. Report of Committee on school inquiry, Board of estimate an apportionment, city of New York .. . the curriculum and syllabi there is remarkably little refer-ence to any need of adapting subject matter to pupils; and there is almostno reference to the importance of teaching children how to study alone,or to the best ways of doing it. Take next the teachers. In nearly every subject—at least in litera-ture, history, geography, nature study, elementary science, composition,and arithmetic—the syllabus attempts to tell how any topic in that fieldshould be taught. Instead of urging
. Report of Committee on school inquiry, Board of estimate an apportionment, city of New York .. . the curriculum and syllabi there is remarkably little refer-ence to any need of adapting subject matter to pupils; and there is almostno reference to the importance of teaching children how to study alone,or to the best ways of doing it. Take next the teachers. In nearly every subject—at least in litera-ture, history, geography, nature study, elementary science, composition,and arithmetic—the syllabus attempts to tell how any topic in that fieldshould be taught. Instead of urging each teacher to adapt her methodto individual conditions—including her own—there is a direct attemptto reduce the method in each study to a formula. Of course, such formulae cannot cover all cases and meet all are accordingly supplemented by suggestions. For instance, inhistory, throughout the sixth and seventh years, No notes should bedictated by the teacher, nor should home study be required of , in Grade 8A, in history an earnest study of the text-book is rec-. u V ~ b 5 -5- ^ p H— 6 < ^ a o d o THE COURSE OF STUDY 319 ommended. Likewise, in beginning- reading in Grade lA, the use ofdiacritical marks as a help to reading is optional. Many of these suggestions are much needed, and probably the for-mulae are often helpful; but it is their source that is here of special im-portance. Ordinarily classroom procedure is determined in a broad wayby the working aims of instruction; and, in a more detailed way, by theprinciples of method, as drawn from psychology. But there is no at-tempt here to connect the details of classroom method with either theaims or the principles of instruction by basing these formulae and sugges-tions on the two. There is usually no reference to aims and principles intne syllabi. The result is that these formulas and suggestions find theirbasis in the authority of the Board of Superintendents, who issue this reas
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