The Organization of the Educational Program

Abstract

THE position taken here is that elementary education is synonymous with schooling for early and middle childhood and that elementary schools are the service units thru which schooling is provided children during early and middle childhood. Altho the separate parts of elementary education (nursery school, kindergarten, and elementary grades) had different origins, educational theory has now accepted the importance of unity and continuity in educational services for children. The desired amount of unity and continuity can never be achieved as long as we continue to talk and think and write about nursery schools as such, kindergartens as such, and elementary schools as such. The extent to which the separateness of these parts still exists in thought and practice is evidenced by the complete absence of researches in which a unified approach has been made in teacher personnel, curriculum offering, pupil personnel, school facilities, school organization, or supervision for the twoto seven-year-age group. Research on administrative and organizational problems simply has not touched the supposedly unified schooling for early childhood. The organization of the conventional elementary school continues to be in flux. Its shifting character is influenced by changes in educational theory (which have been described in preceding chapters), increasing enrolments, population shifts, school district reorganization, and changes in the internal organization for administration and supervision within school systems. The number of pupils enrolled in kindergarten and Grades I to VIII, inclusiye, was 18,832,098 in 1940 (36) and is expected to reach a peak of 26,594,000 by 1957 (35). In 1790 the population of the United States was 94.9 percent rural, but by 1950 only 36.3 percent of the people lived in areas classified as rural. Between 1940 and 1950 there was an actual decrease in the rural population from 57,245,573 to 54,669,361, while the total U. S. population increased from 131,669,275 to 150,697,361. These changes in population are causing important changes in the organization of elementary schools in rural areas and are creating organizational, housing, and class-size problems in urban schools.