What Happens in School

187 Pages·1965·10.593 MB·English

by  Violet Gordon, I. R. Maxwell and F. H. Pedley (Auth.)

Juniors using colourful materials^ one working freely while the other accepts the
discipline imposed by checks. On the wall are fabric pictures made by both boys
and girls. (By kind permission of The Times Publishing Company and Redhill CP.
Junior School).
What Happens
in School
BY
VIOLET GORDON
PERGAMON PRESS
OXFORD · LONDON · EDINBURGH · NEW YORK
PARIS · FRANKFURT
Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford
4 & 5 Fitzroy Square, London W.l
Pergamon Press (Scotland) Ltd., 2 & 3 Teviot Place, Edinburgh 1
Pergamon Press Inc., 44-01 21st Street, Long Island City, New York 11101
Pergamon Press GmbH, Kaiserstrasse 75, Frankfurt-am-Main
Pergamon Press S.A.R.L., 24 rue des Écoles, Paris 5 e
Copyright © 1965 Pergamon Press Ltd.
First edition 1965
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 65-26882
Set in 10 on 12 pt. Plantin, and printed in Great Britain by
Dawson & Goodall Ltd., Bath
This book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent,
resold, hired out, or otherwise disposed
of without the publisher's consent,
in any form of binding or cover
other than that in which
it is published.
2462/65
Editorial Introduction
THE Pergamon Guide Series was introduced in order to provide, in
a lucid and comprehensible form, information about various aspects
of the educational system and other related problems. In an
increasingly education-conscious community it is of paramount
importance that every citizen should know much more about our
schools and how they work, so that the gap which has often existed
between teachers and parents should be closed. As Dr. Michael
Young put it in a recent address to the British Association, "parents
need to be told more about what is going on in school, its organization,
its curriculum and techniques, the kinds of further education and
the kinds of job their children can go on to".
Each book in the Pergamon Guide Series will be designed to meet
this very real need, but What Happens in School has a particular
bearing on the problem. The author brings to the subject a lifetime
of creative service in the cause of education and the essential
humanity of her broad and catholic approach to the schools is
nowhere more apparent than in What Happens in School, which
contains a distillation of knowledge accumulated over the years. She
has witnessed, with growing pleasure, the rapid developments which
have been taking place in every branch of our educational system in
recent years, and her book describes the most up-to-date features of
our schools of all kinds, from the nursery school to the special school.
This book is not intended to plead a cause or to advance any new
theory of education, but rather to tell its own story of what really
goes on in the schools and to explain, with an extraordinary sensi-
tivity, the curriculum which is thought to be appropriate at each
stage. The result is a pen picture of school life which is typical and
representative rather than the rule, and it should be an invaluable
vii
guide for those (and particularly parents and students in training
colleges and universities) who are seeking a practitioner's commen-
tary on what the schools are trying to achieve.
ROBERT MAXWELL
F. H. PEDLEY
Editors
viii
Foreword
To attempt to describe school procedure in England and the
philosophies which support it is an undertaking demanding exhaus-
tive research and reappraisal of facts at this period of change and
experiment. I have tried to write this book with the parent, the
student and the interested observer in mind, giving an account of
educational practice without overcrowding the text with references
and detail. Facts and figures can be obtained from publications of
the Department of Education and Science and from the many reports
on educational problems which have appeared recently, as well as
from books published in this series ;* I believe, however, that parents
and others are genuinely concerned to know about what happens in
schools, the kind of life children lead in the classroom and the aims
of the teachers.
Parents gain most of their knowledge about school from their
children but sometimes forget that a child can only see things from
his immature standpoint and is certainly unaware of the policies
shaping the trends which influence his physical and mental growth.
A pupil's view of his school and his teachers deserves respect and
indeed it is necessary to achieve an educational environment which
is acceptable to him, but there are always situations and occasions
when his version of a happening is biased or misjudged.
Parents differ widely in their relationships to their own children
and to the schools which educate them. Many are eager that their
*In particular the informative books A Parent's Guide to Examinations and
The Educational System by F. H. Pedley, have made it unnecessary for me
to reiterate what he explains so well in these volumes.
1
A
2 WHAT HAPPENS IN SCHOOL
families should do well and co-operate in every way with the teachers,
others are only vaguely interested, rarely attend school functions
but on the whole subscribe to what goes on, a few are indifferent
and sometimes hostile to much for which the school stands.
Antagonism between school and home has the worst possible influence
on the growing young person. Seemingly trivial things affect a
child's progress; he may be encouraged because his parents come
to school and see his work on open day, or he may be deeply
humiliated that he is the only child in the class who has no visitor.
If standards and values are similar in school and home there is no
need for children or adolescents to adjust themselves continually to
irreconcilable conditions — an effort quite beyond their stage of
development. Many parents, however, especially if both work, have
only limited opportunities to learn about what goes on in school.
I hope therefore that the information supplied in this book and the
ideas put forward for consideration will throw light on educational
theory and practice and will stimulate interest in what is the most
vital service to the community.
If this service is to gain strength and recruit the resources necessary
for its expansion at a time when wisdom and knowledge alone will
bring order to the growing incoherence of world affairs, it must rely
not only on professional educationists and the research of specialists,
but on the informed criticism of all thinking adults, adults who are
interested in the progress of their own children and who understand
the full implications of local and national arrangements for the school
population as a whole. Everyone is involved at each stage in life
in the impact and influence of the educational services. All material,
scientific, artistic and spiritual development ultimately is dependent
on the quality and vision of those who teach and the response and
resilience of those who learn.
It is impossible within the scope of this book to describe every
facet of English education. Schools vary in their circumstances, in
their particular characteristics, in the quality of experiences they
provoke, and often in day-to-day practice, but the information I
have given will I trust be useful to the majority of my readers.
The education service itself is interesting to study. The problems
FOREWORD 3
it is now bringing into prominence (problems concerning learning
processes, aspects of discipline, content of curricula, balance of
subjects and above all the relation of school life to the materialistic
world voluble with propoganda) are worthy subjects for research and
discussion. Only the solution of these problems is likely to provide
a basis for harmonious living and the balanced intellectual, emotional,
artistic and spiritual development we so desire for our children. I ask
the reader therefore to tolerate the intrusion of opinion and the
occasional expression of doubt in some of our traditional educational
beliefs in the hope that in the consideration of what may be con-
troversial, interest will be aroused in the significance of what happens
in school as well as in the normal day-to-day procedure.
In conclusion I wish to express my gratitude to the following
people for their help — to Miss Helen Waddell for permission to
quote from the translations of Mediaeval Latin Lyrics and her
publishers Messrs. Constable & Co. of London, to Mr. Ε. T.
Butcher, Headmaster of Colne Valley Comprehensive School, Mr.
D. Cox, Headmaster of Ilkeston Grammar School, Derbyshire and
Miss J. Knight, Principal Lecturer on Education at Ripon Training
College, for samples of timetables and factual material. For per-
mission to reproduce photographs and help in obtaining them, I am
glad to express my appreciation to Sir Alec Clegg, Education Officer
to the West Riding County Council, Miss J. Imrie and Miss I. R.
Milne, West Riding County Inspectors, to Mr. B. Davies, Head-
master and Mr. Rhys-Vivian, Rural Studies Master of Aireville
Secondary School, Skipton, to Mr. E. W. Hobson, Headmaster of
Meltham C.E. County Primary School, to Miss E. Jewitt, Head-
mistress of Grantley CP. School near Ripon, to Mr. J. Muschamp,
Headmaster and Mr. Hacker, Chemistry master of Calder High
School, Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire and to Miss M. Walker formerly
Headmistress of Redhill CP. School, Castleford. Sir Lionel
Russell, Education Officer for Birmingham has kindly allowed me
to reproduce a photograph from Longwill School for the Deaf,
Birmingham; Headmaster Mr. H. Sharrock, and the School
Management Committee of Carlson House School for Spastics,
Harborne, Headmistress Miss E. Marlow, have supplied two
4 WHAT HAPPENS IN SCHOOL
illustrations; Miss G. M. Wyllie, Special Schools' Inspector for
Birmingham, was good enough to arrange for their collection. The
photograph of the outside of the primary school is reproduced by
permission of Oxfordshire Education Committee.
VIOLET E. C. GORDON
Harrogate
January, 1965
CHAPTER 1
First Considerations
EDUCATION is primarily concerned with experiences. For centuries
before the introduction of compulsory schooling men had been
learning from each other and older generations had been concerned
to pass on their knowledge to those succeeding them. In fact
nations only survive and grow in as far as they are willing and able
to do this. When the right kind of interest in the young flags, the
individual regional and national characteristics begin to deteriorate
and the cohesion between youth and age which is necessary for the
preservation and growth of culture disappears. It is imperative for
the older members of a community to have faith in the younger
generation and to be willing to sacrifice for them. They must teach
them what they know and have vision in relating past experience to
what lies ahead. The good teacher learns to shape and translate
the past and present in terms of the future needs of his pupils and
because of this, movement and progress is the essence of education.
Nothing stands still. New aspects of learning spring from old
traditions and future needs are probed and ultimately served by
the educational experiments which keep our schools alive and
vigorous.
No one questions the need for schooling nowadays. It is an
essential prelude to adult life and indeed to existence itself. New
nations are finding that their development in all spheres, depends
upon the quality of their educational services. To begin with,
education sets a child in the way of protecting himself in a vast and
complicated society from which he cannot escape. He learns
gradually to know his own powers and later to relate himself as an
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