The Vitalized School


The Vitalized School

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Vitalized School, by Francis B. Pearson
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Vitalized School
Author: Francis B. Pearson

Release Date: January 23, 2006 [eBook #17588]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VITALIZED SCHOOL***
E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/)

Transcriber's note:
Italicized words are enclosed by underscores (italic).
Bold-faced words are enclosed by equal signs (=bold=).

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
I.
TEACHING SCHOOL II. THE TEACHER III. THE CHILD IV. THE CHILD OF THE FUTURE V. THE TEACHER-POLITICIAN VI. SUBLIME CHAOS VII. DEMOCRACY VIII. PATRIOTISM IX. WORK AND LIFE X. WORDS AND THEIR CONTENT XI. COMPLETE LIVING XII. THE TIME ELEMENT XIII. THE ARTIST TEACHER XIV. THE TEACHER AS AN IDEAL XV. THE SOCIALIZED RECITATION XVI. AGRICULTURE XVII. THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY XVIII. POETRY AND LIFE XIX. A SENSE OF HUMOR XX. THE ELEMENT OF HUMAN INTEREST XXI. BEHAVIOR XXII. BOND AND FEAR XXIII. EXAMINATIONS XXIV. WORLD-BUILDING XXV. A TYPICAL VITALIZED SCHOOL

THE VITALIZED SCHOOL
CHAPTER I
TEACHING SCHOOL
=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 fantastic; quite the contrary. Life is the common heritage of people young and old, and the school should be so organized and administered as to teach people how to use this heritage to the best advantage both for themselves and for others. If a child should be absent from school altogether, or if he should be incarcerated in prison from his sixth to his eighteenth year, he would still have life. But, if he is in school during those twelve years, he is supposed to have life that is of better quality and more abundant. Life is not measured by years, but by its own intensity and scope. It has often been said that some people have more life in threescore and ten years than Methuselah had in his more than nine hundred years.
=Life measured by intensity.=--This statement is not demonstrable, of course, but it serves to make evident the fact