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Excel for Statistics

Thomas J. Quirk

Excel 2019
for Educational
and Psychological
Statistics
A Guide to Solving Practical Problems
Second Edition
Excel for Statistics

Excel for Statistics is a series of textbooks that explain how to use Excel to solve
statistics problems in various fields of study. Professors, students, and practitioners will
find these books teach how to make Excel work best in their respective fields.
Applications include any disciplines that use data and can benefit from the power and
simplicity of Excel. Books cover all the steps for running statistical analyses in Excel
2019, Excel 2016 and Excel 2013. The approach also teaches critical statistics skills,
making the books particularly applicable for statistics courses taught outside of
mathematics or statistics departments.

Series editor: Thomas J. Quirk

The following books are in this series:

T.J. Quirk, E. Rhiney, Excel 2019 for Advertising Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems,
Excel for Statistics, Second Edition. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2020.
T.J. Quirk, E. Rhiney, Excel 2019 for Marketing Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems,
Excel for Statistics, Second Edition. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2020.
T.J. Quirk, M. Quirk, H.F. Horton, Excel 2019 for Biological and Life Sciences Statistics: A Guide
to Solving Practical Problems, Excel for Statistics, Second Edition. Springer International Pub-
lishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2020.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2019 for Business Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems, Excel for
Statistics, Second Edition. Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2020.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2019 for Engineering Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems, Excel for
Statistics, Second Edition. Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2020.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2019 for Educational and Psychological Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical
Problems, Excel for Statistics, Second Edition. Springer International Publishing AG, part of
Springer Nature 2020.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2019 for Social Science Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems, Excel
for Statistics, Second Edition. Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2020.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2016 Applied Statistics for High School Students: A Guide to Solving Practical
Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer international Publishing Switzerland 2018.
T.J. Quirk, E. Rhiney, Excel 2016 for Advertising Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems,
Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017.
T.J. Quirk, S. Cummings, Excel 2016 for Social Work Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical
Problems. Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017.
T.J. Quirk, E. Rhiney, Excel 2016 for Marketing Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems,
Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2016 for Business Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems, Excel for
Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk. Excel 2016 for Engineering Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems, Excel for
Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, M. Quirk, H.F. Horton, Excel 2016 for Biological and Life Sciences Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk. Excel 2016 for Educational and Psychological Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical
Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2016 for Social Science Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems, Excel
for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, M. Quirk, H. Horton, Excel 2016 for Physical Sciences Statistics: A Guide to Solving
Practical Problems. Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, S. Cummings, Excel 2016 for Health Services Management Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems. Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing
Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, J. Palmer-Schuyler, Excel 2016 for Human Resource Management Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, M. Quirk, H.F. Horton. Excel 2016 for Environmental Sciences Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, M. Quirk, H.F. Horton. Excel 2013 for Physical Sciences Statistics: A Guide to Solving
Practical Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, S. Cummings, Excel 2013 for Health Services Management Statistics: A Guide to Solving
Practical Problems. Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, J. Palmer-Schuyler, Excel 2013 for Human Resource Management Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2013 for Business Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems, Excel for
Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
T.J. Quirk. Excel 2013 for Engineering Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems, Excel for
Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
T.J. Quirk, M. Quirk, H.F. Horton, Excel 2013 for Biological and Life Sciences Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
T.J. Quirk. Excel 2013 for Educational and Psychological Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical
Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2013 for Social Science Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems, Excel
for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
T.J. Quirk, M. Quirk, H.F. Horton, Excel 2013 for Environmental Sciences Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
T.J. Quirk, M. Quirk, H.F. Horton, Excel 2010 for Environmental Sciences Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
T.J. Quirk, J. Palmer-Schuyler, Excel 2010 for Human Resource Management Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems, Excel for Statistics. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.
Additional Statistics books by Dr. Thomas J. Quirk that have been published by Springer
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2010 for Business Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems. Springer
Science+Business Media 2011.
T.J. Quirk. Excel 2010 for Engineering Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems. Springer
International Publishing Switzerland 2014.
T.J. Quirk, S. Cummings, Excel 2010 for Health Services Management Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.
T.J. Quirk, M. Quirk, H. Horton, Excel 2010 for Physical Sciences Statistics: A Guide to Solving
Practical Problems. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013.
T.J. Quirk, M. Quirk, H.F. Horton, Excel 2010 for Biological and Life Sciences Statistics: A Guide
to Solving Practical Problems. Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2010 for Social Science Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems.
Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2010 for Educational and Psychological Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical
Problems. Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2007 for Business Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems. Springer
Science+Business Media New York 2012.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2007 for Educational and Psychological Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical
Problems. Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2007 for Social Science Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems.
Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012.
T.J. Quirk, Excel 2007 for Biological and Life Sciences Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical
Problems. Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13491

Thomas J. Quirk

Excel 2019 for Educational

and Psychological Statistics
A Guide to Solving Practical Problems

Second Edition
Thomas J. Quirk
Professor of Marketing
Webster University
St. Louis, MO, USA

ISSN 2570-4605 ISSN 2570-4613 (electronic)

Excel for Statistics
ISBN 978-3-030-39263-5 ISBN 978-3-030-39264-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39264-2

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2016, 2020

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the
material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book is dedicated to more than 3000
students I have taught at Webster University
campuses in St. Louis, London, and Vienna;
the students at Principia College in Elsah,
Illinois; and the students at the Cooperative
State University of Baden-Wuerttemberg in
Heidenheim, Germany. These students taught
me a great deal about the art of teaching.
I salute them all, and I thank them for helping
me to become a better teacher.

Thomas J. Quirk
Preface

Excel 2019 for Educational and Psychological Statistics: A Guide to Solving

Practical Problems updates the Excel steps and screenshots from the previously
published Excel 2016 for Educational and Psychological Statistics: A Guide to
Solving Practical Problems, and it contains a number of important changes. The
explanations of statistics and statistical formulas have been made clearer. The Excel
steps now match perfectly the Excel 2019 version. Thirty percent of the end-of-
chapter problems, and their answers in an Appendix, are new to this book. Thirty
percent of the 160+ screenshots are new so that they match the new Excel commands
to ensure that you are using Excel correctly each step of the way.
The eight chapters in the book (Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of
the Mean; Random Sampling; Confidence Interval about the Mean; One-Group
t-test; Two Group t-test; Correlation and Linear Regression; Multiple Correlation;
and One-Way Analysis of Variance) have been rewritten to improve their explana-
tion of statistics. The answers to all of the problems in the book are provided, and
there is a Practice Test so that you can test your ability to solve statistics problems
using Excel. This book is an introduction to statistics, not a full-blown explanation of
statistics.
A word of caution: This book does not attempt to teach you all of the “bells and
whistles” of Excel 2019. We have left that objective to other books. Instead, this
book will teach you the Excel steps you need to solve the interesting problems in the
book. You should think of Excel as merely the “computer language” needed to solve
statistics problems. In a sense, this approach is similar to the one you would need if
you planned to spend a year living in Europe in Vienna, Austria, where you needed
to learn some basic German (e.g., “How much does this cost?” “Where is the train
station?” “Please give me the bill for my dinner” “How can I get to the airport?”) but
you do not need to become fluent in that language to survive. This book focuses on
the Excel steps needed to solve the problems in the book. The task of showing you
how to use the many powers of Excel are beyond the scope of this book.
This book was written by a Professor who wanted to respond to the complaints of
many students about their inability to understand their statistics textbook and about

ix
x Preface

their inability to understand their professor’s explanation of theoretical statistics.

This book is self-instructional and does not depend on a professor’s explanation of
statistics. This book will teach you the general concepts of statistics without burying
you in dull statistical theory. You will learn why you are performing the Excel steps
through the objectives included in the chapters. The statistical concepts and practice
problems get progressively more sophisticated as they build on what you have
already learned from studying this book. This book is understandable by both
undergraduate and graduate students who are taking their first course in statistics,
by researchers, and by working professionals who want to solve interesting problems
in their chosen field of study.
This book was written by a Professor who is, first and foremost, committed to
helping you to understand how to use statistics to solve interesting problems in your
chosen field of study. The ideas in this book have been classroom tested over the past
11 years in both undergraduate and graduate courses at Webster University, a liberal
arts college located in St. Louis, Missouri, in the middle of the USA. This book is
part of a series of more than 30 introductory statistics textbooks, in 12 fields of study,
that have been published by Springer by Prof. Quirk, which have helped thousands
of students, researchers, and working professionals learn how to use Excel to solve
interesting statistics problems. These fields of study include: (1) Business, (2) Edu-
cation/Psychology, (3) Social Science, (4) Biological and Life Sciences, (5) Physical
Sciences, (6) Engineering, (7) Health Services Management, (8) Human Resource
Management, (9) Environmental Sciences, (10) Marketing, (11) Social Work, and
(12) Advertising.

Prof. Thomas J. Quirk is Professor Emeritus of Marketing at The Walker School of

Business and Technology at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri (US), where
he taught Marketing Statistics, Marketing Research, and Pricing Strategies. At the
beginning of his academic career, Prof. Quirk spent 6 years in educational research at
The American Institutes for Research and Educational Testing Service. Prof. Quirk
has published more than 20 articles in professional journals including The Journal of
Educational Psychology, Journal of Educational Research, Review of Educational
Research, Journal of Educational Measurement, and Educational Technology,
published more than 60 textbook supplements in Management and Marketing, and
presented more than 20 papers at professional meetings, including annual meetings
of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological
Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education. Prof. Quirk
holds a BS in Mathematics from John Carroll University, both an MA in Education
and a PhD in Educational Psychology from Stanford University, and an MBA from
the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

St. Louis, MO, USA Thomas J. Quirk

Acknowledgements

Excel 2019 for Educational and Psychological Statistics: A Guide to Solving

Practical Problems is the result of inspiration from three important people: my
two daughters and my wife. Jennifer Quirk McLaughlin invited me to visit her
MBA classes several times at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg,
South Africa. These visits to a first-rate MBA program convinced me that there was a
need for a book to teach students how to solve practical problems using Excel.
Meghan Quirk-Horton’s dogged dedication to learning the many statistical tech-
niques needed to complete her PhD dissertation illustrated the need for a statistics
book that would make this daunting task more user-friendly. And Lynne Buckley-
Quirk was the number-one cheerleader for this project from the beginning, always
encouraging me and helping me remain dedicated to completing it.

xi
Contents

1 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard

Error of the Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Standard Deviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Standard Error of the Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard
Error of the Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4.1 Using the Fill/Series/Columns Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4.2 Changing the Width of a Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4.3 Centering Information in a Range of Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.4 Naming a Range of Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.4.5 Finding the Sample Size Using the ¼COUNT
Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4.6 Finding the Mean Score Using the ¼AVERAGE
Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4.7 Finding the Standard Deviation Using the ¼STDEV
Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4.8 Finding the Standard Error of the Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.5 Saving a Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.6 Printing a Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.7 Formatting Numbers in Currency Format
(Two Decimal Places) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.8 Formatting Numbers in Number Format
(Three Decimal Places) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.9 End-of-Chapter Practice Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2 Random Number Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1 Creating Frame Numbers for Generating Random Numbers . . . . . . 23
2.2 Creating Random Numbers in an Excel Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

xiii
xiv Contents

2.3 Sorting Frame Numbers into a Random Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.4 Printing an Excel File So That All of the Information
Fits onto One Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.5 End-of-Chapter Practice Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3 Confidence Interval About the Mean Using the TINV
Function and Hypothesis Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1 Confidence Interval About the Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1.1 How to Estimate the Population Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1.2 Estimating the Lower Limit and the Upper Limit
of the 95% Confidence Interval About the Mean . . . . . . . . 40
3.1.3 Estimating the Confidence Interval for the Chevy
Impala in Miles Per Gallon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.1.4 Where Did the Number “1.96” Come From? . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.1.5 Finding the Value for t in the Confidence
Interval Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.1.6 Using Excel’s TINV Function to Find the
Confidence Interval About the Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.1.7 Using Excel to Find the 95% Confidence
Interval for a Car’s mpg Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2 Hypothesis Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.2.1 Hypotheses Always Refer to the Population
of People or Events That You Are Studying . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2.2 The Null Hypothesis and the Research (Alternative)
Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.2.3 The Seven Steps for Hypothesis-Testing Using the
Confidence Interval About the Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.3 Alternative Ways to Summarize the Result
of a Hypothesis Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.3.1 Different Ways to Accept the Null Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.3.2 Different Ways to Reject the Null Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.4 End-of-Chapter Practice Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4 One-Group t-Test for the Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.1 The Seven STEPS for Hypothesis-Testing Using
the One-Group t-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.1.1 STEP 1: State the Null Hypothesis
and the Research Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.1.2 STEP 2: Select the Appropriate Statistical Test . . . . . . . . . 70
4.1.3 STEP 3: Decide on a Decision Rule for the
One-Group t-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.1.4 STEP 4: Calculate the Formula for the
One-Group t-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.1.5 STEP 5: Find the Critical Value of t in the t-Table
in Appendix E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Contents xv

4.1.6 STEP 6: State the Result of Your Statistical Test . . . . . . . . 73

4.1.7 STEP 7: State the Conclusion of Your Statistical
Test in Plain English! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.2 One-Group t-Test for the Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.3 Can You Use Either the 95% Confidence Interval About
the Mean OR the One-Group t-Test When Testing
Hypotheses? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.4 End-of-Chapter Practice Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5 Two-Group t-Test of the Difference of the Means
for Independent Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.1 The Nine STEPS for Hypothesis-Testing Using
the Two-Group t-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.1.1 STEP 1: Name One Group, Group 1, and the
Other Group, Group 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.1.2 STEP 2: Create a Table That Summarizes
the Sample Size, Mean Score, and Standard Deviation
of Each Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.1.3 STEP 3: State the Null Hypothesis and the Research
Hypothesis for the Two-Group t-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.1.4 STEP 4: Select the Appropriate Statistical Test . . . . . . . . . 90
5.1.5 STEP 5: Decide on a Decision Rule for the
Two-Group t-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.1.6 STEP 6: Calculate the Formula for the
Two-Group t-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.1.7 STEP 7: Find the Critical Value of t in the t-Table
in Appendix E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.1.8 STEP 8: State the Result of Your Statistical Test . . . . . . . . 92
5.1.9 STEP 9: State the Conclusion of Your Statistical
Test in Plain English! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.2 Formula #1: Both Groups Have More Than 30 People
in Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.2.1 An Example of Formula #1 for the Two-Group
t-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.3 Formula #2: One or Both Groups Have Less Than 30
People in Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.4 End-of-Chapter Practice Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6 Correlation and Simple Linear Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.1 What Is a “Correlation?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.1.1 Understanding the Formula for Computing
a Correlation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6.1.2 Understanding the Nine Steps for Computing
a Correlation, r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
xvi Contents

6.2 Using Excel to Compute a Correlation Between

Two Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.3 Creating a Chart and Drawing the Regression Line
onto the Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.3.1 Using Excel to Create a Chart and the Regression
Line Through the Data Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6.4 Printing a Spreadsheet So That the Table and Chart Fit
onto One Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
6.5 Finding the Regression Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.5.1 Installing the Data Analysis ToolPak into Excel . . . . . . . . . 140
6.5.2 Using Excel to Find the SUMMARY OUTPUT
of Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.5.3 Finding the Equation for the Regression Line . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.5.4 Using the Regression Line to Predict the y-Value
for a Given x-Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6.6 Adding the Regression Equation to the Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.7 How to Recognize Negative Correlations
in the SUMMARY OUTPUT Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.8 Printing Only Part of a Spreadsheet Instead
of the Entire Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.8.1 Printing Only the Table and the Chart
on a Separate Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
6.8.2 Printing Only the Chart on a Separate Page . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
6.8.3 Printing Only the SUMMARY OUTPUT
of the Regression Analysis on a Separate Page . . . . . . . . . . 153
6.9 End-of-Chapter Practice Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
7 Multiple Correlation and Multiple Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
7.1 Multiple Regression Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
7.2 Finding the Multiple Correlation and the Multiple
Regression Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
7.3 Using the Regression Equation to Predict
FROSH GPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
7.4 Using Excel to Create a Correlation Matrix
in Multiple Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
7.5 End-of-Chapter Practice Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
8 One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
8.1 Using Excel to Perform a One-Way Analysis
of Variance (ANOVA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
8.2 How to Interpret the ANOVA Table Correctly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
8.3 Using the Decision Rule for the ANOVA F-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Contents xvii

8.4 Testing the Difference Between Two Groups Using

the ANOVA t-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.4.1 Comparing LECTURES vs. INDEPENDENT
in Their Exam Scores Using the ANOVA t-Test . . . . . . . . 183
8.5 End-of-Chapter Practice Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Appendix A: Answers to End-of-Chapter Practice Problems . . . . . . . . . 195
Appendix B: Practice Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Appendix C: Answers to Practice Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Appendix D: Statistical Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Appendix E: t-Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Chapter 1
Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation,
and Standard Error of the Mean

This chapter deals with how you can use Excel to find the average (i.e., “mean”) of a
set of scores, the standard deviation of these scores (STDEV), and the standard error
of the mean (s.e.) of these scores. All three of these statistics are used frequently and
form the basis for additional statistical tests.

1.1 Mean

The mean is the “arithmetic average” of a set of scores. When my daughter was in the
fifth grade, she came home from school with a sad face and said that she didn’t get
“averages.” The book she was using described how to find the mean of a set of
scores, and so I said to her:
“Jennifer, you add up all the scores and divide by the number of numbers that you have.”
She gave me “that look,” and said: “Dad, this is serious!” She thought I was teasing her.
So I said:
“See these numbers in your book; add them up. What is the answer?” (She did that.)
“Now, how many numbers do you have?” (She answered that question.)
“Then, take the number you got when you added up the numbers, and divide that number
by the number of numbers that you have.”

She did that, and found the correct answer. You will use that same reasoning
now, but it will be much easier for you because Excel will do all of the steps for you.
We will call this average of the scores the “mean” which we will symbolize as:
X, and we will pronounce it as: “Xbar.”
The formula for finding the mean with your calculator looks like this:

ΣX
X¼ ð1:1Þ
n

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1

T. J. Quirk, Excel 2019 for Educational and Psychological Statistics,
Excel for Statistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39264-2_1
2 1 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean

The symbol Σ is the Greek letter sigma, which stands for “sum.” It tells you to
add up all the scores that are indicated by the letter X, and then to divide your
answer by n (the number of numbers that you have).
Let’s give a simple example:
Suppose that you had these six test scores on an seven-item true-false quiz:
6
4
5
3
2
5
To find the mean of these scores, you add them up, and then divide by the
number of scores. So, the mean is: 25/6 ¼ 4.17

1.2 Standard Deviation

The standard deviation tells you “how close the scores are to the mean.” If the
standard deviation is a small number, this tells you that the scores are “bunched
together” close to the mean. If the standard deviation is a large number, this tells
you that the scores are “spread out” a greater distance from the mean. The formula
for the standard deviation (which we will call STDEV) and use the letter, S, to
symbolize is:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2
Σ XX
STDEV ¼ S ¼ ð1:2Þ
n1

The formula look complicated, but what it asks you to do is this:

1. Subtract the mean from each score (X  X).
2. Then, square the resulting number to make it a positive number.
3. Then, add up these squared numbers to get a total score.
4. Then, take this total score and divide it by n  1 (where n stands for the number
of numbers that you have).
5. The final step is to take the square root of the number you found in step 4.
You will not be asked to compute the standard deviation using your calculator in
this book, but you could see examples of how it is computed in any basic statistics
book. Instead, we will use Excel to find the standard deviation of a set of scores.
When we use Excel on the six numbers we gave in the description of the mean
above, you will find that the STDEV of these numbers, S, is 1.47.
1.4 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean 3

1.3 Standard Error of the Mean

The formula for the standard error of the mean (s.e., which we will use SX to
symbolize) is:

S
s:e: ¼ SX ¼ pffiffiffi ð1:3Þ
n

To find s.e., all you need to do is to take the standard deviation, STDEV, and
divide it by the square root of n, where n stands for the “number of numbers” that
you have in your data set. In the example under the standard deviation description
above, the s.e. ¼ 0.60. (You can check this on your calculator.)
If you want to learn more about the standard deviation and the standard
error of the mean, see Weiers (2011).
Now, let’s learn how to use Excel to find the sample size, the mean, the standard
deviation, and the standard error or the mean using a geometry test given to a class of
eight ninth graders at the end of the first term of the school year (50 points possible).
The hypothetical data appear in Fig. 1.1.

Fig. 1.1 Worksheet Data

for a Geometry Test
(Practical Example)

1.4 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard

Error of the Mean

Objective: To find the sample size (n), mean, standard deviation (STDEV), and
standard error of the mean (s.e.) for these data
4 1 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean

Start your computer, and click on the Excel 2019 icon to open a blank Excel
spreadsheet.
Click on: Blank Workbook
Enter the data in this way:
A3: Student
B3: Geometry Test Score
A4: 1

1.4.1 Using the Fill/Series/Columns Commands

Objective: To add the student numbers 2–8 in a column underneath student #1

Put pointer in A4
Home (top left of screen)
Important note: The “Paste” command should be on the top of your screen on the far
left of the screen.
Important note: Notice the Excel commands at the top of your computer screen:
File → Home → Insert → Page Layout → Formulas → etc.
If these commands ever “disappear” when you are using Excel,
you need to click on “Home” at the top left of your screen to make
them reappear!
Fill (top right of screen: click on the down arrow; see Fig. 1.2)

Fig. 1.2 Home/Fill/Series

commands
1.4 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean 5

Series
Columns
Step value: 1
Stop value: 8 (see Fig. 1.3)

Fig. 1.3 Example of

Dialogue Box for Fill/
Series/Columns/Step Value/
Stop Value commands

OK
The student numbers should be identified as 1–8, with 8 in cell A11.
Now, enter the Geometry Test Scores in cells B4:B11.
Since your computer screen shows the information in a format that does not look
professional, you need to learn how to “widen the column width” and how to
“center the information” in a group of cells. Here is how you can do those two steps:

1.4.2 Changing the Width of a Column

Objective: To make a column width wider so that all of the information fits inside
that column

If you look at your computer screen, you can see that Column B is not wide enough
so that all of the information fits inside this column. To make Column B wider:
Click on the letter, B, at the top of your computer screen
Place your mouse pointer at the far right corner of B until you create a “cross sign”
on that corner
6 1 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean

Left-click on your mouse, hold it down, and move this corner to the right until it is
“wide enough to fit all of the data”
Take your finger off the mouse to set the new column width (see Fig. 1.4)

Fig. 1.4 Example of How

to Widen the Column Width

Then, click on any empty cell (i.e., any blank cell) to “deselect” column B so that
it is no longer a darker color on your screen.
When you widen a column, you will make all of the cells in all of the rows of this
column that same width.
Now, let’s go through the steps to center the information in both Column A and
Column B.

1.4.3 Centering Information in a Range of Cells

Objective: To center the information in a group of cells

In order to make the information in the cells look “more professional,” you can
center the information using the following steps:
Left-click your mouse on A3 and drag it to the right and down to highlight cells
A3:B11 so that these cells appear in a darker color
Home
1.4 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean 7

At the top of your computer screen, you will see a set of “lines” in which all of
the lines are “centered” to the same width under “Alignment” (it is the second icon
at the bottom left of the Alignment box; see Fig. 1.5)

Fig. 1.5 Example of How

to Center Information
Within Cells

Click on this icon to center the information in the selected cells (see Fig. 1.6)

Fig. 1.6 Final Result of

Centering Information in the
Cells

Since you will need to refer to the Geometry Test Scores in your formulas, it will
be much easier to do this if you “name the range of data” with a name instead of
having to remember the exact cells (B4:B11) in which these figures are located. Let’s
call that group of cells: Geometry, but we could give them any name that you want
to use.
8 1 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean

1.4.4 Naming a Range of Cells

Objective: To name the range of data for the test scores with the name: Geometry

Highlight cells B4:B11 by left-clicking your mouse on B4 and dragging it down

to B11
Formulas (top left of your screen)
Define Name (top center of your screen)
Geometry (type this name in the top box; see Fig. 1.7)

Fig. 1.7 Dialogue box for “naming a range of cells” with the name: Geometry

OK
Then, click on any cell of your spreadsheet that does not have any information in it
(i.e., it is an “empty cell”) to deselect cells B4:B11
Now, add the following terms to your spreadsheet:
E6: n
E9: Mean
E12: STDEV
E15: s.e. (see Fig. 1.8)
1.4 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean 9

Fig. 1.8 Example of Entering the Sample Size, Mean, STDEV, and s.e. Labels

Note: Whenever you use a formula, you must add an equal sign (¼) at the beginning
of the name of the function so that Excel knows that you intend to use a
formula.

1.4.5 Finding the Sample Size Using the ¼COUNT Function

Objective: To find the sample size (n) for these data using the ¼COUNT function

F6: ¼COUNT(Geometry)
When you hit the Enter key, this command should insert the number 8 into cell F6
since there are eight students in this class.
10 1 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean

1.4.6 Finding the Mean Score Using the ¼AVERAGE

Function

Objective: To find the mean test score figure using the ¼AVERAGE function

F9: ¼AVERAGE(Geometry)
This command should insert the number 23.125 into cell F9.

1.4.7 Finding the Standard Deviation Using the ¼STDEV

Function

Objective: To find the standard deviation (STDEV) using the ¼STDEV function

F12: ¼STDEV(Geometry)
This command should insert the number 14.02485 into cell F12.

1.4.8 Finding the Standard Error of the Mean

Objective: To find the standard error of the mean using a formula for these
eight data points

F15: ¼F12/SQRT(8)
This command should insert the number 4.958533 into cell F15 (see Fig. 1.9).
1.4 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean 11

Fig. 1.9 Example of Using Excel Formulas for Sample Size, Mean, STDEV, and s.e.

Important note: Throughout this book, be sure to double-check all of the figures in
your spreadsheet to make sure that they are in the correct cells, or
the formulas will not work correctly!

1.4.8.1 Formatting Numbers in Number Format (Two Decimal Places)

Objective: To convert the mean, STDEV, and s.e. to two decimal places

Highlight cells F9:F15

Home
Click on the down arrow to the right of “Number” at the top center of your Screen
Inside the dialog box, click on: Number
Keep the two decimal places already selected (see Fig. 1.10)
12 1 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean

Fig. 1.10 Using the Number Format Dialog Box to Convert Numbers to Fewer Decimal Places
1.5 Saving a Spreadsheet 13

OK (Fig. 1.11)

Fig. 1.11 Example of Converting Numbers to Two Decimal Places

Now, click on any “empty cell” on your spreadsheet to deselect cells F9:F15.

1.5 Saving a Spreadsheet

Objective: To save this spreadsheet with the name: Geometry3

In order to save your spreadsheet so that you can retrieve it sometime in the future,
your first decision is to decide “where” you want to save it. That is your decision
and you have several choices. If it is your own computer, you can save it onto your
hard drive (you need to ask someone how to do that on your computer). Or, you can
save it onto a “CD” or onto a “flash drive.” You then need to complete these steps:
File
Save as
(select the place where you want to save the file by scrolling either down or up the
bar on the left, and click on the place where you want to save the file; for
example: This PC: Documents location)
File name: Geometry3 (enter this name to the right of File name; see Fig. 1.12)
14 1 Sample Size, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Standard Error of the Mean

Fig. 1.12 Dialogue Box of Saving an Excel Workbook File as “Geometry3” in Documents
location

Save
Important note: Be very careful to save your Excel file spreadsheet every few
minutes so that you do not lose your information!

1.6 Printing a Spreadsheet

Objective: To print the spreadsheet

Use the following procedure when printing any spreadsheet.

File
Print
Print Active Sheets (see Fig. 1.13)
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timely virtues in spite of rather than because of religious approval,
and many serious vices flourish without religious opposition.
A conspicuous instance of this is in the pious contentment of a
wealthy church corporation, the income of which is derived from
tenement houses which are hotbeds of evil; and in the often
observed conduct of an irreligious man, who practises the
commonplace necessary virtues of daily business life. But this power
of social evolution developes the immediate virtues essential to close
personal intercourse more quickly than the higher range of virtue,
needed in national and international affairs. Thus we often see "a
good family man," friend, and perhaps even an honest business
dealer, shamefully negligent or corrupt in political duty.
It would seem that the same brains which have brought us forward
to such enormous knowledge in other lines might have made more
progress in this. Some special cause must have operated, and be still
operating, to prevent a normal growth in this deeply important field.
Much might be said here of the influence of religious custom; but
the still closer and more invariable cause lies not in the church, but
in the home.
Where in social relation our necessary enlargement and progress
have forced upon us nobler characteristics, in the domestic relation
small change has been made. The privacy and conservatism of the
family group have made it a nursing ground of rudimentary
survivals, long since outgrown in more open fields; and the ethical
code of the family is patently behind that of the society in which it is
located. The primitive instincts, affections, and passions are there;
but justice, liberty, courtesy, and such later social sentiments are
very weak.
New truth is seen by new brains. As the organ we think with grows
from age to age, we are able to think farther and deeper; but, if the
growing brain is especially injured in any one department in early
youth, it will not grow as fast in that one line. As a general rule,—a
rule with rare exceptions,—we do thus injure the baby brain in the
line of ethical thought and action. In other sciences we teach what
we know, when we teach at all, and practise fairly; but, in teaching a
child ethics, we do not give even what we have of knowledge, and
our practice with him and the practice we demand from him are not
at all in accordance with our true views.
In glaring instance is the habit of lying to children. A woman who
would not lie to a grown friend will lie freely to her own child. A man
who would not be unjust to his brother or a stranger will be unjust
to his little son. The common courtesy given any adult is not given
to the child. That delicate consideration for another's feelings, which
is part of our common practice among friends, is lacking in our
dealings with children. From the treatment they receive, children
cannot learn any rational and consistent scheme of ethics. Their
healthy little brains make early inference from the conduct of their
elders, and incite behaviour on the same plan; but they speedily find
that these are poor rules, for they do not work both ways. The
conduct we seek to enforce from them does not accord with our
conduct, nor form any consistent whole by itself. It is not based on
any simple group of principles which a child can understand, but
rests very largely on the personal equation and the minor variations
of circumstance.
Take lying again as an instance. 1. We lie to the child. He discovers
it. No evil is apparently resultant. 2. He accuses us of it, and we
punish him for impertinence. 3. He lies to us, and meets severe
penalties. 4. We accuse him of it, rightly or wrongly, and are not
punished for impertinence. 5. He observes us lie to the visitor in the
way of politeness with no evil result. 6. He lies to the visitor less
skilfully, and is again made to suffer. 7. He lies to his more ignorant
juniors, and nothing happens. 8. Meanwhile, if he receives any
definite ethical instruction on the subject, he is probably told that
God hates a liar, that to lie is a sin!
The elastic human brain can and does accommodate itself to this
confusion, and grows up to complacently repeat the whole
performance without any consciousness of inconsistency; but
progress in ethics is hardly to be looked for under such conditions. It
is pathetic to see this waste of power in each generation. We are
born with the gentler and kinder impulses bred by long social
interrelation. We have ever broader and subtler brains; but our good
impulses are checked, twisted, tangled, weighed down with many
artificial restrictions, and our restless questionings and suggestions
are snubbed or neglected. A child is temptingly open to instruction in
ethics. His primitive mental attitude recognises the importance of the
main principles as strongly as the early savage did. His simple and
guarded life makes it easy for us to supply profuse and continuous
illustrations of the working of these principles; and his strong, keen
feelings enable us to impress with lasting power the relative
rightness and wrongness of different lines of action.
Yet this beautiful opportunity is not only neglected, but the fresh
mind and its eager powers are blurred, confused, discouraged, by
our senseless treatment. Our lack of knowledge does not excuse it.
Our lingering religious restriction does not excuse it. We know
something of ethics, and practise something, but treat the child as if
he was a lower instead of a higher being. Surely, we can reduce our
ethical knowledge into some simple and teachable shape, and take
the same pains to teach this noblest, this most indispensable of
sciences that we take to teach music or dancing. Physics is the
science of molecular relation,—how things work in relation to other
things. Ethics is the science of social relation,—how people work in
relation to other people. To the individual there is no ethics but of
self-development and reproduction. The lonely animal's behaviour
goes no farther. But gregarious animals have to relate their
behaviour to one another,—a more complex problem; and in our
intricate co-relation there is so wide a field of inter-relative behaviour
that its working principles and laws form a science.
However complex our ultimate acts, they are open to classification,
and resolve themselves into certain general principles which long
since were recognised and named. Liberty, justice, love,—we all
know these and others, and can promptly square a given act by
some familiar principle. The sense of justice developes very early,
and may be used as a basis for a large range of conduct. "To play
fair" can be early taught. "That isn't fair!" is one of a child's earliest
perceptions. "When I want to go somewhere, you say I'm too little;
and, when I cry, you say I'm too big! It isn't fair!" protests the child.
In training a child in the perception and practice of justice, we
should always remember that the standard must suit the child's
mind, not ours. What to our longer, wider sweep of vision seems
quite just, to him may seem bitterly unjust; and, if we punish a child
in a way that seems to him unjust, he is unjustly punished. So the
instructor in ethics must have an extended knowledge of the child's
point of view,—that of children in general and of the child being
instructed in particular, and the illustrations measured accordingly. It
ought to be unnecessary to remark that no more passion should be
used in teaching ethics than in teaching arithmetic. The child will
make mistakes, of course. We know that beforehand, and can
largely provide for them. It is for us to arrange his successive
problems so that they are not too rapid or too difficult, and to be no
more impatient or displeased at a natural slip in this line of
development than in any other.
Unhappily, it is just here that we almost always err. The child's slowly
accumulating perceptions and increasing accuracy of expression are
not only confused by our erroneous teaching, but greatly shocked
and jarred by our manner, our evident excitement in cases of
conduct which we call "matters of right and wrong." All conduct is
right or wrong. A difference in praise or blame belongs to relative
excellence of intention or of performance; but the formation of a
delicate and accurate conscience is sadly interfered with by our
violent feelings. It is this which renders ethical action so sensitive
and morbid. Where in other lines we act calmly, according to our
knowledge, or, if we err, calmly rectify the error, in ethics we are
nervous, vacillating, unduly elated or depressed, because our early
teachings in this field were so overweighted with intense feeling.
Self-control is one of the first essentials in the practice of ethics,—
which is to say, in living. Self-control can be taught a child by gently
graduated exercises, so that he shall come calmly into his first
kingdom, and exercise this normal human power without self-
consciousness. We do nothing actively to develope this power. We
simply punish the lack of it when that lack happens to be
disagreeable to us. A child who has "tantrums," for instance,—those
helpless, prostrate passions of screaming and kicking,—is treated
variously during the attack; but nothing is done during the placid
interval to cultivate the desired power of control. Self-control is
involved in all conscious acts. Therefore, it should not be hard to so
arrange and relate those acts as to steadily develope the habit.
Games in varying degree require further exertion of self-control, and
games are the child's daily lessons. The natural ethical sense of
humanity is strongly and early shown in our games. It is a joy to us
to learn "the rules" and play according to them, or to a maturer
student to grasp the principles and work them out; and our quick
condemnation of the poor player or the careless player, and our rage
at him who "does not play fair," show how naturally we incline to
right conduct. Life is a large game, with so many rules that it is very
hard to learn by them; but its principles can be taught to the
youngest. When we rightly understand those principles, we can
leave off many arbitrary rules, and greatly simplify the game. The
recognition of the rights of others is justice, and comes easily to the
child. The generosity which goes beyond justice is also natural to the
child in some degree, and open to easy culture. It should, however,
always rest on its natural precursor, justice; and the child be led on
to generosity gradually, and by the visible example of the higher
pleasure involved.
To divide the fruit evenly is the first step. To show that you enjoy
giving up your share, that you take pleasure in his pleasure, and
then, when this act is imitated, to show such delight and gratitude
as shall make the baby mind feel your satisfaction,—that is a slow
but simple process. We usually neglect the foundation of justice, and
then find it hard to teach loving-kindness to the young mind.
Demands on the child's personal surrender and generosity should be
made very gradually, and always with a clearly visible cause. Where
any dawning faculty is overstrained in youth, it is hard and slow to
re-establish the growth.
One simple ethical principle most needful in child-training, and
usually most painfully lacking, is honesty. Aside from direct lying, we
almost universally use concealment and evasion; and even earlier
than that we assume an artificial manner with babies and young
children which causes the dawning ethical sense strange
perturbations.
It is a very common thing to demand from little children a show of
affection without its natural prompting. Even between mother and
child this playing at loving is often seen. "Come and kiss mamma!
What! Don't you love mamma? Poor mamma! Mamma cry!" And
mamma pretends to cry, in order to make baby pretend to love her.
The adult visitor almost invariably simulates an interest and cordiality
which is not felt, and does it in a palpably artificial manner. These
may seem small matters. We pass them without notice daily, but
they are important in the foundation impressions of the young brain.
Children are usually very keen to detect the pretence. "Oh, you don't
mean that: you only say so!" they remark. We thus help to develope
a loose, straggling sense of honesty and honour, a chronic ethical
inaccuracy, like a bad "ear" for music.
The baby-educator should see to it that she show only real feelings
to the child; and show them in large letters, as it were. Do not say,
"Mamma is angry," or "Mamma is grieved," or "Mamma is ashamed,"
but be angry, grieved, or ashamed visibly. Let the child observe the
effect of his act on you, not hear you say you feel thus and so, and
see no signs of it. We depend far too much on oral statements, and
neglect the simpler, stronger, surer means of conveying impressions.
The delicacy of perception of a child should be preserved and
tenderly used. We often blur and weaken it by giving false, irregular,
and disproportionate impressions, and then are forced to use more
and more violence to make any impression at all. All this
sensitiveness is to ethics what the "musical ear" is to music. In
injuring it, we make it harder for the growing soul to discriminate
delicately in ethical questions,—a difficulty but too common among
us.
The basis of human ethics, being social, requires for its growth a
growing perception of collective and inter-relative rights and duties.
Our continual object with the child is to establish in his mind this
common consciousness and an accurate measure in perception. It is
at first a simple matter of arithmetic. Here is the group of little ones,
and the equal number of cookies: palpably, each should have one.
Here is one extra cookie. Who shall have it? Robby, because his is
the smallest. Jamie cries that his is as small as Robby's. Is it? The
fact is ascertained. Divide the extra cookie, then: that's fair. Or here
is one who was not well yesterday and had no cookies. Give it to
him. These things are not to be ostentatiously done nor too
continually, but always with care and accuracy, as lessons more
important than any others. The deeper and larger sense of social
duty,—not the personal balancing of rights, which is easy to even the
youngest mind, but the devotion to the service of all, the recognition
that the greater includes the less,—this must be shown by personal
example long before it can be imitated.
Parents neglect this where it would help them most, and substitute,
to meet the child's inquiries, only personal authority and compulsion.
If the parent would constantly manifest a recognition of duty and
performance of it even against desire, it would be a great help to the
child. Most children imagine that grown persons do just as they want
to; and that the stringent code of behaviour enforced upon them is
requisite only in childhood, and enforceable only because of their
weakness. Much of the parent's conduct can be used as an object-
lesson to the child; but its skilful employment needs clear ethical
perception and much educational ability. For instance, if the mother
elaborately explains that she is obliged to do something which
seems to the child absurd, or if she claims to have to do a certain
thing which the child can see that she really enjoys, the impressions
made are not correct ones. A recognition of the importance of right
teaching of ethics to the child would help adult conduct in most
cases. And, if the child were receiving proper grounding in ethics
from a special educator, he could come home and perplex his
parents with problems, as a bright child often does now in other
sciences.
This, of course, points to the need of accepted text-books on ethics,
and will allow of disputes between authorities and disagreement on
many points; but these conditions exist in all sciences. There are
different authorities and "schools," much disagreement and dispute
and varying conduct based on our various scientific beliefs. But out
of the study, discussion, and ensuing behaviour comes the gradual
proof of what is really true; and we establish certain generally
accepted facts and principles, while still allowing a margin for
divergence of opinion and further knowledge.
Our dread of studying ethics as a science on account of this
divergence of opinion is a hereditary brain tendency, due to the long
association of ethical values with one infallible religious text-book,—
Koran or Bible or Talmud or Zend-Avesta.
"It is written" was the most conclusive of statements to the ancient
mind. The modern mind ought by this time to have developed a
wide and healthy distrust of that which is written. While our
"written" ethics has remained at a standstill always until the upward
sweep of social conduct demanded and produced a better religion,
our unnoticed practice of ethics has worked out many common
rules.
In the fearless study of this field of practical ethics lies our way to
such simple text-books as may be used to teach children. There is
no question as to whether we should or should not teach ethics to
very little children. We do, we must, whether we will or not. The real
question is what to teach and how. They learn from our daily walk
and conversation; and they learn strange things. Most palpable of all
among the wrong impressions given to our children is that of the
pre-eminent importance of the primitive relations of life, and the
utter unimportance of the great social relations of our time.
Whatever ideas of right and wrong the child succeeds in gathering,
they are all of a closely personal nature, based on interpersonal
conduct in the family relation, or in such restricted and shallow social
relations as is covered by our code of "company manners."
The greatest need of better ethics to-day is in our true social
relation,—the economic and political field of action in which lie our
major activities, and in which we are still so grossly uncivilised. Not
until he goes to school does the child begin to appreciate any
general basis of conduct; and even there the ethics of the position
are open to much clearer treatment.
As the mother is so prominent a factor in influencing the child's life,
it is pre-eminently necessary that she should be grounded in this
larger ethics, and able to teach it by example as well as by
description. She needs a perception of the proportionate duties of
mankind,—an understanding of their true basis, and a trained skill in
imparting this knowledge to the child. If she cannot properly teach
ethics, she should provide a teacher more competent. At present the
only special ethical teaching for the child outside the family is in the
Sunday-school; and Sunday-school teachers are usually amiable
young ladies who are besought on any terms—with no preparation
whatever—to give this instruction. Once we boldly enter the field of
ethical study, and reduce its simple principles to a teachable basis,—
when we make clear to ourselves and our children the legitimate
reasons of right conduct,—the same intelligence and ambition which
carry us on so far in other sciences will lift the standard of behaviour
of our race, both in theory and practice. Meanwhile, with such
knowledge and practice as we have to-day, let us see to it that we
give to little children our best ethics by precept and example, with
hopes that they may go on to higher levels.
 VI.
A PLACE FOR CHILDREN.
The one main cause of our unfairness to children is that we consider
them wholly in a personal light. Justice and equity, the rights of
humanity, require a broader basis than blood relationship. Children
are part of humanity, and the largest part. Few of us realise their
numbers, or think that they constitute the majority of human beings.
The average family, as given in the census returns, consist of five
persons,—two adults and three minors. Any population which
increases has a majority of children, our own being three-fifths. This
large proportion of human beings constitutes a permanent class,—
another fact we fail to consider because of our personal point of
view. One's own child and one's neighbour's child grow up and pass
out of childhood, and with them goes one's interest in children. Of
course, we intellectually know that there are others; but to the
conscious mind of most persons children are evanescent personal
incidents.
The permanence of childhood as a human status is proven by the
survival among them of games and phrases of utmost antiquity,
which are handed down, not from father to son, but from child to
child. If an isolated family moves into a new country, and its children
grow up alone, they do not know these games. We should bear in
mind in studying children that we have before us a permanent class,
larger than the adult population. So that in question of numerical
justice they certainly have a right to at least equal attention. But,
when we remember also that this large and permanent class of
human beings is by far the most important, that on its right
treatment rests the progress of the world, then, indeed, it behooves
us to consider the attitude of the adult population toward the junior
members of society.
As members of society, we find that they have received almost no
attention. They are treated as members of the family by the family,
but not even recognised as belonging to society. Only in modern
history do we find even enough perception of the child's place in the
State to provide some public education; and to-day, in some more
advanced cities, some provision for public protection and recreation.
Children's playgrounds are beginning to appear at last among people
who have long maintained public parks and gardens for adults. Also,
in the general parks a children's quarter is often now provided, with
facilities for their special care and entertainment. But except for
these rare cases of special playgrounds, except for the quite
generous array of school-houses and a few orphan asylums and
kindred institutions, there are no indications in city or country that
there are such people as children.
A visitor from another planet, examining our houses, streets,
furniture, and machinery, would not gather much evidence of
childhood as a large or an important factor in human life. The
answer to this is prompt and loud: "Children belong at home! Look
there, and you will see if they are considered or not."
Let us look there carefully. The average home is a house of, say, six
rooms. This is a liberal allowance, applicable only to America. Even
with us, in our cities, the average home is in a crowded tenement,—
only two or three rooms; and in wide stretches of country it is a
small and crowded farm-house. Six rooms is liberal allowance,—
kitchen, dining-room, and parlour, and three bedrooms. Gazing upon
the home from the outside, we see a building of dimensions suited
to adults. There is nothing to indicate children there. Examining it
from the inside, we find the same proportionate dimensions, and
nothing in the materials or arrangement of the internal furnishings to
indicate children there. The stairs are measured to the adult tread,
the windows to the adult eye, the chairs and table to the adult seat.
Hold! In a bedroom we discover a cradle,—descended from who
knows what inherited desire for swinging boughs!—and, in some
cases, a crib. In the dining-room is often a high chair (made to
accommodate the adult table), and sometimes in the parlour a low
chair for the child. If people are wealthy and careful, there is,
perhaps, a low table, too; but the utmost that can be claimed for the
average child is a cradle or crib, a high chair, and a "little rocker."
There can be no reasonable objection to this, so long as the child is
considered merely as a member of a family. The adult family
precedes and outlasts the child, and it would be absurd to expect
them to stoop and suffer in a house built and furnished for children.
So we build for the adult only, and small legs toil painfully up our
stairs and fall more painfully down them.
But the moment we begin to address ourselves to the needs of
children as a class, the result is different. In the school-house all the
seats are for children, except "teacher's chair"; in the kindergarten
the tiny chairs and tables are perfectly appropriate; in the
playground all the appointments are child-size. "What do you
expect!" protests the perplexed parent. "You say yourself, I cannot
build my house child-size. Do you expect me to add a child-size
house in the back yard? I cannot afford it."
No, the individual parent cannot afford to build a child-house for his
own family, nor, for that matter, a school-house. We, collectively,
whether through general taxation, as in the public school, or
combination of personal funds, as in the private school, do manage
to provide our children with school-houses, because we recognise
their need of them. Similarly, we can provide for them suitable
houses for a far more early and continuous education,—when we
see the need of them. Here the untouched brain-spaces make no
response. "What do you mean!" cries the parent. "Do you wish us to
club together, and build a—a—public nursery for our children!" This
seems sufficiently horrific to stop all further discussion. But is it? May
we not gently pursue the theme?
We can and do cheerfully admit the advantages of a public school
and a public school-teacher for our children. Some of us admit the
advantages of a public kindergarten and a public kindergartner for
our children. The step between child-garden and baby-garden is
slight. Why not a public nursery and a public nurse? That, of course,
for those classes who gladly provide and patronise the public school
and kindergarten. The swarming neglected babies of the poor, now
"underfoot" in dirty kitchen or dirtier street, part neglected and part
abused, a tax on the toiling mother and a grievous injury to the
older children who must care for them,—these would be far better
off if every crowded block had its big, bright baby-garden on the
roof, and their young lives were kept peaceful, clean, and well cared
for by special nurses who knew their business. A public nursery is
safer than the public street. One hot reply to this proposition is that
"statistics prove that babies in institutions die faster than babies
even in the poorest families." Perhaps this is so.
But consider the difference in the cases. Children in institutions are
motherless, generally orphans. No one is proposing to remove the
mothers of the babies in the baby-garden. "But they would be
separated from their mothers!" Children who go to school are
separated from their mothers. Children who go to the kindergarten
are separated from their mothers. Children who play in the street are
separated from their mothers. If the mothers of these children had
nothing else to do, they could give all their time to them. But they
have other things to do; and, while they are busy, the baby would
be better off in the baby-garden than in the street. To those who
prefer to maintain the private school and the private kindergarten, a
private baby-garden would be equally available. "But we do not want
it. We prefer to care for our children at home," they reply. This
means that they prefer to have their little ones in their own nursery,
under the care of the mother, via the nurse.
The question remains open as to which the children would prefer,
and which would be better for them. Perhaps certain clear and
positive assertions should be made here, to allay the anxiety and
anger about "separating the child from the mother."
The mother of a young baby should be near enough to nurse it, as a
matter of course. She should "take care of it"; that is, see that it has
everything necessary to its health, comfort, and development. But
that is no reason why she should administer to its every need with
her own hands. The ignorant, low-class poor mother does this, and
does not preserve the lives of her children thereby. The educated,
high-class rich mother does not do this, but promptly hires a servant
to do it for her. The nursery and the nurse are essential to the baby;
but what kind of nursery and nurse are most desirable? The kind of
servant hired by the ordinary well-to-do family is often not a suitable
person to have the care of little children. A young child needs even
more intelligent care than an older one.
A group of families, each paying for its children's schooling, can
afford to give them a far higher class of teacher than each could
afford to provide separately. So a group of families, each paying for
its children's "nursing," could afford to provide a far superior class of
"nurse" than each can provide separately.
Here again rises the protest that it is not good for small children—
babies—to be "herded together,"—see infant mortality in institutions.
Again, an unfair comparison is involved. The poorest kind of
children, motherless and fatherless, are crowded in undue numbers
in "charitable" or "public" institutions, and submitted to the
perfunctory care of low-grade, ill-paid attendants, among
accommodations by no means of the best. We are asked to compare
this to small groups of healthy, well-bred children, placed for certain
hours of the day only in carefully planned apartments, in all ways
suitable, under the care of high-grade, well-paid expert attendants
and instructors.
The care of little children is not servant's work. It is not "nurses'"
work. A healthy child should have his physical needs all properly
supplied, and, for the rest, be under the most gentle and exquisite
"training." It is education, and education more valuable than that
received in college, which our little ones need; and they do not get it
from nurse-maids.
Then rises the mother. "I can teach my baby better than any
teacher, however highly trained." If the mother can, by all means let
her. But can she? We do not hear mothers protesting that they can
teach their grown-up sons and daughters better than the college
professors, nor their middle-aged children better than the school-
teachers. Why, then, are they so certain that they can teach the
babies better than trained baby-teachers? They are willing to consult
a doctor if the baby is ill, and gladly submit to his dictation. "The
doctor says baby must eat this and go there and do so." There is no
wound to maternal pride in this case. If they have "defective"
children, they are only too glad to place them under "expert care,"
not minding even "separation" for the good of the child.
Any one who knows of the marvellous results obtained by using
specially trained intelligence in the care of defective children must
wonder gravely if we might not grow up better with some specially
trained intelligence used on our normal children. But this we cannot
have till we make a place for children. No woman or man, with the
intelligence and education suitable for this great task, would be
willing to be a private servant in one family. We do not expect it of
college-teacher or school-teacher. We could not expect it of baby-
teacher. The very wealthy might of course command all three; but
that has no application to mankind in general, and is also open to
grave question as to its relative value.
A private staff of college professors would not be able to give the
boy the advantages of going to college. We cannot have separately
what we can have collectively. Moreover, even if the teacher be
secured, we have not at home the material advantages open to us in
the specially prepared place for children.
A house or range of apartments for little children could be made
perfectly safe,—which is more than the home is. From the pins on
the carpet, which baby puts in his mouth, the stairs he falls down,
the windows he falls out of and the fire he falls into, to the doors to
jam the little fingers and the corners and furniture he bumps himself
upon, "the home" is full of danger to the child. Why should a baby
be surrounded with these superfluous evils? A room really designed
for babies to play in need have no "furniture" save a padded seat
along the wall for the "grown-ups" to sit on, a seat with little ropes
along the edge for the toddlers to pull up and walk by. The floor
should be smooth and even, antiseptically clean, and not hard
enough to bump severely. A baby must fall, but we need not provide
cobblestones for his first attempts. Large soft ropes, running across
here and there, within reach of the eager, strong little hands, would
strengthen arms and chest, and help in walking. A shallow pool of
water, heated to suitable temperature, with the careful trainer
always at hand, would delight, occupy, and educate for daily hours.
A place of clean, warm sand, another of clay, with a few simple
tools,—these four things—water, sand, clay, and ropes to climb on—
would fill the days of happy little children without further "toys."
These are simple, safe, primitive pleasures, all helpful to growth and
a means of gradual education. The home cannot furnish these
things, nor could the mother give her time and attention to their
safe management, even if she knew how to teach swimming,
modelling, and other rudimentary arts.
The home, beside its difficulties and dangers, is full of unnecessary
limitations. It is arranged on a scale of elegance such as the adult
income can compass; and the natural activities of childhood
continually injure the household decorations and conveniences.
Perfectly natural and innocent conduct on the part of the child is
deleterious to the grown-up home, so patently so that owners of fine
houses are not willing to let them to families with children.
A nice comment this on the home as a place for children! Must a
home be shabby and bare? Or must the child be confined to his
bed? Why not develope the home to its own perfection,—a place of
beauty and comfort and peace,—and let the children have a home of
their own for part of the day, wherein the order and beauty and
comfort are child-size? The child could sleep under his mother's eye
or ear, and gradually aspire to the adult table when he had learned
how to be comfortable there, and not injure the comfort of others.
He could soon have his own room if the family could afford it, and
express his personality in its arrangement; but the general waking
time of little children could be much better passed in a special house
for children than in the parental kitchen, parlour, bedroom, or back
yard. "But why not the private nursery,—the sunny room for the
child and his toys? Is not that enough?" The private nursery means
the private nurse, who is, as a class, unfit to have the care of little
children. She is a servant; and the forming ideas of justice, courtesy,
and human rights in general, are much injured by the spectacle of
an adult attendant who is a social inferior. A servant is not a proper
person to have charge of these impressionable years.
Moreover, however perfect the private nursery and private nurse
might be, there remains its isolation to injure the child. We grow up
unnecessarily selfish, aborted in the social faculties proper to our
stage of advance, because each child is so in the focus of family
attention all the time. A number of little ones together for part of
every day, having their advantages in common, learning from
infancy to say "we" instead of "I," would grow up far better able to
fill their places as helpful and happy members of society.
Even in those rare cases where the mother does actually devote her
entire time to her children, it would still be better for them to pass
part of that time in an equally wise and more dispassionate
atmosphere. Our babies and small children ought to have the society
of the very best people instead of the society of such low-grade
women as we can hire to be nurses in our homes. And, while they
need pre-eminently the mother's tender love and watchful care, they
also need the wider justice and larger experience of the genuine
child-trainer.
So long as we so underrate the importance of childhood,—and that
in proportion to the youth of the child,—those persons who should
benefit our babies by their presence will not do so. Very great and
learned men are proud to teach youths of eighteen and twenty in
colleges; but they would feel themselves painfully ill-placed if set to
teach the same boys at ten, five, or two years old. Why? Why should
we not be eager for an introduction to "Professor Coltonstall! He's
the first man in America in infant ethics! Marvellous success! You can
always tell the children who have been under him!" You cannot have
this professor in your nursery. But your children and those of fifty
other eager parents could be benefited by his wisdom, experience,
and exquisitely developed skill in a place in common.
The argument does not appeal to us. We see no need for "wisdom,"
"experience," "trained skill" with a baby. We have not realised that
we despised our babies; but we do. Any one is good enough to take
care of them. We even confide them to the care of distinctly lower
races, as in the South with its negro nurses. "Social equality" with
the negro is beyond imagination to the Southerner. That gross
inferior race can never be admitted to their companionship, but to
the companionship of the baby—certainly. Could anything prove
more clearly our lack of just appreciation of the importance of
childhood? The colored nurse is, of course, thought of merely as the
servant of the child; and we do not yet consider whether it is good
for a child to have a servant or whether a servant is a good
educator.
The truth is we never think of education in connection with
babyhood, the term being in our minds inextricably confused with
school-houses and books. When we do honestly admit the plain fact
that a child is being educated in every waking hour by the conditions
in which he is placed and the persons who are with him, we shall be
readier to see the need of a higher class of educators than servant-
girls, and a more carefully planned environment than the
accommodations of the average home.
The home is not materially built for the convenience of a child, nor
are its necessary workings planned that way; and, what is more
directly evil, the mother is not trained for the position of educator.
We persist in confounding mother and teacher. The mother's place is
her own, and always will be. Nothing can take it from her. She loves
the child the best; and, if not too seriously alienated, the child will
love her the best. The terror of the mother lest her child should love
some other person better than herself shows that she is afraid of
comparison,—that she visibly fears the greater gentleness and
wisdom of some teacher will appeal to the young heart more than
her arbitrary methods. If the mother expected to meet daily
comparison with a born lover of children, trained in the wisest
methods of child-culture, it would have an improving influence on
the home methods. One of the great advantages of this
arrangement will be in its reactive effect on the mother. In her free
access to the home of the children, she will see practically illustrated
the better methods of treating them, and be in frequent
communication with their educators. The mother's knowledge of and
previous association with the child will make her a necessary
coadjutor with the teacher, and by intercourse with the larger
knowledge and wider experience of the teacher the mother will
acquire new points of view and wiser habits.
As the school and kindergarten react beneficially upon the home, so
this baby-school will react as beneficially, and perhaps more so, as
touching the all-important first years. The isolated mother has no
advantage of association or comparison, and falls into careless or
evil ways with the child, which contact with more thoughtful outside
influences would easily prevent. She could easily retain her pre-
eminent place in the child's affections, while not grudging to the
special teacher her helpful influence. Also, the child, with the free
atmosphere of equality around him for part of each day, with
association with his equals in their place, would return to his own
place in the home with a special affection, and submit with good will
to its necessary restrictions.
In all but isolated farm life, or on the even more primitive cattle
range, it would be possible to build a home for little children, and
engage suitable persons to take charge of them daily. It would take
no more time from the housework—if that is the mother's trade—to
take the child to its day play-school than it takes to watch and tend
it at home and to prevent or mend its "mischief."
"Children are so mischievous," we complain, regarding their
ingenious destruction of the domestic decorations. A calf in a flower-
garden would do considerable mischief, or kittens in a dairy. Why
seek to rear young creatures in a place where they must do mischief
if they behave differently from grown people? Why not provide for
them a place where their natural activities would not be injurious,
but educational?
In cities it is a still simpler question. Every block could have its one
or more child homes, according to their number of children
thereabouts. The children of the rich would be saved from the evil
effects of too much care and servants' society, and the children of
the poor from the neglect and low associations of their street-bred
lives.
The "practical" question will now arise, "Who is to pay for all this?"
There are two answers. One is, The same people who pay for the
education of our older children. The baby has as good a right to his
share of our educational funds, private and public, as the older child;
and his education is more important. The other answer is that an
able-bodied mother, relieved of her position as nursery governess,
would be able to contribute something toward better provision for
her children.
 VII.
UNCONSCIOUS SCHOOLING.
A small boy came from an old-fashioned city,—a city where he went
to school from day to day, and sat with his fellows in rigid
rectangular rows, gazing on bare whitewashed walls adorned with a
broad stripe of blackboard; where he did interminable "sums" on a
smeary little slate, and spelled in sing-song chorus "Baker! Baker! b,
a, bay; k, e, r, ker,—Baker!" He came to a new-fashioned city, where
the most important business on earth—the training of children—was
appreciated. The small boy did not know this. He saw that the city
was clean and bright and full of wide spaces of grass and trees; and
he liked it. It pleased him, as a child: it was the kind of place that
looked as if it had been planned with some thought of pleasing
children. Soon he came to a great open gate, with shady walks and
sunny lawns inside, buildings here and there in the distance, and,
just at hand, some strange figures among the bushes.
A pleasant-looking lady sat reading in the shade, with a few children
lying in the grass near by, reading, too. Our small boy stood
irresolute; but the lady looked up, and said: "Come in, if you like.
Look around all you want to." Still he felt shy; but one of the reading
little boys rose up, and went to him. "Come on," he said cheerfully.
"I'll show you. There's lots o' things you'll like. Oh, come on!" So he
entered with uncertain steps, and made for one of the queer figures
he had seen in the shrubbery. "It's an Indian!" he said. "Like a cigar
store!" But the resident little boy resented his comparison. "'Tisn't,
either!" cried he. "It's ever so much nicer! Look at his moccasins and
his arrows, and see the scalps in his belt! See the way he's painted?
That shows he's a Sioux. They are great. One of the best kinds.
They live up in the North-west,—Minnesota and round there; and
they fight splendid! That one over there is a Yuma Indian. Look at
the difference!"
And he took the visitor about, and showed him an interesting
collection of samples of American tribes, giving off rivers of
information with evident delight. From Indians their attention was
taken by a peculiarly handsome butterfly that fluttered near them,
pursued hotly by an eager little girl with a net.
"That must be a—well, I forget the name," said the resident little
boy. "Do you like bugs?"
"What kind o' bugs?" inquired the visitor, rather suspiciously.
"Oh, tumble bugs and burying beetles and walking-sticks, and all
kinds."
"Walking-sticks! What's that got to do with bugs?"
"Didn't you ever see the walking-stick one? Oh, come on in! I'll show
you! It's this way." And off they run to a big rambling building
among the shady elms. The visitor hangs back, somewhat awed by
the size and splendour of the place, and seeing grown people about;
but his young guide goes in unchecked, merely whispering, "Got to
keep still in here," and leads him down several passages into a large,
quiet hall, lined with glass cases.
Such a wealth of "bugs" as were here exhibited had never before
been seen by the astonished visitor; but, when the walking-stick
insect was pointed out to him, he stoutly denied that it was a "bug"
at all. A whispered altercation resulted in appeal to the curator, a
studious youth, who was taking notes at a large table bestrewn with
specimens. Instantly dropping his work, he took the object under
discussion from its case, focussed a magnifying glass upon it, and
proceeded to exhibit various features of insect anatomy, and talk
about them most interestingly. But, as soon as he detected the first
signs of inattention and weariness, he changed the subject,—
suggested that there was some good target practice going on in the
West Field; and the two boys, after a pleasant walk, joined a number
of others who were shooting with bows and arrows, under careful
coaching and management. "I can't shoot except Saturdays," said
the guide, "because I haven't joined a team and practised. But, if
you want to, you just put your name down; and by and by you can
hit anything. There's all kinds of old-fashioned weapons—and the
new ones, too."
"What do you call this, anyhow?" demands the visitor.
"Call what? This is the West Field: they do all kinds of shooting here.
You see that long bank and wall stops everything."
"Yes,—but the whole place,—is it a park?"
"Oh, yes, kind of. It's Weybourne Garden. And that was the museum
we went to,—one of 'em."
"Is it open always?"
"Yes."
"And you don't have to pay for anything?"
"No. This part is for children. We learn how to do all sorts of things.
Do you know how to build with bricks? I learned that last. I built a
piece of a real wall. It's not here. It was one that was broken on the
other side, and I built a good piece in!"
A big clock struck somewhere. "Now I must go to dinner with
mother," said the guide. "The gate you came in at is on my way.
Come on!" And he showed the wondering visitor out, and left him at
his own door.
The young stranger did not know where he had been. He did not
faintly imagine it. Neither, for that matter, did the other children,
who went there every day, and with whom he presently found
himself enrolled. They went to certain places at certain hours,
because they were only "open" then with the persons present who
showed them how to do desirable things.
There were many parks in the city, with different buildings and
departments; and in them, day by day, without ever knowing it, the
children of that city "went to school."
The progressive education of a child should be, as far as possible,
unconscious. From his first eager interest in almost everything, up
along the gradually narrowing lines of personal specialisation, each
child should be led with the least possible waste of time and nervous
energy. There would be difficulties enough, as there are difficulties in
learning even desirable games; but the child would meet the
difficulties because he wanted to know the thing, and gain strength
without losing interest. So soon as a child-house is built and
education seen to begin in earliest babyhood, so soon as we begin
to plan a beautiful and delicately adjusted environment for our
children, in which line and colour and sound and touch are all made
avenues of easy unconscious learning, we shall find that there is no
sharp break between "home" and "school." In the baby-garden the
baby will learn many things, and never know it. In the kindergarten
the little child will learn many things, and never know it. He will be
glad and proud of his new powers, coming back to share the
astonishing new information or exhibit the new skill to papa and
mamma; but he will not be conscious of any task in all the time, or
of special credit for his performance. Then, as he grows, the garden
grows, too; and he finds himself a little wiser, a little stronger, a little
more skilful every day—or would if he stopped to measure. But he
does not measure. His private home is happy and easy, with a father
and mother interested in all his progress; and his larger home—the
child-world he grows up in—is so dominated by wise, subtle
educational influences that he goes on learning always, studying a
good deal, yet never "going to school."
In the wise treatment of his babyhood, all his natural faculties are
allowed to develope in order and to their full extent, so that he
comes to a larger range of experiment and more difficult examples
with a smooth-working, well-developed young mind, unwearied and
unafraid. The legitimate theories of the kindergarten carefully
worked out helped him on through the next years in the same
orderly progression; and, as a child of five or six, he was able to
walk, open-eyed and observant, into wider fields of knowledge.
Always courteous and intelligent specialists around him, his mental
processes watched and trained as wisely as his sturdy little body,
and a careful record kept, by these experienced observers, of his
relative capacity and rate of development.
So he gradually learns that common stock of human knowledge
which it is well for us all to share,—the story of the building of the
earth, the budding of the plant, the birth of the animal, the beautiful
unfolding of the human race, from savagery toward civilisation. He
learns the rudiments of the five great handicrafts, and can work a
little in wood, in metal, in clay, in cloth, and in stone. He learns the
beginnings of the sciences, with experiment and story, and finds new
wonders to lead him on, no matter how far he goes,—an unending
fascination.
For his sciences he goes to the museum, the laboratory, and the
field, groups of children having about the same degree of
information falling together under the same teacher. For the
necessary work with pen and pencil there are quiet rooms provided.
He has looked forward to some of these from babyhood, seeing the
older ones go there.
Each child has been under careful observation and record from the
very first. His special interests, his preferred methods, his powers
and weaknesses, are watched and worked with carefully as he
grows. If power of attention was weak at first, he is given special
work to develope it. If observation was loose and inaccurate, that
was laboured with. If the reasoning faculty worked with difficulty, it
was exercised more carefully. He has been under such training from
babyhood to twelve or fifteen years old as to give a full and co-
ordinate development of his faculties,—all of them; and such a
general grasp of the main lines of knowledge as to make possible
clear choice of the lines of study for which he is best adapted. With
such a childhood the youth will have much more power of learning,
and a deep and growing interest—an unbroken interest—in his work.
The natural desire of mankind to know, and also to teach, and the
steadily enlarging field of knowledge open to us, should make
education the most delightful of processes. With our present
methods the place of teacher is usually sought merely for its meagre
salary, by women who "have to work," instead of being eagerly
aspired to as the noblest of professions, and only open to those best
fitted. The children are so overtaxed and mishandled that only the
best intellects come out with any further desire to learn anything.
Humanity's progress is made through brain-improvement, by brain-
power. We need such schooling as shall give us better brains and
uninjured bodies. Fortunately for us, the value of education is widely
felt to-day, and new and improved methods are rapidly coming in.
Our school-houses are more beautiful, our teachers better trained
and more ambitious, and the beneficent influences of the
kindergarten and of the manual training system are felt everywhere.
But, while much is being done, much more remains for us. With
such honour and such pay as show our respect for the office of
teacher, and such required training and natural capacity as shall
allow of no incapables, we could surround our children from birth
with the steady influence of the wisest and best people. More and
more to-day is the school opening out. It connects with the public
library, with art and industry, with the open fields; and this will go on
till the time is reached when the child does not know that he is at
school,—he is always there, and yet never knows it.
Where residence was permanent, the teachers of different grades
could constantly compare their growing records, and the child's
unfolding be watched steadily, and noted with a view to still further
improvement in method. Travelling parties of children are not
unknown to us. These will become more common, until every child
shall know his earth face to face,—mountain, river, lake, and sea,—
and gain some idea of political division as well.
Two main objections to all this will arise at once: one, that of
expense; the other, that a child so trained would not have learned to
"apply himself,"—to force himself to do what he did not like,—that it
was all too easy.
The ground of too much expense cannot be held. Nothing is too
expensive that really improves education; for such improvement cuts
off all the waste product of society,—the defective and degenerate,
the cripple, thief, and fool, and saves millions upon millions now
spent in maintaining or restraining these injurious classes. Not only
that, but it as steadily developes the working value of humanity,
turning out more and more vigorous and original thinkers and doers
to multiply our wealth and pleasure. Grant the usefulness of
improved methods in education, and they can never be expensive.
Even to-day the school-children become far better class of citizens
than the street Arabs who do not go to school; and such school
advantages as we have lower our expense in handling crime and
disease. When we provide for every child the very best education,—
real education of body, brain, and soul,—with the trained hand and
eye to do what the trained will and judgment command, it is difficult
to see where the "criminal class" is to come from.
As to its being too easy, and not developing sufficiently stern stuff in
our youngsters, that has two answers. In the first place, this
proposed line of advance is not without its difficulties. Whether a
child is learning to sew or to shoot or to lay bricks, to solve
examples in fractions or to play chess, there are always difficulties.
To learn what you don't know is always a step up.
But why need we add to this the difficulty of making the child dislike
the work? "Because it is necessary in this world to do what you don't
like!" is the triumphant rejoinder.
This is an enormous mistake. It is necessary in this world to like
what you do, if you are to do anything worth while. One of the
biggest of all our troubles is that so many of us are patiently and
wearily doing what we do not like. It is a constant injury to the
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