THE HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM. By PROFESSOR ROBERT J. ALEY, [Paper read before the High School Section of the Indiana Teachers' Association.] "N° system of public education is worthy | other. In some high schools such distinc of the name unless it creates a great educational ladder, with one end in the gutter and the other in the University." Today there is a general agreement with this remarkable declaration of Huxley. The common schools should give to all the people a common education. In these schools no difference is made between rich and poor, nor between the boy who is to climb the ladder to the top and the one who is to stop after passing but a few rounds. The boy who is compelled to leave school at the end of the fifth year receives up to that time the same training that is given to the boy who is to stay in school until he wins the highest degree of the greatest university in the land. No one denies that in every grade, each individual pupil should be trained to-day with these two thoughts ever present; he may be in school ten years hence, he may never be in school after to-day. Whatever his future is to be, to-day he is entitled to the best. What that best is may be difficult to determine. The best minds are searching for it, and experience has already revealed much of it. The more fully we realize the difficulties of the question, the more certainly shall we finally be led to an adequate solution. The problem will become easier when the teacher fully realizes that the work of the hour is not so much with the young genius who may develop into a Newton or a Darwin, as it is with the non-genius who will to-morrow be completely lost in the great stream of humanity. The boy of ability needs help, but the boy without ability needs more help. The common school is a failure unless it gives to the state young men and women who are in some measure prepared for life. Its eight years of work must be a preparation for life, but it must also point toward the high school where the preparation will be continued. Until very recently it has been generally believed that the high school education should not be common. It has been argued that the boy preparing for college should have one kind of training, the boy preparing for the technical school another, and the boy finishing his school education still an tions are still made, and in many others the traces of what has been are distinct enough to indicate that the plan has not been abandoned long. doned long. Such distinctions have been in most cases wasteful. Small high schools, because of lack of teachers and suitable apparatus, have been unable to adequately accomplish so many purposes. Very frequently in the larger schools, the emphasis has been placed upon the course preparatory to college, while the other courses have been scrappy and easy. Even in the schools where the courses have been equal in point of thoroughness, amount of work required, and in skill and culture of the teachers employed, the results have been unsatisfactory. Many times the boy who enters the high school with the full intention of making it his finishing school, leaves it with an impulse that compels him to go to college. He enters college sadly handicapped because he has not taken the course preparatory to college. A variety of courses implies the necessity of a selection at the time of entering the high school. Perhaps fourteen is too young an age for such a selection. many cases the parents may not be able to make a wise choice. When a course has been selected, the student must fit himself to it, and in doing this he may sacrifice a large part of his individuality. The fixed course prevents the full development of many, because it fails to make provision for individual bent. In What should the high school curriculum be? This question has received more study during the past three years than any other question before the educational public. sociations, state, interstate, and national have given it their best thought. Eminent college presidents, leading superintendents, and prominent high school men have written volumes upon it. The question, however, is still an open one. The high schools are losing much of their conservatism. They are taking on the new with remarkable rapidity. History, English, Biology, Physical Science and Art are already the recognized instruments of splendid culture in many of them. As has been so well pointed out by President Eliot in a recent address, the tendency of secondary education is toward a broader freedom. Everything points toward a more generous recognition of the life and thought of the day. Such a tendency is healthful, and deserves encouragement. The history of education shows that reforms have come from above downward. The universities have always had great influence on the schools below them. The high school course, even the high school itself is in large measure the work of the universities. Lack of uniformity among the colleges, and in many cases antiquated admission requirements have tended to greatly lessen this influence. The power has slipped away, and never again will the universities have even a deciding voice in the formation of the high school curriculum. A large and rapidly increasing number of high school men are the peers of the college men in ability, scholarship and special training for their work. In the period of re-adjustment which we have now entered these men will be controlling factors. They may take advice from the university, but they will not submit to dictation. They will settle the vital questions affecting the high school. The recently published thoughts of the high school leaders show that the high school course of the future will fit for life in the highest and best sense. The graduate of such a course will also be fitted for college, at least the colleges will be compelled to admit him. Entrance requirements everywhere are becoming more and more flexible, and in the next ten years will become still more so. In fact, to-day the real life and vitality of an institution is judged by the number and variety of subjects that may be offered for admission. The purely preparatory schools are dying, as they should, and the public high schools are taking their places. The college of the near future that does not accept the high school product, will be in sad need of students. The present tendency indicates that the high school will minister more and more to the great majority for whom it is the finishing school. Its work must be to do for this great class the best thing possible. We are forced to believe that when the best is done for the majority, the minority, too, will be best fitted for the wider fields of knowledge to be found in college. To state it differently, the course that ideally fits for life, must also ideally fit for college, for college is but to fit men better for life; that is, to broaden and deepen the preparation already made. What must determine the course that is to prepare for life? It must be a course that will expand the individual, make him accurate in observation, expert in organization and powerful in determination. The course that will do all this can not be determined from theoretical conditions alone. It must take into consideration local conditions, enviroment, the peculiar strength of teachers, and above all the individuality of the student. The demand of the time is for men who can see broadly and yet accurately, who can organize a great business, and then have will enough to make it succeed. Whether you go into the railroad office, the department store, the manufactory, the newspaper office, the mine, the college, or on the ranch, you find success coupled with the possession of these powers. That young man is prepared for life who, in a great measure, meets these demands. This leads us to make a distinction between the so-called practical and the likewise so-called theoretical in education. By practical is usually meant that product of education which can be turned directly into money. A speaking knowledge of German is practical to the man who is going into business in a German community. Book-keeping is practical to the boy who is to be an accountant. Many parents think that their sons are doing a wise thing if much of their high school course is devoted to these practical subjects. Sometimes the high school, itself, so far loses sight of its real mission as to encourage such work. The so-called practical does not lead to expansion but to contraction. It fits the boy for a sphere above which he can scarcely rise. Many men who are to-day wearing out their lives over accounts, might be partners in the firm if their early training had been broadening and developing. The future of that which promises immediate gain is seldom great. In five years one can grow a magnificent grove of Columbia poplars, and in another five years a scraggy piece of dead and dying trees is all that remains. The so-called practical is not practical. theoretical that gives the power to meet the demands of the hour is the most practical. The boy who in his training has been constantly expanding, observing, generalizing, The 16 deciding, is fitted for life. Such a training makes him willing to start at the bottom. It gives him the power not only to see opportunities, but to seize them. there must be a rapid expansion of the stu dent. As soon as he gets into the spirit of If we agree that the high school ought to do the things above stated, then the following principles will guide us in the construction of the course of study: (a) No subject should be studied for less than one year, and most subjects should be studied for three or four years. (b) The course should include the great trunk lines of human thought. (e) It should be so constructed as to constantly emphasize the dignity of work. (d) There should be ample room in the course for the free play of the individuality of the When we take into consideration these rior inherent merit, but because they have principles we decide that the course of every student should include English, a foreign language, mathematics, history and science. That these subjects should form the common much of the Latin and Greek. If it is ques justified by psychological considerations as poorly prepared teacher, or Latin under a ground of all high school courses can be tion of my boy studying German under a well as by the very purpose of the high well prepared one, he will surely study Latin. school. Let us consider them somewhat in Under the reverse conditions he will study student. detail. The recent educational movement in favor of English has thoroughly intrenched it in our schools from the primary grade to the senior year of the high school. It is a splendid instrument of discipline, and it is the avenue that leads to many other fields culture. It expands the student by bring ing to him the best the race has produced. It strengthens the will, by bringing the student face to face with the highest examples of heroic action. It places about him a safeguard, in the friendship of the purest and best men and women of all the ages. English, then, demands and must have a large place in our course. Perhaps many doubt the propriety of introducing a foreign language. The foreign language introduced should be rich in the literature of the past and in contributions to English, or it should be rich in its contributions to the science and literature of the present. Greek and Latin satisfy the first requirement, French and German the second. It would seem, then, that from these four Languages the foreign language for the high hool course should be selected. But why have a foreign language in the course? Lan study brings the student new gramical forms, idioms and inflexions, a great ity. To comprehend this diversity been taught by far the best trained teache When French and German command a bet ter trained teaching force they will replace German. When we consider the end to attained, it is not so much a question be what language as it is a question of the real inspiring study of a language. Of course, German is better than Choctaw, and Latin than Chinese. The language should furnish discipline and at the same time contain material of real worth. Languages without literature are thus excluded. Mathematics by its nature is well fitted as an instrument to help realize the purpose of the school. It requires accuracy, logical reasoning, broad generalization and a high degree of concentration. Whatever the boy is to be he has need of all these. Algebra and geometry are not beyond the powers of any normally constituted high school pupil. They will cause expansion, but they also constantly demand that care of details which is a requisite in all the affairs of life. A dis tinguished lawyer of our state reads his Euclid once a year in order to be better able to grasp the details of his business. Near the close of his life a great English scientist said that he had always keenly felt the lack of elementary mathematical training. The mere facts of mathematics will soon be forgotten, but the unique power attained by the study is a permanent possession. The study of mathematics makes one cautious in the acceptance of theories. No doctrine appeals to the mathematically trained mind. unless it rests logically upon a foundation of fact. History brings the student into close contact with mankind. It acquaints him with the sources of weakness and strength, not only of nations but of individuals. It takes him outside himself and gives him that broad charitable view which fits him for good citizenship. The tracing of cause and effect gives an exercise in logical reasoning akin. to that found in mathematics. It is even better than that of mathematics for the reasoning concerns human affairs. We live in a scientific age. Every success of the day is achieved by the aid of science. To be prepared for life, the young man must have some of the scientific spirit of the age. He needs the power that comes from observing the minutest detail, as well as the power that comes from the widest generalizations. To meet these needs laboratory science is preeminent. Here, again, it is not a question of what science. The old custom of a brief course in each of the sciences has been replaced by the longer study of one or two sciences. If two sciences are studied, there is a distinct advantage in selecting one from the physical group and the other from the biological group. This brings the student into scientific contact with both the animate and inanimate world. A course in science should continue at least a year. The tendency is to have it continue throughout the full four years of the course. Science teaching is costly. It requires much apparatus and it implies small classes. The teaching must be largely individual. It furnishes, then, the best opportunity for intimate acquaintance with the student. Science, the youngest of the high school studies, is certainly entitled to full recognition in every curriculum. If the preparation for life is to come. through the subjects discussed, the course should provide for at least three years of English, three years of language, three years of mathematics, one year of science, and one year of history. It has been the purpose of the paper to show that every highschool student should study this much in common. This leaves in a four years' course five years of work unprovided for. These five years should be filled with elective work. The character of this elective work must be determined by the school itself, and will depend upon its wealth, and the number and ability of its teachers. Large and wealthy schools will offer three or four-year courses in two or three foreign languages, one to four-year courses in each of two or more sciences, a four-years' course in mathematics, a three to four-years' course in history, a four-years' course in English, and courses in economics, social science, art, and music. In smaller schools there will be fewer elective subjects. Science, for lack of means, will in many cases be limited to a single year, so that no election in it will be possible. English, language, mathematics, and history do not require much apparatus, nor very extensive libraries. Therefore, in these subjects the smaller schools can offer considerable elective work. The school that has a well-trained enthusiastic teacher of language will do its pupils a lasting service by giving them the opportunity of long continued contact with him. In smaller schools the range of electives should always take into account the teaching force. Local conditions may frequently help to determine the non-elective as well as the elective part of the course. The nationality of the patrons may make a modern language preferable to an ancient one. In a city devoted largely to certain kinds of manufactories, physics or chemistry may be preferable to a biological science. It is the duty of every school to offer as much elective work as it can possibly do well. This multiplies the chances of each pupil finding his bent. It is in the high school period that permanent tastes are formed, and that character is fixed. The boy who leaves the high school enraptured with some field of human thought is safe. The failures of life are made up of those who have never found themselves. The earlier the pupil finds a field of thought to which he readily responds the better. Intense interest in any subject soon awakens a deep interest in other subjects. That high school is best that turns out the largest number of young men and women who have an abiding interest in something. The course here outlined is based upon the thought that the high school should prepare young people for life. Will such a course prepare for college? The common part of the course is required for admission to all colleges. Most colleges specify more than this eleven years' work. The boy who has chosen a particular college can, in most instances, so use his five years of election as If there is any danger threatening the very a man were possible. The schools should to prepare for his entrance examinations. perhaps, the strongest argument in its favor. Getting his preparation in this way is a vast improvement over the old plan that compelled all his fellows, regardless of taste or destination, to pursue the same studies with him. Four years study along the lines indicated does not prepare for college work. That the four years work should all be in lines designated by the college, has nothing sential individuality begins to assert itself. back of it but age and the whim of the college. What the college needs is students who have had such a course of training as will fit them to work to the best advantage. The plan outlined will do away with the uniformity of high school courses. This is, It should be its mission to turn him out a distinct individual. It is to individuals problems, and it is by individuals that these that the nineteenth century must pass her problems must be solved. INDIANA UNIVERSITY. OXFORD, as one of the earliest and most renowned seats of learning in Europe, has played an important part in the history of education. The teacher who is interested in that theme and in the development of educational systems will always find in Oxford and its colleges a subject worthy of his at tention. The oldest educational institution in Indiana has not yet had four decades of continuous life, but here one stands in the presence of an institution where a thousand years of continuous teaching have been in progress. No one can say when public teaching first began at Oxford. It was probably before Alfred's time. It is true that no organization of a university, or of a college, had taken shape until long after Alfred. The earliest teaching here was probably merely that of a grammar school connected with a priory. It was not until the twelfth century, nearly a century after the Norman Conquest, that Oxford passed from the position of a secondary school to that of a university. It has been well said that a school is a university if it does the work of a university; that is, if it provides for the teaching of men by specialists as professors. A university organization is not essential. In this sense Oxford became a university very early, for it very early became the residence of distinguished professors and lecturers; England and the continent to receive inand here students came from all parts of struction from great leaders of learning. In higher education the English universities stand distinctly for the collegiate system. Unless one understands that system, he cannot understand the educational life and influence for which Oxford stands. It is often said that the colleges of Oxford are monastic in their origin and constitution. The truth is, they had their origin in the purpose of displacing the monastic foundations, of finding a substitute for the monasThe organizations, or institutions, for edutery, or the purely ecclesiastical school. prepare for holy orders was the chief end of cation were indeed chiefly monastic, and to the higher study; but when Walter de Merton founded the first college of Oxford in 1264-a foundation which became a model ligious person," that is, no monk or friar, for all the rest-he stipulated that no "reshould become a member of his college. He proposed an organization for a body of students in order that those who had been in private "inns," or "hostels," or "halls,” might come together into common lodgings, under common rules and regulations, in choice, and for mutual help and encourageobedience to a common warden of their own tinctively for purposes of study, not for ment in study. But Merton's college was dispur |