Problems of Community

Great Captains of industry, professional men and those who are giving their attention to various practical lines have recently raised a great criticism on the public schools because, as they claim, the things taught in school fail to empower the students to meet the demands of business life. Even our strongest advocates of the cultural doctrine are ready to admit that these criticisms are not entirely without foundation. Modern educators are beginning to see that too many of our school problems have no vital connection nor practical application in community life, so in recent years there has been a great wave of enthusiasm sweeping over the country for a more utilitarian policy in our public schools. Rather than concoct mathematical conundrums or enigmas of language, which serve only as mental gymnastics in the classroom, it is just as cultural and far more economic to take some of the great problems of the community and, through typical projects, teach the students how to investigate and find a solution to the things which they will soon be called upon to control.
As soon as a student leaves school he ceases to make problems for the sake of keeping himself busy in their solution. The process is now reversed and he is not only brought face to face with ready-made problems calling upon him for a solution, but is surrounded beyond escape by a class of community problems which demand the full exercise of his capabilities. An unsuccessful meeting of these community problems and an incorrect solution may mean his loss of social standing, professional failure, financial reverse, moral disgrace, or possibly absolute extermination.
The fact that all students, regardless of ability and condition, will, in a very few years, be compelled to undergo this adjustment, makes it unnecessary to make any argument to show why community problems should constitute a vital portion of the school curriculum.
The industrial work through its Manual Training, Agriculture, Home Economics and other practical lines, offers a most excellent opportunity of employing the students' natural interest and the inherent disposition toward activity in working out projects which are typical of the great community problems. For illustration: the great problem of sanitation is demanding universal attention and no one could claim a liberal education without understanding the theories, and being able to follow the modern rules of sanitary living. The theory of sanitation may be taught in an old line physiology class, but it can be made to function not only in methods of thinking, but in the formation of habits of action, in the class of Home Economics.
The community demands that a boy be taught proper care and respect for neat and orderly arrangement in his home life. An unlimited amount of advice on this subject may avail but little. However, if the boy is given the experience of making some of the practical things, such as a coat hanger, a broom holder or other equipment required to carry out these theories, he is practically sure to have the ideas everlastingly instilled into his nature.
A perusal of statistics showing how rapidly civilization is becoming centralized in our cities makes it necessary for the community to concern itself with the problem of showing in an effective way how the boy may become interested and profit by remaining on the farm. No amount of theory or poetry regarding "lowing herds," "sighing boughs" and "sweet-perfumed meadows" will prove effective in the solution of this problem unless the boys are taught how to approach the subject of agriculture and make it pleasant as well as profitable. This sort of interest can be inculcated only by the early experience in doing realities in agriculture and agricultural mechanics. The boy who makes and uses a seed corn tester will have a better comprehension of seed testing than a boy who merely reads of the value of seed selection.
Throughout this text the prevailing idea is to present only such projects as may be made typical of some community problems which are worth while. To be sure there are certain projects which in themselves are designed particularly to appeal to boyish tastes (the kite, for example), yet this project is replete with possibilities for the study of the great modern subject of air-craft, and by studying some of the references following the introductory statement an unlimited interest can be aroused.

The greatest obligation of the school is to give to each student such training as will enable him to find his proper place in his environment, and throughout this text it has been the design to draw a sufficient number of typical projects from the community interest to appeal to the widely varying inclinations and tastes of individual students and at the same time to guide them sufficiently so that their time will not be wasted in aimless effort.