The Junior High School: Description of the Local Situation in Hannibal, Missouri

Abstract

Among the most important reasons leading the school authorities of Hannibal to adopt the junior high-school idea may be mentioned: (i) a strong local recognition of the fact that many of the pupils were not getting the kind of training in the higher elementary grades that they most needed; (2) the failure of the work in these grades to make an appeal to the pupils who came from homes where they were not supported by a strong educational tradition and sentiment; (3) the difficulty experienced by students in accomplishing the work of the first high-school year; and (4) the belief that the majority of pupils found in Grades VII, VIII, and IX when taken collectively constitute a natural psychological unit requiring treatment essentially different from that above or below these limits. Based on these considerations action was taken establishing two junior high schools in September, 1915; and in one other school the work of Grades VII and VIII was departmentalized and was given some of the characteristics of junior high schools. At a later date it is expected to make this school the third junior high school in the city system. In this connection it should be said that the changes in our system have been gradual rather than abrupt; and some of the features of junior high-school life, as usually recognized, were found in our schools before September, 1915. All schools containing seventh and eighth grades had been equipped for laboratory and shop work in manual training in wood and in household arts, and all pupils in the grades named were receiving regular training in those forms of educational activity. The instruction in these subjects was departmentalized; and some progress had been made in departmentalization in other work. In one of the three schools now under discussion the departmental plan of teaching had been 652