Chart VII. Equivalent educational values in the Newton High School as shown by the purchasing power of one dollar expended for class instruction, 1912-13. assignment of values in future. Greater wisdom in these assignments will come not by reference to any supposed fixed and inherent values in these subjects themselves, but from a study of local conditions and needs. I know nothing about the absolute value of a recitation in Greek as compared with a recitation in French or in English. I was convinced, however, by very concrete and quite local considerations, that when the obligations of the past year expired, we ought to purchase no more Greek instruction at the rate of 5.9 pupil-recitations for a dollar. So this year, for the first time in the history of the Newton High School, we are buying no Greek; until last year's price can be materially reduced, we shall continue to invest in other subjects. Measuring and Charting Actual Instruction. Elaborate courses of study on paper, showing with mathematical accuracy the number of periods per week and the number of years devoted to each subject, give no adequate conception of the actual educational employment of the secondary school youth of a community at any given time. If one week's work of every pupil that was last year in the Newton secondary schools could have been recorded successively by a properly sensitized photographic plate, the composite picture that might have been developed from this record would have shown the pursuit of the various subjects in the proportions graphically indicated on Chart VIII (p. 244). Resolving into one hundred equal parts the education that the Newton composite secondary pupil was then receiving, we find that one-tenth of one part was Greek, while seventeen parts were English; the remaining eighty-two and ninetenths parts made up in the proportions indicated of the seventeen subjects, from pattern-making to mathematics, that are recorded between Greek and English. Is the Newton composite secondary school pupil being adequately prepared to meet the composite demands of that society which education should fit him to serve? Some help, at least, in answering this question may be found by studying this composite photograph which should be complemented by a composite of the needs of social service, using this term in its broadest sense. Chart VIII. Showing the ingredients of the education of a "composite" pupil in the Newton secondary schools. Expose for one week the education of every pupil to a properly sensitized photographic plate, and the "composite" result would show ingredients as indicated on this chart. Adjusting Education to Society's Need of Service. Just what we mean by preparing adequately our secondary school pupils as a whole to meet the wide range of legitimate service that society is demanding of the on-coming generation can be shown more clearly if we direct our attention to a limited portion of the field of secondary education and to a few types of service that society demands. In the Newton Vocational School the boys are learning certain trades, known as machine shop, pattern-making, ‘electrical, cabinet making and printing. The proportionate distribution of the total number of boys in the school among these several trades is represented by the solid black bars on Chart IX (p. 246). These bars are drawn on the scale of one hundred; that is, the total of the four bars equals 100%, or the total number of boys in the school, of these 44% are learning machine shop and pattern-making trades, 25% electrical trades, and so on. Similarly there is represented on this chart by crossed bars the distribution of workers in the principal skilled industries of Boston as shown by the last census; for example, the chart shows that 30% of such workers are engaged in the metal trades and 27% in printing and publishing. Note that each school trade is represented on the chart immediately above that actual trade for which the school trade is preparing its pupils. This chart is of no value in itself; it has been prepared and is presented solely to show the type of chart, or charts, that both the educational and industrial, also the commercial and professional worlds, need. Similar to this chart, there should be constructed a chart, or rather a series of charts, based on adequate data, that would show, on the one hand, the proportionate distribution of workers engaged in industrial, commercial and professional pursuits, and, on the other hand, the proportionate distribution of pupils, including those in private as well as those in public institutions, among various courses of training that definitely prepare for different types of service. Such charts should include the data gathered from a large area; all New England would not be too large an area, anything less than the state would be too small, for the output of any school may easily adjust itself to the demands for service in a region extending |