The New Education

The New Education, by Scott Nearing, is described as a review of progressive educational movements of the day. The preface says that during 1910, 1911, and 1912, as a part of a general plan to write a book on education, the writer reread a great deal of the classical educational literature. Tyler puts a question in his "Growth and Education": in the grammar grade, is learning and mental discipline of chief importance to the girl, or is care of the body and physical exercise absolutely essential at this period?

Herbert Spencer answers Tyler’s question in spirited fashion, saying that many years are spent by a boy in gaining knowledge and by a girl in decorative acquirements, but not an hour by either of them in preparation for the management of a family. The text says schools located in the poorer districts begin manual training and domestic science with the second grade, though ordinarily they are not introduced until the sixth. The text says the old education read out of the school those children who could not benefit by its teachings, and that there were crowds of children for whom the school held no attraction whatever.