harmony with actual conditions and by cultivating at all times the habit of open-mindedness. It is very important that the teacher possess this habit of adaptability if she wishes her pupils to possess it. She should be open-minded and ready to change her methods with changing conditions. But, as a matter of fact, most teachers are fatally lacking in this important element; they are the greatest slaves in the world to conventionality. They continue to do things as others have done them, and seldom stop to inquire the reason. They teach the same studies in about the same way as others before them have taught them. Few of us could give a reason for doing things as we do them; few teachers know why they teach the studies they do and in the order they teach them. They do things day after day, just as they have been accustomed to doing them, until the spirit has fled from their work, and their pupils, instead of being self-active, alert, and independent as they should be, are nothing but dependent automata. This is true not only of the teacher in charge of the room; it is also true of the average superintendent. The fact that there is practically one system of organization for the schools the country over is abundant evidence of the school man's lack of adaptability. The fact that so many cling to old-time methods and the old-time course of study, when the reason for doing so has long since ceased to exist, shows that the average school man is as much a slave to conventionality as the teacher in the room. We realize that the school man cannot always do just as he likes, because the people will not follow his leadership; but the fact that the people will not follow him in adapting his work to changing conditions shows that the schools have failed to develop in them this habit of adaptability. If versatility is such an important element in the success of men and women, the school organization and course of study should be conducive to the growth of such a habit. If the school of to-day tends to make machines out of boys and girls instead of wide-awake, open-minded, progressive men and women, it is not the school the times need, no matter how serviceable it may have been in the past. It is not enough to know that it was the school in which our fathers were educated, or the school we attended; but we must brush aside all sentiment and demand that it satisfy present needs. TOO MUCH IMITATION In theory, we all agree that the work of our schools should satisfy present needs; that there is something wrong with the schools that tend to make lawyers out of the boys of an agricultural community, or farmers out of the boys in a mining district; but, in practice, we look around to see what the other fellow is doing. We censure the boy at the board for copying; yet we do the same thing in copying from our neighbor. If he has manual training in his schools, we want manual training, too; if he has domestic science, we want the same; and few of us stop to ask whether these things will satisfy the needs of our community or not. In civic affairs it is the same way. If a neighboring town has a public playground, we want one, too; if it has a public park, we must have one, it matters not what the cost. During the past quarter of a century the kindergarten craze has swept over the country like wildfire. The feeling is now a little more sane, but at one time the people were clamoring for the kindergarten at any cost. The sentiment seemed to be that anything would do, just so it was called a kindergarten, and the sins that have been committed in the name of the kindergarten are enough to cause its founder to turn over in his grave. But, with all this excitement, very few people have caught the spirit of the Froebelian philosophy, and the average kindergarten is nothing but the old primary school with a few things added. So it is in almost every line of work: imitation is the method pursued. If we do not imitate others, we imitate ourselves, and this is equally fatal. Imitation sometimes has a place in education; but it should not become so prominent a feature of the schools as to destroy the pupil's power of initiative and individuality. It is doubtful whether it should ever be resorted to as a conscious means. The young child is a natural imitator because he has not yet acquired the power of independent action. The instinct will take care of itself and needs no encouragement. If it is not encouraged, it will do its work and tend to vanish at the proper time. The teacher should create such conditions for the child that he will gradually pass from the stage of imitation to independence of action. The work of the schools certainly should not be principally imitation, copying, and reproduction. Conditions should not be such that the children will be taught to speak like others, to write like others, and to reproduce the thoughts of others, for under such conditions it is impossible to develop independence of thought and action. If the schools are organized to produce imitators, the products of these schools will be mere machines-tools in the hands of others, offering an inviting field for the demagog who would use them for his own personal aggrandizement. TOPICS FOR REPORT AND INVESTIGATION 1. The child's instincts as a guide in his education. 2. The physical nature of the child. 3. Making the child the center of gravity in the school. 4. Uniformity and individuality in the schools. FURTHER READINGS McKeever, William A. Training the Boy. Macmillan. Nearing, Scott. The New Education. Row, Peterson & Co.Pearson, Francis B. The Vitalized School. Macmillan. Quick, R. H. Educational Reformers, pp. 290-383. D. Appleton & Co. Wilson, H. B. and G. M. ton Mifflin Co. The Motivation of School Work. Hough ONE CHAPTER XIV PROPER HABITS OF WORK NE of the greatest objections to the mechanical routine that obtains in the average school of to-day is that it renders the pupil unnatural. He assumes in the classroom a false attitude or bearing and tries to be what he is not. He has so long been dominated by false interest that it is hard for him to be himself. He wants to be like some one else, to do as some one else does, and to see things as some one else sees them. He does not read in his natural tone; he does not write in his own style; he does not discuss his lessons as though they were a part of him, and he does not see things with his own eyes, or hear them with his own ears. Having eyes, he sees not; having ears, he hears not; and having a mind, he does not understand. HABIT OF INVESTIGATION One of the results of arranging the child's work in harmony with his instincts will be that he will cease to imitate others, and be himself. His eyes will be taught to see, his ears to hear, his hands will be taught to handle real things, and his mind will be taught to solve real problems. He will no longer be required to see things through the eyes of others, or to understand them with the minds of others; but his own senses will be keen to everything around him. His senses will be cultivated by being brought into use and by being required to serve him. He will become acquainted with nature in all its various forms, and when he reads books, it will not be to learn, but to verify; it will be to compare his own |