ABSTRACT

In studying the developing curriculum of the Laboratory School, two periods may be recognized. The practices of the first period (1896 to 1898) were largely experimental and guided by the theoretical premises of its hypothesis, native insight as to the nature of children, practical acquaintance with certain fields of subject-matter, and first-hand experience in the use of scientific method. Those of the second period (1898 to 1903) grew out of or were revised on the basis of the courses and methods that had proved successful in the first. Aims, plans, and methods were, accordingly, reconsidered, at its close, and on the basis of its suecesses and particularly of its failures; many revisions were made in the school's curriculum, its organization, and administration. The practical experience of the School so far had demonstrated that there were certain stages in child growth. These were never sharply defined, but merged into and overlapped one another.