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T^HE EDINBORO QUARTERLY is issued in January, April, July, and October, by
the Eldinboro State Normal School. The April number constitutes the Alumni Reg­
ister. The July number will be the Catalog. The other two numbers will be filled witK an­
nouncements and general news matter.
Entered as second-class matter, December 11, 1913, at the postolfice at Eldinboro, Penn­
sylvania, under the act of August 24, 1912."
■
----------------------VOL. 1.

NO. 4
---------------------------------

TO THE ALUMNI
April 17, 1914, ushered in a new era
in the history of. the Edinboro State
Normal. On that date the school was
transferred to the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania and came under the full
control of the State Board of Educa­
tion. The six months since that event
have been a period of quiet develop­
ment. The largest attendance during
any fall term in the history of the
school attests the confidence of the
people in the new management.
The confidence of the people of
Edinboro in the school is complete;
their pride in its achievements is grow­
ing daily.
We take pleasure in giving below the
personnel of the State Board of Educa­
tion and the names and addresses of
the able men and women appointed by
that honorable body to serve as
Trustees.

Members State Board ol Education.

^

Martin G. Brumbaugh, PhiladelphiaDavid B. Oliver, Pittsburgh.
George M. Philips, West Chester.
John S. Rilling, Erie.
William Lauder, Riddlesburg.
Nathan C. Schaeffer, ex-officio.
Executive Secretary.

J. George Becht, Harrisburg.
Trustees.

C. C. Hill, President; North East.
E. S. Templeton, Vice President;
Greenville.
Miss Ella Skiff, Secretary; Edinboro.
Miss Elizabeth Battles, Girard.
C. H. Akens, New Castle.
M. O. Brown, Meadville.
W. J. Flynn, Erie.
F. P. Miller, Meadville.
. 7
J. J. Palmer, Oil City.
■

2

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY

A PLEA FOR PL A Y
Almost everyone realizes the recrea­
tional value of play, but few seem to
realize its educational value. It is an
accepted psychological and physiological
fact, feat play through the connections
of the nerve cells develops the motor
areas of the brain. Education may be
defined as the development of an effici­
ent personality.
Without play, no
matter how well trained at home or at
school, the child’s personality can not
be developed to its highest efficiency.
The child’s first play is exceedingly
simple he piles pebbles or blocks, digs
in the sand and in various ways ad­
justs himself to his environment by
playful experiments. Later, he begins
to imitate in his play and becomes in
turn an Indian Chief, a stage driver, a
motorman, an engineer, a soldier, and
a “cop.” In the games of early child­
hood, the ego is conspicuous, but later,
as a member of a baseball, football,
basketball, or hockey team, the boy
learns that he must sacrifice his own
interests for those of his team. In
handling these more highly organized
games, the play leader, teacher, or
parent has a fine opportunity to influ­
ence the morals of the child, to develop
the qualities of alertness, aggressive­
ness, sympathy, friendship and courage.
In our modern school systems, about
one-tenth of the school time is devoted
to physical training, and ma.'iy teachers
still retain the old fashioned idea that
physical training should consist entirely
of arm stretchings, trunk bendings,
and leg movements by command or
by counts. As a result, the time al­
lotted to physical training is usually
devoted almost entirely to these “set­
ting up” or corrective exercises. Dr.
Sargent of Harvard, and Dr. McKenzie
of Pennsylvania tells us that, whether
the child enjoys this work or not, he
gets a certain amount of good out of it.
Of course we know the blood is taken

from the brain to the muscles by these
exercises, and that the respiration and
heart beat are quickened; but how
much quicker and more pleasantly these
results could be obtained by a good ac­
tive game of kickball or a relay race.
The so-called educ.^tional or formal
gymnastics are drudgery to the active
child, when conducted by any but the
most expert physical training teachers.
The small boy wants to work off sur­
plus energy by standing on his head or
doing a forward roll, and the small girl
wants a singing gams, or a lively folk
dance.
Many educators and parents say there
is plenty of time for play outside of
school, without introducing such fads
into the now overcrowded curriculum.
Plenty of time, that is true ; but For­
rest lives in one end of the town and
Clair lives in the other, and John has
chores to do, and Bill has to peddle
papers after school. Another important
factor is that there is no one to lead
and direct them in their play outside
of school. The parents haven’t time
and the teachers won’t take the time.
Develop the play spirit in the adult,
and then the adult will see to it that
the child gets plenty of good healthful
play. The problem of developing the
spirit of play in the adult can be easily
solved by sending an efficient physical
director to every teachers’ institute and
having him teach some of the more
popular games to the teachers, who, in
turn, take the games home and teach
them to their pupils and to the adults
of the community.
If the cities need recreational centers,
the country needs them far more.
There are two reasons given for the
boys leaving the farm. The first is that
the work is too hard. The second, and
the real reaso::, is that the farm is too
lonesome in the winter. The quickest
way to start the “back to the land”

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY
movement is to develop recreational
centers in every rural community. It is
a hard problem to gat people together
in the country, but the union school
will solve this problem. If there isn’t
a union school, the town hall should be
used as a place for play during the win­
ter. Besides the athletics conducted
at the recreation center, there should
be literary, debating and dramatic c ub
work on different nights, and mixed
dances should be conducted once a week
under careful supervision.
Leisure is the time during which we

3

form character; as character is formed
greatly by choice, let us choose to
spend regularly a part of our time in
good, vigorous, wholesome play that
promotes happiness and rounds out
character. How little we expect of a
boy who does not play vigorously and
how true it is that such a boy seldom
develops into a virile, aggressive man,
fearlessly meeting the battles of life.
Give the boys and girls a chance to en­
joy play, well directed, and the pos­
sibilities are greater for better men
and women, and a stronger nation.

AN EXPERIMENT IN DEMOCRACY
From the first day that I assumed
charge of the Edinboro State Normal
School as principal, the system of
student government by a body of rules
and regulations laid down by the fac­
ulty seemed contrary to the spirit of
a Normal. Further, my experience in
a private boys’ school had led me to
regard the system contrary to the
spirit of democracy, our whole system
of government, and all modern ideals
of education.
The spirit of democracy in school life
was already abroad in the land, and my
own conviction deepened that, if there
is any class of students in the world
who should learn to govern themselves,
it is those who are preparing to govern
others.
Not only from the standpoint of ideals
and purposes, but from the standpoint
of personnel of the student body, all
Normal Schools, and particularly the
Edinboro State Normal School, is an
ideal place for student control and gov­
ernment. The majority of our students
are now of college grade, three-fourths
who enter having been graduated from
four-year high school courses. I doubt
if there can be found anywhere a stu­
dent body of greater earnestness of

purpose, alertness of mind, and eager­
ness to learn. More than ninety-five
per cent of the students who enter this
school come with a definite purpose and
a reasonably clear conception of what
to do to realize that purpose. Out of a
student body of three hundred and fifty,
there are then not more than fifteen,
I doubt if there are ordinarily more
than five, who are not willing and
anxious to do what is best for them and
for the school. To formulate rules to
regulate the five mean-spirited, lowpurposed students and impose them on
the three hundred and forty-five boys
and girls of fine spirit and high motives
is degrading, both to them and to the
faculty. This has been forcefully ex­
pressed by Mr. Gerald Stanley Lee in
“Crowds,” Chapter X, page 486. In
making some reflections on the Ameri­
can temperament, he writes as follows ;
“The government of the next boys’
school of importance in this country is
going to determine the cuts and free
hours, and privileges not by marks, but
by its genius for seeing through boys.
“And instead of making rules for
two hundred pupils because just twenty
pupils need them, they will make the
rules for just twenty pupils.

4

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY

“Pupils who can use their souls and
all, growth in self control and personal
responsibility is especially important.
can do better by telling themselves
In a school consisting of students pre­
what to do, will be allowed to do
better. Why should two hundred hoys paring to train children for citizenwho want to be men be bullied into , ship in the Republic, the importance of
being babies by twenty infants who this growth in responsibility is much
can scare a school government into greater.
When the present administration
rules, i. e., sc'are their teachers into
being small and mean and second rate? took charge of the Edinboro State
“The first trait of a great govern­ Normal School, there was, as in all the
ment is going to be that it will recognize Normal Schools of this State, a great
that the basis of a true government reverence for rules and regulations.
in a democracy is privilege and not We did not abolish all at once, but be­
treating all people alike. • It is going gan gradually to increase the freedom
of the students. There was a good deal
to see that it is cowardly, lazy, brutal,
and a mechanical-minded thing for a of criticism on the part of our enemies
government which is trying to serve a and a good deal of doubt on the part of
great people to treat all the people our friends. There was a special storm
alike. The basis of a great govern­ of criticism v/hen the rule that all stu­
ment like the basis of a great man (or dents must attend church was abolished.
even the basis of a good digestion) is
Many of the well-intentioned people
discrimination, and the habit of acting who criticized would doubtless agree
according to facts. We will have rules with the abstract principle that there
or laws for people who need them, and is no moral growth without personal
men in the same business who amount responsibility ; that the student who
to enough and are American enough to does a thing because his teachers com­
be safe as laws to themselves, will
pel him to do it, will get no moral
continue to have their initiative and to strength from his act. Yet when it
make their business a profession, a came to the concrete application, the
niould, an art form into which they pour old adherence to rules and mechanical
their lives. The pouring of the lives obedience led them to criticize.
of men like this into their business is
For three years, student freedom and
the one thing that the business and the student responsibility have been gra­
dually increased in this school. We
government want.’’
feel sure that any impartial observer
For years, we teachers and educators
have been preaching democracy and will have to admit that the spirit of
discrimination in the treatment of boys right conduct has increased in more than
and girls, but we have gone right on direct ratio.
As in all co-educational schools, the
in the mechanical, supposedly easy
way of formulating rules for the bad relation of the boys and girls has been
boys and girls and imposing them on a vexed problem. Up to three years
good and bad alike. This is not only ago, there was a rule that boys and
undemocratic, it is unfair, unjust, and girls should not walk nearer to each
unpedagogical.
It violates every other than ten feet, on the campus or
streets of the town, without special
principle of adaptation to individual
cases. Further, it restricts growth in permission. The inconsistency of such
one of the most important fields. We a rule is patent to everyone. The
all agree that the groat aim of educa­ school was saying, “Coeducation is a
tion is complete growth. In a Repub- good thing in a limited way. We invite
you, boys and girls, to come to this
Jc, where anyone may come to govern

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY
school to recite together. It is a good
thing for you to be together in the
class, but as soon as you step outside
the classroom, you must not be to­
gether.”
If it is good for boys and girls to be
together in the classroom, it is good
for them to walk together on the cam­
pus, or on the streets, when they are
naturally thrown together in going to
and from their classes. If a rule for­
bidding this natural
relation is
necessary in a school for both boys and
girls, then co-education is not only a
failure, but a moral crime.
Miss Zola Gale, in the July, 1914,
number of the “Atlantic Monthly” has
given us a new version of coeducation.
The writer very sensibly points out
that the word coeducation should never
have arisen, that we do not speak of
co-play, or co-amusement, or co-aspira­
tion, or co-destiny; that it is just as
natural for boys and girls to be edu­
cated together as it is for them to play
together or work together.
There is no doubt that there have
been some evils of co-education. Every
good thing has its dangers. Many
crimes have been committed in the name
of Democracy, yet we have not lost faith
in Democracy; life itself has its
failures and its sorrows, yet we cling
to life.
Some of us have come to believe that
the evils of co-education have arisen
from the failure on the part of the
American schools to do anything for
the social life of the students. It is
natural and healthy for boys and girls
to want to be together, and it is the
business of the school to give them
enough social diversion to satisfy this
instinct.
Intelligent fathers and
mothers do not attempt to repress the
natural desires of their sons and daugh­
ters to mingle with the sons and daugh­
ters of other parents, but they do

5

everything to encourage this mingling
in the open, so there will be no desire
on the part of the children to resort to
secrecy. When we teachers have fully
learned our social responsibility, we
shall give our boys and girls so much
opportunity to mingle joyously in our
presence that there will be no desire
on their part to separate themselves
from the social companionship of the
whole school; there will be no more
trysting places.
Less than a year ago there was or­
ganized in this school a Student Coun­
cil. The definition of its powers and
duties was purposely left very elastic.
At first the Council did not assume
much responsibility, and attempted
little in the way of controlling student
conduct. Personally, I hope the present
year will see the Council supreme, and
I am frank to say that the students of
the Edinboro State Normal School have
demonstrated that they can control
their own affairs and conduct bettor
than I can.
A new spirit is pervading the school;
teachers and students are closer to­
gether than ever before ; there is no
more watcher
and watched; the
teachers are getting out of the attitude
of policeman, and are becoming com­
panions, advisors, preceptors ; students
are getting out of the attitude of per­
petual violators of law and are becom­
ing free and natural. In such an at­
mosphere the only teacher superiority
is the superiority of culture, breeding,
experience and wisdom. There is no
pedestal placed teacher promulgating
rules and imposing them indiscrimi­
nately on good and bad.
We are beginning to believe that all
our boys and girls are naturally good;
that they want to do right; and that
they fail only because of habits formed
in a bad environment, or through ig­
norance on their part, or a failure
on our part to point the way.

6

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY

RURAL SCHOOL METHODS
As one step in the differentiation of
the work in Pedagogy, a class in Rural
School Methods was organized at the
beginning of the year. All seniors
willing to prepare definitely for work
in the country schools, were invited to
join the class. Twenty-two volun­
teered.
The purpose of the course is inspira­
tional rather than technical—to send
out a few teachers imbued with a vision
of country life and of the rural
school.
“Among Country Schools” is used,
not as a text, but as a source of in­
spiration. The course will consist of
a small amount of original research,
a great deal of discussion, and much
reading of assigned topics. Every
member of the class will be required
to read all or part of the following
books and pamphlets:
Cooperative Forces for the Improve­
ment of Rural Schools, Journal of Edu­
cation, August 20, 1914.
The Country School of Tomorrow—
Frederick T. Gates.
The Folk High Schools of Denmark.
School Hygiene, Dresslar.
The Educational System of Rural
Denmark-Bureau of Education, Bul­
letin 1913-No. 68.
The Experimental Rural School at
Winthrop College, Rock Hill Bureau
of Education, Bulletin, 1913, No. 42.
The Status of Rural Education in the
United States-Bureau of Education,
1913, No. 8.
Sanitary Survey of the Schools of
Orange County, Virginia-Bureau of
Education, 1914, No. 17.
Winnebago County Schools, Annual
Report, 1912.
Efficiency and Rural School Survey of
Lake County, Ohio, Survey, Vol. 30, p.
526., July 19.
Function of Normal Schools in the
Special Training of Teachers for Rural

Schools, N. E. A. Report, 1912, p. 866.
The Rural School, its Methods and
Management, by Culter and Stone.
Better Rural Schools, Betts and Hall.
Education Modemly Speaking , Jour­
nal of Education, August 27, 1914.
The Work of the Rural School, Eggle­
ston and Bruere.
Farm Boys and Girls, McKeever.
The Readjustment of a Rural High
School to the Needs of the Community,
Bulletin, 1912, No. 20.
Education in the South, Bulletin,
1913, No. 30.
Cultivating the School Grounds in
Wake County, North Carolina.
The New Country School, A Survey
of Development, W. K. Tate, Youth’s
Companion, Boston, Mass.
A rough outline of the course is
given below:
Statement of the problem :
I.
II.

Increased cost of living.
Need of Scientific Agriculture
and Intensive Farming.
III.The movement from the country
to the city.
General aspects of the problem :
I. What country schools must do
for country life.
1. Spiritualize.
2. Socialize.
3. Intellectualize.
II. Weaknesses of one-room country
schools.
1. Too small to be social
units. ■
2. Poor teachers.
1. Young
2. Inexperienced
3. Lacking in country
ideals and spirit.
4. Short tenure.
5. Poorly paid.
3. Lack
of
intelligent
supervision.

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY
4.

Poor grounds and build­
ings.
5. Lack of equipment.
6. Citified course of study.
Country school grounds.
I. The ideal.
II. The real—suggestions for im­
provement.
Country school houses.
I. The ideal.
1. The social type.
2. The Manual Arts type.
3. The mixed type.
a. Lighting.
b. Orientation.
c. Heating and venti­
lation.
d. Blackboards,desks,
apparatus etc.
e. Drinking fountains.
f. Toilets.
g. Cloakrooms.
II. The real----- suggestions for im­
provement.
Survey of Erie County touching the
following points:
I. Population of each city, borough,
and township, 1890 and 1900.
II. Attendance at one-room schools,
1914.
III. Teachers of one-room rural
schools.
a. Preparation.
b. Experience.
c. Tenure in present
school.

7

IV. School tax rate in each city,
borough and township in 191416.
V. Photographs of Rural schools.
Play and playgrounds in
rural
schools.
I. Theory of play.
II. Some simple apparatus.
Enrichment of the course of study.
I. Objections.
II. Answers to common objections.
III. Agriculture.
IV. Manual Arts.
1. Carpentry.
2. • Cooking and sew­
ing.
Rural school libraries.
I. Raising money.
II. Lists of books.
Consolidation.
I. Advantages (See weaknesses of
present schools.)
II. Reports on consolidation.
The inclosed plan for a one acre
plot for a rural school campus was
made by a member of the class. Miss
Zons is not a landscape gardener and no
attempt at accurate scale was made.
The purpose of the work was to develop
an ideal.
It is hoped to have a rural school
conference during the winter term, at
which the results of the research ,the
photographs, the sketches and other
work of the class will be placed on
exhibition.

THE COUNTRY SCHOOL A SOCIAL CENTER
We are living in a wonderful age.
An age in which each human being is
trying to bring out the very best that
lieth in him not for his own personal
gain; but that he may reach far out
and satisfy the cry of a people who
are longing for a knowledge of the
truth.
Each rising sun throws back a cur­
tain behind which we see new mysteries

and problems, which we with God’s
help must conquer, if we would have
a nation founded on the solid rock
which no human power can overthrow.
One of the greatest problems to be
solved today, and one on which the des­
tiny of our nation hangs, is the country
school problem. We can easily see
that the country school is not keeping
pace with the development along

8

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY

other lines of country life. New and
scientific methods of farming have been
studied out by some of our greatest
men, but the same old methods of
teaching are used in our country
schools.
The country boy of 1876 never
dreamed of separating milk with a
cream separator, or of talking to his
friends in a distant city by means of a
telephone, or of the inoculation of soils
with bacteria for certain fertility
restoring crops; but today he realizes
all these things which have done much
to make country life a pleasure, by
removing the old drudgery and making
each man independent.
But how about the child in the district
school, has he been given the advan­
tages of such improvements, or is he
still trying to prepare to meet the de­
mands of this new life by studying the
same old text books that his grand­
father studied one hundred years ago?
Each human being, however uncon­
scious he may be of the fact, has a long­
ing within him to be prepared for life;
and the country school must give its
children this preparation, if it expects to
produce men and women who will be
leaders in this great republic of ours.
In the past, many of our greatest
men have been born and educated in
the country ; but, unless we put better
equipment into our country school, our
boys and girls who are determined to
do something worth while are going to
be swallowed up by our well equipped
city schools ; and, if the city gives them
the preparation which they are after
they will love the city and look upon
the country as a place not fit for man.
All our broad and fertile fields will lie
untouched, and soon there will go out
from the helpless city a cry for food.
God has placed the riches of our
land in the fertility of her .soils, and, if
it is not kept productive by intelligent
minds, our nation will soon perish.
The country school of our forefathers

was a place not only for daily study but
a place where men and women, boys
and girls met to hold literary contests
and debates and to hear the gospel
preached. It was a center around
which community life grew. It had
fond recollections and sweet memories,
which bound the men and women who
spent their youthful days within its
walls into a firm union. But how about
the little school house of to-day, which
stands closed five months of the year
with the grass and weeds growing up
around it like the trees in a large forest;
and the other seven months the child
goes, sits down in his seat, hears the
same old thing day after day. He has
left a beautifully decorated country
home surrounded by trees and flowers
and come to spend the day in a little
school house which has no attraction
about it.
True you may say they no longer have
literary contests and debates in our
best city schools, but, in their place, you
will find they have put something else.
Athletics have taken their place and
are spreading fast and far through the
city schools of to-day, and are doing
much to make boys and girls pull
together, giving to our city school
such a school spirit as they never had
before. Class cheers and class songs
ring in the heart of every city boy and
girl. Each child’s heart swells with
pride at the very sight of his school
colors floating under the American flag.
This training not only makes them
stronger physically, but enables them
to grasp the things taught in the class
room more easily.
The child in the nearby country
school hasn’t even a flag pole to be
proud of; he doesn’t know what you
mean by school colors ; he has never
played a game of baseball. His indus­
trious well-intending father says, “I
can give him plenty of exercise, if that
is what he is after, without playing
ball.” Too many fathers and mothers'

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY
think play is unnecessary in the coun­
try, but they never stop to think of the
many subjects crowded into the school
curriculum which their boys and girls
will never need. But listen, my country
fathers, you are going to lose the boy
sooner or later who is forced to attend
a dead school like that. He picks up
the daily paper which our modern rural
delivery brings to your door every day
and reads of the wonderful games the
nearby city schools have played. He
reads it in the weekly and the daily
paper until he is determined to have
some part in the great game which the
world is playing. He soon learns to
play the game, and gets his fellow
students interested in it, but his par­
ents are not willing to provide the
necessary equipment for the team. The
school board can see hundreds of other
places where they can use their money
to a better advantage. If the teacher
is one of these sleepy fellows who is
afraid the ball might hit the smaller
children and hurt them, we can clearly
see how one of the boys who might
become a great leader in the affairs
of our nation has all hope crushed.
There isn’t a boy in the country to­
day who wouldn’t enjoy a good football
game or a good baseball game just as
well as the boys in our city schools.
And if he can’t play it in the country,
if he is a boy who will make a real man,
he will go where he can play the game.
When our country schools close at the
end of a term’s work, there are no ex­
hibitions, no commencement exercises,
to show the parents what their children
are doing and get them interested in
the work of the school. The teacher
Hasn’t even the power to promote her
own pupils. Frightened until they are
by no means able to do their best work,
they are sent to the nearby city High
School to take an examination given
by the county superintendent, who has
never visited their class room but once
or twice and knows very little about

9

what they are doing. We hope the day
will soon come when county superin­
tendents and school boards will put
teachers into their schools whom they
can trust, and leave to the country
school what by right is hers.
Many people say it is impossible to
do such things in our country schools of
to-day. They are too small and have
no equipment. But remember, boys
and girls, no great service was ever
rendered by men and women who
faltered before such obstacles as these.
What we need in our country school to­
day is a broad-minded, thinking teacher,
who is in sympathy with country life
and is educated to teach country boys
and girls, instead of a teacher who is
simply practicing on the country child­
ren to get enough experience to teach
in the nearby city school.
The old proverb, “the teacher makes
the school” is as true as old, so
it can be seen that the future of our
domestic citizenship depends upon the
ability, training and patriotic devotion
of the men and women to whom the
homes of the nation shall intrust the
education of their children. Each
teacher must be a citizen maker, who
is able to transform the raw material
of childhood into an efficient citizenship.
It is an easy matter to get a teacher
who can keep school in the country ;
but it is hard, indeed, almost impossi­
ble, to get a teacher who can teach
school in the country by making her
school a center from which each indi­
vidual within its influence can draw
knowledge.
In 1906, the president of a State
Normal School said to his graduating
class, “the world is full of people who
can do the things that can be done. ”
The country school of permanent in­
fluence has never been set up in our
state and rarely enough in any other
state. Can you do it? There was a
member of that class who determined

10

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY

to do it, and she did. You may ask
how? She did it just as you and I
must do it if we make country school
teaching a success—by consecrated ser­
vice. She went into a one room school
house, which had no equipment, and
entered into the work which she was
deterimned to do. She did not tell the
people in the community that they
must build a new school building and
get a lot of new equipment. She asked
for nothing better, until she had shown
the community the need of better
things.
She knew more people than the boys
and girls in her school room and soon
had their support. She knew the
mothers who trained the children and
the fathers who ruled their homes, and
by thus going far out into the commun­
ity, she knew its needs and planned her
school accordingly. She established
domestic science clubs for the girls
and athletic teams for the boys, and
the school showed so much spirit that
the hard-working fathers got in­
terested and found time to attend the
games. She gave them a course in ag­

riculture, which they could use in ac­
tual life, and which showed them the
importance of knowing how to farm.
The power of this school was soon felt
in the nearby districts, and all the small
schools within its reach were closed
and the children were hauled to the
center of the community life. The
people of this community had no trou­
ble in keeping their boys and girls in
the country. They saw the power
which the real country school had in a
community and continued to put im­
provements upon it.
After the teacher had been there six
years, instead of the old one-room
school house, there was a modern school
plant, which consisted of a three-room
school building, a manual training de­
partment, a domestic science depart­
ment, a library, which had books of in­
terest to the community, a gymnasium
and a cottage for the teacher.
The solitary little spot on which the
one-room school building stood had
been transformed into a social center.
Just so must every country school be­
come a social center before it can meet
the demands placed upon it.

PSYCHOLOGY MADE POPULAR
Every art, every science, every voca­
tion, every trade and handicraft has its
special vocabulary, its own class dia­
lect. The farmer speaks one language,
the fisher quite another. The language
of the master of the laboratory or ex­
perimental station is a thing for the
uninitiated to wonder at and even to
fear, but only the devotees of that
particular science understand.
Thousands of such technical terms
can be found in dictionaries, yet as a
matter of fact they are not a real, live
part of the English language. They
name new instruments and new
machines, new processes and new the­
ories, new arts and new sciences. They
are undoubtedly necessary in technical

discussions. They save time too, for
it is certainly more economical to name
a process than to describe it. But to
the ordinary layman such terms do not
exist; they form no part of his reading
or his speaking vocabulary. The trades
and handicrafts have the advantage
over the arts and sciences in that the
dialects of the former consist largely
of native words that belong, by virtue
of age and universal use, to the very
fibre of our language. Hence they are
more generally understood than other
technicalities. The language of sci­
ence, on the other hand, is familiar only
to a few specialists.
Psychology has its peculiar jargon.
It bristles with coined technical ex­

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY
pressions such as psychic synthesis,
cerebral thermometry, concatenated
performances, hypnagogic hallucina­
tions, ideo-motor activity, and so on ad
infinitum. Such terminology is all very
nice. Very wise and learned men make
it and use it too, quite cleverly. But
it is responsible for a great deal of ig­
norance and superstition in popular
ideas of mental life. Explode such an
expression as empirical generalization
in the face of your grocer, with whom
you are arguing about the price of eggs
and you will “have” him; the last
word in the argument will undoubtedly
be yours. Ask your washer woman
what she means by indulging in hypnopompic reflections at ten o’ clock on
Monday morning and she will look at
you as wildly as if you had addressed
her in Choctaw. Your seamstress who
is clever enough to manage at one time
a mouthful of pins and a wordy tale of
a dream she dreamt last night, has
never heard of unconscious cerebration.
The mystery of mind has gnawed at
man’s curiosity since the world began.
Adam must have had faint wonderings
about Eve’s mentality in those first
days in the garden. Perhaps he won­
dered why, whenever he yawned in the
heat of the day. Eve followed his ex­
ample with irritating promptness.
That same question troubles many a
teacher today. Why, when one student
in a crowded class room yawns Unguard­
edly, do all the others hastily take out
their pocket handkerchiefs, or not, as
taste dictates, and do likewise? I dare
say Father Adam never discoursed to
his spouse upon the instinct of imitation
or the power of suggestion. No doubt
he only gave a contemptuous masculine
grunt and yawned some more. But he
must have wondered.
An upright man of the land of Uz,
named Job, had a tremendous interest
in psychology. In the midst of afflic­
tion he pondered long and hard upon
the mysterious ways of the infinite

11

mind, as he sat a-scraping himself in
the ashes. And I am almost sure that
Job never thought in terms of psychic
phenomena.
Neither do the butcher and the baker
and the candle stick maker and all the
rest of us common folks. But we all
have our mind problems; we are all
vitally interested in the tricks and ways
of our minds and we want our questions
about them answered . in a language
that we know.
Why, we ask, should
a simple operation like buttoning and
unbuttoning a glove, braiding the hair,
or tying a shoe lace, prove so difficult
in the learning, and subsequently so
absurdly easy that it requires no
conscious oversight? Why do I some­
times laugh when I cry and again, cry
in the midst of laughter? Why is it
that the boy, who, at the age of eight,
wades with the zest of a duck into every
mud puddle he comes upon, when ad­
vanced to the dignity of eighteen
years, long trousers and shiny shoes,
avoids with scrupulous care the same
gutter that once so invited him? Such
fickleness can not be explained as
physical change. It is the same boy.
The problem is similar to that of Sir
John Cutler.
“Sir John Cutler had a pair of black
worsted stockings which his maid
darned so often with silk that they be­
came at last a pair of silk stockings.
Now, supposing these stockings of Sir
John’s endued with some degree of con­
sciousness at every particular darning,
they would have been sensible that
they were the same individual pair of
stockings both before and after the
darning. ’ ’
Why can I remember clearly things
that happened ten years ago while yes­
terday’s events slip from me and leave
no trace? And again why is it that in
a crowued reception room I balance
awkwardly upon one foot and with the
other work devastation upon a lovely
lady’s gown? Alone in my room or out

12

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY

on a country highway, far from the
madding crowd, I find my feet per­
fectly unoffending, moving sedately
with simple grace. Why, oh why?
Why am I capable of lying in bed on a
freezing morning in a room without a
fire, my very vitals protesting against
the ordeal of getting up, when all sorts
of urgent duties are calling me, and
why, when I finally jump out, do I ac­
complish the act in a flash, as it were,
without any effort or struggle?
These are constantly recurring ques­
tions to all of us and these are matters
that psychology seeks to explain. But
the great majority of people cannot
understand the explanation that the
science offers, because it is couched in
psychological Choctaw.
A sensible old Frenchman, a biologist,
has recently sent out a book called The
Life of the Spider, in which he has the
courage to discard the technical classi­
fications of his science, and present the
dramatic life of the insect in the sim­
ple language of the people. His book

is very popular for the reason that he
has made interesting things which were
formerly known only to a few, easily
accessible to millions.
There is no reason why the science
of mental life cannot be made as easy
for the ordinary mind to grasp and as
popular in its appeal as Pabre has made
certain branches of biology. Mental
life is dramatic, too; its story is some­
times thrilling as a tragedy, and again
as mirth-provoking as a comedy. Wil­
liam James has done bravely; it is a
bromidism worth repeating that his
psychology reads like a novel. But
that is true of the book only in spots.
He has not succeeded in getting free of
the mazes of scientific jargon. When
that courageous psychologist comes,
who believes in making good things
plain and easy, he will write his book
in the language of the people and call
it psychology made popular. Then we
shall all psychologize mildly; we shall
dabble in mind as well as in books and
art, and find it the most fascinating of
games.

SOME EDUCATIONAL WEAKNESSES
AND REMEDIES
If I were asked to state the peda­
gogical principle or doctfine that the
normal school of my youth instilled
into her pupils that had born the
greatest fruit, I should unhesitatingly
say the doctrine that whatever is amiss
in a schoolroom, whether pertaining
to discipline or efficiency in work, is
directly traceable to the teacher. As
a student, this seemed sometimes rather
a hard doctrine, because we sometimes
felt that the teacher, was not solely re­
sponsible for poor results. Although
the doctrine seemed bard, the results
were good. Pupil teachers became
introspective and self-analytic concern­
ing inefficiency in work. As a result of
such training, I have tried to seek for

cause of weakness in my own work, and
in general in the teaching of subjects
in which I am interested.
The necessity of such search is greater
now than ever before, due to a whole­
sale criticism of the public school sys­
tem.
The press of to-day more
strongly than ever before claims that
the public school system is inefficient.
Bok even goes so far as to say that it
is almost an absolute failure. William
Hawley Smith says thaf it fails in a
large measure because it fails to edu­
cate all the children of all the people.
There is an element of truth in these
criticisms. Some of them are just, and
criticisms are good in so, far as they
lead teachers to
self-:nalysis of

Msrtli

Ecst

Plan of Rural School Grounds made by Miss Helen Zons

KEY TO PLANS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

School house.
Gravel walks.
Boys' playground.
Athletic field.
(a) School garden.
(b) Experimental plots.

6.
7.
6.
9.
10.

Tennis court.
Girls' playground.
Boys' outhouse.
Girls' outhouse.
Green lawn.

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY
method and to self-improvement, but can members of that commission
they are useless if they suggest nothing have presented their findings in govern­
concerning ways and means of im­ ment reports. They say, “One of the
proving the conditions
adversely most serious causes of poor work in
criticized. The habit of analysis leads Arithmetic in the United States to-day
one to search for methods of instruction is the feeling on the part of a few city
that will both overcome the deserved and state authorities that they are ex­
criticisms of the past and remove the pected to initiate their brief term of
causes of the present shortcomings in service by having a few teachers pre­
our pupils.
pare a new syllabus in the various sub­
That there are evidences of weak­ jects of the course. It is often
nesses in instruction is a fact well
considered that such a syllabus is, to be
known to all teachers of experience. I commended the more in so far as it
have found it in all lines of mathe­ resembles all other syllabi thedess.”
matical study as well as in other sub­
The same commission finds four prin^
jects. In Arithmetic, one frequently cipal causes of defective Arithmetic
finds pupils who can do mechanical teaching in this country and it will be
work correctly, but who cannot work noted that they apply equally well to
problems requiring thought. Two years other subjects, namely:
ago in trying to plan for the best inter­
1. Lack of professional preparation.
ests of the larger number of pupils who
2. Lack of professional contact.
come here for review of elementary sub­
3. Overwork, claiming that twentyjects in the hope of obtaining provisional five periods a week is all that a teacher
certificates, I wrote to several county
can do effectively.
superintendents, asking for points of
4. Short and unstable tenure of
greatest weakness. In one reply, the office.
superintendent said he could not specify
From the standpoint of the pupil,
any special point, that in Arithmetic they report four principal causes also.
he found them weak all over. Teachers
1. Immaturity. They cite as an
of Algebra frequently find that students illustration that in 1910 sixty-seven per­
can do well all parts except problems,
cent of the first year high school pupils
but that many fail ingloriously in were either fourteen or fifteen.
problem work. In Plane Geometry, I
2. Lack of preparation. This throws
find that a page of definitions is not
the burden of responsibility on the
mastered, frequently on account of the work of the grammar grades.
pupil’s failure to get the thought. In
3. Aimlessness. That is, no idea of
conversation with co-workers, I find a life career.
that the same condition exists in other
4. Social diversions.
subjects. In summing up the greatest
An excuse for giving these causes of
weakness of the last two graduating
pour Arithmetic teaching is that every
classes, a co-worker said it was their cause mentioned operates with almost
inability to get the author’s thought equal force in teaching all other sub­
from the printed page.
jects of the course. My own experi­
With so many evidences of weakness,
ence leads me to . state that, in my
it is natural to inquire their cause.
humble opinion, there are at least three
Possibly the teaching of mathematics other causes more specific than the
has been especially defective. At any preceding.
rate, an international commission on
1. Poor or improper methods of
the teaching of mathematics was ap­ teaching Reading, beginning with the
pointed some years ago and the Ameri­ first grade and often extending through­

14

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY

out the entire grammar school course.
Too many teachers are satisfied if their
pupils enunciate distinctly, pronounce
correctly and give some attention to
pauses, with no regard at all as to
whether the pupil has obtained the
author’s thought. No pupil is a good
reader who cannot get and give the
author’s thought. As a result of these
poor methods, many pupils are unable
to get the thought from the printed
page. Any experienced teacher has
heard too often the remark, “I under­
stand it when you explain it, but I
can’t see it alone.”
An amusing illustration of the results
of the poor teaching of Reading was
found two years ago. It fell to my lot
to be asked to coach a group of boys
who were preparing to give a farce to
entertain a literary society. The lead­
ing comedy part was that of an
Irish comedian. Mr. L., who had this
part, was unable to commit his lines
because a joke of any subtlety what­
ever was not gotten by him. It be­
came absolutely necessary to explain
all except the most obvious jokes,
after which he had no trouble in com­
mitting his lines and interpreting the
part to the satisfaction and pleasure
of spectators.
A second additional cause is poor
teaching of English and lack of em­
phasis, and in many cases, complete
abandonment of work in formal
grammar. Ten or fifteen years ago
there was a revolt against formal
grammar and the pendulum swung in
the direction of the study of literature
almost to the exclusion of grammar
work. As a result, grammar is one of
the subjects most poorly taught in our
schools. (Let it be understood at this
point that no reflection is intended on
the work of our local high school or
this school.) I have been Interested
simply from the standpoint of the
effect of poor teaching of English on
the teaching of mathematics, in Arith­

metic, Algebra, and especially in
Geometry. Pupils come to me from
various counties in this section of the
State with varying degrees of excel­
lence in their preparation. Many of
them, I find, possess little ability to
interpret a problem, being unable to
see what is required and what rela­
tions are given that aid in the solution.
The same is true in regard to Algebra.
In Geometry, the weakness is even
more apparent. One would think that
by the time a pupil is ready to study
Plane Geometry, he would be able to
pick out correctly and instantly subject
and predicate of a sentence, but if the
subject has a participle modifier, I find
they are very frequently unable to do
so and this defect is vital to beginners
in Geometry. Until ihey can distinguish
clearly the hypothesis and conclusion
of a theorem, they can do nothing
worth while. One of the earliest
propositions in Geometry is the one
beginning, “Two straight lines drawn
from a point in a perpendicular cutting
off equal segments from the foot of
the perpendicular, are equal, etc.”
When told that if the theorem
consists of a single clause, the hypothe­
sis is found in the modified subject and
the conclusion in the modified predicate,
many are unable to apply it, as in this
particular instance. A large number
of beginners will try to tell me that
the predicate is “drawn” or “cutting.”
Hence it becomes necessary to stop in
my Geometry work to teach a little
English grammar. Also I find in the
proofs that the pupils do not under­
stand at all clearly the real force of the
words “and,” “but” and “then.” Some
even started a proof with the word
“then.” Before I can proceed, it be­
comes necessary to explain the force of
these words, all of which, of course,
detracts from the work of the subject
itself.
A third additional cause of weakness
is the ignorance of teachers or care-

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY
Icssness in allowing or encouraging
inaccuracy in all lines of work, es­
pecially in mathematics. Inaccuracy
of speech from an English standpoint
has of late become something of a fad,
especially the use of the first personal
pronoun, as also the nominative for
the objective in personal pronouns.
Since being asked to prepare this
paper, I have noticed some amusing
illustrations in the Erie daily papers.
For instance, in a large display “ad”
for a large dry goods store, the follow­
ing: “For she who has but fifteen dol­
lars for her fall suit.” Another, a
display “ad” of a large clothing store
in Erie, “By special value we mean a
greater value for the money than you
would ordinarily except.” The follow­
ing local was amusing, “Hazel Hunt
and other friends attended a picnic last
Thursday.”
Inaccuracy in Spelling, as well as
inaccuracy in statement, is too often
passed over. As a teacher of Geometry,
I am fond of a proper display of
originality in demonstration of a propo­
sition, but when one of my pupils re­
cently spelled the name of the subject
“Geomitary,” I thought that this was
as poor a display as I had ever seen
and immediately decided that my
Geometry class needed a few lessons
in Spelling, and I proceeded to give
them.
In Arithmetic, in speaking of inac­
curacy, I mean inaccuracy not in re­
sult so much as inaccuracy of statement,
although in drill work, inaccuracy of re­
sult needs more emphasis than it re­
ceives. For instance,any example in ad­
dition for the seventh grade is either all
right or all wrong; nothing else should
be considered.
At the begining of this fall term, I
dictated a list of twenty inaccurate
statements to the classes in Senior
Arithmetic, with the instruction to cor­
rect those needing correction and state
the principle violated in each instance.

15

In each list dictated, two correct statemets were included. It was somewhat
amusing to find that the number of ac­
curate statements was put by no one
as lower than six, showing that many
students had become so accustomed to
incorrect and inaccurate forms that
they no longer recognized them as
such. Some of the remarks were
characteristic.
For instance,
one
young lady said, “But, Mr. Siddell,
this is right. You are wrong. My
teacher taught me that;” another,
“My teacher was a Normal graduate.
She should have known better than to
have taught me those incorrect forms,
shouldn’t she?” So much for the last
three causes of specific weakness.
Shakespeare says that it is a good
divine who follows his own preaching.
If I am not to condemn myself by a
previous
remark concerning the
value of criticisms, it is necessary to
point out some remedial measures.
The fundamental weakness of our
present Normal course, to my mind, is
in general too much academic work and
too little professional training, and in
particular the absence of any instruc­
tion in method in that most important
primary subject, Reading. Hence I sug­
gest for adoption in our Normal Course
training and instruction in methods in
Reading.
Also I would advocate
an
increased amount of formal
work in grammar in the Gram­
mar grades; more Reading, and
less dissection of approved litera­
ture. The change of emphasis in
the character of the English work
during the past ten or fifteen years has
not brought the result its advocates
claimed, namely, an increased love for
good literature and more or less
habitual reading of the same.
This conclusion was reached as a
result of observation as a village li­
brarian, at the same time acting as
High School principal. Here I had the
opportunity of studying the character

16

THE EDINBORO QUARTERLY

of the circulation of the library and it
proved to my mind that the claim of
the advocates of the change of English
work had not been met. This was not
dhe to the fact that the English work
was in the hands of a poor teacher, for
the teacher was unusually capable and
efficient as an instructor in English.
Eternal vigilance in detecting and
correcting inaccdracies of statement,
as well as faulty English, will aid
materially in overcoming the weakness.
The moral aspect of this phase of the
work is frequently overlooked. Inac­
curacy of statement begets inaccuracy
of thought and the teacher is responsi­
ble for the development of right habits
of thought. Its relation to truthful­
ness of speech is too apparent to need
emphasis. It will aid materially if
teachers recognize the limitations and
the dangers of accepting at face value
any “born short” theory. There is too
much “mollycoddling” of students
along.their supposedly “born short”
lines.' I grant that there is something
in the “born short” theory, but it is
unable to account for all shortcomings
of all pupils, and in the hands of an
inexperienced teacher, or one with a
not too sensitive conscience, this over­
worked theory is apt to serve as an
sufficient excuse for the failure of that
teacher to do efficient work. There is
nothing in the subjects of Arithmetic,
Algebra, and Plane Geometry which
the normal individual cannot grasp, if
his primary and grammar grade work

has been well taught. The exceptions
to this, to my mind, are much more
rare than any advocate of the “born
short” theory is willing to admit.
Correction of faulty English and
practice of correct forms should not be
left entirely to the English classes, or
the English teacher. Every oral or
written recitation should be an exercise
in English. Neither should Spelling
lessons be confined to one phase of
work. I have found this fall that the
Spelling lesson in Geometry has
proved helpful and more are to follow
in the Geometry classes. Although we
may not be the ones to teach Reading
in the elementary schools, or teach
others how to do it; although we may
not be teachers of English in grammar
grades, yet we. can assist by insistence
on accuracy in thought and expression
in both oral and written work and by
refusing to “mollycoddle” those who
have either a congenital or an acquired
disinclination for a certain line of
work, remembering that a distasteful
subject, if mastered, gives more real
value and discipline to character if not
to mind, than one altogether to one’s
liking.
Charles Kingsley is right when he
says, “Thank God every morning when
you get up that you have something to
do which must be done, whether you
like it or not. Being forced to work
and forced to do your best will breed
in you a hundred virtues which the idle
never know. ’ ’

AUTHORSHIP OF PRECEDING ARTICLES
A Plea For Play...................................................................................... Richard F. Hayes
An Experiment in Democracy..................................................................Frank E. Baker
Rural School Methods................................................................................. Frank E. Baker
The Country School a Social Center

(Commencement Oration).....................Mabel

Enterline

Psychology Made Popular................................................................... Jane J. Swenarton
Some Educational Weaknesses and Remedies.................................... Wm. G. Siddell