What the Schools Teach and Might Teach | Page 2

administration
knew yet what the new courses were to be in their details. It was not a
safe time to be either praising or blaming course of study requirements.
The situation was too unformed for either. In the matter of the
curriculum, the city was confessedly on the eve of a large constructive
program. Its face was toward the future, and not toward the past; not
even toward the present.
It was felt that if the brief space at the disposal of this report could also
look chiefly toward the future, and present constructive
recommendations concerning things that observation indicated should

be kept in mind, it would accomplish its largest service. The time that
the author spent in Cleveland was mostly used in observations in the
schools, in consultation with teachers and supervisors, and in otherwise
ascertaining what appeared to be the main outlines of practice in the
various subjects. This was thought to be the point at which further
constructive labors would necessarily begin.
The recommendation of a thing in this report does not indicate that it
has hitherto been non-existent or unrecognized in the system. The
intention rather is an economical use of the brief space at our disposal
in calling attention to what appear to be certain fundamental principles
of curriculum-making that seem nowadays more and more to be
employed by judicious constructive workers.
The occasional pointing out of incomplete development of the work of
the system is not to be regarded as criticism. Both school people and
community should remember that since schools are to fit people for
social conditions, and since these conditions are continually changing,
the work of the schools must correspondingly change. Social growth is
never complete; it is especially rapid in our generation. The work of
education in preparing for these ever-new conditions can likewise never
be complete, crystallized, perfected. It must grow and change as fast as
social conditions make such changes necessary. To point out such
further growth-needs is not criticism. The intention is to present the
disinterested, detached view of the outsider who, although he knows
indefinitely less than those within the system about the details of the
work, can often get the perspective rather better just because his mind
is not filled with the details.

THE POINT OF VIEW
There is an endless, and perhaps worldwide, controversy as to what
constitutes the "essentials" of education; and as to the steps to be taken
in the teaching of these essentials. The safe plan for constructive
workers appears to be to avoid personal educational philosophies and to
read all the essentials of education within the needs and processes of
the community itself. Since we are using this social point of view in
making curriculum suggestions for Cleveland, it seems desirable first to
explain just what we mean. Some of the matters set down may appear
so obvious as not to require expression. They need, however, to be

presented again because of the frequency with which they are lost sight
of in actual school practice.
Children and youth are expected as they grow up to take on by easy
stages the characteristics of adulthood. At the end of the process it is
expected that they will be able to do the things that adults do; to think
as they think; to bear adult responsibilities; to be efficient in work; to
be thoughtful public-spirited citizens; and the like. The individual who
reaches this level of attainment is educated, even though he may never
have attended school. The one who falls below this level is not truly
educated, even though he may have had a surplus of schooling.
To bring one's nature to full maturity, as represented by the best of the
adult community in which one grows up, is true education for life in
that community. Anything less than this falls short of its purpose.
Anything other than this is education misdirected.
In very early days, when community life was simple, practically all of
one's education was obtained through participating in community
activities, and without systematic teaching. From that day to this,
however, the social world has been growing more complex. Adults
have developed kinds of activities so complicated that youth cannot
adequately enter into them and learn them without systematic teaching.
At first these things were few; with the years they have grown very
numerous.
One of the earliest of these too-complicated activities was written
language--reading, writing, spelling. These matters became necessities
to the adult world; but youth under ordinary circumstances could not
participate in them as performed by adults sufficiently to master them.
They had to be taught; and the school thereby came into existence. A
second thing developed about the same time was the complicated
number system used by adults. It was too difficult for youth to master
through participation