Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

376 VISUAL EDUCATION November, 1924 A family group piercing blasts of thunder. The "thunder-bird" might descend upon them and nobody knows what would happen then. They know many things,, these little descendants of the first Americans, and can teach the school-teacher as much as she (or he) can teach them. And how they play ! All the freedom and buoyancy of their natures is turned loose in play, and they excel on the playground (boys and girls) in swinging, complicated sliding, turning and twisting on trapeze and bar, turning somersaults, standing on their heads, making hand springs, jumping, and all feats of sport that children delight in the world over. The Government is doing much to train these little Americans in our ways, fitting them to take their places in our common country without suppressing their native learning and institutions, which are their heritage and reverenced by them as the sacred and only possession of their past glory and supremacy. Visitor: "Why, didn't you arrest that fellow who just drove his flivver up the wrong side of the street?" Hicksville Constable: "An' have me get his meals for him for a week? No, sir — I know that feller — he won't pay fines." Unreliable Mistress: "Late again this morning! Don't you use that alarm clock I gave you?" Maid : "Yes, ma'am. But it goes off when I'm asleep." School Days From East to West By an American From Abroad This is the third of a quartette of descriptions of school days in the life of one of our foreign-born Americans. In Oberammergau Tourist: "What? Two hundred marks for a bed ! You Judas ! Why, for that sum we can get a bed from Pontius Pilate!" — Luslige Blaetter {Berlin). In Germany QUITE in contrast to the Russian schools which were so totally unrepresentative of the country and the character and spirit of the people, I found the German schools intensely national. They are indeed the very emblems of German ideology, German character and spirit. My own experience in German schools is limited to two years in the Nolden Schule of Dresden, Saxony, a private intermediate school for girls, and some five or six months in a so-called Oberrealschule in Chemnitz, an industrial center in Saxony. Both these schools have left on me the impression of that thoroughness, efficiency and a sort of solemnity which is so characteristic of the German people. Everything was done in a serious and solemn manner, even the games. The average American child accustomed to associating school with fun and pleasure, and for whom all study is made more and more attractive each year through movies, shows, games, pageants, and what not, probably would be greatly astonished at such universal seriousness. School in Germany is very evidently not regarded as pleasure, but a series of duties, an ever conscious preparation for the work and duties of adult life. I should not like this to appear as a caricature. The general atmosphere in German schools is healthy and pleasant in spite of the predominating earnestness. The attitude of the pupils towards the teacher is one of respect, trust and docility. This docility may be criticized, of course, but one had an impression that it has been inculcated into all Germans for such a long time, that they have grown used to it. However, the outstanding quality was the thoroughness and efficiency of both teacher and pupil. I do not know whether to attribute it specificially to the German people and their ability, or to the training the German teachers receive ; but of all the teachers in the various countries and schools I encountered, these German "Lehrers" and professors seemed the best on the whole. In the intermediate school they teach in most cases only one subject. There is a big proportion of professors in intermediate schools and the system they use is similar to the procedure customary in the universities of other countries. Text books are used only as books of reference, and most of the knowledge is imparted in a sort of lecture, less formal than in college and interspersed with frequent questions from pupils. As a rule the time of one lesson is divided into two parts, the longer period devoted to the new matter to be explained, and the shorter time to questioning on previous lessons. Pupils are asked questions _at random, which insures a continual alertness on the part of the entire class. Examinations are yearly and are conducted in a very thorough and general manner. Pupils are questioned about the entire subject and ample time is given for compositions. To give a comparison of the knowledge acquired in a German intermediate school and a Russian one, fifteen and sixteen year old girls in an Oberrealschule in Germany are doing trigonometry and logarithms, whereas Russian gymnasium graduates of seventeen and