Changing Conceptions Of School Discipline

Text extracted from opening pages of book: CHANGING C0JC0EM( MS OF SCHOOL DISCIPLINE BY PICZENS E. HARRIS, PH. D., ASSISTANT PBOPBSSOE OF ELEMENTABY EDUCATION, USTEVBBSITY OF PITTSBURGH NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1928 COPYBIGHT, 1928, BY THE MACMIULAN COMPANY. Set up and dectrotyped. Published March, 1928. J. S. Cashing Co. Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U. S. A. PREFACE IT is hoped that the material presented in this book will be helpful to teachers, supervisors, principals, and others who are interested in securing perspective with reference to the discipline or control of pupils in ele mentary schools. The problem of pupil control is in a state of theoretical and practical confusion, not exceeded perhaps by that of any other phase of current educational effort. There are those who commit themselves unreservedly for order 77 through a rather rigid type of external direction. There are others who, with a certain apologetic hesitation, but not without some conviction, declare themselves for freedom and control through the children 7 s own group enterprises. Paradoxical as it may seem, the whole question of control has attained a certain relative insignificance, both in theoretical and in practical discussion. Mat ters of method and curriculum organization engross the teacher, whose latent sensitivity to questions of discipline is aroused to proportions of resentment by the alleged neglect of this phase of the child's school life A real danger lurks in this situation. Whereas the diversity and apparent incompatibility of existing vi PREFACE attitudes makes proper orientation highly important, the submerged position of the whole subject in edu cational discussion invites hastygeneralization and shortsighted interpretation. Any method of orienta tion which omits a consideration of the historical antecedents and theoretical connections of current attitudes is likely to result in an inadequate sense of values. To try to establish criteria of worth by a direct interpretation of the present situation is like trying to make a visual analysis of the structure or design of a tapestry while holding it too near the eye. Present conceptions and practices need to be viewed as the expressions of historical trends or movements if perspective and a genuine sense of values are to be attained. The sequence of topics and the method of organ ization followed in this book adhere, therefore, to the order of events in pupil control since the rise of the present system of public elementary education in the United States. An attempt is made to state the dom inant attitudes toward control held in connection with each of the outstanding educational movements and theories. Part Two is a statement of the sit uation during the establishment of the present sys tem of schools and before religious authority as the basic assumption in control was extensively questioned. It deals also with efforts following the mid-century to find practical means of mitigating the severity of prevalent methods of control and to shift the basis of PREFACE vii morality from religion to a vague social authoritarian ism. Part Three shows the bearings of the kindergar ten movement, Herbartianism, and the moral-education movement upon control. Following the discussion of these newer movements is a statement of the changed status of authority in control. Part Four deals with the more recent scientific movement ineducation in relation to control. Following a statement of the reported bearings of recent child-study methods, an effort is made to interpret such critical attitudes as were an outgrowth of the spirit of inquiry, biological evolution, and social change. Part Five is an interpre tation of the current social movement in education in relation to control. Two phases are treated. First, there is an effort to state the attitudes toward control that have been found in the more political concep tions of democracy. Second, there is an attempt to state the organic conception