THE VITALIZED SCHOOL

BY

FRANCIS B. PEARSON

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF OHIO

AUTHOR OF “THE EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER”
“THE HIGH SCHOOL PROBLEM”
“REVERIES OF A SCHOOLMASTER”

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1918

Copyright, 1917,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Published February, 1917.
Reprinted January, 1918.

PREFACE

The thoughtful observer must have noted in the recent past many indications of an awakened interest both in the concept of education and in school procedure on the part of school officials, teachers, and the public. Educators have been developing pedagogical principles that strike their roots deep into the philosophy of life, and now their pronouncements are invading the consciousness of people of all ranks and causing them to realize more and more that the school process is an integral part of the life process and not something detached from life.

The following pages constitute an attempt to interpret some of the school processes in terms of life processes, and to suggest ways in which these processes may be made identical.

It is hoped that teachers who may read these pages may find running through them a strand of optimism that will give them increased faith in their own powers, a larger hope for the future of the school, and an access of zeal to press valiantly forward in their efforts to excel themselves.

F. B. P.

Columbus, Ohio,
January, 1917.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

1. Teaching School
2. The Teacher
3. The Child
4. The Child of the Future
5. The Teacher-Politician
6. Sublime Chaos
7. Democracy
8. Patriotism
9. Work and Life
10. Words and their Content
11. Complete Living
12. The Time Element
13. The Artist Teacher
14. The Teacher as an Ideal
15. The Socialized Recitation
16. Agriculture
17. The School and the Community
18. Poetry and Life
19. A Sense of Humor
20. The Element of Human Interest
21. Behavior
22. Bond and Fear
23. Examinations
24. World-Building
25. A Typical Vitalized School

THE VITALIZED SCHOOL

CHAPTER I

TEACHING SCHOOL

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Life and living compared.—There is a wide difference between school-teaching and teaching school. The question “Is she a school-teacher?” means one thing; but the question “Can she teach school?” means quite another. School-teaching may be living; but teaching school is life. And any one who has a definition of life can readily find a definition for teaching school. Much of the criticism of the work of the schools emanates from sources that have a restricted concept of life. The artisan who defines life in terms of his own trade is impatient with much that the school is trying to do. He would have the scope of the school narrowed to his concept of life. If art and literature are beyond the limits of his concept, he can see no warrant for their presence in the school. The work of the schools cannot be standardized until life itself is standardized, and that is neither possible nor desirable. The glory of life is that it does not have fixity, that it is ever crescent.

Teaching defined.—Teaching school may be defined, therefore, as the process of interpreting life by the laboratory method. The teacher’s work is to open the gates of life for the pupils. But, before these gates can be opened, the teacher must know what and where they are. This view of the teacher’s work is neither fanciful nor