AMERICAN SCHOOLS, A CRITICAL STUDY OF OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM,
Henry C. Morrison '95. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1943, pp. 321. $3.00
A book worthy of a Dartmouth valedictorian, who, four years out of college, was an efficient city superintendent, and whose reforms of 1917-19 made New Hampshire educationally, a model state. No short review can adequately describe this excellent discourse. It should be read by every American school executive and school board member. Many writers on school administration are college theorists who exemplify Shaw's "He who cannot, teaches." Morrison has been through the mill, himself.
There are three parts to the volume: 1, Major Educational Institutions, (a) the School —a true common school, which shall bring an individual to maturity, social, volitional, intellectual; (b) the University—very different from our present "universities"; (c) the Technological Institute. 11, School Structure, a condensed history: how the American school was influenced by German ideals, how often it "just growed," how various surroundings modified it. "The Head of the School" and "The City Superintendency" are two admiral chapters. 111, "School System," too strong to be ignored, is a plea for the abolition of country (and county) "deestricts" and the organization of a state-controlled education, not unlike that which the author, aided by his successor, actually accomplished in New Hampshire.
Quotable ideas fill the book: A real university would accept no students except the educationally mature. Can't the country produce enough to go around without utilizing the labor of minors? We fall into war because there is no public intelligence about world aliairs. There is the delusion that academic standards are a matter of time-to-bespent. We don't allow the wealthier sections to monopolize the best judges. (Why, then, teachers?)
An excellent book; if there is a touch of John Locke in the plea for discipline, and if the University Plan is too reminiscent of Hutchins, the main theme of the volume is sound, keen and convincing.
