Recording by United States Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath

RECORDING * The overcrowding of classrooms undermines good teaching practices. The greatest advances in education in the past 25 years have stemmed from our recognition that children are people--that they vary widely in all kinds of ways, intellectual and emotional, in social background and develop- ment, and in their desire to learn. Educators, recognizing these basic differences, have tried to individualize teaching to give attention to each child as a person. Hence the efficient teacher observes and analyzes each child's abilities, interests, and limitations, and adjusts classroom pro- cedures to make possible the maximum growth of each child's mind and personality. Moreover, the concept that each individual child is important in a democratic society sets the atmosphere and procedures of the classroom so as to develop traits of character and personality essential to life in a healthy democratic society. Children need to learn how to live and work together. To give attention to individual students and to create a democratic atmosphere in the classroom the teacher must have relatively few pupils, preferably not over 25. When there are 40, 50, or more the job of merely keeping order becomes the main responsibility of teachers Some regimentation is then inevitable. Individual attention becomes nearly impossible, personality problems go unattended, and learning must necessarily become a question- and-answer process instead of a stimulating intellectual give-and-take. Over- crowding the classrooms of the Nation will set us back years in providing for the maximum growth of each child's individual abilities, and it will retard the development of democratic techniques important in preparing children for a full life in a free society. * By Earl James McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Educa ion, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C., at 4:30 pm, Monday, December 1, 1952, to be used on the NBC Morgan Beatty program.