improved methods can be studied relatively independently of the content of the instruction. Such an approach will eventuate in devising intricate and detailed rules for class procedure in the instruction of the educationally neglected. Another approach to the technique of instructing the educa- tionally neglected is to view methods and content chiefly as parts of one general, inseparable process related to learning. This approach considers method in the broader sense as com- prising far more than classroom techniques of instruction. It conceives the degree to which the learner can relate the objec- tives of the instruction to his own needs, the degree to which the activities embrace purposive action in the learner, the de- gree to which the learner can relate the class activities to his own experiences, and the degree to which the outcomes of instruction are functional in the life of the learner as funda- mental in the learning situation. From this point of view the basic factor is the active participation of the learner, mo- tivated by his own interests and felt needs. If the essentials for real learning lie in the above considerations, which inevi- tably involve both materials and content of instruction, then any classroom technique of instruction will assume meaning only in relation to these more fundamental principles and will vary according to the nature of the content. To direct attention only to abstract methods and rules of class procedure is largely meaningless, or at best only of secondary importance, according to Dewey, who states: [ November 122 National Association of Secondary-School Principals Method means that arrangement of subject matter which makes it most effective in use. Never is method something outside of the material.’ IMPROVEMENT OF METHODS OF INSTRUCTION ALONE NOT ADEQUATE Surely the experience of past years is sufficient to convince any impartial observer that the attempt to devise methods and techniques for “getting into the heads” of the educationally neglected students more of the conventional subject matter is fruitless. From a purely practical standpoint, there is relatively little evidence that, even under a master teacher employing the most superb techniques, the actual achievement in such academic study warrants the expenditure of time, effort, and money. This bulletin then is concerned with the development of the second approach. Time and relative value are factors to be considered. If cer- tain types of learning can be achieved by the educationally neglected only after a long-drawn-out and tedious process, then the results need to be carefully appraised in the light of the value of that learning as compared with other learnings possible of achievement in the same length of time. By suff- cient drill on verbal material any student may conceivably learn the atomic weights of the elements, the presidents of the United States, the names of the bones of the body, the poem, “Horatius at the Bridge,” or almost any other body of informa- tion. Information, whatever its nature, has value for some people, but to assume that because this is true all bodies of academic information must be as nearly as possible learned by all students is entirely fallacious. It is important to question whether the body of information in the conventional high school curriculum is of such value to the educationally neg- 1 Dewey, John, Democracy and Education, p. 194. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938. 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 123 lected as to warrant the time demanded for their mastery of it. In fact there is appallingly little evidence to show that the time taken by the academically able students to master it is warranted. Furthermore, a great deal of the verbal academic learning attempted by students today, although it appears to be genuine, is actually not learning at all. To attempt to teach academic abstractions to students who possess small verbal ability, to whose experience these abstractions are largely foreign, and for whom the abstractions will have little relation to life needs, is a relatively useless procedure. Such achievement will largely result only in memorized verbalizations, procured by external pressure on the student, forgotten immediately, and having little or no effect on the behavior or the future life of the learner. The patience and industry evidenced by teacher and pupils in arriving at such a level of achievement might better be utilized with a more realistic and valuable objective in mind. ESSENTIAL LEARNING Though the necessity of acquiring the large amount of in- formation demanded by the conventional curriculum may be questioned, the mastery or attainment of certain skills, attitudes, and bodies of information, is necessary for successful living by individuals and for achieving an integrated society. What these vital attainments are cannot be categorically and com- pletely stated. The ability to read with some degree of facility is necessary in a world which utilizes so intensively this mode of communication. Familiarity with a few mathematical con- cepts and processes is necessary for intelligent living. A certain body of common information and useful attitudes in regard to our nation, its ideals, history, and problems is necessary for effective codperative living and citizenship. In a world so 124 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November marked by scientific achievement, some understanding of the principles of science and the effect of scientific achievement on the life of the individual is also necessary for well-rounded living. However, because a certain amount of ability or degree of understanding in a certain field is necessary, it cannot be as- sumed that every effort should be made to develop specialized knowledge in that field. For instance, no one questions the contributions that the development of abstract mathematics has made toward our modern technical civilization; it is one of the great achievements in the history of the race. Mastering special- ized mathematical knowledge is necessary for a certain number of people — particularly for individuals gifted with that type of ability, but because it is a field of real learning for some, it does not follow that every student should be asked to attempt this study or be driven into it as far as time and the patience of all concerned will permit. It is doubtful if the ability to achieve any real understanding of abstract mathematics is a gift accorded to a large proportion of the high school popula- tion. Through perseverance, many students achieve some facil- ity in the rote processes of mathematics, but with so little understanding of them that it is doubtful if the effort expended by the student is worth while. Investigations of adult use of mathematics reveal that precious little mathematical knowledge is needed by adults, as compared with the attainment that has been ambitiously attempted in secondary schools. The small amount of mathematics that adults are concerned with is that having practical value.’ It is to be seriously questioned whether the needs of the educationally neglected student demand any extensive study of mathematics. The average and below 2 Bowden, A. O., Consumers’ Uses of Arithmetic. New York: Bureau of Pub- lications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1929. ~~» YU oro Ue 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 125 average student should not, in general, be required to study high school mathematics as it is usually taught. Language Ability To be able to read, write, and speak the language with some facility is an essential tool for everyone, but the degree of mastery and the individual’s need of these tools will in- evitably vary. High schools to-day are greatly concerned with the improvement of reading. Improved techniques and ma- terials, which are discussed in a later section, give promise of improving markedly the reading ability of students. But even with reading a point of diminishing returns may be reached and no amount of effort expended by student or teacher will succeed in making adept readers of some people. Moreover, reading on a high plane demands more than lan- guage skills. Reading with comprehension demands the ability to generalize and to get meaning from abstract concepts and if this latter ability is lacking attention to the techniques of reading will not remedy it. In later life the educationally neg- lected student in all likelihood will not read the classics, but ordinary newspapers and magazines. Securing sufficient com- petence in reading to comprehend newspapers and magazines reasonably well may be a major accomplishment for him without attempting the conventional classics. Likewise, in the field of written expression, a few students will have the ability and will need to write the language with technical accuracy. For these few young people, an intensive study of English grammar will be fruitful. The demands for technical knowledge of the language which life will make on the educationally neglected student will be practically non- existent. These students will never to any great extent transfer the rules of grammar to the small amount of writing they 126 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November will have to do. It seems far more likely that improvement in their written expression will result from practice in functional situations than from drill on technical rules of grammar. With oral expression, the same is true. It will be desirable to attempt to develop correct and concise usage, but the method will have to be chiefly practice in real situations. The Natural Sciences Certainly study of the natural sciences offers all students an opportunity for developing an understanding of some of the forces that play upon them in their daily living. The prin- ciples of science can be understood in some degree by the most academically backward of students. For example, they can realize that science is not magic, but study and control of the natural forces of the world. A few will have a driving interest in and need for a detailed technical study in scientific fields. The education of these few is important, for out of this group will come those who will advance our knowledge and control of natural and biological phenomena, but the greater part of this detailed specialization will be beyond the secondary school level. However, because the few have this interest the many should not be asked to attempt to master the technical details, the specific bodies of information, and the scientific and abstract principles in the different fields of specialization. Much of this material will be without meaning to a majority of high school students. The average student in high school will never have occasion in out-of-school life to balance a chemical equation, scientifically classify the flora and fauna of his locality, or to calculate the speed of a falling body, but he will be surrounded by hundreds of practical applications of science. He will be a consumer of science rather than a research student. It would be far better if he could 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 127 study science with an aim of developing some practical under- standing and appreciation of those manifestations of science with which he comes in daily contact: household appliances, foods, medicines, the automobile, and the myriad other appli- cations which demonstrate the possibilities of science for raising the standard of living. CHANGED APPROACH TO UNIVERSAL EDUCATION Several areas of instruction usually found in secondary schools have been considered in the light of the amount of information commonly needed by all people. Other areas might be similarly examined, but the attempt here is not to analyze the content of all fields of instruction, but rather to find out if the study of the traditional academic subjects has the same value for all students. The conclusion reached with regard to mathematics, natural science, and English, namely, that one cannot assume that all students will profit alike from handling similar materials of instruction, would appear to be applicable to all fields. There has also existed the assumption that because a certain field of specialized knowledge is exceedingly valuable to cul- ture in general, it will therefore have like value for every individual. When the high school enrolled only a selected group of students of high abilities in abstract study there was perhaps some justification for teaching mathematics as though all students were going to become mathematicians, science as though all students were to become scientists, English as though all were to become grammarians or producers and critics of literature, or the social studies as though all were eventually to be historians. The attempt to maintain this pat- tern has resulted in “watering” standard courses and in de- veloping ingenious techniques for motivating students, but 128 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November there is little evidence that any worth-while objectives, in terms either of knowledge or of attitudes on the part of the great mass of students, among whom are the educationally neglected, have been achieved. UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES FOR CONTENT OF INSTRUCTION The fact that the value of the traditional content of study is questioned does not mean that there are not possibilities within all of these fields for content of meaningful nature. The prob- lems which beset every individual in our modern world are so numerous, and varied, and are of such scope, that a school need never lack materials which are of real and immediate concern to all pupils. The problem is essentially one of relative values and of selection in terms of the needs of the students. These needs have been briefly reviewed in discussion of edu- cation for vocations, citizenship, recreation, health, and family life. NEED OF VALID PRINCIPLES The search for a few fundamental principles which govern the methods and materials of instruction is quite likely to lead to broad generalizations which, although valid, may be ex- tremely difficult to interpret and apply. As a first principle it may be proposed that all real learning activity must grow out of the experience of the learner— must concern things which he can relate to his own efforts for self-preservation and self-realization. Hopkins states that “All good learning is seeking satisfaction for personal goals.”* The highest type of learning activity cannot go on unless the learner has some purpose in view. A purpose will not be effective if the activity 8 Hopkins, L. Thomas, “Emerging Emphases as to Learning,” Teachers College Record, 40: 119-28, November 1938. 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 129 is so remote from the previous experience of the individual that he is unable to relate it in any way to his own needs and aims. Real interest, concerning which so much has been written in recent years, is not something which exists apart from an activity, something extrinsic that the ingenious teacher can attach to this or that unit of instruction. Genuine interest comes into existence only when a proposed activity or learning unit is seen by a learner as being related to his own interest and welfare. The learner must feel that the proposed activity will contribute to his own efforts to adjust to his environment and to those ends which he conceives to be essential to his development, that is, to his self-preservation and self-realization. It does not follow that instruction must cater to the passing whims and fancies of the student, but it does mean that from whatever source the instruction arises the learner must see and feel the instruction’s relation to his own development. Certainly the teacher may guide the student in selecting those learning activities which are effective. The principle that the learning activity must grow out of the experience of the learner and must contribute to his own felt needs is no new or startling pronouncement. Largely as a result of the teaching of John Dewey* and his followers, this principle has received wide acceptance today. To trans- late these principles into actions in practical situations is diff- cult for the majority of educators. Methods of dealing with the educationally neglected student have usually violated this principle. The assumption that because a student has reached 4 Dewey, John, Experience and Education. New York: The Macmillan Com- pany, 1938. Dewey, John, Democracy and Education. New York: The Macmillan Com- pany, 1938. Kilpatrick, William Heard, Foundation of Method. New York: The Mac- millan Company, 1926. 130 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November a certain age and is in high school, he is automatically ready to embark upon the study of certain formalized areas of subject matter has no real foundation. The successful teacher of the educationally neglected must start with the student where he is in the here-and-now and proceed. If he cannot effectively read the material generally utilized in the ninth grade, then material which he can read must be used. If his concept of the social world, from his past experiences, verbal or actual, is largely limited to the local community or city neighborhood, then his learning in the social studies must start from that source rather than with the attempt to have him understand world civilization and international problems. Featherstone has concisely presented the two alternatives in the following statement: . .. one of the most difficult problems for many teachers in teaching the non-academic is the problem of squaring one’s own attitudes, one’s own mental set, with the realities of the situation. There are two alternatives. We can start with the pupil where he is, accepting at face value his abili- ties and interests, needs, and limitations, and build upon that foundation, letting the curriculum emerge as a record of guided, effective, dynamic social living. Or we can start from the basic assumption that the cur- riculum is determined in advance, that certain kinds of content must be learned in order to be educated, and that only those who succeed in mastering the pre-arranged curriculum are worth our worrying about in high school.® As a second consideration following the acceptance of the first alternative, Featherstone then suggests in regard to method: The second point I wish to stress is the necessity of starting with very practical matters. I do not mean utilitarian in the narrow voca- tional sense, although that is important. I mean practical in the sense of reality, in the sense of being an obvious outgrowth of experience already 5 Featherstone, W. B., “Social Education of the Non-Academic,” Social Educa- tion, 3:164, March 1939. ady yject the > he vely hen t of ual, hat and ves the wn ves. vil i- ion, mic ust | in out rst ith Ca- dy ca- 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 131 had or of needs actually present. The chief business of teaching, as I see it, is to make pupils sensitive to needs and interests beyond the range of their immediate concern and to help them expand their re- sources of meaningful experience as they grow older. Yet to realize this function, with nonacademic pupils requires closer identification of what the teacher is driving at with what the pupil is concerned about. Teaching in terms of vaguely defined goals and objectives, artificial or only imaginary needs and interests, and very remotely deferred values will succeed after a fashion with bright pupils, but such teaching has little place when dealing with the less able ones. The teacher must be able to foresee the realization of his own ideas of the ultimate objec- tives through the channels of some course of action that is sensible and interesting to the pupils right here and now. The sagacious teacher is one who can contrive to point the experiences of the pupils in the di- rection of better ultimate goals than they would otherwise achieve with- out disassociation of present experience from the actual background of the pupil. Nonacademic pupils are not very strong on imagination. They cannot readily transport themselves to some mythical state of exist- ence or imagine themselves as being other than they actually are. I see no objection to trying to have even the dullest pupils appreciate social interdependence, but they are more likely to gain that appreciation and, in the future, be able to apply it meaningfully, if they see it operating in the increased price they must pay for milk because of drought, labor disputes, or increased transportation costs than they are if they compre hend it only dimly in the disturbance of the stock market by political upheaval in Europe.® RESEMBLANCE VERSUS LEARNING ACTIVITY AND LIFE ACTIVITY The principle that the instructional activities of the school must be concerned with those things that the learner can relate to his own life and purposes gives rise to a second principle, which is of particular significance with reference to the edu- cationally neglected, namely, that the school activities must more nearly resemble life activities for which the school pro- 6 Ibid., p. 165. 132 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November poses to prepare. This principle was discussed earlier in connection with the variation of individuals in the ability to generalize. Hopkins has said that all learning is relating.’ Intelligence has been generally accepted as the ability to trans- fer, apply, or relate past learning to new situations and, since the educationally neglected possess little of this ability it is necessary, in order to secure any really effective learning, to insure that the school learning situation closely resembles the out-of-school activities. Again, this principle does not apply specifically to the educationally neglected, for there is ample reason to believe that much of the school learning is too remote from actual situations to be effective even among the bright. The degree of resemblance needed will increase with the de- crease of intelligence. Kilpatrick has aptly stated this principle as follows: An organization made in its natural setting is more likely to have natural connections and so is more likely to be called into use again when a suitable occasion arises. The probable handles or points of contact are more numerous. This I think is one of the greatest weaknesses of the old teaching. It was mostly done outside its natural setting, and had accordingly few handles, few contact points. A person might be learned in that old sense and still find few occasions to use his learning.® CAN THE SCHOOL SITUATION RESEMBLE A LIFE SITUATION? Obviously a school operates under certain limitations in its attempt to base its learning program on /ife activities. Some aspects of it will be vicarious. But it is not an absolute either-or proposition, since it is possible to modify many school ac- tivities so that they become vital experiences pertaining to life. Probably one reason why for less able students better adjust- ment has been secured in some areas of instruction than in 7 Hopkins, op. cit. 8 Kilpatrick, op. cit., pp. 202-203. 1939] The Educatnonally Neglected Student as a Learner 133 others is that the successful instruction has possessed con- creteness and reality which the student could relate to his own past experience and to future situations. Work in the crafts, the home arts, and fine and practical arts has embodied more of reality and this, rather than any particular manual dexterity, has accounted for the better adjustment secured by the educationally neglected students in these fields. The remedy, however, is not to confine the educational program of these students exclusively to these fields, but rather to bring into the school other areas of instruction and devise methods for securing through them more of this same reality and con- creteness. Schools are succeeding in developing in even the so-called academic areas units of instruction which embody this vital quality. In these schools the students can more easily see that these subjects are related to their out-of-school experiences and apply to their own problems.° The very attempt to set up units of instruction around observed problems and needs of con- temporary youth rather than around vague so-called cultural subjects will certainly succeed in establishing more effective contact with reality. Courses in social science oriented to the actual here-and-now-to-be-seen conditions, whether they con- cern housing, local city government, the work of various groups, the city waterworks, or whatever else, to students of limited imagination have a reality that such students will never find in the study of heroes long dead or national governments on another continent. Many possibilities for innovations in school procedures which will help to tie the activities much more closely to life problems are still unexplored. The method described by 9 The examples presented in the discussion of needs embody these principles. See pages 97 to 99 and 103 to 108. 134 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November Principal L. E. Vredevoogd, of the Tappan Junior High School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the handling of the accounts of the Student Council fund of that school is of this nature. He ex- plains the project as follows: The actual bookkeeping, collecting, disbursement, budgeting of the funds have many of the functions which the students will experience in their business in future life, as well as in the personal accounts at present. Therefore we have taken this activity at the direction of the Student Council and have given to the 9B mathematics class the problem of bookkeeping, collecting, disbursing, and working out the details of the Student Council finances. This demands from those in that mathe- matics class accuracy, honesty, alertness, and power in the use of business arithmetic. Thus we have put into our mathematics curriculum the functional activity of the financial aspect of the Student League, which is a meaningful and worth-while experience for those in mathematics. In discussing the activities of the Excursion Committee, which arranges for an extensive program of student trips, utilization of a similar situation for a learning activity is described as follows: . . . Here again we find an activity in finance which requires planning, execution, and appraisal. Therefore we have put into the mathematics class this activity of collection and managing the excursion account. It not only has the function of providing a worth-while activity for the students but also keeps the students informed as to the actual cost of our excursions. Every time an excursion fails to pay for itself, the class carefully checks to see what were the contributing factors in planning which led to this deficit. At the end of the semester all excursion ac- counts must check and balance and a permanent record is made so that the next excursion committee can use this past experiment as a basis for future planning. Each semester witnesses greater efficiency in the handling of this project. Then there is another activity which involves finance and bookkeeping but which has much more to offer as a learning experience to those participating, and this is the control of the Tappan school bus fund. Through the coédperation of the Tappan P.T.A. we purchased a school lUlUeelllC th 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 135 bus for about nineteen hundred dollars. We were able to pay through various donations approximately eleven hundred dollars, and were re- quired to borrow the remainder at 4 per cent interest. The bus was the outgrowth of the endeavors on the part of the students and parents for several years to obtain safe and satisfactory transportation facilities to our experimental camp and on our excursions. Now the traditional thing would be to handle the expense account of this bus in the office. It would be easier and more simply done. However, we have turned this whole activity over to the ninth grade mathematics class as a worth- while experience in something real. TECHNIQUES OF INSTRUCTION AS RELATED TO BASIC PRINCIPLES It has been maintained that the problem of instructing the educationally neglected involves much more than devising classroom techniques for the improvement of teaching con- ventional material. The basic problem has been presented as that of securing learning activities which are related to the students’ past experience, and which resemble life situations sufficiently to make practical applications possible and probable. Actual classroom techniques of instruction are important for effective learning, then, in the degree to which they contribute toward these two ends. Since extensive experimental knowl- edge is lacking, the most feasible method of appraising recom- mended procedures or of devising suggested procedures for instruction of less scholastically able students appears to be an analysis of these procedures, in order to determine the degree to which they contribute toward making the class activity life- like, and at the same time keeping in mind the specific char- acteristic of the student. MUST UNITS OF WORK BE SHORTER AND SIMPLER? Many writers have emphasized the necessity of organizing the work for dull students into short, simple units, and of 136 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November utilizing a variety of activities during the ordinary class period. Those who advocate this procedure assume that the time at- tention span of the dull is short. Evidence has been presented earlier, however, which seems to indicate that attention is not so much related to dullness as it is to volition and the interest which the student takes in the activity under way. Some evi- dence indicates that if students are engaged in a task that has meaning to them and that is within the range of their ability and interest, there need be little concern about frequent changing of class activities or limiting units of work to rela- tively short periods. Neither is there reason to assume that the unit of work must be limited in scope or extremely simple. When the purpose behind the whole unit of work is under- stood by the student it can be more comprehensive and com- plex than is ordinarily assumed. Featherstone in describing an experimental project developed for slow learners (their in- telligence quotients ranged from 75 to go) in a New York public school states: Certain general observations of considerable significance were made in connection with these projects. So long as the level of difficulty of a project is commensurate with their maturity, these children seem to be able to carry on activities that are quite as varied in content and range and quite as complicated in organization as those of abler children. They are not so sensitive to new leads or suggestions of interesting things to do as are abler children, but they respond quite as readily as do other children to suggestions which the teacher may offer and they are more ready to act upon someone else’s suggestion than is usually found to be the case in the other groups. No one teaching similar classes needs to hesitate to undertake activities that are quite complicated, which will require a great deal of assumption of responsibility on the part of the children and which may extend over a rather long period of time. Apparently these children are able to carry on for quite as long a period and with quite as many “irons in the fire” as are other children so ry = On FPF OO Fe Cr UH 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 137 long as the things they are doing are meaningful and on their level of understanding.!° To say that units of work for the educationally neglected should be comprehensive and not oversimplified implies that the variety of activities carried on during any class period shall be related to the central work at hand. It does not imply rapid change from one to another type of activity. It is difficult to believe that recommended class procedures which allow the student to flit rapidly from one activity to another during the relatively short class period of the average high school are other than confusing and aimless. That span of attention is related to maturity of the learner is true, but by the time a boy or girl has reached high school age there is little reason to assume that he or she is not capable of sustained attention during the average class period of from forty to sixty minutes. In fact, there is reason to believe that the program might be far less confusing and much more effective if more units of uninterrupted time were made avail- able. Only when the program of educating the dull student is con- ceived as drilling into them a “respectable” amount of informa- tion of a type meaningless to them, need there be concern about variety. In such a situation variety is necessary with any student, bright or dull, if there is not to be explosive behavior. Perhaps a certain amount of drill should be judiciously blended with other activities. The actual demand for learning, how- ever, should be carefully appraised in terms of the needs of the student and the minimum amount necessary incorporated with meaningful activities. 10 Featherstone, W. B., “An Experience Curriculum for Slow Learners at Pub- lic School 500: Speyer School,” Teachers College Record, 39:287-95, January 1938. 138 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November It is doubtful, then, if the teacher of the educationally neg- lected should attempt to devise any special scheme for offering short units of work or a rapidly shifting variety of different activities within a short class period. Adequate attention given to arranging and devising meaningful material will make con- cern about these matters unnecessary. EMPHASIS ON DRILL The procedure best suited to teaching the educationally neg- lected has been thought by many to be persistent and sys- tematic drilling in the so-called minimum essentials. The problem is not so simple as it might seem. It is true that if information is to be retained the educationally neglected will require more repetition and practice than the above average student. One cannot depend entirely upon incidental learning to establish the desired habits, skills, and information. In view of their slower learning rate the logical procedure with the educationally neglected student is apparently to reduce the amount of conventional material required and then increase the time devoted to that which remains. Drill in itself is not an economical or effective procedure unless the learner per- ceives the significance of the material under consideration. Reducing content to minimum essentials has often served to strip the material of those qualities which give meaning and interest to the work. The educationally neglected are those most in need of having their instructional material enriched by added examples, meaningful applications, and the like, all providing points of contact with reality. In order to secure learning that will function in their lives, these students need far greater amounts of enrichment than do the more able. Drill that is merely repetition of the materials can be a singularly fruitless procedure and a deadly process for the learner whether 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 139 he is bright or dull, yet drill that increases the number of situa- tions wherein a certain skill or background of information is used can be exceedingly useful. The amount and kind of drill to be used must be based upon the answers to the following questions: Has the drill material meaning for the student? Is it within his range of ability and experience? Is it related to his own recognized needs? If the answers are all in the affirmative, then the skillful teacher must arrange materials to present the desired learning in as many forms as are needed to insure its mastery. As has been said, more repetition will be needed for less able students, but it does not follow that the drill should be an identical, endless, and interest-killing repetition of the same material. One hesitates to stress the necessity for drill in teaching the educationally neglected, not because there is no need for careful and varied practice, but because so many unfortunate inter- pretations have been and are still placed upon drill and practice and because the tendency exists to oversimplify teaching pro- cedures by relentless practice and repetition. It is far better to emphasize the need for a range of activities involving some commonly needed skill, concept, or body of information. Saucier, in arguing against a narrow education for the boy or girl of limited capacity, states: The limited pupil lacks many varied experiences and has been starv- ing mentally. His intellectual horizon needs to be broadened. Restricted courses of study interfere still further with his rightful development. Justice demands that the schools offer the limited boy or girl, as well as the bright one, ‘an enriched and expanded program so that they may be kept happily occupied in doing worthwhile things.’ Not a re- duced amount of work which is beyond his mental grasp, but a wider range of suitable activities is his need.1! 11 Saucier, W. A., “Minimum Essentials for the Limited High School Pupil,” Education, 53:360-61, February 1933. 140 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November INCREASED EMPHASIS ON MANUAL ACTIVITIES It has frequently been assumed that the education of the less verbally gifted should consist primarily of manual activities. Manual activities have probably helped in many ways to adjust the school program to the educationally neglected, but the common assumption that less able academic students ** are compensatingly gifted in muscular dexterity, or that people can be classified as either verbal or hand minded, has no sound foundation. The evidence, however, so far as general group tendencies are concerned, tends to show a positive cor- relation between mental and manual ability. However, enough cases have existed of students who were backward in ordinary school subjects showing exceptional ability in the handicrafts to indicate the desirability of always investigating the specific talents of each student individually. Furthermore, although the educationally neglected may not evidence superior talent in manual activities, the differences in ability between the bright and dull students will be relatively less marked here than in the academic fields. These facts have-led to the unfortunate belief that an educa- tional program for the neglected student must consist largely of hammering, sawing, painting, sewing, cooking, weaving, or other such activities. A rather widespread conviction exists in some quarters that if a high school can only have a shop and a home economics laboratory, the problem of the educationally neglected will be solved. Such facilities do provide some worth- while educational activities, but certainly they offer no assur- ance that a well-rounded educational program suited to the needs of the students is being provided. Making concrete things can degenerate into being little more than “busy-work.” 12 See page 45. or 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 141 In the following statement Burt emphasizes the dangers of considering handwork an end in itself: Handwork, however, is not the sole panacea. Handwork merely as handwork must not be thought of as a special activity appropriate to the backward child. Too often the teacher sits back content when he has set the dull child doing something with his hands, and hopes that the dull mind is thereby usefully occupied. Plaiting, knitting, simple weaving — much of the handwork seen in special schools and classes tends to be purely mechanical and, where no controlling purpose is involved, so far from keeping the mind really busy, merely leaves it free to daydream: it acts not as a stimulant, but as a soporific. No doubt it affords the youngest and dullest an easy means of accomplishing some- thing that is visible; and, in small installments, will provide a welcome mental rest. But its direct educational value is negligible. Generally speaking, the teacher should choose particular types of work, not merely because they exercise the muscles and require controlled and coédrdinated movements, but also because they involve concrete problems, as to provoke thought and encourage self-correction, because they broaden the child’s interests and lead to a knowledge of materials and their handling and above all because they bear closely on other work, both in the class- reom and in the field of occupation to which the child will probably be called in after life.18 Providing all types of high school students with opportuni- ties, in shops and laboratories and studios, for discovering and developing their special abilities is part of any complete pro- gram of secondary education. In the shop or laboratory may develop many real life projects around which learning activities requiring far more than manual skill can be organized. From these activities may come opportunities and possibilities for enriching instruction in other areas. Manual activities are not only a medium for the instruction of the educationally neg- lected; they play a part in the total process of education for all students. 13 Burt, op. cit., pp, 612-13. 142 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November EMPHASIS ON THE CONCRETE AND THE SPECIFIC The discussion of manual activities for the educationally neg- lected leads directly to a consideration of using the concrete and the specific in the instruction of these students. The re- putedly superior effectiveness of instruction involving manual activities is probably a result of the concrete and specific na- ture and objectives of this type of instruction, rather than of any particular value derived from muscular projects. The use of any technique that will give concreteness and reality to the problem under study will facilitate learning. This use of concreteness and specificity applies to the whole of teaching. Topics and problems need to be drawn more di- rectly from contemporary life; objectives need to be translated into concrete, easily understood, and observable skills to be acquired and into facts to be mastered. Manual activities, be- cause they use concrete teaching aids, may make a special con- tribution. The actual construction of anything that will give more meaning to an abstract, verbal concept will undoubtedly be of value in teaching. The examination, the taking apart and the putting together of a vacuum cleaner, an electric iron, an automobile engine, a radio, a camera, or any other of a number of ordinary mechanical contrivances will reveal and clarify many scientific principles far better than an exhaustive verbal study. The construction of a model of the pioneer home or the prairie schooner may give more meaning to a study of pioneer conditions of living in America than reading about them in books. Reading, Michigan, reports an activity of this type as follows: Our ninth grade civics class discovered a very interesting class project as the result of a preliminary community survey. The class decided to work out together a plan by which our city could be made more beau- an Pr cre vis th: ab! the tha era 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 143 tiful. “Shekinak,” meaning beautiful, was the name given the project of designing a model city. The class composcd letters to various government agencies from which helpful information was secured in perfecting their plans. First, rough sketches of improvements were made. Next the com- posite ideas were transferred to the blackboard. The final step in com- pleting the model included the construction of a miniature model city on a board base. In describing the work in biology at Haverford Township High School, Musser says: The course is flexible and applicable to almost any pupil’s personality, and is being adjusted and changed every year. .. . The opportunity for related activities is almost unlimited. Pupils may write about different biological biographies and topics, co- 6perating with the English Department; they may construct diagrams and drawings, with the help of the Art Department; they may con- tribute specimen of plants and animals; they may perform experiments to show biological facts concerning foods and plants; they may learn the use of the microscope and discover the interesting world that it reveals; they may make models of parts of plants and animals with paper, wood, plaster of paris and clay; they may build a skeleton with the bones of some small animal. Clippings, drawings, themes, collections of different types of plant and animal life, excellent models of clay, plaster of paris, and wood. Preserved specimens, tanned skins, small skeletons, and stuffed animals crowd the museum cases and surprise the teachers, administrators, or visitors with their excellence. Examples are manifold, but there is little reason to believe that the average school has used to any great extent the avail- able means of enriching the instruction. Activities such as those described in the excerpts given, have an added value in that they offer means for individual projects within the gen- eral class instruction. Those showing particular talent and in- 144 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November terest in construction may engage in different activities, which in turn will contribute to the general problem or theme under consideration. Class instruction, probably for all high school students, but certainly for the educationally neglected, needs to be more concise, concrete, and specific with regard to ob- jectives and aims and materials. NECESSITY FOR IMMEDIATE AND SPECIFIC GOALS Related to the need of concrete instruction for the educa- tionally neglected is the desirability of having goals which not only are specific but also possess a degree of immediacy. The work of the bright pupil perhaps can be in terms of needs far removed in time from the present. For that pupil, learning which purports to contribute to successful adult living a decade in the future or to satisfy some college requirement a few years hence may provide sufficient stimulus for study. The degree to which instruction can be successfully organized around fu- ture adult demands will depend upon the ability of the student to foresee and recognize future needs as related to his welfare. The older and more mature student can work in terms of re- mote goals, although this ability appears to be related closely to intelligence. The educationally neglected student, with his limited powers of imagination, is less able to work in terms of future needs. Also, conditions which raise very pressing immediate problems overshadow the problems of some dis- tant day. The problems of how to get a job now, how to dress attractively on limited funds, how to make friends with the opposite sex, and numerous others of everyday living can well overshadow any conceivable interest in activities organized around vague cultural objectives of purported value to the stu- dent in some distant period of his life. If instruction is to be related to the experiences of the educationally neglected, and 145 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner is to have any natural and lifelike quality, it should be directed toward objectives which the student recognizes as being per- tinent to his present or not too distant future life. INCREASED TEACHER DIRECTION In the instruction of less able students a general emphasis has been placed upon the necessity for greater teacher direction of the learning activities. The more limited background and imagination of the educationally neglected probably makes necessary more guidance from the teacher. In all likelihood these students will not be alert to many of the possibilities for exploration and varied activities that a given unit of work pre- sents. However, the teacher should exercise care that increas- ing stimulation and guidance does not result in the teacher’s doing most of the work. It is very easy for the teacher of these students to find himself carrying the burden of the class activi- ties. It is much easier to “tell” the class, to give answers, in short, to do all of the work and probably the learning as well, than to wait upon the relatively slow mental processes of the students. Under this method progress may appear to be rapid, but actually a relatively insignificant amount of learning is taking place on the part of the students. Learning demands the active participation of the learner, and for this teacher ac- tivity cannot be substituted. The skillful teacher offers the requisite amount of guidance and stimulation for individual study and work without domi- nating the activities of the class. Such skill is dependent upon a sympathetic understanding of the needs and abilities of the student on the part of the teacher, and will thrive best where there is opportunity for the teacher and student to spend ample time together. It is doubtful if extreme departmentalization, wherein each student is shifted to a different teacher six or 146 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November eight times a day, is desirable even for the most able student. Perhaps in the later years of high school able pupils can effec- tively adjust to a shifting personnel, but students with fewer powers of adaptability may find such disconnected experiences with various personalities utterly disintegrating. Aside from the inadvisability of breaking the day into many separate dis- connected activities, departmentalization offers the teacher rela- tively little opporunity to become acquainted with the stu- dents in the class or to have any real knowledge of their back- ground, limitations, and talents. Under such a plan of organi- zation, teaching has relatively little chance for becoming guid- ance or direction of students’ activities; it is instead a teacher directed and dominated program. It is interesting to note that in the reorganization of high school programs during recent years the tendency to arrange longer portions of the school day for groups under the guid- ance of one teacher has been growing. At the junior high school level fully half of the day’s work of a group may be with one teacher, perhaps assisted at times by special teachers. At the senior high school level the amount of time spent with one teacher does not need to be as great as at the junior high school level, but even in high schools the tendency is to allow the student to work with one teacher for longer periods of time. The plan of promoting the teacher with the class to al- low the relationship between student and teacher to continue is being increasingly practiced. These attempts grow out of a renewed appreciation of the fact that teaching is more than a scientific mechanical process of transferring knowledge to stu- dents; that teaching is, rather, guiding and directing the activi- ties of youth, and that guidance and direction must be based upon knowledge and mutual understanding. er Oo = — ‘ i — a — 2 a 7, =P oO 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 147 An experimental integrated course, described in material re- ceived from Principal John V. Maier, of the Wilson Junior High School, Muncie, Indiana, is organized with the pupils under one teacher for the entire morning and one period in the afternoon, with assistance from special teachers when needed. At the senior high school level, the core courses (ex- amples of which are presented in Chapter VI) are organized in general on the basis of at least two periods per day, and sometimes for a longer time, under the direction of one teacher. This need for extending the time when student and teacher are together is not peculiar to the educationally neglected, but these young people, more than any other, should work under this plan, for they are less able to adjust rapidly to changing per- sonalities, less able to organize their lives in accord with im- personal rules and directions, and consequently are more de- pendent upon teacher direction of a skillful type. LESS DEPENDENCE UPON PRINTED MATERIALS The secondary school is today still quite largely a reading school. Literacy being granted, there is probably no more ef- ficient and economic way of widening the range of experience, transmitting the heritage of the past, or of relating the world- wide happenings of today, than that provided by the use of the printed page. When the secondary school was a selective institution with enrollments composed largely of so-called ver- bal-minded students, there was little reason to question this almost sole dependence upon books. Even today, with more possible alternative methods of communication and transmit- ting experience, reading is probably in point of economy of time and adaptability and range, the most effective method of broadening learning for the majority of students. 148 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November However, as the high school becomes increasingly less selec- tive a growing number of students who by nature are less able to profit from reading are remaining in high school. The edu- cationally neglected, as they have been here defined, include those who fall below the average in verbal intelligence, which is closely related to ability to use printed material effectively. This large group of youth is unable to utilize effectively for learning the conventional books and publications. The evi- dence shows that the typical textbook for any grade level is too difficult for a large proportion of the students. High schools faced with the influx of new students of low reading ability have not known what to do. These youth need association with people of their own social maturity. Remedial reading programs are being increasingly established in high schools, attempts are being made to discover or devise suitable reading materials, and other devices for securing learning are being utilized to meet the situation. The most feasible solution for the problem probably lies in the combination of all these reme- dies. Certainly in an age which bombards its citizens with an ever-growing amount of printed information and misinfor- mation the ability to read with some degree of understanding is a prerequisite for intelligent living. When reading difficul- ties are the result of special disabilities and habits, competent and skilled analysis and teaching in remedial reading classes may produce remarkable improvement in reading ability.’* *° 14 Walcott, F. G., “New Methods and Objectives in Teaching Dull-Normal Pupils,” School Review, 44:348-61, May 1936. 15 A number of books are now available which contain suggestive procedure for remedial reading instruction at the high school level. Among others, the fol- lowing may be helpful to those interested in the problem: Russell, David H., Karp, Etta E., Kelley, Edward J., Reading Aids Through the Grades. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia Univer- sity, 1938. 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 149 For the student who is not suffering from physical or me- chanical difficulties in reading, the improvement of ability may largely rest with the success of providing a range of reading material of suitable technical difficulty, of appropriate maturity, and of adequate interest. After all, the fact is, though it sounds like a truism, improvement in reading is most effectively de- veloped by reading and more reading.’* The technical diff- culties and the complexity of concept found in the reading ma- terials considered appropriate for high school students have been far beyond the range of the educationally neglected. It is not enough to secure reading material, adjusted to the back- ward student’s reading ability in terms of word choices, sentence structure, and technical appropriateness only. His reading must also fit his maturity. A fourteen-year-old adolescent will not be interested in, or read with avidity and interest, materials de- vised for and appropriate to the ten-year-old boy, even though the vocabulary may be suited to the reading ability of the older pupil. There is a dearth of suitable reading materials for a large group of high school youth, materials written with sim- plicity of vocabulary and structure, but adjusted to the interests of older youth. In the absence of textbook materials suitable for youth’s use many schools are finding it effective to provide current materials — newspapers, periodicals, commercial book- lets, simpler novels, and even the pulp magazines. Much of Strang, Ruth, Problems in the Improvement of Reading in High Schools and Colleges. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Science Press Printing Company, 1938. Center, S. S. and Persons, G., Teaching High School Students to Read: A Study of Retardation in Reading. Monograph A6. National Council of Teachers of English. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1937. National Society for Study of Education, 36th Yearbook, The Teaching of Reading: A Second Report. Bloomington, Public School Publishing Company, 1937. 16 Gates, Arthur I., “The Reading Program for Dull-Normal Pupils,” pp. 224- 28. American Educational Research Association, Official Report, 1937. 150 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November this material is written in a simple style for popular consump- tion and, while frequently possessing no literary value, has fac- tors of interest not found in much of the traditional reading material provided by the high school. By using material closely related to the experiences of the students, greater reading in- terest and practice may be developed, and these in turn will bring about a more marked improvement in reading ability than will conscientious drill on materials beyond the level of the student in difficulty and concept.’* The Oceanside-Carlsbad Union High School, in California, is one of a number of schools that are experimenting with a wide variety of printed matter in an effort to find material bet- ter adapted to the educationally neglected. Principal Ralph I. Hale writes of the work in this school as follows: An interesting discovery of unusual reading material adapted to pupils of lower reading ability has been made by the shop teacher. He is using bulletins and booklets from manufacturers for simplified and nonacademic reading material for this group. Finally, although by the use of such methods the reading ability of the educationally neglected may be greatly improved, it is unwise to depend exclusively upon this type of experience for learning. Information reported through the medium of books may lack the reality so essential for the limited student. Reading materials will be meaningful to him only in the de- gree to which they can be related to actual life situations, which suggests that techniques for observing more nearly at firsthand the activities of the world are especially necessary for the edu- cationally neglected. 17 Pannell, H. C. “The Forum Reading Program,” Clearing House, 13:81, October 1938. Anders, L. L., “Remedial Effects of a Free Reading Program,” English Journal (H. S. Ed.), 25:851-56, December 1936. 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 151 MORE EXTENSIVE USE OF COMMUNITY RESOURCES The excursion or the field trip is not a new development in education, but a realization of the possibilities of such projects has been growing. With the educationally neglected, in par- ticular, the actual going and seeing may be the center of an activity, not merely a supplementary device. The necessity of having the learning situation more nearly resemble the life situation has been stressed. The actual study and observation of the life and work of the student’s community should be the starting point of a large part of his school instruction. If the world of vocations is an important area of learning, then actual observation of the work men do on their jobs will be more ef- fective than innumerable written descriptions. Whether it concerns the food people eat, the houses they live in, or any other area of life activity, the greatest amount of firsthand ob- servation feasible is desirable. Firsthand exploration of other communities offering different resources can also be of invalu- able aid. Certainly every activity that can take the school out of its four walls and into the active, functioning life of the world should be encouraged. Undoubtedly there are difficulties encountered in taking stu- dents outside of the school. The expense of such an undertak- ing, the responsibility which the school or teacher is forced to assume for the personal safety of the students, the disruption of the daily schedule,'® the problem of making actual contact with many of the community activities, all present obstacles. Methods have not yet been developed for integrating the school work and the excursion. Merely going outside of the 18 One of the reasons advanced for the desirability of organizing the program around core courses occupying a large portion of the day is the possibility for ar- ranging at least short outside trips without disrupting the daily schedule. 152 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November school to observe is no assurance that anything educationally worth-while is being accomplished. Unless the trip serves to contribute to some project under way, or to the understanding of some problem, it is merely an incidental experience. Too often the excursion has been regarded as an escape or a reward, and has had little or no bearing upon what was going on in the school. There is need for experimentation with and study of the most practical and effective means of utilizing the commu- nity resources for educational purposes. Schools today, how- ever, are actively engaged in expanding the out-of-school ex- pedition. The Evanston, Illinois, Township High School re- ports in the following manner the organization of an Exten- sion Tour Bureau: . which plans, arranges and supervises student tours of educational value to business firms, radio stations, theaters, museums, social centers, and many other places of significance within the Chicago area... . This bureau has, with the codperation of the faculty, collected data on more than sixty places of interest in Chicago and surroundings, relating where possible such trips to fields of study within the cur- riculum. This bureau is composed of twenty-four students (two representatives from each of the twelve homerooms within the school) and one faculty representative from each of the departments in the school. The student representatives meet once each week for the purpose of planning, ar- ranging, and publicizing tours. .. . The Extension Tour Bureau acts as a clearinghouse for ail trips taken by student groups, including those initiated and supervised by individual teachers for certain class groups. For each new trip taken the bureau collects data which might be of value for a future trip to the same place. Such data include the fol- lowing items: Name of place visited and location Advance notice needed to make arrangements Best time to take trip Duration of trip eR eee on oS . ee ental ee hb Sones balay 1939} The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 153 Possible admission costs Transportation Guide service Related tours Things to see or hear Publicity suggestions Size of groups Official to contact in making arrangements The submitted lists of tours concerning which this Bureau had collected information present more than sixty possibilities for extension trips. In material received from Principal C. E. Whipple, of the D. S. Keith Junior High School, Altoona, Pennsylvania, an ac- count is given of “The Field Trip from the Shop Angle.” The trips were organized around a shop class of average boys to en- able these students 1. To become acquainted with the various industries of our city. 2. To learn various occupations involved in the various industries. 3. To enable the boy to see some occupation that he might like to follow. Some twenty widely varying industries are listed. Each in- volves a wide range of occupations which were visited and studied by the students. In the opinion of those concerned, these trips were of distinct educational value. Principal L. E. Vredevoogd, of the Tappan Junior High School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, makes the following statement concerning some unusual activities of this school which were devised for expanding the school program: We have acquired through student and faculty codperation about 258 acres of land in the northern part of our State. It was wild and undeveloped. The details of this development would be too long for 154 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November this discussion, but we wish to mention the students’ part. . . . They planned, developed, and named the site. Each trip, which lasts three or four days, must be carefully organized or the entire group suffers. Each season has witnessed an increase in the efficiency of planning and executing these trips... . When trips have failed, they were quick to appraise the factors which led to failure. When finance or support of some enterprise failed, the social studies and mathematics classes ap- praised the steps of planning and executing in order to find the reason. ... Today they are proud of the Wilderness Lake Project because it repre- sents their work and endeavor. The May 1938, Michigan Education Journal describes other activities of the Tappan Junior High School in developing trips for its students in codperation with the Youth Hostel Move- ment.!® The possibilities for utilizing the community for educational purposes are almost unlimited, and the problems of organizing and administering trips and excursions are not insurmountable. As an educational technique such firsthand experience is in- valuable for all students and of particular significance for the educationally neglected. Further experimentation concerning the best methods of organizing, administering, and codrdinat- ing the field study is needed. When available, such information should be given to all schools. The publications of the Bureau of Field Studies, of the New Jersey State Teachers College at Montclair, New Jersey, contain a wide range of information which can be of assistance to a school interested in expanding this phase of its program. In the words of the director of these studies: This pamphlet is the first attempt, so far as the Bureau of Field 19 Vredevoogd, L. E., “Education Enroute,” Michigan Education Journal, 15: 454-57. May 1938. Vil the ing in C New moti and auspi tion, 1939} The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 155 Studies has been able to ascertain, to discuss field studies in a compre- hensive way.?° The problems of the organization, administration, conducting, and evaluation, together with activities and practical sugges- tions, are considered in some detail in this Bureau’s publications. VISUAL AND AUDITORY AIDS The amount of experience which students can obtain first- hand by actually observing concrete activities is limited. Since one of the functions of education is to expand the youth’s con- cept of the world beyond that of his own community, some forny of reported information and experience must of necessity be utilized. Pictorialization in its various forms offers the ex- perience most nearly approaching that of actually seeing. For less able students there doubtless is a reality about pictures and simple charts which they cannot experience from reading or from being told.?* To a youth whose entire experience has been in a rural en- vironment the lives and work of city dwellers will not assume much reality from his reading about them in books. Nor will the city-bred lad know much about the country lad from read- ing of him. The understanding of ways of life in foreign countries will be extremely vague to a youth unless he is gifted with superior powers of imagination. The use of pictorial and 20 Bureau of Field Studies, Field Studies in Schools and Colleges; Field Studies in Certain Secondary Schools; and Field Studies in a Teachers College. Montclair, New Jersey: New Jersey State Teachers College, 1938. 21 For a summary of the experimental evidence regarding the effectiveness of motion pictures in education see Dale, Edgar; Dunn, Fanny; Hoban, Charles F. Jr.; and Schneider, Etta, Motion Pictures in Education. (A study made under the auspices of the Committee on Motion Pictures of the American Council on Educa- tion.) New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1937. 156 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November visual aids will provide a realistic background which will en- rich and add meaning to information conveyed by books. There is a tremendous range of visual material which may be utilized in connection with instruction. In addition to the conventional maps and charts, which, incidentally, are often too complex and academic for the educationally neglected, a great variety of models, pictures of all types, and commercial exhibits are obtainable.** A large amount of this material is not suitable, and therefore selection must be carefully made. To be of value visual materials must be effectively coordinated with the re- mainder of the instructional program. The possibilities of using the motion picture as an educational tool are as yet only partially realized. Ina field as new as that of the motion picture it is inevitable that many unsolved prob- lems exist concerning its most effective use. A greater number and wider variety of films suitable for classroom use are needed. For the average school there is not only the problem of obtain- ing the pictures, but also the question of effective and economi- cal utilization of equipment in buildings and rooms which were not originally constructed for such activities. The area of visual education is receiving wide attention today, experi- mentation is being increasingly undertaken, and schools are obtaining much practical experience in this field.”* 22 See Hoban, Charles F., Hoban, Charles F. Jr., and Zisman, Samuel B., Visualizing the Curriculum. New York: The Cordon Company, 1937. Dent, Ellsworth C., 4 Handbook of Visual Instruction. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1934. 28 See Charters, W. W., “The Motion Picture in Education,” Educational Record 16:312-20, July 1935. Laine, Elizabeth, Motion Pictures and Radio. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938. Brunstetter, M. R., How to Use Educational Sound Film. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937. il 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 157 It is expected that visual materials and techniques of using them will be rapidly improved. The possibilities of enriching instruction for all students by the use of the motion picture are extensive, and for the educationally neglected this method offers particularly promising possibilities for relating instruc- tion in school more closely to life situations. It is difficult to draw definite conclusions regarding the effec- tiveness of the radio and related auditory aids as methods of instruction. Certainly the radio is a major educational factor in American life today and should be utilized in the schools. Whether it has concreteness and firsthandedness not possessed by printed material is difficult to say. For the student who has technical difficulties in reading, the use of auditory devices may be necessary. As with the motion picture, many problems arise in connection with the use of the radio as an educational device. The difficulty of securing appropriate programs at the desired time, the provision of adequate technical equipment, and the possibilities for correlating the use of the radio with other in- structional methods, are problems receiving study at the present time. The possibilities of the use of recordings have been but meagerly investigated. Even if classroom use of the radio to- day is difficult, there are wide possibilities for correlating school work with the programs heard in out-of-school hours.”* Again, it is anticipated that the years ahead will witness the develop- ment of far more effective techniques for the use of the radio and related auditory devices. Sires Frederick L., The Educational Talking Picture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935. Dale, Edgar and Ramseyer, Lloyd L., Teaching with Motion Pictures. Series II, Motion Pictures in Education, Vol. 1, No. 2. American Council on Education, 1937. 24 For information relative to use of the radio in school programs, see Harrison, Margaret, Radio in the Classroom. New York: Prentiss-Hall Inc., 1938. Laine, op. cit. 158 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November USE OF WIDE RANGE OF TEACHING DEVICES No single type of teaching aid, device, or method can be recommended as being the most effective or as offering the best solution to the problem of teaching the educationally neglected. Rather, the approach must utilize as wide a variety of methods as possible for all students. The field trip, a wide range of suitable reading materials, a variety of visual aids, and the radio, all should and can profitably be utilized in developing effective instruction. To repeat, particular devices may be more effective with one pupil than with another, but all pupiis can profit from a variety of approaches. ORGANIZING THE CURRICULUM AROUND LIFE PROBLEMS If an attempt is made to set up instruction closely relating to the experiences of the students, to create a learning situation closely resembling life, it soon becomes apparent that it is im- possible to adhere strictly to the conventional subject matter divisions. The problems which the student meets in this world are not strictly and simply those of mathematics, history, sci- ence, or any other division of the usual high school curriculum. Such commonplace problems as maintaining a home, an automobile, or whatever it may be, demand mathematical un- derstandings, scientific information, and a host of related ac- tions. Writing a letter is more than an exercise in the use of the English language. The effective exercise of the skills in the so-called practical arts requires more than the knowledge of routine processes: preparing the meals for a family requires mathematical knowledge involving costs, scientific information on foods and health, and, carried to its broadest implications, skill in personal relationships, and artistic and satisfying ar- rangements. An examination of other ordinary life activities eae, ne ee ON 8 Ci iss it acral Rebate Apeics re. eta st ds of he ng be ils rld $C1- m. un- ac- of in ige res ion ns, Se eee ee 2 é ‘cbse aad aitiaacatalial em 2 a a hte alga DEW oot <0 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 159 almost leads one to the conviction that the only students who will ever have occasion to use information and knowledge purely in its subject form are those who will later become the teachers of such subjects to other students. Of course, some students will be able in some degree to pull knowledge and skills learned in subject matter fields out of a particular context and use them in practical situations, but, as has been previously elaborated, it is doubtful if even bright students are able to do this as often as it has been assumed they will. The educationally neglected undoubtedly experience great difficulty in making these transfers. Just what are the implications in the attempt to set up the curriculum in terms of life activities or real experiences is difficult to foretell. There is probably no one best pattern of organization. Many schools are attempting to set up general core courses in which the units of instruction cut across the lines of several subject fields. The degree to which the work abandons subject distinctions appears to vary widely. Principal Arthur A. Kaechele, of the Allegan, Michigan, High School, states with regard to a ninth grade core course combining English and social studies, An English textbook is used for part of the class work. The bal- ance of the time is used for whatever the instructor of the class decides is of greatest importance or greatest interest at the time. The accounts of some of the class projects, for example, the study of county and national political conventions, indicate an attempt to use broad units of work. In material made available by Principal John V. Maier, of the Wilson Junior High School, Muncie, Indiana, there is an account of an experimental “integrated program” in the eighth grade, which includes the entire day’s program with the ex- 160 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November ception of art, industrial arts, and home economics. These groups remain with their teachers throughout the entire morn- ing session. Principal Maier says, They went to practical arts and fine arts the first two periods after luncheon and then returned to their homeroom teacher. For the last period in the day the art teacher was assigned to these integrated sections upon call by the homeroom teacher for any help in art work that might come out of the regular class room activity. The work in the integrated sections is centered around activities generally involving a unit of work for study by the entire class, with special subtopics of particular interest for individual stu- dents. The account of a comprehensive evaluation of these ex- perimental groups as compared with control groups indicates that the experimental integrated program is on the whole superior. However, the point of view or approach used in setting up functional units of work in instruction is in the end more im- portant than the method of organization. If the teacher or controlling supervisory authorities do not feel morally obligated to confine instruction to rigidly segregated fields, it is possible that they will be able to set up instructional units of broad sig- nificance within typical subject matter areas. Examples of work starting from some particular field of study and broaden- ing to represent total life activities are innumerable. For ex- ample, in the outline of courses in general English for non- college students received from Principal Oscar Granger, of the Haverford Township High School, Upper Darby, Pennsyl- vania, are found, organized around the general theme “English Needed in Meeting Home Responsibilities,” projects on cloth- ing, purchasing, labor-saving devices, home decorating, amuse- ments, and home economy. Around the theme, “English 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 161 needed in meeting social responsibilities,” appear projects on entertaining, being entertained, conversation, and etiquette. The course outline of general mathematics for the “non- academic” students in the Evanston Township High School lists for study a series of consumer applications of mathematics — installment buying, cost of owning and operating a car, owning and renting a house, etc. A comprehensive study of such topics will inevitably expand beyond the strict consider- ations of mathematics. Whatever may be the most feasible and effective method of curriculum organization, it is of fundamental importance that the instruction of the educationally neglected be organized around the consideration of life’s problems rather than around subjects. The Committee on Orientation of the Department of Sec- ondary School Principals, in considering the issue: Shall secondary education accept conventional school subjects as fun- damental categories under which school experiences shall be classified and presented to students, or shall it arrange and present experiences in fundamental categories directly related to the performances of such functions of secondary schools in a democracy as increasing the ability and desire better to meet socio-civic, economic, health, leisure-time, vo- cational, and pre-professional problems and situations? reports: We now know that to be most successful learning must be meaning- ful to the pupil, it must grow out of his active experience, it must be intimately related to the development of his whole personality, it must provide him with emotional satisfactions, and it must be of ready use in the situations he meets in life. The traditional curriculum, which breaks up knowledge into separate compartments instead of drawing at any time upon any part of it which suits the pupil’s needs, is in accord neither with the laws of learning nor the functions of the 162 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November school. We need a new curriculum — one consciously designed and organized to serve the purposes of the school in the best way.?5 There is no reason to assume that this is desirable only for the educationally neglected, but it is relatively more important for this group than for others. Neither experimentation nor ob- servation shows grounds for believing that refinement of teach- ing procedures will ever succeed in making functional or ef- fective the study of abstract, revised subject matter fields. SUMMARY OF ESSENTIAL METHODS An attempt has been made to consider the basic methods and appropriate techniques for instruction of the educationally neg- lected. It has been argued that the improvement of the in- struction of the educationally neglected involves more than the development of better techniques for teaching conventional materials, and that the basic principles of methods eventually found most worth-while will concern content as well as tech- nique. The following two fundamental principles have been proposed as valid: 1. Instruction must grow out of the experience of the learner and must concern those things which are related to his own efforts at self-preservation and self-realization. 2. The learning situation must more nearly be the life sit- uation. In order to translate such principles into classroom use it is desirable and necessary to examine carefully the implications of such principles. From such a consideration it will be pos- sible to specify in more detail definite principles relative to 25 Committee on Orientation of Secondary Education, Department of Secondary School Principals of the National Education Association. “Issues of Secondary Educa- tion,” Bulletin of the Department of Secondary School Principals, 20:257-58, January 1936. eM ie) 1e or 1- id g- n- 1c al 1- 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 163 classroom instruction. Throughout the country competent groups and faculties have drawn upon the knowledge and in- formation made increasingly available by educational psychol- ogy and philosophy, and have presented in some detail the con- ditions and principles conducive to learning. The Committee on Orientation, in considering the issue regarding the funda- mental categories around which learning should be organized, have drawn upon educational psychology for the following propositions considered by the Committee to be of fundamental importance: 1. Learning proceeds more rapidly and tends to be more permanent when relationships between what is being experienced and the welfare of the learner are seen by him.... 2. Learning proceeds more rapidly and tends to be more permanent when it is an outgrowth of, or a development from, the experience of the learner. ... 3. Learning proceeds more rapidly and tends to be more permanent in proportion to the amount of satisfaction the learner derives from the process of learning, and in proportion to the immediacy of the satisfaction. With the increasing intellectual maturity of the learner, the attainment of the satisfaction by the learner may be longer delayed with less danger of interfering with or inhibiting learning. . . . 4. Learning proceeds more rapidly and tends to be more permanent when it involves activity — physical and mental — on the part of the learner. This is true whether the activity is simple like “looking it up in the dictionary” or complex like functioning as a member of a student government body... . 5. The probability that what is learned will later be recalled for use when needed increases in proportion as the learning situation resembles that in which the learning is used or applied. High degrees of intellectual ability and maturity probably supply sheer ability to bridge long gaps between the learning and the use situations, but there is no advantage in leaving longer gaps than is absolutely necessary. The common error of the secondary school is to overestimate the power of the learner to carry over from the learning to the use situation. . . . 164 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November 6. The probability that what is learned will later be recalled for use when needed increases in proportion as the relationship between each element (skill, idea, fact, ideal) which is being learned and the other elements being learned is understood by the learner. It is greatest when many relationships between the elements being-learned-in-relationship and a larger more complete “whole” situation are seen by the learner. . . .7° In the light of these principles and the characteristics of the educationally neglected, the following general suggestions re- lating to techniques of instruction have been proposed: 1. The need for emphasis upon the concrete and specific in terms of both problems and materials. 2. The need for instruction directed toward the satisfaction of more immediate and clearly recognized needs. 3. The desirability of increasing the opportunity for more con- tinuous and longer contact with teachers in order to provide more adequate teacher guidance. 4. The need for less exclusive dependence upon conventional printed materials. 5. The need for greater use of out-of-school resources through the medium of the field trip. 6. The need for greater utilization of visual and auditory aids. 7. The need for organization of learning units around life problems rather than around subjects. The above principles and suggestions have been considered with special attention to the educationally neglected group. These students, perhaps more than any other group, need to have the curriculum adjusted to them, but there is nothing that suggests that any of the principles and techniques considered would not contribute toward the improvement of instruction 26 Committee on Orientation, op. cit. pp. 263-64. nialetinimnti eee 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 165 among all student groups. One is forced to the conclusion that the problem of improving the instruction of the education- ally neglected is not an isolated problem, but is a part of the general problem of improving the instruction of all high school youth. 164 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November 6. The probability that what is learned will later be recalled for use when needed increases in proportion as the relationship between each element (skill, idea, fact, ideal) which is being learned and the other elements being learned is understood by the learner. It is greatest when many relationships between the elements being-learned-in-relationship and a larger more complete “whole” situation are seen by the learner. . . .?° In the light of these principles and the characteristics of the educationally neglected, the following general suggestions re- lating to techniques of instruction have been proposed: 1. The need for emphasis upon the concrete and specific in terms of both problems and materials. . The need for instruction directed toward the satisfaction of more immediate and clearly recognized needs. . The desirability of increasing the opportunity for more con- tinuous and longer contact with teachers in order to provide more adequate teacher guidance. . The need for less exclusive dependence upon conventional printed materials. . The need for greater use of out-of-school resources through the medium of the field trip. . The need for greater utilization of visual and auditory aids. . The need for organization of learning units around life problems rather than around subjects. The above principles and suggestions have been considered with special attention to the educationally neglected group. These students, perhaps more than any other group, need to have the curriculum adjusted to them, but there is nothing that suggests that any of the principles and techniques considered would not contribute toward the improvement of instruction 26 Committee on Orientation, op. cit. pp. 263-64. 1939] The Educationally Neglected Student as a Learner 165 among all student groups. One is forced to the conclusion that the problem of improving the instruction of the education- ally neglected is not an isolated problem, but is a part of the general problem of improving the instruction of all high school youth. CHAPTER VI Improvement of Opportunities Among the Educationally Neglected A pRocraM of secondary education, if it is to offer the edu- cationally neglected student an opportunity for fullest develop- ment, must be based upon an understanding of the character- istics and needs of these youth and an appreciation of how peo- ple learn. In the previous chapters an attempt has been made to bring together briefly the evidence available from research and literature with regard to these factors. This orientation is essential to understanding the problem under consideration, but there remains the very important problem of how practically to organize and put into effect a program that will be consistent with the needs and principles of learning deemed valid for the educationally neglected. ADAPTATIONS FROM INNOVATING PRACTICES Whatever may be the factors which originally instigate in- novations in school practices and procedures, a large majority of schools draw upon the experiences of other schools in making adaptations, and the final determination of the effectiveness of any educational procedure or program will depend upon the results secured in practical school situations. Educational pro- grams are not drawn up in the abstract and carried out in their entirety, but evolve with continued modification. It follows, then, that any secondary program for the educationally neg- lected will and must grow out of multiple activities which high schools have been and are today attempting. Successful 166 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 167 innovations of today in a relatively few schools will become ac- cepted procedure to-morrow. There is a definite need for making the experience of high schools where particularly promising procedures are being utilized more widely available to schools in general. This chapter is therefore devoted to the efforts that many secondary schools are attempting to make today in adjusting the curriculum to the educationally neg- lected student. MANY NEW APPROACHES The problem of the educationally neglected student has not arisen in a day. For a considerable period schools have been attempting new curriculum organization and new teaching technique for meeting individual differences. To survey com- prehensively all the devices schools are utilizing in attempting to adapt their educational programs to the widely varying needs of their students would be a tremendous task. It is possible, however, to draw from a number of selected schools ideas of different approaches being utilized, and, perhaps, to offer sug- gestive procedures which may assist other schools in developing a more effective program for the educationally neglected youth.” 1 See Billett, Roy O., Provisions for Individual Differences, Marking, and Pro- motion, National Survey of Secondary Education, Bulletin, 1932, No. 17, Mono- graph No. 13. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Office of Education, 1933. 2 It should be emphasized that there has been no attempt to canvass the entire nation for unusual programs for the educationally neglected. For the purpose of securing illustrative material, it was considered adequate and more feasible to draw material from the educational magazines, from sources suggested by interested, com- petent individuals, and from suggested sources in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and to give, in addition, some general information concerning California high schools. This plan accounts for the fact that a large number of the schools mentioned are in a few states. Undoubtedly there are other programs comparable to these in other states or in other schools in the states mentioned. (Footnote continued.) 168 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November NEED FOR LOCAL ADAPTATIONS The educational literature of recent years, in a reaction against the extreme standardization established in high school programs, has emphasized the need for each community to make its own local adaptations. The differences between com- munities, with regard to the needs of the student, the character- istics and vocational purposes of the pupil population, the edu- cational facilities available, the resources of its instructional staff, the community resources available, and community atti- tudes demand that each school make its own local modifica- tions. Unless one conceives of secondary education as the study of a fixed body of knowledge, largely unrelated to contempo- rary life, a high degree of flexibility is necessary. However, one may carry such a thesis to the point of being absurd by insisting that each high school must develop its own independent pro- gram. Each school should make its local modifications but certain patterns and objectives will be common to all schools. Therefore, while it is unwise for any high school to attempt to copy identically the program of another school it can find methods of approach and organization which it may well adapt to its use. APPROACHES TO PROBLEM OF BETTER INSTRUCTION OF THE EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED It is impossible to weigh theoretically the effectiveness of The Committee is indebted to Aubrey A. Douglass, Chief of the Division of Secondary Education, of the State of California; to Howard Dare White, Assistant Commissioner of Education, of the State of New Jersey; to J. Cecil Parker, Director of Secondary School Curriculum Study in Michigan; and to Oscar Granger, Principal of the Haverford Township High School, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, for informa- tion relative to unusual activities various schools were developing in their respective states. Finally, the Committee owes a debt of gratitude to the principals and teachers who, upon request, so generously made available information concerning activities being developed for the educationally neglected in their schools. 1939] , Improvement of Opportunities 169 different procedures and techniques which schools are adopting in an effort to offer better educational opportunity to all stu- dents. One may, however, gain some idea of the practical ef- fectiveness of different techniques, by studying the activities that schools report, in their opinion, to be successful in securing better adjustment. Table I summarizes the data received from 137 junior and senior high schools in California with regard to developments in California secondary schools designed to accommodate pupils of low academic ability. Ten activities, mentioned in the literature in the field, were presented to the principals and they were asked to check those which were being developed in their schools and to add to the list any other activities which were being utilized. Table I shows the type of activities that high schools are em- phasizing for the educationally neglected. It is significant that more than three fifths of the schools submitting data indicated that they were attempting to develop units of instruction around the needs of the students without giving particular at- tention to formalized subject matter fields. The concern over reading materials best adapted to the abilities of the education- ally neglected points to a need for the development of appro- priate printed matter for these less verbal students. A large group of schools report attention to the extended use of visual and auditory aids and the field trip. The small number of schools undertaking vocational placement and follow-up work is probably indicative of the difficulties and limitations under which a school operates when undertaking to work in this area, Of particular interest are the comments which were reported under “other items.” Because items were suggested the re- sponses are probably restricted. Undoubtedly many more spe- Le 98 UoQUsNe jeeds nomi nasnanneny 2~P JO spoou jewods punose uononnsut jo 3 £-0g olr Arpqe Jeqsea ss2] jo —- 0} paydepe sjeisa3eus Zutpess jo dsn pue Quowdojaazp ‘AJ2A0281q] von Msut Joy sy20lo1d pue sjetssjyeU! 33219U0) JO 38f) v-6E ts “ne ‘sdin ppy y3nosyy saosnoso1 AyuNUWIWIOD jo 3sN SAtSUIIXY 6ob 9S spre Aloupne pue yensta Jo Isn satsuaIxXy 1°91 tt yom dn-Mojjo} pue yuouss2ejd feuoNesoa jo waysfs 2atsusyoIdWI0_ ogt zs $]2A2] eevee Po]tystusas ye Zururen pue sourpind yo wesSosg o°St gr sp2ou 2s2y3 0} wWesZo3d jooyrs Zunsn{pe pue spoou jenpiarpur Zurkpnys jo wiayshs yensnuy) o’gt tL SppPy jeteds ur ainjeu jensnun jo yom powdepy gy és Mwespeseuou JO} umMypnsum> jewods JO ‘1a ‘[eJ2UIH Asatioy Ananoy rysads ays2ad$ 5100495 Susso1pu] Sunvrpul fo s2qunn padojaaaq Sussq unig sjooy2s jo sJ004?S 2303u2249g fo saqunny ALIIIGY OINGaVOy MO} dO sTidng ALVGOMMOOOY OL GINDISA(] SIOOHDG AUVANOOTS VINUOATIVD NI SLNIMAOTIARC 1 TIaVL 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 171 cial activities are under way than were reported. However, among the special activities reported by the schools were a business education survey, a vocational survey of the commu- nity, special guidance activities, special short courses, courses in industrial arts and home economics, and codperative school and work plans. NEW EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES The recent years of economic depression have witnessed the creation of two new governmental agencies of education, namely, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Youth Administration. Because these agencies originated as emergency measures, primarily for relief purposes, many peo- ple have failed fully to recognize their educational possibilities and purposes. Accompanying and paralleling the work program of the CCC is its educational program, which, in the long run, may prove far more significant than the work program. The pos- sibilities for utilizing the total environment — the work pro- gram, recreational program, and the multiple activities of co- Operative living in groups — for educational experiences and purposes appear almost limitless. The educational program of the CCC will therefore probably continue to be organized around life problems by the very nature of the setting itself. Experiences in living can be utilized in teaching much more easily here than in the formal school, and, for this reason, those who learn best from direct experience may derive a great deal more of functional value from the CCC than from an ordinary school. The CCC in the brief years of its existence gives evidence of becoming a permanent institution. The program of the camps 172 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November is still so new that the organization of their educational program is still in the developmental stage. Youth agencies of the camp type are being utilized in many nations. The attention of those interested in this type of educational program is directed to a study of the organization and operation of youth camps in European nations, where these agencies have a longer history and more extensive experience than the youth camps of this country.’ Actual evaluation of the significance and effective- ness of these agencies designated for the care and education of youth will be the work of future years.‘ Just what will be the eventual relation between the CCC, the educational activities of the NYA, and the secondary school is difficult to foretell today. Those engaged in working in the secondary schools should realize that the CCC and NYA pro- grams are educational experiments of significance; their enter- prises are in the same primary fields as the secondary school; and they are providing valuable educational experiences for a group of hitherto neglected youth. It would be unfortunate to regard these new agencies cither as competitors of the high school or as dumping grounds for the alleged misfits of the sec- ondary schools. Rather, it needs to be recognized that these two agencies are partners with other educational agencies in the prosecution of a joint enterprise — the education of all 3 Holland, Kenneth, Youth in European Labor Camps. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education, 1939. 4 Engelhardt, N. L. and Quaintance, C. B., “Extension of Educational Organiza- tion; Civilian Conservation Corps,” Review of Educational Research, 7:392-93, October 1937. Hill, Frank Ernest, The School in the Camps. New York: American Associa- tion for Adult Education, 1935. CCC Camp Education, Guidance and Recreational Phases. U. S. Depart- ment of the Interior, Office of Education. Bulletin, 1937, No. 19. The Phi Delta Kappan, 19:297-378, May 1937. (An issue devoted entirely to a series of articles on different aspects of the C CC.) th co! edi bee ins age hig of tt coulc futur tribu 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 173 youth. From these agencies, less hampered by tradition, may come educational techniques and practices which may help to guide the secondary schools in its attempt to adapt its program to the educationally neglected. Perhaps a small minority of high school students may benefit more from the natural setting and the type of educational ex- periences offered in the CCC camps and NYA projects than from the more formal school program. The problem of where the high school program may best articulate with the work of these and other supplementary agencies is, as yet, not clear. However, whatever may be the future developments it is clear that the presence of the CCC and NYA work projects does not remove the responsibility from the secondary school for making the broadest attempt possible to adapt its program to all adoles- cents. The large majority of youth must continue to be accom- modated by the secondary school. Removing youth from their homes for education before postsecondary school age is ques- tionable. The cost ° of the CCC program renders unlikely the expansion of this program to include any large proportion of the youth group. Supplementary institutions they are and will continue to be. The NYA has developed activities which are definitely of educational nature. A distinctive feature of this program has been the attempt to utilize in every way existing educational institutions and to assist youth in taking advantage of these agencies whenever possible. The program of student aid for high school and college youth has attempted to provide means 5 The diversity of purposes of the CCC makes it difficult to assess the costs of the educational program. There appears to be little question that the work benefits could be achieved at less cost under other conditions. The additional costs will in the future need to be examined in terms of the additional educational and social con- tributions made to the lives of the youth affected. 174 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November whereby worthy and needy students may remain in school. A second phase of the program which is less well understood is the program for out-of-school youth enrolling young people from eighteen to twenty-four years of age. The program of this division attempts to provide worth-while activities for un- employed youth, and to provide vocational experience which will make them more employable. The details of the organi- zation and the specific activities undertaken vary in different communities and states. The enrollees are generally above high school age. Many of them are youth who have not completed high school and, it may be suspected, youth for whom the conventional high school program was ill adapted. For these youth, who in many cases have never been em- ployed and have never had opportunity to explore their own vocational abilities, work projects of various types are devel- oped. These projects fulfill the dual purpose of offering the employees useful and needed work to perform and providing them with educationally valuable vocational experience. In accord with the general policy of the organization these proj- ects are organized and sponsored by other public agencies, the National Youth Administration supplying and supervising the labor only. The definite aim of the program is to provide vo- cational experience which will make the enrollee more em- ployable. For girls have been developed work projects chiefly along clerical and homemaking lines. For boys have been developed a wide variety of projects, particularly those centering around workshop, building, and construction projects of a widely vary- ing nature, depending upon the needs of the sponsoring agency. Woodwork, metal work, automotive repair, building repair, and a long list of possible activities appear on the state pro- grams. 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 175 The educational possibilities of such a program vary with the nature of the work undertaken and the skill of the supervisor in utilizing the opportunities of the work for educational pur- poses. In the minds of the supervisors, the purpose of these activities is mainly to furnish a means of training youth for a vocation. Again, there is the very strong possibility that the nature of the work and the practical setting offer distinct pos- sibilities, particularly for those who are in need of and who would profit most from direct experience. Accompanying this work project program is the attempt to interest the enrollee in using other educational agencies or any other available media* for supplementary education — adult classes, voca- tional classes under other auspices, and the like. DIFFERENT APPROACHES BEING UTILIZED From examination of the literature and from the reports re- ceived from a selected number of schools the following four general approaches appear to be current today in organizing secondary school programs designed to meet more fully the needs of the educationally neglected student: 1. The development of modified courses in the various subject matter fields. 2. The development of strictly differentiated programs of study for college preparatory, commercial, and the educationally neg- lected, accompanied by less emphasis on the formalized subject matter fields among the latter group of students. . The development of flexible core courses for all students accom- panied by a wide range of elective special interest and vocational courses. . The development of differentiated courses around vocational aims and purposes. 6 For an account of activities of the National Youth Aministration, see Lindley, Betty, and Lindley, Ernest K., 4 New Deal for Youth. New York: Viking Press, 1938. 176 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November The attempt to classify all of the different methods that schools are utilizing to meet this problem naturally oversimpli- fies the problem. The high schools are utilizing phases of all these general methods of attacking the problem. For purposes of discussion, however, such a classification does provide a framework for describing school programs which illustrate in a general way the different methods of curricular organization. As has been said, it is impossible to evaluate in the abstract the relative effectiveness of these different methods of approach. All can be so developed as to be fairly consistent with the prin- ciples of instruction which research and educational literature have established as valid for the educationally neglected. As will be discussed later, some approaches appear by the nature of the organization to offer considerable opportunity for ad- justing instruction to the educationally neglected. However, an outline of a curriculum or the names of courses do not reveal entirely the approach of the teacher in the classroom. Given the right orientation and adequate skill and willingness on the part of the teacher, much vital effective learning can go on in practically any system of curricular organization. Without these prerequisites to learning, reorganization and revising of the curriculum are very likely to be little more than the manipulation of externals. Before the Implementation Committee of the National As- sociation of Secondary School Principals,’ or anyone else, can recommend specific plans with any assurance about the efforts to improve the education of the educationally neglected, there must be a better, more comprehensive evaluation of the effect of these efforts, than has been made. The Implementation Com- mittee is now making such a study in its occupational adjust- 7 See Foreword. T ha ~~ ~*~ Oe 1939} Improvement ef Opportunities 177 ment survey, the basic idea of which is to discover the types of high school experience that result in sound occupational ad- justment. If this attempt is successful the Committee hopes to evaluate current efforts to help the educationally neglected make other important adjustments. DEVELOPMENT OF MODIFIED COURSES IN SUBJECT MATTER FIELDS Simplifying the conventional subject courses for different ability groups is the all too typical method of adjustment of the curriculum to the educationally neglected. It has been argued at some length in previous sections of this bulletin that this method is ineffective and futile as long as the attempt is simply to “water down,” “thin out,” or “reduce to minimum essen- tials” the conventional subject matter. Examination of the activities and instruction undertaken in some high schools does lead to the conviction, however, that basic changes may be and are being brought about, while at least the typical subject titles are retained. It is very possible, where there is freedom from conviction that the subjects set up are fixed and sacred, to de- velop broad, lifelike, and functional units of instruction in mathematics, history, science, or English. To the extent that units embody these qualities will they cut widely acress typical subject lines, even though their roots are in some particular field of study. The two following examples of this approach, which is used in many schools, are presented for illustrative purposes. Opportunity Classes in the Evanston Township High School The Evanston Township High School over a period of years has developed a number of special opportunity courses to “pro- 178 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November vide for the needs of earnest pupils who are not academically minded.” * The courses designated as X courses are an out- growth of work and experimentation extending back to 1931. Beginning with the development in the mathematics depart- ment of courses designed to meet the needs of students who would have no formal education beyond high school and fol- lowed closely by similar developments in the English depart- ment, this program was expanded to include all of the depart- ments of the school except the language department. In 1933 a committee composed of one representative from each depart- ment was established to plan a definite program for these non- academic students. This committee has continued its work over a number of years and subcommittees have taken up the study of special problems. At the January 1939 meetings there were reports from the Safety Education Committee, Integration Committee, Visual and Auditory Aid Committee, New Unit Core Studies Committee, the Library Committee, the Personal and Social Problems Classes, and the Third Year English X Committete. These X courses, designed for students who do not have the requisite type of ability for success in the regular courses, now enroll about 9.5 per cent of the students in the high school. A sequence of these X courses has been developed in English, mathematics, social science, and natural science accompanied by special interest X courses in other departments. Something of the general nature of these courses can perhaps be conveyed by the following brief description of the approach employed and the type of content material used: 8 The quoted passages in the discussion of this school program are drawn from the descriptive accounts furnished to the committee by Principal Francis L. Bacon and represent the work of different members of the high school faculty. 1939] Improvement of Opportunities X Course 1n ENGLIsH Perhaps the most extensive departure from the type of English edu- cation which has prepared Evanston children for college is that program which has been set up for children who plan to have no formal educa- tion beyond the high school, and who have shown themselves unlikely to achieve success in the college preparatory work. Such children usually come to the secondary school with distinct handicaps in language ability. The program which is set up for them is a four-year series of courses, each with its own purposes and materials. The work of the first two years is devoted largely to establishing habits of reading, writing, and speaking adequate to carrying on normal adult activities. There is much practice in the reading of the prose of current popular literature for the growth both of reading power and of reading taste. Only those skills in writing are sought which make the adult person satisfactorily literate in the necessary writing tasks. In the second year a good deal of time is devoted to dealing with the practical aptitudes, such as the use of time tables, the making of applications, social and business correspond- ence, the use of the telephone, and such affairs of daily life. The third year is to plan its work largely in terms of the under- standing of continuity of daily events as they are recorded in the news- papers and in the magazines; in other words, one of the main purposes of the third year is to have the pupils come to an understanding of the contemporary world, with what excursions into the past are necessary to understand the present. In addition, the third year plans to provide for the pupil a wide reading experience, with the intent to establish habits of leisure reading which will be an asset to the adult. The fourth year program, organized as a double-period double-credit course (including English and social science), is to face the seniors with many of the practical issues of adult living. It will consider such matters as getting established in an occupation, managing an income, establishing those relationships with other people which make for sound citizenship, and maintaining sound physical and mental health. These problems of everyday living do not constitute a set program, but rather a wealth of opportunity for codperative choice within the class. The objectives of second-year X English work, as stated by one teacher, are: 180 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November 1. To improve their everyday reading (magazines, newspapers, simple books). 2. To help them to find pleasurable books and gradually to lift their taste in reading. 3. To help them to express their ideas informally to the group. 4. To train them to stand before a group and to speak a few words intelligently. 5. To help them to avoid common grammatical errors. (So-called grammar is used little, only where necessary to explain speech errors.) 6. To write simple sentences; to use the period and other end marks. 7. To acquire a few habits of speech, writing, and reading. The following excerpts from an account by a teacher of third-year English X describes his procedure: . . . It was decided that no textbooks would be purchased, but rather that the pupils would be given opportunities for pleasant and profitable reading experiences, chiefly in adult-life situations and in terms of un- derstanding the continuity of daily events as they are recorded in the newspapers and in magazines. ... At the outset of the course, although many of them said that they did not read a newspaper regularly, they thought it satisfactory to pur- chase copies of the newsmagazine. . . « It was decided that four magazines should be purchased. Copies of Newsweek, Readers’ Digest, Scholastic, and American Observer were regularly used. The pupils were encouraged and expected to read widely from other magazines and from “library books” in lieu of homework. While no required number was made, the average student read at least two books a month. In the beginning no particular advice or restriction was given to his choice in order that the teacher might have the opportunity to see the kind of reading that the student actually preferred. . . . While sev- eral students had done some optional reading in the past, many of them were to learn for almost the first time that reading could be fun... . cor clu plic Probl 1939} Improvement of Opportunities 181 A brief written report on a special slip containing a place for only the title, author, place obtained, and a paragraph of comment were handed in by each pupil upon the completion of a book. Inasmuch as these were not too demanding or elaborate, there was no dread of having to make a “book report.” A list was kept of each stu- dent’s reading, but the competition was net with his neighbor but with himself. Few composition activities, other than short essay tests in connection with the magazine articles, were attempted. The educational service of Time furnished a monthly objective test which was used with surpris- ingly satisfactory results. While it cannot be said that their grammar im- proved materially, certainly their vocabulary and diction increased greatly through the extensive reading done. Several other composition activities, such as writing letters to the editor or letters of inquiry, were oc- casionally tried, but the pupils thought them artificial, preferring to use the time for reading. Mention has previously been made of the course in Personal and Social Problems,’ which combines English and social sci- ence for the so-called X students.'° According to the accounts of this course, the attempt is to consider the various personal and social problems which the student faces rather than to or- ganize the work around particular subjects or a combination of subject matter requirements. X Courses in Mathematics and Science Generally the mathematical program of the X students is confined to a one-year course in basic mathematics which in- cludes work on the fundamental operations with practical ap- plications. The following description of the work is pertinent: 9 See page 98. 10 See Cameron, David, “A Specially Adjusted Course in Personal and Social Problems,” The School Review, 47:290-98, April 1939. 182 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November The simpler formulas are derived and applied. Scale drawings are used in making maps and plans of houses. Problems likely to arise in the home and in handling personal finances are solved and considerable time is spent in discussing the wise use of money... . All the problems presented are concrete and come within the experience of the pupil. The science department offers special opportunity courses in biology and geography. X courses in history and in social sci- ence have also been developed. Special Services In addition to modifying courses for the educationally neg- lected pupil an attempt has been made to utilize all other gen- eral school services as much as possible. For example, visual aids are widely employed. A general Extension Tour Bureau offers a comprehensive range of information and assistance re- garding educational excursions, and a Placement Bureau for part-time employment is utilized. In the account of this program at the Evanston Township High School, the fact that the program for these educationally neglected students is continually being modified as new prob- lems arise or new techniques are developed is emphasized. For approximately nine years these courses have been developing and as the tenth year approaches, ever is the school confronted by new prob- lems. . . . New techniques of instruction are being used daily, visual and auditory aids tried, new texts adopted, new standardized tests given, easy reading material collected, types of employment available to these pupils are sought, a placement bureau is established; but, above all, is that constant necessity for the evaluation of new methods. Social-Civic Curriculum in Yonkers, New York, High School The social-civic curriculum in the Yonkers High Schools is being developed on a city-wide basis for those students who 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 183 have been termed the educationally neglected. The program attempts to set up for these youth more functional and practical units of work than the modified academic courses provide. General subject matter divisions have been retained with, how- ever, an enlarged concept of the content which may be devel- oped in the traditional fields. Emphasis is placed upon the re- sponsibility of the high school toward the development of re- sponsible future citizens. Under “Scope of the Social-Civic Curriculum” appears the following explanatory statement: The social-civic curriculum is designed to give boys and girls on the senior high school level definite and carefully planned training that will help them solve their present personal problems, their present social- civic problems, and at the same time be of maximum benefit to them in meeting and adequately solving the problems they will likely meet in early adulthood. The content of this curriculum aims to develop worthy and positive social-civic attitudes and a sensitive social conscious- ness on the part of pupils, also to give definite training in the building of attitudes and skills that make for character, citizenship, and an ap- preciation of the American culture.!! The need for readjustment in the high school program is stressed in the statement appearing under the title “All Stu- dents Citizens,” as follows: The high school is the American institution particularly and peculiarly fitted to serve as a clearinghouse and as a laboratory for all future adult citizens. It should meet this opportunity of molding and train- ing good citizens for a democracy at whatever cost of readjustment neces- sary. Readjustment is indeed necessary if the high school is to become an efficient laboratory for those boys and girls who are not deeply inter- ested in the traditional and academic courses which constitute the major portion of offerings on the high school level, and who because of lack of interest or ability do not greatly profit by and from these courses. 11 Yonkers Public Schools, Tentative Outline of a Course in English To Be Used in the Senior High School as a Part of the Social-Civie Curriculum. 184 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November Under the guidance of Lloyd N. Morrisett, Assistant Super- intendent in charge of Secondary Education, committees are at work developing outlines of courses in different fields of study. These outlines are tentative and experimental guides, not the typical arbitrary form of syllabus. New courses are be- ing developed with the aim of a continuous and complete read- justment of the whole program. A revised three-year sequence in social science; a similar sequence in English, (including English for business and social usage); a two-year program in mathematics entitled “Social Finance”; a two-year program in science — biology, household physics, and chemistry; a course in personality development; and a course in consumer economics have been developed. In addition, a wide range of elective courses are offered in the various fields, including the vocational areas.” Mention has been made previously of some of the units of instruction utilized in courses in social finance and in the social studies.'* The units of instruction suggested in “The Tenta- tive Outline of Courses in Consumer Economics” and eleventh grade science are listed below to give some indication of the type of work being organized. ELEVENTH GRADE SCIENCE I. Keeping the home warm and comfortable Air conditioning; heating systems; ventilation; such conveniences as water and plumbing. II. Machines in the home Labor saving devices resulting in more leisure. III. Measuring what we buy Getting our money’s worth. Tests and standards. 12 Inasmuch as this program is under development the information offered here with regard to revised courses is possibly not entirely complete at the present time. 13° See pages 98 and 106, Improvement of Opportunities . Dangers and caution Safety in the home; fire prevention. . Building, repair, and upkeep Building materials and plans; paints and varnishes. . Washing and cleaning — bleaching Keeping the home clean; hard and soft water. . Chemistry of common things Foods; baking powders. Chemistry of kitchens and house. Tests for adulterants, etc. Recreation — hobbies The use of leisure time; camera; stamps; minerals; microscope; weather; automobile; airplanes; shopwork; etc. . Health Vitamins; medicines; antiseptics; germicides; disinfectants. . Insects, pests, and bacterial control Inside house. Outside in garden and lawn. . Textiles and floor covering Clothing; rugs; curtains; linoleum. . Electrical appliances and connections Wiring; bells; toys; radio; etc. How we see Illumination. Color aids. . Appreciation of science Reading newspapers and magazines with pleasure and profit. Being intelligent about science. ConsuMER Economics !4 I. Problems of the consumer II. How the other half lives III. Money management IV. Consumer credit V. To buy or not to buy VI. Buyer beware! 14 American Consumer, June 1939. 186 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November VII. Getting your money’s worth VIII. Agencies which help the consumer IX. Taxation and the consumer X. The consumer and production problems Both outlines stress the use of problem approach and exten- sive use of common and familiar materials. MANY SCHOOLS REVISING COURSES Under pressure of a changing student population, many high schools are materially revising the typical conventional courses. Both the comprehensiveness of their work and the actual de- gree of change achieved varies widely. The Haverford Township High School at Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, outlines distinctly modified courses in English and biology. Principal Volney G. Barnes, of the West High School, Madi- son, Wisconsin, reports the institution of modified courses since the opening of the school in 1930 — adjusted classes in English, mathematics, history, and science. A number of classes are or- ganized for the less academic students only. The list of such courses includes: Human Progress, Economic Geography, Gen- eral Science, Reading and Corresponding, and Elements of Business. Barnes states that the program has demonstrated its effectiveness by decreasing the number of withdrawals caused by poor adjustment to the curriculum. Principal Ralph E. Files, of the East Orange High School, New Jersey, reports a wide range of modified courses for less academic students. The outline of courses of the Upper Darby Senior High School in Pennsylvania contains a considerable number of adapted courses in both the academic and vocational fields. Improvement of Opportunities 187 The State Curriculum Studies for the Non-College Pupil in Pennsylvania Secondary Schools, under the direction of the Pennsylvania Branch of the Department of Secondary School Principals of the National Education Association, has set up a comprehensive system of committees for studying this problem. These committees have been organized in nine geographical areas to study the materials used in the average high school program of activities. The eleven areas being considered by these committees are: community resources, extracurricular, guidance, home economics, interest units, languages, mathe- matics, reading, science, social science, and vocational educa- tion. This plan shows the State’s method of studying the prob- lem of the educationally neglected. The aim of each commit- tee is stated to be twofold: . . first, to build curricular materials that will be appropriate for the group, and, second, to arouse the teaching profession to take initiative in solving a most perplexing educational problem.!5 EFFECTIVENESS OF REVISED COURSES At the risk of being too repetitious, what has previously been stated concerning adjusting courses to the student will be re- iterated. The effectiveness of modifying courses to meet the needs of the educationally neglected student will depend upon the basic orientation of those doing the work. If the problem is viewed simply as that of preserving the conventional ma- terial as much as possible then it is to be seriously questioned if the effort will be worth while. If, on the other hand, the par- ticular subjects are viewed only as convenient and commonly accepted framework around which to organize comprehensive 15 Brief Outline of Curriculum Studies for the Non-College Pupil in Pennsyl- vania Secondary Schools, p. 3, February 1939. Directed by the Pennsylvania Branch, Department of Secondary School Principals of the National Education Association. 188 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November units of instruction related to the needs of the students there will be a very real possibility for outcomes of a promising na- ture. The acceptance of this approach should be considered the first step toward providing a functional curriculum, but no school should regard it as the final solution of its problems. DEVELOPMENT OF A DIFFERENTIATED PROGRAM Many high schools, faced with the problem of college en- trance requirements and traditional practices in regard to the so-called academic student, have sharply differentiated their programs for the college and noncollege groups. Rather than attempt to modify the subject matter courses for the education- ally neglected, they have organized the instruction for these students around entirely new courses or around certain func- tional areas, at the same time offering the college preparatory and, in some cases, the commercial students the traditional curricula. For example, in one high school, certain groups may be working mainly in the typical subject divisions, while the work of another group may be organized around such themes as family living and community living. The distinc- tion between this practice and that of radically modifying courses may be only a matter of degree, but both approaches will in some degree be embodied in the program of most schools that are really attempting to differentiate their educa- tional activities. The following examples are given to illustrate the programs found in many schools. Social-Scientific Curriculum in Princeton, New Jersey, High School The Social-Scientific Course is the title used to designate the program of work now being developed in the Princeton High 2939] Improvement of Opportunities 189 School to replace the so-called general course. Principal Barn- ard states that the course now enrolls about one fifth of the students in this high school. Although the program is still in the process of evolution, it has been fully organized for the ninth grade and will be extended one grade higher each year. The two basic aims of this course are: adjustment to home and community and such elementary mastery of the funda- mental processes as is necessary for the majority of citizens. Differentiating the programs for the social-scientific students and the college preparatory students has been completed in the formal work of the school. The marking system employed in the social-scientific curriculum is based largely upon what may be termed citizenship rather than upon retention of facts, while in the conventional program marks are carefully related to ab- solute standards of achievement. Before graduation from the social-scientific curriculum, however, the student must evidence a mastery of the fundamental processes, for which purpose comprehensive examinations are now being developed. A considerable number of separate courses have been developed for this new program. The common element which runs through all the courses is a consideration of the problems and activities which most individuals meet in their everyday living. Home and community life might be termed the central theme around which the curriculum is organized. Materials are presented and studied from the standpoint of the con- sumer rather than from the standpoint of developing spe- cialists. The following outline presents the courses ** for the social- scientific students: 16 These courses do not represent the complete program for these students as there is also work in English and elective fields. 190 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November Course Students Grade . General shop crafts boys and girls 9 to 12 . Household science boys and girls 9 . Food crafts and girls 9 to 12 . Clothing crafts and girls 9 to 12 . Practical mathematics... ........boys and girls 9 . Practical mathematics...........boys and girls II Of 12 . Practical music boys and girls II or 12 . Marketing and girls II Or 12 . Interior decoration and girls II or 12 and girls II or 12 So ON Aven wy ww _ The above courses are pursued for varying periods of time, sometimes with boys and girls together, sometimes with sep- arate groups. For example, the ninth grade program in gen- eral shop crafts, household science, food crafts, and clothing crafts which utilizes three fifty-minute periods per day for both boys and girls throughout the year is distributed as follows: Boys Girls Periods per No.of Periods per No.of Course Week Weeks Week Weeks Household science 5 38 Food crafts 5 10 14 Clothing crafts 10 13 General shop crafts 28 10 10 The following topics in certain selected courses are taken from the material prepared by the Princeton, New Jersey, High School, and presented here for illustrative purposes: GENERAL SHoP CRAFTS FOR GIRLS Ninth Grade—(10 Weeks) A. Tools and basic processes for the home 1. Care of tools used in the home 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 2. Name of various tools used in the home 3. Manipulation of tools . Safety 1. Observe safety laws of pedestrians 2. Precautions in avoiding bathtub mishaps 3. Escaping gases in the home 4. Use of safety matches 5. Use of stepladder . Home mechanics . Sharpening knives . Repair of electric cords . Replacing fuses . Cleaning and adjusting gas stove burners . Special cleaning procedures of bathroom fixtures, carpets, and rugs, etc. 6. Oiling and care of household motors . Construction and Appreciation . Night lamp . Door knockers . Soap powder box . Fernery . Design of projects GENERAL SHop CrAFTs FoR Boys Ninth Grade—(28 Weeks) . Tools and basic tool operation in the home 1. Care of tools used in home 2. Stocking of supplies for use in the home 3. Economical cutting of material . Safety 1. Keep objects off floor and work bench 2. Pull safety switch before pulling fuse 3. Safety in the community — crossing streets, bicycle riding, care of icy walks, etc. - Home mechanics 1. Method used in soldering 192 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November . Renew fuses . Wiring table lamp . Repack faucet . Clean out traps . How to shut off water in case of leaks . Care and repair of bicycles . Installation of door stops D. Construction and appreciation . Weather vanes . Foot scrapers . Candle holders . Magazine rack . Copper trays . Flower pot holder . Fastening metals . Value of materials on QuM > Ww WN on AMS WwW NR & HovseEHotp Science For Boys AND GIRLS Ninth Grade—(38 Weeks) A. The house B. Electric fixtures in the home C. The laundry D. Soap and other cleaners E. Stain removal F. Kitchen utensils G. Silverware H. Dishware I. Polishes J. Shoes and stockings K. Cosmetics SocioLocy For Boys AND GIRLS Eleventh and Twelfth Grades—(38 Weeks) I. The home A. People B. Advantages for the American home derived from the resources and condition of the United States 19: NMAYOw D> Socia New Th Mour educz surve of ye ganiz grade in the Comr 17 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 193 C. Social problems with which the home will come in contact D. What does the future hold for the American family? II. The home in an economic society A. What economics means in the home B. The place of the family and home in the production of wealth C. The importance of money and banks to the modern home D. The home gets many of its things from distant places by trade and transportation E. Our homes and business are secured against risk F. Our homes are taxed G. How we get homes and other articles of wealth for living PRACTICAL SCIENCE FoR Boys AND GIRLS Tenth Grade—(38 Weeks) A. Water — its relation to the home B. Fire — its use and control in the home C. Foods, medicines, and health in the home D. Textiles in the home E. Building materials — their use in home building F, Mechanical equipment for the home Social-Scientific Curriculum in Mount Holly, New Jersey, High School The curriculum that is in the process of being developed at Mount Holly, New Jersey, is designed to meet the needs of the educationally neglected students and is the outgrowth of a survey and study of the problem by the faculty over a period of years.17 Each year of work in the high school is being or- ganized around one major center of interest. In the ninth grade the controlling center of interest is “The Art of Living in the Home”; in the tenth grade, “The Art of Living in the Community”; in the eleventh grade, “The Art of Making a 17 See page 116. 194 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November Living”; and in the twelfth grade, “The Principles and Prob- lems of American Democracy.” The program in the ninth grade was begun in the school year 1937-38. By extending the curriculum one grade each year there will be a complete four-year program in 1941-42. Principal Kindig writes that this nonacademic course is ex- pected to enroll fully 60 per cent of the student body. The ninth year program includes social studies and English, general sci- ence, an introduction to business and mathematics, and ten periods a week in home economics or shop. This vocational work includes for the girls the study of food, clothing, home planning, child care, home nursing, and family relationships; for the boys, general shop work, clothing, home planning, and family relationships. All students may also take work in physi- cal education, occupational information, and certain optional activities. The distinctive feature of the program is the man- ner in which the so-called academic fields have been related to the one controlling center of interest “The Art of Living in the Home.” The purposes of the ninth grade program and the topics listed below, taken from the outlines used by Mount Holly High School, indicate something of the organization of work for the ninth year: SoctAL-ScIENTIFIC CuRRICULUM Major Center of Interest: The Art of Living in the Home Purposes: . To show how the home can be the center of family life. . To realize the necessity of living within the family income. . To evaluate propaganda and advertising. . To select economically and to prepare nutritious foods. . To select economically or to construct garments. . To learn the fundamental principles of home nursing and care of younger children. 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 195 7. To identity the advantages of certain types of building materials, location, and furnishings for a home. 8. To operate economically and to maintain a home. ENcLIsH AND SoctaL SrupiEs In the Social-Scientific Curriculum we find that English and the social studies are best handled in the freshman year as an integrated sub- ject. The field of social studies offers the best opportunity for the logi- cal introduction of the year’s theme “Problems of Living in the Home.” Nearly all of the subjects discussed are from the field of social studies and provide much more interesting material than if chosen from the traditional English field. Problems of the home lead to much oral English and to written reports and discussions, which, in turn, bring out the need for technical English knowledge. Especially in the fields of amusement for the home and reading in the home do we find an insep- arable link between social studies and English. Center of Interest: The Art of Living in the Home'* English-Social Studies Science Aspects Topics Topics A. Motivation 1. Family authority Orientation 2. Typical family . Family through the the ages . Differences between house and home B. Growth and devel- 1. The early or primi- Biological develop- opment of the fam- _ tive period ment of family: ily 2. Tenting period A. Family life of 3. Greek and Roman 1. Man period 2. Mammals . Early American and 3. Birds colonial period 4. Insects 18 This outline is part of one used in the Mount Holly High School. Space does not permit the inclusion of details which indicate more fully the approach taken to the topics in the different fields, or the correlated activities in the special fields of art, music, home economics, library instruction, vocational agriculture, and physical education. 196 National Association of Secondary-School Principals C. The family and its 1. Creation and descrip- housing needs D. Family relationships 1. E. Possibilities for rec- reation in the home F. Propaganda and its relation to consum- able materials tion of the family 2. Create original inci- 2. AVkeP wn wa dents in the family (As the science de- partment completes study of units of heating, lighting, etc., the English depart- ment prepares writ- ten reports for record and places in a scrap- book.) Family courtesy Planning family ac- tivities and social . Discussion of family problems . Social need . Movies as a hobby . Amateur theatricals Club organization . Music . Reading . Agencies of advertis- ing and propaganda [November B. Tools of: 1. Primitive 2. Linking peo- ple 3. Greek, Rom- an, and Egyp- tian people 4. Early Ameri- can 1. Location of home 2. Erecting home 3. Equipping a home Sports Movies Radio Newspaper magazines 5. Hobbies 1. Consumable mate- rials of the home. I. 2. 3. 4. and »- 1939} Improvement of Opportunities BusInEss IN THE HoME The aim of this unit is to provide, in as lifelike a situation as is pos- sible in the classroom, actual experiences in the organization and oper- ation of a home on sound business principles. Every important phase of family life is covered from a business standpoint, and an attempt is made to encourage individual thinking on personal and family ideals through their application to business transactions. The discussion and written assignments serve not only to encourage thought on common family problems, but also to assist in the development of the personal qualities of the student in his present relationships to others. The Mount Holly program for the tenth grade represents an attempt to expand the center of interest to the broader study of the community. The planned organization is the same as that for the ninth grade, except that ten periods per week are devoted to English and social studies and no mathematics course is given. The center of interest adopted for the different grades in the Mount Holly social-scientific curriculum represents an effort to expand the social understanding of the students. The work of the first year centers around the family as the basic social unit, which is most intimately related to the experience of the student. As the maturity and experience of the learner in- crease, study is centered around larger social units and prob- lems. Another distinctive feature of this program is that it is concerned, not with a small group of hopelessly maladjusted students, but with a large group of secondary school students, including all who do not show special talents in academic or commercial study. In reorganizing a subject curriculum into one of a functional nature, adjusting the program to the educationally neglected may in a general way be considered the next step to be taken after the revision of subjects. Many will object to the marked 198 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November differentiation or separation between the curriculum of differ- ent groups, claiming that it tends to establish undesirable dis- tinctions and attaches unwarranted prestige values to the col- lege preparatory program. If the approach to the adaptation of the curriculum to the educationally neglected can best be obtained through the organization of instruction around life areas or problems, then it may be argued that the approach is valid for all students. The differentiation in organization and approach may quite possibly be the result of the greater free- dom possessed by secondary schools in dealing with the pro- gram of the noncollege students. It would be unfortunate, however, to conclude, that differences exist among high school groups, which justify the assumption that two contrasting theories of education should be employed. While from a real- istic standpoint the restriction under which the individual high school operates in adapting the program for the academic group must be recognized, school people need to be alert to the possibility that many of the steps proposed for the educa- tionally neglected offer possibilities for improving the instruc- tion of all youth. DEVELOPMENT OF FLEXIBLE CORE COURSES The development of flexible core courses and a wide range of special interest and vocational elective courses represent an attempt to reorganize instruction for all students in high school. This plan is based upon the belief that the reorienta- tion of secondary education for all youth is needed, in order to provide a functional program suited to modern demands and conditions. The core program represents those areas of liv- ing or life problems in which learning is essential for balanced living on the part of the majority of individuals. In the core pro- gram, the units of instruction are so organized as to provide i = =F - = = 1939} Improvement of Opportunities 199 for a wide range of contributing activities suited to individuals of different abilities and interests. Thus a study of community recreation might include many activities — academic research, construction of a model of a community park, etc. All activi- ties would not be required of every student but each would make its contribution to the general understanding of the problem. Besides offering this core or required course, an attempt is made to set up a wide range of electives, including vocational courses which will care for the individual interests and needs of the student. The basis for grouping such courses is the stu- dent’s interests rather than his achievement in academic sub- jects or his intelligence level. This approach conceives the problem of the educationally neglected to be part of the gen- eral problem of providing a better and more functional sec- ondary educational program for all, and avoids the assumption that the traditional program is adequate or the most desirable for the academically able, which is certainly doubtful. Such an approach, at least as far as the core program is concerned, is feasible in the small high school where the number of stu- dents is not sufficient to set up differentiated groups. Appar- ently there is a growing tendency in many places to question the desirability of sharply differentiated groups in all areas of study, and this type of flexible core course offers possibilities for handling at one time in a fairly natural setting a number of students of varying abilities and interests. This approach refuses to view the education of the neglected student as an iso- lated problem. Perusal of educational literature concerning curriculum revision leads one to believe that it is one of the most commonly accepted modes of approach in use among progressive groups today. 200 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November A growing number of schools today are experimenting with this type of core program, and different plans of organization are being attempted. However, there is as yet insufficient evi- dence to warrant any definite conclusions as to whether such courses can be made sufficiently flexible to meet the needs of all types of students in one class. The evidence shows that there are remarkable possibilities for increasing the range of activities when the work is organized around the broad consideration of life problems. It is somewhat beyond the scope of the problems under consideration here to present any comprehensive sum- mary or detailed examples of the organization and content of such general core curriculum work. The educational literature today has a wealth of such material. Some of the examples cited in connection with new programs for the educationally neglected involve the same general type of organization, only for more limited groups. The provision of a core curriculum for all secondary school youth represents, however, only one part of the total school program. If the program is to meet special interests and needs adequately, there must accompany such a program a variety of special interest elective courses. The total school program of any student will require that he give part of his time to this common core work and part to special courses, the amount of time varying according to the needs and interests of the in- dividual student. The proportion of time given to the com- mon core will vary widely. However, the general tendency is to give the largest proportion of time to it during the junior high school years and gradually to increase the proportion of time spent on the special areas during the later years of senior high school. The following accounts illustrate the concern shown in cer- tain places over the organization of the common core course, 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 201 the types of special courses being organized, and techniques for expanding the range of such special courses. The examples cited are typical of what many secondary schools are doing. General Education Course in the Lowell Junior High School, Tulsa, Oklahoma The general education course, which was organized in 1938- 39 in the Lowell Junior High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is planned for all pupils. In the words of Principal T. H. Broad, the term is “used here synonymously with the term core curriculum,” in use today in many schools. The pupils of the Tulsa school are reported to be fairly homogeneous; few of them ever enter college and a large proportion fail to finish senior high school. The following excerpts, taken from ac- counts of this program, reveal in part the approach and or- ganization of this general course: Students in the seventh grade studied problems in the area of school and family relations; the eighth grade, the problems from the area of man and his environmental setting. In the ninth grade the problems dealt with the student and his community. .. . The work was carried on through the use of ‘source units,’ by teachers, with all the flexibility which teachers wanted. Only suggested activities were offered by the source units with every teacher free to use her own initiative with her different groups. The techniques of instruction included all techniques that had pre- viously been employed by teachers; utilized all available visual and auditory aids; classroom libraries, instead of class sets of books; many activities which required handwork on the part of the students; the solution of problems by students or committees as they arose within the area with skills being taught as the need for them developed out of the problem. Many times students required drills or special instruction in problems of mathematics or science or English, and asked for help. Spelling came directly from the classroom work, mathematics was made as practical as possible throughout, through the utilization of local 202 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November newspaper advertisements, budgeting, family grocery orders, clothing bills, insurance, etc. Letter writing was vitalized through correspond- ence with firms, industrial organizations, and government bureaus when students requested free materials. Reading in such a program be- came purely an individualized matter for the student. Many require- ments of subject matter areas lost their standing. In their place pupil growth and development with the emphasis placed on guidance and human values became uppermost in the mind of the teacher. . . . Many more magazines and newspapers were used than formerly, both the commercial type, and magazines and newspapers printed par- ticularly for elementary and intermediate grades. Field trips took on much greater significance and an attempt was made to tap all of the resources of the community.... It is our plan next year to go further into a homemaking course out- side the general education program for our girls, in order to give them experience in all phases of homemaking, since so many of them immedi- ately marry and become homemakers. The program is also set up so that boys may have an opportunity to visit industrial plants of all kinds, interview personnel directors of these plants, and learn such things as how to apply for a job, and what to expect when a job is accepted. Standardized tests were used as one measure of evaluation of the program at the end of the first year, although the ob- jectives of the general course could not be measured entirely in terms of achievements in the subject areas which these tests purport to measure. The general results of these tests indi- cated slightly better achievement than formerly. It was the opinion of the faculty that The result of these findings led the teachers to believe that, although they did not stress skills as such, the necessary skills were not being neg- lected. Parents in the community expressed themselves on numerous occasions as feeling that their children had the most interesting and successful year of their school life. Discipline and truancy problems greatly decreased. It appeared that students had a reason for being in school and a keen interest in what they were doing. . . . The entire fac- ulty has felt that the 1938-39 program was the most successful in which 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 203 they had ever worked. The socializing influence of the program, and the development of individuals was evident to those who worked in it. A Program of Differentiation on the Basis of Interests, in Richmond, Indiana Principal E. C. Cline, of the Oliver P. Morton Senior High School, at Richmond, Indiana, has described in a number of articles a method of differentiating the high school program based primarily on what is known as interest grouping.’® The four assumptions which have guided this program are: 1. By the time pupils reach the high school, especially the senior high school, they have three well-developed interests; interests in ideas, in people, and in things. These interests in kind are more profound and important in life than differences in amount of ability in one area. 2. Groups of like interest are much more homogeneous than groups of like ability, particularly when only one type of ability is taken into account. 3. Those pupils who belong to the so-called original high school pu- pils (those preparing to go to college) are primarily (not exclusively) interested in ideas; the so-called new population is primarily interested in people and things. 4. All pupils should be in some heterogeneous groups regularly dur- ing their school career.?° Upon the basis of these assumptions an attempt has been made to differentiate the work of this school into courses dis- tinguishing between interests in “ideas” and interests in “peo- ple and things.” For example, the English work has been divided into two courses; one course deals with the traditional materials and the other deals with everyday problems and 19 See Cline, E. C., “Differentiating Secondary Education,” School Review, 42:431-39, June 1934. Cline, E. C., “Selectivity and Standards in American Secondary Education,” School Review, 44:586-89, October 1936. 20 Cline, E. C., “Curriculum Making for Non-Academic Pupils,” School and Society, 45: 520, April 1937. 204 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November topics and stresses current reading materials. Similar reor- ganization has been developed in other fields.?* This differ- entiation, however, does not cover the entire curriculum. About 25 per cent of the curriculum is handled in heterogeneous groups. The undifferentiated fields include physical education, music, art, biology, and the greater number of social studies. An interesting development from this program has been the devising of two systems of grading; one system is based upon arbitrary standards established by such external condi- tions as vocational competence or college requirements; the other is based upon effort as related to ability. For example, typewriting done by a student preparing for stenographic work would be graded upon the basis of achieving a level of competence demanded in such work. A student learn- ing typewriting for personal use would be graded upon the basis of effort. Similarly, a student preparing for college would have his work in English judged by arbitrary standards, while other students with different needs would be graded according to their efforts. Courses for the Educationally Neglected in Battle Creek, Michigan The Battle Creek Senior High School is experimenting with an integrated course which combines English and world his- tory. Principal E. J. Welsh makes the following statement: The core course is not a course for nonacademics. We try to maintain the normal class situation as far as selection of students is concerned. How- ever, the scope of the course is a broad one and includes purposes and activities which are not of an academic nature. 21 Cline, E. C., “Differentiation in Senior High School English,” English Journal (both editions), 24:17-21, January 1935. 1939} Improvement of Opportunities 205 Under the title “Description of Courses for Non-Academics,” appears the following: . Commercial course . Industrial preparatory course . Practical arts course . Selling course . Special section English classes . General biology Other courses which are proposed in connection with the Battle Creek Senior High School Curriculum Program are: 1. General clerical course 2. Correspondence courses 3. Codrdinating industrial course 4. Course in social and personal problems 5. Remedial reading classes 6. Special section English classes for retarded students The brief descriptive account of the selling course explains a coordinated plan of school and work: The selling course comes under the George-Dean law. There are two years of work in the course. In the junior year such subjects as commercial law, business arithmetic, bookkeeping, and business English are given. The senior year is devoted to a codrdinated program of sell- ing. Two hours are devoted to the study of selling and one hour to civics and history, which all students must take to graduate. The after- noon is given to selling. A codrdinator places these students in stores where they receive practical training in selling. They are paid a small wage, which varies in different stores. The Program of Allegan, Michigan, High School Principal Arthur A. Kaechele, of the Allegan, Michigan, High School, says that emphasis is being placed upon the wide use of community resources “through the medium of trips to factories, court house, post office, bank, newspaper offices, etc., 206 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November and also through trips to near-by larger communities. Local business and professional men are invited to appear before high school classes and are willing to do so.” A core curriculum course which combines English and the social studies has been introduced in this school for the fresh- man class. While it is still in the experimental stage, this course is considered to have very definite possibilities for the develop- ment of a wide variety of activities related to the students’ in- terests. Mention is also made of the arrangement for corres- pondence courses to meet the special interest and needs of stu- dents. Correspondence Courses in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, High School Principal J. Edward Smith, of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, reports the extensive use of supervised correspondence courses in the attempt better to meet individual needs. It has been found that students who were maladjusted to the regular cur- riculum often develop renewed effort and enthusiasm when given an opportunity in work in areas of special interest and that the number of students who are able to use the knowledge thus acquired is relatively large. The work in these corre- spondence courses is done under the supervision of a regular in- structor and a definite time is allotted to the work. The 1937-38 summary lists fifty students enrolled in twenty-five different courses.” 22 It is of interest to note that while correspondence courses have received con- siderable attention for some time as a method of expanding the range of work of the small high school, in the materials received by the Committee mention is made of this method by some of the large high schools. Beaver Falls High School enrolls more than one thousand students, and offers a wide range of work in its regular program. Correspondence courses for high school students can be secured at a relatively small cost from a number of the state colleges and universities. 1939] Improvement of Opportunities VARIETY OF CONTENT IN CORE COURSES One might list numerous examples of experimental core courses that are being developed. The Neptune High School at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, reports a senior course entitled “Problems in Everyday Living,” which considers social re- lationships, home, health, clothing, financial problems, hous- ing, care of the sick, children, and leisure time. The East Grand Rapids, Michigan, High School has organized senior division groups which chiefly consider problems raised by the student. The Big Rapids, Michigan, High School is experi- menting with a freshman core course which combines English and the social studies. Such programs offered in the high schools throughout the nation represent attempts to develop activities to meet better the needs of the present-day secondary school students. DEVELOPMENT OF DIFFERENTIATED PROGRAMS AROUND VOCATIONAL AIMS In schools where the vocational program is conceived broadly, the academic work, rather than being a parallel and separate part of the program, is integrated and related to the vocational work. For example, mathematics or science will be treated as it arises naturally in the vocational areas,that is, in shop, home economics, art, farm management, or whatever the specific field. This integration is commonly attempted in vo- cational work, but the degree to which it has been developed apparently varies widely. In the social studies areas, however, the tendency is apparently to disregard the vocational group- ings and to provide for bringing together students of different interests to consider common social problems. This method of organization can serve very effectively to make functional and real to the student his learning in differ- 208 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November ent fields. It will do so in the degree to which he recognizes the relation and contribution of these fields to his major educa- tional and vocational aims. The worth of such a plan will de- pend at least in part on whether it is accompanied by adequate and realistic vocational and educational guidance and in part on the extent that it is feasible for a particular high school to undertake vocational training. The following account illus- trates this approach. Vocational Program in Toms River, New Jersey, High School The Toms River High School in its community public rela- tions program utilizes the slogan “Call on Us When You Need Workers.” This program, which is in the process of develop- ment and change, has a strong vocational orientation. Super- vising Principal Edgar M. Finck states that the school program is directed toward five general ends: training for health, family life, community living, leisure-time activities, and vocation. Of these five the vocational is considered basic for it is the one upon which the other four areas of adjustment will largely de- pend in adult life. To a very considerable extent the organization of the pro- gram is based upon a community and youth survey,”* which was conducted in 1929-30.74 This study analyzed among other things the occupations of the community, the then present oc- cupation of 954 eighth grade graduates (covering more than a sixteen-year period) the ultimate place of residence of these eighth grade graduates, and the occupational skills demanded in the various occupations. 28 See page 117. 24 Finck, Edgar M., A Survey of a Small High School, with Recommendations for Changes in Its Program of Studies. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, School of Education, New York University, 1930. 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 209 Since the findings showed that slightly more than 80 per cent of these potential high school students either remained in the local county or took up residence in areas of a very similar nature, that the greater number of the boys and girls entered a few large occupational groups, and that the largest group of girls became general homemakers, a vocational program was set up in terms of these local needs. “The Toms River Tentative Course of Study” now outlines the following possible curriculums: 1. College preparatory . Stenography . Bookkeeping . Merchandising and management . Home economics . Home nursing attendants . Agriculture . Repair and maintenance of internal combustion engines, marine and farm equipment g. Building and boat construction and maintenance 1o. Art The vocational work of Toms River High School is organ- ized into a half-day program extending over a period of three clock-hours. An attempt is made in these courses to provide a wide variety of activities and projects to care for individual needs and abilities. Mathematics is largely integrated with the work, and the work is developed in as near a lifelike setting as possible. The home economics work is centered around an apartment and a so-called home economics cottage. As wide a variety of general home activities as is feasible is attempted. The cottage building, in plan, is not a model exhibit house, but one of a type common to the community, in which the ordinary prob- 210 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November lems of maintenance arise. Some of the activities carried on in 1938-39 are described in the following statement: . . . the kitchen was repapered. The wicker set in the living room was repainted and slipcovers were made for the seats. New window cur- tains were made to replace the worn ones and lined draperies were added. The occasional chair was re-upholstered and two lamp shades were recovered. On the second floor, the bathroom was repapered, the woodwork and floor painted, and new curtains and linens added.?5 Fruit brought from the student’s homes is canned, meals are served, personal clothing and costumes for school plays are made in this department, to mention only a few of the mul- tiple projects. The vocational work for the boys is of somewhat the same scope as that of the girls. The following excerpts taken from a tentative course of study “The Repair and Maintenance of Internal Combustion Engines, Marine and Farm Equipment” illustrate the type of work undertaken: GENERAL STATEMENT Nature of the Course. As the title implies, this course is diversified in nature. In this community it would be unwise for us to graduate twenty-five boys each year as skilled auto mechanics. There are no placement possibilities for such numbers. However, by keeping this course diversified and including not only automobile, but marine and Diesel engines. Delco plants, tractors, and other sorts of farm equip- ment we multiply the number of jobs for which our graduates may apply. Selection of Pupils. Boys are not selected for these courses. We accept the dull as well as the bright. We do not deceive ourselves into believing that through some magic at our command all of these boys will emerge as expert mechanics. We sense that the most we can do is to 25 Annual Report of the Supervising Principal to the Dover Township Board of Education for the School Year 1938-39, p. 6. Toms River, N. J. 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 211 develop to the fullest possible extent those talents which each boy pos- sesses. Some will surely be topnotch mechanics. Others will just as surely progress no farther than the status of service station attendants or car washers. Prerequisites. Experience has taught us that a certain maturity is essential if a boy is to succeed in this field. Auto mechanics is not child’s play. In general, it is unwise to start boys in auto mechanics be- low the tenth grade and before they have had at least one year of shop experience. Length of Course. Experience has taught that it is impossible over- night to teach the facts, develop the skills, and build the habits which are essential to success in industry. We feel that at least three years are necessary for these ends. These courses will meet for three clock-hours each school day. Dur- ing these periods boys will receive instructions in mathematics and sci- ence related to automobiles, Diesel engines, farm and marine equipment, as well as in the technical knowledges and skills essential to the repair and maintenance of such machines. The courses in agriculture are set up in terms of the special farm activities of the community. Poultry raising receives the greatest emphasis. A greenhouse was put into operation in the fall of 1939. Small building projects, such as constructing poul- try laying houses, are carried on. The work in carpentry is codrdinated with the work of other departments and general school needs. Cabinets for use in home economics work, athletic equipment, stage sets, and ar- ticles of similar construction are made by this department. The Annual Report of 1938-39 lists fifteen general carpentry proj- ects, in addition to the individual projects arising largely from the boys’ home needs. Three different curricula have been set up in the general commercial area. An attempt has been made to differentiate the work needed by those who are preparing for strictly steno- graphic and secretarial work from the work needed by those 212 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November who will utilize such knowledge for personal and more gen- eral purposes. In the Toms River High School there is a general core of work which is constant for all students, regardless of the voca- tional curriculum they have chosen. This core work is carried on largely in heterogeneous groups. The extracurricular pro- gram intended to satisfy leisure time needs is, of course, a com- mon practice. Health education is also a part of the common core. A certain amount of work in English and American his- tory, including problems in American democracy, is required of all students. A new series of courses intended to help the student to achieve a better understanding and attitude in the areas of family and community relationships is now being de- veloped. The following titles of these courses, taken from the “Tentative Course of Study, Toms River, New Jersey, High School, September 1940,” explain the type of work undertaken: Grade 9 Grade 11 Personality development and Safety and auto driving grooming Consumer education Social behavior Grade 10 Grade 12 Housing Family relationships Art in home and clothing Getting and holding a job The list of units considered in the ninth grade course in social behavior and the topics developed under one of these units are presented here for the purpose of conveying some idea of the nature of the work planned in this series of courses which chiefly involve social relationships: Social Behavior Units I. History and development of the rules of behavior IT. Social behavior in schools da or 1939] Improvement of Opportunities III. Social behavior in the home IV. Social behavior in business V. Social behavior in the community VI. Social behavior on special occasions Social Behavior in the Community (Unit V) . On the street . In the street car or bus . In a store or shop . In a public lavatory . At the theater . At the movies . In church . At the library . In the post office . In a beauty parlor . In a restaurant . When visiting at the hospital . At the doctor’s or dentist’s office on AM ew DBD Method We believe that, here as elsewhere, the value of what we teach is to be measured by the extent to which it actually functions in the every- day lives of pupils. Hence, the classroom for this course must be a lab- oratory in which the pupil will 1. Discover for himself the true importance of correct social behavior. 2. Learn to do the proper thing by much actual practice. In the laboratory, then we must 1. Provide situations and experiences which will stimulate each pupil to a readiness to learn the rules of good behavior. 2. Provide opportunities for abundant practice of the rules as they are learned. 214 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November ADJUSTMENT OF THE HIGH SCHOOL TO ALL YOUTH Examples of four general types of organization of activities with which high schools are experimenting in the attempt bet- ter to adapt their programs to the needs of an unselected sec- ondary school population have been presented. Of course, re- sults of these programs need to be evaluated before anyone can be certain that these schools have made real progress toward a solution. It is apparent, however, that no one particular plan of organization will serve all communities. Guidance may be found in these experiences of the high schools, but any attempt to adopt at once and in foto the plan of a given high school is not likely ever to be successful. Adaptations must grow and develop out of the situation at hand, and much depends upon the attitude of teachers, administrators, and patrons in the suc- cessful introduction of innovative practices. It may be assumed that every secondary school principal and faculty is sincerely desirous of providing the very best program for all students enrolled in the school. However, the problems of adjustment are so complex, the pressure of current duties so heavy, the weight of tradition so powerful, that any program of adaptation, of necessity, must be a long-time continuous process, involving students, teachers, and patrons. No educa- tional cure-alls which can be sweepingly installed by adminis- trative fiat are to be found. Education is not a mechanical process dealing with inanimate materials, but a complex series of relationships involving variable human personalties. Since educational literature and research do not supply the final answers, what shall the individual secondary school do in its attempt better to adapt its program to the needs of all youth? It is possible to outline tentatively certain procedures which a secondary school group may utilize — procedures which will effect no startling change over night, but which are based upon 1939} Improvement of Opportunities 215 the development of a comprehensive understanding on the part of all concerned with the problems involved. Such under- standings must be the basis of any program that hopes to alter more than the externals of an education. A secondary school faculty undertaking such a program must first study the prob- lem, then draw upon the best that educational research has to offer, and, finally, as a group evolve a curriculum suited to the particular community. The steps proposed in the following paragraphs are presented not as a rigid outline but rather as suggestions which might be followed. A Philosophy of Secondary Education Practical school people are sometimes impatient with what they consider abstract and theoretical consideration of phil- osophies of education. Nevertheless, every individual teacher or administrator has certain beliefs or assumptions which de- termine his attitudes and practices in his work. While these may not be consistently or coherently formulated or dignified by the name of philosophy, they do serve as guides to action, and constitute in a practical sense a philosophy of education. The approach to the problem of adjusting the high school pro- gram to the educationally neglected, or rather to all youth, must be based upon commonly accepted beliefs and principles which serve to guide the efforts of teachers, administrators, and patrons in devising new techniques and materials. In this con- nection Caswell says: Curriculum design in operation depends upon what teachers under- stand to be the purposes of the school, the nature of education and learn- ing, and the restrictions under which they work.?¢ 26 Rugg, Harold, Editor, Yearbook III, John Dewey Society, Democracy and the Curriculum, p. 433. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1939. 216 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November It is difficult to foresee how any approach to the problem of the educationally neglected can be effective unless it is based upon the belief that secondary education is for all youth, is concerned with all the aspects of individual development which contribute toward happy living, and has a responsibility to con- tribute toward the realization of the larger welfare of society as a whole. As a first step for any faculty group, the joint consideration of the purposes of secondary education and of its responsibili- ties toward all youth and the larger social needs raised by our modern civilization provide a point of departure. Such study and consideration should involve the examina- tion, study, and discussion of what best educational opinion and research have to offer on the problems involved. The at- tention of the best minds in the profession has been given to a consideration of the purposes of American education, the func- tions of secondary education, the problems of curriculum re- vision, the relations of the changing American scene to educa- tion, and the demands of democracy upon the educational sys- tem, to mention but a few of the problems. The attempt to secure fundamental orientation to the problems of universal secondary education should proceed from such study. The following list of studies and reports of committees of national organizations is not in any sense exhaustive, but is representa- tive of material which should receive the attention of any sec- ondary school group actively studying the problem of sec- ondary education: 1. Committee on Orientation of Secondary Education, Department of Secondary School Principals of the National Education As- sociation. Issues of Secondary Education. Bulletin of the De- partment of Secondary School Principals, Vol. 20: No. 59. Janu- ary 1936. Improvement of Opportunities 217 . Functions of Secondary Education. Bulletin of the De- partment of Secondary School Principals, Vol. 21: No. 64, January 1937- . Committee on Social-Economic Goals of the National Education Association. “Social Economic Goals of America,” The Journal of the National Education Association, 27:8-20, January 1938. . Douglass, Harl R., Secondary Education for Youth in Modern America. A Report to the American Youth Commission of the American Council on Education, Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1937. . Educational Policies Commission, The Unique Function of Edu- cation in American Democracy. Washington, D.C.: National Education Association, 1937. . The Purposes of Education in American Democracy. Washington, D.C.: National Education Association, 1938. . Everett, Samuel, Editor. A Challenge to Secondary Education. (Society for Curriculum Study.) New York: D. Appleton-Cen- tury Company, 1935. . Harap, Henry, Editor. The Changing Curriculum. (Joint Com- mittee on Curriculum of the Department of Supervisors and Di- rectors of Instruction of the National Education Association and the Society for Curriculum Study.) New York: D. Appleton- Century Company, 1937. . Hopkins, L. Thomas and others. Integration: Its Meaning and Application. (Society for Curriculum Study, Committee on In- tegration.) D. Appleton-Century Company, 1937. . Luther H. Gulick. Education for American Life. (Report of the Regents’ Inquiry into the Character and Cost of Education in the State of New York.) New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Com- pany, 1938. . Rugg, Harold, Editor. Democracy and the Curriculum. Year- book III, The John Dewey Society. New York: D. Appleton- Century Company, 1939. Perhaps from studying and discussing such publications will come a definitely formulated and written outline of views and 218 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November principles. More important than any literary production are the stimulation to thought and reconsideration of views that can result from such discussion and the provision of some common platform upon which the school program can be built. Consideration of the Learning Process As a second step it is well for any group to consider anew what is known concerning the learning process of students. Burton asserts that The teacher must know the nature of learning, the processes by which it is carried on. He must know the nature of the learner and his interests, capacities, emotional controls, and other characteristics. The teacher must know intimately the vast differences existing between learn- ers on a score of items and understand the significance of these differ- ences.27 The study of the psychology of learning has not in the com- paratively brief years of its existence as a science formulated any absolutely specified, universally accepted, and exactly for- mulated principles or laws of learning, but there are experi- mentally determined facts regarding learning which are valid and widely accepted by different schools of psychology, regard- less of their particular system or points of emphasis. Before attempting to draw from such material the findings which are significant for the instruction of secondary school youth,”* the secondary school faculty must undertake to study the different points of view. 27 Burton, William H., Introduction to Education, p. 605. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1934. 28 A large number of books dealing comprehensively with educational psychol- ogy, individual differences, and pupil characteristics are available today. The number is constantly expanding. The following books are illustrative of works in the field and represent in some respects different points of view and approach: Bode, H. H., Conflicting Psychologies of Learning. New York: D. C. Heath and Company, 1929. 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 219 Bright students may learn by, or in spite of, various processes of instruction, but the large group of secondary school students are not so fortunate. Learning conceived as an active on-going, purposive process growing of necessity out of the past experi- ence of the student is something entirely different from learn- ing conceived as a process of transferring knowledge from the teacher to the student. The point of view that real learning is not a verbalized response to the teacher but a process that af- fects the adjustment and life of the learner may well be empha- sized. School faculties in many schools are engaged in this type of study as basic orientation for attacking the problems of cur- riculum development and revision. From such study may come definitely outlined principles and conditions conducive to learning which will offer guidance to teachers in the at- tempt to improve instructional procedures. The following ex- cerpts from an outline entitled “Fundamental Principles of the Curriculum Program for the Tulsa Public Schools,” reveal what many schools are attempting: PRINCIPLES AND CoNnDITIONS CONDUCIVE TO THE FACILITATION OF THE LEARNING PROcEss 1. Learning potentialities are present from birth and are directed by the reactions that the environment calls forth. Commins, W. D., Principles of Educational Psychology. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1937. Griffith, Coleman R., An Introduction to Educational Psychology. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926. Judd, Charles Hubbard, Education as Cultivation of the Higher Mental Processes. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1936. Kilpatrick, William H., Foundations of Method. New York: The Mac- millan Company, 1926. Thorndike, E. L., Human Learning. New York: The Century Company, 1931. 220 National Association of Secondary-School Principals is) 10. II. 16. 17. 18. [November The child learns more through what he does and says than through what is done and said to him. . Opportunities to explore, investigate, and experiment are necessary conditions for learning on the part of the child. . Learning is most successful when the task is adapted to the ca- pacities of the child or suited to his maturation level. . Learning is an evolutionary process, a systematic orderly mental development paralleled by the consistent orderly development of physical processes. Interest directs and focuses attention, supplies the motive power for learning. . The most spontaneous interest will be found in the task or activity normal for the child’s mental and social maturity level. . Learning meaningful material is less difficult and ultimately more successful than the learning of materials that have little or no meaning to the child. . Interest develops as the activity acquires meaning. Progress in learning is dependent upon results. Disagreeable tasks cannot be avoided and the child must learn to face these tasks because conquering disagreeable tasks is neces- sary to make better progress with the more agreeable. . Self-competition, that is, the desire to surpass one’s own record, is more effective in promoting learning than competition with others. . The desire to attend and the effort exerted in the direction of at- tending furnish the motive power of learning. . Effort is the resultant of interest or desire. . Aggressive reactions are more conducive to success in learning than a passive attitude and feeble effort on the learner’s part. Selection, that is, distinguishing between successful and unneces- sary traits, is the most important feature of practice. Learning progress is hampered by clumsy, inappropriate, in- efficient technique, just as it is facilitated by correct form. Insightful learning implies not only that the learner is capable of insight and that the problem lends itself readily to thoughtful ers ¢ Improvement of Opportunities 221 solutions, but also that the learner goes into the skill or problem far enough to see its relations to similar problems. . Learning is a process of due reduction, that is, learning proceeds by the gradual dropping out of unnecessary factors or moves in the materials or skills. . Some learnings can be explained in terms of conditioned response of association. If two stimulations occur close together in time, the response that was originally specific to the first stimulation becomes attached to the second stimulation as well, so that after a time when the first stimulation occurs alone the response form- erly attached solely to the first is constantly evoked by the second. This phenomenon has an important bearing on the acquired fears and attitudes of children. In general, learning by wholes is more effective than learning by parts, that is, when the learner from the beginning attempts the whole task as a unit instead of part of the task at a time. Principies 29 of METHOD ConpucIvE To EFFECTIVE LEARNING A. Principles of method represent an elaboration of the conception of the process of experiencing. B. Experiencing is necessary. All learning is the outcome of activities involved in the resolution of some lack, tension, stress, or strain. Without some tension, lack of adjustment or loss of balance, there is no learning. The principle of improvement signifies betterment of experiences of the individual under conditions in which he actually lives and which are consistent with accepted aims and values. . The principle of unity suggests that attention should be directed first to more inclusive aims, topics, and activities to be later refined through detailed analysis. It implies that all aspects of experience are to be provided for at all times, rather than merely some at one time and others at other times. For instance, a satisfactory pupil undertaking does not represent a summation of isolated activities which, through a unit in the experience of the teacher, are separate 29 These principles of method are taken largely from Wynne, J. P., The Teach- ers and the Curriculum. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1937. 222 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November events in the experience of the pupil. It represents a whole on its own account that is perceived by the pupils although it may be further analyzed by them into other activities as means to an end. It contains drill, problem solving, construction work, appreciation, sociality, and other features as well. . The principle of continuity suggests the importance not only of thinking of the individual in terms of his past and his prospective future, but also in terms of the social environment in which he must live. Satisfactory educational units or activities must grow out of the past experiences in the future. . The principle of selectivity. Provisions should be made for the privilege of and opportunity for the exercise of choice or selection on the part of the pupil together with the assumption of respon- sibility for the consequence involved, insofar as such choice or selection is consistent with the welfare of the individual and so- ciety. If men and women as citizens of the community are to assume a role of responsibility and self-control, they must be al- lowed such selective choice under school conditions as will develop these qualities not in isolation, but as features of the whole experi- ence. . The principle of contingency provides for the modification and ad- justment of the curriculum in accordance with the changing con- ditions in which the child lives, and the differences that are formed in pupils. That is, educational policies, programs, and activities should be flexible and capable of modification in response to changing conditions, certain features of which cannot always be perceived in advance. Study of the Youth Population After a preliminary study of the purposes and responsibility of secondary education and some common understanding of the nature of learning, attention needs to be directed next to- ward a study of the youth population. If the high school is a “common school,” that is, for all youth, then it behooves those interested in the school program to find out the facts 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 223 about youth in the community, not just the youth in high school, but all youth. Of the immense number of facts that are pertinent the following should be mentioned: . The number of youths in different age groups. . The number of youth in high schools. . Reasons for the withdrawal of youth from school. . The occupations in the community that youth enter. . The occupations that youth would like to enter. . The number of students that attend higher educational institutions and the type of higher institutions attended. . The leisure-time activities pursued. . The leisure-time activities youth would like to pursue. . The economic, racial, and cultural background of their homes. . The problems of mental and physical health which affect youth. 11. The attitudes and beliefs which they hold. 12. The distribution of general and special abilities of the group. The special information secured and the method of securing it will vary with the size and type of community.®° Certainly 80 Guidance may be secured from examination and study of the findings of the American Youth Commission of the American Council on Education in their comprehensive surveys of selected youth groups and their analysis of the national significance of these findings. Among others the following three studies have been made by the Commission: Bell, Howard M., Youth Tell Their Story. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education, 1938. Rainey, Homer P., How Fare American Youth? New York: D. Appleton- Century Company, 1937. Chambers, M. M. and Bell, Howard M., How to Make a Community Youth Survey. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education, 1939. 224 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November information should not be collected for the mere sake of in- formation but as a basis for action. The widest participation both of the school faculty and of the community members that can be secured in conducting such a youth survey is de- sirable, for there is a reality about “looking” and “seeing” which is not always experienced from reading the report of others. The actual process of making a youth survey of a com- munity may offer more guidance and motivation toward the development of a better adjusted program than merely exam- ining the statistical information. Studying the Resources of the Community The educational program of a community is not carried on by the school alone. The family, church, clubs, civic organiza- tions, libraries, and many other large and small groups make their contributions to the total educational program. The re- sources of all these agencies need to be canvassed. The part the school should play in the development of leisure-time activi- ties, in the vocational placement of its graduates in the com- munity health program, in all types of activities will vary ac- cording to the resources of these various agencies. The school is the logical agency to assume leadership of the efforts of all these groups in the prosecution of a common enterprise — the education of all youth. Formulation of a Positive Educational Program Upon the basis of a careful preliminary study certain educa- tional needs will certainly appear, needs which are not met by any other educational agency and which, according to a posi- tive philosophy of universal secondary education, the school must take the responsibility for satisfying. 1939} Improvement of Opportunities 225 The problem, then, becomes one of bringing together ma- terials and organizing instructional units in those areas of greatest need, whether it be family relationships, public health, social behavior, vocational information, or any other possible area of need which the previous examination has brought to light. From examination of the innovations of other schools may come guidance relative to methods of organization and use of materials. Whatever scheme or organization is followed there is a need, particularly in the case of the educationally neglected, to organize materials and units of instruction in as lifelike setting as possible. As a practical measure the introduction of new material will be gradual. It will be best to start with those areas of greatest need. Inevitably the issue of abandoning older and more tra- ditional materials must be faced. Reluctance on the part of both school people and public in abandoning subjects of study which time has hallowed is understandable. Yet to question traditional materials does not necessarily imply error in the past. Materials planned to meet the real needs of a previous decade may cease to meet contemporary conditions and de- mands. The essential thing is to recognize current needs, not to worship blindly the past. If it is impossible to justify such instruction on the basis of modern demands or its contribution to living, tradition is certainly not an adequate justification for expenditures of public funds. Out of such a gradual proc- ess may come a new and functional program related, not only to the needs of the educationally neglected, but to all youth.** THE SECONDARY SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE Five general steps by which a school may approach the prob- 31 For an account of a method of moving toward a new high school program, see French, Will, “Toward a New High School Curriculum,” Teachers College Record, 39:307-14, January 1938. 226 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November lem of reorganizing its program have been suggested. Such an outline is of necessity very general. Practical problems of ad- ministration and procedure will arise. It is essential that the widest community participation possible shall be secured in all of these steps for, although educators should furnish the leadership, the final determination of policy in a democracy must rest in the hands of the people. The general suggested steps of procedure summarized below are possible and feasible in any school and need not involve extensive personnel or elab- orate planning: 1. By discussion and study formulate a generally agreed upon philosophy of secondary education involving the purposes and responsibility of the secondary school as an institution. . By discussion and study focus attention upon understand- ing the learning process and the characteristics of the learner. . Examine the youth of the community to discover the sali- ent needs of these students or potential students. . Examine the total educational resources of the community and codrdinate these resources into one common enter- prise. . Develop units and fields of instruction revealed by exami- nation of youth and the community to be the salient areas of need. This bulletin has attempted to bring together from educa- tional literature and research information which might be of assistance to a secondary school faculty in achieving a secondary school program adapted more broadly to the needs of all youth. A group to whom the conventional program is maladjusted has been considered specifically. No attempt has been made to pro- pose final and complete answers to the problems of this ad- 1939] Improvement of Opportunities 227 justment of the school program to this group of youth. Uni- versal secondary education is a development new in the history of education and the world. No other nation at any time has ever proposed to offer formal education to all of its youth through the secondary school years. Research and evaluation have in the comparatively recent years of this expanding school enrollment provided inadequate evidence for any final conclu- sions. The years ahead will surely offer an ever-increasing body of sound scientific evidence as the basis for a secondary program of universal education. In the meantime, it is hoped that the materials presented in this bulletin from the evidence now available may offer some guidance to secondary school principals and teachers in their effort to study the problem. From continued research, codperative study, and experimental adaptations the promise of the secondary school as an institu- tion for the purposive education of all youth may be more fully realized. SELECTED REFERENCES ! I. REFERENCES DEALING wITH GENERAL ASPECTS AND PROBLEMS oF EpucaTion Topay Briggs, Thomas H. Secondary Education. New York: The Mac- millan Company, 1933. Briggs, Thomas H. The Great Investment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930. Committee on Orientation of Secondary Education, Department of Sec- ondary School Principals of the National Education Association, Func- tions of Secondary Education. Bulletin of the Department, No. 64, January 1937. *Committee on Orientation of Secondary Education, Department of Sec- ondary School Principals of the National Education Association, Issues of Secondary Education. Bulletin of the Department, No. 59, January 1936. Committee on the Social-Economic Goals of America, The Social-Eco- nomic Goals of America. Washington, D.C.: The National Educa- tion Association, 1933. Counts, George S. Secondary Education and Industrialism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1939. *Douglass, Harl R. Secondary Education for Youth in Modern America. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1937. *Everett, Samuel and Others. A Challenge to Secondary Education. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1935. Everett, Samuel, Editor. The Community School. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1938. French, Will. Education and Social Dividends. New York: The Mac- millan Company, 1935. 1 The above references may serve as a guide for groups or individuals in- terested in studying the problems of adjustment of instruction to all youth in the secondary school. The references selected are in no sense an exhaustive list. A small number of selected references are starred to form a suggestive list for interested groups who must depend upon a limited number of books. 228 1939] Selected References 229 Fuller, Raymond G. A Study of Youth Needs and Services in Muncie, Indiana. Washington, D. C.: The American Council on Education, 1938. Gulick, Luther H. Education for American Life. Report of the Regents’ Inquiry into the Character and Cost of Education in the State of New York. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938. Harley, D.L. Surveys of Youth: Finding the Facts. Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education, 1937. John Dewey Society, Third Yearbook, Democracy and the Curriculum. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1939. Sexson, John A. “A New Type of Secondary School,” Bulletin of the Department of Secondary School Principals, 22:1-11, February 1938. Spaulding, Francis T. “Educational Problems Causing Administrators Most Concern During the Past Two Years,” The Bulletin of the De- partment of Secondary School Principals, 23:62-68, March 1939. *Spaulding, Francis T. High School and Life. Report of the Regents’ Inquiry into the Character and Cost of Education ia the State of New York. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938. Thayer, V. T., Zachry, Caroline B., and Kotinsky, Ruth (for the Com- mission on Secondary School Curriculum, Progressive Education As- sociation.) Reorganizing Secondary Education. New York: D. Ap- pleton-Century Company, 1939. Tildsley, J. L. The Mounting Waste of the American Secondary School. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936. *National Education Association, Educational Policies Commission. Unique Function of Education in American Democracy. Washing- ton, D. C.: The National Education Association, 1937. National Education Association, Educational Policies Commission. The Purposes of Education in American Democracy. Washington, D.C.: The National Education Association, 1938. Progressive Education Association, Commission on the Secondary School Curriculum. Science in General Education. D. Appleton-Century Company, 1938. The American Association of School Administrators, 16th Yearbook. Youth Education To-day. Washington, D.C.: The National Educa- tion Association, 1938. 230 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November II. Rerersnces DEALING wiITH YOUTH PRoBLEMs AND NEEDS Andrus, E. P. “What the Girl of To-day Asks of the School,” Journal of the American Association of University Women, 25:146-48, April 1932. *Bell, Howard M. Youth Tell Their Story. Washington, D.C.: Amer- ican Council on Education, 1938. Butterfield, Ernest W. “Our White Collar Guidance,” The Clearing House, 13:515-18, May 1939. *Eckert, Ruth E. and Marshall, Thomas O. When Youth Leave School. Report of the Regents’ Inquiry into the Character and Cost of Edu- cation in the State of New York. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1939. Johnson, George. “Needs of Youth,” Catholic Educational Review, 36:3-16, January 1938. Knudsen, Charles W. “Adapting the Curriculum to the Needs and Interests of Adolescents,” Bulletin of the Department of Secondary School Principals, 22:1-7, May 1938. Lies, Eugene T. The New Leisure Challenges the Schools. Washing- ton, D.C.: National Education Association, 1938. Minehan, Thomas. Boy and Girl Tramps of America. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1934. Norton, Thomas L. Education for Work. Report of the Regents’ In- quiry into the Character and Cost of Education in the State of New York. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938. Patrick, Robert B. “Most Pressing Problems of Principals,” Part II of a Preliminary Report of the Implementation Committee. Bulletin of the Department of Secondary School Principals, 23:4-28, May 1939. Prescott, Daniel A. Emotion and the Educative Process. Washing- ton, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1938. Rainey, Homer P. “Our Youth Problems in the United States,” Cals- fornia Journal of Secondary Education, 12:333-38, October 1937. Rainey, Homer P. How Fare American Youth? D. Appleton-Century Company, 1938. Reeves, F. W., Chairman. The Advisory Committee on Education, Re- port of the Committee. Washington, D.C.: Superintendent of Documents, 1938. 1939] Selected References 231 Robertson, Jack. A Study of Youth Needs and Services in Dallas, Texas. Washington, D. C.: The American Council on Education, 1938. Spaulding, Francis T. “Educating for Vocational Competence,” Occu- pations, 14:753, May 1936. Wilson, Howard E. Education for Citizenship. Report of the Regents’ Inquiry into the Character and Cost of Education in the State of New York. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938. Winslow, C.-E. A. The School Health Program. Report of the Regents’ Inquiry into the Character and Cost of Education in the State of New York. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938. III. RererENcEs DEALING wiTH GENERAL ASPECTS OF LEARNING AND INSTRUCTION Commins, W. D. Principles of Educational Psychology. New York: The Ronald Press, 1937. *Dewey, John. Experience and Education. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938. Griffith, Coleman R. An Introduction to Educational Psychology. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, Inc., 1935. *Harap, Henry, Editor. The Changing Curriculum. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1937. Hopkins, L. Thomas. “Emerging Emphases as to Learning,” Teachers College Record, 40:119-28, November 1938. Hopkins, L. Thomas, and Others. Integration, Its Meaning and Appli- cation. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1938. Judd, Charles H. Educational Psychology. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1939. Kilpatrick, William H. Foundations of Method. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926. Kilpatrick, William H. Remaking the Curriculum. New York: New- som and Company, 1936. Laycock, Sam R. Adaptability to New Situations. Baltimore: War- wick and York, Inc., 1929. 232 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November Mursell, James L. The Psychology of Secondary School Teaching. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1939. Orata, Pedro T. “Transfer of Training and Edueational Pseudo-Sci- ence,” The Mathematics Teacher. 28:65-289, Salisbury, Rachel. “A Study of the Transfer Effects of Training in Logi- cal Organization,” Journal of Educational Research, 28:241-54, ; Thorndike, E. L. Human Learning. New York: The Century Com- pany, 1931. Wrightstone, J. W. Appraisal of Experimental High School Practice. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1936. IV. RererENcEs DEALING WITH CHARACTERISTICS OF AND THE DIFFER- ENTIATION OF INSTRUCTION FOR PupPits oF DIFFERING ABILITIES Baker, Harry J. Characteristic Differences in Bright and Dull Pupils. Bloomington, Illinois: Public School Publishing Company, 1927. Becker, E. J. “Taking Care of the Sub-Z Group,” Baltimore Bulletin of Education. 10:120-22, February 1932. Bell, Havrah, and Proctor, William Martin. “High School Population Then and Now — A Sixteen-Year Span,” School Review. 44:689-93, November 1936. Biddle, A. E. “Low I.Q.’s in the High School,” School Review, 35:134- 46, February 1927. Billett, Ray O. “Provisions for Individual Differences, Marking, and Promotion,” National Survey of Secondary Education, U. S. Depart- ment of Interior, Office of Education, Bulletin, 1932, No. 17, Mono- graph No. 13, 1933. Blair, Glenn Myers. Mentally Superior and Inferior Children of Junior and Senior High School Age. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1938. Broady, Knute O. School Provisions for Individual Differences. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia Univer- sity, 1930. 1939] Selected References 233 Brown, Andrew Wilson. The Unevenness of the Abilities of Dull and Bright Children. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers Col- lege, Columbia University, 1926. *Burt, Cyril. The Backward Child. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1937. Butterfield, E. W. “The Types of Instruction Demanded by the Pres- ent Educational and Social Crisis,” Educational Method, 14:3-9, Oc- tober 1934. Butterfield, E. W. “The New Fifty Per Cent,” High School Clearing House, 8:265-72, January 1934. Cameron, David. “A Specially Adjusted Course in Personal and Social Problems,” The School Review, 47:290-98, April 1939. Carroll, H. A. Generalizations of Bright and Dull Children. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia Univer- sity, 1930. Cline, E. C. “Consumer Education,” School Review, 47:497-500, Sep- tember 1939. Cline, E. C. “Curriculum Making for Non-Academic Pupils,” School and Society. 45:519-22, April 19, 1937. Cline, E. C. “Differentiating Secondary Education,” School Review, 42:431-39, June 1934. Cline, E. C. “Interest Grouping,” Junior Senior Clearing House, 6:161- 63, November 1931. Douglass, H.R. “Adjusting the Curriculum of the Junior High School to the Needs of the Pupil,” Department of Secondary School Principals Bulletin, 45:127-39, March 1933. Featherstone, W. B. “An Experience Curriculum for Slow Learners at Public School 500: Speyer School,” Teachers College Record, 39:287-95, June 1938. Featherstone, W. B. The Curriculum of the Special Class. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1932. Featherstone, W. B. “Social Education of the Non-Academic,” Social Education, 3:163-63, March 1939. Felman, E. E. “The Dull Child and the Junior High School Curric- ulum,” Journal of Experimental Education, 5:206-11, December 1936. 234 National Association of Secondary-School Principals [November Hollingworth, Leta S. The Psychology of Subnormal Children. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1929. *Ingram, Christine P. Education of the Slow-Learning Child. New York: World Book Company, 1935. Ingram, Christine P. “Curriculum Making for the Very Slow Child,” Educational Method, 11:513-20, 1932. Inskeep, Annie Dolman. “Adapting Modern Teaching Procedures to the Dull or Mentally Deficient Child,” California Quarterly of Sec- ondary Education, 8:357-63, June 1933. Inskeep, Annie Dolman. Teaching Dull and Retarded Children. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926. Kefauver, Grayson N., Drake, C. Elwood, Noll, Victor H. The Sec- ondary School Population. National Survey of Secondary Education, Monograph No. 4, Office of Education, Bulletin, 1932, No. 17, 1933. LeBrant, L. L. “Fallacy of Modified Courses,” Educational Research Bulletin, 15:141-43, May 1936. Wilson, F. T. “Similarity in the Learning of Dull and Bright Chil- dren,” Educational Administration and Supervision, 18:549-55, Octo- ber 1932. Pyle, W. H., and Snadden, G. H. “Experimental Study of Bright and Dull High School Pupils,” Journal of Educational Psychology. 20:262- 69, March 1937. Saucier, W. A. “Minimum Essentials for the Limited High School Pu- pil,” Education, 53:358-62, February 1933. Schorling, Raleigh. “New Hope for the Dull,” North Central Associa- tion Quarterly, 9:333-44, January 1935. Schorling, Raleigh. “The Slow Learning Pupil,” Educational Forum, 1:211-15, January 1937. Wilson, F. T. Learning of Bright and Dull Children. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1928. Wilson, F. T. “Comparison of Difficulty and Accuracy in the Learning of Bright and Dull Children in Motor Memory Task,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 21:507-11, October 1930. Wilson, F. T. “Errors, Difficulty, Resourcefulness, and Speed in the Learning of Bright and Dull Children,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 22:229-40, March 1931. 1939} Selected References 235 Wilson, F. T. “Similarity in the Learning of Dull and Bright Chil- dren,” Educational Administration and Supervision, 18:549-55, Octo- ber 1932. Woody, Clifford. “An Analysis of Differences in the Learning of Bright and Dull Children,” Educational Digest, 2:11-13, February 1937. “The English Curriculum for Low Ability Groups at Evanston Town- ship High School,” Bulletin of the Department of Secondary School Principals, 20:8-41, December 1936. *National Society for the Study of Education, Thirty-fifth Yearbook, Part I, The Grouping of Pupils. Bloomington, Illinois: The Public School Publishing Company, 1936.