Hatfield, Wilbur W. English in the Junior High Heiby, Albert H. Writing Simple Equations. February, Heinrich, G. A. Material for the Fifth Grade History Herrington, Maud. A Pageant of the Numbers. March, Hinkle, E. C. Arithmetic in the Junior High School. Historical Inquiry, Chicago and the. By Joseph B. Shine. History Course, Fifth Grade, Material for. By G. A. History, Standard Tests in. By Alice M. Davies. Sep- History, Teaching. By H. G. Wells. November, pp. How Can Pupils Be Selected for Grouping? Re- How Can Vocational Schools Provide for Individual Differences? By Robert H. Rodgers. February, How the Problems of Vocational Guidance Are Met in a Small City. By John F. Friese. February, pp. 213-215. Improving Instruction in Silent Reading. By E. E. Individual Differences, How Can Vocational Schools Industrial Education, Provisions for, in the Public Schools. By Howard L. Briggs. April, pp. 285-290. By I. S. T. A., Norman Angell Rouses Members of. Jacobs, G. Ovedia. Harmonica Orchestras. December, Johnson, J. T. Geometry in the Junior High School. Johnson, William H. Education for Leisure. February, Johnson, William H. The Place of the Assembly in Junior High Schools, Arithmetic in. By E. C. Hinkle. Junior High School, English in. By W. Wilbur Hat- Junior High School, Geometry in the. By J. T. John- Junior High School, Guiding Objectives in the Making William H. Johnson. January, pp. 172-176. Junior High School, Shall Stenography Be Taught in the? By Gertrude J. Hardt. May, pp. 333-335. Keener, E. E. Improving Instruction in Silent Reading. Keener, E. E. Spelling in the Chicago Schools. April, Kelly, Fred C. She Never Knew a Bad Boy. Sep- Kindergarten and First Grade, Supervised Handwork Larson, Ruth H. Chicago's School Playgrounds. June, Latimer, Ray. An Experiment in the Supervised Study Leisure, Education for. By William H. Johnson. Lovett, Marjorie. Tests and Testing: A Fairy Tale. Lowden, Samuel Marion. Teaching Poetry in the High McAndrew, William. The Principal. November, pp. McEnroe, Irene. Errors in Speech. December, pp. Martz, Velorus. A Recent Movement in Experimental Mental Measurement in the Kindergarten. By Edna News of the Chicago Schools. Pp. 68-74; 106-110; 149-150; 188-192; 231-232; 273-274; 311-313; 348- 352; 389-391. Monotone, The Problem of the. By Henry W. Fair- Movie Lessons, Fatigue Point in. By Frank A. Fucik. November, pp. 94-95. North Central Association on By Thomas W. Gosling. Junior High Schools. Objectives, Educational, Why? By B. H. Bode. No- Orchestras, Harmonica. By G. Ovedia Jacobs. Decem- Pageant of the Numbers. By Maud Herrington. March, pp. 247-250. Pierson, Paul I. Wanted: General Science Teachers. Pioneers and the New Youth, The. By Carl Van. Place of the Assembly in the Junior High School, The. By William H. Johnson. January, pp. 172-176. Plasticine, From Mud Pies to. By Marjorie Belle Shephard Briggs. February, pp. 217-224. Playgrounds, School, Chicago's. By Ruth H. Larson. Poetry, Teaching of, in the High Schools. By Samuel Principal, The. By William McAndrew. November, Pritchett and Child Labor, Dr. By J. W. Crabtree. Problem of the Monotone, The. By Henry W. Fair- Projects in English Composition, Two. By Elvira D. Rape, Arthur O. What Mental Tests Mean to the Recent Movement in Experimental Schools, A. By Reconstruction of the Junior High School Curriculum in Los Angeles. By Susan M. Dorsey. September, Rhythm, Effect of, on Handwriting. By Margaret M. Rodgers, Robert H. How Can Vocational Schools Pro- Rogers, Don C. Chicago's "Educational Ladder." Rogers, Don C. Supervising a Class in Long Division. Schoolroom, Technique in the. By Josephine L. Quinn. She Never Knew a Bad Boy. By Fred C. Kelly. Sep- Secondary Schools, General Science in. By J. E. Teder. Shall Stenography Be Taught in the Junior High Schools? By Gertrude J. Hardt. May, pp. 333-335. Shine, Joseph B. Chicago and the Historical Inquiry. Silent Reading, Improving Instruction in. By E. E. Slosson, Edwin E. Science Teaching in a Democracy. Smith, R. R. Norman Angell Rouses Members of Sons of the American Revolution on Education. Janu- Speech, Errors in. By Irene McEnroe. December, pp. Spelling in the Chicago Schools. By E. E. Keener. April, Standard Tests in History. By Alice M. Davies. Sep- Stenography Be Taught in the Junior High School, Strayer, George D. Recent Achievements and Next Suggested Program of Vocational Guidance in the High School. By William H. Johnson. October, Supervised Handwork Period in Kindergarten and First By Don C. November, pp. Teaching Poetry in the High Schools. By Samuel Technique in the Schoolroom. By Josephine L. Quinn. Teder, J. E. General Science in the Secondary Schools. Tests and Testing: A Fairy Tale. By Marjorie Lovett. Tests, Mental, What They Mean to the Classroom Thurston Club, The. By Gertrude Gardner. March, Value of School Assemblies, The. By Frank A. Fucik. Van Doren, Carl. The Pioneers and the New Youth. Veatch, Georgia E. Physical Education in the Junior Vocational Education and the Vocational Guidance Bu- By Arthur W. Walz. January, pp. 161-167. Vocational Guidance, A Suggested Program of, in the High School. By William H. Johnson. October, Vocational Guidance, How the Problems of, Are Met in a Small City. By John F. Friese. February, Walz, Arthur W. Vocational Education and the Voca- Wanted: General Science Teachers. By Paul I. Pier- Weck, Frederick W. The Auditorium in the Gary Weck, Frederick W. The Elimination of Waste in Wells, H. G. Teaching History. November, pp. 92-93. What Mental Tests Mean to the Classroom Teacher. By Arthur O. Rape. September, pp. 18-19. Why Educational Objectives? By B. H. Bode. No- Work and Working Conditions for the Child Fourteen or Fifteen Years of Age. By Anne S. Davis. Decem- ber, pp. 121-125; January, pp. 167-172. I RECONSTRUCTION OF THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM IN LOS ANGELES By SUSAN M. DORSEY, Superintendent of Schools N ORDER to understand the difficulties and the comparatively slow progress in curriculum reconstruction in the junior high schools of Los Angeles, a brief account of their inception and history is necessary. Twelve years ago, about the time of their organization, there was much loose talk concerning the great waste of student time in the elementary schools, and of the possibility of saving one year or more through a type of intermediate school that would admit of departmental schedules and eliminate the single track of elementary studies. Naturally enough, those who organized the new school looked to the high schools for their departmental pattern and conceived the idea of moving the high school program of studies, together with its elective opportunities, down into the seventh and eighth grades, thereby creating a junior high school. Not until three years ago was elective privilege in Los Angeles removed from the seventh grade. Prior to that time, modern languages, Latin, and such commercial subjects as bookkeeping and stenography were freely selected by the wholly inexperienced graduates of the sixth grade without educational guidance, all with the thought that thereby the prospective high school student was being hurried on to graduation. One most unfortunate result of this elective procedure, coupled with the impelling idea that a chief function of the junior high school was to accelerate the pupil, was the heaping up of junior high school credits which it was incumbent upon the high schools to accept and count as credits toward final graduation. In the course of time, it became apparent to all that an end must be had to the graduation of students from senior high schools who had carried only very partial senior high school courses, having entered with an overbalance of credit in the less mature subjects of the junior high school. Perhaps the mistake made in Los Angeles was less regretable than the more common one of simply combining the former seventh and eighth elementary grades and their single track of study with the ninth year of the senior high school; for at least it resulted in an ambitious if mistaken attempt to justify the new type of school as a time saver, which was not altogether futile, even though it greatly retarded the reorganization of the curriculum in a way to deal fairly with the child and with the general school system. At any rate, the first great task of the present administration of the public schools of Los Angeles was to convince both junior and senior high school faculties that the function of the junior high school was not on the one hand to accelerate pupils, nor on the other to prepare pupils for the senior high school, but to organize and conduct a school which should meet the needs of students of the seventh, eighth and ninth year age, that would develop those abilities, attitudes, and habits that would find these children at the end of the junior high school at that point in their general development where children of that age should be. years In justice to Los Angeles it should be said that prior to the very recent effort in curriculum reorganization, junior high high school people, through the blundering method of trial and error, had reached some conclusions for themselves. One of those conclusions was that geography could not be omitted altogether from the curriculum of these grades. Until three years ago, in pursuance of the aim to make this intermediate school like a high school and to save time, this highly important social subject had been relegated entirely to the elementary schools. A second decision was that valuable time was being wasted in the seventh and eighth years in the study of stenography, a purely vocational subject. A third conA third conclusion reached was that there must be a much wider and more varied program of manual work than the conventional woodshop of the old elementary seventh and eighth grades and the conventional home economics for girls of those same grades.' Consequently, Los Angeles some three years ago began to build and equip in every junior high school shops which offer quite a variety of elementary manual instruction. This is all being done in a most conservative and cautious way. For some the work is prevocational and for others it is merely general training. Owing to a tremendous expansion in school population, Los Angeles cannot afford the elegance of some junior high school plants. In all shop buildings the simplicity of real shop conditions is emulated so far as possible, always giving due attention to health requirements. In a few instances shops are being enlarged and adjusted to meet the needs of over-age, over-grown boys sent on from the elementary schools because they have exhausted the possibilities of the elementary school and can profit most by extended and more advanced manual training combined with academic instruction of a different type from that given in the one track course of the elementary school. The reconstruction process has been slow. While there has existed for years committees of teachers who had co-operated more or less intermittently with the superintendent's staff in the preparing and revising of courses of study, it became evident that a thorough-going revision was necessary, which should eventuate in a curriculum more consonant with modern educational thought and with the actual needs of children of that age. Finding it quite impossible for anyone of the superintendent's office to give the close and constant attention to this work that seemed necessary if results were to be had, it was determined to add to our corps of workers Dr. Franklin K. Bobbitt, whose studies in curriculum making had deservedly received nation-wide attention. Dr. Bobbitt does not figure as a specialist in the junior high school realm, but the underlying principles of curriculum making are universal and should apply fairly well to any to any consecutive group of grades. All must agree that the one thing needful for successful curriculum making in the junior high school is to determine first what this type of school should stand for. Doubtless all agree likewise that the junior high school should function as a transition unit in the school system coordinating with the elementary on the one hand and with the high school on the other, partaking to some extent in content, method, and atmosphere of both types of schools; and second, that it should have an atmosphere and purpose of its own, should, in fact, function distinctively as that school in which, through a more liberalizing training, the transition may be made effectively from the "self-centered mind of childhood to the socialized mind of adulthood." If on the one hand attention is to be given primarily to preparing the students for high school, this must curtail the enrichment of the curriculum in socializing studies and activities adapted to the needs of junior schools; it must also curtail attempts to discover through trial and observation the aptitudes of the individual student. If on the other hand its place as a link in the public school system is to be ignored, the junior high school will drift into self-centered and vain vagaries. The keynote of Dr. Bobbitt's curriculum making is the search for the general objectives of education for each type of school, and an school, and an effort to discover the special abilities to be developed through the study of each subject. Accepting cer tain abilities as those to be developed, the curriculum must suggest the educative material and pupil experience necessary to attain those abilities. Great numbers of teachers working on general and subject committees made patient inquiry as to what they had a right to expect from junior high school train-ing. To give one instance of the thoroughness of the investigation, which is illustrative of a host of others, I read from a certain pamphlet the following generality: "All seem to agree that courses in the social sciences in the junior high school should have as their main purpose the making of good citizens out of the pupils." Let us see how Dr. Bobbitt would analyze and give pith, content, and actual meaning to the purpose of social studies. The following are some of the fundamental educational objectives listed by Dr. Bobbitt as those to be aimed at in social studies: 1. Ability to think, feel, act and react ion. (e) Supplying the money required for providing the necessary material facilities. 3. The ability and disposition to use 4. The ability and the disposition to 6. Ability to act in those sympathetic, From this one illustration may be seen the stimulating and exhaustive character of the investigation carried on to discover what should be the aims in the teaching of any subject. Still much remains to be done in the reorganization of the junior high school course of study. The committees are hard at work in gathering materials and outlining student activities which pupils of this age should attain. Effort is concentrated this year on developing the social studies of the curriculum and the pre-vocational shop courses. Distinct progress is being made in both. To speak first of the social studies and some of the differences of opinion and difficulties attending the writing of this particular monograph: School law in California prescribes that civics and United States history shall be taught in the upper elementary grades. There has, however, developed a very general movement toward the use of community civics for the ninth year instead of Ancient History, or at least as an alternative. Now, it so happens that one impelling reason for the organization of the junior high school was the fact of so much repetition of subject |