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Views of the Child

Elementary education has become a conglomeration of practices as divergent beliefs, financial pressures, new procedures, and novel materials have combined to change a number of aspects of schooling in the United States. Since too often the changes have taken place in bits and pieces, the school program has been scarred by internal inconsistencies and has become increasingly vulnerable to attacks by liberals and conservatives alike. Any real understanding of the positions advocating and opposing various changes in school practice must be based on our awareness of the many viewpoints about what constitutes a "good" education. Many of these conflicting vewpoints center on the body of beliefs held by Americans about the nature of man. Though not generally verbalized, intuitive and implicit feelings and beliefs have been the underlying forces pressuring both for and against virtually all forms of change. Since these polarizing forces mainly have been unrecognized by the decision-makers on the firing line, relevant discussion of the issues heretofore has rarely been possible. An effective way better to understand the varied practices found in the elementary school, then, is to look at certain major beliefs concerning the nature of man. There is a number of these conflieting beliefs which have had adherents from one pole to the other in a sort of continuum. The major ones discussed here are the following: