LBic BOARD OF EDUCATION OF BALTIMORE COUNTY, MARYLAND Samuel M. Shoemaker, President Edwin R. Stringer, Vice-President Albert A. Blakeney, Ilchester John Arthur, Fork John H. Gross, Rossville James P. Jordan, White Hall Albert S. Cook, Superintendent 389118 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY WARWICK & YORK, INC. HERSHEY PRESS, HERSHEY, PA. PREFACE TO 1915 EDITION This Outline of Study is published by order of the Board of School Commissioners of Baltimore County, and in accordance with the By-Laws of the State Board of Education. It shows more or less in detail the subject matter by topics to be covered in each of the eight elementary grades, as well as the text-books, supplementary books and teachers' desk and reference books to be used; it also indicates aims and to a certain extent suggests methods of teaching. The Course of Study published in 1908 has been carefully revised and reconstructed by committees of teachers representing the various grades. All the suburban schools and teachers were not only invited to send in suggestions and criticisms of the 1908 Course of Study to these committees, but they were repeatedly requested to do so, until a reply was received. These suggestions were worked over by the committees of teachers working with the grade supervisors. Great care was taken to secure unity from grade to grade; to futher secure this end, outside specialists in various subjects were asked to criticise the subject matter as a whole in their special fields. The present Course of Study may, therefore, be characterized as the crystallized present judgment of large groups of specialists in grade teaching and of specialists in grade supervision, together with the judgment and helpful criticism of subject specialists not connected directly with our schools, on the organization of subject matter in their special fields. As such, it affords a new point of departure in our elementary school work. It represents our best experience and our present ideals and practice. Growth is expected to go on again from the moment it is put Into use, and consequent modifications will be made in group meetings, as heretofore. It is intended to be no more static than any previous course. The Course of Study will be especially helpful as aʼguide to new teachers entering the corps, and, I trust, will prove an inspiration for further achievement to teachers and supervisors now in the corps who have so generously contributed their time and thought to its organization. The new form, also; will no doubt make it more usable and more attractive in appearance. Although this Course of Study is prepared mainly for the suburban schools, it will also prove a valuable aid to the rural schools, 99011 after certain eliminations and additions are worked out in the rural school groups with the supervisor during the Institute and in group meetings. Towson, Maryland, ALBERT S. COOK, PREFACE TO THE 1919 EDITION The new Course of Study for Baltimore County Public Schools, of which this is a reprint, was published in September, 1915. The edition was intended to cover the County's requirements for approximately ten years. As soon as the work appeared, however, its superior merits were recognized and advertised by leading educators throughout the country. As a result of this unexpected publicity, requests for single copies of the work and unsolicited orders for sufficient quantities to provide all the teachers in other systems, practically exhausted the edition in less than two years. Seeing the necessity of making preparations for a reprinting of the Course for the County's own requirements, the School Board somewhat reluctantly consented to have the work reset and offered as a number in W-and-Y Course of Study Series. In the main the text is the same as that printed in 1915, although the form has been changed through a 'somewhat general elimination of the tabular method of presentation. The opportunity to revise parts of the text in accordance with the further development of the Course in the schools of Baltimore County was at the same time embraced. H. E. B. January, 1919. |