Editorial and Official

Media

Part of Philippine Craftsman

Title: Editorial and Official
Language: English
Year: 1912
Rights
Fulltext: EDITORIAL AND OFFICIAL. A '1' THE opening of the present school year, the Bureau .1-\._ of Education undertook an enterprise which will be probably the most efl'ective si ngle piece of work to which the public schools have yet devoted their energies. It is in the solution of a problem affecting most intimately the economic condition of the people-that of the improvement c~.mp.o.!gn. of the food supply. The enterprise to which reference is made is the present general corn campaign. While the encouragement of corn is but one phase of a single branch of school industrial work, it is now to receive such attention as will bring it to the front, not only in the year's work in the schools, but also, if its results are in any degree as successful as they now promise, in the estimation of the year's accomplishments of the people generally. Much has been said of the need of an auxiliary food supply for the Philippines. The possibility of droughts such as that experienced during the past year and the lack of suitable cont1·ol of the water supply by means of irrigation systems place the people in a precarious situation where they depend upon a single staple food crop. The need for an auxiliary food crop has long been evident, and agriculturalists have continually pointed out the possibilities of tree crops and yams and cereals other than rice. Corn has been looked upon as one of the most promising of all these auxiliary crops; and the possibilities of this cereal are so promising now ihat it does not seem at all improbable that corn, encouraged as an auxiliary food crop, should take its place as one of the staples-a food to be found on the tables of all, as common as rice. But there are many obstacles in the way. Corn is known in all parts of the Philippines; most of the people have eaten it at times; but a variety of reasons have combined to prejudice the people against it as a human food. Foremost among these is the fact that the people have not been taught to raise good corn economically and to prepare from it wholesome dishes. The people can hardly be critisized for disdaining the use of corn if they can obtain rice, when we consider that a usual method of preparing corn by cracking 221 222 THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN it and boiling it with salt in the same manner as they do rice gives them a food which is far from palatable and which is frequently the cause of digestive troubles. The two important problems of the corn campaign are to teach the people how to raise plenty of good corn and how to prepare it properly for human consumption. This movement in favor of the use of corn has not been undertaken hastily. The proposition has been long considered and thoroughly discussed by the directors, and by others whom they have consulted, and the final plans have been adopted after a most careful study of the conditions and the means at hand for meeting the difficulties which must arise. Elsewhere in this issue the plans for the campaign are set forth in considerable detail. The corn campaign in the average school division is to follow along certain well-fixed lines. A series of corn-growing contests has been arranged for the boys of all the public schools in the Islands. Information has been sent out to the schools on the judging of seed corn. Three corn posters which have been distributed broadcast over the country take up the selection and testing of seed corn, the preparation and planting of the land, and the cultivation and harvesting of the crop. These posters will be conspicuously displayed where they will have the attention of the people generally. A complete line of corn exhibits, from the smallest barrio display to the ]nsular exhibition which will be held in Manila, has been provided fOl". A Bureau publication on corn has been issued as a civico-educational lecture; it is couched in simple language and is illustrated; it will be taught to all school pupils, and will be the subject of a civicoeducational lecture in which the teacher will explain the value of corn to the people of the barrios. The Bureau has arranged for distributing throughout the provinces a number of small and inexpensive hand corn mills which will transform the hard kernels into the convenient corn meal. A number of well selected recipes on the preparation of corn with the ingredients and utensils available in the ordinary Filipino home have been issued and have been given extensive publicity. A system of suitable awards for successful competition in the several features of the campaign has been suggested and will be encouraged. It will be the purpose of every division superintendent to train a competent corps of teachers for demonstrating to the public the preparation of corn dishes. This brings us to the highest point in the corn campaignan extensive series of corn demonstrations in which the public EDITORIAL AND OPFICIAL 223 will be invited to witness the preparation and serving of the wholesome dishes which can be made from corn, and also to partake of them. These demonstrations will begin in provincial centers, from which points trained demonstrators will extend them to the municipal centers; and it is planned ultimately to take them far into the barrios where t he last Filipino farmer may also be enlightened on the possibilities of corn. It is a program full of promise; and the results of the publicity work which has been done so far are encouraging indeed. Nor is this interest in the corn campaign felt alone by the superintendents and teachers and pupils of the schools. Everywhere assurance is evident of the active support of the general public in the campaign. The Executive Bureau has been ready with suggestions and advice and, more practically, with the matter of interesting the provincial and municipal governments in financing the campaign. The Bureau of Agriculture is in the field already with a pamphlet on corn culture and stands ready to assist in the campaign in every way possible. The Philippine press and the public are most' hearty in their appreciation of this measure ; the newspapers have given much valuable publicity to the information which constitutes so great a factor in arousing and maintaining interest in the campaign. Now seems to be the time for a move in the right direction, and the corn campaign as it has been launched, with proper direction throughout the present school year, must from very merit accomplish its purposes. The aim is to encourage the people to grow corn and teach them to eat it; to show them that corn is an excellent human food and then have them raise more of it; and to teach them the many wholesome good things which can be made economically from corn. A review of the enrollment statistics for the Manila City Schools, especially the High School, reveals a strikingly apparent tendency upon the part of provincial pupils to drift ~~~~,;:~:~::.1 into the city. During the school year 1911-12 there were enrolled in Manila High School approximately 800 pupils, of whom some 500 were from the provinces. For the current school year the status of this school is about the same. Some of these provincial pupils are here because of the fact that the year of high-school work they are up for is not being 224 TflE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN given in their home provinces. However, a large percentage of them could secure in their home schools the same year of instruction as that which they are receiving in Manila. The most of them, when interviewed as to the reason why they do not attend school at home, state that it is cheaper for them to live in Manila, ns they have J"elatives here who can support them, and that their fathers and mothers, especially in the case of pupils living outside of the provincial capital, are not able to keep them in school. Perhaps, if the truth were told, a stronger reason would appear as to why the provincial pupil is here in rvianila in such large numbers. 1l is the bright lights, the gaudiness, the excitement, the theatre, the everlasting come~and~go of the city, as compared with the humdrum life of a provincial town-it is this which attracts him as the moth is attracted by the flame. This social phenomenon is not peculiar to the Philippines. 1t obtains in other countries as well-in some to an extent quite equal to that in which it obtains in the Philippines, in others not so much. There are also economic reasons for this drift toward the city; but it is quite possible that if the drift could be checked, that fact in itself would have a tendency to cause those economic conditions to disappear. Pleasing tales are told as to how cer~ tain boys upon coming to the city readily find employment which enables them to continue in school; but it is only the few who are so fortunate, and the majority of those who drift in fail to find employment and become an actual charge upon their relatives or else have to drop out of school after a short period of precarious existence. They plead hard times in the provinces as their excuse for coming to the city; but these young men who leave the prov~ inces-are they contributing in any manner whatever toward alleviating the untoward economic conditions there? Every pupil who comes to the city to get his education, when he could get exactly the same line of study without going outside of his home province, is detracting very materially from the importance which of right should attach to that province. Loyalty to home and home interests is one of the things these pupils must learn; and if they do not take this lesson to heart voluntarily, another way will be found for bringing it home to them:· As a matter of fact, the province is the all~important factor in the economic situation in the Philippines. Its educational EDITORIAL AND OFFICIAL 225 and industrial advancement means the welfare of the country in general; and every pupil who is interested in his country's welfare will do well to stick to his home province as long as she has anything to offer. There seems to be current among many Fiipinos the impression that the educational advantages obtaining in Manila are superior to those in the provinces. That is not the case. The course of instruction and the character of the teaching personnel, especially in the intermediate and high schools, are everywhere the same, no preference being given to any school over any other. At the beginning of the current school year the l\'lunicipal Board of the city of Manila passed an ordinance imposing a tuition fee of thirty-six pesos per annum upon intermediate and high school pupils coming in from the pro\'inces; but even that measure has not slopped the drift city-wards. Jn all probability the matter will be handled next year either by increasing the tuition fee or else by administrative order. In this country, as in others, the fact must be recognized that a secondary education is as yet for only a small percentage of the population. For purposes of honorable, upright, and intelligent living, a secondary education is no more of a necessary prerequisite than immense riches. One may even go a step farther and say that the intermediate course is not an absolute necessity. The primary course is; and recognizing that fact, the Government is rapidly bringing it to the door of every child in the country. Beyond the primary course, and more especially in the case of the high school, the question with every individual pupil must be that of who can afford it and who can not-of how much sacrifice should be made and whether or not the probabilities of a useful career in some special vocation are sufficient to warrant the sacrifice. Charles Spurgeon's famous dictum "you can not make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" has a tremendous pedagogical significance. Just as soon as a high school pupil shows unmistakable weakness, he should be taken out and put to work. To keep him on will mean loss to him personally and to the community in general. You can't change the leopard's spots; neither can you add one cubit to your intellectual stature after you have reached your limit. The following cases are cited to illustrate the extremes to which some pupils have gone in what the writer considers an unwarranted desire to secure a high school education. A boy from a 226 TJIE PHILIPPINE CRAPTS.llAN certain province, in giving his rea~ons why he thought he should be exempt f rom paying tuition, stated that his parents were too poor to support him and that he depended entirely upon his brother who was working here for a peso per day. Another boy of similar circumstances stated that he was supported by his uncle whose monthly income was 1*22. Another pupil was found to be the brother of a Government pensionado who was undertaking to support both himself and his brother out of the monthly allowance. Another pupil had finished the intermediate course in a provincial capital, being supported there by his aunt. The aunt's husband died recently, whereupon she came to live with her daughter, a teacher in the city schools. This teacher has a family of her own lo support, but the nephew of her mother expected to depend upon this teacher for support. In all such cases, of which those detailed in the foregoing are only a few, the decision has invariably been that it was time for the pupil to engage in some remunerative occupation. Speaking of pupils' securing employment in the city, perhaps the most forceful comment on that subject is contained in the placards "No vacancies" posted in practically every office. Too many provincial boys have their eyes turned toward the Mecca of Manila, expecting that after the journey hither the rest will be easy sailing. If they have relatives here, well and good for the time being; but if not, they are apt to encounter hard times such as they have not known in the provinces. It is only the exceptionally well qualified boy who secures anything above menial employment, and the very great percentage of all who apply are not qualified for doing anything above that sort of work. One of the remedies for this condition of affairs is contained in the specialization of the intermediate course of study. The amount of academic instruction given in the primary and intermediate courses is abundantly sufficient to enable any boy or girl to read, write, calculate, and live honorably, intelligently, and to some effective purpose. The vocational instruction given in connection with those courses will enable the pupil to secure an elementary working knowledge of various lines of remunerative manual employment. Beyond this, it is not necessary for the pupil to aspire in order to fit himself for living respectabl~' and well; and it is certainly unwise, from the standpoint of both health and economy, for him to attempt to force himself past the point marking his physical and financial limit. EDITORIAL AND OFFICIAL 227 But little more than a century ago when aristocracies held full sway, education was for the chosen few. Its benefits were the prerogatives of the children of the ruling class. ~ee;;:!c~e·:. Its aims were wholly for cultured leadership, or for entrance into law, medicine, or theology. With the later spread of democracy, however, the common classes began to demand and to obtain the same educational privileges which had been originally enjoyed by the leading classes alone. This brought about the introduction of popular education, copied naturally after that already existing for the aristocratic strata of society. Notwithstanding the economic changes from agriculture and poorly organized household industries to the intensely specialized industrialism of to-day and the political revolutions from aristocracies to democracies, it thus came about that the ideals, methods, and subject matter of popular education were identical with those prevailing previously for the highest grades of society. This explains the anomaly of making the college lead only to the learned professions, of having the high schools based wholly upon college entrance requirements, and of focusing the curricula of grammar schools solely upon requirements for entrance to high schools. Curiously enough, the universities were the first to introduce practical and technical subjects and now in the great state universities the number of students taking courses designed for culture alone is considerably smaller than the number taking co~rses related directly to life work. This movement has extended downward to some degree into the high schools, as is evidenced by the ever increasing number of manual training and domestic science courses. Only seven per cent of the children in the United States ever enter high school and only two per cent ever graduate therefrom; yet the vast majority of these pupils receive only English, Latin, mathematics, and history-all cultural subjects possessing but little value either in the industrial world or the home. While a small but increasing proportion of high school pupils receive some industrial instruction, 93 per cent of all pupils are enrolled in the grammar grades where industrial instruction has not yet been taken up, unless one takes into consideration the few vocational classes planned for backward pupils. In the Philippines only one per cent of the pupils reach the high school and only six per cent reach the intermediate course. These low percentages are increasing steadily as our educational system becomes older and better established. Even so, it is too 228 THE PHJL!l'P!NE CRAFTSJIAN much to expect, in our generation at least, that they will equal or surpass those for the United States with its almost unlimited resources and long established school systems. Acknowledging, then, the relatively small proportion of pupils who can hope tc. enter the intermediate grades and the still smaller proportion who can aspire to the high school, it is evident that our educational system should centralize its best efforts on its lower grades. It should prepare them, in so far as possible, to take up their life work with the maximum efficiency and the minimum loss of time in readjustment from school to life work. It should give enough of the cultural so that the progress of the pupil may not be cut off at any stage of his schooling on account of the limitation of the course. lt should give enough of the vocational so that the pupil who is able to take up higher work may do so with the confidence of having a vocation to fall back upon in case he later finds success in the higher work beyond his grasp. It should give enough industrial work to fit the pupil unable to complete the higher grade to enter at once with a marked degree of efficiency upon his life work. The Twelfth Annual Report of the Director of Education was recently completed in the General Office, and submitted to the The Twelfth Secretary of Pub~ic In stru~tion, t~e Head of the Annual Repnrt or Department. ThiS report IS now Ill the hands of the mrect<>r the printer, and will be ready for distribution in a few weeks. While the information contained in this annual statement of the Director with its more than sixty tables will be interesting to the school people of the Islands generally, the readers of THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN will be more particularly interested in the comments of the Director on the advance along industrial lines during the past year. The report has no new industrial program to offer, nor does it anticipate any changes in the present policies; but it does present some significant figures on the accomplishments of the year along the lines determined upon and announced in the Tenth and Eleventh Annual Reports as proper industrial activities for the schools, and it emphasizes the confidence of all interested parties in the policies adopted. The Twelfth Annual Report dwells upon three school activities particularly; industrial instruction, the building and sites program, and the work in physical training. In a striking manner, the figures on the special intermediate courses of study indicate the tendency towards the industrial courses. The EDITORIAL AND OFFICIAL 229 figures for this year show 40 farming courses, 61 schools giving the course in housekeeping and household arts, 36 regular trade courses, 42 schools with a teaching course, and 1 with the business course, while 204 still offer the general course. The tendency will be to still further decrease the number of schools giving the usual general course, requiring something more industrial and more in line with the policies of the Bureau to-day. In another way, the present report shows some 216,000 boys and 125,000 girls doing some kind of industrial work-that is, 91 per cent of the total enrollment for the month of February, an average month on which the industrial figures are based, were engaged in some kind of profitable school industrial work. Incidentally, when the requirements of the courses of study are fully met in all school divisions, the greater part of that percentage which is thus reported as idle in so far as industrial school work is concerned will be eliminated. More specifically, we find that out of the total of some 8,000 teachers employed by the Bureau, 580 are classified as strictly industrial. In addition to this, a large majority of these 8,000 teachers were very materially interested in the industrial work in their class rooms. We find nearly 38,000 pupils doing plain sewing and some 5,000 taking up cooking. Embroidery was an industrial line for more than 12,000 girls, while the comparatively recent school industries of lace-making and Irish crochet interested some 17,000 and 1,300 pupils respectively. The making of baskets, hats, slippers, and mats continued to be popular subjects, particularly for boys, more than 100,000 doing work on baskets, 30,000 on hats, 18,000 on slippers and 40,000 on mats. In the longer established trade work, we find 13 regularly organized trade schools with more than 1,300 students and 23 trade courses given in the ordinary intermediate school shops to an additional 900 students, while nearly 7,400 boys took shop coUrses in the ordinary intermediate schools. Jn addition to these, 236 primary shops gaYe instructions in elementary woodwork to about 10,000 pupils. A departure was made in the extension of schools giving farming and gardening work. ln the Twelfth Annual Report, we find 5 regular agricultural schools with an enrollment of 232 students; 24 schools giving the intermediate farming course to 1,400 pupils; 17 settlement farms among the non-Christian people with enrollment of 1,200 pupils; and 5 non-Christian industrial schools enrolling 350 pupils. While school gardening has had consistent attention, unusual interest has been cen230 THE PHIUPPJNE CRAFTSMAN tered in the development of home gardens, the number of which has increased from some 10,000 in the preceding school year to nearly 23,000 for the school year just passed. This is an unusual record. The reports also show 83 school nurseries well scattered about the Islands with nearly 25,000 seedlings growing. All these figures point out noticeable advances over the work of the preceding year. To quote from the Director's report: "The foregoing is a statement of facts. The time for discussion of experiments being made and for argument as to the correctness of policies being followed is past. The figures offered must stand for what they are worth. However, there is one criterion by which the success of a system can be judged and which cannot find an adequate place in these pages; i. e., the place which the industrial instruction of the public schools has in the estimation of the people. The Carnival exhibits of the past few years have been a succession of surprises. The exhibit of February, 1912, was successful to such an extent as to guarantee the approval of the public, official and non~official, both American and Filipino. This exhibit awakened unusual interest on the part of Manila merchants, particularly German and English houses, in the possibilities for extension of certain Jines of school industrial work. "As plans along these lines develop, the problems to be solved assume more definite and tangible form. A year ago officials and the public alike looked largely to the probable industrial product of the schools as the ultimate result of the work. That is not the end to be attained; the scope of the work is much broader. In industrial education, as in every other subject, the schools must serve as a medium of instruction only, and the great problem of the coming year will be to extend to the homes of the people the industries now taught in the schools. Plans for the accomplishment of this end are already under way. ·'In line with this problem, and closely related to it, are several others, viz: acquainting the producers with the most profitable markets and prices their handiwork should command; keeping those who engage in such work in touch with demands of the mar~ kets as to style, quality, etc.; and the securing of a uniform and standard production from all parts of the Islands. The Bureau is now in a position to undertake their resolution inte!Hgent~." In these facts the CRAFTSMAN is intensely interested, and the solution of the problems which still remain constitutes a great part of its mission. EDITORIAL AND OFFICIAL 231 The first session of the Philippine Legislature passed Act No. 1829, providing for a series of civico-educational lectures throughout the Philippine Islands, under the ausCJvJc~::t~~:!~ono.l pices of the Bureau of Education. The law provides that these lectures are to be prepared under the Director of Education and are to be delivered by municipal teachers in the towns and barrios in such a manner as to reach the masses of the people and be of interest to them. The subject matter of the lectures is to be translated into the local dialects and presented in this form. For the present school year the following series of lectures has been determined upon and advertised: October 6, 1912.-The Rights and Duties of Citizens of the Philippines. October 20, 1912.-The Housing of the Public Schools. November 3, 1912.-The Prevention of Disease; Diseases of Animals. November 24, 1912.-Rice Culture; Coconuts; Coconut Beetles. December 15, 1912.-Corn. Such lectures on topics of general interest to the people have been given each year since Act No. 1829 was enacted, but with varying success. In certain communities where the teachers and people have received the program 'with enthusiasm, the results have been notable. Here the teachers have as a body appreciated this opportunity to b1·ing the people who are now outside of the modern school influence in touch with certain of the more important topics of the times. In some other localities the lecture series has been conducted only perfunctorily as one of the duties 1·equired of teachers and officials; interest has been slight and the results obtained have in no measure justified the efforts which have thus been put forth merely to comply with the law. This year the civico-educational lectures should have a new meaning to the teachers and people. A new lecture has been added to the list, No. 8, on Corn, and it should give an added impulse to the series generally. The corn campaign which has been so extensively advertised by the Bureau is now a reality; its influence generally, and as one of the civico-educational lectures particularly, should mean much to the entire program for interesting the people in those affairs that are very near to them. The lectures have been placed early in the school year and at convenient intervals so that they will be completed before the stress of other school events early in 1913. 232 THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN The instruction of the people through a medium of well selected lectures is a proper school activity, worthy of a fuller measure of attention than it has had. The lectures should be given publicity; the officials and leaders should be interested in them; the gatherings should be made lively, pleasant functions. Superintendents and teachers may by their activity take the civico-educational lecture out of the doubtful class and make it a real success. The little journal, "La Escuela Mexicana," published in the city of Mexico, is the official organ of the Mexican school department. 1n an April number it published a program for shop classes in the intermediate schools. This would indicate that the Mexican school administration is definitely adopting a policy of industrial education for the Republic. From a report on public education in Siam: "Not much attention has been given to industrial work as yet * ; * technical schools of various kinds are being opened. Manual training and practical instruction along certain lines are now being offered in the various courses; but there are few, if any, industrial schools, in the ordinary sense of the term." From the above it would appear that in Siam industrial education presupposes special industrial schools; in the Philippine system at least, the special industrial school represents only the highest form of the practical work which begins with the lowest pupils and correlates with the academic work through all the grades. There is no escape from this natural fate of industry but state intervention, not too long postponed, to supplement the one-sided education afforded by industry, trade, and traffic. It is, in fact, an entirely new duty that has arisen for the community since the economic revolutions of the last century. lt arose not only in the interests of industry but in the most vital interests of the community itself. 1t is the imperative duty of the state school organizations which deal with the tradetraining of boys and girls, which enter into the question with the utmost thoroughness, enlarging and deepening it, and thet·eby awakening in boys and girls many-sided capacity for work and a living joy in work.~Dr. GEORG KERSCHENSTEINER, Director of Education, Munich, Germany.