12/6/22

Tells it like it was then and in many cases still is!

An excerpt that shows she does not mince words!
"The situation would be very much the same if we should place a teacher who, according to our conception of the term, is scientifically prepared, in one of the public schools where the children are repressed in the spontaneous expression of their personality till they are almost like dead beings. In such a school the children, like butterflies mounted on pins, are fastened each to his place, the desk, spreading the useless wings of barren and meaningless knowledge which they have acquired. It is not enough, then, to prepare in our Masters the scientific spirit. We must also make ready the school for their observation. The school must permit the free, natural manifestations of the child if in the school scientific pedagogy is to be born. This is the essential reform." ( )

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Originally written about 1900, this first English translation was 1912. This edition was printed in 1971, and belonged to Sergio, the first principal of the Salem Alternative Elementary School. (dh 4/2018)