School year

“ In the coming weeks, children across our nation will begin a new school year. They're looking forward to meeting new teachers, and learning new subjects, and making new friends. And thanks to good schools and good policies, we can all be confident this year will be a year of achievement for America's students and families. ”

“ The first test of the school year should be given early in the year, before much ground has been covered. The first two or three weeks’ work is likely to be less good than that which follows even where pupils and teacher are all doing their best. ”

“ Students are divided into six sections, each group containing about fifty. A whole division goes into the practising school at one time, and stays there for two weeks only. The remaining thirty-eight weeks of the last school year are entirely devoted to the study of pedagogical subjects, psychological methods and drawing. Kindergarten work is compulsory to all during the last year. The two weeks which each student [60] spends in the schools are chiefly employed in hearing lessons, and observing children and teachers. Only two days in the whole course are spent in actual teaching. ”

“ My home instruction was by no means permitted to stand in the way of the “regular school,” which consisted of two terms each year, of three months each. The winter term included not only the large boys and girls, but in reality the young men and young women of the neighborhood. An exceptionally fine teacher often drew the daily attendance of advanced scholars for several miles. ”

“ Boys and girls of normal school age or under maintain a better school standing, both as to grades and marks, than those over age for grade. The age of entrance after six or seven years determines the age for completing the elementary and high school. With very few exceptions these children progress through the elementary school at the rate of one grade per year, regardless of the chronological age at entrance. ”

“ This is especially clear with regard to the years that precede school. In all civilized countries there is practical agreement that regular schooling shall begin with the normal child in the sixth year. To be sure, there are special institutions like the kindergarten, which receive children at an earlier age, but these institutions aim to serve in a somewhat more systematic way the same purposes that under other circumstances are served by home training. ”

“ This school has been organized on a year schedule. If the children come four terms each year instead of three, they will reduce the time between the first and eighth grades by one-third, which means a saving to them and to the school. Since it is the able children who come, the twelve months’ school affords them an opportunity to go quickly through work on which the slower classmates must hold a more moderate pace. ”

“ However, there are laws requiring that each school be taught at least six months in a year, and that children between the ages of seven and fourteen attend for at least twelve consecutive weeks, and for a total of sixteen weeks in every year. ”

“ In summer woman held her sway there, but in winter man reigned supreme on the throne of learning, and "boarded round," a custom not yet obsolete.
Once every year came the great anniversary of the school, the last day of April, when the "master's" term expired, and he left the town to the dominion of the new school-marm. ”

“ It is better to prepare carefully and philosophically six or eight lessons in one-half of the school year, than to endeavor to cover three times as many in the usual hurried fashion. The teacher may be sure that when the first six or eight lessons are thus carefully prepared, the progress thereafter will be more rapid. There is no doubt that the pupil who will spend two years in this graded work will be able to read any ordinary selection with ease, and with pleasure to the listener. ”

“ In the lower grades the regular studies are, of course, prescribed. English, arithmetic, history, and geography must be studied by all, with the attendant “application” and “auditorium” work. All must have physical education, 109music and expression, and some form of manual and scientific work. The courses in science, industrial work, and music and expression, below the high school, are taken in alternation. Each occupies one third of the school year. The individual choice of the pupil comes in what science or what shop work he or she will take. ”

“ Holidays may be the greatest boon not only to oneself, but to all the people one meets.
Particulars about the training for teaching are to be found in many books. Two which come readily to my mind are “The Teacher’s Year Book” and “The Englishwoman’s Year Book”. The registrars of the different universities are always glad to supply particulars if asked. The Board of Education will give details about elementary school teaching: these change somewhat every few years. ”

“ No normal school now completes its work with less than one full year beyond the completion of a four-year high school course, and two years beyond is rapidly getting to be the standard. So that normal school graduation gives the prospective teacher of the grades at least four years of academic, and from one to two years of professional and academic work beyond the point to be reached by "his most advanced pupil." ”

“ The school year's fairly started, and we've met together this afternoon to talk about a number of things that are of very great importance to us all. You all know that a school—to be worth anything—has two sides. There's the inside part, with classes and prep. and exams.—what's generally called the 'curriculum'—that's managed by the mistresses. And there's the outside part, the games and sports and concerts and guilds—that's run by the girls themselves. Now I think, if we arrange well, we ought to be able to look forward to three very jolly terms. Everything depends upon making a good start. ”

“ Young people across the country returned to school this week. The approach of autumn marks the end of the year, but somehow it always seems to be a time of new beginnings in the home and the workplace and in the classroom. ”

“ But children under the age of twelve require very different educational surroundings from those between twelve and sixteen. The Junior school may well be a mixed village school as close to mother as possible, a small school, bright and homelike. ”

“ In 1876 the regular course of study for the Senior classes was made to include four years, and in the catalogue of 1882 the complete course I of study shows four years for the Senior course, two years for the Middle, two for the Junior and one for the Pri- mary, making a total of nine years. The last year of the Senior course carried the student little beyond the work of the last year of the present-day high school. ”

“ The scholars should be formed into classes, averaging seven to a class. These classes, when organized, should be seated in the school, with the view of promotion from year to year. In a school of five hundred pupils the classes would average about five to each grade.
Where these departments occupy the same room the Juniors may be seated on one side, according to rank, and the Seniors on the other side. The position of the class, being won by merit, becomes a place of honor which the superintendent wisely uses. In the first organization a perfect grade is not attainable. ”

“ High schools (Realschulen, Realgymnasien, Progymnasien and Gymnasien) . All high school teachers, except those engaged in technical departments, must first absolve the nine years' gymnasial course, which commences at the close of the third school year. Next comes the university course of three or four years. The candidate is now ready for the State examination. The subjects for this State examination ... are divided into four classes: 1. The ancient languages and German; 2. Mathematics and natural sciences; 3. History and geography; 4. Religion and Hebrew. ”

“ It is worthy of note, however, that in comparatively few instances do the ages vary more than two or three years, and that six years is the widest difference in age to be found among all the pupils of any given grade of work. Furthermore, we call attention to the fact that those above normal age in no year aggregated as much as ten per cent of the entire number in attendance. 10.1 per cent represents the entire number outside the normal age—those above plus those below—for the year 1908. ”

“ The mechanism of the school includes three schemes: that of “work students,” who work during the day throughout the year and attend night school for eight months; that of day school students, who attend school for four or five days and do manual work for one or two days each week; and that of trade students, who receive trade instruction in their daily eight-hours’ work and study in night school as well. ”

“ We are glad to report that both school and church have prospered during the year. The total enrollment of students is 199, and we rejoice to know that additional school rooms, so greatly needed, are to be provided before another year begins. Fifteen or twenty of the scholars were converted during the precious revival in March last. Quite a number [240] will engage in teaching during the summer, and several will go to higher institutions of learning in the fall. ”

“ The schools are open nine months in the year, and all children between eight and fourteen years of age are required to attend some public, private or parochial school during these months unless excused because of some physical or mental disability. ”

“ For three months preparations should be made, the superintendent and teachers should consult, a committee should consider every case, and the changes should be made deliberately and systematically. On one Sunday in the year pupils should be promoted from department to department, and classes should be advanced from grade to grade in the several departments. The basis of promotion should be age, knowledge, and general maturity of character, and the authorities of the school should decide just how much weight should be given to each requirement. ”

“ In order to enter these latter schools the child must have finished the seven years of instruction in the primary schools. Middle schools are under the inspection of state officials and a uniform standard of work is required of all of them. The middle school examination which marks the completion of the middle school course is exactly the same for all pupils in the state. In any given year all who take the examinations write on exactly the same questions on a specified hour of a certain day. ”

“ The pupils do not look forward to the last four years of school with dread of a hard and useless grind, they look at it as a continuation of their school life, getting harder from year to year as their own ability increases. And especially they regard this period as an189 opportunity to get training whose immediate value they can see. The arguments of the school to persuade the pupils to stay in school are practical, telling arguments, things the children can see. ”

“ As most of these men have passed the period of their boyhood by at least a quarter of a century, it is not surprising to hear them tell of school years consisting of only three or four months, and of school-room exercises where the number of text-books were so few that many of the lessons were delivered{413} orally by the teacher, and boys and girls took turns with one another’s books. ”

“ And so the Doctor, at the beginning of the next half-year, looked out the best of the new boys, and separated you and East, and put the young boy into your study, in the hope that, when you had somebody to lean on you, you would begin to stand a little steadier yourself, and get manliness and thoughtfulness. ”

“ Staid old universities blaze out with the gala colours of commencement week, when the month of roses is ushered in, and on every college campus the social life of the student year comes to flower in the crowning exercises of class-day. ”

“ But accepting our colleges and universities as they are, at the same time discarding the results of tradition and of half-hearted experiment, what should the high school do? By high school we mean the instruction in the public school for four years of school life from the age of 13 or 14 to that of 17 or 18, resting on the primary and grammar school on the one hand and presumably leading to the college on the other—in most cases the last of the years in which a student lives at home and goes to school. ”

“ The high schools with a million students, and the universities, colleges, professional and normal schools with three hundred thousand more, constitute an increasingly important factor in education; at the same time, for every seven students in these higher schools, there are ninety-three children in the elementary grades. The proportion is so unexpected that it staggers us—more than nine-tenths of the children who attend school in the United States are in the elementary grades! ”

“ Every child on attaining the age of six must now attend a Common Elementary School, where during a four years' course instruction is given in morals, reading, writing, arithmetic, the rudiments of technical work, gymnastics, and poetry. ”

“ The two hundred days of the school calendar are hardly sufficient to meet the special demands made upon them in the interests of history, literature, and philanthropy. After all, is not this call for specialization something of a reproach to both home and school? If the child is symmetrically developed, harmoniously educated, will not all these influences find their proper place and expression in his life in the regular course of events? ”

“ The present sequence in our older communities runs somewhat as follows: the kindergarten up to six years; the elementary school for about eight years; the high school, four years; the college, four years; the graduate, technical, or professional course, from three to six years. The educational process begins with very tender baby flesh, and ends with pretty solid men and women. It is not one day too long if it lead irresistibly to the radiant life. ”

“ Pupils who complete the eighth grade at fourteen or fifteen years, and then go to a normal school, would complete this elementary course at the age of seventeen or eighteen; and no person who has not reached this age should assume the responsibility for the care and instruction of children in any school. ”