Proposed Educational School

It is proposed to expand the present department of education into a school of education as soon as the necessary funds can be secured. The plan in its general features has received the approval of President Eliot. This school, which is designed to carry on more adequately the present two-fold aim of the department, namely, the study of educational and the training of teachers, principals and superintendents, would like the College, the Scientific School and the Graduate School, be under the immediate charge of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In addition to the present work of the department, supervisors of the fine arts, physical training, music and drawing, and in Radcliffe, of the kindergarten and domestic arts, would receive instruction, for which there is now no provision. Three meetings in the interest of the plan have already been held in Boston and the vicinity at which much interest and general approval were manifested. A school of this kind which could instruct college men in the meaning of education as an important function of society on a much more comprehensive scale than is at present possible, is expected to be a very powerful influence throughout the country.

For the scheme in its entirety Professor Hanus estimates that an endowment of about $2,000,000, which would yield an annual income of about $80,000, is necessary in order to carry on the work of administration and instruction. With this sum, professorships of the teaching of history, mathematics, languages, etc., as well as course for the training of supervisors of fine arts, physical training etc., could be established. Of course a beginning could be made toward the realization of the plan its a much smaller sums were available, so that addition may gradually be made.

In addition in the endowment for instruction a sum of $500, 000 will be needed in order to build an administrative building and to control two other school buildings, one of them a "model" school and the other a "neighborhood" School. The administrative building would contain besides the general offices of the department a library, a museum, an assembly hall, lecture rooms and laboratories. The "model" school, comprising all the grades from the kindergarten through the high school, would be both in the arrangement of the building and in teaching force, programme of studies and equipment a model for other schools. The "neighborhood" school, in addition to being an ordinary school, would be used as a general meeting place where the parents of the children could assemble for recreation and instruction.