THE MICHIGAN DAILY
lucators Meet To Discuss Changes In
Philosophy Of Teaching, Readjustment Of
School Program To Non-Academic Groups
Finds Five-Year Plan Working . uccessf ully
'
x
(Continued from Page 1)
with the statements: "Superinten-
dents replying to an inquiry recently
made by the United States commis-
sioner of education reported three or
four times as many postgraduates in
high schools as were enrolled a few
years ago.
"Minneapolis reported 505 gradu-
ate students. In the last 10 years
postgraduate registration increased
800 per cent throughout the United
States.,
"An increase of 320 per cent in one
year was reported in October, 1932,
by 207 of the largest high schools'in
Michigan. In February, 1933, even
larger numbers of postgraduates were
enrolled for the second semester than
for the first.
Reasons Are Cited
The Kalamazoo decision in 1872
that high schools are comprehended
under the term "common schools"
and therefore to be supported by tax-
ation, the greatly improved economic
status of the average family, the
gradual closing of industry and busi-
ness to children of high school age,
the enacting of compulsory school
attendance laws and the increasing
desire on the part of parents to pro-
vide educational opportunities for
their children were all said by Pro-
fessor Carrothers to have converged
on the problem at one time.
"Secondary schools were establish-
ed in every hamlet and village as
demands increased," he said, "and
this sent high school enrollment up-
ward so rapidly that it has practi-
cally doubled in each of the past four
decades.
"From 1890 to 1930 high school
enrollments increased 1241 per cent,
and the .holding power of these
schools has been even greater than
the drawing power. The number of
graduates increased 1371 per cent
during this 40-year period. Colleges,
however, enrolled a continuously de-
creasing proportion of those gradu-
ated by high schools," he continued.
,"In 1930 the Office of Education
estimated that there were in the
United States 10,231,000 living high
school .graduates. Of this number
1,694,000 had graduated from.college,
1,100,000 were still in college and
there were 7,437,000 who had not
continued their education toward
receiving a college degree," Professor
Carrothers said.
Many Problems Created
Providing facilities for college edu-
cation for millions of youths is vastly
mrore difficult and expensive than es-
tablishing high schools for children
in local communities," he said," and
this has caused unprecedented num-
bers of postgraduates to clamor for
re-entrance into already overcrowd-
ed, under-staffed local high schools
and has stirred up many perplexing
problems.
"About one - third of the high
schools of this country are so small
that by the time a pupil has reached
graduation he has taken every course
offered.
"Postgraduates returning to these
schools must, therefore, re-enter
courses which they have already had.
This creates serious problems for
teachers, pupils and administrators.
Large high schools with more than
one curriculum and a large number
of courses frequently find the prob-
lem less serious.
"Yet, -during the past three years
many of these schools have had to
drop courses, consolidate sections, in-
crease the size of classes, and in-
crease the teacher load in order to
meet needs of regular studeits.
"The newer subjcts sometimes re-
ferred to as the frills, such as public
speaking, journalism, and other spe-
cial courses in English, home eco-
nomics, industrial arts, and commer-
cial studies - the very courses most
often desired by postgraduates-have
frequently been the first to be omit-
ted. This has further complicated
the problem," he went on.
Only a short time ago an academic"
class of 40 pupils was considered
too large, Professor Carrothers said,
but now there are schools where no
class enrolls less than that number
if it can be avoided.
"In one private secondary school
visited there were class enrollments
as follows: Three public speaking
classes with 68, 76, and 78 pupils;,
two algebra classes with 76 and 82
pupils; and an English class and a
Latin class each with 68. Such crowd-
ed conditions practically prohibit the
caring for any postgraduates.
"'The Citizens Conference on the
Crisis in Education', held in Wash-
ington in January, 1933, adopted
unanimously a report which stated
that: 'The size of classes in art,
music, shop work, home economics,
and other special subjects should be
made as large as that of the average
academic class'," Professor Carrothers
quoted.
Putting this suggestion into prac-
tice will enable schools to take care
of some of the postgraduates since
nonracadeniic sections are now tra-
ditionally smaller than academic sec-
tions," he said.
"Postgraduates (college freshmen
in high school) assert themselves in
an attempt to get enough teaching
to satisfy college requirements and
thus make a demand on the time
and thought of teachers entirely out
of proportion to their numbers. Thus
they rob regular pupils of what is
rightfully theirs and stir up trouble-
some problems for the entire school,"
Professor Carrothers continued.
Solutions Are Planned
A considerable number of colleges
and universities are making definite
plans to give examinations on work
taken by postgraduates in high
schools for the satisfying ofncertain
freshmen course requirements, he
said.
"Proficiency examinations for ad-
vanced standing are offered in the
University of Illinois, the University
of Michigan states that advanced
credit is granted for studies equiva-
lent to courses offered in the Univer-
sity, and similar provisions are made
by other colleges and universities."
Junior colleges were said to have
also attempted to help meet the situ-
ation by broadening their curricular
offerings. Private groups in some
communities have attempted to or-
ganize and operate colleges in high
school buildings after school hours.
"Many of these hurriedly organized
schemes or 'depression' colleges are
using as teachers college graduates
found in the community. Some of
the 'professors' are unemployed
teachers and superintendents, ex-
engineers, unassigned preachers, lo-
cal doctors, realtors, and others who
have more time than money and who
are anxious to exchange a consider-
able amount of the former for a rea-
sonable amount of the latter," Pro-
fessor Carrothers said.
Other Suggestions Made
"Just as the high school has for
many years been thought of as the
people's college, the time has now
arrived for the reorganized junior
college to take this place," he went
on. "This new junior college should
continue to offer the first two years
of regular four-year liberal arts col-
lege work.
"This, however, should not be the
major object of the public junior
college. Many terminal courses should
be offered for those who are inter-
ested in learning how to do better
things they will have to do anyway.
"Provision ought to be made for
courses in child care, home-making,
health, cooking, sewing, art, music,
simple accounting, industrial arts of
all sorts, agriculture, horticulture,
animal husbandry, typewriting, liter-
ature for enjoyment rather than
analysis, radio, bird study, science
groups of many kinds, dramatics,
play production, news reporting, and
the like, just as far "as community
Carrothers said.
"The University of Nebraska Bull-
etin 84, June, 1931, says the Benton
Harbor high school today probably
carries on a more extended program
of correspondence work than any
other resident high school in the
United States.
"The Citizens Conference on the
Crisis in Education reports that the
University of Nebraska is trying the
experiment of supplying from the
state university extension depart-
ment, correspondence courses in
whatever subjects any student in a
study.
"This method of procedure, devel-
oped for the enrichment of limited
high school curriculums, has far
reaching possibilities for use in the
post-secondary area of education.
"Some of the limitations and diffi-
culties met with when postgraduates
re-enter high schools such as, (1)
lack of carefully organized advanced
courses, (2) close association of ma-
ture with immature students, (3) lack
of requirement of self-help on the
part of students, (4) teaching and
examining members of staff one and
the same, as is now found in all high
schools, (5) inadequate library facil-
ities, and many others might be
greatly minimized by organizing cor-
respondence extension centers," Pro-
fessor Carrothers stated.
"Such a program if carefully de-
veloped and honestly administered
ought to, (1) furnish a rather wide
variety of choice of subjects, (2) place
more individual responsibility on
postgraduate students than is ordi-
narily expected of high school pupils,
(3) make possible the handling of
larger numbers of students by one
teacher, (4) reduce the per-pupil
cost of education, (5) furnish an en-
riched post-high school curriculum
near at home, and, (6) should pro-
vide for quick curriculum changes to
meet local needs," he said.
Altogether too widespread is the
notion that a person must take a
course in a subject if, he is to know
anything about it, he continued.
"A person with a reasonably good
educational foundatin can teach
himself almost anything he desires
to know, if he only has the will to
work. Greater stress ought to be
given to this fact in the post-secon-
dary area. I know a man who in just
a few years as a part of his recrea-
tion, or play as he calls it, became
almost an authority on one phase of
Shakespeare's writings, Professor
"Education is an individual, con-
tinuous process and that person is
best educated - who knows how to
participate most actively and effi-
ciently in life's affairs as a producer
and who knows best how to live hap-
pily and harmoniously with himself,
his family and'his neighbors. Such
an education comes as one lives.
Education is life," Professor Carroth-
ers concluded.
The next speaker on the general:
topic of readjusting the school pro-
gram to non-academic groups was
Dr. Price, who chose as his topic,
"Solutions Attempted in Detroit."
Dr. Price opened his talk with a
brief statement of the financial situ-
ation and its effect on high schools,
with the resultant increase in the
teaching load because of decreased
budgets and larger responsibilities.
He then spoke of the origin of
postgraduate membership at two rep-
resentative Detroit high schools, Cass
Technical and the High School of
Commerce, and at academic high
schools, with emphasis on the grow-
the of postgraduate enrollments
throughout the City of Detroit.
His next treatment of the subject
courses that are taken by these post-
graduates that are filling the schools,
the relatonship of their selections to
teaching loads and the size of classes,
and the probable costs of the expan-
sion. He also compared free post-
graduate work with college and night
school tuitions.
Closing, he spoke of the establish-
ment of fees, the basis on which it
could be computed, and the probable
effect that this would have upon
the membership of schools now hav-
ing large postgraduate enrollments.
Concluding the session of readjust-
ing the school problem to non-aca-
demic groups, Prof. Raleigh Schor-
ling spoke on "The Problem of the
Dull Child," using as a source for his
material the report of the committee
on individual differences, of which
he served as chairman.
This committee was appointed by
the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics in 1932 and was in-
structed in investigate ability group-
ing, differentiated curricula, and re-
lated subjects, and later an existing
committee of the North Central As-
sootation of Schools and Colleges
took over the work in order to avoid
duplication.
Speaking of suggested reformations
in schools, Professor Schorling said,
"I have no sympathy with those who
advocate eliminating the 'fads' and
'frills' in the curriculum. What s a
fad for one pupil may be the salva-
tion of an adjusted pupil of a wholly
different type.
Wants 'Fad' Retained
"Moreover, the fads and frills may
turn out to be the avocational inter-
ests to save us in an immediate fu-
ture characterized by excessive 16i-
sure time," he continued. "I believe
that the American secondary school
has not placed enough emphasis on
some of the ;newer subjects, for ex-
ample, fine arts, health, the general
sop, and mathematics, but I deny
that the soluton for the slow stu-
dent lies in sweeping out mathema-
tics and ,ubstituting less organized
material," he stated.
"In the last 15 years mathematics
teachers have taken high rank as a
group that was willing to readjust'
their work to the changing needs of
children," Professor Schorling said.
Laggards in To Stay
"Whether or not laggards should
be in our schools is an academic.,
Prof. John Sundwall, director
of the division of hygiene and
public health, who spoke yes-
terday on "Some Impressions
of Modern Russia" on the Sum-
ner Session special lecture
series. A report of Professor
Sundwall's talk will be found
on Page. 1.
question," he continued. "The fact is
that they are here in classes. We
cannot get them out of school and
even if we could they would be un-
able to find positions. Witness the
fact that they are now 5,152 gradu-
ates back in .512 North Central high
school fo rtheir thirteenth year of
schooling," he said .
"In brief, we cannot even get rid
of our laggards by graduation. The
sensible thing to do is to design cur-
ricular materials that will fit their
needs," Professor Schorling said.
"The only way to do this, I think,"
he went on, "is through classroom
investigation. We must mobilize our
experience, create a variety of units
that promise contribution to the so-
lution of the problem, and we need
to test each unit by classroom trial
on the basis of a systematic record
of -pupil responses.
Guides Are Suggested
"The special psychology of the
pupil of low ability in the secondary
school has never been written, but
for a working basis there are a num-
ber of tentative guides that are sug-
gested as effective," professor Schor-
ling said. "One of these is to delay
the teaching of a task to a slow pupil
as long as feasible. Remember that
a slow student is mentally immature
and may do successfully and with
satisfaction the simpler tasks of an
earlier grade.
"Another thing to remember is
that -the slow student is usually
afraid of mathematics. Also, it
should not be assumed that the slow
pupil is a lazy pupil. Material should
be organized so that each step is
very small, it must be characterized
by activities, and visual aids should
be emphasized," Professor Schorling
continued.
"One must reaiize that drill alone
will never get a pupil anywhere, even
though it is probably a fact that
the slow pupil needs more repetition
and forgets more quickly than
others," he said.
"Dull Students Can Learn"
Supporting the next part of his
address with data that was collected
by the committee, Professor Schor-
ling stated that it pointed to the
fact that dull pupils can learn aca-
demic tasks and learn them at a
very high level of achievement. "The
dull student can learn," he said.
"Also," he continued, "the rate
of forgetting does not appear to be
so great for the slow student as has
been assumed once the mastery has
been driven to a high level."
In concluding his address, Profes-
sor Schorling referred to a table
presenting a summary of a number
of measures of pupils in Flint schools
who served as subjects in the investi-
gation.
In the conference on the general
topic of "Readjusting our Education-
al Philosophy to the New Era, Prof.
S. A. Courtis opened the meeting
with :an address following the theme,
"In Elementary Education."
"Science has completely under-
mined religion," he said, "destroying
intellectual belief in God as Father
and in an after-life. With religion
has gone a powerful sanction for the
moral codes governing both individ-
ual and social behavior."
Professor Courtis stated that early
American life was rural, agricultural,
a n d comparitively unspecialized,
whereas modern life is urban, highly
specialized, and intrdependent. "The
controlling motives in men were re-
ligious, the dangers of frontier life
put a premium on intelligence, on
individuhalistic qualities, and every
man had a chance," he said.
"However," he went on,, "during
the last 100 years changes so great
as to amount to reversals have oc-
curred. .
"To prepare children to live suc-
cessfully in the new social order three
adjustments are necessary. They are:
(1) The dominating motive of life
must become self-expression and
self-realization through contribution
to the collective struggle for human
betterment, (2) Individuals must bc
trained in the technique of co-opera-
tive methods, and, (3) The school
must build its goals, curriculum, an
teaching methods around the de-
velopment of emotions and their con
trol," Professor Courtis said.
Functions of the elementary schoo
under this reorganization were sai
by Professor Courtis to be the de
velopment of the individual in es
sential controls and characteristic
and the equipment of the studen
with those procedures essential fo
co-operative participation in botl
work and play, leaving specializet
training to the higher schools.
"The progressive emphasis upor
the 'child-centered school' and upoi
'the °education of the whole child
points the way to the essential re-
vamping of our absurdly artificial
curriculum into a program of co-
operative life activities," Professor
Courtis said, in closing.'
The next speaker on the schedule
was Dr. John Brubacher, who chose
as his topic, "Readjusting our Edu-
cational Philosophy to the New Era
in Secondary Education." Dr. Bru-
bacher opened his address by saying
the American philosophy of second-
ary education is distinguished by the
propositions that the secondary
school should be (1) open to all, (2)
co-educational, (3) cosmopolitan in
organization, (4) at public expense,
(5) with a curriculum broad enough
and (6) with methods and standards
sufficiently flexible for all abilities
and interests.
T h e s e fundamental hypotheses
have been compounded from pecu-
liar American conditions, he said.
(1) They are, the open frontier of
:he 19th century with its extension
of suffrage, leveling of social dis-
dinctions, and abundant wealth, (2)
increasing industrialization in the
Twentieth Century leading to a com-
plexity anddifferentiation in daily
life for which elementary schooling
alone became insufficient prpara-
tion, and (3) psychological investi-
gation which emphasized individual
differences and stressed the utilitar-
ian rather than disciplinary.value of
curriculum materials.
No Fundamental Change
"It is submitted that no immediate
fundamental readjustment of Amer-
ica's philosophy of secondary educa-
tion is needed at present," Professor
Brubacher said. "All the foregoing
conditioning factors still persist, with
the exception that there is no longer
free land, and will therefore, con-
tinue to demand the kind of sec-
ondary education already outlined.
"Doubtless the "new deal" indi-
cates some basic readjustments in
economic and political life. Now
fundamental, enduring and pervasive
these will be is far from clear at
present. It would be unwise, there-
fore, to propose changes in our phil-
osophy of secondary education on so
inconslusive a base."
Concluding, possibilities that one
TYPEWRITERS - PORTABLE
New Seo HanH d Rebilt,
Sn 3 Corona, Noiseless,
Unc-eSwoo, a Annrbor.
should hold in mind were named as1
follows: (1) The chance that our
abundance of natural wealth and its
industrial development in the past
hundred years have made us over-
optimistic as to ,our ability to afford
universal secondary education.
(2) Even if we could afford such a
program it may be more advisable
to divert that income for a program
of social insurance, unemployment,
old age, health, etc.
(3) If large scaie social planning
is to become dominant, educational
and vocational guidance will and
should receive great impetus.
Yoakum Last Speaker
The last speaker was, Vice-presi-
dent Clarence S. Yoakum, who spoke
on "Readjusting Our Educational
Philosophy to the New Era in Higher
Education."
Dr. Yoakum opened his address by
saying that the larger strategy in
education is important for national
and international aims, and highly
general objectives point to these poli-
tical and social purposes.
"They do not, however; make the
classroom procedure effective and
cannot determine the educational
content and technique which must be
used to utilize the best in each in-
dividual," Dr. Yoakumscontinued. "In
addition, then, to social and general
objectives there must be more im-
mediate aims to be used in measur-
ing the progress of the individual
and in selectingshis course of study."
They are: "(1) increase in men-
'al skills, (2) increase in knowledge
>f the material for thought and in
;hought, (3) increase in personal
)alance, (4) increased sensitivity to
;cholarly matters, and (5) increased
ower for success," Dr. Yoakum said.
Furthermore, since attitudes are de-
eloped by living and by reflection,
ormal education must use the sec-
nd more effectively than it has. To
se the second, consciously, requires
hat the subject matter be partially
etached from personal tradition, be
t the proper level of symbolic think-
ig and have for the student a rec-
gnizable goal," he continued.
Stenography and mathematics may
oth be fitted to these criteria pro-
'iding there is to be no essential con-
inuity in mental. growth and such
;rowth has a definite upper biologi-
'al limit, according to Dr. Yoakum.
"History and the social sciences
'ave failed to recognize that the'
.igh school and college come at a
period in mental development when
.hinking is just beginning," he con-
tinued.
"They have disregarded the pos-
sibility of fitting their .concepts to
the capacity of the students' mind.
We must start the educational pro-
cess on the basis of the variable cap-
acities of individuals. Basic notions
measuring growth toward the sta-
ture of self-education are self-con-
trol and critical ability and facility
in the tools of thinking, language,
logic, and mathematics," he con-
cluded.
I ,
Seek A
SAN DIEGO, Calif., July 25.-(P)
-The entire San Diego police tle-
partment today searched for some
I ews that might lead to the slayer
of Dalbert Aposhian, 7, whose mu-
tilated body was found in San Diego
bay.
Mothers, worried concerning the
safety of their children, organized
to demand speedy solution of the
murder. Telephone calls to city offi-
cials from representatives of one
group of 100 women asked that the
slayer and all of his kind be rounded
up immediately.
Sailors crossing the bay Monday
found the body of the boy, missinga
week from home. Dr. F. E. Toom-
ey, county surgeon, said the boy's
death was from "multiple mutilat-
ing operations." He said the body had
been in the bay about four days.
Chief of Detectives Harry Kelly as-
signed all his men to search isolated
dwellings, shacks and lots along the
water front and in other parts of the
city. Many men, listed in police rec-
ords as suspicious characters, were
brought to the police station, but
none was held.
The boy left his home last Tues-
day with a playmate. They went to a
department store and looked at toys.
Then they separated, Dalbert saying
he was going to the park to visit the
zoo. At 5:30 p. m: that day he was
seen in the neighborhood of the
cleaning establishment operated by
his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs.
George W. Aposhian. At 1:30 a. w,
Wednesday, G. K. Rose, a taxi driver,
saw the boy on a downtown street.
Corporate Earnings Of
Steel Conpany Grow
NEW YORK, July 25.-(A)-Pub-
lication of the second-quarter earn-
ings statement of the United States
Steel corporation serves to focus at-
tention upon the spectacular im-
provement of corporate earnings gen-
erally during those months over the
preceding bleak period.
While operations of this .giant in-
dustrial leader during the second
quarter again fell short of covering
interest charges, depreciation and
depletion, the improvement over the
grim days of the first, three months
was substantial.
The buoyant stepping-up of pro-
duction schedules from April through
June-with no current signs of a lag
-has enabled many companies to
swing into the second half of 1933
with some black ink behind them
instead of the discouraging red of
previous comparative periods.
6
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Bay Murder
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