THE MALDEN SURVEY. By Walter S. Athearn. George H. Doran Company. Price $2.50 net. This is a religious survey of conditions in the churches of a suburb of Boston. It exemplifies the modern scientific method of dealing with moral and religious problems. Instead of relying upon sentiment and hearsay, and lamenting the lack of results in various lines of religious activity, this author and this book show the pathway to improvement and a high order of success by scientifically analyzing and standardizing every particle of equipment, every activity, and all possible resources of each and every church of whatsoever denomination, and the various subsidiary and contributory organizations of the locality studied. It is surprising to note how much conservation, right direction, wise suggestion and efficient supervision can accomplish, as compared with what has been done by a hit-or-miss method, or lack of method. Every citizen of every community in the land, who has any desire to see his particular locality grow in strength and efficiency and usefulness along the higher lines of civic betterment and service, would do well to send for this book and see what has been discovered and what has been accomplished in one community, as well as what is here recommended in view of the facts and principles brought to light. A STRAIGHT DEAL, OR THE ANCIENT GRUDGE. By Owen Wister. Macmillan. Price $2.00. This is a book which every citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain should read and ponder. In eloquent words, and backed by incidents, anecdotes, testimony from high authorities, and statistics, the author appeals to persons of common sense on both sides of the Atlantic, and having the common ideals of the Caucasian race, to quit their bickerings, backbitings, misjudgments, petty quarreling, and get together in thought, sentiment and action to set the old world and the new on its way along the pathway of an intelligent and friendly civilization. If any person still feels that there is any cause for a grudge against England on the part of any true American, he will get rid of the feeling by reading, and pondering over, this book. It is a book with a mission. We have marked our copy with our own address, by way of personal indorsement, and set it afloat in our community, with directions to each reader to "pass it along, after reading." Buy a copy, dear reader, and go and do likewise. It's good missionary work. A MONTHLY MAGAZINE Published by THE PALMER COMPANY, 120 Boylston Street LONDON, B. C.: WM. DAWSON & SONS, Ltd., CANNON HOUSE, BREAMS BUILDINGS THE PROJECT METHOD OF TEACHING STEVENSON The various concepts closely related to the project are surveyed by the author with the idea of formulating an adequate definition of the term project as a basis for the further study of the project method. The significance of the project in relation to problem, motive, reasoning, drill, and the curriculum is considered in detail. SILENT READING O'BRIEN The aim of this study is to indicate practicable types of MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION O'SHEA This book deals with the way in which the individual normally responds at different periods in his development to typical life situations, and the manner in which he may utilize the materials of education to the greatest advantage. The non-technical treatment of the subject, the numerous illustrations, and the exercises which provide opportunity for original research make the book exceptionally well suited for the use of Normal Schools and Reading Circles. EDUCATION Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature VOL. XLI. of Education APRIL, 1921 Setting Up School Standards No. 8 C. E. DOUGLASS, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, BALTIMORE, MD. (LATELY AT Erie, Pa.) H EREDITY is the chief factor with which we as educators are concerned. It does not appear that responsibility for hereditary abilities has been yet placed upon the public schools. Were a kind providence disposed to standardize mental abilities of all people, the rest would be comparatively easy. We cannot standardize, we cannot regulate, but if we are gifted with a modicum of common sense or scientific spirit we can and will classify and teach youth as it is, and not as idealized-we will educate what we get and not what we are supposed to have received. A second great factor with which we are concerned is extraschoolroom life and activities. Honor and distinction await one who can bring about even the semblance of organization and standardization in this field. The pedagogical literature of the day shows how alert we are to the advantages of random explorations from out the schoolroom into "real life." We motivate or vitalize our work; we seize upon the problem or the project. We seek to introduce into organized school life the entities of an unorganized, unstandardized life without. Heredity and extra-schoolroom activities often are of greater educational significance than the procedure of the schoolroom. At any rate, no school standards can be set up regardless of these forces. This would be a needless truism were it not for a prevalent and sinful malpractice in a profession controlled largely by those who are richer in scholastic attainments than in the broader experiences of life. Those within and those without the classroom find difficulty in learning to think together, and in adjusting themselves to present conditions, not those of twenty-five or even five years since. The concept of a school as "the cloistered halls of learning" is pretty well relegated to the "low-vaulted past," while the identity of education and life becomes fixed in our thinking. As education is less confined to the traditional and formal schoolroom practice, setting up standards becomes increasingly difficult and complex. School standards are to be determined (1) by the educational aims, (2) by the demands of society as to the degree and the kind of proficiencies desired, (3) by the kind and degree of mental abilities of students. As a rule the course of study in English has much which was read into it when the acquisition of knowledge was the educational aim. Even Paracelsus aspiring "to know" and eminently successful in the attainment of his ambition, soon discovered how obsolete was such an educational aim, though he had no vision of the social aims of today. The daring boast, "I have taken all knowledge to be my province," has a lessening significance in a day when not the acquisition but the use of knowledge really counts. Precedent weighs heavily with the student of the classics as with the student of law. To this natural tendency to conservatism may be charged the retention in the courses in English of much that is at variance with present-day opinion and in accord with an obsolete philosophy of education. Formal studies in technical grammar, rhetoric, and the history of literature, as often given in the high school, are as obsolete as are the educational aims under which they originated. |