Report on the_commission_on_social_studies-krey-counts-kimmel-kelley-1934-179pgs-edu

AMERICANHISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

INVESTIGATION OF THESOCIAL STUDIES IN THE SCHOOLS

s AFF

A. C. KREY

I 1~ L r --Chairman, Director of the Investigation

G. S. COUNTSResearch Director

W. G. KIMMELExecutive Secretary

T. L. KFLLEYPsychologist, Advisor on Tests

COMMISSION ON DIRECTION

FRANK W. BALLOU, Superintendent of Schools, Washington, D. C .CHARLES A . BEARD, formerly Professor of Politics, Columbia Uni-

versity ; author of many books in the fields of history andpolitics .

ISAIAH BOWMAN, Director, American Geographical Society of NewYork; President of the International Geographical Union .

ADA COMSTOCK, President of Radcliffe College.GEORGE S. COUNTS, Professor of Education, Teachers College,

Columbia University .AVERY O. CRAvEN, Professor of History, University of Chicago .EDMUND E. DAY, formerly Dean of School of Business Adminis-

tration, University of Michigan ; now Director of Social Sci-ences, Rockefeller Foundation .

Guy STANTON FORD, Professor of History, Dean of the GraduateSchool, University of Minnesota .

CARLTON J. H . HAYES, Professor of History, Columbia University.ERNEST HORN, Professor of Education, University of Iowa .HENRY JOHNSON, Professor of History, Teachers College, Colum-

bia University.A. C. KREY, Professor of History, University of Minnesota .LEON C. MARSHALL, Institute for the Study of Law, Johns Hop-

kins University.CHARLES E. MERRIAM, Professor of Political Science, University

of Chicago.JESSE H. NEWLON, Professor of Education, Teachers College, Co-

lumbia University ; Director of Lincoln Experimental School.JESSE F . STEINER, Professor of Sociology, University of Wash-

ington .

CONCLUSIONS ANDRECOMMENDATIONS OF

THE COMMISSION

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONON THE SOCIAL STUDIES

CONCLUSIONS ANDRECOMMENDATIONS OF

THE COMMISSION

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONSNEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON ATLANTA

SAN FRANCISCO

DALLAS

COPYRIGHT, 1934, BY

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Printed in the United States of America

AU rights reserved . No part of this bookmay be reproduced in any form withoutthe permission of Charles Scribner's Sons

B

The original draft of these Conclusions and Recommenda-tions was prepared by a committee appointed for the purposeby the Commission on the Social Studies in October 1932 . Itwas submitted for consideration to a meeting of the Commis-sion in October 1933 and again at a second meeting in Decem-ber 1933 . It was then in part rewritten and submitted to theExecutive Committee of the Commission in February 1934 .The Executive Committee made some further revision . Therevised text was then set in galley proof, and was mailed inthat form to every member of the Commission individually forapproval . Those whose names appear at the end of the texthave signed it without reservations. Isaiah Bowman has signedit with reservations which are printed as Appendix C . FrankA. Ballou, Edmund E . Day, Ernest Horn, and Charles E . Mer-riam have declined to sign. Each one of these gentlemen wasinvited to submit a dissenting opinion to be printed over hissignature with this report. Only one dissenting opinion wassubmitted but it was recalled by its author before publication .

CONYERS READ,Executive Secretary

American Historical Association .

PREFACE

THIS volume presents the Conclusions and Recom-mendations of the Commission on the Social Studiesin the Schools, sponsored by the American HistoricalAssociation . It is the outcome of a very large numberof special studies and researches and of a vast deal ofdeliberation and reflection during the past five years,How the Commission came to be constituted in

1929, how it has functioned, and what particularwork it has done, or attempted to do, are sketched inAppendix B, below. Here the summary statementmay be made that the labors of the Commission andof its several committees, agents, and investigators,have issued in a comprehensive Final Report, em-bracing fourteeji major and several supplementarypublished volumes .

Of these volumes, the Commission assumes fulresponsibility for tom : A Charter for the SocialStudies in the Schools, published in 1931 and deal-ing with "objectives" of social science instruction ; andthe present volume of Conclusions and Recommen1dations . The other volumes, the titles of which aregiven in Appendix B, below, are sponsored by theCommission in the sense that they have been author-ized by it, that they have been submitted to the criti-cism of its members, and that they have providedmany of the detailed data on which the generaliza-tions of the present volume are based .

ix

Preface

The Commission desires to direct attention to thefact that the studies here reported constitute but apart of the material on which it bases its conclusions .It was able to profit greatly from nation-wide studies,but recently completed, of the teaching of mathe-matics, the classics, and the modern foreign languages .All of its members were supplied with copies of theseries of volumes, reporting methods of civic trainingin foreign countries,' and with translated reports ofthe International Committee on the Teaching of His-tory.' Also the Commission participated, through itsown membership, in the surveys of secondary educa-tion and teacher training, conducted by the UnitedStates Office of Education . Moreover, since it began itswork in 1929, reports of national commissions on lawenforcement, child welfare, housing conditions, costof medical care, economic trends, and social trends, aswell as the United States Census of 193o and the find-ings of a number of congressional investigations, haveall become available. As a result of these studies andof other researches carried on by competent students,the conditions, the activities, the characteristics, thetrends of American society are more fully revealed byscholarly and scientific inquiry than at any previousperiod in the history of the nation . Finally, the con-

1 Prepared under the direction of C. E . Merriam and publishedby the University of Chicago Press .

' Commission do 1'Enseignement Historique of the Comite in-ternational des Sciences Historiques . A number of these articleswere translated and published in the Historical Outlook, Novem-ber, 1930, to December, 1932 .

x

Preface

clusions of the Commission rest upon the experience,study, and thought which its diverse membershipbrought to its work and deliberations.The Commission is obligated to individuals and

organizations so numerous that the listing of theirnames and services would fill a large volume . Manyleaders in the field of education, many eminentscholars of the social sciences, many government offi-cials, thousands of school administrators, classroomteachers, school board members, and members of awide range of societies and associations have re-sponded liberally to requests for information andhelp. To each and all, the Commission is grateful .Certain institutions generously supplied the Com-

mission with staff members or otherwise facilitatedits work: Columbia, Harvard, and Leland StanfordUniversities, the Universities of Chicago, Iowa, Michi-gan, Minnesota, North Carolina, and West Virginia,Smith College, Mount Pleasant Teachers College, andthe American Geographical Society .The Commission is under special obligation to its

sponsor, the American Historical Association._ Aboveall, it recognizes its indebtedness to the Trustees ofthe Carne ie Corporation, whose financial aid madepossible the whole five-year investigation of socialscience instruction in the schools, eventuating in thefollowing Conclusions and Recommendations.

A. C. KxEY, Chairman.March, 1934 .

xi

CHAPTER I

THE OBLIGATIONS AND PROCEDURE OFTHE COMMISSION

I . The social sciences, more than any other divi-sion of the school curriculum, are concerned im-mediately with the life, the institutions, thethought, the aspirations, and the far-reaching pol-icies of the nation in its world setting .

2 . In view of this fact, the Commission couldnot limit itself to a survey of textbooks, curricula,methods of instruction, and schemes of examina-tion, but was impelled to consider the conditionand prospects of the American people as a partof Western civilization now merging into a worldorder .

3. The Commission was also driven to thisbroader conception of its task by the obvious factthat American civilization, in common withWestern civilization, is passing (through one ofthe great critical ages of history,', is modifying itstraditional faith in economic individualism, and

I

Conclusions and Recommendations

is embarking upon vast experiments in socialplanning and control which call for large-scaleco-operation on the part of the people] It is like-wise obvious that in corresponding measure theresponsibilities and opportunities of organizededucation, particularly in the social sciences, arebeing increased .

4. In the prosecution of its work the Commis-sion has made extensive use of the scientificmethod in compiling, analyzing, and organizingmaterials bearing on purpose and objectives,existing and proposed curricula, method ofteaching, examination processes, teacher train-ing, administrative functions, and public rela-tions .

5. The Commission has employed the samemethod in examining American society and itstrends, the nature of the social sciences and theirfunctions in education,and the systems of socialthought now bidding for consideration and adop-tion by the nation and the schools. Also it hasmade generous use of the findings of scientificinquiry conducted by other scholars in bothAmerica and Europe. It has found particularly

2

Obligations and Procedure

helpful the report of President Hoover's researchcommittee on Recent Social Trends in the United "States .

6. At the same time, while recognizing fullythat the scientific method is a priceless and indis-pensable instrument of social research, thought,and invention, the Commission realizes that thismethod, even though pursued with utmost rigor,cannot in itself dictate purpose, policy, or pro-gram for either statecraft or education .

7. The Commission, therefore, while utilizingthe scientific method as far as practicable, is fullyconscious of going beyond its findings and mak-ing positive acts of interpretation and judgmentbased -on ethical and xsthetic considerations, aswell as on what the Commission believesto be accurate knowledge of relevant socialfacts.

8. The conclusions and recommendations ofthe Commission, consequently, are not, and in thenature of things cannot be, mere matters of quan-titative determination. They are drawn up withrespect to some general point of view or frame of ~,reference. For some frame of reference, large or )

3


small, clear or confused, conditions every generalwork in the social sciences, every program of in-struction in these subjects, every conception ofmethods and examinations, and every plan ofschool administration .

4

CHAPTER II

THE FRAME OF REFERENCE

A.

i . The frame of reference here presented isbased upon the results of scholarship and consistsof generalizations, judgments, interpretations,and affirmations of the Commission concerning(a) the nature and functions of the social sci-ences, (b) necessarily conditioning factors inAmerican life, and (c) choices deemed possibleand desirable in the present and proximatefuture .

2 . The frame of reference is based on a studyof the past, of the present, and of trends in pastand present-past and present as occurrence andas aspiration.3. The frame of reference so constructed, a

product of contemporary inquiry and reflection,conditions broadly the conceptions of publicpolicy, education, and instruction in the socialsciences here advanced by the Commission .

5


B. NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

i . The social sciences take as their province theentire range of human history, from the earliesttimes down to the latest moment, and the widestreaches of contemporary society, from the lifeand customs of the most remote peoples to the so-cial practices and cultural possessions of the im-mediate neighborhood .2 . The social sciences thus embrace the tradi-

tional disciplines which are concerned directlywith man and society, including history, eco-nomics, politics, sociology, geography, anthro,pology and psychology. Each of these disciplinespossesses an intrinsic nature and a core of sub-stantial data and inferences, and yet all are inti-mately inter-related in their several approachesto a common goal-the knowledge of man andsociety .

3. Without wishing to emphasize what hasbeen called "the conventional boundaries" be-tween the several social disciplines-boundarieswhich have never been treated as rigid and whichof late have been increasingly and very profitably

6

The Frame o f Reference

cut across-the Commission repudiates the notionthat any general or comprehensive social sciencehas been created which transcends the disciplinesthemselves. Each of these branches of scholarshipfurnishes a distinctive point of view from whichmaterials are surveyed and brought into an organ-ization of knowledge ; each contributes in its ownway to general human insight into the world ofman and society.

4. The main function of the social sciences isthe acquisition of accurate knowledge of, and in-formed insight into, man and society ; that ofsocial science instruction is the transmission ofsuch knowledge and insight, with attendant skillsand loyalties, to the individuals composing so-ciety. Regardless of the special circumstances ofa given time, these functions are vitally importantand are likely to be effective in the measure of thebreadth and depth of their conception, involvinga real knowledge of man and society under mostdiverse conditions and circumstances .

5. The social sciences and instruction in themare conditioned, and should be, by the spirit andletter of scholarship, by what is called the scien-

7


tific method . Scholarship has its own impera-tives, and to say that science exists merely to servethe instant need of things, causes, or parties is tobetray a fatal ignorance of its nature and of inex-orable movements in thought .

6. The Commission believes that fundamentallythe disinterested pursuit of truth and the perma-nent interests of society as a whole are not, andcannot be, incompatible, and that both the socialscientist in his study and the teacher of any socialscience in his classroom are committed to schol-arly, scientific ideals inherent in their professionand occupation .7. The scientific method is invaluable not only

as an indispensable instrument of inquiry, thought,and invention, but also as an equally indispensablemeans of developing in students-and in societyat large-the critical spirit and judicial sense inaccordance with which individuals learn to seekand weigh evidence, to compare and contrastand to act with an informed rather than a preju."c mind.

8. Recognizing that scientific method andscholarly ideals, when applied to human affairs,

8


are likely to run counter to notions of the ignorantand to yestedaare est D#_gr2 , the Commissiondeems peculiarly desirable the preservation andmore complete realization, within the field of thesocial sciences, of the ideal of free Qw, .of r search,publication, teaching, and scholarship .

9. While extolling scholarship and the scien-tific method, the Commission is aware of theirlimitations. It knows that their indispensable val-ues apply only to a fragment of human historyand experience-a "narrow land of rational cer-tainty, relative, conditional, experimental ."

io. Though it is highly important and neces-sary that the social sciences should seek to studyman and society objectively, the Commission per-ceives that objective study of itself does not andcannot provide society or the individuals compos-ing it with will, force, or purpose. Such im-mensely significant attributes of man as creative-ness, planning, and ideals rest not on empiricismalone but also on ethical and aesthetic considera-tions .

ii . More specifically, in the case of the schools,the social sciences as bodies of empirical data con-

9


tain no inner logic which determines clearly andpositively either the scope, the content, or thestructure of social science materials to be taughtor the social activities to be encouraged . Scientificmethod should condition, but it cannot deter-mine, the selection .

12. In the light of its assumptions about thenature and the functions of the social sciences,about the value of scholarship and the limitationsof the scientific method, the Commission pro-

weeds now, in the further development of its frameof reference, to indicate what it deems to be thefactors in American life-the social and economicrealities of time and place-which necessarilycondition the selection and formulation of anyeducational program in the social sciences for thepresent and proximate future .

C. NECESSARILY CONDITIONING FACTORS IN

AMERICAN LIFE

i. The very fact that the Commission ischarged with making recommendations concern-ing education in the social sciences within the

110


United States conditions necessarily the Commis-sion's selection and formulation of a program. Forthe American nation is an entity with distinctiveaspects, traditions, and usages-geographical, eco-nomic, political, social, and cultural-of perdur-ing vigor and strength, which must be taken intoaccount if social science instruction is to be some-thing more than abstract, if it is to be properlyconcrete, realistic, and serviceable.

2. At the same time, the Commission recog-nizes the further fact of the inter-relationship o` !the life of America with the life of the world . InJall departments of culture-intellectual, aesthetic,and ethical-the civilization of the United Stateshas always been a part of European, or "West-ern," civilization . To ignore the historical tradi-tions and usages which have contributed, and stillcontribute, to this unity is to betray a smug andprovincial disregard of basic elements in Ameri-can life and to invite national impoverishment,intolerance, and disaster . Moreover, the swift de-velopment of technology, industry, transporta-,tion, and communication in modern times is ob-viously merging Western civilization into a new

II


world civilization and imposing on Americancitizens the obligation of knowing more, ratherthan less, of the complex social and economicrelationships which bind them to the rest ofmankind.-3. Especially significant, as a conditioning fac-

tor in American life, is the well-established na-tional tradition of government and society basedon the ideals of popular democracy and of per-sonal liberty and dignity-the tradition that gov-ernment is organized solely for the purpose ofpromoting the highest welfare of the governed,collectively and individually, that in all greatdivisions of economy, administration, and culturethe interests of the masses of the people are to-,,beconsidered paramount, and that, since every per-son is of moral worth and dignity in himself, noman, woman or child can be exploited by anotherwithout doing violence to the essential spirit ofAmerican democracy and liberty . This is a tra-dition so strong and, in the opinion of the Com-mission, so authentic and valid that, despite aca-demic criticisms, despite assaults by selfish orpredatory groups, it may be expected to abide and

12

The Frame of Reference

to give direction to the further evolution of lifeand institutions in the United States .

4. Along with traditions of the past, includingnot only American ideals of popular democracyand of personal liberty and dignity but also manyother elements in the heritage of civilization-in-tellectual, xsthetic, and ethical-which can con-fidently be expected to endure and hence tocontinue to exercise a profound influence onAmerican life in the proximate future, there arecertain clearly defined trends in contemporarytechnology, economy, and society of the utmostimportance in creating new conditions, fashion-ing novel traditions, reorienting American life,'and thus conditioning any future program of

-11social science instruction .5. The most striking trend in American life

to-day, and one which has become gradually-morediscernible over a fairly long period, is a twofoldtendency toward the closer physical unificationof the nation and the ever-closer integration andinterdependence of all branches of economy,, so-cial activity, and culture. Although this trend hasnot been uniform in the various branches or divi-

I3


sions of social life, it has effected a rather generaldependence of the individual on corporate organ-ization, machinery, and other capital for the rightto labor and to share in the profits of production .Coming simultaneously with the ending of freelands and the passing of the more important nat-ural resources into private hands, it has greatlyreduced the opportunities for individual freedomand equality in the economic and social order andthereby created new problems in the preservation,development, and fulfillment of the ideals ofAmerican dem cy .

6. The emergence of the resulting configura-tion is a fact established by empirical inquiry. Itis described with much detail in contemporaryworks dealing with recent social and materialdevelopments. It is exemplified, increasingly andcumulatively, by historical happenings of the lastone hundred years-the passing of the frontier,the binding together of the country with networksof canals, roads, rails, and wires, the applicationof technology to all branches of industry withattendant overcoming of local and regional econ-omy by national and even international economy,

I4


the concentration of manufacturing and banking,the growth of corporate business forms and theconcentration of control into fewer and fewerhands, the development of cities and urban life,the progressive differentiation of agriculture andthe accelerating dependence of the once "inde-pendent farmer" upon national and internationalmarkets, the intensifying specialization of laborand the resulting dependence of all industries andof society as a whole on national and internationalmarkets. At the present time, the trend has be-come so clearly apparent that to dwell upon it isto labor the obvious.

7. Contemporary social thought and action inthe realms of government, economy, ethics, andaesthetics, despite contradictions and conflicts ininterpretation, reflect more and more thisgrowing integration and interdependence, andare increasingly concerned with improving thefunctional efficiency of this integrated and inter-dependent society . In short the economic andtechnological movement is accompanied by a cor-responding movement in various phases of cul-ture.

z5

Conclusions and Recommendations .

8. Under the moulding influence of socializedprocesses of living, drives of technology andscience, pressures of changing thought and policy,and disrupting impacts of economic disaster,there is a notable waning of the once widespreadpopular faith in economic individualism ; andleaders in public affairs, supported by a growingmass of the population, are demanding the intro-duction into economy of ever-wider measures of~ nnin~g and con o .

Y g. Cumulative evidence supports the conclusionthat, in the United States as in other countries,the age of individualism and laissez faire in econ-omy and government is closing and that a newage of collectivism is emerging .

io. As to the specific form which this "collec-tivism," this integration and interdependence, istaking and will take in the future, the evidence athand is by no means clear or unequivocal . It mayinvolve the limiting or supplanting of privateproperty by public property or it may entail thepreservation of private property, extended anddistributed among the masses. Most likely, it willissue from a process of experimentation and will

z6


represent a composite of historic doctrines andsocial conceptions yet to appear . Almost certainlyit will involve a larger measure of _compulsory~~ ;as well as voluntary co-operation of citizens in theconduct of the complex national economy, a cor-responding enlargement of the functions of gov-ernment, and an increasing s tate intervention infundamental branches of economy previously leftto individual discretion and initiative-a state in-tervention that in some instances may be directand mandatory and in others indirect and facili-tative. In any event the Commission is convincedby its interpretation of available empirical datathat the actually integrating economy of the pres-ent day is the forerunner of a consciously inte-grated society,

-in which individual economic ac-

tions and individual property, rights will be-alteredand abridged.

ii . The emerging age is particularly an age oftransition. It is marked by numerous and severetensions arising out of the conflict between theactual trend toward integrated economy andsociety, on the one side, and the traditional prac-tices, dispositions, ideas, and institutional arrange-

I7


ments inherited from the passing age of indi-vidualism, on the other. In all the recommenda-tions that follow the transitional character of thepresent epoch is recognized .

12 . Underlying and illustrative of these tensionsare privation in the midst of plenty, violations offiduciary trust, gross inequalities in income andwealth, widespread racketeering and banditry,wasteful use of natural resources, unbalanced dis-tribution and organization of labor and leisure,the harnessing of science to individualism in busi-ness enterprise, the artificiality of political boun-daries and divisions, the subjection of public wel-fare to the egoism of private interests, themaladjustment of production and consumption,persistent tendencies toward economic instability,disproportionate growth of debt and propertyclaims in relation to production, deliberate de-struction of goods and withdrawal of efficiencyfrom production, accelerating tempo of panics,crises, and depressions attended by ever-widerdestruction of capital and demoralization of labor,struggles among nations for markets and raw~

t8


materials leading to international conflicts andwars .

13 . If historical knowledge is any guide, thesetensions, accompanied by oscillations in popularopinion, public policy, and the fortunes of thestruggle for power, will continue until some ap-proximate adjustment is made between socialthought, social practice, and economic realities,or until society, exhausted by the conflict and atthe end of its spiritual and inventive resources,sinks back into a more primitive order of economyand life. Such is the long-run view of social de-velopment in general, and of American life inparticular, which must form the background forany educational program designed to prepareeither children or adults for their coming trials,opportunities, and responsibilities .

D. CHOICES DEEMED POSSIBLE AND DESIRABLE

i . Within the limits of the broad trend towardsocial integration the possible forms of economicand political life are many and varied, involving

I9


wide differences in modes of distributing wealth,income, and cultural opportunity, embracing vari-ous conceptions of the state and of the rights,duties, and privileges of the ordinary citizen, andrepresenting the most diverse ideals concerningthe relations of sexes, classes, religions, nations,and races . From this vast range of possibilitiesthe American people will be called upon to makemore or less deliberate choices in the proximatefuture. Precisely what these choices will be theCommission of course has no means of knowing,but it does deem possible and desirable, and evenmandatory, the indication and emphasis of cer-tain principles, purposes, and qualificationswhich, in its judgment, should guide or conditionany such choices .

2. The Commission deems desirable the mostefficient use of material endowment, technicalarts, and productive skills in raising the standardof living of all and in achieving the finest culturalpotentialities resident in the American people intheir historic and world setting. A survey of theadvance of technology in particular reveals clearlythe possibility of the realization of this goal in the

20


proximate future by the application of appropri-ate and existing knowledge, methods, and ener-gies-physical and moral.3. Achievements such as domestic architecture,

housing, health, and education, city, regional,state, and national planning and operation, alreadyaccomplished in particular areas, indicate thepossibility, as well as the desirability, of creatinga civilization in the United States which com-bines utility and a:sthetics in a grand conceptionof the potentialities in American life .4. Moreover, achievements already accom-

plished in government, economy, and variousforms of associational life indicate that the Ameri-can people possess co-operative and moral powersof a high order which can be directed into chan-nels of utility and beauty, if acquisitive individual-ism, with all its cruder manifestations in gam-bling, speculation, exploitation, and racketeering,is subdued to the requirements and potentialitiesof the emerging society .5. The cultural potentialities of the epoch

would seem to be commensurate with the eco-nomic. On the physical foundations of economic

21


security, unprecedented leisure, relative materialabundance, and rapid communication with allparts of the world, the extension to the massesof the people of greatly increased opportunitiesfor the cultivation and enjoyment of the thingsof the mind and the spirit should be possible . Inthis process of cultural enrichment the Americanpeople may and should draw upon the entireheritage of the race and upon contemporary ad-vances in art, literature, science, and philosophythroughout the world.

6. Indeed, the basic reason why the Commis-sion emphasizes problems incident to the transi-tion in economy is not because life is conceived ingross material terms, but because the establish-ment of a higher and finer standard of livingmay be expected to free people from absorptionin material things and enable them to devotegreater attention to ideals of spiritual, scientific,and cultural development.

7. While stressing the necessity of recognizingthe emergence of a closely integrated society inAmerica and the desirability of curbing individu-

--- alism in economy, the Commission deems highly22


desirable the conscious and purposeful employ-ment of every practicable means to ward off thedangers of goose-step regimentation in ideas, cul-ture, and invention, of sacrificing individuality,of neglecting precious elements in the traditionalheritage of America and the world, and of fos-tering a narrow intolerant nationalism or anaggressive predatory imperialism .

8. The Commission deems possible and desir-able the retention and fulfillment of the historicprinciples and ideals of American democracy, out-lined in the preceding section, as an accompani-ment of the establishment and maintenance of aneconomically integrated society and as a means ofnecessary adjustment to new conditions.

9. The Commission deems desirable the reser-vation to the individual of the largest possiblemeasure of freedom in the realms of personal andcultural growth, and the preservation and devel-opment of individuality in its non,-acquisitive ex-pressions as the finest flower of civilized society .It believes that the American people, as they fash-ion whatever institutions they will for the in-tegrated society of the future, should respect and

23

safeguard the right of the individual to be freefrom excessive social pressures on his personal

r i

behavior, mode of living, cultural satisfactions°}=

and avocations ., and religious, economic, and poli-tical beliefs .

io. The Commission deems possible and desir-able the steady enlargement of sympathetic un-derstanding and mutual toleration among thediverse races, religions, and cultural groups whichcompose the American nation, to the end, notonly that tensions may be relaxed and transitionto the emerging economy be thereby expedited,but also that the emerging economy may be at-tended by diversities in culture which are mutu-ally respected and that the individual may be thussustained in resistance to mental and spiritualregimentation.

ii . The Commission deems possible and desir-able the attainment and spread of accurate knowl-edge and informed opinion among the masses ofthe American people both concerning the reali-ties, tensions, and problems of the emerging eraand concerning the ideals, traditions, and experi-ences of other ages and other peoples in order

24



that all choices may be made with reason, withunderstanding, and with due regard to theirmoral and cultural, as well as their narrowlyeconomic, implications .

12 . The Commission deems possible and desir-able an enlightened attitude on the part of themasses of the American people toward inter-national relations, involving informed apprecia-tion of the cultural bonds long subsisting amongthe nations of Western civilization and now de-veloping rapidly among all the nations of the_world, and special knowledge of the increasingeconomic interdependence of politically separateareas and peoples, and of the emerging economicintegration of the globe .

13 . Being convinced from the study of historythat national policies, arising from narrow in-tolerant nationalism and aggressive predatory im-perialism, were largely responsible for the WorldWar, as well as for the intense rivalries amongnations before 1914 and after 1918, and that thepursuit of such policies can only lead in the longrun to national ruin, the Commission believesthat-in keeping with the true interests of civiliza-

25


ton in general and of American society in partic-ular-nationalism should be infused with enlight-enment, reason, and tolerance, and, by makingthe wisest and most effective use of domestic re-sources and by conceiving of foreign trade as theexchange of commodities of mutual benefit ratherthan as an expression of national power, eco-nomic imperialism should be checked .

14 . The Commission deems desirable contin-ued and unremitting emphasis on the spirit ofscience and scholarship, liberty of thought andexpression, freedom of press and platform, andtolerant study and consideration of the mostdiverse ideas, domestic and foreign, modern,medieval, and ancient, as the chief means ofdefense against the tyranny of bureaucracy, ofnarrow nationalisip, and of brutal uninformedpower .

15. The Commission deems desirable contin-ued and unremitting emphasis on the scientificmethod as an invaluable instrument of inquiry,thought, and invention-a method particularlyindispensable to the maintenance and operationof an economically integrated society in which

26


ideals of popular democracy and cultural free-dom are to be upheld .

i6. The Commission, under the frame of refer-ence here presented, deems desirable the vitaliz-ing of the findings of scientific inquiry by thebest social thought of the present and of the past ;and the incorporation into the materials of socialscience instruction in the schools of the_best plansand ideals for the future of society and of theindividual.

E. SUMMARY IN RELATION TO EDUCATION

i . A frame of reference embracing thingsdeemed necessary, possible, and desirable condi-tions the selection and organization of materialsof instruction in the social sciences .

2 . The validity of statements of fact withinsuch a frame of reference can be tested to-day bymethods of scholarship ; the validity of interpreta-tions and judgments can be fully tested only bythe prolonged verdict of the generations .

3. Although the Commission has discovered noall-embracing system of social laws which, im-

27


posed upon the educator, fixes the objectives andpractices of the school, it believes its frame ofreference to be entirely consistent with the find-ings and thought of contemporary social science .

4 . It believes further that this frame of referenceconditions the tasks, the responsibilities, the con-tent and the method of education .

Fruitful discussion and criticism of the pro-gram and purposes formulated by the Commis-sion may be achieved, not by setting up a formalideal of disinterestedness and neutrality in theguise of mere objective description, but by present-ing alternative programs and purposes for exam-ination and analysis.In the sphere of moral decision and choice

the very refusal to choose, since refusal has spe-cific consequences, is itself a moral act . The factis now generally realized that a declaration to donothing is itself a statement of policy. In so faras the commitments of educators, scholars, andcitizens have consequences for the determinationof social issues, moral responsibility for things left

28


undone, as well as for things done, cannot beescaped. The important thing then is to becomeconscious of responsibilities and to develop thediscussion, not only in terms of the validity ofknowledge, but also in terms of the values forwhich knowledge is used .

The foregoing chapter is based on, and elabo-rated in :

A Charter for the Social Sciences in the Schools ;BEARD, C. A ., The Nature of the Social Sciences ;COUNTS, G. S ., The Social Foundations of Education ;MARSHALL, L. C ., and GOETZ, RACHEL MARSHALL, A

Social Process Approach to Curriculum-Making in theSocial Studies.

MERRIAM, C. E., Civic Education in the United States;PIERCE, BESSIE L., Citizens' Organizations and the Civic

Training o f Youth .

29

CHAPTER III

PHILOSOPHY AND PURPOSE IN EDUCATION

A.

i . Education is a form of action on the part ofrsome particular social group ; it is not a species ofcontemplation removed from social life and rela-tionships .2. Education always expresses some social phi-

losophy, either large or small, involves somechoices with respect to social and individual actionand well-being, and rests upon some moral con-ception.

3. Conceived in a large and clarified frame ofreference, education is one of the highest formsof statesmanship : a positive and creative attackupon the problems generated by the movementof ideas and interests in society .

* In the present chapter the Commission has directed its atten-tion toward the formulation of the philosophy and purpose ofeducation as a whole, as well as toward the problem of the teach-ing of the social sciences themselves . In attempting this largertask, it desired, first, to place the subject of its special concern inthe general setting, and, second, to bring the findings of the socialsciences to bear upon the total educational undertaking .

30

Philosophy and Purpose in Education

4. Finding its immediate expression in indi-viduals, education so conceived is concerned withthe development of rich and many-sided personal-ities capable of co-operating in a social order de-signed to facilitate the creation of the largest pos-sible number of rich and many-sided personalities .

B. EDUCATION AN EXPRESSION OF A PARTICULAR

GEOGRAPHICAL AND CULTURAL SETTING

i . Being a form of social action, education . al-ways has a geographical and cultural location ; itis therefore specific, local, and dynamic, not gen-eral, universal, and unchanging.;, it is a functionof a particular society at a particular time andplace in history ; it is rooted in some actual cul-ture and expresses the philosophy and recognizedneeds of that culture. Contemporary Americansociety of course is of vast proportions and mani-fests wide-reaching economic and cultural rami-fications extending to the most distant parts ofthe world .

2. Although the basic biological equipment ofman seems to be comparatively invariant and

3I


may therefore be expected to give certain com-mon elements to education everywhere and at alltimes, human civilization has characteristics ofneighborhood, region, nation, and more extendedcultural areas, which lend unique qualities toevery working educational program, however per-sistent and pervasive may be the universal ele-ments entering into it .

3. Since culture plays a dominant role in givingform and substance to education, the formulationof a relevant and effective educational philosophyfor a particular society at a particular time andplace in history must rest in a large measure uponthe findings of the social sciences, findings per-taining to the nature, trends and thought of thatsociety in its regional and world setting .

C. EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY FOR THE

UNITED STATES

i. The formulation of an educational philoso-phy for the United States requires a study of thebasic elements, configurations, and trends ofAmerican life and culture. The contribution

32


which the social sciences thus make toward shap-ing the philosophy and purpose of education is asimportant as any contribution they can make tothe content of materials of instruction.

2. Such a study, as stated in the precedingchapter, shows that American society during thepast hundred years has been moving from anindividualistic and frontier economy to a collec-tive and social economy ; this trend has steadilygained in momentum, and is strikingly revealedin the contemporary decline of doctrines of laissezfaire and in the launching of programs of plan-ning and control in local, state, and nationaleconomy.

3. Whatever may be the exact character of lifein the society now emerging, it will certainly bedifferent in important respects from that of thepast. It will be accompanied by many unaccus-tomed restraints and liberties, responsibilities andopportunities ; and whether it will be better orworse will depend in large measure upon thestandards of appraisal applied, the particularchoices now made within the limits of the pos-sible, and the qj4,w 4ion of the rising generation

33

0Conclusions and Recommendations

I

in knowledge, thought, and appreciation of itsnecessities and potentialities .

4 . In two respects education will be chal-lenged : (a) the emerging economy will involvethe placing of restraints on individual enterprise,propensities, and acquisitive egoism in agricul-ture, industry, and labor and generally on the con-ception, ownership, management, and use of prop-erty, as the changing policies of governmental-ready indicate; and (b) the emerging economy,by the reduction of hours of labor and othermeasures, promises to free the ordinary indi-vidual from the long working day, exhaustinglabor and economic insecurity, thus providinghim with opportunities for personal developmentfar greater and richer than those enjoyed underthe individualistic economy of the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries .

5. The implications for education are 'clear andimperative : (a) the efficient functioning of theemerging economy and the full utilization of itspotentialities require profound changes in the at-titudes and outlook of the American people, espe-cially the rising generation-a complete and frank

34


recognition that the old order is passing, that thenew order is emerging, and that knowledge ofrealities and capacity to co-operate are indis-pensable to the development and even the per-durance of American society ; and (b) the rationaluse of the new leisure requires a cultural equip-ment which will give strength and harmony tosociety instead of weakness and discord .

6. Conversely, continued emphasis in educationon the traditional ideas and values of economicindividualism and acquisitiveness will intensifythe conflicts, contradictions, maladjustments, andperils of the transition .

D. GENERAL APPLICATIONS

i . Organized public education in the UnitedStates, much more than ever before, is now com-pelled, if it is to fulfill its social obligations, toadjust its objectives, its curriculum, its methodsof instruction, and its administrative proceduresto the requirements of the emerging integratedorder .

2. If the school is to justify its maintenance and

35


assume its responsibilities, it must recognize thenew order and proceed to equip the rising gen-eration to co-operate effectively in the increas-ingly interdependenterdependent society and to live ration-ally and well within its limitations and possibil-ities.

3. It thus follows that educators are calledupon to examine critically the frame of referenceunder which they have been operating, and to pro-ceed deliberately to the clarification and affirma-tion of purpose in the light of the changed andchanging social situation and in the light of thosefacts and trends which remain compelling, ,irre-spective of individual references.

4. Educators stand to-day between two greatphilosophies of social economy : the one repre-senting the immediate past and fading out inactuality, an individualism in economic theorywhich has become hostile in practice to the devel-opment of individuality for great masses of thepeople and threatens the survival of Americansociety ; the other representing and anticipatingthe future on the basis of actual trends-the fu-ture already coming into reality, a collectivism

36


which may permit the widest development of per-sonality or lead to a bureaucratic tyranny destruc-tive of ideals of popular democracy and culturalfreedom .5. If education continues to emphasize the phi-

losophy of individualism in economy, it will in-crease the accompanying social tensions . If itorganizes a program in terms of a philosophywhich harmonizes with the facts of a closelyintegrated society, it will ease the strains of thetransition taking place in actuality . The makingof choices cannot be evaded, for inaction in edu-cation is a form of action .

6. Within the limits of an economy marked byintegration and interdependence, many possi-bilities, many roads stand open before education .The making of choices by either evasion or posi-tive action also cannot be avoided in the develop-ment of an educational program .7. The road which the Commission has chosen

and mapped in the preceding chapter is onewhich, it believes, will make possible the mostcomplete realization, under the changed condi-tions of life, of the ideals of American democracy

37

I


and cultural liberty : the recognition of the moralequality and dignity of all men ; the abolition ofclass distinctions and special privileges ; the exten-sion to every individual, regardless of birth, class,race, religion, or economic status, of the oppor-tunity for the fullest development of his creativecapacities, his spiritual qualities, his individuality ;the encouragement of social inquiry, inventiveness,and tolerance; the protection of all liberties essen-tial to defense against the exercise of brute power ;the development of resistance to appeals to racialand religious passion and prejudice ; the estab-lishment of those standards and securities setforth in A Charter for the Social Sciences in theSchools.

8. Such an affirmation of human values in edu-cation, the Commission holds, is peculiarly im-perative in a society moving toward economicplanning and control . Recognizing the necessityof living in an integrated economy and awarethat such economy may be made to serve eithersome privileged minority or the entire popula-tion, the Commission deliberately presents to edu-cation, and affirms the desirability of, an economy

38


managed in the interests of the masses, as dis-tinguished from any class or bureaucracy .

9. From this point of view, a supreme purposeof education in the United States, in addition tothe development of rich and many-sided person-alities, is the preparation of the rising generationto enter the society now coming into beingthrough thought, ideal, and knowledge, ratherthan through coercion, regimentation, and igno-rance, and to shape the form of that society inaccordance with American ideals of populardemocracy and personal liberty and dignity .

E. IMMEDIATE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATION

AND CONDUCT OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM

i . In the integrated society now emerging the.ideal of individual, institutional, and local ad-vancement will of necessity give way increasinglyto considerations of general, national, and worldwelfare.2. Since the general social welfare requires the

free and full development of all social and crea-tive talents in the individual, the denial of edu-

39


cational opportunity or the submergence of giftsbecause of circumstances of wealth, family, race,religion, or nationality impoverishes society andis therefore intolerable.

3. In the organization of the life of the schooland the conduct of instruction, emphasis will beplaced on the development of the social and cre4-tive rather than the acquisitive impulses.4. The materials of instruction will be selected

and organized for the purpose of giving to thecoming generation the skills, knowledge, appre-ciations, and interests necessary to the generalunderstanding and management of an integratedsociety in its historic and world setting, and ofproviding all of the special forms of training de-manded by a highly complex and differentiatedeconomy.5. Although the Commission has conceived its

work primarily in terms of the necessities and po-tentialities of American society, it recognizes thegrowth of world relationships and the urgentneed for a better knowledge and appreciation ofthe common problems of mankind and the sig-nificance of international relations .

40


6. This excludes any commitment of educa-tion to either a narrow or an aggressive national- iism and involves a recognition of the fact thatany effective world organization must grow withan organization of national and regional unitiesand with domestic control of outward thrusts ofeconomic, naval, and military power .7. Moreover, education, being concerned with

all cultural interests, not with practical economicinterests alone, is compelled to bring into its pro-gram of instruction the scientific, intellectual,ethical, and aesthetic ideals, discoveries, and mani-festations which give underlying unity to the cul-ture of the Western world and are bringing Asia_within a common orbit of civilization .

8. The growing complexity of social relation-ships, the rapidity of social change, and the con-sequent social tensions and conflicts in Americaand throughout the world demand an increasedemphasis on social science instruction in theschools and a more realistic approach to the studyof society .g. Also the critical character of the present

period in history calls for a far greater stress on4I


the teaching of the social sciences in the schoolsto-day than in the past ; and the difficulties sureto attend the development of an integrated econ-omy, efficiently managed in the interests of thepeople, will make stress on the social sciencesincreasingly necessary in the future . There isevery reason for believing that this period of ad-justment will be prolonged and marked by strug-gle and uncertainty, by oscillation of action andreaction .

io. For this reason it will be necessary to pro-vide funds, equipment, materials, and training inthe social sciences fully adequate to the servicesthey are required to render . Unless the socialknowledge and skill required for the operationof the emerging society are forthcoming, thefoundations for the support of all cultural inter-ests will crumble away with the disintegration ofsociety itself.

ii . The rapid expansion of the secondary andhigher schools and the increase in leisure timeduring the present century give to organizededucation an unprecedented opportunity and anequally unprecedented responsibility for the prep-

42


aration of the youth and adults of the nation forthe discharge of their social obligations and theexercise and fulfillment of their right to the rich-ness of an abundant life .


COUNTS, G. S., The Social Foundations o f Education .CURTI, M. E ., Social Ideas of American Educators;NEWLON, J. H., Educational Administration as Social

Policy .

43

CHAPTER IV

SELECTION AND ORGANIZATION OFMATERIALS OF INSTRUCTION

A.

i . The selection of the substance of the pro-gram of instruction is the heart of the educationalproblem: it constitutes a choice, however wideand elastic the limits, of the knowledge, the ideas,the points of view, the appreciations, the values,and the patterns of behavior to be introduced ortransmitted to the coming generation throughthe school .

2 . From the practically inexhaustible source ofknowledge respecting the ways, thoughts, andappreciations of mankind, which the socialsciences supply, the architects of school curricula

r make their own selections to fit their own frames~' of reference.

3. The social sciences, however, do not presentto the educator a huge mass of raw and inchoate

44

Materials of Instruction

materials ; rather they present systematic bodies ofknowledge, patterns of organization, structures ofsocial thought, and methods indispensable to in-tellectual operations in this field . To speak con-cretely and with reference to the immediate prob-lem, they disclose the purposes which Americansociety, acting through public and private agenciesof education, has already proclaimed ; they pre-sent facts and organizations of knowledge andthought corresponding more or less closely to therealities of the social scene in development ; theydescribe the tendencies and trends of society whichgive indications for forecasting the necessities andprobabilities of the future social situations inwhich children now in school will have to liveand discharge their obligations ; they report theethical and xsthetic ideals which furnish guidancefor determining what is desirable within thelimits of necessity ; and they bring to the task ofcurriculum-making the fundamental conclusionthat every one seeking a solution to the problemis influenced by some frame of reference, a moreor less definite pattern of things deemed possibleand desirable .

45


B. CONTROLLING PRINCIPLES AND CONDITIONS

i . In the selection and organization of thematerials of instruction in the social sciences theeducational statesman should be guided by fivecontrolling principles or considerations-the pur-pose of education, the powers of the child, thetime allotment of the school, the life of the sur-rounding community, and the obligations asso-ciated with professional competence .

2. The great purpose of the American publicschool, as developed in the preceding chapter, isto prepare the younger generation for life in ahighly complex industrial society that is com-mitted to the ideal of democracy and equality ofopportunity for personal growth, that places itsfaith in intelligence rather than force in theachievement of social ends, that is in rapid transi-tion from an economy based on individual enter-prise and competition for private gain to an econ-omy essentially co-operative and integrated incharacter and dependent for efficient operationon careful planning and co-ordination of produc-tion and consumption, that is marked by innu-

46

Materials o f Instruction

merable conflicts and contradictions tending toplace in jeopardy its inherited ideals and to blockthe full utilization of its energies and talents, andthat now, because of its rich natural endowment 1and its advanced technology, is capable of inau- igurating an era of reasonable security and abun-/dance for all, of freeing the human mind frommaterial worries and of devoting its varied re-sources to the tasks of cultural advance.

3. The achievement of this far-reaching pur-pose requires the introduction into the schoolcurriculum of materials which will equip theyounger generation, as fully as possible, to under-stand, to appreciate and to evaluate the greatchanges under way and to act intelligently and inthe common interest in facing the innumerableissues that lie ahead .

4. The materials and activities selected must bewithin the range of the capacity and the experi-ence of the learner and so graded as to insure asteady progression in understanding and powerto deal effectually with social data and situations .

5. In view of the revolutionary expansion ofthe secondary school enrollment during the past

47


generation and the general reduction in opportu-nities of employment, this gradation of materialsmay be undertaken with little reference to thefactor of elimination and on the assumption thatthe ordinary pupil will remain in school throughthe period of adolescence and will even have op-portunities for continued education in adult years .

6. The critical character of the present epoch inAmerican and world history, with its socialstresses and strains, makes especially imperativethe organization of a program of social scienceinstruction coherent and continuous from thekindergarten through the junior college and thearticulation of this program with a program ofadult education .

7. The program of social science instructionshould not be organized as a separate and isolateddivision of the curriculum but rather should beclosely integrated with other activities and sub-jects so that the entire curriculum of the schoolmay constitute a unified attack upon the compli-cated problem of life in contemporary society .

8. The program of social science instruction,along with the rest of the curriculum, should be

48


as intimately articulated as possible with the life,the activities, and the institutions of the surround-ing community, the fact being fully recognizedthat the advance of industrial civilization hasbeen attended by an enormous extension of com-munity boundaries and an equally altered rela-tionship of community to regional undertakingsand possibilities.

9. In the selection and organization of socialscience materials the teaching staff of the country,co-operating with the social scientists and therepresentatives of the public, should assume com-plete professional responsibility and, resisting_ thepressure of every narrow group or class,, makechoices in terms of the most general and endur-ing interests of the masses of the people .

C. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE PROGRAM

i . The program of social science instruction isderived in the main from the following systematicbodies of knowledge and thought : (a) physicaland cultural geography, (b) economics, (c) cul-tural sociology, (d) political science and (e) his-

49


tory. 1 In the light of the controlling principlesand considerations enumerated in the precedingsection, that program will embrace certain rele-vancies of knowledge, certain conceptions of hu-man relationships and certain systems of thought .2. The program of social science instruction

should give knowledge and understanding con-cerning the earth as the physical home of man,the relation of geographic factors to the evolutionof human culture, the distribution of naturalresources over the globe, the struggle of individ-uals., groups, and nations for possession of lands,mines, and forests, and concerning the wholequestion of the rational use of the material endow-ment of the country in the planning of the econ-omy and in the general enrichment of the com-mon life.3. The program of social science instruction

should give knowledge and understanding con-cerning the major social processes through whichthe life of society has been carried on throughoutall ages-the process of adjustment with the exter-

3 For an outline of the content of each of these bodies ofknowledge and thought see Charles A . Beard, The Nature of theSocial Sciences, Chapter IX .

50


nal physical world, the process of the distributionof population over the physical and cultural areasof the earth, the process of establishing valuestandards, the process of securing minimum ad-herence to value standards, the process of develop-ing and operating the agencies of social organiza-tion, the process of cultural continuance andcultural change.

4. The program of social science instructionshould give a broad and comprehensive concep-tion of the evolution of civilization, laying stresson the idea of development, drawing contrastsbetween the present and the past, embracing thediverse contributions of races and peoples, reli-gions and cultures, and giving a broad perspectiveof the fortunes, problems, and achievements ofmankind.

5. The program of social science instructionshould provide for a similar but more detailedstudy of the evolution of Western civilization,emphasis being placed on changing modes ofproduction and distribution, on the succession ofsocial systems, ways of life and ethical concep-tions, on the development of democratic ideals

5I


and practices, on the accumulation and spreadof knowledge and learning, on the advance ofscience, technology, and invention, on the abid-ing traditions of the unity of Western cultureand on its growing integration in world culture .6. The program of social science instruction

should provide for a yet more detailed study ofthe history of the American people with partic-ular reference to the material conquest of the con-tinent, the development of the democratic herit-age, the popular struggle for freedom and oppor-tunity, the spread of individualistic economy,the rise of technology and industrial civilization,the increase of productivity, the emergence of anintegrated economy, the growth of local, regional,

5 and national planning and the extension of eco-nomic, political, and cultural relationships withother nations and peoples of the world .

7. The program of social science instructionshould provide for a realistic study of the life,institutions, and cultures of the major peoples ofthe contemporary world, of the rivalries, the con-flicts of interest, and the underlying causes of war

52


among the nations, and of all efforts directedtoward the promotion of international peace andthe rational ordering of the life of mankind . Inview of the growing interdependence of the na-tions, the increasing significance of the Far East,and the rapid development of certain newer re-gions, relatively more attention should be givento Latin America, to Africa and particularly toAsia.

8. The program of social science instructionshould provide for a realistic study of the life,institutions, and culture of contemporary Amer-ica. In doing this, it cannot omit study of theinefficiencies, the corruptions, the tensions, theconflicts, the contradictions and the injustices ofthe age, or consideration of the material andspiritual potentialities implicit in man's masteryof natural forces.

9. The program of social science instructionshould make generous provision for the thoroughand judicial study of all the great theories, phi-losophies, and programs, however radical or con-servative they may appear, which have been de-

53


signed to deal with the growing tensions andproblems of industrial society .

io. The program of social science instruction,besides including bodies of knowledge andthought, should introduce the younger generationto sources for new and current materials and tomethods of inquiry, scrutiny, criticism, authen-tication, and verification. Knowledge of suchsources and ability to use such methods shouldconstitute one of the major aims of all socialscience instruction .

ii . The program of social science instructionshould not be regarded as wholly instrumental tothe induction of boys and girls into the responsi-bilities and duties of citizenship and social living .It should also stimulate intellectual curiosity andsympathy and foster the growth of avocational aswell as practical interests. It should open up toevery pupil a wide field for the delights of theeye, the heart, and the mind-for the rich andwholesome cultivation of xsthetic, emotional,and intellectual interests, appreciations, andactivities.

54


D . THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PROGRAM

i . The organization of the program of socialscience instruction in terms of age levels or schoolgrades is fundamentally conditioned by the ex-perience and powers of the child .

2 . In the process of maturing the child mani-fests a twofold development: he extends his ex-perience and he deepens his powers ; he progressesfrom the near to the remote in time and space,and from elementary sensory response to themost abstract forms of thought ; he moves outfrom the family into the neighborhood, the com-monwealth, the nation, and the world, and fromthe present to the most distant reaches of the pastand the future ; he proceeds from absorption inhis immediate physical surroundings to an appre-ciation of such universal concepts as liberty, equal-ity, and fraternity; he advances from a condition

¢ of helplessness in social situations to ability toparticipate effectively in group life, to engage inprofound movements of social reform and recon-struction, and even to provide political, intellec-

55


tual or moral leadership for community, nationor mankind .

3. Organized instruction in the social sciencesis designed to hasten, extend, and perfect this two-fold process of maturing, always building on theactual experiences and powers of the child andnever over-leaping that frontier of functionalknowledge, thought, and will which marks theboundaries of the real world of the learner .4. To place complete dependence on words and

books and thus to disregard the laws and condi-tions of mental growth results inevitably in giv-ing to both teacher and pupil a false sense ofachievement . It is therefore imperative that eachphase, aspect or topic of instruction be related tothe actual life experiences of the pupil .5. The application of these principles to the

teaching of the social sciences suggests the un-reality of a program composed of disparate unitsof study for the several grades of the publicschool, organized primarily in terms of academictesting and the accumulation of credits . Thatprogram should represent a steady, unified, andcontinuous progression from year to year in ex-

56


tending the social horizon of the child, in deep-ening his understanding of human society andin strengthening his capacity for co-operativeaction and civic leadership .

6. Every topic of instruction in the socialsciences, if concerned with actuality, contains atleast six elements or aspects : location in physicallyconditioned space, occurrence at some point intime, action by human beings, relationship toother social happenings (economic, political, andcultural), relationship to other ideas and appli-cation to life situations. The seemingly mostsimple subject is in fact extremely complex andcapable of comparatively infinite development .Consequently, almost any social event, prac-tice, institution or idea, if brought into relation-ship with the experience of the learner, may bestudied with some profit at almost any level ofmaturity.

7. All of this means that instruction in thesocial sciences should begin in the earliest years ofschooling, not with the life and institutions ofsome people remote in time, space, and, culturaldevelopment, but with the life and institutions-of-

57


the surrounding community-the simple socialrelationships of the family and the neighborhoodand the modes of providing food, clothing, shel-ter, medical care, education, recreation, culturalopportunities and security of person .

8. Observation and discussion, however, shouldbe coupled with actual participation in the or-ganization and conduct of the life of the schooland in all socially useful activities in the com-munity that can be co-ordinated with the work ofthe school-the government of the school, theorganization of social undertakings, the observa-tion of institutional functioning, the study ofsocial, economic and political operations, the con-sideration, preparation and criticism of plans(economic, hygienic, and xsthetic) for commu-nity betterment, and, as social interests dominatenew areas, the integration of the school withmovements in local, national, and internationallife.

9. On this foundation of concrete and first-hand social observation, activity and experience-much of which the child inevitably brings to theschool when he begins his formal education, and

58


which expands as he matures, travels about andbears social responsibilities of ever-increasinggravity-the entire program of social scienceinstruction should be erected .

io. In order that the teacher or administratormay have a more concrete picture of the applica-tion of these broad principles, the Commission,without special or exclusive endorsement, sug-gests the following plan of organization as soundand relevant and illustrative of what might beattempted in any system of schools embracingthe years of elementary and secondary educa-tion :

a. In the elementary school major attentionwould be devoted to a study of the making of thecommunity and the nation, although materialsbearing on the development of world society andculture would by no means be excluded . Theprogram would begin with the neighborhood inwhich the child lives. Starting from a first-handstudy of the life, institutions, and geography ofthe community, it would proceed to an examina-tion of social changes taking place in the locality,of the history of the place, of the civilization of

59


the Indian in the same area, of the contrastingelements of European and Indian culture and ofearly and later American culture . Emphasiswould be placed throughout on actual participa-tion in the social activities of school and neigh-borhood,, and every part or phase of the programwould begin and end in the contemporary andsurrounding community which the child knowsdirectly. Thus the pupil would develop an activeinterest in the fortunes of society and acquire astock of ideas which would enable him to gobeyond the immediate in time and space . Hewould then be led by natural connections-gen-etic and functional-to the study of the making ofthe region and the nation. Through such an or-ganization of materials the elementary schoolwould acquaint the child as fully as possible withthe evolution of American culture-local and na-tional-and to some extent with the origins ofAmerican culture in the Western world .

b. In the secondary school the central themewould be the development of mankind and theevolution of human culture, with the emphasessuggested elsewhere in this chapter and with

6o


constant reference to the present and to Ameri-can civilization. This program might culminatein the study, through concrete and living mate-rials, of regional geography, of comparative eco-nomics, government and cultural sociology, ofthe major movements in social thought and actionin the modern world, of the most recent de-velopments on the international stage-a studyin which the experience, the knowledge and thethought of all the preceding years would bebrought to bear, by means of comparison and con-trast, upon the emerging problems, tensions, andaspiratiops, the evolving social programs and phi-losophies of mankind and of the American peoplein their regional and world setting. Also spe-cial attention would be given in the secondaryschool to the reading of historical and social litera-ture, including newspapers and magazines, greathistoric documents, classics of social thought, andto the achievement of familiarity with the methodsand instruments of inquiry in the social sciences,with historical criticism, analysis, verification, andauthentication. This program should embraceboth the junior and senior divisions of the secon-

6z


dary school and reach into the years of the juniorcollege .

ii . In the organization of all social science in-struction an effort should be made to develop inthe pupil the concept of the principle of continuity-the concept that nothing ever did or does existin isolation, that everything is always in processof change or becoming, that no event is withoutantecedents and sequences. Through such a studythe pupil should acquire a realistic outlook uponthe world and a broad perspective for the ap-praisal of persons, events, programs and ideas.

E. MATERIAL AIDS OF INSTRUCTION

i . Both the content and the organization of thesocial science program are strongly conditionedby the various material aids employed in teach-ing. Effective instruction consequently requires afar more generous and discriminating provisionof these aids, particularly in rural communities,than most American schools now enjoy.

2 . Although the gifted and well-trained teacherwill be able to achieve much from the use of a

62


few textbooks and the utilization of the life andinstitutions of the school and surrounding com-munity, a well-equipped library is indispensableto the realization of the purposes outlined by theCommission. In spite of the recommendations ofa succession of important committees during thepast forty years, the library of the ordinary schoolremains pitifully inadequate . In some schoolbudgets library equipment for the social sciencesreceives smaller appropriations than typewriters .The American people have generally regardedthe purchase of books as a waste of money ; theyhave preferred to devote their resources to theconstruction of great buildings, or to the develop-ment of a winning football team . Children areconsequently permitted to grow up with only themost perfunctory acquaintance with books. Thecurrent economic depression has practically wipedout even the modest appropriations customarilyassigned to this service, at a time when the library 'should be accorded one of the first claims onpublic funds .

3. The library should include books of refer-ence, source materials, contemporary writings in

63


the social sciences, current newspapers and peri-odicals, and the great classics of social thought.The fact is too little known that any one of theseclassics can be had for the price of seventy cents .4. The library should also include a good selec-

tion of maps, atlases, charts, and pictures . Buthere the Commission would issue a word of cau-tion. While an analytical catalogue of geograph-ical photographs of minimum number, countryby country, is of great value to the school, exces-sive or undiscriminating use of merely pictorialillustration is deplorable in either scientific oreducational exposition. Unless pictures are se-lected with discrimination and in clear relation topurpose, to facts, ideas, or conclusions which areexpected to emerge from an analysis of landscape,city composition, mode of transport or produc-tion practice, they may result in the wasting of

. ...time and the debauching of instruction. Maps,charts, and pictures, as well as books, newspapers,and periodicals, should always be selected andutilized with reference to some clearly conceived

-- purpose of education.5. The program of the Commission, however,

64

Materials o f Instruction

calls for something more than the utilization ofprinted materials already available ; it also callsfor the systematic preparation, according to thegeneral conception outlined in the earlier pagesof the chapter, of a rich and comprehensive bodyof literary and graphic matter for use in theschools from the first grade through the twelfthand even into the junior college-source mate-rials, books, newspapers and periodicals, maps,charts, and pictures . Particularly needful is thedevelopment of an extensive children's literaturewhich will relate in fascinating detail and episodethe story of the evolution of culture and man'sadventure upon the earth-a literature which willdescribe the rise of industrial society and tell, inlanguage a child can understand, of the achieve-ments, the failures, the wonders, the tragedies,the potentialities of the modern world .

6. In conclusion the fundamental fact shouldbe recognized that the greatest of all material aidsis the actual life of the school and the surround-ing society. This life should of course be utilizedto the fullest in the instruction of childhood andyouth in the ways of man and society .

65


F . A FINAL CAVEAT

i . The Commission refuses to endorse any de-tailed scheme of organization as best calculatedto accomplish the purposes above stated and assuited in one precise form to the schools of theentire country.2. The Commission believes that, within the

limits of the general principles outlined above,considerable variety of adaptation to local condi-tions is both possible and desirable, but that speci-fic recommendations . for any school system shouldbe made by competent teachers in the socialsciences in consultation with able scholars.3. Since some frame of reference, clarified or

confused as the case may be, does in fact controlthe selection and organization of materials, it isobvious that any professional or pedagogicalmethod of selecting and organizing materials,professedly applicable to all subjects and guaran-teed to produce "results," is formalistic self-deception.

4. The major task of the social science teacheris to clarify his purposes and adjust the substance

66


of his instruction to those purposes, bringing tothe members of the younger generation a bodyof thoroughly relevant knowledge, thought andappreciation, and developing in them power forequally relevant thought and action.


BEARD, C. A., The Nature of the Social Sciences;BOWMAN, ISAIAH, Geography in Relation to the Social

Sciences;COUNTS, G. S ., The Social Foundations of Education;JOHNSON, HENRY, An Introduction to the History of theSocial Sciences in the Schools ;

KELLEY, T. L ., and KREY, A. C ., Progress in Learningin the Social Science Subjects as Indicated by Tests ;

MARSHALL, L. C ., and GOETZ, RACHEL MARSHALL, ASocial Process Approach to Curriculum-Making in theSocial Studies ;

MERRIAM, C. E., Civic Education in the United States ;TRYON, R. M., The Social Studies as School Subjects .

67

CHAPTER V

METHOD OF TEACHING

A.

i . Method of teaching is a rational orderingand balancing, in the light of knowledge andpurpose, of the several elements that enter intothe educative process-the nature of the pupil,the materials of instruction, and the total learn-ing situation.

2. Method of teaching in the social sciences isa rational ordering and balancing of these ele-ments directed toward the achievement of thebroad purpose outlined in earlier pages-the de-velopment in the mind of the pupil of a large andclarified conception of man in his social relations,the release and cultivation of the creative andself-directing powers of the pupil as an inde-pendent, active, co-operative personality, and theinduction of the pupil into effective participation

68

Method o f Teaching

in the life of a democratic society which in itslocal, national, and world aspects is becoming in-creasingly integrated.

3. Since purpose gives direction and meaningto every educational undertaking, it follows thatmethod apart from purpose lacks both directionand meaning ; that the best method linked toinferior, irrelevant, confused or unsocial purpose,as judged by some accepted frame of reference,can give only inferior, irrelevant, confused orunsocial results ; and that method, like knowl-edge, must be conceived, applied, and appraisedin terms of purpose.

B. CRITIQUE OF CONTEMPORARY EMPHASES

z. Faith in method, divorced from knowledge,thought, and purpose, has long been the besettingsin of pedagogy in the United States. Whetherin the sphere of classroom teaching, curriculumconstruction, testing procedures, or school admin-istration, the consideration of substance and valuesis all too often subordinated to method and tech-nique .

69


2. This devotion to method and technique per seis revealed in the interest aroused by the inven-tion of a new or the rediscovery of an old peda-gogical device, in the heated discussions at educa-tional meetings over the relative merits ofcompeting "methods," in the spread of varioustechniques for the "objective" determination ofprograms of civic training, and in the time,energy, and money consumed in the constructionof tests, scales, score-cards, outlines, units, andstereotypes of one kind or another.3. This obsession with formalistic methodology

has also manifested itself very generally in theprograms of teacher training institutions . Dur-ing the past generation these institutions havetended to overload their curricula with courses inthe mechanics of instruction and administration,have directed their attention too largely to therefinement and super-refinement of techniques,have neglected the more fundamental problemsof purpose, thought, value and content and havelamentably failed to co-ordinate training in teach-ing procedure with scholarship in subject matter .Being absorbed in improving the mechanics of

70

Method of Teaching

the educative process, they have unwittinglyaccepted social conceptions and purposes inheritedfrom the past.

4. The traditional and generally current em-phasis on a narrowly conceived methodologyrequires correction, and is actually being correctedin certain schools and teacher-training centers . Itis totally out of harmony with the conception ofeducation outlined in this volume ; it violates theprinciple here maintained that the validity andadequacy of the school program depend both onthe adjustment of its content and procedures tothe nature of the pupil and on the correspond-ence of its purposes with the unfolding fortunes,potentialities, and hopes of society .

5. In the measure that method is dissociatedfrom appropriate content or knowledge of pupilgrowth, education becomes shallow, formal orcapricious, or all three. There is no procedurethat can render substance unnecessary ; there is notechnique of classroom legerdemain that can takethe place of scholarly competence ; there is nodevice of instruction that can raise the quality ofthe educative process above the purpose, the

71


knowledge, the understanding, the vision of theteacher who employs it .

6. When the nature of the social sciences, assystem and flow of thought, is taken into account,it becomes evident at once that methodology,however useful and indispensable when devel-oped in relation to content and purpose, is utterlyincompetent in itself to organize, control, anddirect the teaching process. Even in the mindand work of the purest methodologist some frameof reference, not method, dominates organizationand emphasis. These considerations are partic-ularly applicable to teacher training institutions,curriculum makers, and persons engaged in thesupervision of social science instruction .

7. Since methodology, if considered intrinsi-cally, is inseparable from the content of thoughtin the field involved, it cannot be organized suc-cessfully into a separate discipline and be madethe peculiar possession of a teacher, a supervisor,or even a teacher-training institution .

8. Methodology, if it revolves around its owncenter, becomes an intellectual operation akin tothat of the Sophists of ancient Greece or of the

72

Method of Teaching

minor scholastics of the Middle Ages ; if it ad-vances to the center of the substance with whichit deals, it becomes a relevant aspect of purposefulactivity .9. In concluding this criticism of the contem-

porary emphasis on formalistic method the Com-mission would point out that this emphasis, as indi-cated in chapter VII, represents in some measurea reaction from an equally formalistic empha-sis or knowledge in the colleges and universities_and a widespread disregard of the psychologicalproblems involved in the teaching and learningprocesses. Many a college education has been filedaway in a drawer of notes and notebooks, thereto gather dust and be forgotten . Knowledge, likemethod, if ineffectively related to significant pur-pose, is sterile.

C. BROAD CONDITIONING FACTORS

i . Method of teaching in the social sciences isbroadly conditioned in American schools by anumber of important factors which should bementioned and appraised .

73


2 . Method of teaching is conditioned by thefact of continuity in child growth. The Commis-sion regards as fundamental the organization ofsocial science instruction in a single unified andcomprehensive program extending from the kin-dergarten to the junior college and marked bysteady progression from year to year. Only con-fusion can flow from the theory that instructionin any grade can be organized without referenceto what has gone before or what is to come after .

3. Method of teaching is conditioned by theorganization of the materials of instruction . In-deed a decision concerning the general pattern ofthe organization of the course of study in thesocial sciences is at the same time a decision inmethod. The Commission, as already pointedout, places its stamp of approval on no particularplan of organization .4. Method of teaching is conditioned by the

facts of grading and classification . These prac-tices almost compel a large measure of groupinstruction, encourage the regimentation of thepupil and make peculiarly imperative consciousand planned provision for the development of

74

Method of Teaching

individuality . The problem involved is the moredifficult because of the wide range of abilities ateach grade level and even in the so-called "homo-geneous group.

5. Method of teaching is conditioned by theextent and excellence of the material aids ofinstruction . At present, as pointed out elsewhere,the library and teaching equipment for the socialsciences is utterly inadequate to meet the demandsof the program outlined by the Commission .Even the materials available, now badly curtailedby the depression, are unsuited to the purposeshere developed.

6. Method of teaching is conditioned by thepublic relations of the school. If instruction inthe social sciences is to be marked by realism andhonesty, the surrounding community must serveas a laboratory for the uncensored study of sociallife-conflicts, tensions and cases of corruption,as well as trends, achievements and examples ofdevotion to the public welfare. To-day, becauseof the relative isolation of the school, the timidityand weakness of the profession and the power ofvested interests and privileged groups, the teacher

75


seldom dares to introduce his pupils to the truthabout American society and the forces that driveit onward .

7. Method of teaching is conditioned by thecharacter and training of the teaching staff. Incomparison with the social science teacher in themore advanced European countries the Americanteacher is poorly trained . Except in the largerpopulation centers and a few favored states hisprofessional preparation is small in quantity andpoor in quality, and he has no adequate concep-tion of the significance of education as a socialforce. Until this situation is drastically improvedthe school cannot be expected to play an effectiverole in equipping the younger generation to dis-charge its arduous and urgent civic and socialobligations.

8. Finally, method of teaching is conditionedby the character of the supervision provided . Inview of the low level of social science instructionin the country and the inadequate training of theteacher, the need for high grade and disinterestedprofessional service here can scarcely be over-emphasized. The aim of such service, however,

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Method o f Teaching

should be, not the imposition upon the school ofa minutely prescribed program and a system ofclose inspection, but rather the stimulation of thepersonal and professional growth of the teacherand the creation of those conditions of workwhich will release to the fullest possible extentthe creative powers of the profession .

D. GOOD TEACHING

i. The fact that a large part of so-called teach-ing method is formal and barren does not meanthat the question of method is without impor-tance; it means rather that method should take itsplace in a balanced conception of the educativeprocess. The Commission recognizes the need ofseeking constantly for better means of relatingmaterials to the experience of the pupil and gen-erally of improving instruction in the socialsciences .

2. Although observations, conducted by theCommission, of reputed good teaching and ofrecognized superior teachers in the social sciences,reveal no uniformity in the use of classroom de-

77


vices and techniques, and although the personalityand general competence of the teacher wouldseem to transcend any formula of instruction,there are certain large considerations whichshould guide the teacher in the development ofthe course of instruction from day to day and inthe adjustment of the teaching process to thechanging situation created by the growth andspontaneity of the pupil and by the appearance ofnew relevancies in the life of society .

3. The competent teacher will hold in mindthe broad purpose of American education and willsee clearly the special responsibilities of the socialsciences in leading boys and girls to a fuller un-derstanding of and a more effective participationin the complex and dynamic social world ofmaterial things, persons, institutions, conflicts,thought, ideals, and aspirations .

4. The competent teacher will adjust his in-struction to the experience and ability of the pupilin order that the knowledge, powers, and loyal-ties acquired will be useful and related to theworld in which the pupil actually lives and thinksand acts. Verbalism, the use of words without

78

Method of Teaching

understanding, has cursed the school all downthrough the centuries and, as investigations bythe Commission prove, continues to corrupt socialscience instruction in American schools to-day .

5. The competent teacher will supplement thetextbook, which will doubtless play an importantrole in social science instruction for many years,by an abundance of collateral reading, by books,newspapers, and magazines, by maps, photo-graphs, charts, models, motion pictures, museums,and materials for constructive activities, and bycarefully organized journeys, excursions, and fieldstudies in the home community and, if possible,in more distant regions .6. The competent teacher, without substituting

a fictitious world for the reality, will encouragethe pupil to make imaginary journeys, drawimaginary pictures and diagrams, write imagi-nary letters, dai iea and autobiographies, engagein imaginery debates and participate in variousforms of dramatization .

7. The competent teacher, in order to improvethe quality of his instruction, will seek to inte-grate his specialty with the work of his colleagues

79


in the social sciences and with the total schoolcurriculum-with instruction in literature, lan-guage, mathematics, natural science, and the arts .

8. The competent teacher, in an effort to keephis instruction in touch with living reality, willmake full use of the class group-its diverse per-sonalities, its differences in talent, its varied ex-periences, its conflicts of interests, its collectivelife ; will relate his work so far as possible, tothe organized life of the school as manifested insocial activities, student groupings, and schoolgovernment; and will regard the surroundingcommunity as his social laboratory, utilizing itslife and happenings and moving out through thenormal avenues of communication-the press,the movie, and the radio-to observe and appraisethe more important events in the nation and theworld .

9. The competent teacher will relate the educa-tive process to the interests of the pupil, not be-cause of any romantic faith in child nature or ofany equally romantic distrust of adult society, butrather because learning, in order to be vital, mustenlist the active and sustained interest of the

8o

Method of Teaching

learner. At the same time the competent teacherwill be constantly aware of the fact that countlessinterests lie dormant in every child, waiting tobe aroused by appropriate experiences, and thathe is under professional obligation to develop inthe pupil a continuing interest in social affairs .

io. The competent teacher, sensitive to the im-plications of the democratic ideal and consciousof the growing interdependence of social life, willappeal as little as possible to those motives whichtend to exacerbate the struggle between individ-uals and will encourage the fullest developmentof the social and creative impulses .

ii . The competent teacher, aware of the widedifferences among children with respect to everytrait or combination of traits, will adjust his in-struction within the class group to individualdifferences, will respect divergences of person-ality, and will stimulate the growth of all sociallydesirable abilities .

12. The competent teacher, being familiar withthe various material aids of instruction, alreadymentioned, and with diverse teaching devices,such as the question, the discussion, the individual

8a


report and the group project, will employ themrationally in the achievement of purpose, know-ing the value of each but being bound by none .

13 . The competent teacher, while avoiding allforms of academic pedantry and distinguishingthe significant from the trivial, will know thatlearning is usually a difficult -and arduous busi-ness, will make provision for indispensable drilland repetition, and will prepare and administertests of progress from time to time ; but in it allhe will appraise with appropriate humility theadequacy of his own judgments and of any class-room examinations to measure the long-timesocial results of instruction .

14 . The competent teacher, without evading asingle iota of his responsibility as the guiding anddirecting force in the educative process, will beunalterably opposed to the doctrine that the pupilshould be a passive recipient of his ministrations,an inert receptacle into which he is expected topour the knowledge and wisdom of the racethrough the pipe-lines of the written and spokenword. Knowing that real learning requires theactive response and participation of the pupil and

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Method o f Teaching

that the supreme goal of education within thegeneral frame of reference adopted is the growthof an independent yet socially sensitive person-ality, he will strive continuously to develop in thechild habits of independent study, inquiry,thought, and action and thus free him as quicklyand completely as possible from reliance uponthe formal and authoritarian tutelage of teacher,school, and elders. In particular he will endeavorto acquaint the pupil with diverse__ ideas andpoints of view .and cultivate in him a -reasonedscepticismm retarding the claims, advanced in sup-port of any social doctrine or,pr_gg}am .

z5. In fine the competent teacher will strive toemulate, even though his powers be relativelyfeeble, the methods of great thinkers and teachersof all ages-will become acquainted with theclassics and fundamental works in the given field,will know how to use bibliographical and libraryapparatus in the acquisition of knowledge, willknow how to apply the engines of scholarly cri-ticism, verification, and authentication to factstrue and alleged, will know how to analyze com-plicated documents and social situations, will

83


know how to take and weigh testimony by thejudicial process, will know how to observe theoccurrences and participate in the life of theneighborhood, will illustrate these procedures inclassroom and community, and by precept andexample will strive to transfer his powers to hispupils. Above all, the competent teacher shouldknow thoroughly the subject matter which heprofesses to teach, should see its relation to thelife of mankind, and should have an infectiousenthusiasm about it-to this, all teaching meth-ods are subordinate.

i6. When all is said that can be said concern-ing method, the great teacher defies analysis . Hecan neither be defined, nor his method dissectedor described ; but whoever comes into his presencefeels the power of a human spirit.


HORN, ERNEST, Methods of Instruction in the SocialSciences;

JOHNSON, HENRY, An Introduction to the History of theSocial Sciences in the Schools ;

84

Method of Teaching

KELLEY, T. L., and KREY, A. C., Progress in Learningin the Social Science Subjects as Indicated by Tests .

MARSHALL, L. C., and GOETZ, RACHEL MARSHALL, ASocial Process Approach to Curriculum-Making in theSocial Studies;

MERRIAM, C. E., Civic Education in the United States .

CHAPTER VI

TESTS AND TESTING

A.

i . Testing and learning are two aspects of asingle process .

2 . Some kind of test, practical or scholastic, hasbeen associated with education from the earliesttimes, whether it was the education of the Indianboy in the use of the bow and arrow, the youngChinese in the memorization of the sayings ofConfucius or the American child in the masteryof the English language .

3. The setting of goals to the learning process,however tentative and partial they may be, im-plies a program of testing or appraisal of somekind.

4. In the schools the test or examination hasalways played a prominent role both as a teachingdevice and as a measure of scholastic accomplish-ment. In its more refined forms it may also pos-sess some value for the long-time guidance and

86

Tests and Testing

counselling of individual pupils and for the ad-vancement of professional knowledge concerningthe organization and conduct of education.

5. In the present chapter attention will be di-rected primarily to certain new forms of tests, notbecause they have displaced the older methods ofexamination nor because they have a monopolyof either the merits or the limitations of academictesting, but rather because of their wide use andthe interest which they have aroused among bothteachers and citizens . Much of what follows maybe applied with equal force to all types of formalexaminations devised for use in the schools. TheCommission wishes to emphasize from first tolast the fairly obvious, though very importantand often neglected, fact that the final appraisalof any program of social science instruction willbe made, not in the school, but in the life of thesociety which the school is expected to serve .

B . THE TESTING MOVEMENT

i . In the early years of the twentieth centurycertain new forms of tests, more precise and ob-

87


jective within the limits of their operation thanthe judgments of teachers and the traditionalschool examinations, appeared and, though op-posed in certain quarters, spread through thecountry with great rapidity .

2 . An extensive literature on testing accumu-lated, departments for developing the theory andpractice of testing were established in colleges anduniversities, school systems were surveyed andappraised in certain of their aspects by means ofthe new tests, research departments devotedlargely to testing were organized by city and statesystems of schools, an enormous amount ofenergy and talent went into the construction oftests and scales, and the hope was cherished bymany that the entire process of education wouldbe removed from the domain of personal judg-ment and evaluation and placed firmly on thefoundation of objective determination. In thenineteen-twenties, however, a reaction set in andthe more discriminating members of the testingprofession came gradually to disavow the moreextreme claims of the earlier period .

3. The rapid rise of this testing or measure-88

Tests and Testing

ment movement was due no doubt to a numberof factors or conditions-to the demonstrateddefects of the traditional modes of testing ; to thegreat popularity and prestige of natural science ;to the sustained effort on the part of a number ofable young men to convert education into ascience; to the rise of quantitative and mechanisticpsychology ; to the growth of city school systemsof great complexity demanding new forms ofadministration ; and to the borrowing by schoolmen of ideas of control and efficiency from largebusiness enterprise.

4. Concerning the value for education of thistesting movement as a whole the Commissionpasses no judgment, but confines itself wholly tothe field of its special competence-the use oftests in appraising the results of social scienceinstruction and in the formulation of practicesinvolving social relations, institutions, andpolicies. For purposes of convenience and rele-vance these new testing instruments will be con-sidered under three heads : tests of intelligence,tests of character and culture, and tests of class-room products .

89


C . TESTS OF INTELLIGENCE

i . The intelligence test has commonly beenregarded, by both laymen and specialists, asan instrument for the measurement of someinborn and fairly stable intellectual quality orability .

2. In recent years, owing to the accumulationof evidence of a contrary nature, this interpreta-tion of the results of the test has been consider-ably shaken. At present there seems to be nogeneral agreement among students as to what itis that the test actually measures.3. The intelligence test has been employed in

the schools for three major but closely relatedpurposes: for the diagnosis of educability at aparticular moment; for the classification of pupilsinto "homogeneous" instructional groups ; andfor the guidance of children into vocational cur-ricula and into occupations. Since the first use,though important at the lower levels of ability,falls outside the competence of the Commission,and since the second has been found by experi-ence to be of little consequence., the intelligence

90

Tests and Testing

test is to be appraised here in terms of its bearingon occupations and the related problems of socialorganization .

4. In view of the uncertainty concerning themeaning of intelligence test scores, the utility ofthe test in the formulation of social and educa-tional policies is patently limited and is chal-lenged by contemporary social knowledge andthought .

5. Whatever may be the nature of intelligence,the social sciences, being unable to isolate itfrom conduct and social manifestations, fromsocial classes and their cultural apparatus, fromthe evolution of ideas as forces in history, fromexercises of will, from ethical and xsthetic aspira-tions and valuations, cannot accept the theorythat intelligence is a self-contained particularitywhich acts inexorably as an independent andoriginal force in society .

6. If, however, the declared measurements andgradations of intelligence are accepted at facevalue as corresponding to realities in fact, no posi-tive conclusions and formulations respecting edu-cation, citizenship, and public policy automati-

9r


cally emerge from these measurements and grada-tions.7. The idea that, from the standpoint of mental

equipment, men may be classified into superior,medium, and inferior is as old as the Greeks andhas aroused the most diverse thought amongsocial theorists, statesmen, and practical men .

8. The fact that at the present moment inAmerican society the intelligence of the popula-tion manifests a certain distribution with respectto occupations throws little or no light on whatthe distribution should be in the interests of so-ciety or may be as occupations shift under themovement of ideas and interests . Neither does itgive precise and positive guidance in determiningwhether a child with a given level of intelligenceshould be advised to enter a particular occupationor profession, or embark upon a particular career,irrespective of his economic and cultural circum-stances. Such findings give not the slightest clueto the social utility of the various occupationsfrom racketeering to banking, or to the values andrestraints which society may or should place onoccupational classifications and activities .

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Tests and Testing

9. A review of the history of conceptions ofsuperiority and inferiority-the attitude of thelanded aristocracy to the merchant class, of thebourgeois to the working class, of race to race-counsels the use of caution in accepting the pro-nouncements of psychology, of social science orof any academic, occupational, political, racial orsectarian body as finalities in the realm of socialthought.

io. Wide and deep knowledge of the methodsand findings of intelligence testing is in itselfutterly inadequate to the task of determiningsocial or educational policies, because such policieshave their roots in a complex of ideas and inter-ests in which conceptions of intelligence grada-tion condition, but do not determine, purpose .

I i . Since the arrangement of occupations, activ-ities, modes of life, cultural apparatus or othersocial phenomena in any order of importance orof assigned mathematical value is not determinedby the intrinsic nature of the thing rated, as inthe case of the correct scale of atomic weights,but is made of necessity by some person or groupof persons of given occupational or interest affilia-

93


tions, the social sciences will rightly insist onknowing the judges who judge the judged andwill proceed to an analysis of the social ideas andcircumstances which condition their judgments .

12 . In the light of the social sciences the ratingof an engineer or a Y. M. C. A. secretary as moreimportant or more valuable than a skilled artisanis to be regarded as utterly beyond the compe-tence of objective determination .

D. TESTS OF CHARACTER AND CULTURE

i . In their efforts to measure environment, con-duct, honesty, good citizenship, service, knowl-edge of right and wrong, self-control, will, tem-perament, and judgment, the testers are dealingwith matters that are not susceptible of mathe-matical description. The assignment of mathe-matical values to ethical and xsthetic experiencesis meaningless to contemporary social knowledgeand thought .

2 . Before attempting to cover such elusivevalues and variables the tester should read andponder the outstanding works of social sciencedealing with absolute and relative ethics, with the

94

Tests and Testing

relations of mankind and environment, with theconnections of ideas and interests, and with theefforts to pass judgment on the "good citizen-ship" and "service" of such personalities asGeorge III and George Washington, John C . Cal-houn and Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln andJefferson Davis, Bismarck and Thiers .

3. Any effort to define and measure honesty,good citizenship, service and other qualities rela-tive to the objectives of instruction in the schoolsimmediately involves the social sciences and raisesthe fundamental question whether techniquesdependent on "paper" and "apparatus" are reallyapplicable to the large and complicated operationsof society which come under the head of honesty,service, and other social qualities .

4. It is appropriate to observe that "cheating,"which in the classroom is capable of fairly cleardefinition, in real life runs all the way fromactions which are prohibited by criminal law,through actions which are lawful but becomingdubious in social sanction, to cleverness in takingadvantage of a victim's ignorance as approved bywhat is called "business morality." In the lightof large community and historical movements

95


such tests of honesty and service as have thus farbeen made are mere trivialities .

5. Finally, as in the case of the intelligence tests,if the findings and measurements of testing withrespect to character and culture are taken at theirface value, no conclusions with respect to socialpolicy and action automatically emerge from suchfindings and measurements .

E. TESTS OF CLASSROOM PRODUCTS

i . From the standpoint of the teaching of thesocial sciences, the new-type tests for measuringthe results of instruction in scholastic terms andin the lower ranges of social knowledge andthought constitute the only significant contribu-tion of the testing movement.2. These tests, which represent an effort to im-

prove upon the traditional examination, varymuch in form, content, and purpose, but are allalike in that they strive after objectivity and theelimination of all subjective and personal factorsfrom the appraisal of pupil performance on thetests .

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Tests and Testing

3. The new-type tests, when applied to thesocial sciences, are subject to severe limitations :like all forms of schoolroom examination theyare confined to the immediate outcomes of in-struction and throw little if any light on the longtime results, but being mechanical in characterthey are even inapplicable to many of the imme-diate outcomes of instruction .

4. In the construction of tests in the socialsciences, whether old-type or new-type, technique,apart from knowledge of subject matter andthought about the purposes and ends of instruc-tion, is worthless.

5. The experience of social science teacherswith new-type tests indicates that such tests arecompetent to test, for academic purposes, memoryof facts, a partial understanding (definition) ofterms used in social studies, at least in some rela-tions, and certain logical, discriminatory, andassociational powers .

6. In testing these results of learning, new-typetests, within the limits of their operation, may besuperior to the general written examination inthe range of sources of information which may

97


be drawn upon for single tests, in the positivegradation of items from easy to hard, in theestablishment of uniform standards from class toclass and from school to school and in the objec-tivity of marking ; yet the allegations of supe-riority rest on the assumption that values assignedto items are real values, that is, values that havemeaning for the lives of pupils in society .

7. New-type tests are useful in checking againstteachers' judgments and other sources respectingthe information, knowledge, and scholastic at-tainments of students .

8. The experience of social science teachers in-dicates, on the other hand, that the new-typetests are of very limited competence in measuringthe desirable skills, loyalties, and attitudes in-volved in obtaining information, in authenticat-ing and analyzing sources, in weighing evidence,in drawing conclusions, and in constructing fromsuch operations schemes of knowledge andthought .

9. The perils involved in the use of these testsare many and serious-the subordination of per-sonality to mechanics, the emphasis on mere aca-

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Tests and Testing

demic performance, the abandonment of otherforms of testing and teachers' judgments, thestimulation and admission of guessing on thepart of pupils, the propagation of a false sense ofsecurity and certainty founded on alleged objec-tive, quantitative or scientific data, the assump-tion that the mathematical values assigned to testquestions correspond to psychological realities,the assumption that quantitative measurementsapplied to ethical and xsthetic values have mean-ing, and the assumption that tests may be con-structed mechanically from materials in handwithout reference to some philosophy, grand orpetty, behind the entire program of instruc-tion .

io. Where the new-type tests are chiefly reliedupon two major evils are sure to emerge-theplacing of a fictitious rating on the student whois clever at learning the "tricks of the trade," andthe encouragement of students to go to college orinto life without ever having to put forth contin-uous and constructive effort in thinking andwriting in the fields of history, political science,economics, sociology, and human relations .

99


II . The use by administrative officers of thefindings of objective tests in grading and pro-moting teachers encourages the latter to concen-trate on the mechanical aspects of learning,thought, and study. When they form the soleor major basis for judgment they are a menaceto education .

12. The general emphasis in these tests onvocabulary encourages reliance on verbalismrather than thought, and leads to the acquisitionof words rather than to growth in understandingand competence in the realm of social relation-ships .

F. GENERAL APPRAISAL OF TESTING

I . The assumption that new-type tests canguide and measure the efficiency of instruction inthe social sciences is based on misconceptions ofsocial processes, and such tests, except where usedas occasional checks on other examining methods,do positive damage to the minds and powers ofchildren in the ways already indicated .

2 . They have provided no adequate substituteI00

Tests and Testing

for the older forms of examination or for the liv-ing, informed, and thoughtful judgment of thecompetent and thoroughly trained teacher .

3. Since testing of any kind in the school islimited largely to classroom and playground per-formances, efforts to project the results of suchtesting into the future lives of students in a chang-ing society should be controlled by realisticknowledge of social thought and action .

4. In the final analysis the actual testing of aprogram of social science instruction is not con-ducted by teachers in the schools, but rather by theresponses of the individual to social situationsthroughout life and by the course of social eventsin which children so instructed participate .

5. The social results of the program of instruc-tion recommended by the present Commissionwill be tested, not in the classroom by teachers,but in the arena of social and political life andby the long sweep of history .


3101


BEARD, C. A., The Nature of the Social Sciences ;HORN, ERNEST, Methods of Instruction in the Social

Sciences;KELLEY, T. L ., and KREY, A. C., Progress in Learning in

the Social Science Subjects as Indicated by Tests .

102

CHAPTER VII

THE TEACHER

A.

i . The various inquiries conducted by the Com-mission point unmistakably and unerringly toone conclusion : the critical condition of Ameri-can and world society makes imperative socialscience instruction in the schools of the nationthat is marked by scholarship, courage, andvision .

2 . If this challenge is to be met successfully,faith must be placed primarily, not in more lux-uriously appointed school buildings or in refine-ments of the material and mechanical aspectsof administration and supervision-importantthough these may be-but in the increase of thecompetence and spiritual power of the individualteacher.

3. However competent and talented the ad-ministration may be, the scholarship, courage,and vision of social science instruction in the

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schools can rise no higher than the scholarship,courage, and vision of the social science teacher .Here is the keystone of the practical programwhich the Commission proposes for the considera-tion of the American people.4. Knowing that the competent teacher has no

need of detailed prescriptions of method andsubject matter, knowing that no set of mechan-ical and detailed outlines of procedure can rendercompetent the incompetent teacher, and knowingfurther that emphasis on the value of mere peda-gogical remedies gives a false sense of accom-plishment and stands in the way of the real im-provement of teaching, the Commission refusesto place its seal of approval on any particular setof pedagogical formula : .

5. The Commission therefore, fully aware ofits choice, frankly and deliberately addresses itsreport primarily to teachers who are either com-petent already or desirous of becoming so ; itmakes no effort to reach those who seek relief,through reliance on particular methods, from thepain of acquiring knowledge, taking thought,and clarifying purpose ; it makes no effort to reach

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The Teacher

those who have no desire to associate with thegreat spirits of all ages through the persistentstudy of the classics of social thought and nodesire to become familiar with the great socialtrends, tensions, and philosophies of the age .

6. In the present chapter the Commission isconcerned chiefly with outlining the conditionsnecessary to the development of a competent pro-fession of social science teaching in the country.The problem is threefold : (a) the selection ofgifted young men and women for the profession,(b) the organization of a program of trainingcommensurate with the purpose of social scienceinstruction, and (c) the provision of conditionsof work which will encourage the fullest develop-ment of the personal and professional powers ofthe teacher.

B. THE SELECTION OF PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS

i . In attacking the problem of selecting giftedyoung men and women for the profession theCommission is faced with the disconcertingdilemma: until the work of teaching is made

105


more challenging, inspiring, and attractive, itwill tend to draw persons of mediocre mentality ;but until it does succeed in drawing a larger num-ber of capable minds, it will tend to lack chal-lenge, inspiration, and attractiveness .

2 . Since the state exercises no power of con-scripting persons for the profession of teaching, itcan bring the more gifted into the service onlyby improving the conditions and rewards ofwork and by making the work worthy of thehighest qualities of mind and character potentialin humanity. But the state can be expected tomove in this direction only in response to pres-sure arising from some group or groups of citi-zens .

3. If the Gordian knot is to be cut, it will prob-ably be cut by the more active spirits in the pro-fession struggling for better conditions of work,formulating a more challenging and inspiringconception of teaching and carrying the argu-ment intelligently and persuasively to the public .At this point the question of selection merges intothe question of training .

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The Teacher

C. THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS

i . The kind of training which is appropriatefor the teacher depends upon how the functionof teaching is conceived. If it is conceived in termsof the practice of a narrow technique which is tobe mastered in all of its rigid detail, the pattern oftraining to be followed should be like that of oneof the more exact professions, such as mechanicalengineering; but if it is conceived in terms of theapplication of broad and diverse fields of knowl-edge, thought, and ideal to the physical, intellec-tual, and moral growth of the child and to thetransformation and enrichment of culture, thenthe pattern of training to be followed should belike that suited to the education of the artist, thepoet, the statesman, the spiritual leader of man-kind .

2 . The Commission takes this second concep-tion of teaching ; its members have argued atvarious places in their individual reports that edu-cation should be regarded as involving a pecu-liarly high and disinterested form of leader-ship .

107


3. Both tradition and practice of teacher train-ing in the United States have tended to follow thefirst conception, and many efforts have been madesince the opening of the present century to reduceeducation to a quantitative or deterministicscience, to make teacher training essentially amatter of the mastery of techniques and formulaeand thus to deny the role of the human spirit as adreaming, creative force in history .

4. This narrow emphasis in the preparation ofteachers may be traced in part to a dichotomy inhigher education that goes far back into the past :on the one hand, are the normal schools andteachers' colleges which, being asked to train thou-sands of teachers for a rapidly expanding systemof public education, conceived their task largelyin terms of methods and techniques and so fos-tered the separation of methodology from themain stream of social knowledge and thought ; onthe other, are the colleges and universities which,becoming engrossed in the pursuit of learning forits own sake or in the training of students for sur-vival in the acquisitive struggle for economic andsocial prestige and preferment, tended to neglect

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The Teacher

preparation for non-acquisitive leadership indis-pensable to the endurance of society .

4. With the emergence of an excessive faith inthe objective study of education narrowly con-ceived, the separation of methodology fromknowledge and thought was widened and deep-ened. While teacher training institutions multi-plied their technical courses and consolidatedtheir position behind legislative enactment, thedepartments of social science in colleges and uni-versities carried specialization in scholarship andinstruction to ever greater lengths, became moreand more absorbed in the minutia of research,and generally fostered the doctrine that the studyof such a subject as the origin of the tsubo inJapan was for some reason more important thanthe education of leaders in public life or thepreparation of teachers to lead children into pathsof knowledge and good living .

6. Teacher training institutions, neglecting theintensive study of evolving social thought, largely,though unwittingly, served out-moded socialideas and purposes; departments of the socialsciences in colleges and universities, scorning the

109


study of the relation of their subjects to education,shirked responsibilities and neglected opportuni-ties of the first magnitude.

7. If teachers of the social sciences in the schoolsare to be prepared for the performance of thetasks outlined in the present report, this oldbreach must be healed ; students of the socialsciences will have to view education as one of themain channels through which their work mayfind fruition; and persons engaged in teachertraining will have to become earnest students ofhuman society . Fortunately a movement in thisdirection is already discernible .8. For great university departments to refuse to

relate their work to the tasks of education willscarcely be tolerated in a closely integrated econ-omy managed in the interests of society ; forteacher training institutions to fail to make fulluse of social knowledge and thought in the for-mulation of their policies should be regarded asa gross neglect of duty .9. The Commission, refusing to take sides in

this struggle of vested interests in higher educa-tion, proposes : (a) a vigorous searching of hearts

IIO

The Teacher

by specialists in subject matter and in methodol-ogy; (b) a reunion in both instances of specialtywith the living tree of knowledge and thought ;and (c) a revaluation of subject matter andmethodology with reference to social purposeratl er than in terms of abstract logic and schemesof organization .

Io . In practical outcome, this will mean: (a) adrastic reduction in the number of highly spe-cialized courses in history, politics, economics, andsociology offered to teachers in colleges and uni-versities ; (b) the establishment of general andbalanced courses in these subjects for teachers ;(c) the organization of seminars in which teach-ers may receive rigorous training in those methodsof research, bibliographical operations, analysis,verification, synthesis, and criticism indispensableto the advancement of learning and effectiveinstruction .

II . In the field of teacher training this willmean : (a) a drastic curtailment in the numberof courses-often thin, arid, and duplicating-offered in the principles and methods of educa-tion; (b) an insistence that persons engaged in

III


training teachers in various branches of learningshall, first of all, be competent scholars in thesefields ; (c) the abandonment of the conception ofa distinct "science of education" and the reunionof education with the great streams of humanknowledge, thought, and aspiration-empirical,ethical, and aesthetic .

12. These proposals imply the dominanceneither of that anomalous profession known as"subject matter specialists" nor of that equallyanomalous group called "educational specialists" ;they imply a radical reformation of both tradi-tions and a close co-operation among the individ-uals in both groups who possess some sense ofhumor, some breadth of view, some capacity forthinking through and around their own opera-tions, and some feeling of responsibility, to thesociety which nourishes them and to the worldin which they live .

13 . These proposals imply further that the olddivision between colleges and universities, on theone side, and normal schools and teachers' col-leges, on the other, must be abolished and thetwo institutions of thought and training united .

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The Teacher

The weaker normal schools and teachers' collegesshould be closed, while the remainder shouldbecome centers, not of pedagogy as traditionallyconceived, but of knowledge and thought de-voted to the organization and conduct of educa-tion as a focal point in the evolution of culture .Social science departments in the colleges anduniversities, besides discharging their other obli-gations to society, should turn their attention tothe preparation of teachers and to the organiza-tion of materials of instruction for use in theschools .

14- When the philosophy, program, and pur-pose of instruction in the social sciences are thusclearly recognized and provisions made for thethorough preparation of teachers in knowledgeand thought, the various forms of pedagogicalprestidigitation, such as the unit method, thecorrelation method, the radiation method, thefusion method, the concomitant method, the di-optric method, and the penetralia method, appearin their true light as empty formalisms .

15 . In summary, an institution for the prepara-tion of social science teachers should be a center

II3


for introducing young men and women to arealistic knowledge of the trends, tensions, andconflicts of American society in its world setting,for bringing them into close and living connec-tion with all the great systems of social thought-ancient, modern, and contemporary,and for re-vealing to them the magnificent potentialities ofscience in the realization of the finest dreams ofmankind .

D. THE CONDITIONS OF TEACHING

I . Given the type of preparation outlined above,teachers would soon achieve those conditions andconceptions of work which might be expected topromote their personal and professional growthand their powers of service to the society thateducates and sustains them.

2. Seeing clearly that teaching is primarily afunction of a rich and many-sided personalityrather than a practice of some narrow technicalacquisition, they would resist all efforts on thepart of the administration or the public todwarf the person, the opportunity or the respon-

II4

The Teacher

sibility of the teacher in the name of formal effi-ciency .

3. They would demand freedom from the rigidprescriptions of formal and detailed supervision,from all practices pointing toward the mechani-zation and devitalization of the educative processand from every diversion tending to hamper theteacher in the discharge of his central responsi-bility-the steady improvement of the quality andenlargement of the conception of instruction . Onthe other hand, they would recognize and striveconscientiously to discharge their responsibilitiesin promoting the larger life of school and com-munity .4. They would insist that administration, on its

engineering side, assume its proper function offacilitating the work of teaching, and, on its hu-man side, provide both school and communityleadership of the very highest order; and on find-ing such an administration they would supportit against all attacks, both from within and fromoutside the schools .5. They would join the administration in ask-

ing of the community a teaching load that wouldII5


leave them some leisure to rest, to think, to travel,to pursue advanced study in their special and re-lated fields, and to maintain an active and intelli-gent interest in the affairs of the community, thestate, the nation, and the world .

6. They would request that the more gifted oftheir number be released occasionally from class-room duties so that they might devote their ener-gies and thought to questions of school policy,program making and preparation of materials ofinstruction-practices that fortunately under en-lightened administrative leadership have alreadybeen initiated in some communities .

7. They would strive for fair compensation, forsecurity of tenure, for adequate protection fromgroup pressures and generally for conditions ofwork which would help them in the perform-ance of their special functions for society . (Thesematters are treated in the next chapter .)

8. Finally, being keenly aware of their obliga-tions to society, they would systematically en-courage their own members to grow in profes-sional power and worth, but, failing in this,

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The Teacher

would support measures calculated to remove theincompetent teacher from the service.

E. THE POSSIBILITY

I . The Commission believes that the conceptionof the social science teacher just outlined is notUtopian, but rather is clearly capable of realiza-tion in the proximate future . Everything dependson whether leaders of thought and opinion amongthe American people really want a teacher of thistype .2 . The decline of the birth-rate during the past

several generations has at last reached the pointwhere the pupil population in the elementaryschools is declining from year to year . This de-cline is already making itself felt in the secondaryschools, and even in the colleges and universities .3. This means that the demand for teachers is

slackening, that the preparation of teachers canbe done much more thoroughly in the future thanin the past, and that the personnel of the profes-sion can be chosen more carefully than heretofore .

II7


4. Coupled with the tendency toward the sta-bilization of population is the complementarytendency of growth in the productive power ofthe economic mechanism and the consequentsteady release of more and more workers for theperformance of the various service functions inthe fields of medicine, recreation, science, art, andeducation.

5. These and other forces operating in indus-trial society make it easily possible for the schoolsto secure intelligent and thoroughly competentsocial science teachers-teachers of high scholar-ship, courage, and vision, and inspired by a loveof knowledge and of mankind .

The foregoing chapter is based on, and elabo-rated in :A Charter for the Social Sciences in the Schools ;BAGLEY, W. C., The Selection and Training of the

Teacher;BEALE, H. K ., Freedom o f Teaching in the Schools ;NEWLON, J. H., Educational Administration and Social

Policy ;PIERCE, BESSIE L., Citizens' Organizations and the Civic


II8

CHAPTER VIII

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND ADMINISTRATION

A.

I. The program for the teaching of the socialsciences which the Commission has outlined inits report is designed for a system of public schoolsfunctioning in and serving immediately Americansociety .2 . This means that the efficient execution of the

program depends on the social forces that envelopand play upon the school, as well as on the gen-eral soundness of the conception of administrationand teaching and on the personal and professionalcompetence of the administrative and teachingstaff .

3. It is neither possible nor desirable for theschool to function in a social vacuum; to the de-gree that it succeeds in drawing away from societyits work becomes artificial, formal, and obstruc-tive .

II9


B. THE SOCIAL SITUATION

i . A clear and unequivocal statement of policyregarding this question of the public relations ofthe school is peculiarly imperative in Americato-day because of the complexity and dynamicquality of industrial society, the growing numberand power of pressure groups and the develop-ment of an ever more formidable technique ofpropaganda.

2 . The extremely rapid tempo of social changeand movement, arising out of the drive of tech-nology and the restless energy of the Americanpeople, requires the perpetual adjustment and re-adjustment of the school to new conditions .3. American society, owing to its diversity of

races, religions, and cultures and its specializa-tion and differentiation of economic function, isdivided into many conflicting groups and ismarked by innumerable tensions .

4. Many of these groups, in proportion to theircoherence, power, and definiteness of purpose,seek to impose their special points of view uponthe schools and to convert public education into

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Public Relations and Administration

an instrument of propaganda to mould the mindsand hearts of the members of the coming gen-eration .

5. Also there are numerous forces operatingmore or less within the boundaries of the educa-tional enterprise, such as colleges and universities,teacher training institutions, college entranceboards, accrediting agencies, and private founda-tions, which exert great influence upon theschools.6. In this welter of external and internal forces

seeking influence over the schools, victory hasusually gone to groups having resources, time andprestige, and interested in preserving the tradi-tional forms in economy and government and inguarding or advancing their own rights, privileges,claims, and doctrines . Indifference and igno-rance on the part of the general public respect-ing the issues involved have led again and againto control by determined minorities .

7. The struggle has been aggravated and sharp-ened by a realization on the part of these groupsthat the school, on account of its phenomenal ex-pansion during the past two generations, has be-

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come an agency of great power over the thoughtand action of community and nation .

8. Efforts to control the school have also grownout of the fact that the conduct of public educa-tion involves the annual expenditure of betweentwo and three billion dollars on supplies, text-books, buildings, grounds, janitors' wages, teach-ers' salaries, bond flotations, and interest charges,which may be used in the punishment of enemies,the rewarding of friends, the forging of politicalmachines and the moulding of social thought andaction .

C. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EDUCATIONAL

PROFESSION

i. The charting of the course of the publicschool through this sea of conflicting forces is oneof the most difficult and important responsibilitiesof educational leadership and can be achievedonly by those who have a realistic and penetratingknowledge of the interests and forces that condi-tion and determine social thought and action, aswell as instruction in the schools .

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2. The responsibility cannot be evaded by thepurely legalistic argument that administratorsand teachers are merely the employees of theboard of education and are therefore to regardthemselves as supine agents in the hands of itsmembers, obeying its will and modifying the con-tent of instruction as it changes its mind, as theorganization of social forces shifts or as the playof group pressures alters. The ultimate arbiterbetween teacher and administrator, on the oneside, and any particular board on the other, is theentire community .

3. Neither can the responsibility be evaded bythe contention that the professional staff of theschools should merely respond to the wishes ofthe taxpayers, the owners of property, the classesof high social respectability or any other particu-lar group or interest in the community, state ornation seeking to dominate the school . Theteaching profession possesses special competencein the field of education, is obligated to think andact in terms of general social welfare, and is ex-pected to remain loyal to the highest conceptionof the future of the nation and of mankind.

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4. Also, since industrial society is so dynamicand since education consequently involves a per-petual sifting of values, this responsibility cannotbe evaded on the presumption that the schoolperforms a purely conserving function and trans-mits unchanged to the coming generation the"established values" and the traditional heritageof the race. Particularly should the teacher of thesocial sciences know that any appeal to the pastis an appeal to the spirit of change, because his-tory itself is a record of change .

5. The teaching profession, hiding behind nolegal fiction and taking dictation from no specialgroup or class, however powerful and respectable,is under obligation to conceive its task in termsof the widest and most fundamental interests ofsociety, ever seeking to advance the security andquality of living of all the people .

6. The profession therefore must resist with allits power every effort on the part of any groupto direct public education to the promotion ofnarrow and selfish ends.

7. Since the overwhelming majority of teachers124


are products of American culture their loyalty tothe general good and to the principles of democ-racy is not subject to question . In fact, being serv-ants of the community as a whole and beingtrained to think in terms of the more abidinginterests of mankind, they are peculiarly disso-ciated from every special group concerned withthe advancement of some narrow end and maytherefore be expected to manifest unusual devo-tion to the common weal .

8. If the school is to discharge the truly con-servative function of relievipg tensions in Ameri-can society and of bringing thought and reasonto bear on social adjustment, then reliance mustbe placed on the trained judgment of those towhom the actual conduct of public education isentrusted.

9. From this it follows that teachers in turn areunder obligation to avoid even the appearance ofthe exercise of irresponsible power, to refrain fromthe expression of uninformed, intemperate, andirrational judgments, to keep in close touch withthe thought and aspirations of the American peo-

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ple, and to perform all their duties in a spirit thatbecomes those engaged in shaping the future ofsociety.

D. THE STATUS OF THE TEACHER

i . In order that the teacher may discharge theheavy social responsibilities thus thrust upon him,he must achieve a stronger position in community,state, and nation than he has enjoyed in the past .

2 . The first requisite in the attainment of thisend, as pointed out in the preceding chapter, isa more intensive and extensive training of theteacher with a greatly increased emphasis on thestudy of social life as thought and action . Anyteacher aspiring to leadership in the professionshould be a careful student of American culturein its historical and world setting, of the dominantsocial trends of the age and of the social thoughtand action of the contemporary world .

3. A second requisite is economic security, free-dom from anxiety about unemployment and anincome., not extravagant, but commensurate withthe importance of the function performed and

1126


fairly proportioned to the wealth and income ofsociety.

4. A third requisite is working conditions thatenable the teacher to pursue the life of a student,not too greatly harassed by the routine demandsof the calling, and that stimulate the teacher togrow in professional and personal competenceand power .

5. A fourth requisite is the abandonment bythe teacher of that seclusion, aloofness or indiffer-ence which too often has been his habit and thedevelopment on his part of an active interest inthe life of the society served by the school, with-out becoming identified with or overwhelmed bynarrow and immediately practical interests andcommitments .

6. A fifth requisite is the guaranteeing to theteacher of a sufficient measure of freedom ofteaching to enable him to introduce his pupils toa thoroughly realistic and independent under-standing of contemporary society-its tensions,its contradictions, its conflicts, its movements, andits thought .

7. A sixth and final requisite is a large increase127


in the proportion of the members of the profes-sion aspiring to positions of leadership in thesocial, cultural, and intellectual life of commu-nity, state, and nation.

E. THE REDISTRIBUTION OF POWER

i . If the teacher is to achieve these conditionsof improved status and thus free the school fromthe domination of special interests and convert itinto a truly enlightening force in society, theremust be a redistribution of power in the generalconduct of education-the board of educationwill have to be made more representative, the ad-ministration of the school will have to be con-ceived more broadly and the teaching professionas a whole will have to organize, develop a theoryof its social function and create certain instru-mentalities indispensable to the realization of itsaims.2. The ordinary board of education in the

United States, with the exception of the rural dis-trict board, is composed for the most part of busi-ness and professional men ; the ordinary rural dis-

128


trict board is composed almost altogether of land-holders. In the former case the board is not fullyrepresentative of the supporting population andthus tends to impose upon the school the socialideas of a special class ; in both instances its mem-bership is apt to be peculiarly rooted in the eco-nomic individualism of the nineteenth century.

3. If the board of education is to support aschool program conceived in terms of the generalwelfare and adjusted to the needs of an epochmarked by transition to some form of socializedeconomy, it should include in its membership ade-quate representation of points of view other thanthose of private business .4. With the expansion of education and the

growth of large school systems, involving theco-ordination of the efforts of tens, hundreds andeven thousands of professional workers and theexpenditure of vast sums of money on grounds,buildings, and equipment, the function of admin-istration has become increasingly important andindispensable . The public interest demands theefficient and economical operation of the schools ;the release of the teacher from time- and energy-

1129


consuming drudgery requires competent admin-istrative and supervisory leadership .

5. At present, however, this leadership centersits attention too often on the material andmechanical aspects of the educational enterprise.According to the conception here advanced, thecreation of a smoothly running educationalmechanism should be wholly instrumental to theimprovement of teaching and the growth of theteacher as an informed, cultivated, well-poised,socially sensitive and individualized personality-the central purpose of school administration .

6. Since the teacher is the immediate directingand creative force in education, any measures cal-culated to limit or arbitrarily to control the exer-cise of his professional skill and judgment or hisparticipation according to his ability in the de-velopment of the educational program of hiscommunity, degrade his status and, even thoughadopted in the name of efficiency, actually tend todefeat the purposes of education . The Commis-sion places its trust in the improvement of theteacher rather than in the perfection of the tech-nical aspects of administration.

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7. The employment in administration and su-pervision of any instruments or devices whichfail to take into account the broad role of theteacher in the evolution of culture tends to dwarfhis personality, to develop in him a servile men-tality and to hamper him in the effective dis-charge of the most fundamental obligations im-posed upon him by the purposes of education .Many of the social results of education may notbe discernible for years after the period of school-ing is over, cannot be fully known until the longdrama of human history is finally closed ; whileother results of the highest importance for theenrichment of life are utterly beyond measure-ment of any kind.

8. Formal, technical, and rigid supervision ofinstruction, whether exercised by school principalor other agent, is likewise incompatible with theattainment of the highest standards of teaching .Resting on false assumptions regarding the na-ture of the total educative process, it inevitablystunts and eventually atrophies the initiative ofthe teacher .

9. In order that the teacher may make his voice131


heard in a world in which power depends in-creasingly on organization, the entire professionof teaching from kindergarten to college and uni-versity, should be brought into a single associa-tion organized into appropriate divisions alongfunctional and territorial lines. At present theorganization of teachers is both incomplete andchaotic-vast numbers are without any suchaffiliation, while the existing societies and asso-ciations pursue diverse policies and are boundtogether by no common allegiance . Peculiarlyunfortunate, and wholly illustrative of the isola-tion of pedagogy from the main currents of socialthought, is the fact that in their national organi-zations and meetings persons concerned with theconduct of elementary and secondary educationhave little association with the leading mindsin social science and philosophy. These tradi-tional barriers within the profession should bedestroyed .

io. The object of such an association would betwofold : on the one hand, it would make possiblethe pooling of the thought and wisdom of theprofession in the formulation of educational poli-

132


cies-local, state, and national ; and on the other,it would provide protection for the individualteacher in the exercise of his rights, the enjoymentof his privileges and the discharge of his obliga-tions to society .

ii . In view of the living and controversial char-acter of the field of instruction embraced by thesocial sciences, such protection is peculiarly im-perative. The only hope for a peaceful settlementof the gigantic and bitter conflicts among groups,classes, and peoples which have already shakenAmerican society to its foundations and producedrevolutions in many countries would seem to liein the direction of keeping open the channels ofthought and inquiry . To the achievement of thisgoal in the schools of the country the teachers ofthe social sciences, fully aware of the dangers anddifficulties, should dedicate their organized ener-gies and resources .

12 . In order that the individual teacher, out ofloyalty to this supreme ideal of social science in-struction, may be protected against the assaults ofignorant majorities, heresy-hunting minorities,and all self-constituted guardians of public morals

133


and thought, the profession as a whole must makeprovision for the review of controversies, thusarising, by trained specialists competent to passjudgment upon the scholarship, subject matter,and manner of presentation in question .

13. In the case of unfair or unwise dismissalthe profession must be prepared to conduct ener-getic and appropriate inquiries and, by resort tothe courts if necessary, see that justice is done,damages assessed, and reinstatement achieved .The tradition must be established in Americanschools that the teacher will be protected in theefficient performance of his professional duty .It is particularly imperative that isolated teachersin small communities and districts shall not beleft virtually defenseless . Otherwise, as experiencehas already indicated, the teaching of the socialsciences will become a pure mockery and in thecourse of time may be expected to increase theterror and bitterness of social conflict .

14. Through similar instrumentalities the cour-ageous and far-sighted administrator, standing atthe storm center of the educational system, mustbe protected against the caprice, the ignorance,

134


and the animosity of special groups, organiza-tions, and classes.

F. THE SCOPE OF THE COMMUNITY

i . In any consideration of the question of thepublic relations of the school the concept of thecommunity requires definition and clarification,particularly since it continues to carry connota-tions developed before the advance of technologyand the growth of industrial society.

2 . Although the country is still covered with anetwork of political boundaries formed in an ageof relatively primitive modes of transportationand communication, no functioning Americancommunity to-day can be confined within thelimits of a few square miles. Owing to the closelyknit texture of the economy, the differentiationand specialization of social function, the interde-pendence of groups and regions and the highmobility of the population, every school, howeverremotely it may seem to be situated, serves notmerely a particular locality but the nation. In-deed through the .migrations of peoples, the travel

135


of students and scholars and the movement ofideas beyond the national borders, the Americansystem of education makes its influence felt in-creasingly throughout the world .

3. The impact of the expansion of the commu-nity upon the organization and conduct of edu-cation has long been manifest in the consolidationof school districts, the growth of state systems ofeducation, the development of federal concern inthe field, and the general tendency to shift theburden of school support to ever larger areas . Inthe future the trend may be expected to continueuntil a proper balance is struck between the inte-gration of the educational system and the integra-tion of society .

4. On the side of school support the Commis-sion believes the trend to be desirable . Since dis-tricts, states, and regions differ widely in percapita wealth and since the sources of wealth inthe present highly integrated economy are corre-spondingly diffused throughout the country,though centralized in ownership, social justiceand equalization of opportunity alike demandthat the support of education be shifted more

136


and more from the locality to the state andnation.

5. Similarly, since the family cannot provide forits immature members economic security and edu-cational opportunity, commensurate with the needand the possibility, society is under obligation ina democracy to guarantee such security and op-portunity from early childhood to the age atwhich employment is possible and socially desir-able. This ideal should be applied to all regard-less of residence, race, nationality, religion, oreconomic status, and its realization should consti-tute an inalienable claim on the resources of local-ity, state, and nation .

6. At this point the Commission would directattention to the disaster which has overtakenmany schools and which threatens to destroy thefoundations of the American system of publiceducation. Under the impact of the economic de-pression thousands of schools in the poorer locali-ties, states, and regions have been closed, millionsof children have been denied the most elementaryeducational opportunities, and indispensable edu-cational services have been reduced and even elim-

137


inated . Still more disturbing are the proposals,advanced and supported by influential groups andorganizations, that fees be attached to publiclymaintained secondary and higher institutions,that the trend of educational development duringthe past century be thus reversed, and that theclass principle, now being abandoned in Europe,be introduced into the American educational sys-tem. To these tendencies the Commission standsin unalterable opposition. In fact, the program ofsocial science instruction which it advocates inthese pages demands the further development ofthe American democratic principle that educa-tional opportunity should be extended equally toall elements in the population.7. On the side of the organization and admin-

istration of education the Commission believes acompletely integrated national system to be besetby grave dangers, involving overstandardization,regimentation, and discouragement of local ini-tiative and experimentation . Under these circum-stances the Commission hopes that the optimumdegree of integration may be achieved, not by co-ercive and detailed legislation emanating from

138


the federal Congress, but rather through thefriendly co-operation of state and nation, thespread of knowledge, the nation-wide circulationof educational journals, the training of leaders incenters of learning, the removal of all barriers tothe free interchange of teachers among the differ-ent sections of the country and the developmentof a professional organization which would em-brace practically the entire teaching staff of theUnited States and would concern itself increas-ingly with the formulation and execution of theeducational policies of the nation . Broad prin-ciples for the operation of the schools might beestablished by national legislation, with the re-sponsibility for administration reserved to localagencies in co-operation with the organized teach-ing profession. But whatever the ultimate dispo-sition of the problem, the teachers should recog-nize the necessities growing out of the emergenceof an integrated economy and proceed at once tothe preparation of a policy of adaptation in har-mony with the ideals of American democracyand cultural freedom .

8. Finally, the close integration of industrial1139


society implies a close integration of instructionin the social sciences, not only of the publicschools of the nation, but also of private schoolsand other educational and formative agencies ;though here again, in order that the process ofintegration may be attended by the least possibleregimentation, it should be qualified by generalrecognition of the rich values in experimentationand in diversified culture which will accrue toeducation and the nation from schools conductedunder the auspices of cultural minorities and non-governmental authorities .

G. ADMINISTRATION AND EDUCATIONAL

LEADERSHIP

i. Owing to the growing magnitude and com-plexity of the educational enterprise, as alreadyobserved, competent administration and supervi-sion are becoming more and more indispensableto the efficient operation of a modern schoolsystem .

2 . The administrator discharges a threefoldresponsibility : (a) he represents the public in its

'4o


relations with the school system and the schoolsystem in its relations with the public ; (b) hecontrols the engineering and accounting func-tions incidental to the operation of the schoolplant; and (c) as head of the school system heprovides leadership for teachers and supervisorsand gives unity and direction to the entire educa-tional program .

3. In the discharge of this threefold responsi-bility the administrator, because of the greatpower necessarily reposed in his office, may con-tribute materially to the realization or the defeatof any program of education, regardless of howit may be conceived . From the standpoint of theteaching of the social sciences the importance ofthe first and third functions named above canscarcely be overemphasized .4. Throughout the nineteenth century and

especially in the formative period of Americaneducation the men occupying the major admin-istrative posts in public education were pre-emi-nently social philosophers and statesmen, trainedin the democratic individualist school of thought ;but during the opening years of the twentieth cen-

'4I


tury with the rapid growth of enrollment thisfunction of social leadership was too largely sub-merged in the accounting, technical, and engi-neering aspects of administration .

5. The emergence of an integrated society andthe appearance of the severe tensions characteris-tic of an age in transition are again demandingthe highest social and educational leadership andare requiring that the mechanics of administra-tion be dropped to its proper and subordinateposition in the work of the administrator .

6. Important as these technical and engineeringfunctions of administration are, they are entirelysecondary to the supreme function of educationalleadership. This is axiomatic at all times ; but inan age like the present, when education mustreconstruct its basic purposes, it is peculiarly ofthe essence of the problem of administration .

7. In the steadily integrating social order of thepresent and the future, if education is to be givencompetent and relevant direction, the emphasisin the professional education of the administratormust be laid again on social science, social phi-losophy and statecraft .

142


The foregoing chapter is based on, and elabo-rated in :BAGLEY, W. C., The Selection and Training of the

Teacher;BEALE, H . K., Freedom of Teaching in the Schools ;CURTI, M. E., Social Ideas of American Educators ;MERRIAM, C. E., Civic Education in the United States;NEWLON, J. H., Educational Administration and Social

Policy;PIERCE, BESSIE L., Citizens' Organizations and the Civic


143


Signed :

CHARLES A. BEARDISAIAH BOWMAN '

ADA COMSTOCKGEORGE S. COUNTSAVERY 0. CRAVENGUY STANTON FORDCARLTON J. H. HAYESHENRY JOHNSONA. C. KREYLEON C . MARSHALL

JESSE H. NEWLONJESSE F. STEINER

Frank A. Ballou, Edmund E. Day, ErnestHorn, and Charles E . Merriam declined to signthese Conclusions .

* Mr. Bowman has signed the Conclusions with reservationswhich are printed as Appendix C.

It4

APPENDIX A

NEXT STEPS

i . The Commission has, for reasons already given,rejected the idea that there is one unequivocal bodyof subject matter, one unequivocal organization ofmaterials, and one unequivocal method of teachingwhich, when combined, will guarantee the realiza-tion in instruction of the broad purposes set forthabove. It was not instructed to provide a detailedsyllabus and set of textbooks to be imposed on theschool system of the country . Had it been so in-structed it would have found the mandate incompat-ible with its fundamental conclusion that the frameof reference is the primary consideration and thatmany methods of organizing materials and teach-ing are possible and desirable within the acceptedframe.2. However, the Commission is mindful of the

proper and practical question : What are the nextsteps? It indicates, therefore, the lines along whichattacks can and will be made on the problem ofapplying its conclusions with respect to instructionin the social sciences .

3. As often repeated, the first step is to awaken andconsolidate leadership around the philosophy andpurpose of education herein expounded-leadership

145

Appendix A

among administrators, teachers, boards of trustees,college and normal school presidents-thinkers andworkers in every field of education and the socialsciences . Signs of such an awakening and consolida-tion of leadership are already abundantly evident : inthe resolutions on instruction in the social sciencesadopted in 1933 by the Department of Superintend-ence of the National Education Association at Min-neapolis and by the Association itself at Chicago ; inthe activities of the United States Commissioner ofEducation during the past few years ; and in almostevery local or national meeting of representatives ofthe teaching profession.

4. The American Historical Association, in co-opera-tion with the National Council on the Social Studies,has arranged to take over The Historical Outlook' (ajournal for social science teachers), has appointed aBoard of Editors chosen in part from the members ofthis Commission, and has selected for the post ofmanaging editor W. G. Kimmel, who has beenassociated with this Commission as Executive Secre-tary for five years and is thoroughly conversant withits work and its conclusions . The purpose of theOutlook under the new management will be to sup-ply current materials, to encourage experimentationin the organization of materials, to stimulate thoughtand experimentation among teachers and schools, toreport projects and results of experimentation, and

1 Hereafter to be called The Social Studies.

146

Next Steps

generally to furnish as rapidly as possible variousprograms of instruction organized within the frameof reference outlined by the Commission.5. The writers of textbooks may be expected to

revamp and rewrite their old works in accordancewith this frame of reference and new writers in thefield of the social sciences will undoubtedly attackthe central problem here conceived, bringing variedtalents and methods and arts to bear upon it . Thusthe evil effects of any stereotype may be avoided.6. Makers of programs in the social sciences in

cities, towns, and states may be expected to evaluatethe findings and conclusions of this report and torecast existing syllabi and schemes of instruction inaccordance with their judgment respecting the newsituation .7. If the findings and conclusions of this Commis-

sion are really pertinent to the educational require-ments of the age, then colleges and universities offer-ing courses of instruction for teachers will reviewtheir current programs and provide for prospectiveteachers courses of instruction in general harmonywith the Commission's frame of reference .

8. The same may be said of special institutions forthe training of teachers . It is not too much to expectin the near future a decided shift in emphasis fromthe mechanics and techniques of methodology to thecontent and function of courses in the social sciences,thus guaranteeing a supply of teachers more com-

147

Appendix A

petent to carry out the philosophy and purpose herepresented.g. A similar transfer of emphasis may be expected

in the field of educational journalism, resulting in aconsideration, criticism, and application of the funda-mental philosophy of education formulated in thisvolume .

io. If the present report aids in bringing about apersistent concentration of thought on the centralissues, findings, and conclusions of the Commission,it will help to clear up the confusion now so preva-lent in the educational world and give direction topowers now wasted in formalistic debates on methodsand techniques .

ii . In fine, the Commission has felt bound, by theterms of its instructions and the nature of the subjectentrusted to its consideration, to provide a frame ofreference for the orientation of philosophy and pur-pose in education, rather than a bill of minute speci-fications for guidance. In so doing, it is convincedthat unless the spirit is understood and appreciatedany formulation of the letter will hamper rather thanfacilitate the fulfillment of the Commission's offering .

148

APPENDIX B

THE WORK OF THE COMMISSION

THE foundations on which the conclusions setdown in the present volume rest may best be revealedby an account of the history of the Commission-itspersonnel, its organization, its method of work, itsobjective accomplishments . This account will beginwith a brief statement of the career and procedure ofthe Commission .

PLAN AND ORGANIZATION

The investigation may be said to have originated ina preliminary plan which was drawn up in broad'out-line in 1926 by a committee of nine members ap-pointed by the American Historical Association .' Thisplan, somewhat elaborated and cast into the form ofworking drawings in 1928, served as a general guidefor the inquiry down to the formulation of its con-clusions .

For aid during these preliminary stages of its work

'The members of this committee were John S. Bassett, GuyStanton Ford, Ernest Horn, Henry Johnson, William E . Lingel-bach, L . C. Marshall, Charles E. Merriam, Jesse H. Newlon, andA. C. Krey, Chairman . The plan was published in December,1926, by the Association under the title, History and Other SocialStudies in the Schools .

149

Appendix B

the Commission is indebted to the directors of ante-cedent but similar investigations into other fields ofschool instruction-mathematics, classics, and modernforeign languages-especially to Professor RobertHerndon Fife, Jr ., who continued his aid until the In-vestigation was well under way ; to Dr. Max Farrandand the Commonwealth Fund for their generous aid ;to Professor A . E. McKinley who placed his extensivematerials at the disposal of the staff ; to the group ofscholars who conducted the preliminary "History In-quiry," especially to Professor Edgar Dawson, whoseefforts led directly to the present social science investi-gation; and to certain distinguished educational ad-visers, including Dean William F . Russell of TeachersCollege, Columbia University, Dean Charles H . Juddof the University of Chicago, Dean George F . Arpsand Professor W . W. Charters of Ohio State Univer-sity, Dean R . H. Jordan of Cornell University, Presi-dent Walter A. Jessup and Dean Paul C. Packer ofthe University of Iowa, President L . D. Coffman andDean M. E. Haggerty of the University of Minnesota,and Dr. Payson Smith, Dr. A. B. Meredith, and Mr .J. M. McConnell, heads of the state departments ofeducation of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Minne-sota, respectively . In expressing its gratitude to thesescholars it is with the understanding that they are inno way responsible for the final report.

The career of the Commission opened at the begin-ning of January, 1929, and closed at the end of De-

150

The Work of the Commission

cember, 1933. During this five-year period its totalmembership embraced the following persons : FrankW. Ballou, Superintendent of Schools, Washington,D. C . ; Charles A. Beard, formerly Professor of Gov-ernment, Columbia University; Isaiah Bowman, Di-rector of the American Geographical Society, NewYork City; Ada Comstock, President of RadcliffeCollege; George S . Counts, Professor of Education,Teachers College, Columbia University ; Avery 0 .Craven, Professor of History, University of Chicago ;Edmund E. Day, Director of Social Science, Rocke-feller Foundation, and formerly Dean of the Schoolof Business Administration, University of Michigan ;Guy Stanton Ford, Dean of the Graduate School andProfessor of History, University of Minnesota ; EvartsB. Greene, Professor of History, Columbia University ;Carlton J. H. Hayes, Professor of History, ColumbiaUniversity ; Ernest Horn, Professor of Education, Uni-versity of Iowa ; Henry Johnson, Professor of His-tory, Teachers College, Columbia University ; A. C .Krey, Professor of History and Professor of the His-tory of Education, University of Minnesota ; WilliamE. Lingelbach, Professor of History, University ofPennsylvania; L. C. Marshall, formerly Dean of theSchool of Commerce and Administration, Universityof Chicago ; Charles E. Merriam, Professor of PoliticalScience, University of Chicago ; Jesse H. Newlon, Di-rector of Lincoln School of Teachers College, Colum-bia University, formerly Superintendent of Schools,

151

Appendix B

Denver, Colorado; and Jesse F. Steiner, Professor ofSociology, University of Washington . Except forEvarts B. Greene and William E. Lingelbach, whounder press of other duties retired in 1930 ; Avery O .Craven and Carlton J . H. Hayes, who were appointedin the same year to fill the places thus made vacant,and Edmund E. Day, who though appointed in 1929did not accept appointment until the following year,the membership remained unchanged for the dura-tion of the investigation. A. C. Krey and Frank W.Ballou served as chairman and secretary, respectively,of the Commission throughout the period .

Owing to the broad scope of the inquiry, the Com-mission faced the necessity of providing for both thedifferentiation and the integration of its work . Theformer was achieved through the appointment of fivemajor committees and numerous special investigators ;the latter, through the Commission itself, an executivecommittee, a chairman, a research director, and anexecutive secretary.The Commission met for two- or three-day confer-

ences as occasion demanded, holding three meetingsin 1929, two in 1930, one in 1931, one in 1932, andtwo in 1933 . The Executive Committee, consistingoriginally of A. C. Krey, Charles E. Merriam, andJesse H. Newlon, and enlarged in 1931 by the addi-tion of Edmund E. Day and Guy Stanton Ford, metat intervals between the meetings of the Commission .The immediate conduct of the investigation was in

152


the hands of A. C. Krey, who was the directing headof the inquiry from the beginning, and George S .Counts, who served as director of research fromAugust r, 193 1 -

A central staff, with quarters at the University ofMinnesota, the University of Chicago, and ColumbiaUniversity, was maintained throughout the period ofthe investigation . At the head of this staff was W. G .Kimmel, formerly Supervisor of Social Studies for theNew York State Department of Education, who occu-pied the post of Executive Secretary during the entirecareer of the Commission . Others serving on this cen-tral staff at various times were Edith E . Ware, form-erly Dean of the Spence School, New York City ;Frances E. Baldwin, formerly of Hood College; andDonald L. McMurry, formerly Professor of History inLafayette College. Among the duties discharged bythis staff was the preparation of reports of progress inthe several divisions of the inquiry for the considera-tion of the Commission .

The staff was aided in the investigation of specialproblems by many scholars and teachers who eitherworked directly with the staff at intervals or whochecked work of the staff at their accustomed placesof business or elsewhere. Special acknowledgment ismade of services rendered by H . R. Anderson, Uni-versity of Iowa ; Gladys Boyington, North CarolinaCollege for Women; D. S. Brainard, State TeachersCollege, St. Cloud, Minnesota ; Prudence Cutright,

153

Appendix B

Minneapolis Public Schools ; O. M. Dickerson, StateTeachers College, Greeley, Colorado ; Elmer Ellis,University of Missouri ; Hallie Farmer, Alabama Col-lege for Women, Montevallo; Alice N . Gibbons, EastHigh School, Rochester, New York ; Mary Gold,Dorothy Houston and Dorothy Bovee, University ofMinnesota High School ; Mary Harden, Horace MannSchool, Teachers College, Columbia University ;George J. Jones, Public Schools, Washington, D. C . ;Florence Kellogg, Baltimore, Maryland ; D. C. Knowl-ton, New York University; Paul E. Lutz, James Or-mond Wilson Teachers College, Washington, D . C. ;Burr W. Phillips, University of Wisconsin ; JohnPerry Pritchett, University of North Dakota ; Edna H.Stone, University High School, Oakland, California ;William Shepherd, North High School, Minneapolis ;R. H. Shryock, Duke University ; E. P. Smith, NewYork State Department of Education ; Joseph R.Strayer, Princeton University ; Lena C. Van Bibber,Towson Normal School, Towson, Maryland ; EdgarB. Wesley, now of University of Minnesota ; RuthWest, Lewis and Clark High School, Spokane, Wash-ington ; and Howard E . Wilson, Graduate School ofEducation, Harvard University .Following the making of a number of analytical

and exploratory researches, involving bibliographies,textbooks, courses of study, methods of instruction,classroom materials and devices, grade placement, andadministrative and public relations, the Commission

154


proceeded to organize its work into six major divi-sions : (a) philosophy, purpose, and objectives ; (b) ma-terials of instruction ; (c) methods of teaching ; (d) testsand testing; (e) the teacher ; and (f) public relations .With the exception of (b) and (c), which were com-bined under one committee, the guidance of the in-vestigation in each of these six fields was entrusted toa committee, specially constituted and appointed forthe task. By assigning certain of its own members toeach committee the Commission established an inter-locking relationship with all committees and thusassured the integration of the several branches of theinquiry.

INVESTIGATIONS AND REPORTS

The extent and nature of the work of the Commis-sion can best be indicated by listing its objective ac-complishments. Mention will first be made of a bibli-ographical study of a general character which theCommission undertook for purposes of orientation .Thereafter the various studies prosecuted under eachof the six divisions of the inquiry will be set down .

Early in its history the Commission began to com-pile a comprehensive bibliography of writings on theteaching of social science subjects in the school. Thisbibliography, which included both books and maga-zine articles and was largely confined to the UnitedStates and to the period since Iyoo, finally numberedmore than 115,000 titles . On examination, however,

1155

Appendix B

the vast majority of these items were found to be ofrelatively little value. For the most part, this bibliog-raphy was compiled by W. G. Kimmel, assisted bystaff members .The questions of philosophy, purpose, and objectives

naturally received the initial attention of the Com-mission as a whole, and was the chief topic of con-sideration in its earlier meetings . In fact, the originalplanning committee had proposed a tentative list ofobjectives for the guidance of the work in test con-struction . Also, in the exploratory investigations ex-tended surveys were made of the treatment of thissubject in pedagogical literature, courses of study, andreports of learned societies. Then in order that thequestion might be more thoroughly and systematicallydeveloped, a special advisory Committee on Objec-tives was appointed. To this committee were assignedCharles A. Beard, George S . Counts, Guy StantonFord, A. C. Krey, and Charles E . Merriam from theCommission, and Franklin Bobbitt, Professor of Edu-cation, University of Chicago; Boyd H. Bode, Pro-fessor of Education, Ohio State University ; and Har-old O. Rugg, Professor of Education, Teachers Col-lege, Columbia University . Charles A. Beard servedas chairman . The Committee held 'four meetings-two jointly with the Commission, one in connectionwith the Advisory Committee on Tests, and one inde-pendently. For the development of the thought of thecommittee several papers were prepared . Charles A.

156


Beard presented a paper on Preliminary Thoughts onCivic Instruction in the Schools ; Franklin Bobbitt onThe Objectives of the Social Phases of Education ;Boyd H. Bode on Objectives in the Social Sciences ;L. C. Marshall on What is Involved in Social Living ;and Harold O. Rugg on The Typical Objects ofAllegiance of the Cultured Man . These papers, aswell as the contributions of the other members of theCommission, were drawn upon in drafting A Charterfor the Social Sciences in the Schools. With the com-pletion of the manuscript of this volume the work ofthe special committee came to an end . Although everystudy undertaken by the Commission or under its aus-pices either postulates or actually considers philosophy,purpose, and objectives, the following publicationsdeal with the subject as a major theme :

A Charter for the Social Sciences in the Schools ;CHARLES A . BEARD, The Nature o f the Social Sciences ;GEORGE S. COUNTS, The Social Foundations o f Education ;MERLE E. CURTI, Social Ideas of American Educators ;L. C. MARSHALL and RACHEL MARSHALL GOETZ, A Social

Process Approach to Curriculum-Making in the SocialStudies;

CHARLES E. MERRIAAr, Civic Education in the United States .

The problems of materials of instruction and meth-ods of teaching, though separated in the present vol-ume, are inextricably interwoven and will be treatedtogether here . The preliminary attack on this subject

157

Appendix B

embraced investigations of the literature of curriculumconstruction, analyses of courses of study at gradelevels up to and including the junior college, a checklist of teaching devices, an analysis of social sciencecurricula, a comparative study of foreign practices,a classified and annotated bibliography for the socialstudies courses in elementary and secondary schools,and an inquiry into methods of teaching governmentin the first two years of college . Finally, an Ad-visory Committee on Materials and Methods of In-struction was appointed. Into this committee weredrawn Edmund E. Day, Carlton J . H. Hayes, ErnestHorn, Henry Johnson, A. C. Krey, L. C. Marshall,Jesse H . Newlon, and Jesse F. Steiner from the Com-mission, and Earl W. Crecraft, Professor of PoliticalScience, University of Akron ; Charles H. Judd, Deanof the School of Education, University of Chicago ;William H. Kilpatrick, Professor of Education,Teachers College, Columbia University ; A. L. Threl-keld, Superintendent of Schools, Denver, Colorado ;and Rolla M . Tryon, Professor of History, Universityof Chicago. This Committee, with Mr . Tryon asChairman, held two meetings and recommended aseries of projects . The following volumes are devotedlargely to questions of materials and methods :

CHARLES A. BEARD, The Nature o f the Social Sciences ;ISAIAH BOWMAN, Geography in Relation to the Social

Sciences;

158


ERNEST HORN, Methods of Instruction in the SocialSciences ;

HENRY JOHNSON, An Introduction to the History of theSocial Sciences in Schools;

L. C. MARSHALL and RACHEL MARSHALL GOETZ, A SocialProcess Approach to Curriculum-Making in the SocialStudies;

CHARLES E. MERRIAM, Civic Education in the UnitedStates;

ROLLA M. TRYON, The Social Studies as School Subjects."

The subject of tests and testing occupied a largeplace in the early deliberations of the Commission .This interest was due largely to the hope that thenew-type test technique might prove an effective in-strument in the investigation of many phases of theproblem of social science instruction . In order thatthe possibilities of objective measurement might bethoroughly explored, Truman L. Kelley, Professor ofEducation, Harvard University, formerly of StanfordUniversity, was appointed to the position of Advisoron Tests in the fall of 1929. At the outset, existingtests, published and unpublished, were examined, andan analysis was made of school programs, individualsubjects, topics, concepts, and terms employed in thesocial science field . In 1929 an Advisory Committee

"The Commission co-operated with the American Council onEducation and the American Political Science Association in spon-soring the preparation, under the direction of Charles H. Judd, ofexperimental materials of instruction for the schools .

1159

Appendix B

on Tests was appointed, which held its first meetingin November of that year. From the CommissionFrank W. Ballou, Isaiah Bowman, Ernest Horn,Henry Johnson and A . C. Krey were assigned to thiscommittee. The additional members were Howard C.Hill, Assistant Professor of the Teaching of the SocialSciences, University of Chicago, and Ben D . Wood,Professor of Psychology, Columbia University. FrankW. Ballou was chairman of the committee . The workdone in the field of testing was extensive and diverse,including the prosecution of various descriptive andcritical studies, the development of lists of terms, skills,attitudes, issues, and interests involved in social scienceteaching, and the construction of a considerable num-ber of tests in this field .' More or less extended con-sideration of the subject of tests and testing will befound in the following volumes :

CHARLES A. BEARD, The Nature of the Social Sciences ;ERNEST HORN, Methods o f Instruction in the Social

Sciences ;TRUMAN L. KELLEY and A. C. KREY, Progress in Learn-

ing in the Social Sciences as Indicated by Tests .

The study of the social science teacher began withan inquiry into the problem of training by EdgarDawson and an investigation of superior teachers by

' A detailed account of this work will be found in Truman L.Kelley and A. C . Krey, Progress in Learning in the Social ScienceSubjects as Indicated by Tests .

i6o


E. P. Smith. The chief responsibility for this divisionof the Commission's work was borne by an AdvisoryCommittee on the Teacher, headed by William C.Bagley, Professor of Education, Teachers College,Columbia University . The other members were FrankW. Ballou, Avery 0. Craven and Guy Stanton Ford,from the Commission, and Robert C . Brooks, Pro-fessor of Political Science, Swarthmore College ;George W. Frasier, President of State Teachers Col-lege, Greeley, Colorado ; Margaret Kiely, Principalof Bridgeport Normal School, Bridgeport, Connecti-cut; Leonard V. Koos, Professor of Education, Uni-versity of Chicago ; A. B . Meredith, Professor of Edu-cation, New York University ; James S. Plant, M.D .,Director of Essex County, New Jersey, Juvenile Clinic ;and Lida Lee Tall, Principal of State Normal School,Towson, Maryland. The committee held three meet-ings and launched a number of researches, includinga preliminary study of techniques for the analysis ofgood teachers and good teaching conducted by Wil-liam L . Wrinkle, Principal of Teachers College HighSchool, State Teachers College, Greeley, Colorado .The following published reports of the Com-mission are devoted largely to the problem of theteacher :

THOMAS ALEXANDER., The Teacher of Social Science inEurope; `Included in volume by W. C . Bagley.

16i

Appendix B

WILLIAM C. BAGLEY, The Teacher of the Social Sciencesin the Schools ;

HOWARD K. BEALE, Freedom of Teaching in the Schools;E. S. EVENDEN, Experience and Tenure of Social Science

Teachers in the United States ; `W. G. KIMMEL, A Detailed Study of the Nature of Good

Teaching in Social Science Subjects.

The problems growing out of administration andpublic relations received the attention of the Commis-sion from the beginning. Exploratory studies weremade of the literature of extra-school learning, of rele-vant laws and regulations in the several states, ofgroups and organizations interested in school instruc-tion, and of issues involved in the relations of teachersand administrators . The special committee appointedto direct the inquiry in the field was headed by JesseH. Newlon and included the following members ofthe Commission : Frank W. Ballou, Ada Comstock,George S. Counts, and Carlton J . H. Hayes. Theother members were John A . Fairlie, Professor ofPolitical Science, University of Illinois ; Robert S .Lynd, Social Science Research Council, now ofColumbia University ; and Bessie L. Pierce, AssociateProfessor of American History, University of Chi-cago. The Committee held two meetings and rec-ommended studies of the programs, aims, and meth-ods of citizens' organizations for civic training, and

Included in volume by W. C. Bagley.

162


of the social beliefs and attitudes of school boardmembers, administrators, and teachers . Claude E .Arnett,' F. H. Bair, ° J. Flint Waller,° R. B. Raup,and M. G. Fraser conducted investigations in thisfield . In the following studies published by the Com-mission the problems of administration and publicrelations receive attention :

MERLE E. CURTI, Social Ideas of American Educators ;JESSE H. NEWLON, Educational Administration and Social

Policy .BESSIE L. PIERCE, Citizens' Organizations and the Civic

Training of Youth .

I

APPENDIX C

DR. ISAIAH BOWMAN'S RESERVATIONS INSIGNING THIS REPORT

Page 18, Par . 12, lines 8 and 9 : Omit the phrase "theartificiality of political boundaries and divisions." Theantithesis to artificial is natural and what is naturalfor one group of people in the form of a politicalboundary is regarded as wicked and grasping by aneighboring nation . The whole subject is far toocomplicated to be disposed of in this superficial man-ner. Society has always been "exhausting" itself andI think there are several stages short of exhaustionwhich ought to be considered in reading Par. 13 .Again, referring to the last two lines of Par . 12, mayI observe that international conflicts and wars takeplace not alone because of struggles among nationsfor markets and raw materials . How can we elimi-nate such struggles except in Utopia? We can regu-late the relations of nations, diminish the intensity ofthe struggle and come to working agreements withour neighbors. It is not necessary in constructing aframework of good relations that the individualism ofnations should be eliminated . World society is likenational society in this respect . Regional diversity isone of the blessings of the world and the boundaries

164

Appendix C

between countries express the idea of neighborhood orregion in the large sense.Page 27, Par. r6, lines 6-8 : Reference is here made to

"the best plans" and "the future of society." Who isto know the best? There should be a qualifying state-ment. Otherwise the criticism might apply that thestatement is "perfectly true, perfectly general and per-fectly meaningless." As to the future of society, thisis again one of those vague terms that has very littlemeaning unless defined . How distant a future?Page 34, Par. 4, lines so and ti : "to free the ordinary

individual from the long working day." Decidedlythis is not a promise of the future. Who wants to beso freed? This reads as if we wanted to give everyman eternal rest . What we want is to free the ordi-nary individual from the too-long day of the one-task type.Page 36, Par. 4, line 6 : "individuality for great

masses of people." This is a bit of Utopian yearning .The "great masses" have no such individuality . Thestatement is wrong in the historic sense as well asfrom the realistic standpoint of today in spite of allthe general education that we have had .

Page 40, Par. 5, last 2 lines : I would omit these linesand insert instead : "The national and regional settingsof people that give their problems an individualismthat has to be harmonized with the common welfare ."Page 41, Par. 7, last 2 lines : Who had the temerity

to write that Asia is being brought within a common165

Appendix C

orbit of civilization? That phrase was written inmetropolitan New York and not by one whose shoesstill carry the dust of Asia . Asia has borrowed someof our tricks . Its people are not swinging in ourorbit in even the modest sense of that phrase .Page 50, Par. 2, bottom of page, line 4 : Change the

word "factors" to "conditions." Continuing with thesame phrase "the evolution of human culture" changeto "the volution and spread of human cultures ." Inthe next line, after the word "globe" insert "and thediverse forms of exploitation ." Two lines fartherdown, after the word "forests" insert "and tradingareas ."

Page 57, Par. 7 : I take serious exception to the formof this paragraph . It assumes that the child in hisearliest years of schooling knows nothing of the lifeabout him and that he should know that first . As amatter of fact, quite a good deal is known by chil-dren, about neighborhood, town, and community .More can be taught rather readily . But there is noreason why the imagination-evoking study of distantpeoples should not be introduced at the same time . Itis not necessarily a case of first the community andthen the distant place, but the community and thedistant place at one and the same time by compara-tive methods . Most children find home geographypretty dull. They like to know about strange peoples,and it appears that some of the remote peoples of theworld live under such simple conditions that they

X66

Appendix C

form ideal cases for the study of the simple forms oflife that may be taught in useful contrast to the com-plex forms of which we are a part . As it stands, theparagraph is too categorical and exclusive and hasbeen written with too little appreciation of the testedand approved varieties of experience which childrenhave in studying the varied material of geography.Page 71, Par. 4 : The last four or five lines of the

paragraph break down readily into two items, theadjustment of and the correspondence of. Thereshould be added a third item, namely, the nature ofthe subject matter . The text is striking at "a narrowlyconceived methodology." This is therefore just theplace in which the point should be emphasized thatgood teaching takes account of the nature of the sub-ject, how its facts were gathered, its inner organiza-tion, its modes of discovery. This is "methodology,"if you please, of the highest type. It rarely gets con-sideration.

Page 79, Par. 6, lines 3 and 4 : "draw imaginary pic-tures and diagrams ." Why should such pictures anddiagrams be drawn? There has been no mention ofany basic need which such pictures and diagrams fill .When there is an abundance of lively and real ma-terial, why draw upon the imagination? That qualityof the mind can be well applied to other things. Theresult of this recommendation would be farcical . Justomit the phrase.Pages ri5-i8 : It seems to me on ending this chap-

167

Appendix C

ter that it doesn't hang together . It needs clearingup with respect to the type of training that thewriters have in mind . There is too much of theinspirational and emotional in it . The truly scien-tific possibilities of teacher development do not seemto me to be brought out. I know that this is palegeneralization and that the ready answer is "What arethe specific possibilities?" This is not the place to setthem forth or argue the matter at length, but shouldthe committee have had the question in mind in mak-ing their last revision?

t

168

The exact titles of the reports of the Commis-sion cannot yet be definitely announced. The fol-lowing, therefore, must be regarded as tentative .

z. A Charter for the Social Sciences in the Schools, byCharles A. Beard, formerly Professor of Politics,Columbia University.

2. An Introduction to the History of the Social Sci-ences in Schools, by Henry Johnson, Professor ofHistory, Teachers College, Columbia University.

3. Citizens' Organizations and the Civic Training ofYouth, by Bessie Louise Pierce, Associate Profes-sor of American History, University of Chicago .

4. Progress in Learning in the Social Science Subjects asIndicated by Tests, by Truman L. Kelley, Professorof Education, Harvard University, and A . C. Krey,Professor of History, University of Minnesota .

5. Geography in Relation to the Social Sciences, byIsaiah Bowman, Director, American GeographicalSociety of New York, with special studies byRose Clark, Nebraska Wesleyan University ; EdithParker, University of Chicago ; and R. D. Calkins,Central State Teachers College, Michigan .

6. Education in an Industrial Age, by George S. Counts,Professor of Education, Teachers College, Colum-bia University, and Charles A . Beard .

7. The Social Studies as School Subjects, by Rolla M .Tryon, Professor of the Teaching of History, Uni-versity of Chicago.

8. Methods of Instruction in the Social Sciences, byErnest Hom, Professor of Education, Universityof Iowa.

9. Civic Education in the United States, by Charles E .Merriam, Professor of Political Science, Universityof Chicago.

zo. School Administration and Educational Leadership,by Jesse H. Newlon, Director, Lincoln School,Teachers College, Columbia University.

ii . The Selection and Training of the Teacher, by Wil-liam C. Bagley, Professor of Education, TeachersCollege, Columbia University ; Guy Stanton Ford,Professor of History and Dean of the GraduateSchool, University of Minnesota ; and others .

z2. Freedom of Teaching in the Schools, by Howard K .Beale, formerly Professor of History at BowdoinCollege .

13- Social Ideas of American Educators, by Merle Curti,Professor of History at Smith College .

14 . A Social Process Approach to Curriculum-makingin the Social Studies, by Leon C. Marshall, Insti-tute for the Study of Law, Johns Hopkins Univer-sity.

15 . The Nature of the Social Sciences, by Charles A .Beard, formerly Professor of Politics, ColumbiaUniversity .

16. Conclusions and Recommendations of the Commis-sion .

Other volumes or reports have been projected,dealing with the history of the social ideas ofAmerican educational leaders and with the prob-lem of freedom of teaching or the growth of tol-erance in the teaching of these subjects .`This also planned to publish a number of miscel-

laneous studies, many of them of an exploratorycharacter, which have been made for the com-mittee in one connection or another .

To be published by Charles Scribner's Sons.

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