Two Books on Elementary Education
SCHOOL EFFICIENCY
By Henry Eastman Bennett, Professor of Education, College of William and Mary.
The first aim of “School Efficiency” is to be practical and genuinely helpful to teachers. It aims also to set higher ideals in this field than are usually associated with the practical attitude. The author has discussed topics which claim the attention of the teacher on every day of the school year,—school grounds, buildings, lighting, heat and ventilation, health inspection, marking systems and reports, discipline, and many others,—and in discussing them has kept ever uppermost in his mind the average school of average opportunities and the teacher of average ability, which is one of the important reasons why this volume is a real contribution to the teacher’s library. 374 pages, illustrated
HISTORY OF MODERN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
By Samuel Chester Parker, Professor of Education, The University of Chicago.
This book provides a continuous, connected history of elementary education from the earliest vernacular schools of medieval cities to the schools of the present. The subject is considered under three main heads: social conditions, educational theory, and school practice. The relation of each to historical development is clearly traced.
The author shows in a concrete way how elementary schools keep abreast of changing social conditions such as the growth of vernacular literatures, of cities, of modern science, and of national governments and democracy, tracing the resulting changes in the elementary curriculum. He gives especially full treatment to Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Herbart, Froebel, Parker, and Dewey. 505 pages, illustrated