On Staff Transfers
Tell your teachers if any changes have been made there mustn't be any sorrow and tears about it. Transfers are necessary but none of them have been made for personal reasons or have anything to do with the merits of the teacher involved. Change really makes for flexibility. It is a necessary part of the educational process. When a teacher complains it's just as bad as the parents who insisted little Johnny has to go to the same school his father and grandfather went to.- Harry Study, speaking to principals, September, 1934
On Overcrowding
I believe our schools are badly overcrowded. Students don't get the proper contact with their teachers. Many of them never know what a teacher's influence is. They are herded together like cattle. That's a strong term, but it's true. They are parked in every available corner. That is true not only of Springfield but over the whole United States. It has been proven of course, that you can impart knowledge in mass, but there is more to education than that. Students need personal contact with strong and wholesome personalities. How is a teacher to instill into pupils a knowledge of what is good taste, when they are herded together like that? - Harry Study, December, 1934
On Progressive Education
The new system is superior in that it emphasizes the individual differences in students, a thing that has heretofore been practically ignored. By the new system, the teachers must be trained to recognize the fact that all students cannot be treated alike and the curriculums will be arranged so that the students may proceed with the learning process at a rate of speed corresponding to their need and abilities.- Harry Study, March, 1930
[Return to Chapter 5]
[Contents] [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7] [Chapter 8]
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