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Horizons, v. 5, issue 3, whole no. 19, June 1944
Page 10
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once learned are not quickly forgotten, within the ability of a boy or girl between the ages of 6 or 7 to 11 or 12, and quite possibly the basic functions by which he will or she will earn a living in the years to come. During these five years of schooling, at least two-thirds of the "academic" hours of instruction would be devoted to teaching the child to read and write--with pen and typewriter--rapidly and comprehendingly, with great emphasis on ability to distinguish between the essential points and the elaborations in a piece of fact or fiction. Knowledge was left would be taken up with teaching the four fundamental operations of arithmetic --including perhaps the rudiments of fractions, but certainly nothing further--and the barest of outlines of the fundamentals of such things as history and geography. During the next five years, the pendulum would swing in precisely the opposite direction. Training in vocational fields would be limited to a single course, if the student had already made up his mind to enter a certain line of work for which he felt himself suited and in which classroom instruction might be feasible. An intensive course in literature, history, geography, mathematics, and one or two other elective courses would cover in five years what is usually spread over the student's last nine years of schooling, from the fourth grade in primary school until graduation from high school. Length of the school day could be stepped up to five or six hours--certainly no more--and the current farce of "extra-curricular" activities that are every bit as obligatory and supervised as the regular course of study would be replaced by a really voluntary club and athletic program. Instruction of religion is a point into which I'd better not go. I feel that this nation isn't going to become atheistic or pagan or agnostic for the next century, and that a knowledge of the nature and influence of the world's most important beliefs is desirable. Tolerance for parochial schools, as long as their students received an education equivalent to the public school student's would certainly be desirable. Similarly, private schools for the benefit of the gifted children who obviously are capable of using their minds before they reach their teens, with special courses of a study, would most certainly be desirable. All of which leaves a child with only ten years of education in which he learns as much as he does today in twelve years, and is able to go out into the world and become his own boss around the age of 16, which is just the time when most of us become capable of coping with the problems of adult life, and feel an almost irresistible urge to lat the last couple of years of high school go. This completion of basic education at an earlier age seems to me to be absolutely essential or the postwar world, and merely recognizing facts about the physical development of a body that we try to ignore today. Naturally, education of the young man or woman mustn't stop there, if that person has the ability and will to go farther. Government-financed and operated colleges are the answer: the shorter course of early study would partially pay for their operation, and students might be given useful occupations in their off-hours to ease the financial burden. Students there would be supported by the country during their student, when family finances couldn't provide the funds, and along with the free college program would be a greatly intensified night school program for the benefit of those who just have to get out and earn their living at the earliest possible age. I find, incidentally, that of all people, The Earl of Selborne agrees with my views to some extent, though very possibly he is unaware of this interesting fact. Except that he persists in envisioning the vocational training after, instead of before, the age of 11, we hit things pretty closely, according to a recent address of this in The Home of Lords on educational reconstruction. At least, I hope that I've made myself clearer than our great vice-president's statement about "...education for tolerance will be just as important as the production of television."
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once learned are not quickly forgotten, within the ability of a boy or girl between the ages of 6 or 7 to 11 or 12, and quite possibly the basic functions by which he will or she will earn a living in the years to come. During these five years of schooling, at least two-thirds of the "academic" hours of instruction would be devoted to teaching the child to read and write--with pen and typewriter--rapidly and comprehendingly, with great emphasis on ability to distinguish between the essential points and the elaborations in a piece of fact or fiction. Knowledge was left would be taken up with teaching the four fundamental operations of arithmetic --including perhaps the rudiments of fractions, but certainly nothing further--and the barest of outlines of the fundamentals of such things as history and geography. During the next five years, the pendulum would swing in precisely the opposite direction. Training in vocational fields would be limited to a single course, if the student had already made up his mind to enter a certain line of work for which he felt himself suited and in which classroom instruction might be feasible. An intensive course in literature, history, geography, mathematics, and one or two other elective courses would cover in five years what is usually spread over the student's last nine years of schooling, from the fourth grade in primary school until graduation from high school. Length of the school day could be stepped up to five or six hours--certainly no more--and the current farce of "extra-curricular" activities that are every bit as obligatory and supervised as the regular course of study would be replaced by a really voluntary club and athletic program. Instruction of religion is a point into which I'd better not go. I feel that this nation isn't going to become atheistic or pagan or agnostic for the next century, and that a knowledge of the nature and influence of the world's most important beliefs is desirable. Tolerance for parochial schools, as long as their students received an education equivalent to the public school student's would certainly be desirable. Similarly, private schools for the benefit of the gifted children who obviously are capable of using their minds before they reach their teens, with special courses of a study, would most certainly be desirable. All of which leaves a child with only ten years of education in which he learns as much as he does today in twelve years, and is able to go out into the world and become his own boss around the age of 16, which is just the time when most of us become capable of coping with the problems of adult life, and feel an almost irresistible urge to lat the last couple of years of high school go. This completion of basic education at an earlier age seems to me to be absolutely essential or the postwar world, and merely recognizing facts about the physical development of a body that we try to ignore today. Naturally, education of the young man or woman mustn't stop there, if that person has the ability and will to go farther. Government-financed and operated colleges are the answer: the shorter course of early study would partially pay for their operation, and students might be given useful occupations in their off-hours to ease the financial burden. Students there would be supported by the country during their student, when family finances couldn't provide the funds, and along with the free college program would be a greatly intensified night school program for the benefit of those who just have to get out and earn their living at the earliest possible age. I find, incidentally, that of all people, The Earl of Selborne agrees with my views to some extent, though very possibly he is unaware of this interesting fact. Except that he persists in envisioning the vocational training after, instead of before, the age of 11, we hit things pretty closely, according to a recent address of this in The Home of Lords on educational reconstruction. At least, I hope that I've made myself clearer than our great vice-president's statement about "...education for tolerance will be just as important as the production of television."
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