The Vitalized School Part 18

9. Why is it especially important for a teacher to be thoroughly acquainted with the great characters of history?

10. Does acquaintance with the great in history tend to produce merely a good static character, or does it do more?

CHAPTER XXV

A TYPICAL VITALIZED SCHOOL

=The school an expression of the teacher.=--The vitalized school may be a school of one room or of forty rooms; it may be in the city, in the village, in the hamlet, or in the heart of the country; it may be a kindergarten, a grade school, a high school, or a college. The size or the location of the school does not determine its vital quality. This, on the contrary, is determined by the character of its work and the spirit that obtains. In general it may be said that the vitalized teacher renders the school vital. This places upon her a large measure of responsibility, but she accepts it with equanimity, and rejoices in the opportunity to test out her powers. It needs to be oft repeated that if the teacher is static, the school will be static; but if the teacher is dynamic, the school will be dynamic. The teacher can neither delegate, abrogate, abate, nor abridge her responsibility. The school is either vitalized or it is not, according to what the teacher is and does, and what the teacher does depends upon what she is. In short, the school is an expression of the teacher, and, if the school is not vitalized, the reason is not far to seek.

=A centralized school.=--For the purpose of ill.u.s.tration we may a.s.sume that the typical vitalized school is located in the country, and is what is known as a centralized school. The grounds comprise about ten acres, and the building contains, all told, not fewer than twenty rooms, large and small. This building was designed by a student of school problems, and is not merely a theory of the architect. Each room, and each detail, articulates with every other room in harmony with a general scheme of which the child and his interests are the prime considerations. The well-being of the child takes precedence over the reputation of the architect. Every nook of the building has its specific function, and this function has vital reference to the child. The location of each piece of furniture can be explained from the viewpoint of the child, and the architectural scheme is considered subsidiary. The seats conform to the child, and not the reverse. The scheme of lighting concerns itself with the child's welfare rather than with the external appearance.

=Integrity in construction and decoration.=--The decorations throughout the building are all chaste and artistic. Nothing below this standard can win admission. No picture is admitted that does not represent art.

The theory is that the school has a reflex influence upon the homes that attracts them to its standards, and experience reveals the fact that the decorations in the homes are constantly rising in artistic tone. The standards of the school become the standards of the pupils, and the pupils, in turn, modify and improve the standards of the homes. There is a degree of simplicity and dignity throughout the building that banishes from the homes the ornate and the bizarre. There is integrity in every detail of construction, and the absence of veneer gives to the pupils a definition of honesty and sincerity. There is nothing either in the building or in the work of the school that savors of the show element.

The teachers of history and mathematics cannot display the products of their teaching and, therefore, there is no display of her products by the teacher of drawing. This school believes in education but not in exhibition. Words of commendation may be dispensed in the cla.s.srooms, but there is no exhibit of any department in the halls. The teachers are too polite and too considerate to sanction any such display.

=Simplicity and sincerity.=--The library is notable for the character of the books, but not for the number. The teachers and pupils are too genuine ever to become thrasonical, and no teacher or pupil is ever heard to boast of anything pertaining to the school. They neither boast nor apologize, but leave every visitor free to make his own apprais.e.m.e.nt of their school and its belongings. The teachers are too truly cultured and the pupils are too well trained ever to exploit themselves, their school, or their work. The pictures, the statuary, the fittings, and the equipment are all of the best, and, hence, show for themselves without exploitation. To teachers and pupils it would seem a mark of ill-breeding to expatiate upon their own things. Such a thing is simply not done in this school. The auditorium is a stately, commodious, and beautiful room, and everybody connected with the school accepts it as a matter of course with no boastful comment. Anything approaching braggadocio would prove a discordant note in this school, and, in this respect, it represents the American ideal that is to be.

=Rooms are phases of life.=--The home economics room, the industrial arts room, the laboratories, the dining room, the rest rooms, and the hospital room are all supplied with suitable fittings and equipment and all represent phases of life. At luncheon each pupil is served a bowl of soup or other hot dish to supplement his own private lunch, and this food is supplied at public expense. The school authorities have the wisdom to realize that health is an a.s.set of the community and is fundamental in effective school work. The pupils serve their schoolmates in relays, wash the dishes, and restore them to their places. The boys do not think they demean themselves by such service, but enter into it in the true spirit of democracy. A teacher is present to modify and chasten the hurry and heedlessness of childhood, and there is decorum without apparent repression.

=Industrial work.=--In connection with the industrial arts department there is a repair shop where all the implements that are used in caring for the school farm, gardens, orchards, and lawns are kept in repair.

Here the auto trucks in which the pupils are brought to the school are repaired by the drivers, a.s.sisted by the boys. In this shop the boys gain the practical knowledge that enables them to keep in repair the tools and machinery, including automobiles, at their homes. The farmers who have no sons in school avail themselves of the skill and fidelity that obtain in the shop, bringing in their tools, their harness, and their automobiles for needed repairs. The money thus earned is expended for school equipment. The products of the orchards, farm, and garden are the property of the school and are all preserved for use in the home economics department for school lunches. The man in charge of the farm is employed by the year and is a member of the teaching staff. The farm, gardens, orchard, and lawn are integral parts of the school, and perform the functions of laboratories.

=School a life enterprise.=--There are all grades in the school, from the kindergarten through the high school. There is but slight disparity in the size of the cla.s.ses, for the parents instinctively set apart thirteen years of the time of their children for life in the school. To these parents school and life are synonymous, and when a child enters the kindergarten he enlists in the enterprise for a term of thirteen years. The homes as well as the school are arranged on this basis, and this plan of procedure is ingrained in the social consciousness.

Deserting the school is no more thought of than any other form of suicide. If, by any chance, a boy should desert the school, he would be a pariah in that community and could not live among the people in any degree of comfort. He would be made to feel that he had debased himself and cast aspersion upon society. The looks that the people would bestow upon him would sting more than flagellation. He would be made to feel that he had expatriated himself, and neither himself nor his parents would be in good standing in the community. They would be made to feel that their conduct was nothing short of sacrilege.

=Public sentiment.=--In view of the school sentiment that obtains in the community the eighth grade is practically as populous as the first grade. Attendance upon school work is a habit of thinking both with the children and with their parents, and school is taken for granted the same as eating and sleeping. If a boy should, for any cause, fail to graduate from the high school, every patron of the school would regard it as a personal calamity. They would feel that he had, somehow, been dropped off the train before he reached his destination, and the whole community would be inclined to wear badges of mourning. Every parent is vitally interested in each child of the community, whether he has children in school or not, and thus school taxes are paid with pride and elation. The school is regarded as a safe investment that pays large dividends. Patrons rally to the calls of the school with rare unanimity and heartiness. Differences in politics and religion evaporate in their school, for the school is the high plane upon which they meet in fraternal concord.

=The course of study.=--The course of study is flexible, and because of its resiliency it adapts itself easily and gracefully to the native dispositions and the apt.i.tudes of the various pupils. If the boy has a penchant for agriculture, provision is made for him, both in the theory and in the practical applications of the subject. If he inclines to science, the laboratories accord him a gracious welcome. The studies are adapted to the boy and not the boy to the studies. No boy need discontinue school to find on the outside something that is congenial, for, within the school, he may find work that represents life in all its phases. If he yearns for horticulture, then this study is made his major and, all in good time, he is made foreman of the group who care for the gardens. If the course of study lacks the element which he craves and for which he has a natural apt.i.tude, this branch is added to the course.

The economy of life demands the conservation of childhood and youth and the school deems it the part of wisdom as well as civic and social economy to provide special instruction for this boy, as was done in the case of Helen Keller. This school, in theory and in practice, is firm in its opposition to wasting boys and girls. Hence, ample provision is made for the child of unusual inclinations.

=Electives.=--The pupils do not elect a study because it is easy, but because their inclinations run in that direction. Indeed, there are no easy courses, no snap courses in the school. Diligent, careful, thorough work is the rule, and there can be found no semblance of approval for loafing or dawdling. The school stands for purposes that are clear in definition and for work that is intense. There are no prizes offered for excellent work, but the approbation of parents, teachers, and schoolmates, in the estimation of the pupils, far transcends any material or symbolic prizes that could be offered. In school work and in conduct the pupils all strive to win this approval. There is no coa.r.s.eness nor boorishness, for that would forfeit this approval. The cigarette is under ban, for public sentiment is against it; and, after all, public sentiment is the final arbiter of conduct. Hence, no boy will demean himself by flying in the face of public sentiment through indulging in any practice that this sentiment proclaims unclean or enervating.

=The school the focus of community life.=--This school is the focus of the community. Hither come the patrons for music, for lectures, for art, for books and magazines, for social stimulus, and, in short, for all the elements of their avocational life. Indeed, in educational matters, the community is a big wholesome family and the school is the shrine about which they a.s.semble for educational and cultural communion. It is quite a common practice for mothers to sit in the cla.s.srooms engaged in knitting or sewing while their children are busy with their lessons.

For, in their conception of life, geography and sewing are coordinate elements, and so blend in perfect harmony in the school regime. At the luncheon period these mothers go to the dining room with their children in the same spirit of cooperation that gives distinction to the school and to the community. There is an interflow of interests between the school and the homes that makes for unity of purpose and practice. There is freedom in the school but not license. People move about in a natural way but with delicate consideration for the rights and sentiments of others. The atmosphere of the school interdicts rudeness. There is a quiet dignity, serenity, and intensity, with no abatement of freedom. In this school it is not good form for a boy to be less than a gentleman or for a girl to be less than a lady.

=The teachers.=--The atmosphere in which the pupils live is, mainly, an exhalation from the spirit of the teachers. They live and work together in a delightful spirit of concord and cooperation. They are magnanimous and would refuse to be a part of any life that would decline from this high plane. In this corps there are no hysterics, no heroics, no strain, no stress. They are, first of all, successful human beings; and their expert teaching is an expression of their human qualities. Their teaching is borne along on the tones of conversation. They know that well-modulated tones of voice contribute to the culture and well-being of the school. Should a teacher ever indulge in screeching, nagging, hectoring, badgering, or sarcasm, she would find herself ostracized.

Such things are simply not done in this school. Hence, she would soon realize that this school is no place for her and would voluntarily resign. The school is simply above and beyond her kind.

=Unity of purpose.=--Among the teachers there are no jealousies, because each one is striving to exalt the others. They are so generous in their impulses, and have such exalted conceptions of life, that they incline to catalogue their colleagues among the very elect. The teacher in the high school and the teacher in the primary grade hold frequent conversations concerning each other's work, and no teacher ever loses interest in the pupils when they advance to the next grade. To such teachers, education is not parceled out in terms of years but is a continuous process, even as life itself. They use the text-book merely as a convenience, but never as a necessity. If all the text-books in the school should be destroyed overnight, the work would proceed as usual the next day, barring mere inconvenience. They respect themselves and others too highly ever to a.s.sume a patronizing air toward their pupils.

On the contrary, they treat them as coordinates and confederates in the n.o.ble and exhilarating game of life.

=The vitalized school.=--They have due regard to their personal appearance, but, once they have decided for the day, they dismiss the matter from their thinking and devote their attention to major considerations. Neither in dress, in manner, nor in conversation do they ever bring into the school a discordant note. School hours are not a detached portion of life but, rather, an integral part of life, and to them life is quite as agreeable during these hours as before and after.

Such as they cannot do otherwise than render the school vital. And when such teachers and patrons as these join in such a benevolent conspiracy, then shall we realize not only a typical school but the vitalized school.

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. Upon what does the vitalization of a school mainly depend? Upon what else does it depend in part?

2. What suggestion is made in this chapter in regard to the planning of school buildings?

3. Why should care be taken in choosing the decorations of a school?

4. Why is it unwise for teacher or pupils to boast of the achievements of the school?

5. Why has the question of school lunches gained so much prominence recently?

6. How should the industrial work in a school be linked with that in the community?

7. Why are there fewer students in the higher than in the lower grades of most schools? Make a careful a.n.a.lysis of the situation in this respect in your school.

8. Why is it a calamity to a community for a boy to fail to graduate from the high school?

9. What may be done to prevent a child going outside the school to find something congenial?

10. What should be a student's motive in choosing a course?

11. How do you make your school a center for community life? How can you make it more of a center than it is?

12. How is the spirit of jealousy among teachers injurious to our school system? What usually makes one teacher disparage the work of another?

13. What is essential in vitalizing a school?