MUSIC

In the elementary schools Cleveland is giving considerably more than the average amount of time to music.  In the high schools, except for a one-hour optional course in the High School of Commerce, the subject is developed only incidentally and given no credit.  It is entirely pertinent to inquire why music should be so important for the grammar school age and then lose all of this importance as soon as the high school is reached.

  Table 14.—­Time given to music
  ======+=======================+=================
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        | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time
  Grade +-----------+-----------+-----------+------------
        | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities
  ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----
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    1 | 47 | 45 | 6.5 | 5.2
    2 | 54 | 48 | 6.1 | 5.3
    3 | 54 | 47 | 6.1 | 5.1
    4 | 54 | 48 | 6.1 | 4.9
    5 | 51 | 45 | 5.7 | 4.7
    6 | 51 | 45 | 5.7 | 4.6
    7 | 51 | 45 | 5.7 | 4.4
    8 | 51 | 44 | 5.7 | 4.4
  ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----
-------
  Total | 413 | 367 | 6.0 | 4.8
  ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----
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The probability is either that it is over-valued for the elementary school and should receive diminished time; or it is under-valued for the high school and should be given the dignity and the consideration of a credit course, as it is in many progressive high schools.  It cannot be urged that the subject is finished in the elementary schools.  Pupils in fact receive only an introductory training in vocal music.  The whole field of instrumental music remains untouched.  It seems the city ought to consider the question of whether the course ought not to be much expanded and continued throughout the high school period as an elective subject.  However, in considering the question it should be kept in mind that there are very many things of more importance and of far more pressing immediate necessity.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

German has long been taught in the elementary schools.  Until less than 10 years ago it was taught in all grades beginning with the first.  More recently it has been confined to the four upper grades.  Beginning with the present year, it is taught only in the seventh and eighth grades.  The situation is so well presented in the report of the Educational Commission of 1906 that further discussion here is unnecessary.  They summarize their discussion of the teaching of German in the elementary schools as follows: 

“Such teaching originated in a nationalistic feeling and demand on the part of German immigrants, and not in any educational or pedagogical necessity.