A COMPARISON OF THE CHICAGO DOUBLE SCHOOLS, THE GARY SYSTEM, AND THE DETROIT PLATOON PLAN T By DON C. ROGERS, Special Secretary of the C. E. LANG, Principal of the Keith School, Chicago HE Chicago Double Schools, the Detroit Platoon Plan, and the Gary System are three distinct types of school organization which are at present of great interest to Chicago people. The attempt will be made in this article to illustrate diagrammatically and discuss the organization of these three types.* I. THE CHICAGO DOUBLE SCHOOLS In beginning our article with the discussion of the form of organization of the Chicago Double Schools, of which there are two types, we must understand that they are purely the result of overcrowded conditions. No Chicago school is put on the double plan of organization until it becomes overcrowded to the extent of having the equivalent of six divisions, of forty-five pupils each, more than it has rooms. By this very fact we may argue that Chicago recognizes that these plans. are makeshifts and not worthy, at present, of general adoption. Both plans do well the work for which they were created and if one thinks only of the accommodating of excess population, it might be said that every building can be made to increase its membership 100% as the maximum. Everything points, however, to the necessity of a definite city wide policy regarding these schools. A study could profitably be made of the number and kinds of activities which might be introduced for each child into the other part of the day when we ordinarily say he is not in school. This belief is based (1) upon the wide variation ings in Chicago; (2) upon the neighborhood conditions found around many of our double schools; (3) because such schools usually remain so organized for a number of years before relief is obtained through building additions and (4) because we should officially endeavor to make them as much more than organizations serving to take care of over crowded conditions as it is possible to do. The other features the necessity of the policy would possibly include among doubling up of divisions beyond the point of immediate necessity and equipping and using the vacant space thus created for definite instruction in nature science, boy and girl scout work, study and coaching rooms, etc. It might be found that music and art should be taken out of the instruction given in the regular rooms and placed in these vacated rooms. The two Chicago plans for the relief of overcrowded conditions differ only in the use made of the home rooms. This word, home rooms, will be used here to designate the seated classroom where instruction is given in the academic subjects. Upper grade divisions of the number of twice the amount of the overflow are divided into two groups which are called "A" and "B" in the diagram. Each group should, if possible, contain the same grades. This cannot be done in the smaller schools where there is usually but the one division of each of the upper grades. Such a bi *Those parts of the article dealing with the Chicago Double Schools and the Gary System have been compiled by Mr. Lang; those on the Platoon School Plan, of physical conditions of the school build- by Mr. Rogers. The beginning time of morning divisions throughout the city is not uniform and differs from five to fifteen minutes from that shown in diagram. Local conditions determine this and is a minor matter in the consideration of the plans. Two eight grade room programs are shown ann illustrate the controlling idea here, i, e., the program making with view to keeping all departments filled. lateral arrangement of classes allows the placing of the children of one family in one group and allows the home to make a better adjustment to the demands of the school. Under Plan 1 each group alternates in using the home rooms half of the morning and afternoon, whereas under Plan 2 one group uses the home rooms for the whole morning and the other group uses these same rooms for the whole afternoon period. When any group is not in the home rooms it is available for assignment to such special work as the school is able to offer. This is, in the main, limited to what the special teachers of physical education, manual training and domestic science are able to offer. BELOW ARE GIVEN COMPARATIVE LISTS OF SOME OF THE FEATURES OF BOTH PLANS. FIFTY SCHOOLS IN ALL ARE WORKING UNDER THESE PLANS The children are in school when required to report for manual and physical training in the special rooms. In a regular school the actual time spent by each child in learning amounts to 4 hours and 35 minutes each day if recesses are taken out. Under each of the above plans the actual time so spent in the home rooms amounts to approximately 4 hours. To make up this loss of 35 minutes a day-2 7/12 hours per week -for every division, is the function of the special rooms. For this purpose these special rooms are available from 9:00 A. M. to about 11:30 A. M. and from 1:15 P. M. to 3:15 P. M., a total of 4 1/2 hours each day or 22 1/2 hours per special room per week. This supposes that the special teachers are assigned full time to the school and that every part of these 22 1/2 hours per special room is utilized. It is therefore, an easy matter to figure the number of special activities necessary in a double school to make up this loss in time for each division. Thus 12 divisions need 12 x 2 7/12 or 31 hours of special activities to make up the amount they lose as a result of being in a double school. The most that any one special room can furnish is 22 1/2 hours. But then the writers feel that it should not be the aim just to equalize the time of the pupils of the regular and double schools, but rather to extend the day of the double school pupils beyond the regular amount because of the greater concentration of their leisure time. In some neighborhoods, this longer stretch of leisure time is not a desirable thing. II. THE GARY SCHOOL It was thought that since Gary was one of the most prominent of pioneer cities to work out the longer day for the school child and to put into effect the workstudy-play theory of education, it was under this plan. More definite experimental data are needed on this question. Children must make a special trip to school for the same work. best to try to chart this form of organization along with the others to show what differences there might be. The information given here is taken from the 1918 report of the survey made of the Gary Schools by the General Education Board of New York. The Gary Plan calls for a division of the school into four departments: (a) special rooms, (b) home rooms, (c) auditorium, and (d) and (d) gymnasium and playground. While the course of study calls for a definite allotment of time per day for each grade in each department, no definite arrangement or sequence of these activities is worked out for a room or grade. It is largely a matter of individual room program, with an attempt to keep all departments filled all the time. This results in a diversity of programs within any one grade and a resulting difficulty in checking up on the movements of the individual child and the sequence of his work from year to year. The diagram shows programs of two eighth grade rooms and will give an idea of the diversity which results from this method. It will also be noted that the Gary day is seven hours long and that, approximately, the plan calls for one hour periods in the four departments of the school. The Gary Survey Commission, while speaking of the many possibilities of the Plan, would not recommend its adoption elsewhere as it was then being worked out in Gary. The Detroit Platoon School may be said to be one of the above possibilities of the Gary Plan, more highly organized and administered. We feel that this article would not be complete unless some mention be made of the time allotment and subject matter taught under each plan. This informa tion is given for two grades, one primary and one grammar. The figures given represent minutes per week. Gary* 175 60 Included ... ... with man ual arts ... 360 Lang. 100 150 120 75 60 50 Included in Spelling 75 ... 75 .100 70 165 ... ... Play. 150 Gym. 150 150 600 III. THE DETROIT PLATOON PLAN "Platoon Schools" are words on the lips and tongues of many school men. Naturally there is a professional interest in any new and unusual type of school, but due to an accumulation of significant events there is a more impelling interest for Chicago educators. Last fall Mr. Moderwell, president of the Chicago school board, issued an official communication pointing out the serious problems Reading of congestion confronting the school board, and in a speech at the City Club he mentioned a possible solution of them by means of the platoon plan. The previous school board had attempted a study of these difficulties from overcrowding by appointing an Advisory School Plan Commission to investigate thoroughly possible solutions. The executive secretaries of this commission visited the Detroit schools, studying the platoon organization there. Now that this old commission has expired, the present school board has appointed a new Educational Commission whose agenda includes among other things a study of "Varying types of school organization." That the Chicago teachers are interested. is evidenced by the fact that several teachers went to Detroit to see platoon schools in operation, and spent several days there in intensive study of them. One of the Chicago daily newspapers has been running feature articles on platoon schools. schools. The daily papers, with their keen sense of news values, rarely waste space on items in which the public is not interested. And finally, Mr. McAndrew, the new Superintendent of Schools, has been variously reported as favoring, or having favored in the past, the Gary school type, a forerunner of the platoon plan. Absorbed in above ... 2100 of activities than found in either Chicago or Detroit platoon organization in one or more of Schools. |