The Split-Unit Program in High Schools

Abstract

The term is used in this paper to designate a subject of study which is pursued for fewer than five class periods a week throughout a school year. One form of the split-unit already is quite familiar and conventional. For example, botany, physiology, trigonometry, solid geometry, and astronomy fre quently have been allotted only a half year instead of a year in the program of studies. Courses in these subjects have been known as half-unit courses. The ready acceptance which such courses have received seems to be due to the opinion that certain subjects have a content of information which may be imparted to a student in a half year. When this information is mastered, the subject is said to be finished. Doubtless most of us in the archives of our memory have records of achievement in the domain of knowledge. At times we thrill with pride when some chance event unlocks the treasure house and gives us a view of the past. These pleasures of memory seem to be the sole reward and perhaps also the justification of much of our effort. Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit. The limits set for this paper do not permit a discussion of the value of finished subjects. Such a discussion would involve consideration of the whole question of functional education. In this respect, then, the split-unit program merely raises a funda mental issue which cannot be settled at this time. Of more immediate concern is the necessity of reaching an understanding with regard to the time allotment of the various subjects in the high-school program of studies. If pupils had unlimited class periods to dispose of, it might be well to require that they devote to each major subject five periods a week throughout the year. It would then be necessary to decide which subjects are major and which are minor. Is physical education a major subject or a minor subject? Is citizenship a major subject or a minor subject? Shall Latin have as much time in