Page 50 - 1916 February - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 129

3. T o develop a strong community spirit. C h i l d r e n of a l l ages
are found i n one b u i l d i n g ; they are associated with each other in
the playgrounds, the gymnasium and the auditorium. The school
is one big f a m i l y . C h i l d r e n whom I have never had i n my classes
come to tell me what birds they have seen, or b r i n g a plant which is
new to them. I n many classes questions of vital interest to the com-
munity are taken up, such as m i l k inspection, water inspection, test-
ing the candy sold to children, and also various phases of the c i t y
government. Their school l i f e is correlated w i t h church l i f e by
allowing those children, who wish to do so, to spend an hour
(usually the play hour) at their own church, where a religious in-
structor takes them in charge. A t the end of the hour they return
to their usual classes. I t seems to me that this is a move i n the
right direction. Attending Sunday school once a week, especially
when the teacher does not know how to teach, does not tend to make
religion a matter of great interest to children. The public school
teacher can do nothing i n this matter, except through the Sunday
school. T h e religious instructors are w e l l fitted to teach their sub-
jects, and transmit some of their interest to the children. Wherever
possible they correlate their work with regular school work. The
geography of Asia was a live study to a certain class, because the
religious instructor had aroused interest in Palestine and neighboring
countries. The object of introducing religion into the child's cur-
riculum is to develop an interest i n i t , and is not an effort to establish
parochial schools, as has been u n j u s t l y asserted.

4. T o prepare the c h i l d f o r living in the fullest sense of the
word. Special work is not intended to make specialists, but to open
up fields of interest which have f o r m e r l y been closed to children,
so f a r as the school is concerned. T h e special work opens up new
fields of activity to the g r o w i n g boy who is t r y i n g to find what k i n d
of work he likes to do best. H e may try several branches of shop
work before he finds the one he intends to f o l l o w up, but his train-
ing i n the other branches does not mean he has wasted his time.
H e may use that knowledge i n a small way, and again, he has f o u n d
out that his talents do not lie in that direction. I t often takes the
ordinary boy several years to find out what he wants to d o ; the
Gary boy is finding out while he is i n school, and is preparing f o r i t .

A popular argument against devoting so much time to special
work is that the regular work suffers thereby. This criticism is met
by having the special teacher correlate her work, as f a r as possible,
w i t h reading, writing, and spelling. I n my own work (nature study)
which is given a recognized position in the Gary curriculum, I have
frequent spelling lessons on the words which naturally come up i n