THE NEW LEAVEN

By Stanwood Cobb, 1903. New York: The John Day Cos., 1928. (340 pages)

The character of this book is well set forth in its subtitle "Progressive Education and Its Effect Upon the Child and Society." Mr. Cobb was delegated to put into permanent form, on record, as it were, the aims and the technique of the newer education as carried out in the progressive country day schools of this country. He is well fitted to do so as headmaster and co-founder of the Chevy Chase Country Day School of Maryland.

The book is divided into three parts: the first is entitled "Looking at the Problem"; the second discusses the problems of the new education; Part 111 contains several miscellaneous papers under the heading "From Nursery to College."

As Mr. Cobb states in an early chapter, parents are now taking a hand in the educational process. This need is recognized by the appointment to the boards of education of many states of men who are not professional educators. The layman has the advantage of seeing education as a means, not as an end. The danger, of course, is that the laymen's curriculum and aim for the educative process becomes merely a thing of bread and butter. The problem is to get a fine balance between the good ideas of parents and citizens for the pupil, and the theories and schemes worked out by those whose special province it is to develop educational theories. An extreme position in either case is dangerous.

The ten points most generally emphasized by those who are creatively engaged in progressive education are set forth in Part 11. Here are some of the chapter headings: "Health Must Come First," "Cultivating the Social Virtues," "Shall We Make the Child Into a Walking Encyclopedia?" "The Tyranny of Marks," "The Teacher as a Guide and Not a Task Master," "Treating Children as Human Beings." Discussion of these very suggestive topics is motivated by the philosophy of Charles E. Eliot, John Dewey and even Bertrand Russell. The technique is that of the experience of the author in his own teachings and that of other progressive educators like Marietta L. Johnson, pioneer. The aim of this education seems to be this at heart: to take the child where he is in educational development and lead him onward where he wants to go. The distinguishing features of the process are the goals and the routes to them. Much that is implied in the chapter headings and much that is stated in the aims of progressive education have been the commonplaces of educators for the last 100 years. The process is not as revolutionary as its sponsors would have us think. In many a little red school house, an earnest teacher of days gone by, perhaps from mouth's classic Halls" practiced it with a group of earnest boys and girls.

Part 111 goes farther and gives some advice to those interested in the secondary school and college problem. The author finds a solution in the junior college. The chapter entitled the "Problem of the College" already published elsewhere, is to the mind of the writer the most interesting and valuable in the book. Mr. Cobb comments at some length upon the selective process of admission to Dartmouth. He commends the system highly. Altogether the book is non-technical and is made interesting by a wealth of concrete illustrations. It would be well perhaps to read in connection with this work certain articles that are appearing in a current magazine by Prof. George H. Palmer and William B. Monroe of Harvard.

One of two results will come from the study of authors whose points of view are so diverse: complete confusion; or a sane position somewhere along middle ground. It is a good thing to have the evidence all in. Mr. Cobb has stated his side of the case which is really the parents' point of view and his own, with clarity, and has made a good case for "The New Leaven."