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On Aims of Education Most prominent among major issues affecting education is that of the relative importance of the individual and society. It is not one of the oldest issues, since the demands of society were regularly dominant at least until the Renaissance and were largely so until the 19th Century. It is true that in primitive societies of the past and present young children have been usually indulged, but the freedom of Rousseau's 'noble savage' as an adolescent or an adult is imaginary. Some deviation from the norm must also be conceded to ancient Athens for the short period of her glory. But by and large, apart from a privileged few, neither adults nor children received consideration as individuals if the pre-eminence of the social order was thereby in question. Children generally received little or no school education. What was provided was, in one way or another, conducive to and subordinate to the stability of society. Of course, educational reformers now prominent in the history of educational thought, like Comenius, Pestalozzi, and Froebel, were advocates of consideration for the child, but what they urged was not clearly reflected in teaching children of the great majority until well after the appearance of schools for all in Western countries about a hundred and fifty years ago. In public education, therefore, it was a case of the child versus society, or the pupil versus the curriculum as society's instrument, with the pupil still coming out second best, when Dewey proposed a formula for resolving the conflict "the child in society." This Committee accepts this concept and recognizes that the child should not be treated as an isolated entity, but educated for life in a society which respects his individuality. Where conflict remains, the Committee tends to side with the individual and to ask only for social responsibility that is demonstrably right and essential for the good of all. A second, related issue has become suddenly urgent in the world today: in so far as the pupil must be educated to fit in with the social environment, should emphasis be given to living in society as it is or to adaptation to rapidly changing conditions? Until only a short time ago, the social aim of education was to ensure the stability of institutions and conditions persisting from the past to the present. In the schools, tradition was challenged to some extent when scientific subjects began to gain ground near the end of the 19th Century. But decades later, in his Aims of Education, Alfred North Whitehead still had good reason to say: "No more deadly harm can be done to young minds than by depreciation of the present. The present contains all that there is. It is holy ground; for it is the past, and it is the future.'' For many young people today, the present and the future are all that matter, the past is water gone under the bridge, and the only familiar constants are novelty and change. How far should we go in education toward the omission, modification, soft-pedalling of values, beliefs, and standards of the past which we cherish but which have ceased to have intrinsic appeal to pupils? Even from adults one would not expect agreement in answer to this question, since it embraces not only less inflammatory material like content in traditional subjects but emotionally charged values associated with religion, morality, and even literature, music, and art. This Committee expresses its inclination toward education for adaptability to a changing world and less insistence on conformity to past and present. But it also urges that highly valued parts of our inheritance be polished and enlivened for inclusion as material likely to be encountered in appropriate opportunities for learning. A third social issue in relation to education may appear at first glance to be dead and buried. Should there be different types of education for children of different social classes? There were, throughout most of history a meagre and repressing type for the great majority, and a distinctly different and distinguishing type for the aristocracy. Even in North America, during the first part of the 19th Century, classical schools for sons of gentlemen were quite distinct from common schools for ordinary children. But in the United States and most of Canada the distinction was wiped out by a single-track system, through public schools for all and superimposed high schools for more and more and eventually almost all. Only in older countries has there been widespread persistence of the notion that good education is available only in select schools charging fees. There is, however, still some evidence of educational practice in Ontario that reflects a tendency to segregate students for instruction. Separate classes for the intellectually superior, separate schools for vocational and academic students, and separate curriculum categories all tend to keep alive the idea that the academically endowed are in some way superior to their vocationally oriented peers. The practice is sufficiently prevalent to cause the Committee to deplore such survival of class distinction, and to advocate schools that will accommodate students without invidious distinctions. There is a fourth social issue faced by education. Some contend that the school should remain aloof from the problems of society and so give tacit support to the status quo of the society which supports the school. Others hold that the school is an active agent in society, that it does not and cannot exist as an insulated entity, and that young people in school have a right to an education which reveals the weaknesses and problems of the world they face and helps them prepare to mitigate or solve them. The Committee takes this second position. One of the most urgent of these problems concerns war and, because of the threat of even total destruction, those who give priority to the problem approach to major educational aims would feel justified in making the attainment of peace the most important aim of the school. Even a more moderate position would raise questions about the type of patriotism needed, the role of Canada in world affairs, world government, and the way these matters should come to the pupils' attention for study and discussion in school. Other problems include air and water pollution in relation to expansion of population and of frequently callous industry, threats to natural resources, and other types of social irresponsibility in dealing with governments and in matters that affect the good of all. These and other evils and dangers should not escape the attention of pupils in school, if only because we need more alert citizens than in the past. Intellectually inclined pupils would welcome an extension of the inquiry to a more formal study and critical evaluation of the values of modern society. Turning now from social problems to issues related to the individual, the first question is, "Should the school be concerned chiefly and almost exclusively with the intellectual development of the child, or must it be concerned with the whole child?" Since the position taken on this question is of critical importance to the determination of aims, a rather full explanation is in order. Among modern philosophies of education there is a school of thought called New Realism which assigns clear-cut and distinct functions to social institutions such as the church, home, and school. As one might expect when this is done, an almost purely intellectual function is assigned to the school. On the other hand, another school of thought called Pragmatism does not regard the school as having a separate entity quite distinct from and unaffected by other institutions in the social environment. As might be expected, therefore, any division of functions is regarded as a matter of convenience or necessity. If the school is faced with problems that compel it to do what the home was ordinarily expected to do, the school simply does what it must. Furthermore, within the child, such qualities as the physical, intellectual, and emotional are not distinct and independent but interrelated, according to Pragmatists. For these reasons the school should and must educate the whole child. The two opposed views are also associated with the level of education about which one is mainly concerned. Those engaged in higher education, except in departments or faculties of psychology and education, predominantly support the intellectual function of the school, as do teachers of academic subjects in senior high schools. It is reasonable that they should because they are directly concerned only with academically inclined pupils and logically-structured disciplines. On the other hand, kindergarten and elementary school teachers predominantly believe or assume that the school must educate the whole child. Their work is not to appear before a class as a scholarly instructor in a subject, but to interest children and help them to learn. The conflict of views between different levels of education on the 'educate the mind' or 'educate the whole child' issue makes it difficult to accommodate pupils not intellectually inclined at the upper level. It is nevertheless true that many pupils in the intermediate and senior section of the school, including most of those already determined and able to prepare for professions, want most of their education to be strictly intellectual. This Committee, as will be seen in the part of the report that deals with curriculum, is inclined toward the whole-child concept and offers a plan to reduce drastically the conflict between the elementary and secondary points of view, and at the same time to preserve opportunities to choose structured academic intellectual courses. A second and related issue, which has a bearing on how the child should be taught, has to do with concepts of knowledge. The traditional and still conventional view is that knowledge exists as something that can be transmitted. Many educators, however, believe that what has been called 'knowledge' is only information couched in words which may or may not influence the learner to acquire knowledge. In the view of these educators, teachers should think of knowledge as what the pupil gets to know through his experience. Corollaries are that the pupil gets knowledge outside school without formal instruction and that even in the class room the product of his experience may be quite different from what the instructor intended. Hence the importance attached by these educators to method, motivation, and to the individual child. As for method, they prefer to think not of instruction but of providing favorable opportunities for the child to learn. Equally significant is another question related to the nature of knowledge. Should we continue to think of education as the acquisition of knowledge by the pupil by whatever means, or should we be concerned more with the pupil's ability to get knowledge when needed, to interpret it and collate it, and to use it? The Committee favors the second alternative. A third issue which affects the child has to do both with programs of study and with methods. Should all pupils be taught by means of logically organized and separate courses in traditional subjects such as reading, spelling, arithmetic, history, science, literature and grammar, or should all pupils enjoy the stimulation of lively ideas and be given ample opportunity to discuss them, with the satisfaction of learning by discovery? Perhaps everyone will answer yes to the latter part of the question, but many will ask why such an approach should preclude the former. This is the crux of the problem. Resourceful teachers can, no doubt, teach structured subject matter in that manner, and some do. But more often formal, traditional courses lead to a deadening routine; to real or imagined pressure on the teacher to cover the course; to pressure on the pupil to memorize for tests and examinations; to lack of time for discussion or learning by discovery; to inert rather than lively ideas; and to an end of creativity. Largely for these reasons, most good teachers in the primary section have abandoned structured courses and some in the junior section are following their example. The fourth and last issue affecting the pupil is the antithesis between indoctrination and complete freedom to discover, evaluate, think, and decide. The literal or dictionary meaning of 'indoctrinate' leaves it as no more than a synonym for 'teach.' But it has a disapproving connotation, and the generally accepted meaning among educators may be summarized as "to get a pupil to accept something as true by some other means than allowing him to make up his own mind after free critical inquiry." A great many people, of course, have firm beliefs in what they regard as unquestionably true, and many of them think it right or necessary for the young to acquire these beliefs. In spite of this, most educators agree that there can be no deliberate indoctrination if intellectual integrity is to be maintained and valued by pupils. The conclusion of this approach to aims of education through consideration
of major issues and problems is that to enable young people to investigate
freely, discuss, evaluate, think, and decide should be a major aim
of the school. Aims Based on Analysis of Complete Living A little more than a century ago, Herbert Spencer introduced a new approach to educational aims analyzing life to determine the leading kinds of activity of which it is constituted and deciding what knowledge is of most worth in connection with each activity. Spencer defined the leading activities and arranged them in order of importance as follows:
A summary of approximations might be health, vocation, parenthood, citizenship, and leisure. It is of interest but of no consequence that, as the outstanding advocate of teaching science in the schools, Spencer was able to find a scientific or quasi-scientific subject to serve the needs of every activity. What is of importance at the moment is his basing of aims on an objective analysis of life. During the present century, Spencer's approach was used by committees of the National Education Association and its departments and by others in the United States. For example, a bulletin, Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education, based on the 1918 report of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education, appointed by the National Education Association, came up with the same five needs or aims as Spencer, plus two others command of the fundamental processes and ethical character. Similar lists may be found in other reports or books. In the report, The Purposes of Education in American Democracy, issued by the Educational Policies Commission of the NEA in 1938, the analysis is much more detailed, listing some ten or twelve areas, skills, or qualities under each of several major headings like 'The Objectives of Self-Realization' or 'The Objectives of Economic Efficiency.' Each of the area or skill sub-headings is followed by a brief statement in this form: "Social Justice. The educated citizen is sensitive to the disparities of human circumstance." The value of this approach to aims is, of course, practical. Those who go through the process of analyzing life and formulating aims to match may be reasonably sure of covering all needs. The wording of the Educational Policies Commission report sometimes suggests a concise and pointed answer to a broad and troublesome question, for example, on the goal in character education. The above report says simply "Character. The educated person gives responsible direction to his own life." The scientific movement in education, which became popular in the
1920's, led to analyses of life and its needs which purported to
be more objective. These were sociological and psychological studies.
However, the use of statistical analysis for determining aims was
opposed as a means of deciding what ought to be done, since this
is regarded as a philosophical exercise. Critics of progressive
or pragmatic complexion advocated instead what follows. Aims Related to Growth and Development In his Democracy and Education, published in 1916, John Dewey had a chapter on 'Education as Growth' in which he made the child's growth per se the major aim of education. Although those with different concepts of life and reality might object to the omission of a destination for growth, most would accept the implication that "there is nothing to which education is subordinate save more education." Thus, one aim should be to avoid finality in education and ensure a continuing will to learn. But of special interest is the statement of aims based on the developmental concept which appeared in the Report of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, 1950:
The Committee is in general agreement with these aims and with the emphasis on development. It believes, however, that the important first aim, a), needs to be made definite by designating just what virtues the school, and more precisely the public school, can and should develop; that f) should be more definitive; and that d), on the other hand, be less definite. The above criticism is not intended as a reflection on an excellent statement of aims. It is meant only to indicate some of the differences in thinking fifteen or twenty years later. The Ontario Programme of Studies for Grades 1 to 6, first published in 1937, is the only official publication of the Department of Education which deals with aims deliberately and fully. It is of unique interest to a Committee whose terms of reference emphasize the first six years of school and whose primary concern is aims. The treatment of aims in the Programme provides another example of the developmental approach, but it goes much further. The simple but startling truth is that virtually every idea in it, with only one immediately noticeable exception, might have been expressed by educationally enlightened and advanced authors today. This basic philosophy was and is in the mainstream of developing educational thought which has had its ups and downs for almost two centuries. It suffered a major set-back on this continent during and after World War II, partly because of the continuing war or cold war mentality and inability or reluctance to recruit or educate teachers for anything more than forceful instruction in facts and skills. The philosophy is current partly because its authors were far in advance of most teachers and laymen of their time. This explains the difficulty of getting the Programme into anything like general practice. The aims and related philosophy of this Programme of Studies are very concise, and a summary of them is difficult and must be inadequate. In brief, they advocate the following: a society and school society in which the individual has opportunities for self-realization, security, and participation in decision-making. He is by implication to be educated for social responsibility, service to all, and adaptability to change, and explicitly to be educated to work and get along with others. Such education is to be effected not by precept or formal instruction but over a long period in which the school provides "meaningful social experiences in situations that require the exercise of qualities of helpfulness, self-direction and acceptance of responsibility," and the like. The atmosphere of the school must be kindly, co-operative, and purposeful. Achievement of aims depends on a program planned to take cognizance of psychological knowledge regarding child development and the learning process a program which arouses interest and provides for pupil activity and social participation. There must be provision for individual differences, permitting some measure of success for every child. The graded school system must not be rigid and thought should be given to its modification. The wisdom of promotion examinations, failure, and retardation is questioned. In appraising results the teacher should first look to see whether pupils are alert and living in cheerful, healthy surroundings, then satisfy himself that they are acquiring necessary skills, and above all be concerned with the interests and attitudes they are developing. The program itself "cuts across the traditional subject by subject arrangement." This necessarily brief summary illustrates again the truth that
progress in education is accomplished not so much by new ideas as
by gaining broader acceptance of enlightened ideas and putting them
into practice. Conditions are now favorable for educational advance;
there is evidence of widespread progressive thought in briefs presented
to the Committee, in popular journals, and in the provincial Department
of Education itself. Not least in importance is the prospect of
higher minimum educational requirements for teachers, a reform long
advocated by the teaching profession. Statements Related to Aims by Recent Leaders in Education To give some indication of the thinking of leaders in Ontario education in recent years, and to suggest, at least by implication, educational aims worthy of consideration in this province, the following quotations are selected from public addresses made by two such leaders in recent years. The first set of quotations is from the Quance Lecture by the late Dr. J. G. Althouse on the Structure and Aims of Canadian Education.
These quotations are representative of Dr. Althouse's views on what the high school should do in character education, to which he attached the highest importance. The following quotations are from addresses of the late Dr. Z.S. Phimister: "We are probably struggling on to a new plateau in education
off the skill plateau to another, which I shall call the value plateau.
We shall become more concerned with the problems of finding satisfaction
in living, with the meaning of life itself, and with the values
which we attach to existence." These passages, representative of the late Dr. Phimister's thought, remind a Committee on Aims to raise the sights of education; suggest how to make more vital and closer to home to youngsters something akin to Whitehead's 'habitual vision of greatness' and the seemingly distant but immediate and dire need for peace, and emphasize the need for creativity and the need to encourage rather than repress creative children. The needs, rights, and expressed desires of young people It is easy to speak of a child-centred or pupil-centred school, and what is meant is fairly clear even if practice falls short of declared intent. It is easy to speak of the needs of the child, and here again the meaning is reasonably clear since there is substantial agreement among child psychologists, who, like the humane societies, 'speak for those who cannot speak for them selves.' It is easy also to speak of the rights of the child, but in this case the meaning is anything but dear, since the speaker quite often is talking about the rights of someone else or is basing his remarks on personal convictions or on assumptions not acceptable to all. Curiously, one does not ordinarily speak of the rights of older pupils, presumably because they are either the same as the young child's or non-existent. At least some rights of the child must obviously be the same as the rights of any human being. These rights are to some extent defined, limited, and protected in moral codes with divine sanction like the Ten Commandments, in constitutions of states, and by the law of a land. But the question remains: "What right has the individual to be an individual?" that is, in possible conflict with society, or its rulers or more privileged members, or its institutions. Throughout most of history the ordinary human being has had very little right as opposed to society. There have been noteworthy bases of respect for the individual: since early days, physical prowess or the ability to fight effectively; in some states, notably in ancient Athens, intelligence; and, at least in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, the concept that the individual human being is a child of God. In our own society some of these bases still apply in less or greater degree, and the individual may also gain respect in ways related to the value attached to money making ability and active engagement in the complex operation of society. One must not say 'conformity' because that is at variance with individuality unless the only way to 'freedom' is absorption within a collective group or nation. The above argument, though simple and concise, will serve to indicate that even thorough-going philosophical inquiry would not disclose an entirely convincing basis for individual rights. Even if one cannot under stand the Existentialists, one can see why they rebel against thinking in which society and its institutions are a determining factor in the background. They believe that the individual must face the anguish of making his own decisions and taking responsibility for himself apparently alone and without hope. The Existentialists are credited with having done a service to education by pointing out our subjection of the individual. But it is surely more fitting for parents and teachers to be cheerful, as the young are if given a chance even cheerful about living in a somewhat demanding society. From a North American activist pragmatic point of view, the way to get some control of affairs and some recognition and satisfaction as an individual is to do things partly for enjoyment, but partly to earn privileges or rights by work or service to others. Still two questions remain: what is the basis of the rights of the child as a child, and what are his distinctive rights? The child has special or distinctive rights because he is helpless and unable to make important choices or express them cogently. Assuming only that the child wants to live and to be an active member of the society into which he was born, he has a right to all that healthy growth implies, a right to be taught how to communicate and live with others, and a right to be able and free to decide for himself, when he is mature enough to do so, what position to take with respect to major issues in human life. These three rights do not cover everything explicitly, but they are basic. However, the child's world is full of adults who are sure that they know what is best for the child and equally sure that the rights of the child include primarily a training in or for what they know is best. Hence, the child may be endowed by an adult with the right to be punished, the right to be kept out of contact with certain groups, the right to be forced to practise the piano, the right to an academic education for his father's profession, and the right to be so thoroughly indoctrinated in one set of values or thought pattern or creed as to be virtually unable to make a timely and reasonable choice of another. In spite of this, a fairly substantial and probably increasing number of people are prepared to grant children the three rights listed in the previous paragraph. It has been traditional in our society that parents have prior and controlling rights over their children. In the old days, of course, all self-respecting parents were expected to bear the whole cost of the upbringing and education of their children. This is no longer true. The cost of schooling up to high school graduation is paid for by all, as are family allowances and exemption for children on income tax; and in the case of families on relief, further assistance comes from people other than the parents. This suggests that the general public may want some say about what have been exclusively parental prerogatives, as they do now in extreme cases of parental cruelty or neglect. Although others may disagree, some believe that the rights of the individual child will thereby be strengthened. Be that as it may, there appears at the present time to be a greater difference than formerly between the attitudes, interests, and values of adults and of the young. It is probably so, because the current rapidity of change in the environment is enough to explain it. If the difference is greater, there is more reason than formerly for any adults who are interested in reshaping education to get opinion from pupils and young people who were recently pupils in the schools. With this groundwork one should be ready to construct a statement
of aims appropriate for education today. But whose aims should they
be? Central and local authorities, curriculum planners, teachers,
pupils, and others may all have educational aims. Perhaps, as has
been said, the aims of all concerned with the process of education
are more realistically expressed in what they do than in anyone's
statement of what their aims should be. Therefore an approach to
the aims of education will be offered in the next chapter, in terms
of what the curriculum is designed to achieve. The Learning Program The Curriculum The preceding sections of this Report have attempted to establish
a frame of reference upon which a school's curriculum may be built.
Having explored the nature of today's child and his learning experience,
examined some of the characteristics of his environment, and defined
the issues related to the search for aims in education, the Report
now directs attention to the learning program and what it is expected
to achieve. The Task of the Curriculum The curriculum must ensure that pupils have the basic necessities for education. A good school does all that it can to ensure the physical and mental
health of its students, and to enable them to acquire essential
skills of communication. The curriculum should help pupils acquire desirable interests, abilities, skills, attitudes, dispositions, and understandings. The good school fosters a continuing desire to learn. It helps
the individual pupil to feel secure and adequate within himself,
encourages him to manage his own . affairs, and helps him gain a
measure of social competence. It gives all pupils an understanding
of man and his world, encourages them to adopt positive attitudes
toward change, and accustoms them to solving problems and overcoming
difficulties. The good curriculum helps young people to acquire
a purpose in life. It pre pares them for the world of work and leisure,
and it offers a variety of opportunities for them to acquire interests
and abilities that give lasting satisfaction largely through the
development of aesthetic appreciation and creative ability. The curriculum should educate the pupil in ethical values and ensure his moral development. A desirable curriculum helps pupils understand other people, especially groups or nations with different characteristics or points of view. It encourages consideration for others, compassion, empathy, and responsibility. It cultivates a disposition to serve the good of one's fellow man. It educates young people to realize the need for responsible parenthood and social responsibility. It fosters respect for law, willingness to use lawful means to correct injustices, and interest in desirable changes in the law. It encourages patriotism and attitudes toward international relations that are compatible with the preceding ethical aims. It helps to make the next generation of adults better able and more willing to overcome problems and dangers in society and to bring about a greater measure of social justice.
It creates in the school a pleasant and friendly environment in
which young children know that they are appreciated and accepted;
in which maturing young people will find that they and their ideas
are respected; and in which all pupils find interest and satisfaction
in learning. It gives a realistic and objective exposition of society
and its institutions. It encourages pupils to ask questions, to
contribute further information, and to express their opinions freely,
and it encourages teachers to answer pupils' questions truthfully
as often and as fully as possible. At the same time, such a curriculum
provides for studies related to institutions of higher or further
education or which are needed to obtain specific qualifications. The Concept of Curriculum If education is to achieve these purposes and satisfy other criteria indicated in previous sections of this Report, one must accept the modern definition of the curriculum as 'all those activities in which children engage under the auspices of the school.' This includes not only what pupils learn, but how they learn it, and how the teachers help them to learn. If pupils see and discuss a film, visit an industrial plant, compile a report on wild flowers seen in the woods nearby, studying the library, or plan and manage a social event, they are engaged in curricular activity. And if a pupil is encouraged or discouraged by a teacher, that experience is also part of his curriculum. The traditional school was largely concerned with what the teacher taught and how effective he was in conducting an orderly class. The modern school is more concerned with what the pupils learn, why and how they learn, and whether they will continue to be disposed to learn. All of this, and much more, is part of the school curriculum. One implication of the above description is immediately evident. The modern curriculum is concerned more with the learning experience of the pupil than with the instructional performance of the teacher. It asks the teacher to select, organize, and guide learning experiences which meet the needs of the child, and to do this effectively by application of sound principles of learning. Clearly this shift of emphasis away from instruction demands more, not less, from the teacher. Implicit also in the description is the concept of the curriculum as a dynamic process, not a table of contents. It reflects the personalities of the teacher and pupil and their interests, skills, and abilities. Ideally, the pupil should make his own choice of content under the guidance of the teacher, and acquire the skills, attitudes, and information he needs in the initial and follow-up process. Certainly the student should have some voice in curriculum planning. As a living instrument, created and directed by people within a school, the dynamic curriculum will emerge as a force affecting relationships among teachers, parents, administrators, and all people in the community. Above all, the modern curriculum must be flexible, not only by providing options for pupils with different interests at more senior levels, but by providing learning experiences to meet the needs of individual young people at every level. As pointed out earlier, children come to school mentally, physically, and emotionally different, and they mature at varying rates in each of these areas. Furthermore, there is a wide diversity in their intellectual, social, cultural, and economic backgrounds. It is irrational and unfair to require all children to start in school at a common level or to expect them to reach standards of achievement with any great degree of uniformity. Although many classes under many different teachers may share one course of study, every class, every group within a class, and every pupil may have a unique curriculum. The obvious corollary is that the curriculum must provide for the individual progress of pupils. To make this possible, two major innovations are indicated: complete abolition of the graded system throughout the school; and the use of individual timetables at the senior level. The introduction of graded textbooks and the placing of pupils in 'books' or grades undoubtedly improved education in Ryerson's day. By the end of the 19th Century, the graded system in Ontario's urban schools demonstrated its efficiency for instructing pupils in the fixed and limited schedule of facts and skills pre scribed at the time. But during the last fifty years, as it has become increasingly difficult to retard and eliminate pupils at an early age by failure, the graded system has become an anomaly. Related to grading is the use of formal examinations as the means of transition from grade to grade. Such arbitrary measures of achievement and the concepts of promotion and failure should be removed from the schools not to reduce standards, but to improve the quality of learning. The evaluation of pupils' progress should be a continuous part of the learning process, not a separate periodic exercise. It should be a co-operative endeavor of teacher and pupil. There are, of course, other uses for tests and examinations. Short preliminary tests may be essential when teachers and pupils are planning individual programs. Pupils at the senior level may wish to take standardized tests to help them make a wise choice of options, and teachers may use diagnostic tests for the analysis of pupils' difficulties. Again, at the senior level, formal admission tests set by institutions of higher learning might be available to students. In most cases, the student should write tests and examinations
only when he has reason to believe himself ready an arrangement
obviously necessary if individual rates of student progress are
to obtain. The Broad Design It is not the intent of this Committee to provide a detailed description of a proposed school curriculum. Such implied prescriptive detail is beyond the Committee's competence, and opposes the principle of local initiative and autonomy which it espouses. The Committee does, however, offer a number of fundamental conditions as the basis for the general design of curriculum and school organization which it supports. These conditions are not meant to suggest uniformity of practice. They, and the recommendations made later to support them, are a direct reflection of what has already been said, and are intended to encourage the development of the best possible schools. The Committee advocates a learning continuum designed for an essentially unified school period of thirteen years including kindergarten. It would include no horizontal or vertical division of pupils into such groupings as elementary, secondary, vocational, or academic, or above and below average. This does not preclude extraordinary arrangements for pupils in certain special learning situations, but it does imply no segregation or division into categories for pupils as a regular practice. Local school systems would, of course, move pupils from building to building, but such movement would be dictated by local circumstances and by needs of children, rather than by traditional levels of education. A further characteristic of the general curriculum design has its roots in what is to be learned at school. There is in education a tradition that desirable content for learning is and must be embodied in subjects. When knowledge was limited, when the concept of the inter relatedness of ideas was ignored in school curricula, and when only a select few received more than a minimum of education, there was little reason to question the value of subjects. Each of them was composed of what may be called knowledge, skills, and ideas in a particular field all logically ordered for instructional purposes. And modern schooling that is content-oriented, or arranged around subject disciplines, seems to be based on the premise that unless subject matter is presented to a pupil in a logical sequence, or an organized pattern, he will never organize it for himself. But schooling that takes into account both the learner as an integrating organism and the subject matter pertinent to the dynamic interests of the learner cannot be organized around subjects which are patterns of the logic of other people. The Committee supports the view that the cognitive processes through which children learn deserve prominent consideration in curriculum design. Even though only glimpses of the 'what' and 'how' of cognition are yet available from psychologists, it is this incompleteness of our understanding that requires us to be less certain, less rigid, less organized, in the arrangements we make of subject matter for children to learn. A curriculum should be so devised that the inquisitive, goal seeking, self-reconstructing minds of children can be brought in touch with subject matter relevant to their individual interests and needs. A six-year-old is interested in counting rather than mathematics, in rain rather than science. From an early age, the student probes the frontiers of understanding, and it is only in the later stages of his learning experience that these frontiers crystallize in the form of a discipline of study with clearly defined structure and content. Thus there is a place in the more senior elements of the curriculum for subjects of instruction, at least as long as these are required for admission to higher institutions. But generally speaking, subjects, with their adjuncts of textbooks and the like, should be used primarily as resources for knowledge. They should be so used freely in designing learning activities which suit students' needs, systematically in planning studies for older children, and often selectively in topical studies which include content from several subjects. On the other hand, it would be confusing to send pupils on voyages of discovery over one vast ocean of knowledge. The study of man, or a curriculum embracing all of life, is too formidable a sea for students to navigate without charts of some sort. To give direction to learning without imposing inflexible subject restrictions is a fundamental problem for those who design the curriculum. Such direction can be found by basing the learning program on a number of organizing centres or areas of emphasis within the human experience, each of which is a common denominator to certain fields of learning. Three such areas are suggested here as nuclei for organized learning in our schools. With these areas as bases, the teacher and her pupils may look to subject areas, not as packages for instruction, but as repositories of information, to be used according to the interest and the needs of the learner. The first area of emphasis offered is 'Communications,' embracing all aspects of learning that relate to man's interchange of thought. In terms of the curriculum, communication involves ability to speak and listen, to read and write, to record and to film, to paint, to dance. It also involves aspects of social studies, mathematics, business and commerce, manual arts, and almost all of man's activities in which ideas are transmitted and received. Thus the skills of debating, of reading maps, of interpreting data and ideas, and of invoicing and accounting, all become legitimate focuses for interests of learners. A second area offered as a curriculum base is that of man and his environment. The sciences are natural elements in studies of the environment, but children must not be restricted, especially in the pre-adolescent years, to the confines of the sub-disciplines of science. The geographical elements of social studies and much of applied mathematics may be properly included in such studies. The practical aspects of agriculture, of manual arts, of home and consumer economics, and much of what is called vocational training may also be identified with this area, referred to as 'Environmental Studies.' A third area of emphasis is concerned with man's ideas and values those abstract yet powerful concepts which shape our lives, yet have no tangible form of their own. The search for the ideal, the constant probing of the unknown, the seeking for truth, the intuitive effort toward unity these are humanizing values that lift man toward a nobility of thought and purpose. Among such studies one may include the fine and practical arts; and recent trends in physical education indicate a return to the Greek concept of physical arts and point to its inclusion also. Studies of philosophy should be accessible to adolescent students, and the religious ideals of various people of the world should be open for study and discussion. This area of aesthetic exploration is designated by the term 'Humanities,' and embraces studies related to human aspirations, ideals, and values. While presenting these as areas within which the learning experience may be organized, the Committee resists the temptation to list the traditional subjects that might appear in each. To do so would defeat the purpose of such a thematic approach. The approach is intended to free teachers and pupils from the confines of structured, isolated subjects, to encourage a wider exploration of knowledge relative to each theme, and to emphasize the embracing nature of the learning experience. This is not meant to imply that studies of history, mathematics, or other well-known subjects should disappear from the curriculum. The organization does imply, however, that such disciplines should be seen as aids in the student's search for skills and understanding rather than as bodies of content to be mastered, or as organizing criteria for such purposes as timetables, evaluation, and teacher certification. The selection of subject areas and the level of learning to which they are applied, should be the prerogative of pupils and teachers. This is not to say that individual teachers should be left entirely to their own devices in curriculum planning, but as the professional group most closely associated with the needs of pupils, they have a prior responsibility to see that these needs are met. The teacher should be sensitive also to the child's need for a balanced learning experience, and should discourage the development of any one interest at the expense of all others. There is a wide array of resources that teachers should be permitted to tap for inspiration and guidance. Their associates within the school, the local authority, the teachers' professional body, the Department of Education, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, other research bodies, new graduate schools as they develop, and educational publishers are all sources from which can emanate ideas, designs, and current materials related to curriculum planning. Their utilization will serve to foster diversity and to prevent stagnant uniformity of prescription across the province. More important, perhaps, such utilization of resources will equip the teacher to provide a program that has as its prime function the satisfaction of the learner's needs and interests. What follows is a brief description of the proposed learning program,
from pre-kindergarten through the senior years of schooling as recommended
by the Committee. To emphasize the continuous aspect of the program,
the description is based upon stages of child development, rather
than customary units of organization, such as divisions or levels. Preschool Service Although the Committee does not suggest that this area is part of the continuum of formal education, it does wish to emphasize the need for extensive services available to the child and his parents during this critical stage in his development. A great deal can be done in this period to identify and alleviate characteristics and conditions that are potentially detrimental to the child's later development. Further, it is during this vital stage that parents might expect maximum assistance through the availability of co-ordinated health and educational services. Accordingly, the school should be a community centre in a very real sense. It should be a co-ordinating centre for social services to preschool children and their families prenatal clinics, well-baby clinics, creches, and nursery schools, for example. Liaison with public health nurses, librarians, community recreation directors, and so on, should be close and continuous. Administrative patterns should be devised to enhance such co-operation and joint effort, on the premise that the needs of the child should be met with the minimum of inconvenience to the child and his parents. The present situation in many communities is a sorry picture of parents unaware of services, or trekking from one office to another, or waiting while quotas are established or jurisdictions are ascertained; of well-intentioned programs that are hampered by lack of facilities often available under other authorities. Nursery schools, in particular, deserve encouragement and support from school boards. It is suggested that provincial financial aid be provided when boards assist nursery schools in their jurisdictions. Assistance for nursery schools should initially be provided on
a similar basis as that now given to so-called 'inner city' or 'downtown'
schools, where children are in evident need of special arrangements.
A nursery school should be a place for activity, play, and enriching
experience in a social context, available on an optional basis to
all children, with flexible entry and part-time attendance after
the age of three years. The Primary Years This proposed period of schooling will embrace children from five to eight years of age. Notwithstanding the fact that the kindergarten program should be free from the more formal aspects of the learning program, the Committee is convinced that its fundamental role as an introductory experience to learning places it within the spectrum of the total school program, available to all children at the age of five. The term kindergarten should be retained, since it describes the function of this introductory period and serves to resist pressure to apply the rigors of schooling too early to young children. In the proposed curriculum the kindergarten program should be considered a basic and vital means of helping a child establish himself as an individual in harmony with others. Depending upon the characteristics of child development for its structure, the curriculum of the kindergarten should evolve from play activities designed to enrich experience, develop muscular co-ordination, and encourage a sense of responsibility. It should include opportunities to sharpen observation, to plan and discuss, and to develop social awareness, self-confidence, and competence. Literally, the content of the curriculum is the 'world of the child,' and should include experiences and things that the child brings to school as well as those that meet him there. During the remaining years of this period, the road to learning
should be through activities, self-directed by individuals and groups
but planned and guided by the teacher. The content should be integrated
and elements of the areas of Environment and Humanities should appear,
with emphasis on communication, chiefly by language, including oral
French, but also by number work and other media to be discussed
later. The teacher will be concerned with qualitative aspects of
achievement "Does Jan like to read?" "Can Susan describe
her house?" rather than with quantitative measurement. Ordinarily
the child will have one teacher and spend much of his time in one
learning area. But this does not preclude various patterns and kinds
of support such as team planning, and team teaching, or the use
of school assistants, itinerant specialists, and community resource
people. The Junior Years The proposed curriculum for this period of learning is designed
for children about nine, ten, and eleven years old. During this
stage, the learning experience will continue to be found chiefly
in self-directed activities of individuals and groups, planned and
guided by the teacher with increasing help from pupils. The content
for learning will at first not be divided into narrow fields of
study, but will soon begin to come into focus in the three areas
described above as Communications, Environmental Studies, and Humanities.
Teachers, of course, may use subjects or disciplines as sources,
and pupils may do so also as they pursue interests to higher levels.
In the teacher's concern there is a balance between qualitative
and quantitative aspects of evaluation: "Jan can read well
at this level"; "Susan can multiply accurately with three
digits." One teacher will be responsible for the whole learning
program of the group, subject to the provisos indicated above for
the primary years. In this period the pupil's pursuit of personal
interests in depth should be regarded as a basic activity. The Intermediate Years At this stage the proposed program will reflect the interests and
abilities of pupils of about 12, 13, and 14 years of age. Most of
what has been said regarding the earlier years will still apply,
but here the three broad areas of content will be subdivided. For
example, Environmental Studies may include science, mathematics,
social studies, and anthropology. But such subdivisions need not
always, or even usually, be by conventional subjects. For example,
Communications may include such substructures as English, another
language, the processes of trade and commerce, and the techniques
of mass media. Under Humanities a school may include philosophy,
comparative religion, and the arts fine, practical, and physical.
The curriculum for this period will include a variety of exploratory
electives, some of the short-term or semester type, with concurrently
a program of guidance and counselling to help the pupil make decisions
regarding his further education. The Senior Years The curriculum for this phase of learning is designed for students usually about 15, 16, or 17 years of age. But since the proposed school is ungraded, and since pupils from the time they approach this level will not be restricted to any one classroom or teacher, there will be no fixed year for beginning any course or sequence of courses at this stage. Every pupil enrolled in a course or courses during this period will have an individual timetable, and his choice of courses will be limited only by his interest and ability. Under no circumstances will he be restricted to a vocational, academic, or otherwise designated program or stream, since these divisions, like the barriers of grades, will be non-existent. The essential characteristic of the proposed curriculum at this stage, as compared with the present curriculum, will be the very great number and variety of offerings from which a pupil will be free to choose. Although he will ordinarily be expected to do some work in each of the three defined areas, only the size and resources of the school will set limits to the curricular offerings available. Such proposed offerings in the senior years will include studies with a variety of emphases related to academic and vocational fields. They will also include other familiar subjects, such as music, art, home economics, and industrial arts, which are not distinctly academic or vocational. The proposed curriculum is not intended to obliterate present offerings. But even with a free choice of options, these subjects alone and in their present form will not hold the interest of all students in a composite school. The major purpose of this school is to ensure the general education of young people. But it is one thing to offer what purports to be general education, and quite another to ensure that general education is received. It has been customary to assume that instruction in academic subjects of a more or less exacting type will necessarily impart general education, or to speak of general education with vocational orientation and include a few academic subjects in vocational programs as a safeguard. Academic disciplines do provide general education for some students, but not for all. Most vocational subjects can be taught in general terms, and should be. But this is not always done today. In the curriculum described here, many pupils will receive general education from curricular offerings which enable them to pursue the study of content that they regard as significant in what they consider an interesting and effective way. Applying the philosophy of the earlier years to the intermediate and senior levels, the curriculum for older pupils must include more offerings that are neither vocational nor strictly academic in character. Some of these will appear to be new subjects, and some will be related to several conventional subjects. But the new offerings will not be intended as subjects in the sense of being parcels of structured content predetermined as valuable regardless of the response of pupils. They may take the form of an investigation by a pupil or pupils of any topic or problem or any form of art or human endeavor. They may require creative activity in any medium. Examples of these and other learning opportunities appear subsequently in narrative accounts of the experiences of individual pupils. Because of current technological progress and requirements for employment, more should be said about vocational training. We hear and read constantly today that more education will be needed for occupations tomorrow, that everyone will need more education of a basic, theoretical, or general character to be versatile or adapt able as new skills are required and that, at the same time, education for leisure is becoming more and more important. Together, these statements point to a conclusion that twelve years of schooling beyond kindergarten should give general, academic, and vocationally oriented education, but leave training for specific trades or occupations to post-secondary school institutions. In the proposed curriculum there will be no place for streaming by general intelligence or overall achievement. In addition to the more usual arguments against this practice there is evidence that teachers' expectations affect the achievement of children, most markedly in early years, and that streaming appears to divide pupils on the basis of socio-economic background. This last statement might be made of separation into academic and vocational streams or programs. In the senior years, and to some extent in the intermediate also, pupils will choose individual subjects or courses at different levels of difficulty and may complete requirements for university entrance at an earlier or later age. It also follows that pupils at present rated considerably below average in ability and a significant number of those at present segregated in 'occupations classes' could be integrated with other pupils in the suggested curriculum. Among the many reasons for this are the emphasis placed on attention to individual pupils, the reduction of structured courses and formal examinations, and options at different levels of intensity during this period. The Committee therefore takes the position that a form of comprehensive
school is best suited to offer the diverse study opportunities that
should be open to all students, and argues that only such a facility
can prevent unwarranted segregation of students, premature selection
of vocations, inflexible programming, and limited fields of learning
experience. Nevertheless, the Committee wishes to stress the importance
of providing a truly comprehensive program that will ensure that
vocationally oriented experiences have their rightful place in the
school. The Design Applied Thus far, this section of the Report has presented a broad outline of the design for a new approach to organized learning. At this point, several examples are offered of how such a design might be applied in school situations. The first example describes a boy's general learning experience to age 14.
Stephen's 'learning program' begins months before his birth. At that time his mother visits the child-care clinic and registers for prenatal care. She also enrolls as a student in the child-care and development courses provided at the school. In these she learns about the characteristics of infant growth, with emphasis on the learning experience. The classes are voluntary and staffed by health and education personnel. After his birth, Stephen is examined by a clinic team over a period of time during which his development profile is initiated and his potential diagnosed. The latter is one of the reasons for Stephen's beginning nursery school at three years of age, in facilities which are part of the school. Attendance is optional and on a half-day basis. The program in the nursery school is non-academic and is part of the genuine responsibility of the school staff, which includes the school faculty, the resident nurse, a counsellor, and an itinerant psychologist. It also includes school assistants and itinerant ancillary medical services. In his fifth year, Stephen's profile begins to reveal the following characteristics: poor physical co-ordination, passivity, some creative ability, good tonic sense, and a strong interest in reading. At this point he enters a kindergarten program on a half-day basis. The program emphasizes social experience and is sensitive to the conditions indicated in his profile. His major interest group is music, and for him there is an emphasis upon tactile activity and word experience. Wide use is made of educational aids, and Stephen has access to a tape recorder, musical instruments, and so on. Great attention is given to developing in him a sense of responsibility and he is also provided with free time on a daily basis. He also spends a good deal of time out of doors in activities that have a heavy physical emphasis. This part of his program often involves school assistants. Frequently these people are potential teachers who, during their final year at school, have indicated their intention to become teachers and who spend part of their time in schools like Stephen's as part of their training. Movement into the second-year level is flexible and Stephen joins this phase in April. The school year is now divided into three semesters, each of three months' duration, as follows: January to April 1; mid-April to mid-July; mid-September to mid-December. Stephen can enter the phase on any of three points in the calendar year. He spends three semesters in phase one before moving on in April of the following year. During his primary years, he experiences a program that is largely self-directed, experienced individually and within a group, and planned by his home teacher and members of the primary teaching team. His program has three bases of organization: Communications, Environmental Studies, and Humanities, with the first of these being the prime base at this level. He, of course, is not aware of any such division. Stephen begins his day by selecting one of six interest areas in the room which are based on reading skills (communication), number concepts, exploratory science, local environment, the arts, and manipulation skills. On a typical day he begins in the number corner, moves to science, and then joins classmates for reading skills. He may or may not touch most of the interest areas in any one day. He does, however, experience communication skills on a daily basis, including oral French. He enjoys a good deal of mobility with his classmates, planned by his teachers on a team arrangement. He has no report card, but a profile of his experiences and skills is kept up to date and this forms a basis of regular consultation with his parents, who are also encouraged to visit the classroom at various intervals while it is in operation. During these three years, the same teacher remains his base or 'home' teacher, but his program is the result of team planning, team teaching and the contributions of assistants, specialists, and resource people within the community. He receives a regular medical examination, and dental work is done as a matter of course. At the end of the third year, he moves to the junior level in a building which is part of the same complex. Although the change is almost imperceptible and Communications is still the base on which his program is built, Environmental Studies and Humanities receive more and more emphasis. He is still allowed to select his topics or activities of interest each day and the skills available to him cover a range of five years. Thus his music experience is at the advanced level while his number skills are at a level lower than that of most of his peers. His profile is still the major indicator of his progress to the teacher and the parent, and the prime factor in adjusting his program to meet his needs. Stephen, along with his classmates, has experienced a large number of field trips, and one of these involved an overnight stay at a school hostel less than a hundred miles from his home. Among other adventures, he has hiked, slept out-of-doors, seen a computer, attended a number of music concerts, been on board a ship, cooked a meal, and acted in a French language play. He also plays in the school orchestra, although most of its members are drawn from the intermediate level. At the end of his third year of this period, he enters the intermediate phase. Here he is confronted with a curriculum that has the same three-sided base, but now he finds certain themes emerging in more clear-cut fashion. In his school, these are of three types: those which are obligatory (mathematics, English, social studies, science), those which are elective (about four themes offered in each base), and those which are available in the free-time interest area. He elects to take instrumental music, conservation, and French. Among the interest studies pursued in his free time are psychology, music, and aerodynamics. He would like to have chosen printing, but it is not offered at his school. However, it may be next year since several of his schoolmates have also shown an interest in this area. During these three years he retains one teacher as his mentor and this teacher is basically responsible for his program. Other specialist teachers on the staff are ancillary, and provide for Stephen's learning in their areas on a contractual basis. During the third year of this period he begins to take instrumental music at the senior level. He does this by going regularly to the senior part of the complex to which he will transfer the following year. By now his profile shows definite trends in his abilities and interests, but no attempt is made yet to channel him into any special area of instruction. Apart from the fact that he selects his studies from the three bases of curriculum, his program is entirely based on his interests and aptitudes. His profile will carry evidence of this experience and accompany him to the senior and final level of his school experience. During this period, a number of characteristics are reflected in the program offered at his particular school: About two-thirds of school time is spent in the three general areas of emphasis in each year. A variety of exploratory options are included in the remaining one-third of the time. These options are loosely related to the three areas of emphasis. Semester options are available and the range of topics is governed only by aptitudes of teachers, resource people from the community, and availability of programmed courses and other aids. Pupil choice of exploratory options is free. Content is adapted to the ability of the child. One teacher undertakes responsibility for a class for all three areas of emphasis although this does not preclude variations in teaching patterns for example, team teaching, use of school assistants and community resource people, exchange of classes, joint periods, and so on. This responsibility includes counselling and co-ordinating of the pupils' work with all teachers, assistants, and aids, and the teacher may continue with the same class for more than one year. Three teachers and their classes, a total of 75 to 100 children, constitute a team for the co-operative planning of the pupils' programs. Each teacher is responsible for his own class within the larger group. This teacher group assumes many of the principal's former organizational functions directly related to the children. Locally devised curriculum guides provide for the deliberate integration of studies.
When Stephen moves on to the senior phase of his learning program, the change is almost imperceptible, since his learning program has already reflected many of the characteristics of the program now offered. Again, since the building complex accommodates several levels of learning, transfer does not reflect stratified divisions of the school curriculum. He is a member of a school community housed in a cluster of buildings accommodating about two thousand pupils. The school is not an institution structured to provide a classroom and teacher for every 30 pupils. It is a centre for learning, and it offers a very great variety of courses, planned learning experiences, directed research activities, and opportunities to develop taste, appreciation, understanding, and skills in special fields of interest. More startling, it has convinced the young people who attend it that it has more to offer of interest and value to them than anything else they encounter, and certainly more than the alternative of quitting school for a job. There are various arrangements for learning in this school. There are some conventional classes, but there is also individual and group study directed by the teacher or by a printed guide with references to books, films, and other resources, programmed learning, discussion, and individual research. An essential type of instruction and experience at this level has to do with facility and resourcefulness in finding and using information through resources in school and out; it may include a terminal for information retrieval from a central computer and its memory adjuncts. To illustrate the flexible organization of the school at the senior
level, let us consider what pupils might be in Miss Brown's class
in literature at the academic level. Perhaps 20 of the 30 would
be university-bound pupils in their ninth or tenth year of schooling.
Four might be pupils without university aspirations at the time
but electing in their tenth year this course instead of the general
course because of special interest and ability. Five might be pupils
in their eleventh year who were late in deciding to prepare for
university. One could be a girl in her eighth year who has ability
and a preference for academic study in languages, but this could
happen only if the school or cluster of schools offers the curriculum
of at least part of the intermediate years as well as the senior. The following description of several of Stephen's companions in
the proposed program reveals the wide choice of options inherent
in this type of school:
Bill is academically oriented and gifted in mathematics and science. From his seventh year he uses the three optional periods and from the ninth year virtually all periods for academic courses, so that he has satisfied university entrance requirements for the mathematics and physics course by Christmas in his eleventh year. During the rest of that year he attends school only half time, largely for independent study, and he becomes a university student one year in advance. George is earnest and ambitious but economically handicapped. For this reason, he has chosen to become an electrical technician rather than an engineer. From his seventh year, his interest in maths and science sharpens and he elects the most challenging studies in these areas From his ninth year on, although he still intends to be a technician, his ability in maths and science enables him to choose university-oriented courses in these subjects and during his optional periods, he selects other studies that will satisfy university entrance requirements. He works as a technician during the summers after the age of 16, and after his last year he decides to take advantage of university admission that was made possible by his studies of the previous four years.
Susan might also have been a problem in the traditional secondary school, since her prime interests seem to be other than school subjects. But she is able to pursue her interest in clothes, not only in connection with home economics but by means of directed study guides on costumes obtained in the library. This leads her to films and books and, probably because of their reference to the theatre, she watches a group of pupils rehearsing a play one of several groups composed of those who have found they have interests as well as spare periods in common. Here Susan encounters Greg. It is impossible to say whether it is Greg or the method used in this school's curriculum which causes Susan to enrol in a regular course in drama, to win a part in a school play, and to study oral French after being introduced to French theatre. The credit cannot be allocated because both Greg and freedom of association are parts of a student's experience in this school. In Susan's case the method results in the sacrifice of packages of memorized and quickly forgotten facts in favor of the cultivation of interests that overcome boredom and encourage a lively interest in learning. Joyce is an agitator. Her special interest is ballet, and she persuades the school to obtain extra books, films, and tapes on ballet; but she devours them quickly and insists at meetings of the student council that her school should have an instructor in ballet. She is succeeding to the extent that a new member of staff next year will offer a course in the interpretation and appreciation of ballet. Her case reveals four characteristics of the new school: it is willing to introduce new studies and activities; the students have a means of expressing their desires; the students may get direct experience in the democratic process; and for all these reasons the students are interested in their school.
It is not possible in a report of this nature to discuss in detail
all aspects of the proposed curriculum. During the course of the
Committee's deliberations and observations, however, a number of
areas emerged that are of sufficient importance to deserve the special
attention of those who plan for curriculum changes. These areas
have to do with facilities for learning, curriculum content, school
organization, and the climate for learning that should pervade all
schools. Finally, in keeping with its belief that educators should
be sensitive to the needs and expressed desires of students, the
Committee presents opinions representative of those of students
in today's Ontario schools. School Facilities The modern Ontario school is attractive in design, and although a certain conformity across the province suggests either a lack of imagination or controls exercised by the Department of Education, the efforts of architects to beautify school buildings are commendable. Recent departures from the antiseptic, institutional appearance of school interiors are welcome changes. Trends away from uniform classrooms and long corridors, together with more widespread use of textured surfaces and various lighting intensities are demonstrating the effects of these environmental factors on the behavior and attitudes of children. Encouraging, too, are the developments in school and site design emerging from the Department of Education and certain local authorities. A publication produced by the Department of Education Division of School Planning and Building Research offers many new approaches to the planning of school grounds. Called Site, it offers suggestions for the functional and aesthetic design of school sites that are in keeping with the activity-oriented curriculum supported by this Committee. Special reference is made, for example, to the use of trees and grass, and leads one to consider whether the latter might, indeed, be considered an expendable item of maintenance in certain environments. Again, the search for flexibility and a desire to check spiralling costs of school construction is reflected in a major research study sponsored by the Metropolitan Toronto Board. The first report of the Study of Educational Facilities was produced in 1968, and it suggests how standardized modular units may be employed to reduce costs and provide for flexibility on a wide scale. The employment of aesthetic design, and functional flexibility in keeping with financial ability are major interests of this Committee. The modern school must do more than house the learner. Its very appearance must be an invitation to adventure. It must be so erected that it can grow or shrink, and yield its shape according to new needs and emphases as they emerge. It must stand not as a monument to today's enlightenment, but as an adjustable instrument for tomorrow's learner. The Ontario student has a right to expect a school environment that reflects the age in which he lives. In this period of technological advancement and modern amenities, it is not unreasonable to plead for schools that have adequate libraries of books, films, tapes, programmed materials, and other resources, with spacious areas for study and well-equipped learning laboratories adjoining the libraries as well as compact TV and motion picture projection rooms, music rooms, cafeterias, and areas to any of which pupils or groups of pupils may go in spare time or for special purposes. It is reasonable, too, to expect a school to have such familiar facilities as an auditorium, a gymnasium, and perhaps a pool; some rooms large enough for a team of teachers and three or four classes carpeted rooms with acoustical tile to make different concurrent activities possible; and rooms with furniture and furnishings that are comfortable and aesthetically satisfying. Such a school is an invitation not only to young learners but also to the adults of the community, who are making increasing use of schools as cultural and recreational centres. Schools of today and tomorrow might be expected to have classrooms with carpeting to permit children to work on the floor and some with a small platform for drama; costumes and masks, puppets and marionettes, a classroom library of books, magazines, special lamps, and pictures; a typewriter; picture-making equipment for sketches, murals, and posters; still and motion picture cameras; projection equipment, including a screen and drapes to darken the room; radio and TV, certainly a tape-recorder and tapes, and perhaps a record player and records; duplicating equipment; a workbench and sink; scientific equipment; and adequate storage space for material and supplies. All of these, and more, are part of the equipment of our most modern schools. But even a well-equipped school must not be regarded as a self-sufficient educational institution which can in isolation provide all learning experiences needed. The child lives in a wider world from which and about which he needs to learn. Although he does learn much about it on his own, such experience is deficient in comprehensiveness and quality. If only for this reason his teacher might be expected to conduct tours to such places as museums, art galleries, buildings in which the processes of local, provincial, or national government may be observed, theatres, institutions of higher education, weather stations, and unspoiled natural settings. From visits to these and other places the student learns at first hand what might otherwise escape his notice or fail to arouse his interest. Similarly, the outdoors, sometimes at a distance from school, may be utilized for various types of pleasurable exercise, recreation, and learning. Further mention should be made of the recent advances of technology in education. These advances have more to offer than amenities to learning. They present one of education's greatest challenges. If education must pre pare the young for an electronic future, it must not only find ways of using the devices effectively in schools, but also must provide a learning environment that will pre pare the student for life in a world already tuned to an electronic environment that has heightened sensory perception and supplanted traditional linear experience. Thus the question, not only of how to teach with technological tools, but what to teach because of them, becomes a matter of immediate importance. Nevertheless, the new technology is a route rather than a goal,
and educators would be wise to assess care fully the strengths and
limitations of its tools. Of these, the television set and the computer
seem ready to make the greatest impact on schools. The use of the
former in Ontario is discussed in the chapter 'Organizing for Learning.'
With regard to the latter, the Committee suggests that a study be
made of the methods of its co-ordinated employment for optimum gain
across the province. Further mention of this subject will be made
later in the Report. The Skills of Communication The major essential for the achievement of virtually any curricular purpose is the acquisition of the skills of communication. Language is not the first or only means of communication, but it is the sine qua non of education in civilized society. The school must teach accepted usage of language and a discriminating vocabulary if pupils are to understand what they hear and read in almost every branch of knowledge and if they are to be able to think and express their thoughts in relation to such knowledge. Comprehension of English (or French, or other vernacular) and ability to use it must therefore be achieved by all who are to progress with maximum advantage through school. Together with simple mathematics, they constitute the one skill which must be measured and brought to an acceptable standard in keeping with the pupil's ability. The teacher, of course, must not at any stage restrict instruction or learning to bare essentials. Motivation alone demands that there be enrichment and freedom. A considerable number of children have a gift for imaginative and poetic language, and they must be encouraged. Others will see the potentialities of advanced skills in the use of language; they may aim at Fowler's "spare and vivid precision of educated speech," or may see how labor in writing can make a sentence immediately and easily clear to the reader a process similar to Horace's "art which conceals the art." They, too, must be encouraged. But all that is required of most pupils is simple clarity and accuracy in expression and comprehension. Modern media of communication have reduced the need for some conventional skills or have made them obsolete. When every place of business has a calculating device, there is little use drilling children for speedy accuracy in the addition of several columns and neglecting to teach mental calculation of close approximations, the skill one needs today. In these days of color photography and motion pictures, descriptive essays in school can be as anachronistic as the lengthy descriptions in novels by Sir Walter Scott. More startling and difficult to appraise educationally are the effects of instant communication from every part of the world. Certainly they negate the single stream of logical development which, as McLuhan points out, has already threatened conventional fiction and drama. Many older people believe that skilful presentation in school can, with advantage to future generations, maintain appreciation of consecutive development which sustains interest in plot and narrative. At the same time, however, even older people must learn to respond like the young to a multiplicity of impressions, concurrent or in a montage, which jump about rapidly in time and space and from the objective to the subjective for no apparent reason. As for language, it is imperative to abandon in all teaching or directed learning, except for senior students in academic courses, what strikes most pupils as useless and repulsive dreary drill on spelling, for example, or dull expositions of formal grammar. Traditional teaching was designed to elicit a required response. Modern guidance of learning experience must encourage a free and creative response. The teacher must learn to under stand and accept the child's manner of thinking, speaking, and writing, for communication is and must be a two-way process. If not treated with disdain for what he is or what he does, a young person exposed to a better mode of communication will come to prefer it. In the primary years at least, where nearly all of the learning experience is an exercise in communication, there should be no division of language skills. Only the teacher should be aware of listening, speaking, reading, and writing as a classification of objectives to be achieved. Even later, although pupils may recognize the distinction among skills because time is sometimes allotted to one or another, the teacher must be on guard against the devitalizing effect of formal divisions of learning. Especially should he recognize that communication by language blends with other forms of communication in various fields of learning in school. It is also important that schools recognize the value of other
means of communication, such as the dance, pantomime, and dramatic
arts, and the mass media of journalism, motion pictures, radio,
and television. In so far as time is spent chiefly on appreciation
and interpretation, as is done in the study of literature and occasionally
of music and art, the increased attention asked probably belongs
to what, in the curriculum trinity proposed by the Committee, is
called Humanities. But all the arts are means of communication,
some of which are more familiar to children than all but the simplest
language. One might single out creative drama as an activity which
has impressed one favorably, or commend the increasing number of
schools in which the planning, making, and editing of motion pictures
is used as a well-motivated exercise equivalent to writing a composition.
But to select these two is to neglect other activities equally important.
It must, however, be said emphatically that pupils should be encouraged
to do more in these media, and to do it with imagination and ingenuity.
They should also be cautious about accepting McLuhan's contention
that the medium is the message. In the new schools pupils will learn,
it is hoped, how to transmit any information, ideas, impressions,
arguments, or stimuli to thought or feeling either by a variety
of media or by some one appropriate medium. Bilingualism In the area of communications, a major question arises with regard to bilingualism in Ontario. The importance of this area of learning arises from several basic assumptions which the Committee feels to be relevant to education in Ontario. The modern world is multi-lingual. The revolution in travel and communications has made us neighbors of many peoples whose mother tongue is not English. To understand and communicate with these neighbors, we must master additional languages. The day of unilingualism and splendid isolation is over. The English speaking person should no longer expect others to learn English in order to communicate with him. Canada's major national institutions its Parliament, its Senate, its federal courts are officially and legally bilingual. At the least, this seems to require that participants in public life be bilingual; at the most, it suggests that the spirit advocated by the Fathers of Confederation for this country is bilingual. The mastery and use of two languages adds to, rather than detracts from, the strength and resources of a country. Further, it seems clear from the evidence available that a second language is learned best in childhood. Indeed, research seems to suggest that many children can 'pick up' or learn a second language at an elementary level, without difficulty and without adverse effect on their mastery of the first language. The emphasis in second-language teaching should be oral rather than grammatical or on composition and literature. Provided that the second language is properly taught, language training can be an antidote to parochialism and provincialism. It should add a cosmopolitan touch to education by introducing the student to a new culture and to new ways of thinking and behaving. These assumptions are strengthened by the position taken by Ontario's Prime Minister, the Honourable John P. Robarts. During the Confederation of Tomorrow conference held in Toronto in 1967, he stated that the central issues related to Canada's future were language, constitutional change, and regional economic differences. At the federal-provincial Constitutional Conference held in Ottawa in 1968, he stated Ontario's position with regard to the first of these issues, when he said, in part: "Our view of the Canada of today is based on the fullest, most practical national appreciation of our two linguistic communities." Prime Minister Robarts suggested further that the price of national unity is the willingness and the ability to acknowledge the mainstream of our heritage, and that Ontario is prepared to move toward bilingual ability in accordance with the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. The Committee feels that instruction in the use of the French language is a prerequisite to this commitment, and recommends that all English-speaking children be given an opportunity to develop their ability in this language from their early years at school. Similar attention must be given to the teaching of English to Ontario children whose first language is French. To meet the need for more teachers with ability in the French language, and particularly with ability in French as their mother tongue, the Committee urges that greater use be made of the teacher education program that now exists within the University of Ottawa. By making maximum use of this faculty of education, the teaching force needed to implement the recommendations of this Committee would be significantly strengthened. Total bilingualism is not the expectation of this Committee; rather,
it is urged that the opportunity be made available for more children
to become increasingly fluent in the second language, and that positive
attitudes toward those who speak other languages be established. Canadian Studies and the Curriculum In the opinion of this Committee there is a growing need for a fresh approach to the development of attitudes with respect to Canada, its past history, its present character, and its aspirations for the future. The current Canadian struggle to establish a national identity reflecting its multi-cultural nature and its bicultural base, and the need to develop a national spirit that transcends the bounds of narrow nationalism, demand that the traditional methods of teaching historical content give way to a fresh approach. The Committee's position in this regard is strengthened by the results of a recent study of the subject. The National History Project, sponsored and supported by Trinity College School of Port Hope and assisted by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, points to the fact that current methods of teaching history across the nation fall far short of achieving worthwhile objectives. Vast amounts of energy are devoted to the consumption of factual con tent that is biassed in selection, places undue emphasis on personal achievement, is constitutional in nature, and is almost totally unsuitable as a tool to understanding today's problems. In such an exercise, the student is all too frequently a passive recipient of content of which he has little comprehension and for which he has even less use. The result, as indicated by the study, is a woeful ignorance of the real problems that confront Canadians today, and more to the point, an inability to contribute constructively to their solution. An extract from the Project report says, in part: "The only intellectual tools we have for achieving understanding and, hopefully, solving the problems of our society are the disciplines that direct themselves to these questions. To begin a search for understanding that is truly meaningful, these contemporary problems must be faced in the terms of the discipline and in terms of a course built around an interaction between problems and disciplines. There seems no reason to believe that such a multi-disciplinary, problem-oriented course is impossible to develop and teach; we believe that an approach along these lines is the only way of seeing the future of Canadian studies and, we should add, all social studies." Without dwelling in detail upon this aspect of the curriculum,
it seems obvious that improvement is dependent upon three factors:
teacher ability, selected study areas, and approaches to learning.
With regard to the first, the sensitivity to the human story, together
with knowledge of the various threads that are woven to produce
it, should be recognized as prerequisites to teaching in this field.
Simply to teach more history is not the answer. Instead, areas of
study should be extended in variety to permit students to probe
the many problems of past and present that have a bearing upon social
conditions. Wherever possible, students should be exposed to historical
evidence rather than points of view and, through free discussion
and research, be permitted to seek answers and conclusions that
may be at variance with established points of view. From their early
years, pupils should be encouraged to reach beyond the con fines
of history textbooks and conventional courses of study to explore
a multitude of resource materials in their search for understanding;
such an exploration should include approaches to learning that develop
not only an awareness of civic and historical issues but also a
skill in research and a habit of inquiry that will serve the student
in his future role as a citizen. Health and Physical Education Since good mental and physical health are essential in achieving maximum benefit from the learning experience, this area of the curriculum deserves special consideration. In this connection significant trends in our society have emerged to demand the attention of those who provide learning experiences for young people. New forms of mental and physical stress, changing codes of ethics, and new advances of leisure time have placed new responsibilities on the school. In the face of these trends, from drug consumption to spectator sports, from sexual ethics to physical development, the curriculum must demonstrate new ways of helping young people to meet the problems of reaching for emotional and physical maturity. It is not enough to provide the traditional series of 'health lessons' in the name of health education, or to provide regular periods devoted to popular team sports. Programs must provide, not the prescription of conventional courses, but learning experiences which will help young people in searching for solutions to the immediate problems that all young people face as they develop. For a boy of poor physical prowess, a sense of adequacy is just as vital as skill in games, perhaps more so. Likewise, freedom to ask questions and to get accurate answers regarding seemingly calamitous physical development is of greater consequence to a young girl than ability to name the parts of the body. A good school will be sensitive to the emotional and physical needs of its pupils and will respond to these by developing programs that reflect this sensitivity. The Committee also feels that in view of the need for increased
emphasis upon mental health and leisure, a change from the present
term 'physical and health education' to 'health and recreation'
might invite more meaningful curricular approaches to all aspects
of health and leisure. Discipline and Responsibility It is necessary at this point to discuss the persistent problem of discipline and punishment, which frequently casts a shadow over the pleasant school atmosphere that is so vital to learning. There is a large element of truth in the statements of psychologists and others that when the teacher is cheerful and helpful, the pupils interested, and other such positive factors are dominant in the learning situation, discipline ceases to be a concern. It is also true that some teachers, whether largely authoritarian or permissive, seem never to have any trouble developing an attitude of co-operation in pupils. But for many teachers the maintenance of good discipline is a problem, and thus this subject is a matter of concern for this Committee. Our social heritage is a complex structure of higher and lower authorities giving nearly all adults the right to inflict pain or penalties on those beneath them and so perhaps make their own suffering more tolerable. During the last century the overt use of such power has become no longer apparent in the treatment of lower classes by the higher, and some little doubt has arisen even regarding punitive treatment of law-breakers by the law abiding. But there is no man or woman so low in the order of humanity as to be without someone over whom he can assert authority, even if it is only a child. Children are the ultimate victims in competitive civilized society and may be the last resort of those who feel the need to demonstrate superiority over someone else, and many adults are not receptive to arguments against it. Traditionally, punishment has been accepted as necessary if not desirable in our schools. Throughout the long history of schooling, obedience has been the byword of behavior. Obedient pupils were 'good'; disobedient pupils were 'bad.' When rules were broken, children were punished on the assumption that the result would be improvement, not only of conduct, but of the miscreant himself. Inconsistent in application and frequently unrelated to the misdemeanor, a veritable parade of punitive practices has marched through our class rooms of the past and into the present day; and although many teachers struggle valiantly to improve disciplinary practice, a disturbing array of punishments is still meted out in the name of good discipline and authority. The Committee recognizes the need for pupils to learn that behavior has its consequence, but can find little to defend, solely as means of correction, such punishments as the writing of lines, isolation, detention after school, extra work, sarcasm, and ridicule. Further, in view of the powers now granted to school principals and boards to suspend or expel pupils from school, the Committee urges that the legislation relating to these powers be reviewed. To turn a pupil out of school without alternate provision for his needs is contradictory to the purpose of education. The Committee is opposed to the use of the strap as a form of correction, and therefore strongly recommends the abolition of corporal punishment from our schools. A child is not a young adult, and just as we accept his need to increase in wisdom, we must assume his need to grow toward maturity of conduct. The application of punishment in the area of behavioral learning is no more defensible than its application in any other area of learning. Further, punishment is demoralizing because it negates moral responsibility. It fosters cynicism and a belief that the thing to do is simply to avoid being caught by those who have authority to punish. It also causes those who are caught to think that they have 'paid their debt to society' by virtue of the punishment received an attitude indicative of amorality and irresponsibility . But the question remains. If punishment as a means of control is removed from the school, what alternative has the teacher? The Committee suggests no simple alternative. Rather, it has found its position in the clues inherent in the learning process, in the aims of education, and in the performance of those teachers who seem to have little need for punitive classroom practice. Each suggests that the development of a sense of individual responsibility is a major goal in education. If this is so, then it is argued that this sense is developed, not by the imposition of rules set and enforced by an authority which inflicts punishment for violation, but by assuming that children can and should learn to make their own decisions and to take responsibility for their actions in an atmosphere that is positive and encouraging. Teachers can take definite steps to develop a sense of responsibility in children, and the Committee offers the following by way of example: Have pupils plan and manage their own routines of study.
Not only to help remove punishment and encourage a sense of responsibility, but for its own sake, moral development should be a major concern of the school. Moral development means helping young people through practice to make moral decisions. Although no fixed rules of conduct are taught, certain values or principles emerge in the process mainly respect for and consideration of others and a commitment to truth, honesty, and fairness. The developmental process in school lies in free discussion, often among small groups of pupils, of questions encountered in literature and social science, and sometimes of problems that arise in the operation of the school. In addition to its value in relation to ethical aims, this approach has the advantage of gaining the respect of pupils for the school when they find that the teacher respects their opinions instead of dismissing the discussion by giving his own views as the right or authoritative answer. How much any teacher can do for any one pupil in school obviously
depends to a considerable degree upon the upbringing of the child
at home, which may or may not be compatible with the teacher's efforts.
It depends also on what has been done or is being done by other
teachers in the school. It is not possible to adopt suddenly, completely,
and regardless of circumstances a new approach to education. It
is necessary instead to make a firm decision regarding the direction
in which it is desirable to go and then do everything possible to
help individual pupils move in that direction. Grade 13 As already noted, the Committee favors a publicly supported school
program of thirteen years including kindergarten. In this regard
the Committee is pleased to note that the intent of much of the
Report of the Grade 13 Study Committee, made to the Minister of
Education in 1964, has been carried out. The major recommendation
of that group, however, was the replacement of the thirteenth year
by a Matriculation Year, which pupils could complete after twelve
years following kindergarten. This Committee does not see any need
to reiterate the arguments presented in 1964, but simply wishes
to endorse the recommendation concerning the abolition of the thirteenth
year. With the introduction of the Colleges of Applied Arts and
Technology, the wide range of alternatives urged by the Minister's
Committee in 1964 is now available to Ontario students. In addition,
the skewing of the entire school system in the direction of university
preparation has been corrected to a considerable extent by the removal
of the Grade 13 external examinations. It is now necessary to complete
the move toward equal opportunity by providing twelve post-kindergarten
years of schooling of a comprehensive nature in the publicly-supported
system for all students. From the Pupils' Point of View Related to these observations concerning the learning program are the views held by students themselves. The values held by young people and adults are in some respects quite different. Until recently, and to an unreasonable extent even now, this was regarded as a difference that a few years of growing up would eliminate. But older people must admit that pupils in school have a clearer appreciation of some aspects of life today and that their ideas about education cannot justifiably or safely be ignored. The Committee held two public hearings for pupils to express their views, and members of the Committee talked on many occasions with individual pupils in the many schools that were visited. The following summary is a reflection of opinions by these pupils and others who recently attended schools in Ontario. The summary also includes a number of responses to a questionnaire related to economics and education. Their use is not meant to imply that a thorough study was made of student opinions or that students' views are totally negative. The replies merely indicate what some students say when asked to describe how education might be improved. Most often mentioned as of great importance to the pupil and criticized most frequently was guidance by a wide margin. Ex-pupils of many secondary schools believe that guidance was not taken seriously by the staff and was indifferently handled. Very much needed by pupils, they say, is expert counselling regarding vocations, higher education, and immediate personal problems, by counsellors who have precise knowledge of employment and career opportunities and requirements, plus an ability to estimate the individual pupil's chance of success with respect for the pupil's own interest. Although the young people may be asking for greater certainty than is possible, there is no uncertainty about what they request. The following quoted statements are typical of the questionnaire response in this regard: "At my particular school, I found the educational guidance
offered very poor. And for this very reason, we have high school
drop-outs. Young people are unsure of their future." "It would seem that the high schools do not fully make plain the values and opportunities that an upper school education has in the business world Also that leaving without completion of a set course that has been started, is worse than not starting; it shows to the business world that the man has not any interest in himself or his vocation." "Would it be possible to set up a system where pupils complete a certain grade or reach a certain age and leave school for a period of time in which they could be employed in the labour force? At a time when they know what they want and with financial assistance if necessary they could return to school. I realize that some students know what they want through the course of high school and should be allowed to continue straight through school. I know of persons who need more time to discover what they really want. I believe this is the reason for more unhappiness in this world than any other reason, because people are not sure of what they really want. " "If at all possible have students that have been out of school for one or two years come back and speak to present students about school and urge them to stay until graduating." Second in frequency of mention was the method used by teachers and related practices. Routine presentation by teachers of content to be memorized or mastered for examinations was categorized as boring and a major reason for rejection of school education. The following quotations illustrate student thinking on these issues: "The foremost aim should be to teach the student to have
an inquisitive and alert mind not to bury him in repetitive courses
year after year." A third pattern emerged in the demand for content related to life today. Many respondents could find nothing of significance or interest in academic subjects remote in time or application to the modern world or of no apparent help to pupils conscious of their own problems, immediate and imminent, in the world familiar to them. "Some of us won't, and some of us can't reach higher education.
Even if a youth leaves school in Grade 8, he should have been given
a general knowledge of the consumer price index, the Canadian Government
as a whole and in its most minute parts, the stock market, the Canadian
economy as opposed to foreign economics, and the full story of the
crisis of the day, e.g. Viet Nam. It would also help to know what
is considered the average wage, a good wage, and an executive wage.
Quite often boys leave school feeling $50 a week is good money."
High in importance in the opinion of many former pupils was the need for individual attention from teachers. As might be expected, this request, or recommendation for the improvement of education, came often from those who described themselves as only average or below average in school work. "I feel that teachers are too impersonal. Students were treated
as numbers on a chart and no effort was made to understand the individual's
need and interests." A large number of respondents stressed the need for visits to places of interest and other learning experiences outside the school. Occasionally connected with this was a request for more informal and congenial facilities within the school. "To further cultural advancement the curriculum should be
expanded to include more field trips, more flexibility offered to
teachers in the selection of subject material, and guest lecturers
in the Arts." Many respondents recommended that secondary schools should offer a wide choice of options but demand a smaller total of subjects in order that pupils might specialize in subjects or areas of interest and value to them. "I suggest that high school students be exposed to as wide
a variety of subjects and extra-curricular activities as possible."
Of the few who expressed themselves in favor of any particular subjects, a large proportion urged that subjects like psychology, sociology, philosophy, and economics be taught in secondary school. In the past these subjects have been reserved for higher education, and universities have expected the high schools to limit themselves to what may be called basic disciplines. But now that young people are getting other things and experience at an early age, perhaps we should abandon the neat nineteenth century allocation of studies and let senior pupils in school have adult intellectual growth as well. "Teach people those things which will be useful and begin more advanced teaching at lower levels; introduce subjects such as philosophy, sociology, psychology, etc., at an earlier time, preferably early years of high school." "Help the student to understand some of the aspects of his environment. Social change, psychology, elementary economics, and in short the social and behavioral disciplines should no longer be so conspicuously absent from the high school curriculum." "I was very upset and still am when I try to justify the agonies I suffered because of physics and algebra and geometry. Up to the present time I have got along quite well without ever having to use these subjects. I was always interested in working with people in some capacity. Wouldn't it have been more profitable to give courses in a simplified version of sociology and psychology or anthropology? What is so wrong with removing the great philosophers from the vast and cumber some history program and incorporate a small course on the philosophers and their effects on the world today?" The questionnaire invited comments on cultural and economic aspects of education. Here are a few: "Young people should be aware of the advantages of developing an enjoyment of good music and the entertainment and cultural benefits derived from theatre and good literature." "There was so much time and effort spent strictly on getting students from one grade to another and getting through the curriculum, that very little time was left to help create any cultural interests of any sort Could more effort not be made to emphasize the cultural note in the high school years?" "I would suggest encouragement of full-time summer employment or part-time employment with responsibility. Perhaps this would change a few minds regarding full-time employment with only part-time education." "I am at this time contemplating furthering my education. I am employed as a bookkeeper and want to take a course in business and finance at university. At this point I discovered that my four-year commercial course was absolutely useless and that I must return to school to get my junior and senior matriculation. " At a public hearing conducted by the Committee, two requests of the secondary school pupils were especially noteworthy. They asked for more time and freedom to discuss matters of interest which came up in class and were annoyed at the claim made by teachers that they could not afford the time because of the necessity of covering the course. They wanted teachers who were conscientious, capable, well-prepared, and stimulating. Younger children in elementary schools are probably less able than others to offer criticisms and suggestions because of having had no other school experiences for comparison. But the pupils in Grade 8 of an urban school submitted a brief in which the main contentions were these: There should be no religious education of the kind then given in Ontario public schools, but study of comparative religion, preferably as an option in secondary school, well taught to counteract prejudices; and there should be only silent prayer in school exercises. Real-life education through field trips and other activities outside the classrooms would be very valuable. French should be taught beginning in the kindergarten, and Latin earlier than now, but all languages should be optional because "we think we learn best when we study something we want to study." Homework should be creative work, adjusted to the ability of individual pupils, and necessary routine or drill exercises should be done in school. "Punishment the majority of us feel is unwise. Discipline should be constructive. Child guidance workers should be placed in all schools to help students solve their problems." The Committee does not necessarily subscribe to these youthful presentations. It merely offers them as proof that children as well as adults, have opinions about their educational experience. They deserve, at the least, a sympathetic ear. This concludes the areas selected by the Committee as among those deserving the special consideration of curriculum designers. They are not presented here as priorities in curriculum revision. Nevertheless, their presence in this Report indicates the degree of concern they generated in the Committee as it examined the type of learning program that is required to meet the aims and objectives of education. Continued on Next Page |
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