What Children Study and why: A Discussion of Educational Values in the Elementary Course of Study

Charles Benajah Gilbert

Jan 1913 · Silver, Burdett

About this ebook

Why is the course of study in use in our elementary schools constituted as it is? Why are reading, spelling, arithmetic, grammar, and history taught, rather than knitting and shooting and guiding automobiles? What particular gift has each element to bestow upon the children, and hence upon society, as justification for its place in the curriculum? These are questions that should be answered by teachers, parents, and public officials, if best results are to be obtained from the schools. No attempt is made in this book to trace the history of the curriculum, but in it tries to give in plain, nontechnical terms a few of the practical psychological and sociological reason for teaching the subjects found in most elementary school curricula. The benefits from these studies, to the children and to society are briefly outlined.