THE CURRICULUM OF THE COMMON SCHOOL

The Final Volume in Series A Valuable Handbook on Public School Curriculum

By Henry C. Morrison '95, Univ.of Chicago Press. 681 pp. $4.00.

MANY BOOKS on all phases of education have been written in recent years yet the process of public education in the United States continues to increase in chaos and misdirection. We are sadly in need of an Educational Bible, a sort of twentieth century American Magna Didactica, if our much vaunted system of public education is to function properly as an educative instrument of our democracy. A study of Professor Morrison's latest book, "The Curriculum of the Common School" gives one a feeling that such a volume is at hand. Studious, far-sighted schoolmen would do well to remould their systems of content and method along the lines he suggests.

This volume is the third great book from the pen of Professor Morrison and completes a series composed of "Basic Principles in Education," and "The Practice of Teaching in the Secondary School," by providing a complete and highly valid curriculum for the American public school from the beginning of the first grade to the end of the so-called junior college period.

His treatment of the Social Studies is far more comprehensive than anything yet published and he argues soundly for the inclusion of much material that is now foreign to the curriculum of the majority of our schools. His treatment of the Humanities emphasizes the all important task the schools have in developing a wider appreciation of the five major arts. When these sections are read in conjunction with his idea of the method of teaching appreciation as described in his earlier book about "The Practice of Teaching in the Secondary Schools," we feel quite certain of the correctness of his reasoning. In every other phase of the curriculum the same forward looking point of view and scholarly analysis prevails. The chapters on Religion and Morality should be read by every intelligent parent and school officer in our country and their precepts followed by schools in the nation at large. Health instruction in the curriculum becomes more meaningful and effective after reading his description of what we should teach in this field.

By any measure one can use, this book is by far the best book on the curriculum that has been produced in this century. It is comprehensive yet detailed; theoretical yet practical; a veritable handbook of didactics. American parents, school officials, teachers, principals, and superintendents need this momentous work, and what is more important need to study it thoroughly and follow it carefully if the educational requirements of our children are to be met satisfactorily in the public schools of the democracy.

RALPH A. BURNS.