What the Schools Teach and Might Teach - John Franklin Bobbitt

            Sohrab  and Rustum   3

            Midsummer   Night's Dream    6

            Ivanhoe  11



    Second  Year

            Autobiography   of  Franklin     7

            Idylls  of  the King     10

            Treasure    Island   7

            Sketch  Book     7

            Vision  of  Sir Launfal  3



    Third   Year

            Silas   Marner   7

            Iliad   (Bryant's—4 books)   5

            Washington's    Farewell    Address  5

            First   Bunker  Hill    Oration  6

            Emerson's   Compensation     5

            Roosevelt   Book     6



    Fourth  Year

            Markham's   The Man with    the Hoe  2

            Tale    of  Two Cities   10

            Public  Duty    of  the Educated    Man  4

            Macbeth  11

            Self-Reliance    6

When a short play of a hundred pages like Macbeth requires nearly three months
for reading, when almost two months are given to Treasure Island and nearly
three months to Ivanhoe, clearly it is something other than reading that is being
attempted. It is perfectly obvious that the high schools are attending principally
to the mechanics of expression and not to the content of the expression. The
relative emphasis should be reversed.

The amount of reading in the high schools should be greatly increased. Those
who object that rapid work is superficial believe that work must be slow to be
thorough. It should be remembered, however, that slow work is often superficial
and that rapid work is often excellent. In fact the world's best workers are
generally rapid, accurate, and thorough. Ask any business man of wide
experience. Now leaving aside pupils who are slow by nature, it can be affirmed