One history class had been making a comparison of Athenian with Gary
education. This is another illustration of that constant effort to make
the pupils realize the meaning of what they are doing and what is around
them. The effort of the Gary education is to make the child acquainted
with the purposes of his school. He is not taught as an inferior who
must take without question wisdom from immensely superior teachers, but
as an equal and democratic citizen of his school community, learning
wherever and whenever he can. The ancient history class had for its
motto: “To improve its members as American citizens by a study of the
experiences of the ancient peoples.” It would be difficult to imagine a
more admirable reason for historical study than this phrase, the natural
expression of the Gary child who wrote the constitution for the class
organization. Such “social introspection” is as rare an intellectual
quality as it is valuable.
The history classes in the lower grades use sand-tables to reproduce the
topography of the localities which are being studied, or to describe the
progress of some battle or invasion. One of the pupils in 1912
constructed with his own hands in the wood-working shops a miniature
Roman temple about five feet in length, the plans of which he had worked
out from the descriptions in the histories. These classes often engage
in debates, and the written reports which are sufficiently interesting
are read in “auditorium,” and often printed in the local newspapers.
Bulletin boards are placed in the hall for displaying important
clippings. The pupils bring these, and classify them under the
headings,—foreign news, American news, state, city, and county news,
pictures and cartoons, and items on the special topics that are being
studied. The history classes have charge of a small historical museum in
the corridors, which contains a loan collection of Indian relics and of
pottery from Central America.
The teaching of science occupies a unique place in the Gary schools.
Just as the history and geography are taught as clues to the social and
political world around the pupil, so the science is used to acclimatize
him to the natural world. The theory is that children should commence
the study of the sciences while their minds are still plastic and their
interest in natural phenomena keen. The persistent questions which the
child asks are attempts to get an understanding of the world he lives
in. Unless these questions are answered, his interest is apt to wane as
he grows older. And unless he acquires a familiarity with nature that is
accompanied by true scientific information, he is apt to get only a
satisfied feeling of knowledge without any true appreciation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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