People Coming to Its Own 249

CHAPTER XIII. THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW EDUCATION 251

I. The Standard of Education 251

II. Standardization Was a Failure 252

III. Education as Growth 254

IV. Child Needs and Community Needs 255

V. The Final Test of Education 257

THE NEW EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION

THE OLD EDUCATION

I The Critical Spirit and the Schools

"Everybody is doing it," said a high school principal the other day. "I
look through the new books and I find it; it stands out prominently in
technical as well as in popular magazines; even the educational papers
are taking it up,--everybody seems to be whacking the schools. Yesterday
I picked up a funny sheet on which there were four raps at the schools.
One in particular that I remember ran something like this,--

"'James,' said the teacher, 'if Thomas has three red apples and William
has five yellow apples, how many apples have Thomas and William?'

"James looked despondent.

"'Don't you know?' queried the teacher, 'how much three plus five is?'

"'Oh, yes, ma'am, I know the answer, but the formula, ma'am,--it's the
formula that appals me.'

"Probably nine-tenths of the people who read that story enjoyed it
hugely," continued the schoolman, "and they enjoyed it because it struck
a responsive chord in their memories. At one time or another in their
school lives, they, too, bowed in dejection before the tyranny of
formulas."

This criticism of school formulas is not confined to popular sources.
Prominent authorities in every field which comes in contact with the
school are barbarous in their onslaughts. State and city
superintendents, principals, teachers, parents, employers,--all have
made contribution to the popular clamor. On every hand may be gleaned
evidences of an unsatisfied critical spirit.

II Some Harsh Words from the Inside

The Commissioner of Education of New York State writes of the
schools,--[1] "A child is worse off in a graded school than in an
ungraded one, if the work of a grade is not capable of some specific
valuation, and if each added grade does not provide some added power.
The first two grades run much to entertainment and amusement. The third
and fourth grades repeat the work supposed to have bee